Snow joke
Snowing again! When am I ever going to be able to plant anything? Or turn off the heating? Obviously, I’m not in the dire straits of those poor farmers digging frozen lambs out of drifts, but still …. grrr ….
Blond ambition
I had a terrifying moment, watching the Eddie Mair interview with Boris Johnson, when it struck me that big blond Boris has almost reached a sort of Churchillian level of public recognition and affection. Then, thank goodness, Mair put the boot in and we were reminded, in painful detail, of Boris’s inner moral vacuum. Lies, …
Yankee doodle just dandy
Sponsored post I’ve always been a fan of Yankee Candle. In case you don’t know the brand, it’s a scented candle range with the volume turned RIGHT UP. You can usually smell a Yankee Candle stand long before you see it. But I like a candle with a bit of feistiness, instead of these wishy-washy …
Timberrrr
One thing has been looming very large in my life recently. In fact, it’s been overshadowing everything else. No, it’s not a horrible childhood memory, though I have many of those, or a present day niggle with anyone. It’s the damned blimmin massive tree right outside my front door. When we first moved in, a …
Very Mary Berry
It’s official. The girls and I have declared this week Mary Berry Week. Having never heard of Mary Berry before the last series of the Great British Bake-Off (I know, I must have been on Mars while she wrote her first 69 cookbooks), I am now in serious awe of the 77-year-old scourge of the …
Popeularity contest
I remember when Child One was seven, Pope John Paul II died. We watched the news on the telly, and soon a whole line of cardinals was shown, introduced as the candidates to become the next pope. ‘But Mummy, there aren’t any ladies!’ remonstrated Child One. She was quite right, of course. There wasn’t a …
All work and no play
I feel so sorry for Child One. Here she is, at her brand new shiny school, and she scarcely has a moment to enjoy it – or anything else for that matter. She spent Saturday going round a university, and she was supposed to go to a gallery yesterday for her Art A level. She …
Let me eat cake
I can’t pretend to be surprised any more when surveys come out, like the BBC one the other day, showing minuscule numbers of women in so-called top jobs. True enough, the facts are stark, particularly when you see them in pie chart form – for the armed forces, the sliver of red showing women is …
Housewife Superstars
As it was the Oscars last night, and magazines will be full of red carpet frock triumphs and disasters for days, I feel it is only right for me to present my own awards. Naturally, my wardrobe consists, not of chiffon, but of a lot of sturdy elastane. Still, horses for courses, and you won’t …
Now listen here ….
How come, when a man speaks, we hear one thing, and when a woman speaks, we hear quite another? Take Oscar Pistorius and Hilary Mantel. Nothing much in common, you’d think, except that both of them have made the news for things they did, or didn’t say. When the strange news broke about the tragedy …