July 2017
So here we are, another summer washout! Sounds familiar? Looking back at my July blog of a couple of years back I noted that the day the schools broke up the sun stopped shining. Same story this year. The first two weeks of July promised a Summer of 76. But then came July 15th, St Swithin’s Day, and it rained. Now we’re all paying the price! I
February 2017
Enough is enough! After more than 40 years as a Daily Mail reader, 11 of them working at the paper, I have finally cancelled it. It has
been some years in the planning but the Mail’s appallingly biased Brexit campaign finally did it. As a staunch Remainer, and now Remoaner, I found the paper’s hate-mongering anti-European stance a disgrace to journalism. Now I’m a Times reader.
January 2017
It’s all change at the Attic cafe, one of our favourite haunts in Berkhamsted. It’s had a few incarnations in its time, once briefly under the ownership of James Hannaway, of The Rex. James was a regular face at the Attic until something fairly cataclysmic must have occurred and he was never seen again. The old Attic had a certain charm with its period
November 2016
Sunday afternoons in late November are often damp, and dark by 4. Today is no exception, with a light drizzle to add to the general gloom. Gardening jobs need to be done in the morning, so I’ve been out planting up the Picccotts End village signs for some spring colour. Daffodils and pansies are the staple plantings for this time of the year and I’m
November 2016
Sunday afternoons in late November are often damp, and dark by 4. Today is no exception, with a light drizzle to add to the general gloom. Gardening jobs need to be done in the morning, so I’ve been out planting up the Picccotts End village signs for some spring colour.
July 2016
Dinner party talk used to be all about house prices. Not any more. If the chatter at the village garden party is anything to go by today we are more exercised by broadband speeds. At my end of the village we’re the first house to get the signal from BT Infinity via the big green box at the bottom of Fletcher Way. We have download speeds of more than 30
May 2016
Spring is here and estate agents are extolling the virtues of village life. The Herts Advertiser (head and shoulders above the dismal Gazette) even devoted a whole page to our very own Piccotts End. Reading the paean of praise I couldn’t help noticing that much of the information about village life was lifted directly from our web site! I shouldn’t be surprised because local journalism has been
January 2016
The last few months have raced by, leaving my blog far behind. So what’s been hot and what’s been not in Piccotts End this autumn and winter? The weather for a start. I’ve never seen daffodils in December so perhaps their appearance in borders and grassy banks is one of those ‘once in a lifetime’ occurrences. But they said that about the
August 2015
Alongside the medieval cottages Piccotts End Farm is the oldest habitation in the village, dating back to the 16th century. With its hand-painted warning ‘Caution. Ducks crossing’ at the entrance, it has a touch of the quaint to go with its character. Now, after more than 40 years the farmhouse is on the market. I called by to ask the owner, Mrs Mary Wiedman, about her time there. ‘We moved from Chorleywood in 1972,’ she told me. ‘We had a mock Tudor house there and I always wanted live
June 2015
An article in the papers last week said it was a bumper year for English apricots – and the proof is here in Hertfordshire – in Piccotts End! I planted my apricot tree (bought from Ayletts in St Albans) 5 years ago and every year until now it has yielded nothing. One of the problems is that it flowers very early, in March, and the buds are killed by frost. This