A busy day, yesterday. I spent much of it in Liverpool, wandering around the elegant Met Quarter with my mother. It’s not a particularly extensive designer shopping mall but we weren’t in a hurry to brave the sub-zero temperatures outside. We entertained ourselves by poking fun at spectacularly hideous party dresses. I still don’t see why a designer label warrants such silly prices, when the garment doesn’t look much different from high street merchandise. Certainly the quality of sewing or fabrics weren’t noticeably better. It was rather amusing, however, to see an old acquaintance of mine scowling dramatically from a huge photo in Guess ’s window...! We wandered into Mathew Street and had coffee in the John Lennon Café . There was only one other group of customers in there, but the coffee was good.  Mum's flying out to Australia soon where she'll be for three months, visiting various relatives. From there, we headed to the Christmas Market in Williamson Square. The fou...

The vet has just phoned me to say Emily's operation went well, and I can collect her at 4pm. This house feels so empty without "Little Mouse" leaping all over the place! (We nicknamed her that when she was a very young puppy, because she wasn't much bigger than a mouse - well, a hamster, perhaps). I can recite all the phrases about responsible pet owners and unwanted puppy litters bla bla bla, but I still feel like a total meanie, booking her in to be spade by the vet. I know she'll be frightened and in pain, and wondering why I've "abandoned" her... Poor little mite. ***   "I don't like Wuthering Heights," Cat said. "It's soppy." Then we coaxed her to watch Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Bi noche in the lead roles. She likes it now. "Isn't he the one who played Voldemort ?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "He looks different with a nose."   ***   4.20pm, and finally I get to re...

The electrician was here at 10am, to see if he could discover why the downstairs power kept blowing. Four or five times in the last two weeks, all the electrics for downstairs have blown out, each time when we were right in the middle of cooking dinner. As this hasn’t happened before in all the time we’ve lived here, we figured we had better call in an expert to take a look at it. There are some things you just don’t mess with unless you really, genuinely know what you’re doing. An electrical power supply is one of these. So the electrician deduced that too much power was going through one fuse. How come it hadn’t blown before now? Well, the only thing we can think of is that we have a new deep fat fryer which is more powerful than previous types. Each time the electrics had blown, we’d been using that – at the same time as using the oven, hob rings, kettle, two lots of ceiling lights, the electric fire and running the DVD player and TV, plus the music system which the TV speakers wo...

Gardening can be hard work, as Ygraine demonstrates in this photo. Emily has discovered how to jump over the fence. As we'd like to keep our dog (and not be sued) we now need a higher fence. Ygraine has never once escaped. Emily has earned the nickname Houdini, and is currently under house arrest until the fence can be installed. It'll be delivered on Friday. But before it can be errected, the thorny hedge which I've been coaxing to slowly grow since we moved in now needs hacking back again. Now, when I say thorny I mean thorny. Think of 3" needle-thin spines every finger-space along every branch. As a deterent to two-legged pests it's done an excellent job. A certain four-legged scamp, however, just ducks underneath it then scrambles over the old low wire-mesh fence. So we spent part of the weekend pruning back tree branches and branches from a long and towering (not-thorny) hedge. This afternoon I began the task of pruning back the thorny hedge. I've do...

Richard is watching the rugby, (England vs. South Africa). At least he says he is. He doesn't generally snore whilst awake. However, the second I switch the vile machine off (or turn it down) he'll open his eyes and insist he's thoroughly enjoying it. I have no idea what these men are doing, other than running after a ball then throwing themselves into a big heap. There seems to be a lot of shoving and pushing, and a fair amount of bellowing - though I have no idea what they're rabbiting on about.... Sport is peculiar. I have never understood it - or wanted to, actually. An awful lot of people disagree with me, obviously. That's ok. If they wish to pay upwards of £50 for a spectacularly ugly t-shirt or a silly foam hat, that is entirely their choice to do so. Imagine if knitting was promoted in a similar way to football or cricket or rubgy. Our city streets might be flooded with drunken grannies chanting, "Knit one, purl one! Knit one, purl one!" ...

Last night’s premier of The Snow Queen, performed at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool was wonderful! The English National Ballet more than lived up to its reputation for excellence with this new ballet choreographed and directed by Michael Corder . The fairy tale, originally written by Hans Christian Andersen, tells the story of Kay and Gerda, whose love is jeopardised when Kay falls under the evil spell of the Snow Queen. Kay leaves the village and Gerda, and goes to dwell in the Snow Queen’s icy palace. Gerda has other ideas, however, and dances all the way to the North Pole in a tiny pink dress to rescue him. Fernanda Oliveira carried the demanding role of Gerda with seemingly inexhaustible vivaciousness. Daria Klimentova ’s portrayal of the Snow Queen was suitably dramatic and aloof, and her glittering costumes must have been a delight to design. The Snow Queen had two rather cute pet wolves. Every home should have one. Really, it should. So long as they didn’t eat my other...