There are times in life when only chocolate will do. Last week’s stresses included a son training for a scary bike event, a book to finish and a bill for a car exhaust – so I definitely needed a slab of Dorset’s best chocolate. I hotfooted it along to Chococo’s Swanage emporium and snapped up a selection of their gorgeous handmade chocs, which were devoured (by three of us, I ...keep reading
“Goodnight sweet prince,” muttered my son as our trusty Gaggia coffee maker finally gave up the ghost. He twiddled a few knobs on the machine and the illuminated display declared that the machine had made the grand total of 7,197 cups of coffee in its time. Blimey, I thought, that’s a heck of a lot of coffee. We’d had the machine serviced regularly but the coffee had definitely been getting ...keep reading
I’ve written about my penchant for picnics before – but thanks to the wind and the rain they’ve been in pretty short supply this year. Until this weekend, that is, when for two days running we’ve walked for hours along the Dorset coast. My daughter was home from the bright lights of London and desperate for some sea air. She made a delicious picnic, found an old rucksack and was into ...keep reading
It’s exactly two months since we moved to Dorset and the chaos continues. There are still boxes to unpack, change of address cards to send, curtains to make (not by me – I’m the most cack-handed person ever) and pictures to hang. I’m slightly worried that if I don’t crack it all by Christmas then I never will. I’ll be so used to clambering over boxes, wearing clothes that have ...keep reading