began with a walk along the river to a café for breakfast, during which I saw a tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifer) in flower – the first I have ever seen.

No this isn’t the tree, this is Neil and Tom being coy about being photographed. Actually it was the river I was shooting – they just got in the way

Neil ‘in a breakfast meeting’ with Tom-nowhere to hide this time

JJ seemed a little better by the time we got home and improved hugely during the next few days with a couple more trips to the GP, so that by Friday we felt we could safely leave him with some of his friends to help him get used to his new house and to being single again. We had booked a holiday in Greece and by the time we went JJ had recovered enough to drive himself about.