Sorry the blog is a couple of days late this week but we have visitors who need lots of feeding and entertaining. My daughter Jo and her partner Nicky have come over for a week to chill out, even though it’s very hot. They have already had a week walking the Cornish coastal path so need a bit of rest. This however includes challenging the La Godefrere team to games of Petanque, darts and pool. So far La Godefrere (myself and Mrs. Parish) have maintained our 100% home record at Petanque. I t...

I am sat outside on the patio in glorious evening sun, sipping a rather large glass of Emile’s calvados. I am in a somewhat reflective mood gazing out over our orchard which is full of apples and pears. I am contemplating a bit of a philosophical contradiction that would have given Marx a testing time for his dialectic approach. The contradiction that I am considering is how can it be that something as delicious as a glass of Calvados requires such a tortuous process to produce it.

Starting ...

Just when I think that things have finally achieved some degree of normality, the obscure and bizarre seem to occur. Last night Mrs. Parish persuaded me that it would be a good idea to lie out on our garden chairs in the pitch dark at midnight and stare at the sky. Apparently if we do this we might see some percies flying across the night sky. Mrs. Parish explains slowly once again that the thing we are trying to see is a perseid meteor shower which appears as shooting stars in the sky and th...

Here I am sat in our marvellous and large garden, enjoying the afternoon sun. On my lap curled up, is a small grey cat and so quite naturally my thoughts turn to world domination. I stroke the cat and begin to narrow the eyes and mutter in a strange but probably German accent, “so Mr. Bond”. I am awoken from my reverie by Mrs. Parish (in practical mode once again) who reminds me that Blofeld had an evil looking all white cat and our Minou hardly comes into that category, and never mind do...