DAY 30

Tuesday started with a walk with Anne, but no Milo this morning as Anne’s husband is home today and so he has said he will walk the dog. We had a gentle stroll round, finishing up at the cherry tree I had spotted on my Sunday morning walk with Diane. I have lived here for over 20 years and have never noticed cherries on this tree, but it is laden with ripe, red cherries. Anne very obligingly held the bag for me while I picked a pound of cherries.

After a coffee with Anne, I set about my task for the day – making cherry vodka. Alex pointed out that most normal mothers, when faced with a pile of cherries, might make a pie or a crumble, but his decided on cherry vodka!

Ascot kicked off today and so in celebration I donned my hat to watch a couple of races – Alex clearly thinks I have already been on the cherry vodka. I bought the hat 2 years ago at Henley Regatta after far too much to drink and have yet to get a dress that it goes with, so it sits in its box waiting…

I managed to persuade Robert to accompany me back to the cherry tree (I needed a taller person) to pick more cherries and this time I will bake a bloody cake.

DAY 31

The Rug Man cometh – we decided it was time to get the rugs in the lounge cleaned, which means all the furniture had to be moved off them. The furniture moving revealed areas behind furniture which has clearly not seen the light of day (or a duster) for a very long time. There ensued a frenzy of vacuuming and skirting board washing ahead of Rug Man’s arrival. He came, he cleaned and he departed all within half an hour. While he was cleaning, I was baking a cherry crumble cake and very pleased with it I was too. Alex grumbled like mad as he doesn’t like fruit and so was unimpressed by my decision to include fruit in baked goods, however he ate 2 large slices of it with custard after dinner and pronounced it very good.

Sometime, in the middle of all this, the Smallest Boy returned from Manchester with the usual collection of disgusting kit to be washed. Just as we hit a couple of days of thunder storms, I have many machine loads of washing to deal with – such are the challenges faced by the Laundry Fairy.

The weather brightened and so we ate barbecued chicken outdoors and spend a very pleasant couple of hours with both the boys at the table. The dynamic changes again, as the 4 of us reconvene under one roof.