Tuesday 8th March 2016, 4.05pm (day 1,657)

After the beauty and interest and light of yesterday, today was a very dull day in all respects. Lucky this bush has bloomed in the garden to give the otherwise drab day some colour. If I was gardener enough, I would say I planted it deliberately in order to play this role every March, but nothing in the garden has been done with that much forethought, I can assure you.