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 […]
The good news is that the electrician came back in between the rain showers on Saturday and replaced one of my external PIR lights, so that now works. It makes a real difference now that it’s dark in the evenings to have a light come on automatically – I can see to find my way […]
For the past week or so, I’ve been having problems with the light in my bathroom. It was getting increasingly reluctant to turn on – which is a pretty fundamental requirement for a light! Sometimes it agreed to work if I turned it on, off, and then back on again, and sometimes it wouldn’t come […]
The weather has changed – the mornings are cold and foggy, and I only just got the outside of the house painted before a series of rainy days. It’s clearly autumn now, and the mice have noticed that too, and moved back indoors into my loft after a summer spent living outdoors somewhere in the […]
Like many couples, Christopher and I divided the household chores up between us. There were jobs that he did, and ones that I did. Some of those were explicitly discussed and agreed upon – e.g. he did the cooking, and I did the laundry. Others just sort of happened without either of us really thinking […]
I’m really hoping that the weather stays dry this week, because I’ve got Rob, my trusty decorator, here all week doing an emergency paint job on my soffit boards and barge boards. A few months ago, I asked the gardener to hack back at the ivy that was covering the wall outside my bedroom window. […]
I had a rather stressful, but ultimately successful day on Wednesday. For several years now (ever since Chris died, in fact) my home IT system has been getting gradually more and more ropey and unsupportable. It didn’t help that he set the network up in a way that made sense to him at the time, […]
Since I was away on business for all of June, Saturdays excepted, I have easily managed to beat our friend Carol’s challenge of ten tradesman-free days. But of course, I was merely postponing the issue – there’s always something in the house or garden that needs dealing with. This time, the thing that was demanding […]
I live on the side of a hill, with common land all around me. Sounds idyllic. But at this time of year there is a definite down-side to rural life. It’s wild garlic season, and there are huge clumps of it on the banks and verges surrounding the house. It looks quite pretty, with little […]
I noticed yesterday evening that the light in the cloakroom in the extension wasn’t working – so my first thought was that the bulb had blown. That’s always particularly annoying in a bathroom, as the light fittings are totally enclosed in a globe-like shade, so I couldn’t easily even tell what sort of replacement bulb […]
