I have been feeding the birds in my garden for years but only in the last three have I been taking greater interest in how they actually take their turn at the trough or feeding tables. The smaller garden birds come down early on and peck at the dispensers – they’re crafty little blighters too, [...]
At this very hot time of year we do tend to use a huge amount of water on not very much. It has become obvious to me personally in these last few weeks of extra ordinary and worrying heat, that I waste water and as I’m usually rather careful, this means that others must waste [...]
I was assisting at a function in a village hall recently. I used to be actively involved in the same village, regularly attending fund raisers in the very same place. It had dark roughly treated toilet facilities, the least inviting part of the operation. The kitchen wasn’t a great deal better. When village committees are [...]
In the last few years there has been an absolute explosion in the number of hand car washing operations springing up on old garage forecourts in every town and city. They used to be very cheap, about £3 for an average family car. Just the outside was washed – very vigorously, with high powered hoses. [...]
I live on a fairly ordinary housing development – quite posh some 16 years ago when our large family detached was finally finished and we moved in. The houses are all fully carpeted, fully sealed triple glazed windows and doors and very very few real fires – in fact only log burners have crept into [...]
There are so many reasons why a good cleaning contractor is so worth while engaging throughout the normal year. We all have very busy lives and sometimes it is impossible to get all the cleaning jobs tackled when they are best tackled – like immediately anyone breathes in and out in the house! If you [...]
A young relative of mine has just completed a somewhat complicated house move – from her perfectly formed little terraced house on a modern estate, called a starter, to use peroperty parlance. She’s moved with her partner into a beautiful stone built property out in the countryside. It hadn’t been occupied for several months but [...]
Ah the winter is making a right mess as it moves towards spring. We’ve had it all this time. The end of summer was wet and stormy. Early autumn was windy, force 8 gales. Full winter came with a louder bang than usual, snow, ice, slushy muck. There has been mess everywhere and it makes [...]
My word this has been a truly awful start to winter. We had a lovely summer, a very hot first week of wimbledon tennis, then rain. More rain in August, but then really hot September and the driest October on record. But inbeween all this were storms of great momentum, fuelled by Hurricane Harvey lashing [...]
I have recently returned from a very different kind of break away and spent 4 days on a narrowboat on a canal in the heart of England. After the initial strange sensation once the craft had got going, . . . . it was back to sitting around, reading, eating, talking or dare I suggest [...]