At the risk of sounding terribly cheesy I’m on a mission to remind myself of why I’m here at the moment – if I don’t do that I’ll just whinge on about how hard my day has been today (again) and I don’t want to listen to that so I’m sure everyone out there in the ether is mighty sick of it too.

While we were in the USA the clocks went forward here in the UK so I left the country getting home in darkness every night and I’ve come back to getting home in daylight. And the daylight has been wonderful – we’ve had a couple of lovely days (even though there has been an odd shower today). I sit at my desk tonight having been the one who has the pleasure of shutting in the hens to keep them safe overnight from the fox. Now there is a simple but completely marvellous pleasure. I still don’t know how I survived before getting a little troop of fat bottomed girls to follow me round the garden and deliver me the best eggs it’s possible to come by.

While I type my ears and head are being filled with two glorious sounds – the really high-quality wind chimes that my little Sis bought for me for Christmas a few years ago are sending out their resonant melodies and a blackbird is singing in the tree by my window. Two more simple pleasures that cost absolutely nothing.

I had a wander round the garden as the sun went down and took a handful of photos (most with motion blur as the light was poor and the wind high) – only three have survived ‘the cut’. This euphorbia is the best of the bunch. I love the brightness of the colours and I love the amazing little tiny red flowers in these strange egg-cups. These plants have delivered nothing but simple pleasure since they were bought from the nursery in December and planted in my herbaceous border.

Could there be any more simple pleasure? Well yes, actually, there is the pleasure of feeding the dogs myself – that’s not something I get to do very often, usually they’ve been ‘fed and watered’ by the time I come home. Mind you, to tell the truth, that one doesn’t always feel like a pleasure…sometimes it feels much more like a complete chore but for today, it’s a pleasure.

The traffic seems pretty light at the moment – I think some schools have broken up for Easter already so I got home before 7pm tonight – another simple pleasure.

So what else? Well there is still that thrill as I pull into the drive and David opens the door and kisses me…..that’s the best simple pleasure of all.