Devenish

Sean and Justin in the activity playground at Chatsworth, Derbyshire (August 2012) After literally years of cajoling, remonstrating, and quarreling with Sean over bedtime ("aw, just a minute, Dad", "But it's the weekend, and anyway I can get up!", "The show will be over in just five minutes, Dad!", "Leave me alone!"), the problem is apparently solved. "My teacher [one at his new school] says we should all be in bed by 10pm", he announced briefly before getting changed, brushing his teeth and toddling off, with amiable punctuality. So that's the secret: don't be a parent. Or don't be this one. Why did I waste all that time arguing, when I could have hired a week-old authority figure? At least it works, for now...

Click to play It's not over, this blog, just a long summer break: some service will resume soon. I remember, as a child, the time each year towards the end of March that my father would pull our unnaturally heavy and unwieldy two-stroke lawn mower out from the back of the garage, dust it off, top it up with petrol, and then try to bring it to life, carefully pulling or pushing the choke, and using a starter cord to wrench the engine into reluctant service. The initial results were invariably fitful, acrid and accompanied by 'dear, dear' and 'let's see' (which was the nearest my father usually came to the kinds of vile imprecation that fill the air when I can't get something to work). Eventually though, after stalling a dozen times, the ill-maintained and little appreciated engine began to run smoothly, and to do its job. The same, I hope, will be true of this blog and its sister sites. Postscript. I suppose it should come as no surprise that there