For the first time this winter, we managed to spend most of the day in the garden. The soil has been soaked for weeks, but recent winds have dried up the surface, so it was at least possible to get onto the ground without churning everything to mud. Plus the mildness and sunshine made it [...]
They’re back! The three squirrels. Taking over the bird table again and chewing through the string on one of the hanging feeders. One of them was grappling with the coconut on the ground where it had lain for a few days after having been dislodged by one or other of our bushy-tailed invaders. He seemed [...]
Last week, we went to Hereford to buy a replacement for a broken palette knife. We couldn’t find one under L3, but we did find a portable TV that seemed like a bargain, so we brought that home instead. Our excitement turned to disappointment when we couldn’t get a picture on it, but we arranged [...]
No pheasants this morning, but I am agitated by the fact that there are now three collared doves out on the patio. The squirrels are still nowhere to be seen. Should I be suspicious? Are they playing games with me? Perhaps they are more clever than we give them credit for. Do they have a [...]
Have only seen one squirrel all day today, and even that one appeared only from time to time. However, there are now three pheasants out there! Hmmm . . .
The patio is becoming like a convention centre for squirrels – there were three out there this morning. And three squirrels is two squirrels too many. It was time, at the very least, to have a sharp word with them. Reasoning with them, of course, would cut no ice. In fact, getting close enough to [...]
When it comes to experimenting with recipes, mostly I get it somewhere near right. But not always. Something I’ve always wanted to do is to expand my range of Greek dishes, so what better place to start than the famous egg and lemon soup, avgolimono. So often have I seen this in Mediterranean cookery books [...]
Things can get a little isolated in Hoarwithy. You can happily live from day to day, from week to week, thinking that everything is as it should be, then some little piece of reality from the outside world rips through your bubble like a meteor and you wake up, realising that all this time you [...]
We have run out of seeds for the birds again. It’s strange, but whenever that happens, it gets like birdland party night out on the patio. When I replenish the bird table and the feeders, scattering some extra seeds on the ground as I go, I am doing my best to encourage them, but all [...]
The river continued to rise in the night, and this morning the view from the upstairs window is of more water than fields. Behind the New Harp, the field is a lake, the shoreline of which gently laps at the pub’s back door. The road is under water along by Red Rail farm and on [...]