J has gone home now. Saphy loves him much more than either R or myself, and will even sit on his knee for longish periods of time. The picture is of J’s bed with his hoodie lying on it and Saphy lying on his hoodie. She is mourning his departure and the hoodie is all […]

R and I jetted off to the bright lights of London for a week. This is our first holiday together since 2018. Our first night was staying over at London zoo in the “Lion Lodges” – great fun. This was the painted wall of our lodge. We got three separate private tours of the zoo, […]

We went to Mossdale in Dumfrieshire (where my parents used to live). This was really their happiest home- Dad had retired and was free to do the garden and DIY. Mum had lots of friends and was involved with the local community, and also with her art. Sadly, old age and infirmity meant they had […]

RIP John Francis Ellis 1930 – 2023. The picture above is of him with his mother and siblings in the late 1990s. All his brothers and sisters lived into their nineties, and he was the last to go at 93. He died in hospital today. He had a long and full life, and was a […]

For a cat with such beautiful sleek fur, Amber needs a remarkable amount of grooming. She just loves being combed, and every night, R spends a good ten minutes giving her the proverbial “good going over”. But no matter how often he combs her, more fur comes out – she seems to have an inexhaustible […]

My parents have been married 60 years today. We had planned a big family gathering, and I even arranged for a telegram from the King. Unfortunately, it was not to be, as a week ago, my father fell in the hall at home and fractured his hip. He is now in hospital and has come […]

Another nice simple one from R. Fajita rice from store cupboard and fridge ingredients. Fry a large onion with a green pepper until soft. Add three cloves chopped garlic, a finely chopped red chili, a packet of fajita seasoning and a tin of sweetcorn. Fry for one minute. Rinse 300g of white rice, add to […]

I made a few apple related deserts today because all four trees are now loaded. I have to say that I am not particularly keen on apples, but our victoria plum tree which I was fond of has given up the ghost, and our cherry tree never has any eatable fruit because the birds always […]

Lovely sunset over Bheula tonight. It is very hot down south, so hopefully it will cool down before we go off to London.

Today was one of those “Goily” days where the sun comes and goes. Our solar production can literally go from 12kw to 0.5 within the space of 2 minutes. Having said this, we are doing pretty well with the solar in general – we have produced more electricity in total than we have used since […]