Sunday August 9th 2026 "Do YOU ever get disappointed when you see an empty sugar bowl, which desperately needs 're-stocking' ?"

Yes, Friends, do YOU ever feel a slither of disappointment when you see an empty sugar-bowl, which desperately needs 're-stocking'? It's like a missed opportunity, isn't it, when your host hasn't noticed the lack of this crucial tea-time "sweetener" - no pun intended !!!!

1920's icon Bessie Smith even sang a song about it, back in the day - remember?

But don't focus on the hotdog in Bessie's roll, if you can avoid it! It's the sugar that matters! And this old jazz classic is a song very much on the combined lips of me and my wife Lois this morning, here in sweet little Liphook, Hampshire, no question about that!

me and my wife Lois - a recent picture

Sugar is very much on our minds, because we've had some good news from scientists, today, in Lois's weekly copy of her magazine "The Week", which "plopped" through our letter-box on Friday afternoon, giving a refreshing summary of the main news of the week, from home and abroad.

I showcase Lois's copy of "The Week" magazine, which "plopped" 

through our letter-boxes on Friday afternoon when we were in bed (!)

Apparently, we much-aligned "baby boomers" have done something right at last (!), scientists say, by being born in the age of ration books after World War II, thereby decreasing our input of sugar but at the same time decreasing our risk of getting dementia, which is good news!!

(left) this week's bombshell article from the magazine's popular

"What the Scientists are Saying" column, and (right) flashback to 1948:

my wife Lois sitting on a bale of hay in the Oxfordshire countryside,

and me with my sister Kathy, and dad Ken still in uniform

Yes, unexpectedly we've got more free time than usual to peruse our copy of "The Week" today. We got fewer hours of sleep than normal last night for various reasons, and that, combined with the forecast hot temperatures again today, leads Lois to decide not to go to her church's Sunday Morning Meeting this morning, but to log in online instead.

(left) my wife, who logs in online this morning to her church's 

Sunday Morning Meeting, taking place at a village hall near nearby Petersfield (right)

And our daughter Alison, in nearby Headley, isn't going to drop in this afternoon with husband Edward for their usual weekly "catch-up" session with us, because they're heavily involved in the great Headley Parish Croquet Championships. There's no news as yet about the pair's success (or otherwise!) today in this iconic "battle of the sticks" (!), which in previous years the couple have actually hosted on their so-called "tennis lawn", this year sadly devoid of actual grass (!), but keep your eye on my blog this week for the latest news and pictures! 

[I can't wait! - Ed]

(top right) flashback to 2022, when our daughter Alison and husband Edward

reached the finals, watched by a small local crowd, which sadly didn't include

the couple's Danish dog Sika, banished for his obsessional ball-chasing (!)

Poor Sika !!!!!!

So today our Sunday - usually the busiest day of our week (we've been dubbed "Liphook's Busiest-Looking Retired Couple" by admiring neighbours would you believe!), turns out to be unexpectedly leisurely, allowing a comfortable afternoon in bed, after a morning seeing to the tiny vegetable garden that Lois put in place on our moving here in January 2025. Somehow we even find the time to put together a verbal mid-term report on results so far, which is nice!

Head gardener Lois's interim findings include a feature on big marrows, plus a pat on the back for our spinach crop - "stunning", and a "could-do-better mark" for our courgettes. Lettuces have been good, but now coming to an end, with only the "runt" of the crop still visible. Our runner beans are given a "so-so" mark, for the plants' stringy-er than usual performance, and as for the carrots, it's a case of "watch this space" - full details to follow in the coming weeks, and that's a promise !!!!

(left) Lois squeezing her 2026 favourite big marrow, and (right) me with today's

somewhat more meagre, but still-welcome harvest - spuds and beans: yum yum!

The soil here isn't the best - it's still got builders' rubble in it from the 1970's when this estate was built, or possibly, even older, from all the people who were living around here during the nearly 1000 years since the village first appeared in the 1086 Domesday Book, under its former name of Bramshott (strip of land where brambles grow!). 

Great name, but what madness, isn't it !!!!!

Poor "tenants of restricted freedom" haha !!!!

But happy days!!!!

For mine and Lois's little garden, however, the big factor this year, of course, has been the lack of rain, but we've hit back against the apparent climate change by heroically saving all our 'waste water' in an array of watering-cans and "bucketry" in the garage, so look for us perhaps next January, in the King's New Years Honours List haha! 

Yours Truly today, showcasing our array of watering-cans and buckets

filled with our copious 'waste water', which we use on our plants and veg

[Is that really all you two "noggins" have done today, Colin? - Ed]

Well, no it isn't, seeing as how you've obviously interested!

Lois and I are on a mission to binge-watch all 6 series of the recent Canadian series "Schitt's Creek", a riches-to-rags story of a former billionaire Johnny Rose. Johnny loses his fortune to a crooked associate, is forced out of his enormous mansion and move himself, wife Moira - a washed-up former daytime soap star - and useless grown-up kids David and Alexis, into 2 rooms in a seedy motel in the backwoods town of Schitt's Creek.

It's a town that Johnny had bought a few years previously "as a joke", and where the suddenly-poor Rose Family now has to suffer a myriad of indignities to put it mildly!!!!

In tonight's episode, the finale to Series 5 - only one more series to go!), Johnny's wife, washed-up former daytime soap star Moira, is about to stage the first night of her version of the musical Cabaret, which she's been directing with the help of local Schitt's Creek's acting talent, which is refreshing!

Meanwhile the Rose Family's useless grown-up son David, has been bursting to break the news of his engagement to his latest "squeeze", Patrick. 

Should David make the couple's announcement this evening, or would that risk upstaging his mum's show's  "Opening Night" - quite the dilemma, which David and Patrick discuss in the opening scenes of tonight's show.

Patrick suggest postponing their big announcement till tomorrow, but David muses on maybe bringing the crowd back to the motel after the opening performance.

Luckily, however, David is neverthelesss ready to "bounce a few vague ideas off" on partner Patrick, if nothing else, which is interesting.

Still a bit "rough around the edges", but David's initial ideas seem like a plan to Lois and me, anyway! And Patrick seems to agree, which is nice!

And Lois and I think the boys have got the problem 'licked' or at least on their way to being licked, which is a comfort!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzz!!!!!!

Saturday August 8th 2026 "Does your 'baby' lean to the east or to the west, when dancing to the latest rock tune?"

Yes, Friends, does your 'baby' seemingly always lean in the same direction, when the two of you are dancing to the latest rock hit tune, possibly eliciting stares from onlookers? 

It's a common problem, isn't it, but not one shared by rock'n'roller Little Richard, at least according to his recent smash "Tutti Frutti", no question about that!!!!!

And this morning, here in half-splendiferous Liphook, Hampshire, my wife Lois and I find ourselves singing Little Richard's iconic song with a vacuous smile on our lips!

We're feeling a bit "frutti" ourselves today, as we walk the "parched but "hallowed" turf, stamping-ground of local soccer heroes Liphook United, somehow finding time to pick another margarine tub of blackberries along the way, although we eat half of them before we get home - we can be like that, when we're tempted, which is a bit naughty, but that's just us, to a tee!

us this morning taking a quick walk over the "parched but hallowed" turf

of local soccer giants Liphook United, somehow finding time to pick some

of the blacker blackberries on offer in the bushes, as we struggle through them!

The weather is a bit more bearable today, so we decide to venture outside the house, but there's going to be another "spike" of extreme heat coming next Thursday and Friday, with the high temperature on Friday forecast to be 91F (32.8C) - yikes!!!!!

Yikes (again) !!!!!

As if we haven't got enough on our plates (!), with another typical busy day for us, again, this Saturday, and we decide to postpone lunch by an hour, to squeeze in a call at 12:30 pm with our daughter Sarah in Perth, Australia, although we can't see her today. Her zoom-camera doesn't seem to work with the computer she's using, so there's a weird blank space on our laptop screen, during the call, which is a pity! She can see us, however, which is a bonus!!!!

our zoom call with our daughter Sarah today, in Perth, Australia,

although her camera isn't working - hence the weird blank

space on the left-hand-side of our screen, which is a pity!!!!

Poor Sarah was woken this morning, at 4 am, by a storm coming in off the Indian Ocean, and found she couldn't get back to sleep. It's not that warm - 52F / 11C - and there's been rain there all day, which is mad - what a contrast to here, where we've hardly had a drop of rain for what seems like months!

What a crazy planet we live on !!!!

This is a slightly unusual time for us to be speaking to Sarah, but she can't do our normal weekly catch-up call tomorrow Sunday, because she and husband Francis, together with their American friend Clarissa will be going on a shopping trip to nearby Joondalup, with our 13-year-old granddaughters Lily and Jessica, and the twins' bosom pals, Clarissa's two young scamps, Samara and Djanna. Clarissa has kindly given each of the kids $30 to spend tomorrow, which is a nice gesture!

flashback to July: Lois and me with our little Australian family

sampling "The View from the Shard" - Western Europe's tallest building -

on a day-trip to London during their recent stay with us

It's nice for Lois and me to hear that the family will be in Joondalup tomorrow, because we know that particular Perth suburb well, from our two trips out to Australia to see them.

flashback to May 2016 - (left) Lois and I stop to have a coffee

at Joondalup Mall on our first trip to Australia to see Sarah and family,

and (right) relaxing at the family's then home in the suburb of Iluka

Lois and I can't help feeling sorry for Sarah, however. She's known in our family as "Sarah Two-Jobs", because she's doing, not just her accountancy job in Perth, but also her old accountancy job in Evesham, UK, working online, so there's little time to unwind, either on weekday evenings or at weekends, and with no relief in sight, as yet.

14:00 Plopping through our letterbox comes the latest edition of Lois's magazine, "The Week", which gives a digest of the week's news from home and abroad, and we make ourselves a bit of time to glance through it before getting into bed for another "statutory nap-time" - busy busy busy!!!!

This week, the magazine is leading on the troubles of FIFA chairman Gianni Infantino, which gives us extra reason to celebrate this afternoon. Isn't it great when a guy so obviously "on the make", finally gets his come-uppance, which happens too rarely these days, seemingly!!!

Poor Infantino haha!

We rely on "The Week" to give a spread of opinions, and also to follow up on stories that the tabloid press has given up on after their first shock-value as click-bait (!). 

The press was full of stories earlier a week ago about the 72,000 or so Africans who had crossed the land-border into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta in an apparent bid to enter the European Union illegally. Some said that they had seen social media posts promising work opportunities in Ceuta, while others said they've been encouraged to cross the border by Moroccan authorities.

Lois's "The Week" magazine details how there was much less reporting, however, on the fact that by last Wednesday all but 2000 of the migrants were back in Morocco: after finding shops closed, and with nothing to eat or drink, almost all of those who had reached Ceuta, quickly left again, as Laila Lalami reported in "The Nation". 

That didn't stop press scaremongering about the "invasion", with even US Vice-President JD Vance sharing a Fox News segment that, confusingly, described migrants arriving in "northern Spain" [??? - Ed], and Reform's Nigel Farage and Robert Jenrick suggesting that the migrants were heading for Britain. 

What madness, isn't it !!!!

21:00 At last, seizing a brief chance to relax before bedtime, Lois and I binge-watch another couple of episodes of the recent Canadian series, Schitt's Creek. The series is essentially a "riches-to-rags" story about former billionaire industrialist Johnny Rose, wife Moira and useless grown-up kids David and Alexis. 

Johnny's former fortune was robbed from him by one of his crooked associates, so that the family is forced to rent 2 rooms in a seedy motel in the backwoods town of Schitt's Creek.

In tonight's episode, the Rose family's useless grown-up daughter Alexis is planning a romantic holiday on the Galapagos Islands with new "squeeze" Ted, the town vet, and, with her eye on the future of her new romance, Alexis seeks a Tarot card reading from close friend Twyla, who has a few questions to ask before giving her reading....

Yikes! However, urged by Ted to try and find something more positive to say about their upcoming holiday, Twyla eventually comes up with what seems, at first, like a happier prediction:

Oops! Perhaps try going to somebody other than Twyla, for your next Tarot Card Reading, Alexis!

What a crazy world we live in !!!!!

Will this do?

[Oh just go to bed! - Ed]

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzz!!!!!!