The supernumerary chest of drawers is gone, adopted by the large & lumpy brother of my favourite furniture repair guy, himself a large & lumpy individual. While they were here, they hauled a teak three-seater sofa from the rather small parlour to the much larger library-cum-music room upstairs, and brought a dainty walnut-framed settee downstairs to grace the parlour.

My father’s favourite chair (and mine) has also left the building, but it will return in good time with freshly re-glued joints and more comfortable upholstery. That repair won’t be cheap — it seems that nothing good ever is — but it should set the chair up for at least another generation of reading and staring at the goggle box.

Now that the tumult and shouting are done, the house still looks full of furniture.