This is what in Roman times they used to do to people who killed their parents. According to Cicero… He doesn’t mention the animals sewn into the sack but apparently it was generally a dog, snake, monkey, and a chicken or rooster, “They therefore stipulated that parricides should be sewn up in a sack while […]

R and I have asked people to keep to a minimum of presents this year. I would like a little glass animal (I have a collection) and R would like a bottle of whisky. The balance of what people would have spent I have asked them to donate to either the Cats’ protection or the […]

Very cold today and Beinn Bheula is white from about 500m up. I think this winter may be going to be a chilly one. My birthday tomorrow. We will be having a little party at the weekend so my brother can come.

This has been an awful year.  I am glad it is coming towards its end. Let’s live in hope that next year will be better.

A few months ago I got so sick of getting literally 10s of emails a day about COVID-19 which frankly I don’t want to hear about, that I put a rule in Outlook to delete all of them. I didn’t realize that a load of legitimate businesses would start putting mention of it as part […]

I’m 53 years old and I have never once had flu or been vaccinated against it. I seem to remember that about 30 years ago I had a bad cold which I exaggerated into flu for HR so I could get a few days off work. I dare say I could have come into work […]

Just as a little publicity for my literary efforts. I’ve self-published two books on Amazon. They are a bit different in theme and content. “Defects of the Heart” I wrote many years ago and is very loosely based on my own experiences at a boarding school in the lake district. The second one is a […]

R reckons that as we approach the end of the year there are going to be severe shortages in everything due to the idiotic political situation. I’ve taken emergency measures against not getting my turkey and have ordered a frozen one from my favourite “The BlackFace Meat Company”. I generally like to get fresh, but […]

I think we will be getting locusts next because our plague of mice continues. The large “trap” which we made for them in the shed has caught about six mice every day. R says that they are not like cats in that they can’t find their own way home, but in spite of liberating the […]

I was awakened in the night by a loud scuffling noise and some squeaking. I jumped out of bed to find a very lively mouse on the floor which Tora had just brought in. I grabbed for it but only being half awake, I missed and it shot off under the bed. So we were […]