We are sorry to inform you that on this occasion ...

Mr HC's job application. Well, nothing came of that - too much travelling for someone with a family, apparently but maybe something else will come up in a few months. So he will continue working as a gardener, which is very nice, I should have thought.

There seems to be something of a social phenomenon in this village, that many of the men aged fifty(ish) and previously working in the IT industry, have been made redundant. Often they just don't work again (they seem not to need to), or they get low-paid (like us), or part-time jobs doing something completely different. Age discrimination is not yet illegal here.

On an unrelated matter, there is a lovely exhibition of botanical art at the Ashmolean. http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/ash/exhibitions/exh075.html It has quite inspired me to purchase a Winsor and Newton Number 6 Kolinsky sable.