27 July: ‘Are you going to put us on your blog’, they demand to know?

Well, some of them want to know: Martin, exhausted from a week of doing nothing, remains comatose on the lawn.

Others, fortuitously, are a little more industrious: Alex and Maria, for example, are busy removing the rare swimming spider from its place at the bottom of the pool where it was pretending to be dead. Maria, who has, thankfully, taken over from me as the bossy one in the entourage, is supervising. Generally, we see her standing on her head or- for a change -on one leg ( she’s a yoga teacher, they explain ).

And here I am again with the famous author who’s been giving me lots of useful writing advice. How much have you written this week, Bev?

A splendid lunch and a lovely afternoon. Thank-you O’Connors for your unceasing hospitality.