Yes, it’s granddaughter Amy, going to work on an egg – or several eggs, in this case. She gets a special mention today because we have just seen her, via the webcam, taking five or six steps from the doorway of her Dad’s office to his arms.  I am reliably informed this is the furthest she’s walked so far.

This made me feel a good bit better. I had a bad night last night – headache and shivery – but felt better when I woke up. Headache is now coming back (6pm), so I’ve taken the old reliable paracetamol. Dot has been painting the guest bedroom, but this probably has nothing to do with it. I haven’t. Got to church OK, and the music went well.

A picture of me taken by my grandson Oliver David (Bailey) Lenton, aged three years and five months. Not bad, considering the unpromising material.

Lovely winter’s day today. Went to UEA to meet Anna Steward, who may join InPrint. Lots of ideas about Shropshire tour, PVM, publicity and so on.

Not an out-take from Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, but three members of InPrint, the visual arts-and-poetry group to which I belong. Centre is godfather and poet Rupert Mallin, right is Annette Rolston, the painter and printmaker with whom I collaborate, and making herself as small as possible on the left is Katarzyna Coleman, who specialises in industrial landscapes. For more information on them, see the InPrint site which you can access by clicking on the Blast above.

They are standing in front of the Poetry Vending Machine – a prototype of which we have high hopes – which is on display at the Warehouse in Lowestoft. Excellent gallery, but not easily accessible. We hope to have the PVM at the Wells festival in May.

During the past few days Dot and I have been away – firstly in East Sussex and later in Caddington, Bedfordshire, home of our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren. Further photos of them, no doubt, shortly.

More Myhills – the largish woman standing in the centre may be Dot’s great-grandmother, Ruth Myhill, and one of the young children could be Dot’s Aunt Ethel. These things remain to be checked. But a formidable-looking family!

Quite a pleasant day here today: not too cold. I have had a session with my homeopathist and am about to go and take a friend to hospital. Meanwhile Dot is at a meeting at the UEA to do with her primary strategy consultant leader programme.

Received this picture today from a correspondent through Genes Reunited. The two people in the centre of the photograph are my wife’s great-great-grandparents, James Myhill and Sarah Webster, with three of their children (her great-grandmother Ruth Myhill’s brother and sisters).

Lovely winter’s day today – much warmer with some sunshine. Cleared some leaves and took them – and a few other things – to the tip. Then took the car for a wash and vacuum. In the evening went for a meal with friends Keiron and Rowan, who are getting married in the summer.

Dorothy’s funeral today, at 1.15pm, South Park Evangelical Church, Norwich. Dry day, but very cold, temperature hovering around freezing. Family members present were Paul and Kathleen, the two remaining siblings from that generation. Also Dot and myself, Philip and Joy, with their son Joe and his wife Birgit; and Paul’s sons, Mark and Stephen, with their wives, Julie and Anita. Paul’s wife Thelma was there too. Service led by Tom Chapman from Surrey. Paul and Phil both gave excellent talks, giving a nice picture of Dorothy.

Interment was at The Rosary, cold but quick.

And there’s Dorothy again, in this picture of my parents’ wedding at Surrey Chapel, Norwich.  The building is now demolished: John Lewis’ car park covers where it stood. Dorothy is just behind my father. The two small bridesmaids may have been my mother’s sisters, Thelma and Eileen.The other bridesmaid looks like my mother’s older sister Vi, who is still alive and living in East London, South Africa. Her father is on the left at the back, and her mother is off to the right. Don’t know who the other man is at the back – possibly the best man.

Another very cold but dry day – misty, low cloud. Went with Dot to King’s Lynn, where she had a meeting at St Martha’s Catholic School. While she was in there I went to Castle Rising (for the first time). Just north of Lynn, this is an impressive building within an earth bank – square, reminiscent of Norwich Castle. Quite a lot of it remains: walls, arches, stairs, complete rooms. A chill in the air.

This picture is of our family on September 6, 1977, taken at Beccles Road, Sale. David was five. We had just driven back from a holiday in the very north of Scotland at Fanagmore, where David had proved a big hit with the bed and breakfast hosts. Beautiful part of the world, stunning roads and coast. We were staying the night with friends Chris and Chris Highmore. If I remember rightly, I had just driven 523 miles in one day.

Tiring day yesterday: went with Annette to Lowestoft to take down the pictures and removed the Poetry Vending Machine from the Warehouse. Then played on Board Four against Norfolk and Norwich A and had a really good win. Today I’ve been in – rather frustrating, though I wrote a bit, but spent far too long trying to set up Dot’s printer. They seem to specialise in telling you all the things you don’t need to know, and nothing you do.

The photograph is the wedding of my Aunt Thelma – my mother’s younger sister – and Roy Howard, the Robert-Mitchum lookalike. I was always a big Robert Mitchum fan, so I couldn’t help liking Roy. I always remember him courting Thelma, coming round to her parents’ house at 34 Hall Road, Norwich (now demolished). There used to be a butcher’s shop next door – now a row of maisonettes.

I don’t know most of the people in the picture – Roy’s relations. I think it was taken at St Peter Mancroft Church, and we had the reception at a place in St Stephen’s, upstairs.  The people I do know are on the right: my mother, looking very smart,  is standing with me (far right) and my two brothers, Andrew and Philip, also on their best behaviour.  Next to my mother is my Aunt Olive (mother’s sister), with her husband Ted. Nearby are my mother’s father, looking quite perky at the back, and near the front, her mother. They are Frederick and Rosa Brown.

There she is again – Dorothy, I mean, far left, bridesmaid at the wedding of her twin, Ken, to Eve Barber. Their brother Paul is also there – presumably best man – and as far as I know the other two adults in the picture are Eve’s parents. The child may be her sister. Ken and Eve were always very friendly. As a child I was struck by how close to each other they seemed to be, constantly touching each other. She was very sweet and quite shy. I was frequently round their house at  Meadowbrook Close, Norwich, playing with their son Adrian – now sadly dead. Their daughter Barbara is also a lovely woman and lives with her husband Roy at Reepham.

Today is sunny but cold and we’re awaiting the arrival of our two grandchildren and their parents for the weekend.

My Aunt Dorothy died three days ago. She was the twin of Ken and one of the nicest people you could meet. Aged 90, she had suffered from memory loss for a long time and eventually refused food, dying peacefully.

In the photograph she is in the middle, between her mother and my mother. Her full name was Dorothea Rosa Lenton. She never married, spending much of her life looking after her mother at their home in Hall Road, Norwich, following the death of her father in the mid-50s. Outside her home, she made the biggest impact at Norwich School – then a boarding school –  where she was a dearly-loved matron for many years.  I was very fond of her. I don’t think she had an unkind bone in her body.

Her death leaves only two of her seven siblings left alive – Kathleen and Paul, both in their 80s and both living in Norwich.

PS  Since writing this I’ve discovered that the picture was taken at the wedding of Jonathan and Dorothy (Jonathan is my cousin) in 1960.

Dorothy was the inspiration for this poem, which I wrote a few years ago after visiting her at Coltishall Hall Residential Home. She later moved to Cringleford.

COLTISHALL HALL

Your angel
has a fine time of it
standing at your corner room
mixing his holiness
with yours

while the winter sun
blazes low beyond the gate
lighting garden
and tree

I feel him there
filling your room and beyond
changing
the nature of things
through his presence

My angel
greets him wryly
like one who draws
the short straw

remembers the hills I fall off
the desires
the boat
the dark water

sighs, then smiles
when he sees me slip
my fingers through
your angel