My grand-daughter Amy, who is due to start in the nursery section of her new school after Christmas and seems a bit bemused by the whole thing.

At the other extreme, I did a bit more ancestor-digging this morning and made a couple of discoveries. My great grandfather, Henry Lenton, is recorded in the 1851 census as being 13 and living with his father and mother – William and Sarah Lenton – at Yaxley, near Peterborough. William’s age is given as 51 and his wife’s 50, which is strange considering that they have children of 16, 13, 9, 6 and 4. The 16-year-old is a daughter, Harriette, and the other three are also girls: Lucy, Emma and Eliza. Charles’s place of birth is given as Folksworth, which is just down the road from Yaxley, and I understand that there is a Lenton in the graveyard there. Must have a look. Sarah is from Peterborough.

I also made a discovery on my mother’s side, where I hadn’t really looked before, because her maiden name, Brown, is so common that I thought it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack, especially as I know so little about them. Nevertheless I think I have tracked down my great-grandfather and great-grandmother, who look as if they come from Milton, in Cambridgeshire. They are Charles Brown, who was head gardener at Hall Lodge and was born in Brighton, and Eleanor, who was born in Sawston, Cambridgeshire. He was 58 in 1901, and she was 60. Other than my grandfather Frederick William, who was 22 at the time and nursery under-gardener, there were Albert George, 22, also an under-gardener, and Eleanor Jane, 31, (a dressmaker) also living at Hall Lodge.

Yesterday I went on a yomp with former EDP colleagues Robin, Brian and Ralph. It was supposed to be a five-miler around the Waveney valley near Syleham, but it turned out to be nearer 7 (6.79 according to my pedometer) after we went wrong a few times. The weather was quite mild, apart from a cooler patch of light rain in the middle. We met Bruce for a drink at Brockdish afterwards.