Monday is plant food day. Very exciting.

We had a good lunch. The Botanic Garden restaurant is a pleasant place: open, airy, not noisy even when full,  fresh food well presented, not absurdly expensive. We’ve done this each year on her birthday, since C. died. For her 79^th birthday, her last earthly one, her daughters took her there. This year, she seemed further away, perhaps not surprisingly. Other times, I have been aware of her in the mannerisms of her daughters. This time, they seemed like separate people.

I have reached the point – I’m not going to calculate the exact day, but it’s somewhere around here – where I have had more life than C. I’m nearer my 80^th birthday than she ever was. It spooks me a bit. She was five and a half years younger than my husband and in childhood felt left-behind. She was made to feel stupid, somewhere by someone, and the resentment lingered. My husband did a reading at the funeral, and was described in the programme as “C’s elder brother”. I wondered then, and still do, whether that unnecessary word meant that she resented his having more life.

And, guess what? I bought a chilli plant! I was looking for thyme, for the herb trough on the doorstep. I redid the trough when we were in Strathardle recently, but the thyme was too feeble to bring back. B&Q doesn’t have any, and now I discover that the Botanics don’t either – golden variegated thyme, yes; woolly thyme. But I just want thyme-thyme. I have in fact bought one of those living-plants from a supermarket herb section and planted out a few (you always get a million, jammed together). I think they’re going to work fine.

So, no thyme, but they did have little chilli plants – Scotch Bonnet, one of the very hot ones. My plant is cheerful but very small, and the solstice is nearly upon us. We’ll see. The book says that Scotch Bonnet is one of the hard ones to grow and that will be interesting too. Apache is said to be easy, and so, clearly, is Big Nameless from Waitrose. The first Apache flower is open this morning.

The Apaches are at either end. The new little Scotch Bonnet is second from the left.

Archie, by the way, stayed at school. It turned out that paintball wasn’t compulsory and it was too soon after half-term for weekend leave anyway. I was sorry not to see him.

Relax continues well. Here’s a feeble attempt at a first picture. Imagine, beautiful, and you’ll get the general idea.

Sharon Miller says she has posted some of her research to the Heirloom Knitting group on Yahoo, about “the invention of making lace with knitting needles”. I am going to have to set my teeth and figure out how to get back into Yahoo. It’s been ages.