3 April 2026
by wpAdmin
0 comments
Until I got to dinner this evening, the only thing I’d eaten all day was hot cross buns. A bun (rather too hot, straight out of the oven) for breakfast, another for elevenses, a couple for lunch and about a … Continue reading
26 May 2025
by wpAdmin
0 comments
As a gardener and allotment holder, I’m less excited about long spells of dry, hot weather than most people seem to be. You only have to listen to what weather forecasters normally call “good” weather to realise they aren’t thinking … Continue reading
5 September 2022
by wpAdmin
0 comments
I’m not sure the party now led by Liz Truss should describe itself as “conservative”. In case she and her colleagues hadn’t noticed, conservative means cautious, prudent and valuing what has gone before. Her rhetoric suggests an approach that might … Continue reading
7 April 2020
by wpAdmin
0 comments
It was unexpected yesterday to hear that Boris Johnson had first been admitted to hospital and then to an ICU ward. Having been suffering with COVID-19 for over a week, I think the general assumption was that he would be … Continue reading
22 September 2017
by wpAdmin
0 comments
I was surprised to see slug-a-bed (someone who likes a lie-in) on a list of “lost” English words that the BBC reported on a few days ago. That’s one I know, sometimes use and try not to exemplify too much! … Continue reading
10 July 2017
by wpAdmin
0 comments
I found an opportunity to use that new word, piddock, that I learned last week. I saw a cloud which appeared to have a neat hole drilled in and and thought… Okay, to be honest, I thought, “what was that … Continue reading
4 May 2016
by wpAdmin
0 comments
Today’s prize for best street name goes to Bad Homburg Way in Exeter. I suspect it has been named after the German town (twinned with Exeter) but it makes me think of hats! Allegedly the homburg hat was thus named … Continue reading
30 October 2015
by wpAdmin
0 comments
What do you think the word noncomedogenic means? I haven’t yet found a good way to slip it into a conversation and you lose points if you thought it meant a stand up act that wasn’t very funny. Look here … Continue reading
23 May 2015
by wpAdmin
0 comments
I have been delighted this week to have had the opportunity to draw on some of the less well-used corners of my vocabulary. I had an email to write that called out for the word obviate and palimpsest came up … Continue reading
6 November 2014
by wpAdmin
0 comments
As far as I know, carpiper isn’t officially a word although it has a certain mellifluity (possibly also not an entirely official construction) that would make me support any campaign to introduce it. It came to mind when I was … Continue reading