I’m in London this weekend, looking after two of my grandchildren. There are six parakeets on the crab apple tree. Sam and Ben have made seventeen jars of crab apple jelly and there are still lots left for the parakeets. I’ve been seeing apples everywhere this year. Our own tree produced a bumper crop, and we still have trayfulls left. Apples with our porridge almost every day. As well as apples from our own tree we have more from a tree I pass occasionally when out walking. And I have noticed tree after tree laden down with fruit as I drive around.

I’m in another world. I collected my six year old granddaughter from school, and as we walked home – well I walked and she terrified me on her bicycle – we got mixed up with a bunch of teenagers, one of whom, we think, dropped some rubbish. My granddaughter tut-tutted and picked it up, and put in the next bin. Then we fell in with an older girl who she knew who lives in the same street and we walked on together. I tagged along, really. They had a continual conversation which included such questions as ‘Who is you favorite Princess?’ I am rather out of my depth, though it was good to be an observer.

I had a plan to do one hour of yoga today because I missed my class this morning, but somehow it hasn’t happened. And I’m about to take my grandson to his singing class, so it is not likely to happen any time soon.

I’m in a cafe in Crouch End. I’ve dropped him off and clambered up the hill to Bob’s cafe, which my granddaughter apparently hates, though it seems fine to me. It is quite close to the cinema where we were entertained through the middle of the day, my grandson having an inset day. The film was very long, I thought, though he, and Louise, enjoyed it a lot. The quality of the swearwords was key, he told me.

A deliveroo type courier just collected an order without lifting him blacked visor; was it a real person? There’s a sign outside that claims ‘you don’t need to get your life together, just your coffee order.’ As I said, this is another world. A vibrant, vital other world, quite different, though I do believe everyone eats apples.

I’m very tired, and as incoherent as this blog. But I publish a blog every Friday, so here it is, warts and all. See you next week!