Month: April 2019

A cold morning with the rain threatening. I decide to go for my normal coffee morning at the church and Francoise decides to go for a walk with a local rambling group. It is interesting how the coffee mornings, held in my local church, go. Things always start slowly. A dribble of people arrive. We sit around not saying much. I started a conversation about clotted cream because the organiser of...

Samuel Pepys, the inspiration for this diary, kept a daily record in spite of the fact that some of the events were not particularly exciting. I suppose the same could be said for what I write about. My prime concern is to put it out. I do not censor myself and if something is not very interesting for me, maybe it is interesting for somebody else. Francoise went off to her work with AgeUK. The...

It must be about 16°C now. Now = 4 PM UK time. The birds are making a great noise as they do when they are enjoying themselves. For some reason, the 10 or so goldfish in our pond have disappeared and had not been seen for the week. Since the pond is netted I cannot see who or what could have caused their apparent demise. If they had died then they would be floating on the surface. I had a go at...

This increasing sensitivity that I have is a two edged sword.  I'm becoming less tolerant both of my environment, and what I choose to eat or drink. The problem is that wine contains for purposes of preservation sulphites. I'm fairly convinced that it is the sulphites that have a bad effect on me. There is a certain pleasure in having a drink but it is mitigated by headaches and drowsiness. I...

#1  Yesterday I had a chat with a businessman on the phone who wanted me to mow his garden followed by another project unspecified. #2 For about a month now, Francoise's printer has not worked. Epson has delightful software in it that decides when it thinks a filter should be replaced. Try actually replacing it without any special knowledge and then try telling the printer that you have done so....

One of the most therapeutic activities I know of is doing gardening. If everyone had an allotment or garden I'm sure there would be fewer cases of depression or suicide. If gardening is done professionally for others or for ourselves it matters not. We gardened for a very nice lady called Diana who is prone to bouts of anxiety. She apologised to us for not clearing up the dog mess in the garden....