The Year Dot 2026

  Manners maketh Man, or woman, or child, let’s not be too distinct about this. From an early age we are told to mind our manners. Remembering to say please and thank you and to respect our elders but does this always ring true in this day and age? Swearing What is the worse swear word you heard your parents utter?  Being now in my sixties, I think  my parents and grandparents came from a different era.  The worse word I ever heard my father say was “damn and bust it.”  Martin laughs when he recalls his father saying “hells bells and buckets of blood.”  Now-a-days, much of the swear words you hear in the street can make your toes curl.  Some people, boys and girls, men and women, use the ‘f’ word as an everyday adjective.  We never ever used the ‘c’ word.  You can tell by the way I am writing that I can’t even type them out! However, dear bloggee I will admit, used in the correct way at the correct moment, a choice swear word can be a great s...

 I think most of us want a trouble-free life, with enough money to live on, food in our belly, a roof over our heads and good health.  You can consider yourself very fortunate if you have the complete set. So I am very fortunate when I say I and my family have never gone hungry, even when I was living alone in a flat at the age of seventeen scrimping and saving to afford the rent each month, I always ate, granted, I was a size 10 back then but I had a full time job (remember them?) and times were different. I have never been homeless and consider myself quite healthy if you  forget the dalliance I had a few years ago with appendix cancer. (Now thankfully all clear).   Today’s political climate is full of doubt and uncertainty. Who can say that they are truly happy with the way the world is evolving, how long can our complacency last and rose tinted spectacles continue to be worn? In my opinion I think the average person in the street is nice, usually a bit left ...

  I have never been what you call a 'Petrol Head', but I do feel attached to the cars we have had. Our present car is a 2015 Honda Jazz, a sensible and economic car we purchased as a two year old demonstrator from Rowes Honda Garage back in 2017.  Granted, it gave us a few worries as we took it on our tour around Italy last year with the brake callipers, however, as of today it is still running and costs us £25 a year in road tax and up to £50 to fill up giving us nearly 400 miles driving.  Having said all this we are looking for a new car sometime in the near future, but what to choose?  I, as usual take a back seat in this area as Martin loves doing the research, he will spend weeks, months even, on finding the right car.  Luckily for our budget we are not into swanky cars with a lot of gadgets,  "Just more things to go wrong," Martin says. He even hates electric windows.  At the moment the car of choice is another Honda, probably a Jazz hybrid if th...

 This week, I want to talk to you about chocolate.  One of my favourite subjects.  I am very proud of my daughter Emma who is doing Dechox during May.  It consists of abstaining from partaking in any form of chocolate for the whole month.  She is doing it for The British Heart Foundation and is hoping to raise money.  Knowing how much Emma loves chocolate, as do I, I know this will be a real challenge.  Anyone wanting to sponsor her can do so here .  But Why Does UK Chocolate taste so minging nowadays? When I was a child you could bite all the chocolate off of a Club Biscuit in large chunks and still have some biscuit left.  Remember the advert, 'If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club.'  Now they can't even call it chocolate because it has changed so much.  They legally have to describe it as 'Chocolate Flavoured Coating,'  or even worse, 'chocolate flavoured vegetable fat'.  If it contains so little ...

For my 60th birthday a few years ago now, I was given a Honey Bee flow hive .  I had been convinced by my son David that keeping bees was easy and the honey was delicious.  So suited and booted I was off and David gave me  some of his bees.  A flow hive is a new form of keeping bees.  Traditionalists hate them, but newbys love them.  The bees are unaware of you collecting the honey.  The base of the hive is a traditional set up where the bees make the honeycomb themselves but the upper part is a clever design that is made and can be unlocked using a key.  The bees use the hexagonal artificial comb and cap the honey off.  The key dislodges the comb and the honey flows out, as can be seen in the above picture. Well to be honest beekeeping is not as easy as it looks.  To be a beekeeper you have to have certain requirements.  Firstly not to be afraid of bees.  Well my husband Martin doesn’t like 'the stingy little b’s.'  I, on...

Three cornered leek We've just come back from a day of foraging for food, hosted by Jasper from Totally Wild UK which was held at Portwrinkle just a few miles away from where we live. The day was perfect, sunny and warm with no wind. The first part of the course was a short walk down a leafy path to the beach. Our first plant to identify was Sea Spinach, a plant I had always seen but never knew it was edible. The identification was simple as it has a slightly waxy leaf in the shape of a spearhead and you can use it in stir-frys, or as a salad vegetable. You need to pick the newish leaves at the older ones can be quite tough. Always pick above dog-leg height for obvious reasons. Jasper explaining about Sea Spinach Jasper explained that it is illegal to uproot plants but on public land it is fine to take the leaves.  He usually goes by the rule, a third for him, a third for the animals and a third for the plant. Dulse Then we then had a little rock pool ramble and we were taught how...