When I looked at two books on a coffee table, I was amused at the common titles with the same words. After years of never reading fiction, I am doing so at a furious pace now. It took me a while to discover the Canadian writer Louise Penny - and even more time to get a copy of the first one on the public library app, since it begins a series - and everyone wants to read the novels in sequence. While it took her five years to write this first one, I devoured it in about six hours. Luckily she has speeded up to produce far more. There are crime writers who like to create deeply flawed characters, but I am happy with Gamache - and the chief detectives of writers Donna Leon and Susan Hill. None of them are perfect but they and their accompanying families and cohorts live for me through dozens of books and become friends.

Drawing is also something I have pursued for years - sometimes in classes and for this month, just on my own. The library book has projects in pencil, pastel, watercolour, acrylics and oils - and I have plenty of supplies of all but the last - not a good choice for an indoor environment in any case. It’s not about creating masterpieces, but learning to see.

Insights from novels and paints - a good way to spend a staycation.