Startrite kids ...

Do you remember the logo for Startrite shoes? James and Anna, the younger cousins among my four grandchildren, reminded me of that image as they marched home for tea with us today. So self-possessed and sensible at the age of nine ...

A couple of hours later we were back at school to watch Anna perform in the Junior Kaleidoscope in the Tom Fleming Centre at Stewart’s Melville. A lovely evening with a host of young performers who reduced an entire audience to grinning uncontrollably and clapping for Scotland.

Walked home into the teeth of the wind, with a thin moon overhead. And the ten o’clock news. Depressing, no?

There are snowdrops in the garden.