I had quite a different pic in mind for tonight – one much less surreal than this. It was to be a shot of a broken walnut shell, with bits of nut poking out. I was fishing around in the bag, looking for a nut, when my hand happened on this perfect half shell and a great wave of love came over me.

You see, these little ‘love boats’ remind me of being little and Daddy making us (me and Janny-Wanny) boats just like this (obviously without the lippy heart – my Daddy is a toughie….well, he likes to think he is anyway). Of course as we more-or-less only had shell-on walnuts at Christmas, this event would often be on or around Boxing Day or in the few days following because that’s when we’d have shells to use. We’d float the boats on a washing-up bowl sea and blow into their tiny paper sails to make them go scudding across the sea. It’s a cherished memory of a childhood full of love.

So, I decided I’d make a little love boat of my own and set it to sail across this lovely sea of patterned brass, with brass ‘flames’ in the background.

I dunno what goes on in my mind sometimes when these ideas pop out of nowhere but there you go – they are the ramblings of a warped mind.

Tonight this warped mind is full of love because we’re starting to get some more of a sense of ‘home’ here rather than the ‘rat’s nest’ that’s been prevailing for many months now.

One of our rooms is ready to paint – I’ve spent the afternoon wallpapering a wall that’s going to be knocked down in a couple of years so to do anything else to it other than cover up the horrid flowery stuff that was there before seemed like a pointless extravagance. So, it’s been papered with lining paper so it can be painted. Other than that, we’re just waiting for plaster to dry and we’re away with the paintbrushes….which is just as well seeing as we’ve got a carpet ‘landing’ mid-December.

In addition to wallpapering, I’ve painted and DM has sanded. There has been such a hive of activity here while we’re building our love nest. So, the love boat is symbolic of us setting sail towards our love nest if you see what I mean!

Last year, I was at Vinopoulis - the wine museum in London.