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In an attempt to attract mothers to be, I put up a couple of luxury wooden penthouses in secluded parts of the garden. These were summarily ignored for cosy nooks between the roof and the trim. I may have misjudged the type of bird; upscale was not their thing, utilitarian with sticks and a bed of pine straw is more their milieux. I've counted five nests so far; two between roof beams, one in the wood pile, and one in each of the Abelias. I am so looking forward to watchi

I want to look as good as M. M is my mother. She's M because she dislikes the moniker mum; mummy ceased being appropriate when I was 4, and Mother is just too formal, notwithstanding it sounds a little ominous. Secretly, I think she enjoys the MI6 associations the letter suggests. At 88, M has a full head of silvery white hair. This she puts down to her daily consumption of millet flakes. Bird food! I think she discovered this when I was in my thirties and still cared in

As my dear friend Fleur pointed out, "it's only you that's in a rush to be 60!" She has a point. Why hurtle towards this milestone when you can saunter in the general direction, smelling the sweet pollen on the air, savoring the residual elasticity in your knees that will surely evaporate at the turn of the decade. The "9's" are such cliffhangers, that's why. No one wants to be a "9", least of all 9 year olds. There is something awkward about it; it's not a fully formed nu

Not the shine the chandelier type or divest of threadbare socks; more a flushing through of those built up bodily toxins! Also not the scheduling of a colonoscopy, if you were wondering! For those in the UK, after the age of fifty, the US medical mafia demand you have a colonoscopy. For them, this is a no brainer. For us, it is a humiliating poop fest culminating in a camera having its way in your colon and producing lovely pictures of pink tunnels you can never unsee. You

Extrapolations from this title are endless! I challenge you to send me some! I was struck, without any chagrin, that by 60 you are smaller. This may be true as we do appear to lose length as we age, but we are also not as relevant in the world. We have lived more than half our lives and our opinions and needs are mostly in the rear view mirror. Younger people listen less to what us oldies have to say because they assume we are behind the curve. We probably are behind their

Of course these are designed to be hacked through with a machete. Except at 60 you are starting to get a little resistant. I get up at 6.30, let the dogs out, make the coffee which has to be made in a Cafetiere or French Press, if you prefer the term, and then I watch the stock market channel. When the routine is busted, I feel a little out of sorts. You are 60 not 90, you yell! I know! But by the time you reach 60, you've usually been through many highs and lows. Your tol

What, a British person, lecturing me on positivity? What if I match you and raise you Disney World? You ridiculous Brits! British people are notoriously critical, cynical; everything is grim until it's proven otherwise. Dear Pop (my dad), one of your favorite phrases is "it's not unpleasant" He could say, "it's pleasant" but he doesn't. And Pop is not a negative person, he's just very British. British people of his generation phrase things like that; no idea why. Maybe b

I want to talk about the best football club in the world! Not American football, which is mostly played with your hands, but real football played with your feet!! Chelsea! Many of us follow a team and many of us are passionate about our teams. Hopefully we follow them in sickness and in health! Yesterday Chelsea were on death watch in the first half against West Ham. The fans in the home ground of Stamford Bridge booed them off the field. That cannot be a good feeling, no

This ties into mental toughness, again! Why is mental toughness so sought after? Because, at many moments through our lives, we doubt ourselves. Mental toughness is the holy grail. It allows you to do everything; be the best, earn the most, achieve, achieve, achieve! Belief is a little gentler. I'm fonder of belief. It's a soft cotton versus the hair shirt of toughness. Toughness can get unruly. It can feed on itself and become selfish, excluding; some self aggrandizemen

I had an epiphany! Actually, it was more of a sad realization. Sixty is not young. No matter what spin you apply, you are aged beef and it ain't prime, or choice for that matter! This was abundantly obvious watching Aussie doubles this week. It's a familiar feeling. We all think we move like that, fast and athletic. It feels like you are motoring on the court, but by sixty those muscle fibers are hardly twitching fast. More like the sporadic twitch you get in your eye whe

Any tennis player worth their salt will tell you tennis is a mental game. If I'd realized that in the beginning I would have probably thrown my racket off the Forth Bridge. The Forth Bridge is in Scotland. It's huge and red and worthy of a dramatic gesture. I would imagine many sets of golf clubs have been hurled into the roiling river below. I'm more accepting of the situation now. 'Mental Toughness' is a frightening phrase to those who doubt they have it. Tennis has tau

For those of us who have a long time partner, we know that their little nighttime snorts and grunts were sweet thirty odd years ago. The dog's snores are always sweet. They can do nothing wrong. They own the bedroom, the house, the fridge. This may not resonate with non dog owners. My advice; get a dog. You'll know what we are talking about! Back to the partner, whose snores have now developed into thunderous, wall shaking, wrecking ball explosions. It will last for at

The pinnacle of achievement in a British person's life is to effortlessly whip up the divine Yorkshire Pud!! And no, my stateside friends, it is not a glorified popover, it is the slightly crisp, lightly chewy, born from British beef fat, glorious high rise consummate maiden to the Beef Rump Roast!! Shortly, I will go in my kitchen and perform the magic! If it is a success, and I can summon the technical prowess, I will post a picture. If not, you will never have to suffer

Briskly arising at the sound of Leda's (little Fox Terrier/Chihuahua mix) rustling and throwing on some discarded clothes from the night before, it's out into the tundra, aka the front yard. Zelda, larger, with a coat to rival a polar bear, skips around in the snow looking to terrorize a squirrel. Leda, usually a turbo pooper, is as pokey on the pot as a man reading his favorite sports page. With feels like 9 degrees, a sweater is marginally more useful than a bikini. It rem

It is almost 2026 and new resolutions loom. These are they! Be at peace with my family, however strange their paths maybe Make my elderly parents laugh Get better at tennis There's many less appetizing commitments to make. Drink less wine; make more use of the vacuum cleaner; give up chips, or crisps, or both. A resounding NO! No need to get puritanical just because you are entering your 60th year! 60 is quite the doozy for a girl. It is often the time of cheese and pickl