When we arrived at Garden Organic in temperatures of 28*C , there was a 227 gram plastic jar of salted mini crackers, as well as large sterile first aid dressings and leaflets about eye tests by the volunteer sign in sheet; and outside again, by the polytunnels, there were ginormous maize plants that looked like massive leeks.

Inside a polytunnel, massive Chicago Warted squashes were growing, and water was dripping from the ceiling while we pollinated runner beans with paint brushes; I wondered what the worlds biggest bean was and whether there was any possibility of space suit style helmets providing personalised air conditioning round someones head due to the heat inside these tunnels being suffocating, and I saw a big 30MM paint brush stuck in the soil. It was 11:05 AM when we left the tunnel; the sky was entirely blue and a new member of staff whose name I forgot started telling my mother about her familys farm, causing Mum to mention that she’d lived on a pig farm in the 1970s – and describe the chickens in our back garden – as we went inside. I saw a German pressure washer in a box on a shelf, Katrina – head of the Heritage Seed Library – came in and we were asked to reopen envelopes of Zapallito de Toscana squash seeds and repack them (because the numbers of seeds in them wasn’t right); she said there’d been a film crew here yesterday, and her chickens called Egg Sheeran, Tiz, and Debra Meadon were briefly talked about when another woman came into the seed packing room and said some stuff I forgot. A woman came in and left again with a compost sack that didn’t have compost in it and a long standing gardener came in and said she was going to go and sit by the pond because of the temperatures (29 degrees by then); I noticed a book called The Modern Gardener written by Frances Tophill on a table, we discussed Hobnob production having to double during lockdown, and the riots over toilet paper, and how to say ‘that tasted good’ in Danish (der smagte godt). I was told I look Scandinavian, and once everything was repacked, we went out to the tunnels again and passed a couple of trays of tiny bottles containing strange coloured liquid for research that were on a wall (apparently soil in some sort of liquid), then said goodbye and got back into the extremely hot car just before 1:00 PM.

The local Pets & Plants shop had wilting sunflowers for sale outside and a huge variety of sizes and colours of dog harnesses in the window; and while crossing the bridge at the bottom of the town, pedalos, kayaks and canoes were visible on the River Leam. We entered the supermarket at 1:32 PM, the Starbucks inside was advertising ‘pizzettas’; there were sunglasses with plastic unicorns attatched, massive black and white framed pictures of miserable looking dogs, and a child was waving 2 cucumbers around in the vegetable aisle. I said – regarding cherry, plum and pomodorino tomatoes – ‘there’s not much difference in size’; a man who was as tall as the top shelf was restocking the vegetable shelves, DairyLea lunchables, bottles of ‘Weetabix On The Go’, 730 gram jars of ‘Think Of The Positive mixed pencils’, a pink ballet dress (costing £13) for a 3 year old was dangling on a shelf of Maltesers and wine gums; grapeseed oil, sunflower oil, cooking spray, 3 litre bottles of vegetable oil and five litre bottles of sunflower oil were in one aisle, and I saw baby cucumbers and reduced fruit kebabs while my mother struggled to buy four loose oranges; then twin blade scented razors, packs of 28 wax strips, facial hair removal kits, nappies, Coca-Cola cans and massive compost sacks were what I saw on our way out.

It was 2.04pm and 29*C when we returned to the car – which felt like an over heated sauna – and within 8 minutes we were in Warwick and parked in front of Warwick Books which had lots and lots of books about a cartoon dog called Ruffles in the window. As the only way to buy a parking ticket was with a phone – and we didn’t have one, I had to stay in the baking hot car while Mum went into the rather run down looking council building to ask about bus passes – and she returned in under 5 minutes as she could now do it online. The church spire was undergoing refurbishments, an ambulance with sirens on manoeuvred its way through the traffic (which we were part of) on Jury Street, a hairdressers called ‘Cutting It’ was on Emscote road, me saying my eyes felt dry made Mum laugh, and signs saying ‘SKID RISK’ were on Church Lane.

Home at 2:38 PM, I was told to unpack things, she drove off again for a blood test, Soot said hello, the house was a nice temperature (and dark – with all the curtains closed for sunlight blocking purposes), I did a quick fridge investigation and he flopped in front of the door. It was 3:00 PM when I finished unpacking, and our chicken called Poppy was sunbathing upstairs in the hen house, – and the other 2 (Holly and Willow) were looking quite energetic, and I managed to give them each 2 blackberries (which they always get very excited over – and can get a bit violent towards each other while gobbling them).