It is time to reveal the truth about the mystery blueness in the last post.

You see Mark’s niece left some little mice here, last time she stayed with us. I found them all nesting under a pillow on our cornerseat:

I quickly discovered that – being an adventurous bunch – they had ambitions to get home to Weymouth using unconventional transport methods.

They set up a hot-air balloon research centre in my studio and carefully planned their journey.

Then they set about making it from old newspapers. The decorated it with blue scraps left over from mine and Sam’s collage-making endeavours, crocheted some string to attach the gondala to the balloon, and climbed aboard to see how they all fit in.

It is important, even when life is insanely busy, to make time for such play.

I hope that Mark’s niece doesn’t read my blog; I suspect not. In any case, I hope she gets a giant surprise when the mice arrive back with her in full style, via their ingenious contraption.

And now I must drive back to Oxford to continue with letterpressing.

If you are listening to Radio Oxford at 9pm this Sunday, you may hear my latest bit of radio-joy; if you don’t get a chance to check it out, you can download it from the bottom of this post.

This link will take you directly to The Hub webpage, where my last bit of radiotronic (Magic Hour) joy resides.