My husband is listing things from work on eBay and using the buy it now with free shipping as most things are over the limit of what can be listed as postage costs.

The fees are costing less than the loss there would be on the postage.

Today I was looking for curtains for a neighbour and turned over a heap in the corner of the kitchen - no suitable curtains, as the ones in the heap were the sort to put on poles not rails, but there was a bag of odd socks - some of them pairs to ones I have in the odd sock drawer.

As I wear them in pairs, take them off in pairs and wash them in pairs I am rather at a loss as to how they become separated, but they do.

The colder nights have brought mice into the house, poor things. They are so destructive so we have to set traps for them. A bit of a 'Twix' bar as bait and they meet a swift end.

A few years ago a mouse destroyed my lovely red cloak with a hood. I should not have left it lying around, of course, to get damaged, as it is such a large item. I must make another but there are no fabric shops nearby now. I do have an entire bolt of light blue - I could try dyeing it - hopefully crimson would be the result of using red on it.