Lighting up

I'm a regular purchaser of items from The Glow Company - I can't keep track of how many glow in the dark bracelets we go through. The girls use them as night lights, and for a while I had them on the pram for night outings, and of course they were useful for lighting up the gazebo at The Big Chill. I think we must go through a tube of 100 every few months. I was about to order some more when I spied on the website these solar powered garden lights. Excellent idea as we hadn't wired up any lights in the bottom of the garden. This photo doesn't do them justice, they look tiny here whereas in real life they're the size of large grapefruit. About 45 minutes after the sun goes down, these four lights come on and gently phase through the colour spectrum. When we came home in the small hours last weekend I'd forgotten they'd be charged up and it was like walking into a surreal garden disco. Absolutely hypnotic. All four lights come in a pack called "Solar Sphere Stick" and cost £29.99 - which is a bargain when one Mathmos ball costs £40.

On Sunday morning when my drag queen friend Rhys hauled himself out of the spare room I said to the girls "See I told you those magic lights would attract fairies" - Rhys and I fell about laughing while the kids looked completely blank.