Wednesday, April 22

I started the day with a forty minute walk in which I found somewhere I had never visited before for the first time in months. I found a large area of woodland that I thought I did not recognise. Later I realised that Auo and I might have cycled through it once or twice but from an entirely different direction.

Now I sit watching and listening to the videos next year’s applicants have made. We intended their task to give them a chance to stretch themselves and, as always, some have and some haven’t.

I hear a rattling sound and look round to see that the Mexican Trumpeter of Death has sprung into action, even though there hardly seems enough sun to power him. He leaps into action at the oddest times.

I will meet with Jutta and Mirko in an hour or so to discuss the applications. The Death Trumpeter will continue to wobble vigorously.