Every Christmas is different
Each family has its own Christmas traditions. And when people live together, they bring their own traditions with them. This can cause problems. “The one thing that I adore about turkey is lashings of bread sauce!” “What on earth is bread sauce?” “I loved the way we always sang carols in the car.” “We ate in the evening and had porridge for breakfast.” “Presents were only ever opened after tea.” My step grandmother announced this last comment and watched with horror as we tore open presents at eight am. She stuck...
read moreWorking at the kitchen table
Loads of home workers actually operate from the kitchen table. I have, for the past two years or so. I’m positioned so that I can see the bird feeders and the front drive of the cottage. Sometimes in the summertime I open the back door and sit at the other side of the table. I look over the long deep herbaceous border, I can see the pond through the gothic arch in the yew hedge. This sounds idyllic and in many ways it is. But if the Tidy Fairy boycotted your christening, working at the kitchen table can cause enormous strife. Gradually I...
read moreVirtual cards and the Grand Cottage Smallholder Christmas Bran Tub Bonanza
In the past we used to send a Jackie Lawson New Year card to all the people that commented on our blog during the last year. The Jackie Lawson site is not designed for corporate bulk giving. So this took quite a while, two or three days in fact. Deleting my JL address book and creating another and another etc. But I enjoyed this ritual, knowing how much a surprise card has meant to me in the past. After the second session I received a curt email. I can’t remember exactly what it said but it was something like this. “I have received two...
read moreThe Cottage Smallholder Buckinghamshire meet up
We got lost in Milton Keynes. We didn’t follow the AA instructions – so it was our fault. Danny was calm from the outset and I secretly panicked. No roundabout name matched the ones on the instructions. In Newmarket we have three major roundabouts. Milton Keynes has a few more. So I gingerly admitted the problem. Captain Danny proved to be calm at the helm. “Let’s go north. If we were supposed to be going north on the M1 we were probably meant to bypass a lot of the town.” If I’d been driving alone there would have been tears. I...
read moreFriends
As I glided over to Cambridge in The Duchess to pick up our American friends I mulled over the past five years of blogging. We met Michelle and Dan through our blog and forum. I’ve always had a soft spot for Michelle – she heroically defended me during the Great Guinea Pig Debacle. She also has a great sense of humour and a lot of down to earth common sense. But what would she be like in real life? And how about Dan – the man who loves to photograph trains? Their train was delayed and, as there is no easy parking at Cambridge station, I...
read moreArachnids and Nid
I don’t like spiders. Although I know that they catch flies and must be super skilled to weave such superb webs. I hate their touchy feely legs. If I spot one in the bedroom I worry that it will creep across my face in the night. In the past I used to kill them on sight. But, for the past twenty years or so, I’ve tried to live alongside them. Old houses have spiders, arachnids that have bred over the years. Country houses have a vast panoply of spiders of every size from teeny tiny things to spiders so big that they could almost wear my...
read moreBusy
As I said on Twitter this afternoon, I was lucky to find a great lawn mower that cuts grass up to 30cm (12 inches) last year. It was relatively inexpensive and, being mainly built of plastic, it’s light and easy to manoeuvre. Lawn mowing is not a regular job here. We tend to mow when we are expecting visitors. Unexpected visitors are welcomed with meadows instead of rolling lawns. Their shock is gently quelled by my excuses. “This is a haven for baby frogs and of course we’re reducing our carbon footprint by only cutting every other...
read moreThe power of things left unsaid
Danny is doing a kitchen clean up. We’ve both dabbled with this over the past week. “There’s still hot water after my shower. Great for the washing up!” “Hurumph.” “What’s that smell?” “I opened the bin.” “Oh. I’m sorry.” “What for?” “Everything.” The latter remark is a good one. It leaves no niggly teeny thing alive that might fester and spring up, snapping at your calf at some future date. Just a few moments of contrition for everything that has happened and, as there are two people in the cottage...
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