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, […]
Tag Archives: Ditchling
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
02
Mar
Mar
Ahem A small section of the road outside the house was resurfaced one day without warning, with a lorry, a paving machine, several vans, and a team of hi-vis jackets. This stopped all traffic, including ours, from using the road. It followed a similar instance a few weeks ago, when a footpath signpost just outside […]
31
May
May
Ahem A lot of things happened on Mayday, as they should. In medieval England, it was one of the biggest, most popular and least controversial holidays of the year, the focus of a week of ribaldry, licence and lust, when the rural working class (90% of the population) got drunk for days on fermented beer, […]
28
Feb
Feb
Ahem The extreme weather in the first half of the month kept us all more hibernated even than usual. The dogs were keen to take shorter walks in blinding blizzards. Despite wearing her coat, Bonnie, who has no body fat, was shivering so much on some occasions that I was worried that she might never […]
02
Oct
Oct
Ahem The month started when families were still getting used to cautious re-uniting; when the popular view was that the virus was mostly beaten; that young people were unfathomably immortal; and that everything was back to normal apart from crowds (unless at raves, parliamentary meetings of Tory MPs, grouse-shooting parties, fox-hunting possees or Trump rallies), […]
01
Sep
Sep
Ahem Fresh blackberries were aplenty (try saying that five times very quickly) in the fields around the house; sweet and edible at least three weeks earlier in the month in mid-Sussex than I recall even thirty years ago in Oxfordshire. The best flavoured blackberries are nudged, not pushed nor pulled, off their stalks. Our tomatoes […]