Woke early and alert. leaned teeth, checked emails, read blogs, checked comments. The whole day stretched out ahead of me, a totally blank canvas. Had breakfast, watched birds (it’s the Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend), swore at squirrel as it (for the second time in two weeks) unlatched the peanut feeder and dumped them on the ground. Julia went out for a walk. While she was out I read a bit, typed a bit and then decided it must be time for soup. So I got up, made butternut squash and chilli soup with tuna mayonnaise sandwiches and finely sliced cucumber, just as Julia arrived back home. Thirty seven years and we are in faultless synchronicity. Or she has mastered the art of mind control.

She has bought a new peanut feeder. I was going to make a new anti-squirrel fastener with bent wire but she has gone out and bought a caged feeder that will keep squirrels out. The moral of this is that if you content yourself with regular small amounts you can take a lot over the years. But if you get greedy and try to take too much, people will take counter-measures and you may find you are locked out. for good. They had been annoying her this week by chasing birds away and this was the final straw. It looks like they will have to confine themselves to bread and fruit from now on, and we don’t put much fruit out. In nutritional terms they have done themselves no good at all.

Now, at 6pm, I have the last vestiges of my blank canvas ahead, virtually nothing useful done, and no ideas in my head. Tomorrow I will not be making that mistake. tomorrow I will hit the keyboard knowing what I want to do in great detail. It’s that or waste another day. There’s a lot more to not procrastinating than I thought.

Looks cute but is actually the antichrist with a fluffy tail.