A friend gave me “Jamie’s 15 minute meals” as an early Christmas present, knowing that I find it a real chore cooking for myself during the week. Christopher and I each had a copy of Katharine Whitehorn’s “Cooking in a Bedsitter” which draws a distinction between “cooking to stay alive” and “cooking to impress”, and […]
It rained again heavily on Friday, and again I marked-up the porch with coloured dots indicating the location of the leaks, plural. I currently have yellow, green and orange dots from the last three rainstorms, all adding interest to the decor. The roofers turned up again this afternoon, without any warning so it was a […]
I’ve spent most of the last three weeks based down at our Hampshire HQ working on another equipment trial. It’s been very interesting – as an engineer, I always find it highly valuable to work with end-users of our technology in a controlled setting and see whether/how much our innovations actually add value to them. […]
If you are house-proud and fastidious, look away now! On the other hand, if you are interested in the psychology of bereavement, read on….. One of the hardest things I have had to do when widowed is to somehow turn “our house” into “my house”. It’s not healthy to live in a house preserved in […]
A few weekends ago, Christopher’s step-father, Peter, phoned for a chat. Apropos of nothing much, he asked me “What was Christopher’s favourite tree?” Well, that stumped me! Christopher and I talked about many things in the twenty years we had together, but I don’t think we ever discussed favourite trees….. After frantically thinking for a […]
Jon the Potter has put up on his blog a link to some photos he took during the pottery workshop last weekend. There are a couple of snaps of my pots which I have shamelessly copied. I was clearly in a blue-and-yellow mood that day! There are three pots, each with a matching lid that […]
At this time of year, cooking apples seem to be pretty cheap and plentiful, and I’ve always enjoyed a baked apple for dessert. But I really can’t be bothered to wait for the oven to heat up and then bake an apple from scratch, especially not mid-week when my energy and patience are typically pretty […]
Far from being a day of rest, Sunday is my day for doing the chores around the house. The usual sort of thing – changing the bedclothes, doing the laundry, putting the bins out ready for bin-day on Monday, paying bills, and generally keeping on top of household things that need sorting out. Which this […]
The saga of my leaking porch roof is still ongoing. I’ve withheld a sum of money from the builder’s most recent invoice until the leak is fixed to my satisfaction, and in the meantime I’m noting the effects of each rainstorm with coloured sticky spots indicating the centre of each puddle on the porch floor. […]
On Monday, after living in Malvern for over thirty years in total, I finally visited the Morgan factory for the first time. Locals will know full well what I’m talking about, but some of my more distant readers may not know that Malvern has been the home of the Morgan Motor Car company for over […]
