Today would have been Christopher’s fiftieth birthday. We only really celebrate decades in our family, so I am sure that we would have had fun commemorating this milestone, probably involving both friends and a very good meal somewhere. More than that, given the difference in age between us, I am now older than he ever […]
I was talking to my next-door neighbour last weekend, and she said how much she was enjoying the ongoing saga of my continuing battles with the mice. When she’d stopped laughing, she sympathised, and said that they had similar problems with mice in the attic. She asked whether I’d tried ultrasonic rodent repellers, as they […]
It’s been pouring with rain, seemingly for weeks. I’m so glad that I got the garden sorted two years ago, as at least I don’t have to worry about getting home after a downpour and finding the terraces in a muddy heap in my kitchen! And I’m far enough up the Malvern Hills that if […]
I find Christmas a very difficult time of the year, and I really don’t want to spend Christmas Day moping about the house on my own. So I was determined to go away again this year. I was feeling a bit less anti-social than I have for the past two years, so decided to join […]
When we moved into our Victorian cottage fifteen years ago or so, it needed complete refurbishment – re-wiring, re-carpeting, and decorating inside and out. But of course we didn’t have enough money to do the complete job, so the more urgent jobs got done first, with the rest following over the years as and when […]
This week I went from one end of the Malvern pub-grub scale to the other. The pubs for my recent meals with my friends were chosen to have good food, and an atmosphere conducive to a good chat over a few drinks. In contrast, on Wednesday it was the work Christmas Lunch, for the whole […]
I’ve been doing a fair amount of catching-up recently with friends, mostly ex-colleagues, over a meal, which has been very enjoyable. First, I met up with a group I used to work with a number of years ago, who have all left the company to join a spin-out which they set up on the science […]
You know the parties you sometimes read about in the newspapers? The ones where some naïve teenager advertises it on Facebook, loads of strangers turn up, get drunk and noisily trash the house? Well, I think that’s what the mice were doing last night! There was most definitely a riotous party going on directly above […]
I’ve been noticing a fair few very dozy flies in my kitchen this week. It’s far too late in the year for them to be happy, as the temperatures are too cold for them. They are so slow that it’s easy to swat them, but it’s still not pleasant. I think they are another sign […]
The mouse poison seems to have done the trick for now. I haven’t heard any scrabblings in the walls or ceiling for at least a fortnight. However, I strongly suspect that there is a dead mouse in the loft directly above my larder. Not actually in my larder, thankfully – the periodic infestation seems to […]
