A serene Princess Amy plays with visitor Matthew (not Harry) Potter in the living room. Matthew’s parents Kevin and Lisa joined us all yesterday afternoon after David and his family had gone to visit Kerry at Easton in the morning. Kerry is Vicky’s friend from way back. She used to live at Bury St Edmunds, which was obviously more appropriate for rhyming, though less convenient. At teatime, after the Potters left, the six of us went to Prezzo’s for a meal, and the children were great, despite Amy falling off her chair at the outset. Surprisingly, she didn’t find this funny.

It’s been pretty cold this year, and today the temperature has hovered around zero. There’s a risk of snow tomorrow, when we’re supposed to be visiting Bruce at Sheringham and giving Brian a lift. On Friday we all visited A Ethel and then A Jessie (following a visit to Sainsbury’s at North Walsham). We’ve been eating quite a lot of food, I’m sorry to say, and the extra weight gained will take a bit of losing. We did our best on New Year’s Day, when all six of us, plus Julia and Dave, went for a walk at Winterton. It was overcast, but not too cold, thanks to a lack of wind. I introduced Oliver to the art of tracking people through the dunes, and he had nearly as good a time as I did. We laid several successful ambushes, including one on Dot and Amy, who were also tracking through the dunes, only slower. Amy was mainly looking for good places to rest. David, Vicky, Julia and Dave were behaving like adults and walking in the valley. The Hemsby/Winterton valley has been a key place: I had lots of fun there in the 50s and 60s, then introduced it to David in the 70s, and now Oliver loves it too. An excellent New Year outing, which I entered in my new Walker’s Diary!

Dave and Julie had joined us for New Year’s Eve and left on the Saturday for Paul and Leanne’s. With impeccable timing, Leanne produced her second child – Sophie – yesterday, all ready for grandparents to admire. Our New Year’s Eve went really well, including the usual quiz and champagne. Anne and Philip joined us, and I adapted the quiz so that everyone could consult instead of being in competition. It worked quite well, though of course they got most of the answers right between them. Today the family left just after breakfast, and Dot and I went to church – since when she has been doing a lot of clearing up (with a little help from me). When we got home, there were two toy cars in the hall, but an empty house. Rather sad.