Judith Proctor's Journal

Why you should think carefully before feeding birds

2026-04-21T09:41:20Z

Recent research has shown that some fatal diseases in garden birds are spread by bird feeders. The RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) stopped selling bird tables several years ago, and have now issued guidelines on what times of our one should not feed at all, and how often seed and suet feeders should be disinfected.

After thinking about it, I've taken down my feeders. They were getting very little use in recent years, and when I'm unwell, I can't clean them regularly enough.

I still have plenty of plants that attract insects, and a tree with rough bark where I often see small birds looking for food.

Advice from the RSPB

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Bullace farm

2026-03-23T09:44:35Z

I belong to two Civil War reenactment groups. The Norfolke Trayned Bandes and Little Woodham.

The Norfolks have a strong connection to Bullace Farm and many of them spend a week there every year as volunteers. This year, the volunteers from LIttle Woodham are visiting the farm for a day.

I really really want to be there, but it's a three hour trip on a mini bus, and three hours back again. And I'm paranoid about long journeys. I've had three really bad (lasting more than two months) of sciatica in the last few years, and two of them were triggered by long journeys.

If you've ever had sciatica, you'll know just how painful it is. If you haven't, all I can tell you is that it's the most painful health condition I've had in my life and it can leave you pretty much immobilised for the duration.

The last bad attack was triggered by a long train journey. I chose train rather than car, as I knew I'd be able to get up and walk round at intervals, but sadly, even that and doing tai chi at stations when there were changes, wasn't enough.

By the time I got home I was in agony. My husband picked me up at the station, and I didn't do any journeys after that for quite some time. Even the short distance to physio appointments had to be done lying on the back seat of the car. Sitting upright was't an option, even for five minutes.

Over the next couple of months, I worked my way through three different physios who all agreed that I needed an operation (to be fair, my original bout of sciatica a few years before HAD needed an operation), until, finally, Manfred came back to England (he has an elderly parent in the Netherlands). I walked in with all my weight on my walking stick, and walked out without the stick.

Took a couple of weeks to finish off the job, but that man is a miracle worker. (He correctly identified the cause of my previous bout of sciatica, as well.)

Ah well, to cut a long story short, I shall not go to Bullace Farm, even though I madly want to.

If you want to know what the farm is like, watch Tales From the Green Valley.

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Ncuti Gatwa in 'The Importance of Being Earnest'

2026-03-17T13:01:17Z

Go here to watch the performance

I've just watched it and it's great!

Excellent cast all round, great costumes (Gatwa looks amazing in his skin tight suit)

I mean, what could possible fail to delight in a show which starts with Gatwa playing a piano in a ballgown?

Multi-racial cast, loads of laughs, Algernon and Jack definitely have bromance going on, and Oscar Wilde's brilliant script.

I think Wilde would have loved this performance as much as I did.

You've got one more day to watch it before the free view comes to an end!

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For All Mankind season 1

2026-03-11T12:38:21Z

I've just finished the first season of 'For All Mankind'. Enjoyed it, but I'm puzzled by the season finale.

How did Ed manage to get upto the Apollo module and down to the moon again? And then up again!

Surely there's no way salvaged fuel could power two lunar take-offs, let alone give the course correction for the Apollo module as well?

and the way lunar landers worked was for the base part to be left on the moon, in any case.

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Diabetes and iron deficiency....

2026-03-11T12:13:32Z

Went to see the diabetes nurse today to sort out medication.

I forget how it came up, but apparently iron deficiency can lead to blood sugar readings that look exactly the same as diabetes...

So, now booked in for an iron test, just in case it isn't diabetes at all.

Also, skinny people can sometimes get Type 2 diabetes, so I'm not even sure which kind of diabetes I have... But the treatment is the same either way in the early stages, so what the heck.

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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

2026-03-08T11:42:51Z

Absolutely bloody fabulous!

I have the audiobook and have listened to it many times.

I love the science, I love the characters, I love the problems that the characters have to face and the way these are tackled.

I'm not in the least surprised they're making a movie, and I'm going to see it as soon as it opens.

The plot is ingenious and unlike any other I've encountered. Earth's sun is losing energy - which means everyone on Earth will die as the world gets colder and colder. There is a limited time span in which to try and find out what is causing the problem and what, if anything can be done about it.

Everything goes in a single 'Hail Mary' project - the only thing that might, possibly might, find a solution.

If you haven't already read it, buy it. (Unless you read and hated 'The Martian', but I don't know anyone who did...)

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This is How you Lose the Time War by Amal el-Mohtar

2026-03-08T11:33:43Z

This book just didn't work for me. I only got part way through before abandoning it.

It's a clever idea, that characters involved on opposing side of a long-running time war start a correspondence, but I found I had little interest in the characters, and little idea of why the time war was being fought.

The descriptive text is very good, but that's not enough to hook me on a book.

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Mythos /Heroes by Stephen Fry

2026-03-08T11:26:21Z

Heroes is well written, as you'd expect from Stephen Fry, and has some gentle touches of humour.

The problem is that after a while the Greek myths all start to feel the same. You don't want to read them all in a short period of time. They're not exactly in depth stories.

This is a book that I think I will dip into now and then, but having got part way through, I've no urge to finish it all in a few sittings.

3/5

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The Boat of Small Mysteries - Robyn Beecroft

2026-03-07T20:21:07Z

It's so nice to read a book involving narrowboats by someone who actually knows what they are writing about!

I remember once reading a romance involving a narrowboat and spending more time mentally nitpicking than getting involved in the romance...

Beecroft knows how a weed hatch works and what you use it for, and likewise for the rest of the waterways equipment.

Does it also work as a novel? Yes, it's a gentle story, made up of different people whom Emily meets and re-meets along the inland waterways. I particularly enjoyed the group of student with their floating party, who keep needing Emily's help due to their general ineptness with narrowboats.

Emily has her own, health-related problems, but there are also other boaters happy to assist her when her pain flares up too badly.

People help her, and she solves problems for them.

There is also romance, but romance with a very Beecroft twist - which happens to work for me :)

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Guards Guards, by Terry Pratchett

2026-03-07T18:56:02Z

'Guards Guards' is Pratchett on top form (much though I love his books, some are much better than others...).

It's the first book about Sam Vimes and the Night Watch, and we get to know and love the characters who will make many appearances in later books.

It's got a plot that makes sense, and has some good twists in it.

It's funny, but it also has characters who feel like real people. Sam Vimes the drunk captain of the Watch has pretty much given up on everything, finds there are some things that even he won't give up on.

The various mystical brotherhoods that meet in Ankh Morepork are hilarious.

My favourite character is Lady Sybil Ramkin, breeder of swamp dragons. The kind of person whose family goes back so far that she is perfectly comfortable spending all her days dressed in old clothes and mucking out dragon pens, and feels no need to attend balls and the like.

This is the story where the Librarian (an orangutan, for those who don't already know) gets enlisted into the Guard, and we discover the mysteries of L-space...

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Theatre for free

2026-02-21T08:19:06Z

via vivdunstan

“The Importance of Being Earnest” with Ncuti Gatwa is going up free on YouTube for a limited period in March."

Love the play, love the actor. Definitely going to try and catch this.

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Ted Lasso

2026-02-11T16:19:37Z

Having zero interest in football, I never would have tried a comedy series based around an American football coach working for an English soccer team...

But 'Replyhazy' suggested I try it while I have Apple TV, and I absolutely love it! It's funny, it's warm-hearted and it has some great characters.

It may not be realistic, but most of the characters are really thoughtful about their relationships - men actually listen to what their girlfriends are telling them and act maturely.

Friendships are built that really have meaning. Villains are relatively few, but they make up for it by being delightfully over the top. Anthony Head, as the football club owner's ex-husband, does a wonderful job as a charming, womanising scumbag!

I think my favourite character is actually Trent Crimm, the newspaper reporter. acted by James Lance. He starts as a minor character, only in some episodes, and is a full-time regular by the end of series 3.

But there are lots of great characters who you grow to love and appreciate.

I even enjoyed watching the football....

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The Goblin Emperor

2026-02-07T10:26:44Z

I've read this twice now, and it's very likely I'll read it again. I also suspect it may hit five stars on the third read.

It's a complex book and the names and titles take a lot of getting used to - but, they do contribute to the story and its politics.

It's a story of a young man, brought up in virtual isolation, pitched unexpectedly into becoming Emperor when his father and all his older brothers die in an airship accident. Landing in the middle of complex court life, competing political factions, and surrounded by strangers, he struggles to understand what is going on, and learn how he can survive.

It has many characters, but they are well-drawn and all have their own motivations and loyalties.

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watervole @ 2026-02-05T08:37:00

2026-02-05T08:43:19Z

Theo's 16 months old now.

When he saw his Dad through the window yesterday, he went and picked up his socks, shoes and jacket ready to put them on :)

He has a couple of 'proto' words now. I think 'ah da' may mean 'grandad', and 'duh' is duck.

He's got diarrhoea this week (really on the spectacular, lots of laundry, level) and hence can't go to nursery until it clears up. So we've been looking after him. Luckily, he's in a good mood in spite of the horrendous nappies and is happy to play and to have books read to him.

He goes through phases with books. Sometimes, he isn't interested at all, and some days it's book after book, with favourites on repeat.

'Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy' is one of the best children's books ever!

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Come From Away

2026-02-01T18:14:38Z

I just got a subscription to Amazon and the extra for Apple TV, so that I could watch Murderbot - which was every bit as good as I had hoped.

Though I'm not sure the 20min episode format was the right choice. I'd have liked them a bit longer.

Having got the subscription for a three month trial, I'm seeing what else are must-watches.

I've just watched the musical 'Come From Away' which was brilliant, and I highly recommend. I had no idea what it was about, just took a punt on it.

It followed what happened in Gander, Newfoundland, when masses of planes got diverted after 9/11.

It's a stage production, hardly any scenery apart from a dozen chairs, but some great singers!

'Pluribus' is probably next on my list - any other suggestions?

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book reviews

2026-01-29T10:28:57Z

Some recent reads:

'Black Hearts in Battersea' by Joan Aiken 4/5

This is a cheerful romp of a book!

Set in the fictitious reign of James III, it has pretty much everything a young reader could wish for (my 11 year old granddaughter loved it!): adventure, kidnapping, hot air balloons, shipwreck, an eccentric Duke, an attempt to murder the king, lots of fun characters and the lost heir to a Dukedom.

Fast paced and laced with humorous situations.

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We have a deal going on. I read a book my granddaughter recommends and she reads one I rec. So I've just finished Black Hearts in Battersea, and she enjoyed Heinlen's 'Rolling Stones'.

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Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel 2/5

I really wanted to like this, as I enjoyed the TV series.

Unfortunately, I dislike most books written in the first person, and most books written in the present tense - this book is both.

I couldn't get though many pages before giving up.

Hopefully, most other readers won't find this an issue, but for me personally, I can only give it two stars.

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Bookshops and Bonedust - Travis Baldree 3/5

This one disappointed me.

Surely a writer as popular as Travis Baldree can get decent beta-readers/editors who actually have some decent general knowledge?

Fantasy requires 'suspension of disbelief'. I can believe in a lesbian, dwarf baker falling for an orc twice her size. I can happily buy an evil necromancer, an ailing bookshop, etc.

But I cannot buy a character being stabbed twice rapidly in her leg by a pike. I'm a re-enactor. A pike is an 18ft long weapon, cumbersome, and used as part of a pike block.

If you want to stab someone close up, use a spear!

Happened again right at the end. A warrior sat rosining his bowstring.

Even my 11-year-old granddaughter spotted what was wrong with that...

You rosin a violin bow. (It makes the horsehair sticker so it has more friction with the violin strings)

Rosining an archer's bowstring (which is definitely not made of horsehair) is complete nonsense.

Without those gaffes, I'd probably have given it a rating of 4, although there was a geological error as well...

It may sound nit-picky, but if I'm absorbed in a story, something that is clearly wrong jerks me out of my belief in that story.

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Good news for once!

2026-01-28T09:25:00Z

I've not posted in the last couple of weeks, as my bike skidded on a patch of hard frost and I took a nasty tumble - and then went down with flu not long after.

I'm gradually getting back to normal, but still fairly ouchy in places...

However, the good news is that both my kids now have jobs. And both in the fields that they wanted to work in. It's been a while - unemployment really sucks.

Henry's now working as a 'requirements manager', (think that was the title) which basically means he's working on the part of a project that really appealed to him - not coding, but working on what the code actually needs to do. eg. One that came up during is interview - what are the requirements for a traffic control system?

You need to think about negative requirements, not just positive ones. He, correctly, came up with "It should not send speeding tickets to emergency serviced vehicles."

Took nine months out of work after being made redundant, and several training courses that he paid for himself, but he's there now.

Lindsey just had a successful interview with a specialised haulage company doing scheduling. Scheduling is her best job skill, but vacancies don't come up that often. She can do a limited amount of driving work - did some before Christmas, but that was a temporary job - too many tight corners trigger vertigo attacks.

I'm impressed that she managed to haggle her hours for this new job to allow her to pick up Oswin from school! Don't yet know if it's work from home or office.

Henry's new job is hybrid, which allows him and his wife to plan their respective days at home to allow for Theo (now one year old) emergencies/delivering to nursery/etc.

It's good that both kids live close to us and to each other. We normally take Theo on Fridays, but last week, we were still too wiped from the flu. Lindsey went round and took Theo for the morning, and then we took him for the afternoon (four hours we could manage, but not all day).

Looking back, I do not know how I managed with two young children and no family within a hundred miles....

And I feel sorry for how much their grandparents missed out on the joy (and occasional panic,etc.) of having the young members of the family around regularly. Being involved in Theo and Oswin's lives so closely is a gift beyond price.

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Diabetes update

2026-01-09T16:07:14Z

I set out to try and gain some weight, as I'd lost somewhere between six and eight kilos over the last few years - which in retrospect was probably Diabetes related. My body is now fairly inefficient at converting food to energy.

So far, I'm just over a kilo up from where I started a bit over a month ago. I hit 50.5 kilos this morning, which is a new record. (there's usually a random wobble of around .3 kg from day to day).

I've done it mainly by eating things between meals and before going to bed. A boiled egg here, a peanut butter sandwich there, a bit of cheese, etc.

So, feeling quite positive about that - I now know that I can do it, and am making slow, steady progress.

I think my energy/braincell levels are up a bit too. I managed to dance the whole of 'Three Point Turn' at morris practice last night - without any mistakes (a first) and still able to stand at the end! (we do go for high-energy morris...)

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Diabetes and weight

2025-12-19T13:20:01Z

It's surprisingly hard to gain weight when you actually want to.

I'm down to 48.2k (go back four or five years and I was probably closer to 58k)

The loss is because my insulin doesn't work as effectively as it used to, so what I eat isn't all converted into useful energy for the body.

I'm now eating larger portions at meals, and I'm adding in snacks of nuts/cheese/fruit/other nibbles between meals, but the catch comes whenever I'm ill.

I gain gradually, then I get an asthma attack. One steroid course, and I've lost half a kilo.

Then I catch a bug from Theo - sick one day and not eating the next - I lose weight again.

It's rather like the old analogy of a frog climbing out of a well. As fast as I climb up, I start to slip down again...

But, at least I know what the problem is, and I'm doing what I can to improve it. As long as I can stay well, I'll hopefully get a bit more weight and energy...

It's still important to avoid foods with a high glycemic index - if too much sugar enters the system, it gets overloaded and enters shutdown mode for a while - that causes blood sugar to spike (which is a BAD thing). one thing I've learnt from what I'm being taught is that bananas have a high GI - best to only have half a banana, unless they are very small ones.

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Diabetes

2025-12-04T08:54:43Z

My first group diabetes talking session is later today.

I'm going to be the thinnest diabetic in the room by far. (because most of the others are likely to have type 2 diabetes)

My weight has fallen gradually over the last few years (which I now know was due to my body finding it harder to produce enough insulin), but not feeling like eating when I had the flu has brought me to an adult lifetime low of 48.4kg which is definitely too low.

The trouble is partly that I'm tired, my asthma is still bad (I've just started on a steroid course) and I can't seem to get interested in food.

I've put a small bowl of mixed nuts by my computer to encourage nibbling. I've asked my husband to offer me fruit whenever he has some (nibbling a persimmon right now).

I'm open to ideas...

I tending to eat small quantities, I really need more, but I just don't feel hungry....

I don't think it's anorexia - I like the way I look. I've been this shape (well, with nearer 550kg) all my adult life, and I'm very happy with it

I'll let you know if the person running the meeting has any suggestions! Meanwhile, I can at least have a guilt-free square of quality chocolate.

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Good news!

2025-12-03T20:31:01Z

First off, the detox on news and Facebook has done a lot to improve my quality of sleep.

Second, and far more important, my son who has been looking for a job ever since his entire office were unexpectedly made redundant around 10 months ago, has finally found a new job.

And the kind of job he really, really wanted. He could have got a coding job quickly, many of his friends did. But he wanted to be involved in problem analysis, requirements analysis, planning the breakdown of work for a team.

He was doing some of that in his previous job, but it wasn't reflected in his job title.

But he's starting around 10 days from now: it's well paid, it's not to far too travel, and he only has to go into the office for two days a week. The rest can be done from home on flextime. (Which is very handy for when Theo - now age 1 and crazily adorable - is unwell and can't go into the nursery. His wife's office day is different, so they can cover all bases - and Richard and I can help out when necessary. we have him on Fridays anyway, as we don't want to miss out on him growing up.

He already loves being read to. And listening to me singing to him :)

So, happy Granny! (Apart from having flu, which has triggered a bad asthma attack to keep it company...)

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The Ghosts of Merry Hall - review

2025-11-22T15:58:32Z

Disclaimer - I'm a good friend of the author -but if I hadn't genuinely liked the book, I'd simply have avoided writing a review.

I had high exceptions, as I know Heather - MA in creative writing, judge for the Carnegie medals, etc.
But, also :) far more importantly from where I stand - she's an excellent musician for longsword dancing!

I've done a fair bit of editing work in my life, so I tend to evaluate novels on both how well written they are, and how much I enjoyed the story.

Ghosts of Merry Hall is very well written

You can always tell which character is narrating. Firstly because a new chapter starts whenever this changes, and secondly because they have really distinctive voices.

You learn about Nell - a mother with a teenage daughter who is recently separated from her husband, and Dolly the ghost, by the way they view the world around them.

Dolly desperately wants to make contact with someone, to tell the story of what happened in the past, but making contact with the living is hard. And every effort leaves them more scared and less likely to want to remain in Merry Hall...

As the haunting gets more intense, the atmosphere gets tenser and tenser.

We learn about the past through Dolly's memories - and very interesting memories they are - but Dolly in the present day is desperate for those memories to be more widely know, even if there is a cost to the living.

It's interesting. As a reader, I'm sympathetic to Dolly, but I'm very glad I'm nowhere near her!

I don't normally read ghost stories - I don't really like being scared... So, for me, the book is only a four. But for someone who enjoys a good haunting, it may well be a five.

PS. I love the cover art. It was nice working through the story and realising where each element in the artwork had come from in the story

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Book Bub

2025-11-22T15:55:52Z

I'm taking time out from social media and also reading the news. It was pushing my stress levels too high (though DW is much better in this regard than Facebook is).

But having picked up yet another Pratchett ebook at a low price and another book that looks interesting for under a quid, I suppose I ought to mention it.

https://www.bookbub.com/ebook-deals/free-ebooks allows you to sign up for a mailing list (I limit it to one post a week, as it's too much if they send it daily) that tells you of discounted books on Kobo and Amazon.

They're usually popular old classics like Pratchett (that I've already paid for in paper form, so feel no guilt about getting a cheap copy), popular books that have already sold in vast numbers and are now on a brief offer for those who weren't tempted at full price (just read a really interesting biography of Captain Cook that is not something I'd previously have considered reading), and occasionally books that are newly released and they're hoping to generate publicity by getting positive reviews. I suspect many of the books listed on their website fall into that category.

You can tell it what kind of books you prefer, so I get mostly offers for SF/fantasy/non-fiction/bestsellers. Getting a selection of about ten a week works for me, and I suspect I'm buying about one a fortnight. (I bought two this week, one Pratchett and one by an author I've never tried, but looked interesting)

I'm also spending more time reading books in the time that was previously wasted doom-scrolling FB and the newspapers!

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Lord Peter Wimsey

2025-11-07T20:48:37Z

One of my friends posted links to a really good selection of Lord Peter Wimsey fics.

I've been happily reading through them, and I've lost the link back to the collection.

Help! Which one of you provided the list?

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The Uncle's Story

2025-10-22T08:18:42Z

If, like me, you enjoy 'The Importance of being Earnest' (and even possibly if you don't), this delightful little story by Kalypso will surely please you as much as it pleased me.

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