You don’t need a fancy stand mixer or a degree from a culinary school to figure out how to make scones; in fact, I’d argue those expensive gadgets are often the very thing that ruins them. I spent years watching people fuss over their dough, kneading it with a heavy hand as if they were […]
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I was standing in my back garden last Tuesday, looking at the uneven mess of flagstones near the old oak—the one planted back in 1924—and I couldn’t help but shake my head. Most people think that learning how to lay a patio is all about picking out the prettiest limestone or slate from the garden […]
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I remember standing in a narrow garden in Upper Wootton back in ’94, watching a man in a very expensive suit explain to a terrified couple that they needed a mountain of paperwork just to fix a leaning fence. He was talking in circles, using words that sounded more like Latin than English, and charging […]
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I sat in the Red Lion last Tuesday—the one with the 17th-century timber framing and that slightly wonky floorboard near the hearth—and listened to a young man from the district council talk about “diversifying revenue streams” and “leveraging digital engagement.” It made my teeth ache. You don’t save a community asset by installing a high-speed […]
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I saw a glossy magazine in the waiting room last Tuesday suggesting that the secret to mental longevity is a subscription to some expensive, flashing brain-training app on your phone. It’s absolute nonsense. If you ask me, staring at a digital screen trying to match coloured shapes isn’t the same as actually engaging with the […]
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I remember standing in a Victorian terrace over in Chawton back in ’94, looking at a homeowner who had just spent three thousand pounds on “specialist” anti-mould sprays that did nothing but mask the smell for a fortnight. He looked at me like I was the intruder, but the truth was, he was fighting a […]
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I was walking past the old parish hall last Tuesday—the one built in 1894, if memory serves—and noticed the damp is finally starting to creep up the north-facing wall. It’s a bit of a worry, seeing as the roof hasn’t seen a proper slate replacement since the late seventies. It got me thinking about how […]
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I remember sitting in a draughty study in Chawton back in ’94, looking at a stack of papers for a client who thought he’d bought a sprawling orchard, only to find out he didn’t actually own the access track to his own back gate. Most people think you need a law degree or a mountain […]
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I saw a lad in the village shop last Tuesday fumbling with a little silver gadget, trying to measure the exact temperature of his water as if he were conducting a chemistry experiment in a laboratory. Honestly, if you need a thermometer and a degree in thermodynamics to figure out how to make a proper […]
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I was out near the old tithe barn last Tuesday—the one built around 1740, with the lovely flintwork that always seems to be shifting—when I caught myself doing a sort of frantic, uncoordinated jig just to stay upright on a patch of moss. It wasn’t a graceful movement; it was a sudden, jarring realization that […]
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