No.105, Sunday, 22nd. March 2026

This morning my mind is chock full of things I would like to be getting on with, almost to the point of urgency. But instead I am writing this. Have I got my priorities right?

I started scanning a few ‘found’ negatives a few days ago – pictures taken in 1977. I spent what seemed like hours trying to find negatives that I knew I had, but which somehow I have managed to mislay. I am an organised sort of person. All my negatives are in one of those large rigid underbed boxes ideal for envelopes, with each envelope containing a roll of 35mm film.

The images I was looking for, and did not find, were scanned in the early days of Covid – in 2020. I could do a better job of scanning them now, but they will have to do. Scanning images for articles is an indoor activity, and at the moment I am itching to get outside and stuck into some gardening jobs.

When the rains stopped a week or so ago the water in my fishpond fell by about 10cm which, given that it is a small pond, was quite distressing. I do not know why, other than the obvious, which I seem incapable of believing. Yesterday I emptied about half of my one and only water butt into the pond via five or six refills of my watering can and, strangely, the water level has not dropped, so I’m tempted to have another go today. There are also a large number of weeds that require extraction as well as a lot of other fun jobs.

Perhaps the best thing about it is that I will keep warm; not only the exercise but it is also considerably warmer out there in the sun than it is indoors. The negatives can wait.