When I heard the paper being delivered this morning, I rolled over half asleep and noted it was darker and there was no bird song – winter is on the way. Before I left my last job, which was London based, the drawing in of the nights used to fill me with dread, because it…
The kids are heading, albeit in stages, back to school, which means it must be my birthday. Born on the 5th of September, I had the dubious pleasure of celebrating many of my birthdays with a return to the classroom. This year, as my birthday fell rather obligingly on a Saturday, I decided to invite…
The Spicer family are a bunch of seasoned staycationers. While many families are holidaying in the UK for the first time this summer, we’ve been doing it for years. The main reason for this is that we are lucky enough to have a family home on Exmoor, purchased over 50 years ago by my late…
I enjoy the writing of William Sitwell and was sad to see him leave the his role as Editor of the Waitrose magazine, however this seems to have freed him up to write more widely on food & drink, so perhaps there is a silver lining in every cloud. Having said that his recent article…
I have enjoyed the walking and cycling that I took up when the gyms were closed and I had pretty much decided that I would not be going back to the gym – saving myself (or rather saving Robert, as my gym membership is my Christmas present each year) a chunk of money each month.…
My furlough wanderings mean I have spotted more flora and fauna than I have noticed in previous years. In particular fruit & berries that could be foraged and turned into alcoholic beverages. So far I have experimented with cherries Next up, but a little tougher to harvest (and surprisingly early this year) blackberries. We have…
This is a story about something coming home, otherwise known as good things come to he who waits. When he was growing up, Robert’s parents had a half share in a boat, Picardie and Robert loved that boat – I mean he really loved that boat. I am not sure he ever fully forgave his…
THE TWO BOYS’ CLUB I was never particularly maternal. The whole idea of waddling and sweating for 9 months did just not appeal, not to mention the obvious design fault that requires women to push something the size of a watermelon out of their body, through an opening clearly not designed for the purpose. In…
I was struck yesterday by my colleague Edd’s Instagram post, saying he is living his best life, which according to the accompanying photo, involved him lying on the sofa, reading a book, with a view of his wife (two years yesterday – Happy Anniversary), Carys, in the background. I think it is lovely that his…
Botany is clearly something I have missed out on – I can identify the more common garden flowers e.g. roses, honeysuckle etc, but I am woefully lacking in knowledge about wild flowers with the exception of the really obvious ones such as bluebells, snowdrops and primroses. My lock-down wanderings have allowed me to spend more…