The morning’s good news was that Nice Ms Vet rang up to say that the dear old haggis, though otherwise quite healthy, does have an under-active thyroid — she has a count of ten on whatever scale they use, and it should be 20 or more — and so she is now on thyroid supplements. […]
One important development of the last few days, is that I seem to have acquired an agent, at least for the current outrage. This is a great relief to my mind. My American agent has been doing her cultivated and charming best, and very useful she has been, but with a book so irremediably British […]
Dear old Miss Best Friend has been to the vet. We have been a little worried about her for some time. The weather has mostly been foul, reason in itself for an elderly dog to slow down a bit, but she has had a curious skin problem. Most of her fur is sleek and […]
Apologies for prolonged silence from the 57th parallel, which has a good deal to do with the annual onset of exams. This is both dull and confidential, though I feel I can share some of the more surprising assertions of the last week or so: did you know that Petrarch was in love with a […]
I offer as my excuse the fact that we are being exhorted at every turn to spend money before every business in the country goes into receivership. And who better to support than Peter Beales, the mad rosarian of Attleborough? Especially when a note turns up in my inbox offering 20% off bare root roses? […]
I am, unusually, alone at Burnside, apart from Miss Kit, Miss Best Friend, and something mysterious scuffling at intervals above me – nothing is visible in the Small but Manly sitting-room, which is directly over the room where I am typing this, so I diagnose the seasonal problem of jackdaws messing about among the chimney-pots, […]
It’s hard to think what has happened since the last blog, except weather: no snow, or anything exciting, but bizarre fluctuations in temperature. The other night it was 15 below (so the Refugee Gardener told us in the morning) and the lake was frozen hard, but by midday it was well above freezing and today […]