18th January 2012 Last Tuesday, Nan, Sue, and I ventured off to North Wales. The previous day had brought a dusting of snow, about half an inch still clinging stubbornly to the ground, and more was predicted throughout the week. Naturally, we set off with a healthy dose of trepidation, fully expecting a white-knuckle drive,… Continue Reading

14th January 2012 One afternoon, Charlotte, Sarah, Ellis, and I decided to go geocaching between Rothwell and Desborough. Sarah has been meeting up with Charlotte quite regularly, finding caches all over Harborough, and this time, they invited me along. Earlier, I had been out cycling in the wilds of Leicestershire, and, growing impatient waiting for… Continue Reading

30th December 2012 On Monday, Nan joined the Huntingdon Gardens gang for their Christmas dinner. They trekked to Enderby to dine at a Toby Inn (yes, apparently they still exist, who knew?). The food was the usual festive fare, and naturally it wouldn’t have been a proper ‘wrinklies’ outing without a chorus of complaints: slow… Continue Reading

16th December 2012 For once, Friday night was a quiet one. Nan, Jamie, and Sarah were all at home or University, while the Rothwells had decamped to Kettering for Lucas’s birthday, celebrating with a ten-pin bowling party for his school friends and some old neighbours from Newark. That left just Sue and me. I rustled… Continue Reading

7th December 2012 I’ve been out with the chainsaw again, this time with a dual purpose: clearing trees and bushes along the riverbank to keep the floodwater moving downstream rather than letting it sulk in a dam of debris, and, of course, turning the lot into neat little logs. Waste not, want not. While hacking… Continue Reading

28th November 2012 Since getting back from Bulgaria, it feels as though the rain hasn’t let up once. The ground is so saturated it couldn’t swallow a thimbleful of water, let alone cope with another day’s deluge. Now any rain sits on the surface, sulking in great puddles the size of small lakes. My daily… Continue Reading

13th November 2012 Thanks to a welcome spell of fine weather, work on the pool marched along briskly with dawn-to-dusk shifts. Progress stalled briefly when a shortage of tiles loomed, breakages during the renovation proving far more frequent than anticipated. Salvation arrived when David and Milen unearthed a builder’s merchant, an hour’s drive away, that… Continue Reading

5th November 2012 Family News: Sarah came home for half-term, then dutifully returned to university on Monday. Sue, ever the stand-in, had her company to Kate Crawford’s 60th birthday bash at The Angel. With over 70 guests in attendance, it was the sort of event where one wonders whether the champagne was cheaper by the barrel.… Continue Reading

29th October 2012 Like clockwork, one of the British homeowners arrived in the village on Saturday and, true to David’s prediction, the weather collapsed. It’s become something of a tradition: the moment they show up, the skies darken. Before their arrival, we had enjoyed golden sunsets, hot sunny days, and balmy starry nights. No sooner… Continue Reading

21st October 2012 Visiting David usually means diving headfirst into a series of projects he’s dreamed up over the summer. This time, the top priority is sorting out the collapsed walkways around the pool, followed by finishing the barn roof, which was originally erected by a couple of Bulgarians, and then replacing the section of… Continue Reading