1. Clearing the floorspace makes the whole room look much tidier. If I turn my back to the huge amount of crap piled up (albeit quite neatly) under the sloping roof, the room looks rather respectable for once. The bedding is also freshly clean, with just a hint of lavender and rosewood.

1b. Yesterday the paint smelled like school; today, dry, covering A2 sheets and in a stack, it looks like school as well. Considering I didn’t like art at school, this still manages to conjure up a vague happiness – possibly because it evokes memories from before art was art, when it was just drawing, painting and having fun.

2. Everyone wants to see – but not get too close to – the chickens.

2b. The clack of Lego.

3. He picks up the controls very quickly and is soon jumping up and down as he beats John round after round (and John isn’t really going easy on him at all).

3b. I dance a goofy Louisa-dance while they watch me through the night vision lens.

3c. After we’ve read through the book twice (once looking at the pictures in the book, once looking at them in his mind), I read my history magazine while waiting for him to go to sleep. The pages crunch and scrape loudly when I turn them so I force myself to read slowly so I don’t need to turn them so often.