"When we first bought this house, and started to renovate it, we had a few set backs - a plague of bees, a huge mirror that smashed, a near break-in, and I started to feel the need to take it 'gifts', to propitiate the house gods when we arrived. I am not a very superstitious person, this was really just an excuse to buy something a bit special. I bought a Hand of Fatima, just because I liked it, and stapled it to the beam, and then another, and gradually this has become a little ritual that just makes the house seem safe and friendly."

Kate White, Oxford