Dunnock, related and round the towels.

1. I open the door on to a world so fresh and sharp that I think I must be wearing new glasses. I bend to pick up the milk and come eye-to-eye with a dunnock. She pauses. I pause, still bent over. Then she decides that we are just two women preparing breakfast, and that it's safe to get on with her day.

2. "I know I'm related to him," says my cousin Ellen, "But I do think Alec is particularly lovely." This pretty much sums up how I feel about the boy, too.

3. Alec shrieking with laughter as he runs in and out of the towels on the washing line.