House

Taking stock

This was going to be R’s last day here before he had to go back to his lonely vigil. We tried to take stock of the house as well as…

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5 June 2025

Cats, Nature

Rare Scottish Wildcat sighting in East Fife

And here was me thinking that the Scottish wildcat was threatened with extinction and restricted to remote highland areas on the West Coast. Who would have thought that you would…

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12 September 2026

Cats

Eighth Day of Mousemas – Christmas Day

Saphy here. It has been chaos today. People, presents, paper, singing, endless music and then pointless games for hours and hours. Amber went off in the sulks – she managed…

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25 December 2025

House, People

A blast from the past

Today we had a visit from a gentleman who lived in Castlebank house in 1970s and his wife. We turned out to have quite a lot in common as they…

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15 October 2025

House, Renovation

Roof – stage one

Just when we thought we were getting away (reasonably) lightly with things that could overtly be wrong with the house – we ran into a problem. A piece of the…

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7 August 2025

Cats

The Minx

/ 8 October 2026

I went out to do my shift volunteering at the museum this morning (and had a very enjoyable cheese scone and coffee) – there was not much to do as we had a…

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Uncategorised

Dunfermline

/ 6 October 2026

Several things about Dunfermline a) It is a difficult word to spell – somehow however many times I write it I still get it wrong. b) The first poem I ever learned by…

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Other

Conkers

/ 5 October 2026

When I was a child (1970s) conkers (note for foreigners – nuts of the horse chestnut tree) were a highly valued commodity – in fact we used to risk severe adult retribution by…

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Church

Harvest Festival

/ 4 October 2026

Today was Harvest Festival – the church was looking very festive. Things have moved on since I was a child – then it was all giant marrows, now it is food for the…

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Food, Gardening

Harvest home

/ 3 October 2026

It is our church harvest festival tomorrow and I made an apple cake with yet more of the garden’s never ending bounty. In total, the Scouts picked over 200kg of apples and took…

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Gardening

Last mow of the lawn

/ 2 October 2026

Definitely colder today, and quite a few leaves are coming off the trees. I want to have a big push next week to “put the garden to bed for the year” – hopefully…

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Travel

Ballater

/ 1 October 2026

A few months ago, J and I went to Balmoral and Braemar. We had been going on to Ballater as well that day, but it was getting too late so we said we…

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Cats, People

In which Saphy misses R…

/ 30 September 2026

We were down in J’s basement watching some TV this evening (before it got dark because it was AHS and that is scary enough in the daylight). I brought Saphy in as it…

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Gardening, Nature

Royal Oak

/ 29 September 2026

I gathered these acorns at Sandringham and am going to plant them. Hopefully they will grow into huge oak trees which will be around long after we are all forgotten. The other things…

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Travel

Going Home

/ 26 September 2026

We set off on the most beautiful day and travelled though the flat green fields of Norfolk and Lincolnshire. J remembered that we were entitled to use the LNER first class lounge in…

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