Ahem Our Christmas celebrations normally start after we celebrate Gwen’s birthday on the 12th, when this year the family met at the Bonsai restaurant in Brighton for a vegan meal so good that even Alli was singing its praises. She and I arrived early and had a drink on Baker Street at the friendly Mitre […]
Tag Archives: Brian
2026 Ahem
QUOTIDIAN HAMMERHEAD HIPPO: February 2026
Ahem Rain and colder weather in southern England dominated the first few days of the [...]
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02
Mar
Mar
2026 Ahem
SCUDDED PROPRIETORIALLY TRIMMINGS: January 2026
Ahem, During this interminably long month of heaving weather, our far south-east corner, ancestral home [...]
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02
Feb
Feb
2025 Ahem
QUERYING PAKKELEG CONVULSED: December 2025
Ahem Our Christmas celebrations normally start after we celebrate Gwen’s birthday on the 12th, when [...]
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01
Jan
Jan
2025 Ahem
FOODELICIOUS WASHBOARD BELEAGURED: November 2025
Ahem, Richard and Marie, from Cholsey in Oxfordshire, where Alli and I lived just after [...]
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01
Dec
Dec
2025 Ahem
HYENA FUNGI HALLOWEEN: October 2025
Ahem There is a village close to the Toleza Farm in Malawi that goes by [...]
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01
Nov
Nov
30
Aug
Aug
Ahem August was a very fruitful month. Raspberries and blackberries, plums and greengages, even rosehips and sloes suddenly made a massive and early appearance in the hedges and byways along which I walk Max. There were reports from Burgess Hill of previously uncharted bushes within hedges suddenly producing rare and delicious plums. August was also […]
30
Sep
Sep
Ahem The English summer, impolite at the best of times, was damnably rude: it left abruptly, neither saying goodbye, nor asking leave to withdraw, nor offering excuses for its sub-par performance over past weeks. In its place we had rolling grey clouds, morning mists, evening chills, and repetitive downpours. Perversely, it then returned in mid-month, […]
01
Apr
Apr
Ahem, Muttley was one of my childhood heroes (along with Rolf Harris). As an infant TV-watcher, I thought Muttley was a philosophical genius; he could summarise all relevant social discourse into three cardinal responses: a chronic wheezy snigger; a frustrated oath-laden mutter grumble; and impatient agreement by rapid head-nodding while rasping “yeh-yeh-yeh, yeh-yeh-yeh”. It inspires […]
01
Nov
Nov
Ahem They’re out to get me. Wherever I go these days outside the UK I am not only followed but somehow expected (and not in a good way). I arrive to find that everything is about to close because it’s suddenly a Covid-19 hot spot. My arrival simply confirms the new restrictions like an inspired […]