Is the Grass Greener?

Thursday 24 August 2023 The flush mechanism for our downstairs loo has broken. My friends Su, Will and Ella were visiting for a few hours on their way further north on Friday and fortunately I was showing them round the house so discovered that the flush was still pouring water, roughly an hour and a […]

Wednesday 23 August 2023 Yesterday, it rained on and off all day and the only hour or so of sunshine happened to be when I went out to the letterbox and for a walk at around 17:30. Carla, who’d been staying Saturday to Monday, had arrived on Saturday late afternoon wearing shorts and a vest

Tuesday 22 August 2023 We have had our first repeat visitor, Carla, who initially came to stay in February when our boiler had packed up and the house was bitterly cold (she reminded me that we’d recorded the temperature downstairs as 7°C). I had warned her that the house was still cold in August, particularly

Friday 18 August 2023 I did some strimming yesterday, just after the sun finally came out at around 17:00. I still have slightly shaky arms and hands, despite taking lots of breaks. There is something ridiculously satisfying about strimming, I just wish the vibrations and weight of the long not-Strimmer-strimmer didn’t result in forearm aches

Thursday 17 August 2023 My routine of sorts is all over the place this month. I was thinking about mornings in Scotland compared to mornings in London. In Lewisham, I usually write this first thing with a mug of tea, sitting in my favourite old armchair next to the balcony door with the door open

Wednesday 16 August 2023 It’s the middle of August but has already been looking a bit autumnal. I sometimes look out the window and think I’ve been looking out of it for the duration of the nine months we’ve lived out here. There has been some unusual weather recently in Scotland. We had an incredibly