I had barely turned the shower on this morning when my mother started banging on the bathroom door. "Shower quick!" she shouted. "Come outside, quick!" So I showered and dressed as quickly as I could and came out of the bathroom to find her hopping up and down in the garden. "Look, look!" she said, pointing up into the magnolia tree. So I look, ( Read more... )

Today we cleaned out the second half of the kitchen cabinet.

Things thrown in the bin:
A shiny purple teacup (cracked), given to my mother as a Christmas gift in the late 1950s by an aunt
A wooden pestle that no longer has a mortar

Things put in the box to take to the charity shop, on the grounds someone might want them:A plastic lemon keeper ( Read more... )

Day two of the new year was spent planning and preparing. Last week, I helped my mother clean out her gardening cabinet. Does she really need nine pairs of gardening gloves? No. No, she does not ( Read more... )

Honestly, that was the next question on the World War I US army literacy test. I make no comment as to its relevance today.

This week: signs of spring. The sweet peas are out, electric pink and scented. Tulips and daffodils out the kitchen window. Colours other than winter green and brown.


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I had one and a half days in the office this week, which felt a bit weird. I had to work on something with one of my colleagues, so we got permission to go in and work in one of the meeting rooms, sitting on either side of a meeting table and connecting the laptop to the projector screen on the wall. The meeting room is amply stocked with hand ( Read more... )

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