Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Wartime Housewife is a huge fan of The Royal Family and, in order to provide you with a suitable poem for the first day of the Diamond Jubilee, I ran out this morning to b...
If, like me, you love flowers and like a fecund garden but consider gardening to be simply outdoor housework, you will undoubtedly have let your hanging baskets dry out at some point. The problem is,...
Sorry about the lateness yet again, I fell asleep and forgot to cook dinner so we had to go out. Talking about my feelings ain’t my cup of tea – by John Hegley (b.1953) Please don’t do the third degr...
Its meee, Im Loreeeen, Ive come home now, woh woh-oh-oh-o-ohh We love Eurovision and we take the whole thing awfully seriously. We get nice snacks in, a litre bottle of Ginger Beer and properly print...
I’ve just played a super joke on Boy the Elder. Some weeks ago he, somewhat inadvisably, loaded Facebook onto my Blackberry. This evening he went off to Explorers and failed to log out. Oh dear...
There will be no article today or tomorrow as I am going to Edinburgh. You will discover the reason ere long.
How are you today, you slaaaaag? I’m a modern kind of girl but I dislike over-familiarity from total strangers. I don’t mind being addressed by my first name if my interlocutor has asked ...
I found this poem quite by accident and somehow it seems to suit my mood today. I always reserve a smidgeon of distrust for people who are too perfectly turned out, whereas I agree with Herrick that ...
A bath brush such as you might find in the bathroom A couple of years ago I published Wills’ Cigarette Card No 2: How to restore a crushed broom I can now tell you with complete confidence that this ...
I read two stories in the paper today. The government is, at long last, going to introduce means testing for Child Benefit and it is possible that thousands of children will be taken off the Special ...
I was recently at a luncheon that was attended by several generations of people from different walks of life. The restaurant was on the smart side, the food was delicious and unpretentious, and the s...
I started this off as an extract, but as I typed, I thought the story was just too good and atmospheric to deprive you. I found it so creepy I had to look at pictures of fairies and kittens to ensure...
On Saturday, Freelance Unbound and I went to the Market Harborough Book Fair and I had the great good luck to find a 1930s book entitled ’Hundreds of Things a Boy Can Make’. Well, as evolution would ...
This is an old gardening trick which is particularly relevant at the moment when, in Britain at least, every other human has foot root from the constant rain. If your grass is desperate for a good mo...
Sorry this is so late – long, long day…. The Thought-Fox – by Ted Hughes (1930-1998) I imagine this midnight moment’s forest : Something else is alive Beside the clock’s loneliness And this bla...
Collecting things is so brilliant. Not only is there the joy of tracking things down and displaying one’s new toys in order to drool over them on a daily basis, but one learns so much around the item...
The Market Hall - saved to make it better than ever I reported in this article in February that the Market Hall in Market Harborough was under threat of closure. The council needed to raise money to ...
This is a much cheaper method than taking out the glass and replacing it with swanky frosted glass.
Lady Somerset has many virtues but singing is not one of them. Until I met her, I was convinced that anyone could learn to sing, given the right training, but her larynx defeated me. Many years ago, ...
Here is your thought for the day, courtesy of the comedian Sarah Millican, whom I saw live over Easter. Don’t bother looking for the light at the end of the tunnel Crawl down there and switch t...
Having heard a programme about Henry Newbolt this afternoon on Radio 4, I thought it would be a good time to have some. I was going to chose something obscure but decided on this popular one because ...
Unless you are twenty, beautiful, thin or bursting with self-confidence, there is a reasonable chance that clothes shopping is a less than pleasurable experience. In the event that you even know what...
Sorry chaps, I just don’t know where this week has gone. I have been full of ideas for posts that I’ve jotted down in my ‘Ration Book’ notebook but then completely ran out of ...
Film: The Hunger Games (adapted from the book by Suzanne Collins) Certificate : 12A Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth Also featuring: Wes Bentley, Donald Sutherland, Lenny ...
Regular reader The Alltime Fishwife introduced me to this gorgeous and evocative poem which was written about the loss of the Titanic. It is particularly relevant as this year is the centenary of th...
Lord Woolton, wartime Minister for Food This recipe comes courtesy of Mrs Cromarty who has something of a penchant for vintage cookware. Unfortunately I made a cock-up with the photograph and deleted...
Think twice before employing cartoon characters Very few people have live-in staff these days, but many employ cleaners, gardeners, home helps, au pairs etc and I hear a great many complaints from bo...
There were never such devoted sisters The boys and I spent Easter apart; they went to their father and I went to stay with Sister the Second and her husband, Robo Rabbit, in Marlow. It did us all go...
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE XXX Home Thoughts from Abroad – by Robert Browning (1812-1889) Oh, to be in England Now that April’s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware,...
Gentle Readers, one of you has given me a gentle poke and chastised me for not having written anything this week, ergo, get your finger out woman. This article was actually written yesterday but The...
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