bloke on the detecting forum reckons he never digs a signal unless he's certain it's worth it. i'd like to borrow his certainty. had one sunday that sounded decent and it was a bit of folded foil, then an ugly signal a few yards on that turned out to be an old buckle. nothing valuable, still kept it. you can spend all morning guessing what somebody dropped or take the spade and find out. he has pictures of silver on his page so perhaps he knows summat i don't. no pictures of his rubbish though. my jar's nearly full again. ought to empty it, but it's not doing any harm on the windowsill.

woke at 1500 with the dog stretched along the back of my legs. couldn't turn over without shifting him and he made a great business of that. room was properly dark and warm for once. lay there a bit listening to him wash his feet. usually get straight up before a shift but there was no shift to get up for. knees felt stiff until i'd walked to the kitchen, then all right. took my tea back through and sat on the bed with the blinds open a crack. dog had taken the warm bit. wasn't much of an afternoon but i liked being warm without the gatehouse heater buzzing at me.

elder girl sent a picture of the baby wearing the little cardigan her nan bought. wanted to know if i could show my mum at the home. i did, and mum knew whose baby it was straight away, asked whether she was sleeping and kept saying she had our side's nose. pleased me that did. i'd gone in expecting the usual muddle with names. she wanted to keep the picture, which isn't straightforward when it's on my phone. daughter says she'll get one printed. i've looked at it again since coming home. can't see the nose myself. looks like a baby's nose, but i'm glad mum had a good look.