Sunday 2nd August - Lammas Sunday

 It's a festival marking the first fruits of the harvest; lammas meaning loaf-mass.

At zoom church today the account came from Matthew's gospel,  chapter 14. The person doing the reflection (aka sermon, but shorter!) reminded us, or in my case, informed us, that it's one of the events recorded in all four gospels, so I'll get another chance to think  about it when it turns up in my slow read through John's gospel.

What had Jesus been telling the crowd all day? How could 5,000 people (not including women and children!) hear him? I was trying to relate the number of people to a place I knew; during the prom concerts at the Royal Albert Hall there are up to about 1000 people standing in the middle and roughly 4,000 in reserved seating 

That helps me get an impression. 

The whole episode, however you interpret it  is astonishing. 

This was our final hymn; Gather around, for the table is spread.

I haven't been able to find a version on YouTube with singers I like, so here is just an organist and the words.

Music: William Ross 

Words: Jeanette Holloway

Gather around, for the table is spread, 

welcome the food and rest!

Wide is our circle, with Christ at the head, 

he is the honoured guest.

Learn of his love, grow in his grace, 

pray for the peace he gives;

here at this meal, here in this place, 

know that his spirit lives!

Once he was known in the breaking of bread,

shared with a chosen few;

multitudes gathered and by him were fed, so, will he feed us too.

Daniel Roberts | Organist,  Recorded in St. Thomas Church, Stanhope, Durham

Friday 31st July - And breathe....

 I confess to a bit of a wobble this afternoon, resulting in initiating a flurry of phone calls and texts regarding the rather unlovely business of relocating the vertical soil pipe. This is an earlier photograph from before the chimney was taken down and you can see it quite clearly. The sloping roof of our extension starts just below the bedroom windows, so there has to be a hole in one of the prefabricated panels for it to go through.  

I was under the impression (and I don't think I was the only one) that the pipe was going to be moved over towards the side of the house somewhere along its length, but there was no sign of any activity towards this work... and it was essential that the pipe was in the correct place before the walls and roof of the extension could be built. And that work was going to start on Wednesday! 

Anyway, there was a long conversation this afternoon between our architect and the man in charge of ordering and arranging the hup! installation. Plans were checked and double checked, and measurements made today by our architect here on site during this conversation also checked and rechecked, and it looks likely It Will All Be Fine. 

I'm not sorry for starting this hare as there seemed to be too much uncertainty around it all for comfort. It's easy to say 'don't worry, we'll sort something out' but to be honest it would have been near the front of my mind all weekend. 

But look! The ground works team have been magnificent!

I took this looking down the garden, standing just inside the existing patio doors. The lower level closest to me will be made up to level with the house floor by the time the insulation and screed and flooring are laid, and the patio beyond will actually be a bit lower, ending a good foot or more higher than the grass. We'll probably add a railing, this year, next year, someday, never.   

This next photograph is taken standing on the grass looking back to the house. The sandstone slabs just need pointing, as do the steps down. The steps are each only about four inches high; broad and shallow as I requested. If you can make out the white mug on the right hand wall, it is approximately where the side door steps go down.

 There is still the question of how to deal with the soil pipe inside the extension; boxing it in somehow is the obvious solution; failing that perhaps we could paint it some wacky colour and drape fairy lights around it. (I'm serious here!)

.....

A week of no reading, less knitting, and moving between a low old-fashioned upright chair I inherited from my grandmother, an IKEA Poang chair and the dining chairs has helped my stiff neck/shoulder through the daytime. The settee is going tomorrow; I'm convinced that the way I slouch on it and hunch over my kindle, or books, or knitting is half the problem. I now just need to solve the pillow problem again as it is worse when I wake up in the morning. I've got a special neck support pillow, but had stopped using it when it got so hot.

A week of this constant discomfort has made me appreciate how lucky I am as I don't usually experience constant pain; people living with any kind of chronic pain deserve all our patience and understanding; it is so hard to stay cheerful when your own body is grumbling and complaining at you. 

.....

The dust has, quite literally, settled after a hectic and trying week (even though all the team have been wonderful). It's 5pm, Friday, and we have the weekend in front of us... apart from some time early on Saturday when they will come to finish off and tidy up before moving on to another job. I will actually be sorry to see them go.

.......

and breathe;

Here is Yuja Wang playing Chopin's Waltz in C# minor op 64 no 2; 

Thursday 30th July - and it's gone quiet

.... until tomorrow!

The French windows and back door were built, back in the 1950s, without lintels. The bricks above the opening just rested on the door frames. So removing these doors means putting in reinforced steel joists (RSJs). 

More hammering, but not for long, and not as loud. In fact it was a much quieter day.

Photographs tomorrow. 

Meanwhile 

Arrangement by Craig Leon. The orchestra is st Martins in the Fields, with Marcus Stern conducting.

Wednesday 28th July - Thump! Crash! Clang! Rrrrrrrr!

 They are taking down the defunct chimney as I type (9am)... hammering and drilling out the bricks and chucking them down, clanging against the scaffolding tower, crashing to the ground, flying in a loose arc over the half-dozen cups stacked on a pile of bricks after the first 'arriving on site' coffee-tea run at 7.30am. They like starting early, and clocking off around 4pm, which suits us too.

 Thank heaven for the sound-proofing qualities of double glazing, I say. And also thank heavens that our 90-year-old neighbours are both a bit deaf now. It won't go on for ever; they are only taking down the lower part, as far as the bedroom windows. I took this picture at close of play yesterday.

At the bottom is the retaining wall for the patio, which is at a higher level than the ground. There will be two broad, shallow steps down to the right - the net wall, running out of shot to the right is the retaining wall for them. Further back is the wall for the extension, coming out around ten feet from the house and running most of the width. We stopped short of the boundary wall so that we didn't disturb our neighbour's property.

The roof, a mix of opening glass panels and solid panel, will slope down towards the garden from just below the bedroom windows, hence the chimney activity. When these houses were built, in the 1950s, most 'modern' houses had a coal stove in the kitchen for heating water, something like this;

https://www.1900s.org.uk/1940s50s-boiler.htm

I can just remember one in the corner of the kitchen of my first childhood home. When we moved to a larger house in the 1960s my mother INSISTED on full, oil-fired central heating!   

The other big task left before the actual extension is delivered, as far as I know, is moving the soil pipe. At the moment it just clips the corner of the back door frame, which will become the door from the old kitchen to the new kitchen. I can't remember exactly what they settled on; I have a feeling it is going to be directed towards the edge of the end wall and then boxed in.   

The current French windows will be taken out and left as an open archway into the living room part of the extension. There will be very similar French windows opening onto the new patio.

The current kitchen will become a downstairs shower room/loo opening off a utility room  

Well, that's the plan, the dream, the vision....

 At the moment the hup! people (for that's the name of the company making the extension want to deliver everything on Monday... hmmm. There's a slight tension in the air....

......

Ring on the door bell... what now....

'I've come to deliver the glass for your roof?...eight panels?... about 1.5 m by 1 m?...' 

What!!!! 

Three telephone calls later, and he's driving back to wherever he came from, with the glass still loaded. He's at least a week early!

And so life continues...

Thump! Crash! Clang! Rrrrrrr!

Sunday 26th July - John Chapter 3

 I'm reading John's gospel very, very slowly. I print out just one chapter, in a big font size from the King James version, because I like the weightiness of the words, and keep it - don't laugh - by the loo. 

(One of my uncles insisted that the downstairs loo in his house should be wide enough to he could read The Times newspaper, back when it was a broadsheet, in comfort.)

So, anyway, I just read the same few verses, several times a day, until I think I've understood them reasonably well.

After a month I have just embarked upon chapter three;

There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.    

         That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

            Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

            The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not                 tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

            Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 

 In just a few verses we have a whole scene; Nicodemus arriving after dark - had he been busy all day, and this was the first chance he'd got? - or was he skulking through the shadows hoping no-one would see him visiting Jesus? 

He comes seeking answers, and all he gets is riddles. Was he puzzled by Jesus's response? Or irritated?

Am I puzzled? Or am I irritated? 

The first mention of the Spirit is, famously, right at the beginning of Genesis. Ruach Elohim. The Spirit, or Breath, of God hovering over the waters.

 

As someone who lives 'an oxygenated life', and spend every day adjusting oxygen flow rates according to whether I'm sitting, reading, playing the piano, wrestling with my Tax Return, cooking, washing up, walking, standing, getting dressed, etc, I am very interested in breath, and the Breath of God, the one as a living, breathing example of the other. 

I'm going to need to spend a bit more time on these verses to try and get my head around them. I think reading other translations of this passage will help.

 

Saturday 25th July - another hot, airless day

 

I think she has found the word for the season...

Friday 24th July - the story so far;

1This morning the front garden looked like this;

But by 9am it looked like this;

The mound was from digging out the soakaway in the middle of the grass area at the back (I can't, in all conscience, call it a 'lawn'), and finishing off the foundation for the extension, and digging out the foundation for the retaining wall around the patio. 

I stood and admired the skill and delicacy of the man operating the great grabbing jaws on his lorry, picking up the earth and rubble and swinging it round without leaving a trace in its path. 

Here's how the extension looks now;

This is the extension from the side. The new side door from the kitchen will be where that coffee cup (with the broken handle? It was fine when I handed it to them!!) sits on the wall.

The hole on the other side of the wall is where they have begun to dig out around the current manhole access for the drains. On Monday they will put in the new cover, outside the extension, and they told us it would be a good idea to plan  to make 'alternative arrangements for using  the loo on Tuesday or Wednesday for a few hours, perhaps you could go out for the day or something?'   Hint taken... I certainly don't fancy using their portaloo!

I thought I had taken another picture showing the patio area... it's too dark now so I'll do that tomorrow. 

Getting through the mechanical jungle to water the plants at the bottom is like some kind of crazy aptitude test, but we achieved it.

....

It usually takes me three attempts to get a new knitted square for the collaboration going... this time appears to be no different. It might be third time lucky... the first half dozen rows look ok. And it's such a straightforward pattern too!

....

Two 'wins' today;

I took an oxygen cylinder for a little 10 minute walk, just a few houses up the street and back. It was so hot I couldn't manage to walk far without pausing for breath, but it was pleasant to look at the flowers in people's front gardens and see the bees almost beside themselves with ecstasy over the flowers of what I think was a yellow buddleia.

and

 I spent some time playing the piano today, the first time in days weeks. Scales to start with... they are so deeply embedded in my memory now that they are easy to play, but it took some time before my fingers started moving properly with the notes sounding together. Then Debussy's 'Little Shepherd' which I'm currently teaching, and revisiting (in VERY slow motion!) the gigue from the French Suite in G major by Bach. I think it must have been about 1973 when I learned it! It's a terrific romp. I love the way the opening tune is thrown about from one hand to the other.

Here's Andras Schiff;

Thursday 23rd July - it's a square swap!

11 A tale of four squares...

Here's number one - a very simple two-stripe pattern. I chose one of the easiest patterns in the boo because I knew I didn't have much brain. To make it slightly more interesting, I thought I would use Sirdar Crofter, which is supposed to knit up into a Fair Isle type pattern, and a different yarn that is self striping, gradually changing to the next colour. 

Square no 1.

And I was right about the brain power; about half-a-dozen rows in, I discovered I had cast on three too few stitches. I just added some stitches to the end of the row and kept on going. I like the square, but it was too wonky to send to Ang. 

Square 2;

I like the way it shades from dark blue stripes to light blue. But wait, what have I done with square 1? After a few days searching, I gave up and embarked upon square number 3: 

This had a nice little riff on Breton stripes; Ang will like that, I thought. But then square 2 had gone missing...

This was getting ridiculous. 

So, I knitted square 4, and halfway through squares 1, 2 and 3 mysteriously reappeared. How do they do that?

I sent two squares to Ang, and kept number 1 and another for for myself. But which one? I can't remember; you'll have to wait until Ang posts about her parcel!

She's written about the square she sent to me here;  

and here's what came in the post yesterday for me;

A square which really looks like the sea on a sunny day, two rolls of very thin (very useful!) Washi tape in seashell colours, and lovely stitching markers, with seashell coloured beads. It really cheered me up! - thank you 😊 

I've had a trying couple of days what with one thing and another; the swaps always seem to arrive on a day when they would be most appreciated.

Thursday 23th July - My Oxygenated Life - hot dry weather

 Hey ho.

All this hot weather hasn't actually been 'too much' for me - at least, no more exhausting for me than for anyone else. We have worked out how to keep the house cool by wedging the front door and windows and back door and windows open as often as possible, creating an effective through draft even if there isn't much of a breeze outside.

Obviously when the builders are creating a huge din , or doing something very dusty, like cutting up the concrete slab that was under the old garage, then we have to shut the back doors and endure the stuffiness for a couple of hours, but it's not been too bad.

My main issue has been nosebleeds - my word - how one can get through the tissues! I've had four in the last fortnight, that last one this morning. So far I've managed to quell them in around 10-20 minutes. Obviously staying calm and still is the way to go, but it's very scary when they suddenly start.

'Pinch the bridge of your nose for at least 10 minutes' is surprisingly hard to do but it eventually does the trick. I wonder if I can adapt one of my husband's modelling clamps to do the job for me? 

This is happening mostly because of the extremely dry air and and the constant forced flow of oxygen through my nose which has dried the membrane and made it fragile. I should have been using a water-based lubricant, like Knect, (NEVER use petroleum jelly in your nose, and especially if you are an oxygen user)

and I do have some, but I was not diligent in taking care of myself. Lesson learned. If you think it looks like rebranded KY jelly, you are not wrong...

I've also been having issues with my mouth drying out, especially overnight, so that I'd wake in the wee small hours with my tongue and cheeks completely dry, like sandpaper. So beastly uncomfortable. The dentist recommended Oralieve, so, after checking with the chest clinic nurses in case of medication conflicts, I sent off for the starter pack. 

Oh, the relief! I can massively recommend the products; toothpaste, spray and gel and lip salve (I haven't tried the lozenges yet). Although I note in the very, very small print that the spray and gel might not be suitable for people with milk allergies. There is a magnifying glass within easy reach for small print!

I've bought a second spray and gel to have by the bed.

I'm particularly pleased that there is a lip salve; because oxygen users are not supposed to use petroleum, beeswax or lanolin products I've been stuck for something to help with dry lips over winter. I should make it clear I'm not gaining anything by mentioning these products, but if you are looking for something like this, you could give them a try. And I'm not a medical expert.

So there we have it. Would that life could be simpler! But it's not so complicated that we - my husband and I - can't cope between us.

 

   

Monday, Tuesday 20th/21st July

Monday afternoon; the bricklayer was hard at work all day.

We've been watering selected plants every night. The fatsia is looking definitely out of sorts, but might yet recover.

Here's my vegetable patch!

There were even more people on site today; a visit from the Southern Water inspector again (perhaps he comes for morning tea and biscuits?). And also a site visit from our architect. 

One of the team got on with digging the soakaway, and two were laying bricks. Another two were kept busy shifting barrow-loads of earth from the soakaway, and bringing blocks and bricks and barrow-loads cement for the bricklayers. It was a pleasure to watch how well they worked together. 

Here's how it looked this afternoon 

This will be a combined living room, dining area and kitchen.

It's so exciting... memo to self; replenish the biscuit supply early tomorrow!

Sunday 19th July - Be still...

 Our neighbour took down a couple of fence panels between their garden and ours last summer to make it easier for the builders who built their extension. They've not been replaced, as the gap is convenient for the same builders now working on our extension! 

We had a grandstand view of everything the builders did (which is why we chosecthe same outfit for ours). 

Now, when I'm standing at our kitchen door early in the morning I've noticed that the trees and bushes in both gardens are full of small birds, gossiping, flitting around and generally being very busy. 

So I'm standing still, watching sos3 as not to disturb them, and they are constantly in motion. 

Be still... and know that I am God,  it says in the Psalms.

Vogel als prophet, (the prophet bird) from Waldscenen op 82 no 7, by Schuman,  played by Víkingur Ólafsson

Saturday 18th July - Treasure!

 

Who remembers Shippam's Paste? When it came in little glass jars like this? I was asking the builders earlier in the week if they had dug up any treasure, and as it happens the man in the trench had just reached down and unearthed this little jar. 

'You can have it,' he said, and I'm very pleased with it. 

There were fish pastes and meat pastes, as I recall, all looking a sort of light brownish colour. Meat or fish paste sandwiches were a mainstay of packed lunches and picnic lunches, except at our home, I don't know why. 

The jar is a treasure though, because of the memories of staying with Oma (my grandmother). She used Shippam's pastes and saved all the little jars. She would make up Rowntree's jellies (jello in the USA?), pouring it into the little jars to make little treat-size portions for playing at 'having a party'. She was a bit random in how she diluted the jelly tablets so sometimes you could drink the jelly, and other times you needed to cut it out of the jar.

Now I shall use it for flowers.

....

Today's other treasure was my cousin's combined birthday and housewarming party. Her birthday isn't until much nearer Christmas, but she's planning to celebrate it throughout the year with a mix of parties and days out.

The treasure was meeting up her, her three children and their husbands/partners, and the three grandchildren, for the first time in years. All the other cousins were there too, and other relatives from her family. We stayed for afternoon tea, but left before the evening barbeque (and dancing?). 

Her garden looked amazing; it's only half cleared from being completely, but totally overgrown. It might not be very big - typical sixties bungalow size - but she has hacked clearings here and there so it is a series of secluded spaces, decked out for the party with solar lights and bunting - it will look so pretty as the light fades. I was sorry to have to go, but I knew I wouldn't last more than a couple of hours.

Treasures indeed -  an old chipped glass jar full of memories, and the sight and sound of all the family. 

Thursday 16th July - Meals and Mayhem

 Let's get the mayhem over first;

yesterday morning was all a bit hectic; remember this photograph? The trenches are all 1.5m deep (or so; how accurate can one actually be?)

The builders brought an extra tipper truck to ferry concrete from the lorry parked in the road to the trenches; and yes, the first tipper truck loads were TOO FULL to get down the driveway without slopping;

We left them to it; we were booked in for a 'fun' time at the dentist. It always takes ages; we could go locally but, 'for reasons', as my son would say, we've been going to this practice for over 40 years - not the same people! - but the same gentle ethos. I do find the hygiene and checkup appointments a bit of an endurance marathon, but all the staff are quiet and gentle and explain everything. I came out with 'not bad, room for improvement' from the hygienist, and 'all clear this time' from the dentist.

     I always want to call out 'no fillings today!' as I emerge from the dentistt's room... it's funny how these adverts from our childhood stick in our minds... (but we don't use Colgate toothpaste)

The dentist was also able to recommend Orileve products for a dry mouth - a combination of heat and needing to drink more and sleeping with my mouth open means I wake up with my mouth completely dry - most uncomfortable.

With having the dentist at 1pm, and the travelling time there and back, we ended up having a meal at 5.30pm... was that lunch or supper? I have no idea. Mince and vegetables and baked potatoes. Have I turned into an 'old person' who must to have their meals at the proper time? Oh dear.

If I'd had some salmon around, I would have made John Torode's 10 minute salmon and noodles;

Ingredients

• 2 - 4 pieces of salmon 
• 100ml Teriyaki sauce (from a bottle, or see recipe below)
• 1 stock cube or some bouillon (or a sachet of miso)
• 700m hot water  
• 100g dried egg noodles or similar 
• 2 pak choy, cut into 4 lengthwise 
• 100g sprouting broccoli, sliced
• 2 long red chillis, sliced on an angle (one in the dish and one as garnish)
• 3 spring onions chopped ( separate the whites and greens ) 
• 2 tsp sesame oil

To serve:

• Handful of bean shoots 
• Handful of coriander 
• Nori  / dried seaweed
• sesame seeds

Just in case:

• Teriyaki Marinade
• 150m light soy sauce
• 50g soft brown sugar
• 100m mirin
• 100m sake
• Bring all to the boil and cool.

---

Method

• Marinate the salmon in the teriyaki for a short little while, but not longer than an hour. 
• Mix the stock cube, bouillon or miso with the water in a pan. Add the noodles and bring to the boil then cook for 1 minute. 
• Drop in the salmon with all the marinade and arrange the pak choy and broccoli around the outside with 1 chopped chilli and the greens of the spring onions.
• Sprinkle over a little sesame oil then cover with a lid and simmer gently for 6-8 minutes or until the salmon is cooked through.
• Serve with bean shoots, coriander, greens of the spring onions, the remaining sliced chillies, nori and sesame seeds.
• Additional garnishes could be a little more sesame oil and some crispy fried onions.

   I don't think I've ever made this with all the proper ingredients! But it seems to taste fine without bean sprouts or fresh coriander or nori seaweed or whatever I haven't got this tine around... 

Tuesday 14th July - The noise has stopped - for now

Our green-fingered neighbour was determined to save the cardoons. Undeterred by the news that they have a tap root up to two metres long, he cut off most of the stems and got out what he could. So his wife and I each have a large vase of large flowers, and he has three cardoon plants which might survive. Or not.

I left my vase outside overnight as a couple of bees were still lost in among the purple filaments gorging on the nectar in spite of the stalks being cut down and laid on the grass, and then trimmed and put in vases!  

Yesterday and today (it's now 4pm and the builders have been clearing up for the day) have been incredibly noisy. I knew it would be, but even so... We now have three deeeeep trenches across the garden

The shed was originally to the left of that digger; I watched in total disbelief as they manoeuvered two pump trolleys under it, one on each side, and PUSHED it, still full of everything, to it's new location.   

Still, we now have yet another huge heap of earth in the front garden, waiting for the man with the lorry with the great grabby grabber on the back to come. Grabber man makes it look effortless, filling its terrible jaws with earth and rubble and swinging it safely through the narrow space between the tall rose, the streetlight and the telegraph pole to dump it onto the lorry.

   Tomorrow they will be pouring concrete into the trenches. 

....

Salmon fillets, skinned, cut into pieces and coated with one of the more exotic salad dressings (I recommend honey and mustard, and also a ginger one) and air-fried for 9-10 minutes at 180 was delicious.

Tonight will be rolls with coronation coleslaw and cold sliced chicken again. No thought required.

.... 

The Real Saturday post for 11th July

 This morning my brain when I wrote the previous post, I was clearly not properlyawake!'. I'd had woken up far, far too early and the caffeine hadn't really kicked in..

The reason for seeing in the dawn? I had a hummingdinger of a nosebleed at 4.20 am - I checked the time - and it was half a box of tissues and over 25 minutes before it stopped. I was very pleased that I reacted quickly enough to save the bedding! (But my pyjamas went straight into the wash once I was up!).

Anyway, all's well that ends well, and I've been fine, if a bit scrambled what with early rising and a heatwave. The heat seems to suddenly envelop the house at about half past two, and then all sensible thought processes cease. We've been opening the front and back doors to let a draught of cool air sweep through. 

Weren't the men's Wimbledon semi finals interesting yesterday! I stood in the hall and watched through the open door...

and then had a better idea; BB helped me set up a camping chair in the hall and brought me my laptop.

Now the tricky thing is that iplayer is about 2 seconds behind the TV... so he switched off the sound and watched on TV from the comfortof his armchair and listened to the delayed commentary. Confusing, or what, huh?

....

Assembled meals have been the order of the day; sliced ham, salad, potato salad...

'Pasta pockets' as my friend calls them (filled tortellini) with sauce out of a jar

Crustless quiche made first thing in the morning, with boiled potatoes, also cooked in the morning, and salad... you get the idea.. 

Although I've come to the conclusion that all the bought coleslaw salads have been dressed with the same generic mayo-type dressing, and it really is Much Better to make one's own.

.... 

I'm very much enjoying 'Mrs Endicott's Splendid Adventure' by Rhys Bowen, although I haven't reached the quotation I posted yet.

Saturday! NOT Sunday 11th July - Mrs Endicott's Splendid Adventure

 I was searching through my Commonplace book this morning for a poem (which I don't think I have written down yet) and tripped across this quotation

"Prayers don't have to be elaborate things. Why don't you start with 

three things you're blessed with,

three things you're afraid of,

and three things you ask of Him?

And don't forget to listen, too."

Underneath, I have written "Mrs Endicott's Splendid Adventure - by Rhys Bowen". Not an author I have read. 

It's the advice on prayer that caught my attention. It seems doable to me...

On the strength of those words, and the blurb, I have downloaded the book for £1 onto my kindle. 

 "Blindsided by betrayal in pre-WWII England, a woman charts a daring new course in this captivating tale of resilience, friendship, and new love by the bestselling author of The Rose Arbor and The Venice Sketchbook.

Surrey, England, 1938. After thirty devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s appeal for divorce. It’s Ellie’s opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She’s taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora—each needing escape—impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France."

The book looks interesting, (if not particularly 'holy') and I am already wondering who said these words to whom... 

Ang's comment below alerted me to the fact that today is SATURDAY! So my Sunday-style post is a day early...

Thursday 9th July - Seriously?

 Oh please, please, could everyone in Clacton-on-Sea vote for Count Binface?

 He looks to be the only candidate standing against Nigel Farage in the by-election after NF resigned as an MP (oddly enough the same initials as National Front, I'veonlyjust noticed). NF resigned as MP, apparently, if I've got this right, in protest at being investigated re potentially breaching the code of conduct for MPs.

Reading the ITVX article it seems he's a 'comedian, satirist and Intergalactic Warrior'. Plus he's written for 'Have I Got News For You'. Sound at least as well qualified as many, then?

Am I serious? Um... well, actually,.... yes?

Meanwhile, I dug these plums out of the fridge;

Perfectly ripe, according to the label... definitely NOT! I remember plums being soft and sweet and luscious, nor crunchy and sour. I'm stewing them with sugar and cinnamon.

I've been looking forward to these plums because of this poem

Wednesday 8th Wednesday - move along, nothing happening here...

 I bought kitchen towels that were about an inch too wide for our wall- mounted dispenser. 

No problem, I thought;

BB looked at my DIY fix, and walked to the shop for some new rolls. 'I'll keep these for the car or the shed' he said...

And that's about all I accomplished apart from lunch (sausages, home-made pasta salad, home-made coleslaw, tomatoes, cucumber, crisps and fruit) and supper (exactly the same all over again, except for the coleslaw).

Happy hot Wednesday!

Tuesday 7th July - at last! Post!

 There was a muffled thump in the hall - post!

we were eating lunch; sea bream with roasted onions, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, herbs etc. Plus some purple sprouting broccoli for 'greens'.

The new revised second class post delivery schedule is beginning to bite; Ang posted this last Wednesday, or maybe Thursday morning;

a pink and maroon slip stitch pattern with some suffragette safety pins - purple and dark green. Plus a postcard of an amazing quilt. She describes it here.

Knitting is Not Happening at the moment. Too Hot!

 Otherwise it's been a fairly quiet day. I sat in the shade first thing this morning and watched and chatted and answered questions while Vicky sorted out the chaos of all my pots, abandoned for nearly a year now, ever since we decided that this extension was more than a dream. It was an education watching her at work; even if I was physically able enough do to this, I would never have been able to match her quick, quiet efficiency.         

Then I came in, and while BB was out sourcing a new key safe for beside the front door, I defied the Builders by working out how to open the patio door, and then fixed a string to the handle in such a way I could open it, and haul it back closed without ever stepping down to my doom. The half open door is now completely blocked by the chair, and we can operate my door control system without moving it.       

So that was most of Tuesday... here's the whole poem about peace dropping slow...

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

By William Butler Yeats

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

By William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

from the poetry foundation