Nye Then

I’ve been quite busy this week, as you can imagine, sorting out solicitors and estate agents and generally trying to make the garden look presentable, no mean feat as it’s very overgrown. I did a couple of days wrestling with blackberry canes and strimming the long grass (I feel bad about doing this as I’ve sent no end of beetles and ladybirds scurrying for shelter as I assault them with my loud…

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I've Got a Silver Machine

Spoiler alert: it’s not a motorbike. I wish it was – a motorbike is on my list of things to get When I Have the Money – but it’s a useful machine if you want to make clothes or mend things or, as I did the other day, turn a couple of scraps of fabric into a cloth bag for shopping since OH lost my favourite Morsbag (don’t get me started on that.) My machine is a Brother LS14S sewing machine and it…

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Ripley vs The Talented Mr Ripley (contains spoilers)

In case you’re not familiar with the story of the Talented Mr Ripley, it’s a novel by Patricia Highsmith which has been adapted several times, the most notable being the 1999 film with Matt Damon as Tom Ripley and Jude Law as the unfortunate Dickie Greenleaf. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134119/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_q_The%2520Tal The latest adaptation is the Netflix series starring…

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No-Saint Joan

My title’s gone a bit wonky, I don’t know why. There’s no accounting for the vagaries of wordpress but it’s a bit off-putting though to have one’s title shoved off to the side. I’ll try to ignore it – though it seems to look all right when published. Last night I slept badly – more of a doze than a sleep – due to having a rather fiery and tannic pot of tea yesterday. I generally have a pot of tea…

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Rosalind Franklin

I always think of Rosalind Franklin as a bit like the Dark Lady of the sonnets – the Dark Lady of DNA, if you like – a shadowy, unrecognised figure for whose work Crick and Watson partly took credit (I don’t wish to undermine their work either but she did not receive the recognition she deserved. She died on this day in 1958 and four years later Watson and FCrick shared the Nobel Prize for their…

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Bluebells

At the weekend we went for a walk in Burleigh Woods.  It’s a small but lovely woodland and this time of year there’s a stunning carpet of bluebells.

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Being Whizzy

There’s nothing like having a deadline for giving you energy – not that we do have a deadline as such, but things are moving on with the house which has given me a lot of motivation. This week I have been whizzing around doing tasks which I would normally just begin and then leave for a later date – such as clearing the shed and tidying the garden and front yard. The latter was full of weeds so I…

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Probate at Last!

A bit late posting today because of something that happened yesterday. In fact because of the thing that happened I may be somewhat erratic in the days and weeks to come. There’s no telling; it might all take off at once or it could take some time. Yesterday I woke as I do most days thinking of what was ahead and feeling the familiar sinking feeling in the stomach because we Still Hadn’t Heard…

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I Am Convinced...

if the words ‘…they are a major contribution to road safety’ occur to you on reading those words, then you and I are of an age to remember the adverts for – what were they? – some sort of car tyres. Amazing how you remember the slogan but not the product, but maybe it goes in on a conscious level. There are adverts I enjoy, though they’re few and far between – the meerkats one springs to mind, a…

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Mission Creep

I had a really good week off – not an exciting one particularly, but restful and satisfying in various ways. I did a lot of clearing out, taking stuff to the tip and freecycling: the shed (the second shed, not the main one – do keep up) is more or less clear now. The thing was like a time capsule; I honestly don’t think my father-in-law ever threw anything away – I found ancient tools and bits of…

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter.  I’ll be taking a break for a few days Kirk out

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Reinstalling Your Life - Please Wait...

I freely admit that I entrust far too much of my life to my phone. Diary, contacts, messages of several sorts, email – and that’s not including the apps I have: the Guardian (mostly for crosswords) the Odeon for cheap tickets, a guitar tuning app, a weather app, BBC Sounds, a banking app and most importantly of all, my diary. I did transfer some of my upcoming events to my paper diary when my old…

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The Joy of Text

I’ve been without a phone for a week now, since the screen on my old one went completely blank. It came back to life briefly, which gave me hope that the white-out might be a blip, but it wasn’t: it’s gone now and I can’t do a thing with it. So now I have a new one, courtesy of Ratae, and I have to transfer all my data from the old phone to the new. In theory this is quite easy; all you have to…

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I've Come to Wish you a Very Happy Tuesday

image removed on request I’ve been quite energetic of late, what with the spring springing, the daffodils and grape hyacinths coming out and the magnolias coming to an end (they always seem to bloom for such a short time: I keep telling myself to make an effort to appreciate them but they’re gone almost before I get the chance.) Magnolias are one of my favourite trees; the blossom is so delicate…

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This is a Facebook Post

Facebook is still playing silly buggers with my posts, first of all pondering them and then publishing them without any content. I am not content. On the other hand, it does allow me to share things and that includes blog posts, so here is my Facebook post for today. 1. I am holding fire on the underpass. Background; there is an underpass from my road to the park opposite which has been flooded…

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TW3-with-an-E

That was the weekend that was! What a brilliant couple of days. It started with cleaning – now I know that doesn’t sound too great but it was very satisfying if you’re in the mood and are intending to go out in short order, which I did. First on the agenda was Morris dancing at the Plough. If you think of Morris dancing as a bit twee, prancing around waving hankies in the air, then Way of the…

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Sitrep: Situation Irritating

Tech hates me; that’s my conclusion today. My phone is dead, my browser has gone wonky so I’ve had to use MS Edge, and Facebook is continuing to censor all my posts; I still get the little ‘processing’ image and then the post appears devoid of content. Perhaps this will pass? Who knows. It makes no sense; it’s like being in some capricious blue dictatorship. Anyway, I’ve decided not to get too…

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