I remember standing in a damp meadow near Sevenhampton back in ’94, watching a young couple look absolutely shell-shocked because a farmer’s tractor had just rumbled through what they thought was their private, secluded garden. They had been sold a dream of total isolation, but they hadn’t looked at the old tithe maps or the […]
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I was sitting in the village hall last Tuesday, listening to a young man in a very sharp suit drone on about expensive wearable sensors and “bio-hacking” your way to health, and I nearly choked on my tea. It’s all a bit much, isn’t it? All this expensive gadgetry to tell you what your body […]
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I was standing in the aisle at Miller’s last Tuesday, watching a young man spend ten minutes debating the “ethical provenance” of a jar of honey, when I realised we’ve made a right mess of things. There is a growing myth that knowing how to shop at a farm shop requires a degree in agricultural […]
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I was halfway through a cup of tea in the hallway of the old Miller cottage—a fine mid-Victorian build, though the damp in the corner is a worry—when I realised I’d made a right mess of things. I’d spent three hours trying to peel back a particularly stubborn damask pattern, thinking a bit of elbow […]
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I remember sitting in the back of the St. Jude’s Parish Hall back in ’94—a building, I should note, constructed in 1872 with a roof that’s seen better days—watching a committee try to orchestrate a fundraiser that felt more like a military drill than a social evening. They had spent a small fortune on fancy […]
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I remember standing in a draughty hallway in a mid-Victorian terrace near Hungerford back in ’94, watching a young couple beam at their “new” home. They’d been sold a dream, but all I could smell was that unmistakable, heavy scent of stagnant earth creeping up from behind the skirting boards. They thought a bit of […]
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I was sitting in the Red Lion last Tuesday, watching a young man in a crisp linen shirt lecture his table about “mindful sobriety” and expensive, botanical-infused non-alcoholic spirits that cost more than a decent bottle of Bordeaux. It’s all a bit much, isn’t it? All that jargon and expensive kit doesn’t actually help when […]
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I was clearing out the back of the pantry last Tuesday—the same cupboard we had installed back in ’94, which, if I recall, was a bit of a rush job by the previous owners—and I found a bag of carrots so limp they looked like they’d been left out in a summer drought. It’s a […]
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I saw a flyer the other day from some well-meaning charity suggesting that supporting elderly neighbours requires a dedicated volunteer schedule and a formalised system of check-ins. It’s absolute nonsense. If you wait for a committee meeting to decide how to help, the frost will have already settled on the windows and the milk will […]
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I was kneeling on a cold, damp floor in a Victorian terrace near Salisbury last Tuesday, staring at a hairline crack in some perished silicone, when it hit me: most people think a bit of sealant is just about making the bathroom look tidy. They couldn’t be more wrong. If you don’t understand how to […]
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