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 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 …
One thing that wasn’t cancelled last year was that bike race in France. The one that shot to fame in the rest of the world (i.e. the US) when some guy from Texas started winning it with improbable ease and then turned out to have been cheating all along. The Tour de France is …
Here’s a quick bit about birds. It’s got to the point with this blog that pretty much anything would be better than ongoing silence, so yes, it’s birds again. Tramping about the wintry neighbourhood this afternoon with Archie, I happened on a couple of Silvereyes chit-chitting about their business, and was struck by a quick …
You know that situation where you keep putting something off because you want to do it really well, but the more you put it off, the more it hangs over you and the harder it becomes to do it at all? So it is with this here blog: it's never far from one's thoughts - …
It wouldn’t be surprising if, unlike me, you aren’t familiar with the finer points of the first Muppet Movie. Maybe it’s a generational thing, or maybe we were starved of sophisticated entertainment in sanctions-bound 1979 Zimbabwe, but be that as it may, for some reason this jolly musical romp remains vivid in the old memory …
Much excitement in the neighbourhood today as chilly winds from the south bear the unmistakable damp kiss that betokens snow. While the mercury (or the weather app, let’s be honest) shows a rather lovely 11 degrees and sunshine all day, that breeze seems to suck the warmth from everything and we’re heavily bundled up and …
There's a rock by the side of the King’s Highway not far outside Braidwood which is often adorned with birthday wishes, painted in bright colours with the name and age of the lucky person. The date when this tradition started is lost to history, but it’s always a point of interest to see the latest …
It hasn’t escaped our notice that July has arrived, as inevitably as any such change. Our ex-colonial cousins in the USA are celebrating their anniversary as an independent nation with fireworks and gatherings unhindered by best social distancing practice, while in the UK the pubs are opening after months of lockdown. In Braidwood, we’re waiting …
Just a quick report-back on the idea I floated in that post about building fires. Today was our opportunity to bring the principle of curves to the structure of the daily firelighting ritual. Triangles and rectangles, we said, were all very well, but the addition of curvilinear logs might add some variety. I said curves …
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