1. I can hear Nick in the bathroom singing along to Largo al Factotum from Barber of Seville. I'm not sure I don't prefer it to Woody's version -- but of course that's what I would say.
2. "Come on," says her mother.
But she is busy checking with a buttercup. "Do I like butter?"
"Yes, you do. Come on."
"Do you like butter?"
The mother puts her chin out, and the glossy yellow petals light up her neck.
3. I've never heard of sea spinach. "It's a saltmarsh vegetable -- like samphire," says the fishmonger at Sankey's. I am intrigued, and buy some for supper. The leaves are fleshier than spinach, and I blanch them quickly over the potatoes and then stir fry them. They are tender and salty -- none of spinach's metallic tang.
