Bethany, quite naturally, prefers to go outside to play or simply enjoys a trip in the car and has started encouraging us to take her out. Subtle hints like trying to put her shoes on were simply interpreted as playing but she gets excited when you grab her coat and will stand by the front door waiting for us to get ready. As further encouragement she has started to pick up my trainers and bring them to me, or if I am already putting one on she will be handing me the other to hurry me along.
   I have been watching the TV series Civilisation as presented by Kenneth Clark from 1969 which BBC HD are broadcasting not that we have a HD TV but I'm enjoying the series nonetheless. The last episode I viewed was "Protest and Reform" which dealt with the Reformation time period which was rather apt as it marries with the book I am reading, "Q" by the Luther Blissett group, set in the same period. The part that struck me was when Kenneth Clark was discussing the number of paintings of Martin Luther done by Cranach the Elder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Cranach_the_Elder which also included one of him in disguise as Junker Jorg . Now I might be missing the point somewhat, but it struck me as curious to have your portrait done whilst incognito as it somewhat undermines the whole enterprise. Not that growing a beard makes Luther the man of a thousand faces anyway and if he was trying to hide it may well have been from Lucas Cranach in case he tried to paint his portrait again.