I Haven't Lost My Marbles

I've had my marbles for years. They're piled up in a glass by the window over my desk to catch the light. Typically, I picked out all the ones with green in them to go with the colour scheme. The other colours are safely stored away, still in their little bag made of plastic netting. Mum and I are both fascinated by glass spheres of all kinds. I love the way glass bends light and distorts things, especially if something has been trapped forever inside it, even a bubble of air. The House of Marbles Museum in Devon, where you can watch marbles being made and explore the history of glass, is somewhere I will visit on a future mini-break. My fondness for glass marbles must be to do with the childhood connection, and maybe also because, from outer space, our own planet Earth looks like a beautiful blue marble.