It’s been grey and dank for days. When I step outside, it means instant hair frizz as I walk into the perma-mist. I bought some Bed Head supposed anti-frizz which looks like a glow-in-the-dark pink dildo and is completely useless other than to have given the boys a laugh.

Dolly has no problem with the weather as long as she only does what she wants to do. That means going on walks that she wants to go on, in the direction she wants to walk in. Any deviation from her trajectory is met with either a forcible drag to get you on the right track (hers), or utter dejection. The garden is a no no. Why would she spend time outside getting cold paws when she could be inside watching the garden from the vantage point of her warm rug? In fairness she has a point…

It being November in Blighty the days are short and nights long, starting at around 4.30pm. This means now we have to squeeze stuff we can only do in daylight into a few short hours, a tough call on all the different things we’re trying to juggle. I don’t mind walking Dolly in the dark, after all, who’s going to attempt to stab me with a giant, pointy, werewolf-esque creature dragging me along? But it’s not much fun. These days we tend to find ourselves on a one-walk-a-day schedule because I still have to fit work and basic survival (food, water etc.) in.

On the work front, it’s gone totally bonkers. Today I had to double check it was Saturday because I got a Teams message and a meeting popped up. It’s non-stop all day every day and looks to be staying that way for the foreseeable future. I’m waiting for the Christmas slow-down, but so far it’s not materialised.

Fortunately, it IS Saturday and I am happy to ignore the Teams message and know that the meeting isn’t going ahead (although I did wonder there for a while). I have about an hour before dark descends to check the bees have enough fondant and walk the dog. Then I’m going to light a fire, play some guitar and crack on with the ironing. Not a bad way to spend a cold, dark November afternoon and definitely a path to alleviating some of the week’s pressures before it all kicks off again on Monday.