In last weeks post about Canterbury and the Shakers, I made reference to their method of ensuring nothing got lost. Communal living meant that things would inevitably go astray and they managed this by marking everything with a letter (to denote the building) and up to two numbers (to denote the room and possibly the table/drawer/cupboard) where the item belonged. Every broom, flat iron, box, basket, chair, towel - not to mention clothes - was labelled in this way. At the time, I joked that I thought Mark must have lived in a Shaker community during a former life.

As I try to find homes for all the piles of "stuff" which are still around from our trip, I wonder if it would be any easier if everything here was marked in a similar way? But what pleasure to rediscover things which have remained hidden in the bottom of a suitcase for a couple of weeks, forgotten!