Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
Being some things what I done, or what happened, during the month of July.
Tuesday 1
OMG! We’re over halfway to Christmas. Already!
Wednesday 2
There’s just been a Cavalcade of Hats going up the road. (There’s a community transport group here called HATS, who use minibuses to deliver disabled children to the school down the road. So every morning, shortly after 09:00, there’s a line of their minibuses promenading up our road.)
Friday 4
And fun was had by all. We needed to swap in N’s new PC. This meant she had to clear the rats nest off her desk, and the one under her desk, then play like a rat to crawl under the desk to find where everything plugged in. Having ripped out all the old cables we put the new machine in, with less, and rather tidier, wiring. We had a countless number of various cables left over. We still have to clear up the remains. Oh and having recovered the space on my desk, I can now start work on our new file server.
Sunday 6
The only trouble with spending Friday humping computers etc. around is that I’ve done my back; and it isn’t settling down. It’s probably the old, old injury, but I don’t now have an osteopath. So tomorrow it will be find a new osteopath.
Monday 7
So today we went a-hunting an osteopath – and captured an appointment for late tomorrow afternoon.
Tuesday 8
Hopefully that trip to the osteopath has fixed my back; although it doesn’t quite feel like it yet.
Wednesday 9
This hot, humid weather makes everything hard work; it’s completely draining. But the butterflies like it. In the last couple of days we’ve had Large White, Small White, Brimstone, Red Admiral, Peacock, and Comma on the buddleia outside the dining room window – not as many as there used to be, just odd ones, but better than none.
Sunday 13
We sat down to evening meal, and suddenly there were two small whiskered faces looking up at us. As so often, word had got round amongst the felines that the humans were about to devour cold chicken (well make that any chicken). I think the only thing which out-ranks poultry are prawns – they hear them come in the door!
Monday 14
The evening of the two tarts. (No, not that sort!) We had gooseberries (albeit from the supermarket), we had blackberries from the garden, and we had some very ripe nectarines. We also had two sheets of puff pastry. Sheet one was used flat with gooseberries in a layer on it; no need to pre-cook the fruit, just sprinkle with sugar. Sheet two had blackberries and nectarine piled in the centre and the ends folded over, to make a sort of rustic pie-cum-pasty (again sugar applied). The gooseberry was delicious, still warm, with some cream. Haven’t tried the blackberry yet as it was still too hot. As N said, they’ll make breakfasts for the next several mornings.
Tuesday 15
Rain! We have rain! Only short sharp showers, but it’s water from the sky, which we desperately need. And if you believe the weather forecast we’re likely to have rain on and off for the next week.
Wednesday 16
So the gardener cometh not, which verily was a nuisance as we had lots that needed doing. On the other hand it gave us a “free day” in which to savour the delights of completing this year’s tax returns. And ouch! How much to we owe HMRC?
Thursday 17
It’s been one of those days when everything is a struggle. I wish I understood why this happens – what in the Universe controls it – then I might be able to circumvent it. Otherwise it is very annoying and depressing.
Friday 18
And suddenly there was on my desk a small Common Green Lacewing (Chrysoperla carnea). They’re surprisingly pretty (note the red eyes) – and their larva are great aphid eaters.
Saturday 19
A good doctors’ patient group meeting this morning. Only half a dozen of us with the Practice Manager, but sane and sensible considering the recent appalling patient survey results. The Practice Manager and I were both dreading the meeting. Basically something has to happen to improve the front of house, which we’ve been bleating about for ages. Meanwhile: we have rain! Lots of rain! Just as forecast. And badly needed.
Sunday 20
In the kitchen this evening, a very lively ichneumon wasp. I think a Woodland Darwin Wasp (Echthrus reluctator) but I’m sure the experts on iNaturalist will confirm (or not).
Also found a very dead, melanistic ladybird; confirmed later on iNaturalist as a melanistic Harlequin.
Oh, and this afternoon, three greenfinches in the top of the silver birch. Haven’t seen greenfinches for some years as they’ve been almost wiped out by a virus; so great to see them again.
Monday 21
So what happened to all this rain and thunderstorms we were supposed to be having? Well we had a few heavy drops of rain, but hardly enough to properly wet the pavement.
Tuesday 22
Do other people have days where they just feel totally incapable of doing anything? Because I had one of those days today. Apart from starting the supermarket order, I spent the day fiddling about because I could not get down to do anything. Very irritating.
Friday 25
I’ve spent a large part of the last couple of days striping apart several old laptops and PCs. If nothing else I wanted to get the hard drives out of them so I could clean off the data. I can’t get over what hard work it was to get them apart: hundreds of tiny screws, half of which you can’t move; and then plastic components clipped together and equally recalcitrant. Any way I’ve eventually got them stripped down to recyclable electronic components, several chassis, miscellaneous metal which can also be recycled, and a bin bag full of garbage plastic. All the hard drives have been added to my collection of “spares”; all two dozen of them. Mind, all that work has created almost no free space! Now I’m wondering what we’ve got hidden in the loft!
Sunday 27
Just how did the England girlies manage to win the European football? They never seemed to have been in a winning position, always coming from behind, and then somehow mesmerising the opposition when it came to the penalty shootout. Did they deserve to win? I have no idea. Am I surprised? Yes, very. I guess at the end of the day it all comes down to who has the best self-belief and can keep the cooler head. On that score: well done Lionesses!
Monday 28
Is there no end to the excitement? Today, for both of us, the 6-monthly trip to the dentist for a check-up and the hygienist. Clean bill of health for both of us; so we’re just booked again for January.
Tuesday 29
Rescued this morning, one Harlequin Ladybird, which was trying to drown itself in a sink of soapy water. It seemed to recover OK and, having had a rest, was released outside.![](https://zenmischief.com/wp-content/uploads/ladybird-29-1S.jpg")
Wednesday 30
It’s a medical week. Dentist on Monday (as above). Audiology for a new hearing test yesterday; followed by a call from my doctor’s to book my annual diabetes check-up. And this afternoon N and I were round at the doctors for a couple of hours – in our patient group capacity to talk to patients in the waiting area. We never talk to many people (most just want to sit and zone out) but the conversations we do have always provide useful feedback. At the same time we tidy up the book exchange and check over the noticeboards etc.
Thursday 31
Today the first sizeable chilli harvest of the year … I picked 15 Hot Lemon chillies; the largest are about 4cm long. OK they’re not huge, and this isn’t a gigantic haul (although we have already had two or three smaller picks), but it’s from two plants crammed in a pot on the study windowsill, and now in their third season.
Considering the number chillies, both these and scotch bonnets, we have in the freezer it wouldn’t matter if we never grew another plant. These Hot Lemon Chillies aren’t very hot if you remove the seeds/pith, but if used raw do have a slight citrussy flavour.
Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
Being some things what I done, or what happened, during the month of June.
Monday 2
Had to unblock the pond pump again today as it is choked with mats of algae, in less than a week.
Tuesday 3
Dear God! It’s relentless. I’m still trying to catch up with everything I didn’t manage to do on Sunday. It mostly revolves around the 25th Anniversary Lunch for AP Soc on Friday – and I’m not even organising it! But the money is flowing through me, so it’s continual questions. Plus I’m expected to take all sorts of stuff like merchandise with me! I seem to have done nothing else for the last week. Heaven alone knows what they’ll do when I’m not here!
Friday 6
Blimey that was a tiring, but worthwhile, day. Celebration lunch for the 25th anniversary of the AP Soc at National Liberal Club. 65 attending, I think, including some well known names as well as some of AP’s extended family. Great to see everyone again, not having done so since before Covid.
Saturday 7
It’s surprising how much better one feels for a really good night’s sleep. I was so shattered after yesterday that I went out like a light, and although I woke up twice in the night I slept through to a few minutes before the alarm. For the first time in ages I woke up not feeling stressed and depressed, but awake and rested. More please!
Monday 9
If it’s happening, I don’t know anything about it. I’m still trying to catch up after Friday and its prologue. So I’ve been paying little attention to the world and its mess.
Tuesday 10
That made an interesting change, and a childhood memory of weekend tea. For a quick light tea this evening, when N got back from the hospital, I had sardines on toast. It’s nutritionally good, and seems very down market until one follows it with strawberries and thick double cream. Of course Queen Cat got a share of both sardines and cream!
Thursday 12
I do not understand couriers. Today I had two boxes of the literary society’s latest book delivered from the printer. Two identical boxes; labelled “1 of 2” and “2 of 2”. They arrived on two different couriers about 30 minutes apart. Mad.
Friday 13
When I sat down to lunch today I felt absolutely fine. By the time I stood up at the end of lunch I had a full-blown attack of vertigo and had to spend the rest of the day horizontal.
Saturday 14
Horizontal.
Sunday 15
Still horizontal.
Monday 16
Vaguely vertical.
Tuesday 17
Finally feeling almost back to normal – or at least I would if I’d actually had a decent night’s sleep. It didn’t help that I had to be up early and spend the morning at the doctors: meeting with Practice Manager, blood test and see my GP. GP agreed there’s not a lot one can do about the vertigo, although she did give me a link to information about the Brandt-Daroff exercises which are supposed to help remove crystals from the semi-circular canals. And the Practice Nurse who took my blood did say that vertigo always takes around 5 days to resolve – which is my experience.
Wednesday 18
Well it’s a medical week. Today I had a pre-op phone call with a nurse at our local private hospital, where in two weeks time I’m having surgery to remove my finally expired molar. I thought, OK this will be a 20 minute check in call. Not a bit of it. She spend nearer an hour and 20 minutes diving down every conceivable rabbit hole – although she didn’t quite get to demanding what my grandmother liked for breakfast. To cap it all she tells me that tomorrow I have to go to the hospital for blood tests and an ECG. Oh joy!
Thursday 19
OK, I know it’s private healthcare but well under an hour to go to the hospital (just a mile up the road), get blood tests and an ECG and get home. Just as well because it was meltingly hot out.
Saturday 21
Spent almost all day sans shirt, although I had to don a t-shirt for a literary society Zoom social call just after lunch. After less than 90 minutes I could have wrung the sweat out of the t-shirt!
Sunday 22
Why does doing simple tasks like putting things in envelopes for the post take so long. OK, I admit I had quite a bit to do to catch up on, but I ended up spending the whole day sorting our literary society stuff: mailing books; website updates; emails … and all the fallout therefrom.
Monday 23
It never rains but there’s a fucking hailstorm. Today, Boy to the V-E-T because his tail is drooping – which can be serious for cats. His tail is normally upright and waving around as if he was a foxhound; but since Friday evening his tail was drooping and he couldn’t hold it above horizontal. The vet found a puncture wound a the base of his tail (top and bottom); probably inflicted by another cat rather than the fox. So antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory for several days.
Tuesday 24
Gone 19:00 and I’m about to have tea when I pick up a phone call. It turns out to be the anaesthetist who’s on the team for my op next week. A 20 minutes discussion results in him saying he’ll do the op with sedation and local anaesthetic. If they can pull it off, that’s a definite result, because if I had a general anaesthetic (as originally planned) they will keep me in overnight; but with sedation they won’t. Not only much nicer but also a lot more convenient.
Thursday 26
Another result today. Had to go to Audiology at the local hospital to (a) have wax vacuumed out of my ears, and (b) take one hearing aid in for repair. The young lady who manages the centre, and does the ear vacuuming, was incredibly helpful. Having cleared my ears, she said “Oh I’ll repair your hearing aid now; it’ll take only five minutes”. In fact she actually replaced the hearing aid as the volume control had died. Job done and I’m out before the end of my appointment slot; with no need for another trip to collect the repaired device. A definite win.
Saturday 28
Something worth recording, although a bit out of sequence … I’ve had two rather nice raptor sightings recently, both new for me. First, several times over recent weeks I’ve seen a very swift-like raptor (but noticeably bigger than swift) jinking across the gardens. It has to be a hobby. I know they used to be around because local bird-watchers have told me about them. Secondly, on Thursday sitting outside Ealing Hospital one of their peregrines was flying around: practicing doing circuits; before disappearing behind the top of the building. It could have been one of this year’s young, although they should long have fledged. We know the peregrines nest there (and have done for several years) but I’ve never spotted one before.
Sunday 29
This afternoon I unloaded all the images from my trail cameras from the last three weeks – all 6500 of them – eeekkk! Well 20-30% were complete rubbish; just foliage waving in the breeze! Another 50% were the usual boring stuff: cats and foxes trotting hither and yon. But there were a couple of surprises. First one early morning at the birdbath there was a collared dove; no it’s a juvenile woodpigeon; oh no it isn’t it really is a collared dove. I thought I’d heard one around; but I’ve never before seen one here. Then a few days ago, again early morning, lucky Mr Fox is seen trotting off down the garden with a woodpigeon in his jaws; I saw not the catching, so I can only think the stupid bird hopped into his jaws.
Monday 30
Bugger! Had to cancel my dental op on Wednesday. Just don’t ask.
Sorry, no photos this month as everything has just been too manic.
Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
On a balmy early evening, on this day 25 years ago, six of us gathered at 7 Ormonde Gate, Chelsea, just across from the National Army Museum, at the invitation of Julian Allason.
Julian had the grand idea that we should celebrate English author Anthony Powell, who had died a couple of months earlier at the age of 94.
I was introduced to Powell’s magnum opus, A Dance to the Music of Time, in 1983 by my wife’s best friend from school. “You like Evelyn Waugh”, she said, “You might like Dance.” Powell soon became one of my heroes.
Since about 1993 I had been building a web presence for Powell. And in 1997, at the time Channel4 TV showed their 4-part dramatisation of Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time, I had started an email discussion list for Powell’s works. I was resisting suggestions that I should start a Society in Powell’s honour.
Julian was one of the early contributors to the email discussion list, along with our friend Stephen who was one of the six aforementioned. I dragged in my wife, N, and our friend Sue, who was (and still is) a professional conference and event organiser. Julian brought along his friend Catherine, a PR specialist. Experts were needed!
As Julian had said to me a couple of weeks before: “We must celebrate the man. We must have a conference.” Which is where discussion started on that fateful evening.
Being the ever practical project manager, I asked how we were going to achieve this. After all, I pointed out, we were six nobodies, we had no entrée into the literary world, we had no money, and frankly we stood little to no chance of getting useful big name sponsorship (organisations like Vodafone and The Daily Telegraph were mentioned).
Julian, great on ideas and not one to be thwarted, said that we had to have something on which to hang the conference. So at 19:30 under a huge portrait of Peter the Great, the response was …
But we still had no members and no money. Julian committed to fix us a bank account. We agreed that everyone then joined to the email discussion list (barely more than a couple of dozen people) was an honorary member until the end of the year – giving us time to organise a membership system.
And that conference? We held it at Powell’s alma mater, Eton College, the following St George’s Day. To this day I have no idea how we achieved that given that we were all also doing demanding professional jobs.
Since then the Society has achieved a lot: not least 10 international conferences and more than a few publications; we were awarded charitable status in 2003.
(On a personal note the Society has taken me to places, and introduced me to people, my wildest dreams couldn’t have conjured up.)
So today, after a lot of hard work, good luck, and almost against all expectations, the Anthony Powell Society celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Sadly Julian died a few years ago, so will not be here, at least in person, to see the fruit of his idea.
You can find out more about the Anthony Powell Society and its work at https://www.anthonypowell.org/. There is also a Facebook page and a YouTube channel.
Some things to be recorded, or that happened, during the month and which I’ve not otherwise blogged about.
Thursday 1
Phew! 1 May and it is unseasonably hot even for mid-summer. We’ve hot around 28°C today, which is almost 10° above the average for May. The hottest ever recorded temperature in central London was 32.8°C in 1922 and 1944 – and that was towards the end of the month. Apparently this is the hottest London May Day on record. The Met Office are saying the previous UK record temperature on 1 May was 27.4°C in 1990 at Lossiemouth, Scotland.
Friday 2
Today we completed the next set of 50 Postcrossing cards: numbers 301-350. Here they are on the display board.
Sunday 4
Gah! I’ve had one of those days. Pond pumps both choked full of algae which took an hour to clean out. Then the credit card company decided to block my main card as they didn’t like me putting through two transactions for mobile phone top-ups within minutes. And guess what – they can’t unblock it until office hours on Tuesday. Nor can I file a complaint until Tuesday either. Very not impressed.
Tuesday 6
Why do hospital trips take up so much time and energy? I went with N today to her consultant’s appointment, which was booked for 13:00. We left home about 12:15, and I finally arrived back at home at 15:00, the actual appointment having lasted no more than 20 minutes. Mind, I did stop for a sausage sandwich, and spent a very pleasant 20 minutes sitting outside in the sun while waiting to be picked up.
Thursday 8
That was a quick Conclave; they usually take far longer than 2 days. And we have an American Pope; albeit one who has served most of his priesthood in South America. This surprised me – and many others. I had expected the new Pope to be from either Africa or SE Asia; and to be a traditionalist rather than a progressive. So this could all be interesting.
Sunday 11
We moan when it’s wet. So now I’m going to moan about how dry it’s been. So dry that everything outside needed a good watering. Hopefully tomorrow the gardener will manage to get the watering system up and working.
Monday 12
The gardener did come, and did get the watering system set up – just before the thunderstorm. Really heavy rain for about 15 minutes, including some hail. But it is still horribly humid.
Tuesday 13
I woke up with vertigo. Not very bad, but bad enough to put a spanner in the works. Took some ibuprofen and took the day easy; and it went away during the day. It can just stay gone away! As one friend said to me: “So I’m not the only one waking up with a hangover without having a drink the previous night?”
Wednesday 14
I fell over in the kitchen this evening, as I stumbled against the stool and didn’t have anything solid I could grab onto. But I did have enough that as I fell, back down, I was able to descend relatively safely and not crack my head on the tiled floor. But getting up was a real problem as my (replaced) knees won’t kneel, I had nothing helpful to hold onto, and a non-grippy floor. I managed it eventually, but not without having to kneel and really hurt my knees and toes. This is my second fall this week, although the first could have happened to anyone. On Sunday, in the garden, I needed to sit low down to fiddle with the trail camera. But my weight sitting on an upturned bucket doesn’t work, it collapsed and I tipped gently backwards. Getting up from that was easy as I could roll over, put minimal weight on one knee, and had a grippy lawn for foot grip. We’ll not have a third, thank you!
Thursday 15
Pleased today to have a couple of very pretty but unexpected flowers on my dendrobium orchid.
Saturday17
Really really good meeting of GP’s patient group this morning. As expected I was asked to continue as Chairman. Lots of good discussion and feedback from our Practice Manager. I do sense a greater openness and less defensiveness, which is good.
Sunday18
A day of doing absolutely nothing except piddling about, because I couldn’t do anything more. I’ve been very depressed the last few days, so I was even less inclined than usual to do anything – especially as I could not wake up and it was gone 10:30 before I managed to rouse myself and get vertical (which I hate). The last two nights being full of anxiety dreams hasn’t helped at all – you know, the usual dream stuff: losing people in a crowd, exams, work. I wish I knew how to get rid of all this.
Monday19
Oh bugger! N has been suffering over the last few days with a filthy cold which seems to be going round her treatment centre. So of course I now have it: the usual cold, sinus problems, headache and some vertigo too. I was obviously starting it yesterday, which would explain my inability and why it persisted through today. This is the first really filthy cold I’ve had for several years. Luckily N felt up to taking two of the cats to the vet for treatment; I feel guilty for ducking my part of the exercise but I couldn’t face the car journeys. Fortunately the gardener cancelled which took some of the pressure off.
Wednesday21
Still struggling with this cold, which makes the depression worse, so I’ve done nothing much for the last few days. I keep thinking “One good night’s sleep will see it off”, but it hasn’t yet – although it is slowly receding. At least I don’t (yet?) have the awful chesty cough that N still has – and I would appreciate not having it, thank you.
Friday23
“Have you thought what you want to eat this evening” I say to N late in the afternoon.
“No not really” she says, “probably just a sandwich. What do you want?”
“What’s important is what you want; you’re the one who’s struggling. But I’m tired of eating sandwiches.”
I’m thinking, when did we last cook a decent meal; we seem to be eating bread and something for lunch and dinner every day.
“Well, we could have pizza” she says. “At least it’ll give you something hot.”
So I order pizza – it’s our one (occasional) concession to fast food and ready meals.
Saturday 24
Yesterday’s pizza was a damn good move. Two large pizzas not only fed us last night, but lunch today and a picnic evening meal when N got back from the hospital.
Sunday 25
Yum, yum. Two packs of very good meaty pork ribs for evening meal. Marinaded overnight with brown sauce, garlic, tomato etc.; and oven baked on a baking sheet so they were nice and sticky. Served with lots of roast vegetables (an excellent way to use anything getting a little tired). And there’s enough for a quick tea tomorrow.
Monday26
It’s another bank holiday, so of course it is wet – but at least it was forecast. Luckily the rain held off until mid-afternoon, as the gardener came. He had to spend too long clearing algae from the main pond pump; I should have done this but couldn’t get past the depression, and moreover I could not work out how the casing came apart (turns out it needs a screwdriver!).
Friday30
Couriers are the pits. I have a fairly expensive package coming from Italy. It’s been consigned to UPS; originally for delivery today. Now UPS are normally one of the better couriers; but this time they decide to deliver the package early: yesterday afternoon. Except that they didn’t. They claim they tried and there was nobody here – not true because I was here. So they try again today, with the same result; although this time both of us were here. Now they say we’ll try again, a third time, on the next business day (apparently tomorrow) but if we fail again the package will be returned to the sender. At this point I wonder if they’re trying the wrong address, or not leaning hard enough on the doorbell. Having fought UPS’s website, I call customer services. The young lady says: yes I can see that; and OK so it does take you time to get to the door; I’ll talk to the depot; they may ring you. Soon after a young lady rings me from the depot; I explain again. Oh, she says, I can see what’s happened: it’s been put on the wrong van so the driver should have logged it as a sorting error, but instead logged a failed delivery; I will talk to the warehouse to ensure it gets on the right van, and it is flagged for delivery tomorrow between 9 and 12. I’m guessing there’s a driver who’s going to get a rocket. In fairness, both young ladies were very helpful and owned the problem; 10/10 for their customer service. We’ll see what happens tomorrow; because if they try and fail again, and send the package back to Italy, I shall be very annoyed indeed.
Saturday31
Well my package from Italy did arrive, and in the time slot they said. Judging from all the mangled labels on it, it really has been round the houses to get here.
Each month during 2025 we’re offering two tiny changes which may help improve your life. This month …
Bah! Humbug! to the London Marathon. Much more interestingly today is World Pinhole Photography Day – always the last Sunday in April.
Before we had lenses for cameras, and indeed before we had photographic film, it was possible to view a scene, and project it onto a wall, using a tiny aperture. This was the camera obscura used by artists since ancient times.
Once cameras and the photographic process were available, it became possible to do this trick with a tiny pinhole instead of a lens. Needless to say the results are not sharp, as they would be with a lens, and because of the tiny aperture exposure times are much longer than we’re used to these days. But the smaller the pinhole, the sharper the image and the longer the exposure needed.
Nevertheless it is a fun, and often instructive, technique to try – and these days it’s very easy with (digital) SLR cameras. All one needs is a pinhole – and you can make that yourself! (If you hunt online there are people who will make a pinhole for your camera; or even sell you a bespoke pinhole camera.)
There are a number of “how to” sites on the internet. Basically you need only a spare camera body cap and bits and pieces you will already have lying around, like an empty drinks can.
A couple of years ago I made a pinhole for my Canon dSLR following the instructions on wikiHow. It was a bit tricky for me, with my ten left thumbs, but after three or four attempts at making the actual pinhole (in a piece of drinks can) I made something which works adequately if not brilliantly.
Setting up and taking pictures is easy enough. Fit the pinhole (body cap) to the camera and mount the camera on a tripod.
Set the camera to manual and ISO 100 (or slower). You can’t adjust the aperture of the pinhole, which will be tiny, so you then have to experiment with exposure times of 10-30 seconds (compared with the normal 1/100th or faster) in good light; longer in poor light or night. Use a remote control (or the camera’s timer delay). Now experiment.
So today I found my pinhole, and had a wander round the garden to see what looked likely to make a decent photograph. The images here are the best results (slightly colour enhanced). For comparison the following final two images are of the garden with a pinhole and with a normal lens on the camera – I reckon for a piece of crude homemade old technology the pinhole doesn’t do a bad job.
Of those four pinhole images, I think the first, the dandelion, has worked the best. What does anyone else think?