My brother Andrew’s daughter Clara was born early this morning, the first of her generation. Andrew is fourth of the eleven siblings in my family; the fifth, Olivia, will be having her own baby in another few months. It’s strange to have babies arriving in my family, after so many years. Our cousins, spanning basically the same age range, have so many kids now I can’t even guess how many there are, but we apparently weren’t in any hurry to get started. I don’t think any of us eldest three will get around to it; I certainly don’t plan to.

Still, kids are fun. I look forward to flying visits of mayhem and adventure. I will probably seem impossibly ancient to these wee’uns, though; I’ll be fifty by the time little Clara hits her teens! But I’m sure I’ll still be rampaging about on motorcycles and setting things on fire. There will be fun to be had.