I’m in need of some help here.

My gran would always tell me to “never cast a clout until May is out” and to be honest, for most of my childhood, I never knew what on earth she was talking about.

Apparently, since the 15th century ‘clout’ is a word that has been used to describe a fragment of cloth or clothing and could be spelled as clowt, clowte, cloot, or clute.

The meaning was a reminder not to be too quick to chuck the winter clothes before cooler days during the month of May were most likely over. We have woken up to ice on the garden this morning so they may have a point!

I bet when that original quote was made up, they never imagined their relatives in years to come would spend 12 months wearing pyjamas and track suits and shouting at each other on Zoom.

I bet I’m not alone in not only worrying whether I should bin my clout yet, but will any of my “going out” clothes still fit?

I’m seriously considering joining in the trend of wearing my pyjamas to the supermarket . . .