It’s not been a good day. I’ve spent the day blundering around trying to write lesson plans and source support material for a load of lessons for which I feel ill-qualified and badly prepared. When you don’t know where to start, it’s incredibly hard to get going. I’m sure it gets easier. I’m sure that you learn tricks about the best place to look but I’ve not yet discovered them.Dithering about looking for stuff to teach this week has eaten up my day and there is still not a single word of my (laughingly called) masters level dissertation written.

In between looking blankly at my laptop, I’ve done my best to coax my little girl into eating but to no avail. All we’ve been able to get inside her are a couple of cubes of cheese, a 1 cm2 piece of Ryvita and 7-8 puppy treats. That’s not enough to keep a sparrow alive. None of her usual favourite treats work, nothing new and nothing that reminds her of her puppyhood – we have literally run out of ideas and she’s on her way back to the vet tomorrow. Yet despite all this, she’s quite perky – she’s been playing tennis ball with a big smile on her face. It makes no sense. I’m beside myself and she’s playful.

Then, to cap it all, my beloved Spurs go and get themselves a pasting. DM couldn’t bear to watch but I endured every grizzly, ghastly kick of the ball. I can’t bring myself not to, you see. So, here is a tulip. It’s a last-chance-saloon shot taken at 9.30pm when the creative juices have definitely not been flowing.