Today is the Winter Solstice – when the sun is at its most southerly point.  The date marks the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere.  The word solstice comes from Latin sōlstitium, literally: the (apparent) standing still of the sun,...

Yesterday I gathered some holly from the bottom of the garden (which isn’t as far as it sounds).  The ground was frozen rock hard, as was the gravel path.  With the addition of a few bay and mahonia leaves I assembled a couple of evergreen sprays –...

Way back in May, when we were staying in Utah, the owner of a delightful place called The Arrowhead gave us a tin of chipotles in adobo sauce and a box of chipotle cubes.  We’d had several Mexican meals on our travels and were intrigued by the...

Since the third week in August, Miss Dancing, Mrs W and I have been getting up to walk for half an hour at 7am from Monday to Friday.  We have done this for almost 4 months with only a couple of days missed and recently a reduction of 10 minutes a day...

The decorations are out of the loft, the tree is up, lit and bedecked with baubles and all sorts from over the years – Mr Dancing has worked wonders.   Another slightly balding Christmas tree is outside and twinkling by the front door.  This was the...