The box I was looking in yesterday has brought up a load of memories. Those tropical brown sheets for a start. They were very expensive. I remember buying them as a little reward to myself for becoming Head of English at Ealing Green High School for boys in about 1990. This was taken in 1993. They then served me well as backdrops when teaching drama in Cambridge School in the early 2000s

Here’s the comfortable sofa bed again. My mother is relearning all her maternal skills and has been persuaded not to smoke while holding the baby. She weighed 5 lbs when she was born and I think this is a few days after she left the hospital. We’re all still in a state of wonder.

Making herself useful, an expert older sister, a delightful pair.

I couldn’t have been luckier with my two older children when Marysia was born. Although I was exhausted they made everything as easy as possible for me.

Abundance of spring; she seems to be looking at the flowers. Is she?

I love this photo which shows off our north facing garden in all its glory in 1993. I’m afraid it hasn’t looked like that since. But that year there seemed to be no stopping it. Everything blossomed and bloomed and burgeoned. The petunias especially were rampant. this was May, I believe.

Notice the terraces – inspired by our holidays in Spain, the tiles owe a little something to the Parque Guell in Barcelona. Just a very little something.