1. Nick tells his mother over the phone that we've got a DVD about birth to watch. "...yes, we'll eat dinner first."

2. Finding a pearl-coloured worm, curling and coiling, on one of my blackberries -- because, of course, finding it means I didn't eat it.

3. A smattering of polite applause suggests that there might just be some cricket to watch once we've come to the end of the blackberry hedge.