Today marks the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, and at Corner Cottage we are grateful that it marks the shortest day of the year. It's cold, it's overcast and dull, and the prospect of each day ahead being minutely longer is something to celebrate. There are two (2) ways to deal with the sub-zero …
It's been a good year for the biking -- so far, anyway. With the diminution of La Niña, which contrived to soak us over the span of two summers, we have finally had enough dryness to string together a decent series of rides. Your author's progress chart on Strava looks less like a close-up of …
Out here in the boondocks, all it takes is a couple of days' sunshine and we're assailed with massed lawnmowers, whippersnippers, and hedge trimmers roaring, revving and farting in glorious surround sound. Of course, the Corner Cottage versions of these tools are all electric -- if all of Braidwood went the same way, we'd reach …
Well, yesterday was the last day of spring, not that you'd know it from the chill and damp days behind us. It's been less the force that through the green fuse drives the flower, and more the muted chesty cough of a secret TB sufferer. Thank you climate change, and thank you La Niña. Three …
All this reminiscing about weird ways to make a living has your author recalling a sure-fire narrative to spin during job interviews. It's a secret so powerful, using it will guarantee you a fast track to the C-suite in the global planet-destroying multinational corporation of your choice -- so use it wisely. And this is …
You may recall my thigh-slapping account of how I was never invited back to look after my poetry professor's house after a goshawk flattened her precious seedlings, rendering her planting plans for her secret garden moot. Well, strap in readers, because that was just half of the tale. And just to add to the hilarity, …
Irony alert! Remember Alanis Morissette, the Canuck chanteuse who sang emotively about irony? It's like raa-ainnn on your wedding day,It's a free ride when you've already paid, It's the good advice that you just didn't take,And who would have thought? It figures. Now many have pointed out that most of Alanis' examples aren't irony at …
It's winter now -- and following the freakishly wet summer we've just endured, we're experiencing some deep cold, such that Archie's water bowl freezes overnight and we keep the fire going all day. When it comes to local wildlife -- particularly the feathered kind -- I expected a bit of a dearth, with all the …
Here's something my mate Matthew and I used to talk about sometimes over a couple of beers at the Railway Pub in West Hampstead, London, around 1995. When we weren't talking about cricket, or girls, or books, or history (he's a historian), we talked about music. Specifically, 'pop' or rock music, to use those inadequate …
Remember last year, around this time, when this blog expressed frustration about the rarity of female Common Brown butterflies, and how difficult they were to photograph? Of course you do! Well, this year for some reason, we are faced with virtually the opposite situation. The gals are everywhere, but the male of the species is …
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