Green is one of my favourite colours. I remember when we moved house in the fall of 1968, my parents suggested that, as our big Christmas-cum-housewarming presents, they buy my sisters and me each head-and-feet for our beds, which had previously just had bed frames and mattresses. I always prefer to put my bed along a wall so as to maximize the space in the centre of the room; so I asked instead for a carpet, specifically a green one.

My mother, who adored shopping, took me round so many stores. We saw rag rugs and Persian rugs and Navajo rugs and all sorts of "modern" patterns. Eventually, it was all too obvious that she was getting fed up with my fussiness. (But it was MY present!)

"You said 'green'," she kept saying. "Well, this one is green!"

Finally, in one of the large department stores, a sales clerk suggested we look through some piles of "ends" of plain, solid-coloured wall-to-wall carpeting material. One by one, these were turned back at the corner to show the next one underneath. And then, suddenly, it just GLOWED. A rich, glorious emerald green.

I adored it instantly.

With horror, I heard my mother protest that it would need to be finished with a fringe, which would make it cost too much. However (gasp! relief!), it turned out to have been bound at the edges so it wouldn't fray.

I still have it.