It’s proud Uncle Damian time now, so the rest of you can browse somewhere else to check out pictures of other Website owners’ cats.

It was my niece Maisie‘s 1st birthday last month. I was at her birthday party and here are some photos I took with a second-hand lens that my brother-in-law Steve kindly drove me to Derby to buy. It collected some particularly lovely colours onto good old Fuji Press 800 film.

There are a lot of nice shots, but my favourites are:

• this one of Maisie with some wrapping paper,
• this series of cousins Imogen and Isobel blowing out the candles,
• this one of Auntie Angie gracefully accepting her consolation prize after the rigged pass-the-parcel game,
• this one of Clare smiling,
• this one featuring Maisie’s amazing golden curls,
• this one of Imogen looking on while Steve plays with my gift to Maisie (a musical apple—every home should have one),
• this one of Imogen caught picking her nose,
• and another of her looking soulful,
• and, of course, this amazing series, taken while the whole family watched Maisie take her first three steps in a row—Clare says that Maisie is quite a walker now.

There’s also at least one shot that Auntie Sarah took of me looking as comfortable as ever holding a small child. And doesn’t Maisie look comfortable too?

(My next lot of photos will be from an only-slightly-more-grown-up party—one with a “Hollywood/Bollywood” theme.)