Alt.Mustardland

I've been to do the shopping on the last day of the month. I had to go and draw cash for the man delivering wood chip mulch. I am irritated because as a tax accountant I am fully aware that it's a tax dodge on his part. I've often thought I'd be better served if I refused to pay cash for anything. M...

Yes, I have some wonderful pictures in my head. One day in the market I saw a young man dressed all in cream, with a hat to match. He was coffee coloured and the sun shone down on him through a skylight in the Birmingham meat market. He wasn't very tall, but was all in proportion and was standing in...

Although I was brought up in the country, I have seen better dark here than anywhere. There are still morons who insist on shining bright lights over everything, but mostly one can get a good view when the sky is clear. I remember that in Birmingham, although there were horrible lights on the main r...

It didn't rain yesterday. St Swithin's day is quite ticklish and I think it stayed true to the prophecy last year or the year before, with 40 day's rain. After he was made a saint, the Church thought they should dig him up from the churchyard and give him a grand grave in the Cathedral. Every time t...

All the time in the North sky below the Plough, right of Capella and left of Arcturus.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/53331739

It sounds lovely. I expect the people who bring their deckchairs on to the courtyard only get sun there, but you get sun in your garden. You could work out the compass points for your garden, and work out which bits don't get any or much sun. You could put ferns there, unleash clematis to rampage th...

Have you got a garden? Fortunately mine arrived to see a wilderness and to his credit never regarded taming it to flat lawns and disciplined borders. We looked out on a lovely view of fields and woods. We talked about making something scented, no lawns and recovering the place that used to have two ...

My birdsong clock is currently an hour slow. It's high on the wall. It can wait until the last Sunday in October, when it will be right again. My daughter's Ma in law was related to an Essex canning factory family. She was the youngest of a large family. I'm interested in finding out how people live...

Another month. I've just received the first copy of 6 of "Who do you think you are". It was a good deal, but I didn't expect to get any more out of it than I get from the fortnightly Lost Cousins newsletter. But it does ave plenty. I'm expecting to see my gardener this afternoon, with news...

I have just seen another film called Edie. About an old lady played by Sheila Hancock, who escapes from her daughter's plans to put her in a home and decides to climb Suilven near Inverness. She climbed it, then I discover that it wasn't a bluescreen fake but a real climb. About 800 Mtrs high. She w...

Cassie is elderly. At 15 x 7 she has reached the age for a Royal birthday card. My shack is well insulated and lying well away from the sun keeps her cool, so just popping out into the garden for a breather is enough for her most of the time. I take her with me on my weekly shop, then we go for a st...

After listening to rain during the night, I looked out of the window to see in the pots on the terrace, the lilies that were in bud, opening. They are supposed to be scented, and because indoors they can be overpowering, I thought I'd try planting them outside. I'm still at the stage of being surpri...

Not if you're on anticoagulants I hope.

It's so hot today I'm sitting still and thinking cool thoughts.

Probably being hushed up to avoid sympathetic responses. The tide of hatred for 'foreigners' is turning

If Fords were paying 40,000 people but just restricting pay for 167 seat and trim workers to the extent that they would stop production for weeks on end rather than add a paltry sum to the overall pay cost they were as thick as tree stump trump. My Rhodesian friend gave up motor mechanics when there...

Dogs are very good at detecting illness. I hope you are up to date with your medication. When I was very ill, Cassie was all over me. But sometimes she keeps out of the way when I'm ill and very friendly when I'm not. Yes it's weird, but the Alsatian may think you're a sheep and needing protection. ...

Nice day today. My cleaner was due so I had to get dressed and empty the food waste into the Dalek compost bin in the garden. Cassie went toddling off and I noticed that my drain was overflowing so I had to call my plumber and put off the gardener for an hour or so. I've already budgeted for that so...

Rooney was just a child actor in those days. He became a song and dance man on the way to becoming a loud mouthed thug. Brigadoon perhaps. Not as good as Burt Lancaster in the Music man. Hitchcock was just vain. Being seen was his signature on the work. I preferred the York furniture maker who embel...

Try and move to somewhere less depressing. Maybe after lockdown is over, things may come back to life surprisingly quickly. I watched on Netflix, but saw the BBC's list of what they thought were the 10 best films. Apart from Charlie Chaplin and Mickey Rooney in "The Kid", I've seen all the...