It was breakfast time and boiled eggs, a fried egg, toast, and porridge all got served, yesterdays events were discussed by my Uncle – who had come to stay for the weekend with Mum and I, and a little Play In Choc box on the table was opened – and found to contain a little 3D 4 piece jigsaw skunk (which I constructed) and a couple of chocolate chunks; then it was agreed where we’d go today, the kitchen was tidied, and I heard church bell ringing start from the church up the road (built in the 15th century).

It continued, I tried to tidy my room a bit, and Soot the 20 year old cat hadn’t moved at all by 10.30am, so I woke him up, and with some encouragement, he came down the stairs, briefly jumped on Uncle (who was sat on the sofa reading something), jumped off again and drank a lot from his bowl, and then I sat down and was sat on at 10.45am (and he purred). I scratched his ears and stomach and purring continued for 15 minutes, Mum was doing Duolingo French lessons and poking her tablet, and as it reached 11am I was asked to boil the kettle, did, and a few Hotel Chocolat chocolates appeared. Soot had returned to my bed, so I had to encourage movement again; he sat on Uncle, I sampled a ginger truffle chocolate and continued the diary entry from last Friday, Mum continued her lessons, and our friends quest was completed just before 12pm (by which point Soot had made himself comfortable in his dent on the back of the sofa). I tidied my hair and tried to ensure I had everything necessary in my bag, and we left for an expedition around the nature reserve at Brandon Marsh, a reclaimed area previously used for gravel extraction.

My phone said it was 12°C, the paths of Ryton Pools had people strolling around on them, a horse was being ridden along Warwick Road in Wolston (which had an ancient looking St.Margarets church in it), Brandon Hill golf course looked very unused, and we arrived at Brandon Marsh at 12.47pm I noticed a tiny sign saying that users of the car park do so at their own risk, and in the entrance hall – I photographed what was for sale – including The Plantable Childrens Book, knitted carrots, soft toy bats, and hedgehog food.

Outside again – there was an education area called the mouse maze, mouse manor (containing a mouse nest), and a strange metal owl sculpture (the owl had what looked like a dead metal rat in its beak), I could hear geese honking, and a pram pushed past had a very unconscious looking child in it.

The path continued over a little (muddy) stream, bits of lopped down tree were either side of this path and lots of bird twittering was coming from everywhere; more muddy ponds (and a metal bit with a big metal pipe going through it), 1 of which had a lot of reeds and a couple of little islands on it, some geese were gobbling up birdseed that was being chucked from a bag by a woman, and more reedy paths led to the Jon Baldwin Hide at 1.27pm.

Safety notices – about keeping a safe distance of 2 metres (I wasn’t sure what it was that the safe distance had to be kept from) and not to risk spreading bird flu were on the walls, I took a lot of pictures while Mum and Uncle gazed out of a hole in the wooden wall – looking over a lake – which some geese were just outside of, and these geese decided to honk, so I filmed this deafening honking.

More reedy areas were passed, Uncle was describing a friend with 3 cars (a Ferrari, a Porsche and a Tesla – and this Tesla can fart), and we reached a visitor centre of some sort at 1.51pm, where a woman was trying to pick up a wriggling child from the floor. The cafe place had a woman wearing a cartoon gruffallo on her back seated at a table, a bloke behind the counter had ‘BEA RHUG COMPANY LIMITED’ (and a strange picture of a bear) on his t-shirt, and a small girl (6 years ish) with a calypso ice lolly was waving a multicoloured slinky around; I noticed a fluorescent yellow sign on a door (and ‘COSHH STORE’ was under the symbol) while consuming a toasted sandwich, and the Cheltenham races and crime in towns were among conversation topics at the table, Mum insisted on taking cake home, and I saw seed bombs and ‘Wendy the Worm’ toys in the entrance area as we returned to the car at 2.36pm (and the car said it was 13°C).

A different route was taken home – through Weston Under Wetherley and Cubbington, petrol was 146.9p/L and diesel was 163.9p/L at a petrol station, and it was 15°C (according to the car) when we made it back just after 3pm. Soot was having a drink – and came and said hello, the chickens were amongst the foliage at the end of their chicken run, Mum decided to boil the kettle and share the cake, and I sat down and was sat and purred upon (I wasn’t consuming this cake – I was digesting my lunch and looking forward to my tiffin). Happy Easter was the top Twitter trends, Soot went flop with his nose in my cat jumper (which I’d put back on upon return), Uncle was doing word searches – but fell asleep until his head flopped forward and woke him up, Mum had fallen asleep in an awkward position in the other chair, and I finished writing up my notes from Friday into the diary while in a very awkward position as well. She briefly became conscious again and stuck her handkerchief between her head and the cushion it was on, then didn’t remain unconscious for long – and became upright at 5.40pm, refilled the log basket, and the fire got lit at 6pm, when it was 14°C outside and the chickens were in the run. I’d managed to write up a page of yesterdays diary entry by 6.30pm; and had to move at 7pm to go and close the roost hole of the hen house (the 2 chickens were very squished together on the perch and Holly had her head turned round) and Mum was frying chips in the kitchen. The kitchen was a bit smoky when these chips were served (with chunks of steak), a program called Bangers and Cash (about an auction house selling classic cars), and a few other things I forgot were talked about at the table; then back by the fire, Soot sat on the sofa with Uncle, and the TV program Hunted, how accurately Google Maps can track people, luncheon vouchers, and Brownsea Island being full of midges were the topics, before tomorrows plans were agreed and we all said goodnight.