Concrete proof of the law of attraction

Surprisingly tranquil photos from a weekend when I whizzed round the house and garden like a mad woman. The dog walk was good, and so was the bird survey down by the river. Little peaceful interludes.

I also discovered something rather disturbing. It all started when I called Isambard Kingdom Brunel an idiot because he swallowed a coin. The middle boy took me to task, saying that in fact he was the second Greatest Briton Of All Time, after Winston Churchill. Hmm. Anyway, I found the poll and IKB is indeed at number 2, coin-swallowing notwithstanding. The disturbing thing was the lack of women on the list. Other than a handful of queens and Margaret Thatcher, really very, very few. And yet, included were John Lennon, Robbie Williams, Richard Burton, Enoch Powell, Aleister Crowley and, at 17 on the list, Michael Crawford. Michael Crawford! Am I missing some huge deed of great national importance he's carried out?

I was going to name some British women that should be on the list, but I didn't know where to start. Scientists, politicians, activists, maybe even a civil engineer or two, who were able to get through life without swallowing a coin. I am hoping times are a-changing, but I think it is a slow process. Incidentally, the coin was stuck in IKB's lung and they had to hang him upside down and shake him to get it out, after six weeks of life-threatening attempts to cut it out etc.

The littlest boy has apparently been reading Unsuitable books, full of violence and pestilence and pus according to the middle boy, who read them before him and has declared them to be too old for him. Apparently it's 'jaw-dropping zombie horror'. They have names like The Dead and The Fear. Oh dear. I am adding it to my list of things to worry about, although of course prising them away from him will be tricky, you know how small boys love a bit of pestilence.

In other news, I have been thinking about the law of attraction. Is it actually a thing? It sounds utterly ridiculous, that by thinking about the things you want or need, they will magically find their way to you, but it actually happened to me the other day, so I am reconsidering my sceptical stance. I was mulling over the purchase of Barbara Kingsolver's latest book, Unsheltered, which I really wanted to read. I popped it in my online shopping basket to think about. And then, I walked into my local library and there it was, right in front of me, on the trolley. Not even on a shelf where I might have missed it, but almost leaping out at me. As if it had FOUND me.

The law of attraction is a mysterious thing. There has been a bestselling book about it which has sold THIRTY MILLION COPIES. Again, am I missing something? Apparently all you need to do is vibrate at the same frequency as the thing you want and it will find its way to you across the ether. Well, something like that, I haven't actually read the book, you know how it is. As we speak I am trying to manifest a new sofa and a chocolate eclair. Nothing so far, but I'll let you know.