Stilly, if you do close your fireplace off, remember to leave a few holes in the top bit for ventilation, or fit a vent. Also, make sure you can remove the top every so often to get rid of any dirt that may fall down the chimney - vital if you have uncapped chimney pots that birds can nest on. Opening up one of the fire places here, I found two dead birds (well, half a sparrow and a hawk) that had obviously come dowm the chimney but couldn't get back up because the fireplace was completely blocked.

Michelle - carrot batons were a great help when Limpit was teething, you might try them for Jeremiah. Cut a few good sized batons and keep them in the fridge. They're soft enough that he won't hurt himself, firm enough that he shouldn't be able to bite chunks off and choke, non-toxic, non-fat, sugar free and when just out of the fridge, they're nice and cool on his gums. He should be able to hold them comfortably and chomp on them to ease his desire to chew.

My knee has been decidedly painful this weekend... I think it doesn't like the rain or the amount of walking I did on it on Friday. Consequently, the Wii fit is on hold and I'm trying to find an alternative to ibuprofen.

As for the decluttering... slow but sure. I still have room to put the spare bed up in the computer room, there's some tidying to do but I have found a spare Really Useful Box so there goes the pile of fabric by the side of the sofa, where the latest quilt (black and white in a pattern I call stars and stripes - see my Facebook page for a closeup)is waiting for a large enough area for me to put the batting and backing on. This is where I wish I had my old computer room back, which was twice the size but is now full of teenager stuff and teenager, so not a square inch of floor can be seen!

Right... off to work now, so a walk up to the station to clear the cobwebs and get the knee going.

LTS