Even by our country’s standards, this has been a grim week and it looks like it’ll get worse.

So let’s not go there today.

Let’s think about anything and everything that’s good in our own lives, no matter how big or small, let’s try to do one positive thing in the next few days.

For me, it’s been a busy week of doing the usual, dog walks and work around the house and gardens, but this week has also been about apples.

Fuck me, what a bumper year, I can’t remember seeing so many.

I’ve pressed around 70 litres of juice – 20 for the fridges to be drunk with breakfast or lunch and 50 litres of cider.

The dogs have been there for the whole thing, Cairo is quite the apple thief and we’ve had to stop a number of times so that she can chase them as they’re thrown for her – Milo patrols the grounds or sleeps in my office as I do the physical, repetitive work of cutting the apples, macerating and then pressing the juice.

It’s hard work and it’s instantly rewarding.

The juice tastes nothing like shop bought apple juice – so much sweeter and flavoursome.

I’ve given hundreds of apples away to neighbours and also to the farm shop -she’s going to make me an apple pie as thanks.

I have a couple of hundred of apples in the store and have dried around a hundred so far.

It’s been a fantastic crop.

As I type this, I’m getting ready to cook a curry with chilis, peppers and onions from my own garden, I’ll add some chilli and tomato sauce that I’ve been making for a few weeks now.

I have a bottle of beer in front of me and two sleepy dogs elsewhere,

Milo is on good form at the moment and loves every minute of our walks through the fields or snuggling up for the evening next to me and Cairo.

Cairo is the sweetest dog and has completely charmed their new sitter, which is lucky as I have a funeral to go to in a week or so.

I’m meeting friends in London in two weeks, including a couple of the Feral Ponies who will help me celebrate one of their number, who has:

– Had a new baby

– Got through the bullshit that my old company put him through.

He doesn’t know that they’re coming out as it’s a work day, The Smurf will join us at some point and I’m looking forward to a day of laughter.

Life can be good if we let it and we all need to pause for a moment, turn the phones off, ignore the television, get outside or listen to music and read a good book.

All the bad stuff isn’t going away, but if we let it infect us, we’re the losers.