We went down to Kent at the weekend to visit M's family; our niece Niamh is six months old now which is hard to believe. She is eating butternut squash (very sophisticated, M says he never tasted such a thing until he was thirty) and just about standing up in a wobbly sort of way, if she has something to hold on to. In the photo she is modelling the smocked dress that her nanny made her, and her auntie is modelling a much-needed haircut and a self-knitted mohair cardigan.