I’ve done shots similar to this one many times. It’s firstly a problem of being a lazy slob and not chucking out dead cut flowers when they’ve wilted. Then there is a slightly crazed fascination for the flower at this stage of its life – for me, it’s almost as beautiful now as it’s ever been. This, by the way is a flower of helianthus “Lemon Queen” – in other words a herbaceous perennial sunflower, which I planted last year and forgot about until it started shooting up this season. It’s been a lovely plant and seemingly not at all tasty to rabbits, which is a quality that is its only chance of survival here on the moor.

Then we come to the nub of the matter – the now hackneyed analogy for the wilted plant and a wilted Linda.

Yep – it’s that old chestnut again – I’m flagging. I’m tired all of the time and feel more like a slug than a human being. Add to that my back, which is killing me since I was working at that desk on Friday and Saturday. It’s OK when I’m lying down and equally OK when I’m standing still but moving around and sitting down are not nice at all. I’ve been out at work again today and very busy so I’ve been dashing around all over the place and it’s not helping my humour. It’s ironic really – if my job on Fri/Sat hadn’t been so quiet then I’d not have been able to sit at the desk and study, which meant when I arrived at work on Sunday and it was busy, I was incapacitated. Typical.

The net result is I’m tired AND crotchety. Extremely crotchety.