And even gloves for the Wednesday walk. A beautiful tree has blown over, across one of the footpaths and into a field. We were able to walk around it.

While preparing the rooms for our weekend guests, this little knitted soldier was found under one of the beds.

Does he belong to anyone who has visited recently? If so please claim him and make him smile again.

As friend Carmen calls in after work

We have neither piped gas nor mains drainage out here in the countryside so we use gas and oil and the wood burner for heating and cooking and we pay for the treatment plant to be emptied by sewerage tanker once a year. We thought we better get this done before our 30 guests arrive on Friday!

I returned from a rare trip to Bedford town centre a couple of hours ago. The pedestrianised pavements was the haunt of the homeless, the boozed up, the unemployed and young mothers with strollers. BHS stood empty and many of the other large shops, New Look and Poundworld, are in dire straits. The polite young druggy (arms scarred with needle marks) thanked me kindly for the change I dropped into his cup as he sat by the multi-storey car park ticket machine. I got back into my car, drove home in tears and wondered what had happened to my country. I sat at the computer and discovered that Bedford holds the unenviable position of seventh in England’s homeless/rough sleeper league. The New Bedford facility for these discarded people is run by a private company who advertise jobs for care assistants at just above minimum wage. I wrote an email to my MP, logged off, went outside and was greeted by the cats and the quacking call ducks. The lambs were grazing and the sun shining and I breathed fresh air and wondered if we could ever bridge the gaps between the haves and have nots. But wondering is not enough, yet that is what I will undoubtably do – to my shame.

Two of the three Bantams have decided to share the “sitting” responsibility and each is keeping one goose egg warm under her outspread feathers. This seems to be our only (faint) chance of goslings as the geese lay but refuse to go broody.

A chance to play with the grandchildren at mum’s flat. Mum’s toy box has served two generations very well.