Today is the summer solstice. The winter solstice feels as though it was in another lifetime...

But the year is shifting gears. And so are we.

June's weather has been hugely different from May's. Much damper and mistier. Very picturesque, though:





The fields continue to clothe themselves with grain. And the bees have gone into overdrive:







This week also brought new boots...


I suddenly realized that my old ones, which I started wearing only in January, had no tread left. Then, with the aid of my pedometer, we calculated that they'd walked 1361.5 km (846 miles), so their baldness is not entirely surprising. But I WISH I'd spotted this earlier, because I might have prevented my breakage...

Normally, I wouldn't dare buy shoes or clothes online, but as these are pretty much exactly like my old ones, and I'm still into visiting as few shops as possible, we took the risk, and had them delivered to our door.

Which is also how we came by our new clippers... Because, believe me, we were getting SERIOUSLY fed up with our long locks. The whole barbering performance was totally farcical, as I could only operate the clippers with my left hand, and had to wrap my right arm in a binbag to prevent hair getting into my cast. But I for one feel much relieved.


And, after Saturday's announcement (we also received formal emails this week, confirming we have permission to return to Malaysia) and Monday's hospital trip, we think we have come up with a plan.

In two-and-something weeks' time, we'll shift to Norwich, where we'll do the final sorting out of the hand, and tick off a few more jobs. After which, we hope to be on a plane in the week beginning 20 July, and we'll do our quarantine in Kuala Lumpur, where we'll rent a flat from a friend. There's still a lot that can go wrong with this plan, and heaven knows, this is not a predictable era. But it's the firmest-looking thing we've had for a long time.

I hope the turning of the year brings fair winds for us all...