Last night friends dropped around to visit and brought pizza with them, so we sat together outside as the sun went down and the twinkle-lights came on and the perfume from the dying first-blooms of jasmine thickened in the night air. I spread the table with a piece of gloriously red Masai cloth that was given to Mr B when he worked in Africa, and filled old jars with tea-light candles for extra light. That was the sum total of my decorating efforts but it put us in a festive mood, so on went the music and out came the wine, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable way to finish up the weekend.

Around us, Ruby chased bugs in the ferns and tried to climb an olive-tree sapling that was much too slender for her weight. Oliver circumnavigated the table begging for pizza, appearing on hind legs beside one person or another like a floppy-eared meerkat.

Later, much later, we managed to get Ruby down from the top of the garden wall. (Can you see her in that bottom photo?)