On being a Jesstrich

My latest health tests resulted in me being handed two mostly conflicting sheets of what to eat and what to avoid. I think once I strip my diet of everything on both avoid sheets I’m left with brown rice and possibly carrots*. When I got home, hungry after a breakfast-free morning, I opened a packet […]

On being early, late and on time all at once

April 17th, somehow delayed publication.. Yesterday, my colleague announced that due to unforseen private circumstances he was extending his Easter holiday and having today off as well. No problem. He asked me to water the plants. No problem. He told me which bits of glass to give various customers. Again, no problem. And then this: […]

On living round a Dahlien* invasion

Once upon a time, when my kitchen was still a kitchen and I still had a kitchen floor, I went half-price seed shopping with my mother. Mid February I had an unexpected free evening and an unopened bag of compost. I sowed liberally. Despite being clearance stock, every seed germinated.. And since I’m not as […]

On the creation of a domestic Goddess

I recently bought a second hand copy of Nigella Lawson’s book, “How to be a domestic goddess”. I haven’t read it yet. Obviously. ‘Obviously’ because I am so far away from becoming a domestic goddess it’s not even funny. If I was going to be eligible for any kind of goddess title, ‘domestic’ would come […]

On eating beans on toast

The other day I heated a tin of beans, laid the table, toasted some slightly stale bread, took a lump of cheese out of the fridge, the grater out of the drawer and sat down to beans on toast. As I poured the beans onto my toast I was suddenly reminded of the post I […]

On finding a common denominator

Question: What do the following items have in common? A hand powered mixer A box of gravy thickening powder A mop head A trangia (camping cooker with stacking saucepans) A laptop A hand powered ‘vacuum’ /carpet sweeper A tape measure *** No prizes, but perhaps I’ll give the guessers an honourable mention in the next […]

On learning how to wash ones hands

Until today I kind of assumed that I knew how to wash my hands. This poster on the mirror of the outpatient department* let me know how little I knew. I’m uploading a photo of the 8 illustrated steps in case anyone else needs directions.. ;p I have no idea what the products are and […]

On chasing rainbows

This morning a rainbow appeared. It wasn’t raining where I was and the sky was cloud-free everywhere but directly around the rainbow. Despite trying various positions, I couldn’t find one suitable for getting a picture of the whole curve – this was the most I could get on the screen of my phone at once. […]

On marbelous biscuits

There was a plan for them to be more obviously swirly (I even added contrasting chocolate chips to each mixture) but I seem to have forgotten how easily colours mix together and become sludgy – it’s obviously been too long since I last played with playdoh…