On the drive to the wildlife reserve where we’d been volunteering, I saw a car which was having a sofa strapped to the top of it, and we parked on a hill in between some houses and a field; and once out of the car, we went up a path, met a thin man in a sock hat who Mum said quietly was called Phillip, a woman walked past with three little dogs (each in a different coloured coat – purple, red and blue), another man called Peter appeared and started unloading stuff from his van, then another man turned up and we were led up the hill, one of the dogs (who was wearing a purple coat) tried to climb up my leg, then Peter told us we’d making bonfires today. That was started, I saw a tiny mouse, then helped a man with a bit of fence building, 2 very nice floppy spaniels sprinted past, I tried to photograph the flames, the smoke and heat was unbelievable, Mum picked up a big bundle of branches, and 1 man said she looked like she was in Macbeth.

The smoke continued to increase; I nearly choked (and wondered if our cat might vomit due to the smell of smoke on us when we returned home), and branches continued to be dragged towards the fire; Mum got poked in the back of her head, and I got poked by a prickly branch in my bottom – before there was a tea break, and a man sat in a wheelbarrow, custard creams and hobnobs were offered round. A woman said wassailing is held on the 17th of January because that was originally 12th night, and a very floppy spaniel like dog sprinted passed, a man talked about toilets that don’t flush, and I chatted to him about languages and Google Translate; a woman called Pam and I chatted about travelling being better than being sat in a classroom, and then a man mentioned Heidelberg, and said he’d flown over Greenland (and I noticed Mum had peculiar fluffy stuff in her hair). He mentioned a tour round China 12 years ago and the Yangtze River, and building boats to move coal; Donald Trump got discussed by a lot of us, and then a man rode off on a bike; the bloke we been talking to told me I should write my memoirs, I said I was doing it as I go along (which made him grin), and Mum said my notes were hilarious.

We all said goodbye, I pointed out the lots of fluffy stuff in her hair, and on our way back down the little paths and through the gate, I noticed a tiny mitten on the gate handle that said ‘feline cosy’ with a little cartoon cat face on it.

In the car, we turned the radio on, and the 1PM headlines mentioned that 1 billion pounds had been wiped off the stock market due to coronavirus and a crude oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, 280 Covid cases have now been confirmed in Britain and nearly 370 have died in Italy. Back at home, some soup got put in a pan, Soot got up, squeaked and gazed at me – so I cuddled him, and cuddled him again after a bit of lunch, and then I started mushing together gingerbread. Rain began at 2:30pm, Bracken the 12 year old chicken was given a stair lift from the roost for a peck before the rain got heavy, Holly and Bramble followed her to the run (and we found an egg). Mum – just after beginning her French lessons – started whimpering as she said her hair felt weird, and when I peered at it, it seemed some of the ends of the hairs on the back of her head had been over heated by the fire this morning, shrivelled and turned a bit of a strange colour.