Kirsten, A UK heatwave, and Brexit negotiations begin

It has been exactly a year since my sister Kirsten passed away in Germany. I'd stayed with her day and night in the hospice she had chosen, as the cancer finally ran its course. Our mother and her younger son were also on hand during the day. A week before, she had still been able to welcome friends and reconciled family, before slipping into an ever deeper distance from us. The nurses said she would still be aware of people being nearby. On this day, one year ago, I sat by her bed listening to her laboured breathing, at a loss for what to do. Kirsten loved fairy tales from around the world. I opened a book of stories from the Philippines and began to read out aloud. Her breathing changed almost as soon as I began, becoming more relaxed. Halfway through the story her breathing slowed, and then stopped. Kirsten's eyes opened and as I came closer, a tear ran down her cheek and she was gone.

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Books have a gestation period that varies by author. After three years since her last book, I was invited to visit and chat with one of our past authors about her new family book. What was fascinating, was to hear that the last family history had led to unexpected connections and re-connections with either forgotten or unknown family around the world. Sipping iced lemonade, time flew by for a couple of hours.

In the afternoon, there was the careful conversion of the chosen images for our Cambridge Open Studios into print ready files. Working in the sun lounge office at over 30degC, the fan was a must. Apparently we have now had the longest period of hot days (five) in June ever.

Last night's attacker has been named as Darren Osborne, from Cardiff. Sadly there was one death. There is again a lot of media hype and political scurrying. The focus has shifted to also examining the far right extremists in the UK.

David Davis traveled to meet the chief EU negotiator, Michel Barnier and was confronted with the reality that, as the country leaving the EU, the UK is in no position to dictate the timing of the negotiations. Parallel talks on trade with the initial divorce were not an option. There was also the EU line that whilst there would be no hard border between the Northern and Southern Ireland, there would have to be checks - very similar to those I remember between Germany and the Netherlands, when they still existed. The issue would be dealt with later in the talks.

Michel Barnier's telling quote of the day, “The UK has asked to leave the EU, not the other way around, so we each have to assume the consequences of our decisions and the consequences are substantial,” he replied, when asked if the EU was making any concessions of its own. “Please do not underestimate those consequences.”

The Daily Telegraph's optimistic headline online is "David Davis and EU rule out soft Brexit on day one of negotiations".