In the jungle

It's a haven for wildlife at any rate. Here's a pretty little hoverfly. The gardener actually showed up briefly this morning; he wasn't really supposed to be here, but he collected some lemons and said he would ask the police if he was allowed to come and do some work.

Yes, another day on the terrace and in the garden. More Hilary Mantel. Interspersed with looking at Twitter through my fingers. Injecting bleach ... what will it take for his medical advisers to stand up and say "STOP"? Although frankly I'd be happy for him to volunteer himself as a guinea pig. In other news I picked more loquats and made another two jars of loqdown jam. They will be a souvenir of this odd time.

Lunch: lentil stew (yes, still some left!) to start, and then the best steak Mercadona could supply (better than I expected) with frozen peas and Boubou potatoes. Blueberries, raspberries, and ice cream to finish. Tapas and wine this evening.

Yesterday evening we watched the film Au Revoir Là-haut. I was glad I'd read the Goncourt-winning novel it was based on as it would have been hard to figure out what was going on otherwise. I didn't feel it was a good representation of the novel; a lot of the complexity and moral force was lost.

It's just over two years since my mum died. Finally today the estate was finalised and we received our small inheritances. We'd been planning to spend some of it on a trip to Cuba, but evidently that's not going to happen this year. Or even next year.