We did our monthly food shop today, buying all of the staple foods we’ll need for the month, as well as any fresh supplies that don’t make sense to buy from the farm shop…..I can’t see the point of buying avocados, say, from the farm shop.

This pot of growing basil will see me through the month. While it was on the side in the kitchen, it happened to be directly under a spotlight and I thought looked rather good so here it is. I loathe the lighting in our kitchen, put in while I was away in London more than a year ago. It’s those spotlights that are set into the ceiling so they are flush with the ceiling. They all light the back of my head and not my work area, are about as environmentally unfriendly as you can imagine and the bulbs blow too easily. David worked out yesterday that they use half a kilowatt of electricity when they’re all on. He says that they were installed to reflect the design of the new kitchen when it’s fitted. I’d have preferred a fluorescent tube for now until we get to that point. Anyway, whinge over, they’re in now and that’s that.

The herbs remind me (rather tenuously I am prepared to accept) of the upturn in the yellings of “one” from our sofa at the moment. “One” means a beetle has been spotted on a TV show and as I’m watching a lot of old detective shows at the moment, we’re seeing a lot of them. Every time that DM comes into the room, to see me slumped on the sofa, he sees a beetle, yells one and raises his eyebrows.

“Ones” are of course Herbies in my world……now you see the link!

Last year, I was watching the footie in a pub in Liverpool Street.