ailbhe | She gits through 'bout ten rolls a weekof that stuff...

I'd love to know where I acquired my love of gingham patterns. A long time ago I bought a large scrap, or "remnant", of green gingham oilcloth, in John Lewis. It's lines about 4mm wide. First I used it as a picnic blanket, then I covered the dining chairs with it. Then when we got our new dining table I bought two oilcloth covers for it - the top one is a childly flowers-and-suns-and-insects pattern, but under it, for semi-special occasions which don't warrant ironing the real table linens, is a blue gingham print oilcloth, lines about 10mm wide.

And today I bought red gingham stickyback plastic in Lidl, lines about 3mm wide, to cover the children's play/dining table. It was untreated wood, and held every stain; now it's wipe-clean, so that's good. But where and how did I develop this love of gingham? Hmm?

(Other things from today: Linnea addresses me as Mother, or rather, Muvv-AH, and when asked why, answered "But Ailbhe, you ARE my mother!" which was unarguable. Also, when asked what the best part of her day was, she answered "Playing with Rob, but he's gone now." Emer had a wonderful two-hour nap, which bodes very well, and we ran out of Linnea-sized nappies and she refused my offer to buy more, so We Shall See.)