The fruit trees are setting. There are nectarines near the duck run but will they ever ripen?

The cherry trees are laden with fruits and need to be netted before the birds eat them all.

There are plenty of lettuces and radishes to use and prepare for our weekend guests.

Tonight we ate vegan burgers that Jeremy concocted, prepared and cooked. They were delicious and served with new potatoes and peas from the garden,

Then we met up with our local village micro baker who bakes delicious bread from home. She had taken a sabbatical, last year, with her new baby. Now she is ready to get back into baking her speciality breads.

Each year we spy a wild mallard drake and duck on the goose pond. One year we saw their ducklings but it was just a fleeting view as they quickly hid in the reeds. This year the duck is accompanied by two drakes and we have been able to get closer than usual – although we haven’t seen any little ones.

The goslings are of indeterminate sex and we will be unable to identify them until the geese start laying eggs (their under carriages drop apparently) and the ganders do not.

I had a lovely time with mum at lunchtime and, as always, a good laugh. She reminded me that I am actually 63 and not, as I thought today, 61. The reason we talked about my age is that the wonderful 7 Up programme is on ITV tonight at 9 pm where children who are now 63 year old adults, have been filmed every seven years since they were seven years old. I have watched the documentaries every seven years and it was a senior moment that made me forget that I am the same age as the remaining participants. I have no doubt that some of their stories will move me to tears. Some happy, some sad.

Help please. Can anyone identify this plant that we found just now in the winter duck run?

With a large crowd expected at the weekend it was a morning spent in the barn kitchen. Spinach rice is fine for everyone even (I hope) our gluten free guest.

Jeremy brought in some new potatoes which he grows in bags inside the greenhouse and polytunnel until space demands that they come outside.

There were some fresh peas to add to the boiled potatoes to make a favourite salad with some mayonnaise. Then it was outside to trim some bushes and remove brambles and sticky, climbing weeds. The roses are in their glorious, first flush.

I saw a recipe in the weekend paper for a strawberry crumble slice and I had to try it out today. It’s made with butter, brown sugar, oats and flour and the middle is a layer of homemade strawberry jam and sliced fresh strawbs, I didn’t bother with the other ingredient of either cranberries or raisins. They look tasty which is a pity as I am trying to cut down on sugar. I just returned from the dentist, again. A legacy of daily sweets throughout my childhood and (I admit) into old age!

A day in the garden and in the kitchen, both of us cooking (although never together!) and shelling peas, harmoniously, as we stopped for an afternoon cuppa. Weeding, planting out, pruning.

The broad beans might be ready to taste by the weekend

Lucy has enjoyed all the trimmings and thinnings and tasty weeds. Lily sometimes gets the scraps from her mother’s table. Her coat is turning black and she is becoming a little less scared of us.

The quails are adorable and we play a daily game of hunt the eggs. They might be anywhere in the hay barn and are brilliantly camouflaged.

Because the opportunist thieves who raided my car in London overnight took my parking money purse, my empty shopping bags and my driving glasses but left all my cds. How uncool am I?

Grandson will be relieved that West Side Story is still in the car. He knows all the words to his favourite songs.

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And he found that the firebricks inside the stove are cracked. A common problem, he assures me, like worn out tyres on a car. He has ordered a new set for us and will replace them in a week or two.