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Hilarie: Why we’re banned from archaeological pursuits

THE subject of summer holidays has cropped up, as it always does at this gloomiest time of the year.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: I need to do more standing and sharing

WE STAGGERED back from the supermarket the other day, laden like beasts of burden, with cat food; hay and straw for the rabbit; an enormous sack of mixed wild bird seed and a bag of peanuts for the squirrels.Read

Hilarie Stelfox : Abusers should be punished without mercy

THE Examiner’s front page lead on Tuesday told the sordid story of a pensioner who was caught downloading pornographic images of children onto his computer.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: And here’s one that I doodled earlier

I AM and always have been a doodler. The desk pad next to my phone at work is usually covered in a random assortment of spiky floral sprays, heavily embossed chessboards, cross-hatched oblongs and words with the letters coloured in.Read

Hilarie: Now my hero da Vinci is a fashion designer too

LEONARDO da Vinci has long been recognised as an all-round genius – the embodiment of Renaissance Man.Read

Hilarie: And now I have a Kindle which will reawaken the classics for me

AH, it never pays to close one’s mind to new ideas.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: Have you heard the one about the Student and the Sprout?

THE Man-in-Charge and his daughter have one of those Inspector Clouseau and Cato relationships.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: Forgiving our Ironing Fairy

WE have bought the Ironing Fairy a new mobile phone.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: We had a ‘Phar-oahld’ time in Manchester

WE spent the day in Ancient Egypt last week and took photographs in front of the pyramids.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: We need more ways to give children a Sure Start

IT WOULD be wonderful if all children were born into caring, loving homes and raised with aspirations and encouragement.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: Christmas chickens are coming home to roost

FOUR-FIFTHS of the Stelfox family pets were waifs and strays when they came to us.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: Christmas is also the season of strife and stress

THERE’S something about Christmas that seems to evoke the best and worst in families.Read

Hilarie Stelfox defends cat and dog ownership

IF, AS A recent survey suggests, two thirds of women and three quarters of men can’t remember what their partner gave them last year for Christmas, it’s quite clear that we are all wasting our time and money.Read

Hilarie Stelfox on the high maintenance art of looking good

OVER THE past couple of weeks I have found myself in a number of waiting rooms – at the doctor’s, dentist’s and hairdresser’s.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: Is there anything worse than losing a handbag?

SHORT of war, pestilence and disease, there are few disasters more distressing to a woman than losing her handbag.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: And now for something completely different

THE painter Georges-Pierre Seurat had an obsessional approach to art.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: ‘They dined on mince and slices of quince’

INSPIRED by Kirstie’s Homemade Christmas I have been making preserves for the festive season.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: Hoarders and collectors wanted for new television series

MY RECENT column on the de-cluttering of my ‘empty nest’ attracted the attention of a television researcher who wants to find hoarders for a new prime time series.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: What are we going to do with all these photographs?

IN MY mission to purge all of our cupboards, this week I have been tackling the sideboard, repository of family photographs, some dating back to 1898 but most from the last 20 years.Read

Hilarie Stelfox: Why women feel ageism more keenly

WHY, said a colleague of mine this week, are women so sensitive about their age?Read