MY ACCENT being distinctly southern, guests to ‘Number Ten’ often ask me how I came to be up north. Well, it’s like this - Keith led me astray and he also introduced me to Sedbergh where the weather may be colder but the people are warmer. I can’t pretend there aren’t times when I yearn to be closer to our daughters and grandchildren and it has been one of those times recently. Our Katharine having come to the end of her tether with her hopelessly dogmatic partner, threw away any vestige of good sense and moved out with no where to go. So we did what we could and helped out by looking after Freya who is six, bless her socks. Keith was already in Suffolk so he brought her back with him on the train. Half way home he noticed that she was wearing what can only be described as fairy slippers so when the train stopped at Leeds a quick dash to the shops was required to buy footwear more suited to our northern wet lands.

One stumbling block we often encounter with our grandchildren is food, what they don’t like or won’t eat would fill an encyclopaedia. But beans usually fit the bill, certainly with Freya. It’s beans and fish fingers, beans and sausages, beans and cornflakes, no wonder she is full of beans, figuratively and factually. Naturally inquisitive, she badgered us with questions regarding the B & B guests, like who are they and why are they here etc? She may make our ears ache but for one so young she is a marvel in the domestic department assisting me with bed making and table laying.

Tomorrow evening (Friday) it’s the Pulse Community Gym Quiz and Keith has been preparing questions all week. Freya, always willing to help, suggested this gem, ‘what is the world’s best number?’ There’s no answer to that but it’s food for thought I guess.

Going back to the food issue, Freya, upon over hearing Keith and I discussing a dinner ‘Ming’ Campbell would be attending, pulled a face and announced, ‘Yuk, Mingcampbell, I’m not eating that!’