Japanese pepper, Paul Newman, living to 99, and recipes for Shichimi togarashi and Pan Haggerty

Abundance: Tuesday 8 October

It has been raining all day. Proper rain. Rain that has you daydreaming of an early evening bath, of potatoes in combination with cheese, of a hoppy ale by a fire inefficiently burning with the door open, the flames better to see.

We escaped the house in midafternoon, disbelieving of the forecast that it would ease off, but needing air, a slice of the world - specifically, steaming coffee and a chocolate cookie, sat in a shelter on the cliff, the seat wiped dryish with napkins, watching the sea chat with the clouds, while the water that fell on the land ran away back to the start of the cycle, to fall again another day.