It was 3°C at 6.55am – and there was frost on car windscreens and the verges when I went out for my exercise…

I did 3 laps of our road in 10 minutes and 30 seconds; and inside again – I decided to stay on my bed with the cat (who’d managed to get on to it before I set off and by then was curled up and mostly unconscious) to hear the mornings headlines. In them, I heard about a badly burnt (by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD) ancient scroll in the Bodleian Library – which the content of had been revealed by x-rays and AI (as unrolling it isn’t possible – it would disintegrate) and is believed to be a piece of Greek Epicurean philosophy.

I forgot when Soot and I moved; downstairs – I began cooking, Mum came in from the garden and he got a bowl top up; and he’d gone flop on the back of the sofa by the time breakfast was served; there were pigeons and squirrels around outside; I brushed my teeth and tried to tidy myself up a bit; and it was 6°C (with a feel of 4°C) when the car moved at 10.19am.

The HS2 route had a lot of cranes on it, Coventry’s incinerator was puffing out stuff, and mole hills were all over the verges of the road; and at the Heritage Seed Library at 10.37am – we zapped ourselves in, I found a couple of little chocolates, R told us it was outside work; and out there, it was cold.

I heard gunfire in the distance, a massive ‘COR-TEN’ freight container sort of thing was out there, an odd wooden sculpture (of some sort of insect on a toadstool like shape) was by a poly tunnel; and then we started hacking and yanking stuff, just didn’t do it for long – because it rapidly reached coffee time. M mentioned that spidermite stay alive to – 30°C temperatures as we walked in; and upon re-entering the building, I heard giggling.

A massive box of beans on a table caused Mum to mention that running your hands through them is very calming; I found myself a biscuit, and then a lot of giggling began coming from elsewhere in the room. I went and rinsed my hands, found a couple more little chocolates to stick in my pocket, S was buttering a big bagel, a cardboard box on a table said ‘Mega loaf’ on it, M was sat in a corner with a bowl of what looked like porridge (with big bits of banana in it) and poking his phone; and I had a chat to him on the way back out.

Then yanking continued, my toes were feeling soggy due to wearing inappropriate shoes, my hands were covered in mud and I had a split right thumb nail, I could hear what sounded like gunfire in the distance; and it was 12.45pm when stuff eventually stopped. 30480kg/67260Ibs was the maximum capacity of a nearby big blue freight container (it said it on the side); and back inside, a safeguarding responsibility notice and certificates of various types of liability insurance were on the noticeboard.

We zapped ourselves out; the car moved just after 1pm; mole hills were all over the verges of the main road, seagulls and a couple of swans were on the lake of the nature reserve, a care home had a banner on the side saying ‘Don’t Dine Alone’ (and Mum wondered how many people would drive past and think it said ‘Don’t Die Alone’); 141.9p/L and 149.9p/L were prices at Shell on the main road; and in the pet shop there were animal Valentines Day gift sets (and I forgot what they had in them), dog cologne – scents available were baby powder, lavender, bubblegum (which smelt really weird), summer fruits (which smelt like concentrated orange squash); and several more I forgot; Himalayan yak milk treats, dental sea jerky fish knots, niger seed for birds, and Good Boy Training Pads…

…(and J and S told us that those are much cheaper than human incontinence pads – so people are buying them for older relatives) (so I mentioned pelvic floor exercises that help prevent incontinence).

I forgot when we got home, we were greeted, I gave Soot some lunch, Willow the chicken was in the roost hole of the hen house (she likes sitting up there), I sat down with an apple and an oatcake – and was sat on and purred upon for a while; and eventually got up for tiffin making (by which point Mum was unconscious snoozing on the sofa).

I made a reasonable amount of it, put it all in a tin, and forgot if I did anything else before beginning my exercise – when it was 7°C at 3.53pm. A half moon was in the sky, I was sniffed by a dog called Yogi –who was being walked on my first lap of our road, the church bells chimed on my second, I noticed a rack of quite muddy welly boots outside house number 8 on my third, a robin was twittering loudly in a tree outside number 15 on my sixth…

… and a child getting out of a car outside house number 13 on the lane next to ours was telling his mother something about a blue whale.

My total time for six laps was 21 minutes and 37 seconds; back inside – Mum was conscious; then the kettle got boiled, I briefly sat down with my mug and was sat on – but darkness was rapidly falling and I had to go and close the roost hole at 4.40pm (with sunset being at 5.01pm). Once I was reseated, he got back on, I consumed my tiffin chunk, he purred, Mum was speaking German to her tablet (she’s learning the language on Duolingo), and I began filling in some gaps in my notes – which I was doing when a curtain repairing man knocked on the door at 5.40pm.

I continued gap filling and Soot lost consciousness; once I’d finished a diary reading was requested – and I read out 14th Januarys entry, remained sat on and cuddled him, checked tomorrow’s forecast, and forgot when I moved for supper purposes (and he got my warm spot).