Uncluttering the entire room is going to take a while, but when we went to see our grandsons on Sunday - ages 5 and 2 I could take a small box of things unearthed from the French windows and dining table corner - toys puzzles and oddments.

I will have to teach them to play marbles. It seems to be a lost art amongst today's youngsters.

The grey hat is almost entirely done, the brim is held out by three rounds of a gold plated wire I got for something else years ago - there is some silver ditto somewhere, which I hope to unearth for the black hat. I must make the cord for it - I don't want it flying off starting rumours of UFOs. Strange that the wire is just right for an afterthought three circuits of the brim of a hat I only thought about in the last few weeks - most serendipitous.