The older I get, the more I dread it i,m afraid. It seems to bring news of more of our friends and contacts passing away, and a growth in false commercial congeniality where the general oublic are tempted to spend more money buying things they can,t afford and probably don,t often need anyway. The s...

I think the 'extra securing" issue is going to be more relevant as time goes by. Yesterdays winds caused a fence panel to blow loose here and the down pipe from our guttering which connects to our already full water butts was blown out, causing our potting shed area to flood temporarily. Annoyi...

Yes, definitely a day to be thankful to be indoors and for the fact that your roof doesn't leak !
What's the betting though that somewhere in the country a water supplier will opt to impose a summer hosepipe ban?

Greetings from a very windy neck of the woods. May all your fences remain intact!. Bad luck with the flu. It's apparently hit some people quite badly this winter.

Stravaig - it's easy to feel upset. You're not going wrong. I guess these people have just become so isolated over time that they've lost the ability to react graciously when somebody does them a kindness because it's something that just doesn't happen in their lives. I suggest you don't give up. St...

Sad that a very kind gesture was taken in that way. Perhaps they have some misconceived ideas about "accepting charity". If it makes you feel any better..we had a local hard up elderly person near us who only had a fire grate as their only source of heating who would often be seen scavagin...

Myrkk. I so empathise with your bathroom replacement dilemma. During Covid lockdown our ensuite avocado coloured bath in our ensuite bathroom (dating from the 1970s) got damaged and had to be replaced. We were faced with the dilemma of having the matching wash basin & toilet replaced if we wante...

OH. I think back to my childhood years and never recall a home so loaded with superfluous "stuff" as most people have now. Nobody seems to ponder how its all going to be disposed of once its useful life has come to an end. i,m amazed how many people, for example, upgrade their kitchens and...

Interesting comment about debris in outer space Westi, of which I think there is already rather too much but we dont yet seem to have got to the point where anybody is policing it or trying to regulate it. As here on earth, I guess every nation will be looking after their own interests. But once aga...

Not a good time to be a farmer or large scale grower of agricultural crops where don't think you can insure against potential weather damage to your harvest. That alone is going to make the cost of food, and potential food shortages a major issue in the years to come.

Westi, I think it takes most of us a while to "join up the dots" on unusual weather years. It probably needs the scientists who keep annual records to point out the stark facts that "unusual years" are now happening on a regular basis. For us it,s the small observations that the ...

Westi, re rats.. I ,m beginning to think that over time rats develop an immunity to rat bait. We put it down regularly and it all goes but we never see any dead rats. Perhaps they go off and die elsewhere but we never see any evidence of this these days. Which we used to. Does anybody know if the re...

Can't recall the last time we had a really thick and prolonged fog round here. I recall the bad yellow soupers we had in the late 1950,# before the clean air act was introduced. I would come home from school my face and outer clothes thick with grime.

As you say Westi- that,s Christmas Day virtually over. One wonders why everybody gets so het up about it and spends so much money on it for the few hours involved.. Think it will probably be leftovers day here tomorrow too!

Greetings everybody. Have a peaceful and happy day wherever you are. A wry smile to share. Our Christmas gifted poinsettia shed its last leaves and wilted flowers today. Definitely a case of "sic transit gloria mundi" when it comes to keeping these plants alive beyond Christmas . Does anyb...