Notices by David Bridger (davidbridger@mastodon.social)

A small crash and muttered annoyance drew me to the kitchen, where my wife was on her hands and knees surrounded by the scattered contents of a box of cocktail sticks.

Me: Can I help?

Wife:

Me: This reminds me of a game we used to play when the girls were little. Dropped a pile of sticks on the floor and had to pick them up one-by-one, or something.

Wife:

Me: What was it called?

Impressed at how sincerely the words "pick up sticks" can impart the message "Fuck off and leave me alone."

Watched a murder mystery with my wife and daughter last weekend.

Daughter: Lots of suspects in this. Who do you think did it?
Me: Character X
Daughter: He's hardly been in it. No motive or anything.
Me: He featured heavily in the first five minutes, then dropped off the map.
Wife: So you think it's him not because of any suspicious behaviour? It's purely a writing structure thing?
Me: Yes.

An hour later, X is revealed to be the killer.

Daughter:
Me:
Wife: Smug twat.

"In this house, we do not bite faces."

...is not something I expected to hear myself saying. But with three 14mo sibling spaniel pups in a state of high anxiety because the gas people are digging up our road outside to replace the mains pipework I've had to say it three times already today and it's only 10.15am.

“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives that they lived in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Winter is a time of withdrawing from the world.... Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”

Katherine May - Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Very cold and quite windy today. The wind caught my beard and I love the sensation when it pulls on my face.

I remember the first time I ever felt that, standing on the swaying deck of a ship leaving Plymouth on a grey day just like today.

My first beard was dark with a white flash down my chin. Now my old man's beard is all white and soft, but that pull in the wind feels the same as it always did. I feel alive.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articles/c7569z75lqko#:~:text=The%20closing%20date%20is%20Friday,production%20experts%20from%20BBC%20Sport.

Mood.

Sinead O'Connor and The Chieftains - The Foggy Dew

https://youtu.be/keWnPZOd2cw?si=Z8dmmGncXzjc-Uki

There’s a good crop of rose hips up in our garden this year, especially on the big bush beside Mother Bramley. I’m keeping my eye on its fat red fruits. The birds aren’t interested in it yet, and we’re perhaps a few weeks from our first sharp frost to soften the hips’ flesh. As always, we’ll leave most of it for the birds, but this year I’d like to harvest some and make tea. I’ve read it’s good for soothing arthritis pain.

Got beaten up all night by three parkour spaniel puppies.