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Long live the bonfire!
If there is one thing guaranteed to light my fuse in a British summer – it is the emergence of garden bonfires. As soon as the first rays of sun bathe the land, so too, will the first wisps of smoke be seen above hedgerow and fence. That the bonfire lighters are mainly men, is immaterial but I don’t know many women who regularly take pleasure from piling garden rubbish at the bottom of the garden and setting it alight. My own husband has been known to create a charred, blackened mound in the middle of the lawn or on the patio in the middle of winter, before now. What…
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Garden capers, dried sausage and deer
While I was pottering in the garden this morning, a family of Deer ran across the lawn in the garden that backs onto our own. Flossie went mad of course, barking and jumping at the railings. I didn’t take much notice apart from making a weak attempt at telling her to be quiet. I was far too busy picking up chewed up flowerpots and the mangled remains of footballs not to mention the stuffing from Charlie’s favourite stuffed toy that was strewn from one end of the garden to the other. I didn’t become concerned until Charlie came running back up the garden, alone. I scanned the horizon and was…
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Eastenders : Does the Plot Hold Water?
Having just hit the 65,000 word mark, while editing a novel that has had me tearing my hair out at the improbabilities and twists and turns I had originally written into its plot, the characters leading me down blind alleys, despite my protests, I feel almost vindicated having watched Eastenders last night. Anyone who has not been caught up in the live “Whodunnit” frenzy of Eastenders, this past week, wont understand what I am talking about. However, if you haven’t noticed the tension mounting on social media, on the radio and just about everywhere you look, then you have missed something that has been quite amazing. I am not saying…
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A Step too Far
The trials and tribulations of Charlie Brown… The world is a strange and scary place for a pup sometimes. Charlie Brown is almost 6 months old … “a big dog in a small body” to paraphrase those who know the breed well. In the house, he is indeed a pocket rocket, living up to his pedigree title. As we relax after a hard day’s work, he zips from room to room, ball in mouth, only stopping to attempt to tease Flossie into playing as he passes. Sometimes she obliges. Sometimes she ignores him. Should I scold Charlie, Flossie is quick to distract him from whatever he has done to annoy…
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Sail Boats and other such things…
I just overheard an interesting snippet from a morning TV programme, “A research team has found that a 20 minute walk every day can add years to your life,” Leaving aside the fact that most people know this anyway or at least, suspect it, it was good to hear. Confirmation that something one enjoys is good for one, is always welcome. I have to ask though, was this research programme set up just to establish this fact or was it part of a larger programme and this gem just one of many conclusions reached? I should not mock. Where would we be without research? In caves, I daresay. After all,…
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Where did November go?
Well, really, where did November go? One minute I am watching my niece get married, on my birthday (the 1st of the month) and the next I am staring Christmas in the face. The last few weeks have been a blur and it gets no better as December moves in. The annual NaNoWriMo was barely attainable this year. Though I did manage to reach the target of 50,000 words – I do not feel a worthy winner since the first ten thousand had already been written. Still, as a personal goal, it was good. Next year I promise to give it my all. Could this little chap have had anything…
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Bang!
A slight frisson of fear ran through us just as we were about to take off from Gatwick. A lone passenger stood up and demanded to leave the plane. His sudden departure sparked an unscheduled search of overhead lockers – in case he was a terrorist and had left an explosive device on board, I presume. The airline staff opened every locker, matching each bag to the remaining passengers. “Why are they only searching half the plane?” hissed my worried friend, not realising that while one worked from the front to middle, her colleague was working from the back of the plane to middle. Dave did not move – he’d…
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Big Max and me
Did I tell you I am building a doll’s house? It may have slipped my mind due to recent events (dentists, mothers and puppies). If you remember, I made a doll’s house many moons ago when my three daughters were small. Here it is again: Alas, the doll’s house disappeared during our last move although my husband denies all knowledge of its demise. Since then, I have harboured a desire to build another, more elaborate version. Having four grandsons I decided not to wait for a granddaughter to arrive but really, this project is for me. The boys are showing an interest I must say. I didn’t want this to…
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Birthdays, shoes and puppy dogs
I shall gloss over my second visit to the dentist. Suffice it to say, the experience was quicker, cleaner and would have been painless had the anaesthetic worked first time and I had not had to wince as the drill hit an unprotected nerve. Enough said. This month’s post is not about dentists, it is about birthdays and shoes and puppies. The birthday belonged to my mother – her 89th to be precise. Here we are, the two of us on the big day. (I say big day, it was a low key affair but none the less enjoyable for that.) and here she is in another new dress, she…
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Oh to be an Amoeba…
Oh to have had the dental care in yesteryear that we enjoy today… An hour and a quarter spent lying in the dentist’s chair, having pre-crown preparation and a pre-overlay done on the same day, is no fun. It wasn’t as though there was anything wrong with my teeth in the first place. This was pre-emptive treatment. My dentist recommended it – especially as the teeth contained the old amalgam fillings that are so ugly when you look at them these days. “You don’t want those fillings to fail, do you – you’ve had them a long time,” he said back in January, continuing with, “Our generation didn’t have it…
