Ahem, June began dank and damp, with a succession of rainy days that sapped the spirit. However, I enjoyed trying to hawk our unwanted knick-knacks to the rest of the street at an indoor boot sale organised by neighbours in memory of our mutual friend and friendly neighbour Denny, who passed away a few weeks […]
Tag Archives: Ella
2026 Ahem
BLANKETS ORAL PONTOON: July 2026
Ahem, Ella and Sam gave a party at their new house to celebrate their move [...]
Continue reading
01
Aug
Aug
Get Righting
Get Righting!
Everyone’s got a story to tell. Are you telling yours? No? Then GET RIGHTING! GET [...]
Continue reading
16
Jul
Jul
A History of Love and Loss Novel
A First-Novel Blog: False Finishes
A new blog about writing a novel and getting it published On the sixth day [...]
Continue reading
11
Jul
Jul
2026 Ahem
TRESTLE RESERVOIR BUMP: June 2026
Ahem, June began dank and damp, with a succession of rainy days that sapped the [...]
Continue reading
03
Jul
Jul
2026 Ahem
PEAGE PINTXOS BANISTER: May 2026
Ahem, I travelled down to La Hune with Jurrat and Jessie in a well-loaded car [...]
Continue reading
01
Jun
Jun
01
Jun
Jun
Ahem, I travelled down to La Hune with Jurrat and Jessie in a well-loaded car on the first day of May. Only this time I was not the driver. For the best part of 15 hours, Jessie drove almost continuously from Uckfield through the Channel Tunnel and down from Calais to the Tarn-et-Garonne in southwest […]
30
Apr
Apr
Ahem Alli and I were up and early on Good Friday to be driven with Ella to Gatwick by Sam. There we met Gwen, Jurrat, and Jessie just after 6am, in plenty of time for our short flight to Jersey, a channel island that is a British Crown dependency; but formally, geologically, and constitutionally, it […]
02
Feb
Feb
Ahem, During this interminably long month of heaving weather, our far south-east corner, ancestral home of the south Saxons, has led a charmed life, picking its way through and near the triple storms, snow, frosts, floods, driving rain, and sidewinding winds. For much of the month, charcoal clouds scudded with dark purpose across Birdineye Hill […]
01
Dec
Dec
Ahem, Richard and Marie, from Cholsey in Oxfordshire, where Alli and I lived just after we got married, came to see us for a weekend. It was wonderful to see them after so many years (around 30). We walked around Sheffield Park, looking preternaturally multi-coloured in the wintry sunlight at the height of its autumn […]
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 […]
01
Aug
Aug
Ahem A proper summer seemed to unfold and express itself haltingly from the first few days of the month, providing some of the hottest days on record in England. The whole country seems to change character for about a month sometime around the beginning of July, when the year turns back on the home straight. […]
29
Jun
Jun
Ahem The weather, previously sunny, had suddenly turned windy and wet as I took the coach for Heathrow to get the flight to Malawi. Was this a harbinger of the following fortnight? Well yes, it was. At the Toleza farm it was cool, windy, and cloudy enough to merit the lighting of a fire in […]
30
Mar
Mar
Ahem The Malawi weather improved considerably in the first week and by the time of our departure the farm was experiencing some classic crop-growing weather: a couple of hours of determined rain and several hours of sun each day. On our last night we finally managed to witness a sundowner – watching the sun go […]
02
Feb
Feb
Ahem Jessie and Jurrat came back from their stay in Luxembourg with Uncle Tank and Auntie Susie, and retook ownership of Jaxon, whom we delivered safe and sound after his five-day stay with us. Jaxon was an entertaining guest. His self-absorption is highly amusing whereas in humans it might become irritating. Alli had been urgently […]