Currently reading: Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain’s Battle with Coronavirus by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott 📚- Reading in short busts to avoid hurling the Kindle out the window.

www.theguardian.com PM weds at “secret” ceremony with friends. It’s in all the papers. Words used to mean something.

To Eat Baby potato salad with steamed green beans, lettuce and tomato, mint, quails eggs, capers and smoked olives Tumeric roast cauliflower and onions with za’tar Steamed white asparagus with mustard vinaigrette and chopped, soft-boiled eggs Heirloom raddish and cucumber with chilli oil and black sesame seeds Labneh Baba ganoush St Marcelin cheese Rye sourdough Dragon fruit and raspberries with lime and a twist of hot red chilli Wasabi peas for snacking To Drink Cocktail: Negroni Wine: Fiano del Salento Water: San Pellegrino Hot: Redbush chai

In the colder weather, the plants on the balcony are wilting. At the beginning of the week the pair of pigeons who’ve taken up residence were looking increasingly desperate as their food supply was shrivelling and dying before their eyes. I filled a small pot with birdseed and left it on the balcony. In the summer, the pigeons had ignored pots of birdseed when I’d offered them, but with the food running out and the weather trending colder, the pigeons weren’t going to be choosy.