Daffodils and wildlife
The house where I’m working is set in farmland. A beautiful place, with a moat and five bedrooms. A pair of ducks circle the pond and drift up and down the water. When I open the back door, small shy moorhens rush for the cover of the reeds. After dark I can hear the nervous cackle of pheasant roosting in the trees and the cry of owls. Set within a circle of trees and surrounded by farmland, the location is a haven for wildlife. Today a kestrel drifted for five minutes above me, riding the thermals with just an occasional flick of wings....
read moreFood allergies in dogs
We feed our dogs a complete dog food with a topping that we cook ourselves. This used to be the meat from chicken wings. We’d buy trays from the supermarket and simmer them. The dogs thought this was pretty good too. At five months,The Contessa gradually started to eat less and less. She lost weight, became withdrawn and grumpy. She spent a lot of time with her front legs stretched out and her bum in the air. This is known as ‘praying’. Our local vet suggested AllBran to be served as a sort of all day banquet. She ate a bit...
read moreEssex girls
The drive to Essex is a 45 minute journey and includes a 20 minute white knuckle adventure. Once we turn off Newport’s High Street onto the Debden road, the fun begins with a slim-car-width humpback bridge. We have twice met an oncoming monster. There is no question of backing down. Jalopy’s battle scars have a driver reversing in seconds. Now Jalopy toots her horn before gathering momentum to seemingly leap this obstacle. Then it’s up the hill for the first hairpin bend and several miles of tyre clenching tension. Possibly...
read moreFirst secret of a great relationship
The good thing about living with Danny is that we share the same faults. I can vaguely understand where he’s coming from when he’s being stubborn. We usually call a truce. My obsessive behaviour is almost matched by his. Our bookshelves are filled with topic specific tomes to prove this. If you would like to become an expert on crystal healing, beat your friends at poker or study the night sky (Northern Hemisphere), we have a wide range of books. We also house the largest collection of gardening books that I have seen in a European...
read moreRunaway
When my Mother was a child she would spend the last day of the long summer holidays beside her garden gate. This was well out of sight of the adults in her house. She had a small suitcase beside her on the wall and a massive plan. When the gypsies drove by she would join them and run away. They never came. So my mother’s education continued uninterrupted and when she gave birth to me there must have been a whiff of that plan woven into my genes. The only thing that I have ever really wanted is a traditional gypsy caravan. I saw and...
read moreValentine’s freesias and heart shaped comfort
We don’t push the boat out on Valentine’s Day but we do get a tiny present for each other. It’s easier for me as I do the big shop every week and can see the supermarket displays for at least a month. Danny’s Valentine’s Hunting Trip is always on Valentine’s eve. Last night, he suddenly found that he was part of a large posse of men that were desperately searching the card racks at Waitrose. Eventually an assistant was called who explained that they had sold out at teatime. I don’t know where he found...
read moreCaught in a time warp
For the last three weeks I’ve been working in an empty house that overlooks the back of a little house that I owned and lived in sixteen years ago. I’ve peeked out at it every day and wondered why the curtains in the spare room never moved. Today I had to park in front of my old house and a sign informed me that it had just been let. This evening, when I returned to my car, I spotted that the lights were on in the house. Jalopy’s locks were frozen, so whilst I heated the key with my lighter, I peeped inside. The glass porch...
read moreCelebrity Cottage Smallholder
There was a rush for the front door this morning. Not to read the newspapers but to find our free gifts. Danny was triumphant, waving the British Bird Song CD over his head. “Just what I’ve always wanted. This is so useful.” If only I’d known at Christmas. My offers were not quite so appealing. A Shlipa Shetty Bollywood DVD (I have to send away for this) and eat out for ?10 at a gastro pub (if I collect the tokens). Danny, his head tiny between bulky studio headphones, was in heaven as the CD twittered away in his ears....
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