Shopping for mice

I like to think of myself as a person not unduly swayed by advertising. I’ve always been pretty good at tuning out jingles and conscientiously forgetting slogans, and timeslipped television is a blessing to me because yes, I am the kind of person who records a live show to watch with just enough lag to [...]

Read Full Post »

Bluebell-viewing season

Having enjoyed the annual wonder of the bluebell woods again, with this year’s display being particularly impressive (is ‘spectacular’ too histrionic a term for such an understated miracle?), and despite having taken approximately a million photographs (or, at least, enough to fill my camera’s memory card, which I believe is a first, in a fairly [...]

Read Full Post »

Catnapping

For me, it’s a fine art; for Oscar, a way of life. I think I’ve gotten pretty well over any catnapping guilt I used to have (his people are so resolutely undeserving. And rude.) Now, if I were to cut a cat flap in my back door (which, hypothetically, I might briefly have considered), that [...]

Read Full Post »

John Lewis, for shame!

I want to start by saying that I have pretty high regard for the standards of the John Lewis Partnership, the eponymous department store chain and the Waitrose supermarket division. I think its goods are generally of superior quality; its ethics are less lamentable than most large-scale retailers; and the somewhat cooperative model of ownership [...]

Read Full Post »

On reading labels

Sometimes you read a label for information, and you get information you weren’t quite expecting. I’m not thinking here of the expensive organic conditioner in my bathroom that proudly reassures me that along with parabens, it ‘contains no grapefruit seed extract’. I like to think of myself as a reasonably aware consumer, but this was [...]

Read Full Post »

Still not my cat

That’s not-my-cat, sleeping on the sofa, looking as if he were at home. I call that cat a wonder, now. The placing of a feeding bowl, Worked cunningly a year, and there he lies. His people did not pass the test of pet-worthiness, in the end, and so, while I haven’t stolen Oscar, I have [...]

Read Full Post »

All a matter of priorities

I like to think I have mine straight: tea kettle, pasta pot, dye pot, dye pot Perhaps it would be better if I didn’t mention that the food is in the small pot in front, and the giant next to the kettle is the single most expensive pan in the kitchen (even shading out the [...]

Read Full Post »

A Cautionary Tale

The other day, I had a conversation with a friend, which went more or less as follows: Friend: Oh, just by the bye, never ever knit from hand-dyed wool without alternating skeins. Ever. Even if they come from the same dyelot. You will end up looking foolish and you will regret it. Not ‘might’, ‘will’. [...]

Read Full Post »

Bananas? Or just bonkers?

I went to the supermarket this morning, laying in with all the good things I can’t get at the local farmers’ market. Such as fruit. And, er, crisps, and cotton face wipes, and washing powder. And random, irresistible bargains from the fresh food aisles, which is a modern, urban version of hunter-gathering or seasonal eating. [...]

Read Full Post »

Today’s weather will be…

I tend to comparison-shop for my weather forecast. I look at three, and choose to believe the best of them. I have a weak but fond hope that I can influence weather by a mixture of brazen outfacing (dress for the weather you hope for, not the weather you realistically have/expect*) and studious politeness (rain, [...]

Read Full Post »