Wednesday 13th September - Morning All

Where have I been? Nowhere.

What have I been doing? Bits and pieces, this and that, something and nothing.

At least, that's how it seems.

In the garden;

I had enough confidence in the results of our intensive slug control programme to transplant the lettuces I had been nurturing in the greenhouse. They have survived the night. It's all looking hopeful at the moment; cauliflower seedlings, swiss chard, pak choi and kohl rabi, all growing on well. I have sown spinach and more pak choi. It give me so much pleasure to see the little plants in the pots. I'm rather sorry to pick and eat them, but that is the point, I suppose. There's a lot of butterfly damage going on with the pak choi leaves, so I might try cloches on the lettuce since I don't have any suitable netting. I noticed a snail or slug trail on one of the kohl rabi leaves; I shall inspect it closely by torchlight tonight! 

Planting out my cauliflower seedlings ha taught me a valuable lesson in the use of paper pots for module sowing. I didn't use them this time, and maybe I was impatient and transplanted them too soon, but they were a nightmare to handle without damaging the fragile stems, whereas popping a whole paper pot into the earth would have been simple. Luckily they seem to have survived and are managing to stand upright. The pale bobbly stuff on top of the earth is pelleted wool to dissuade slugs and snails.   

In the kitchen;

I've made a caraway seed cake - one of my favourites. I just do a 2-egg mix it all in one bowl victoria sponge and add a good shake of caraway seeds. How much? Well, how seedy do you like your cake? I was amused to read in 'Kitchen Conversations' by Agnes Jekyll (sister of gardener Gertrude) that seed cake was usually served at 'nursery tea'. I wouldn't have thought it would appeal to nursery children. The book is a collection of articles written for The Times, I think, back in the 1920s. Most of the recipes sound pretty unpalatable to today's taste and also unbelievably fussy. It also assumes kitchens with a cook and a kitchen maid, and servants to hand round dishes (previously kept warm on a hotplate behind a screen in the corner of the dining room). Evening meals seem generally to have soup, fish, meat, dessert, sweet and savoury courses, with of course, the obligatory provision of wines, cigarettes and cigars (pipe smokers apparently bring their own tobacco and need not be catered for).

I've also failed to make a slow cooker risotto. It would probably have been fine if I had switched off the cooker after 2-3 hours on high. But I didn't.

It's slowly unsticking from the pot with a good soak. 

Reading;

I was recommended the D M Greenwood 'cosy mystery' series. They are set in a fictional cathedral city which I strongly suspect is Norwich, and feature the inimitable Theodore Braithwaite, a deaconess as the sleuth. As the whole 9-book series is currently on offer for 99p on Kindle I thought I may as well...

I devoured book 1 (this could be part of the reason why I forgot to blog?) and am now deep into book 2. The context is very much within the machinations of the Anglican Church, at a time (written in the 1990s) when women could not be ordained to the priesthood. There is a fair amount of spiritual thinking going on in athoughtful and compassionate way, and I think there will be quite a lot to do with horse riding along the way - not too much, but I am enjoying the setting, the horses, the machinations and the spirituality.    

Lark Rise to Candleford (Flora Thompson) is my 'lat thing at night settle down to sleep' reading at the moment.

  

 

Wednesday 6th September - Mission Accomplished!

 I think the last few days went pretty well for my father and his brother - it was a pretty packed schedule for them bearing in mind their respective ages...

My uncle lives about 2 hours drive away, so packing, travelling, tea in our garden and settling in on Monday, plus my father cooking (microwaving) their suppers was a full day.

Yesterday after breakfast (Oat-so-simple porridge, with clotted cream and honey) we took them to a local pub for their lunch. I'm not good at drawing people (yet - that's a project for the future!) and as I try to never post photographs of family and friends on the blog you will have to make do with my rough pencil attempt;

 I took the picture from the outside of the pub looking in, much to their surprise as they were already awaiting their beers and beginning to study the menu. My father's on the left; he takes after his mother, being stocky 'like a Cornish miner', she always used to say. (Regretfully I take after him too). My uncle is thinner and leaner, like Grandfather was. 

(People always said he looked like the man in the moon from the John Lewis Christmas Avert some years back... when they were in Ireland on a family trip, people were always mistaking my uncle for the then Prime Minister. Does everyone always look like someone else?)

My father was worried about how to entertain his brother - he needn't have been, as they both spend their days having a little nap before and after lunch...

Today we collected my uncle and took him to his next hostess, about half an hour away, where he caught up with old friends and had lunch. He was taken home by his daughter-in-law, while we returned to take my father to the dentist after lunch! I shall ring him up later to make sure he wakes up and has supper; you may have noticed that reference to clotted cream; he is tending to lose weight and since he doesn't eat biscuits, cakes, sweet, and certainly not chocolate (!) it is hard to find things that he easily add to the day's meals to add calories.

'I can't really taste the clotted cream, it is wasted on me so you better have it' he said. But I assured him that if he didn't mind having some on his porridge it would probably be a good idea and keep the nurses happy... Goodness knows I really mustn't add clotted cream to my diet!

It is very touching to see them together - 'we must do this again sometime,' said my uncle as he climbed into our car with his overnight bag (2 pairs of glasses - check, phone and charger - check, razor and charger - check) and maybe we can fix something for them.

Other news;

our haul of slugs and snails decreases every night, I am glad to say. Before people mention wildlife and feeding toads and whatever, we only hunt in the top half of the garden, and I know for a fact we have a toad near the vegetable patch, a frog in the weeds by the water fountain, and a wren that goes through the undergrowth of the long flower border most days...

Our cardoons aren't as giant as I had hoped - maybe they are the wrong sort of cardoons? The are still about 5 feet high, and forming flower heads now. I had to stand on tiptoe to take this. 

Tomorrow will be busy; hygienist for me, and tea with a friend at a local cafe. The an evening zoom with my church group. Himself will be taking me to the hygienist (I need to start driving again now the world chez nous is calming down a bit) and doing my father's shopping in the afternoon, and also starting the first steps in persuading him to try on the new trousers and shirts I have bought in the hope they might fit.  

Sunday 3rd September - Job Done

I shall be putting August's cross stitch collaboration piece in the post to Ang tomorrow morning. It's gone 9pm and I finished stitching about ten minutes ago.

We've just been out slugging, but it's too early. Yesterday evening's jaunt round the garden with a torch was a great success and I can report that slugs appear to be as susceptible to cider as they are to beer. We'll go out again later before we go to bed. I'm still obsessing about these sneaky molluscs as I have transplanted the swiss chard now as well;

They are all looking a bit despondent at being turfed out of their pots, but hopefully they will recover. I have covered the entire surface of the pot in slug wool, and also propped up any leaves that were flopping towards the edge of the pot so the slugs and snails can't reach across. 

It was a beautiful day for being in the garden; I cleared a number of pots which had optimistic labels like 'spring onions', 'spinach', 'cauliflower' stuck in them, but after over a month no evidence of anything growing. 

The earth is so lovely and soft and crumbly that I prefer not to use gloves but stir it around with my hands - I love the feel of it. The pak choi and kohl rabi have survived overnight. The pot right at the back is labelled 'lettuce' but now only contains forget me nots. I haven't decided whether to let them stay or weed them out.

That's Aki, the cat next door. He had been an 'indoor cat' for the first year or so of his life; he was completely astonished when tentatively exploring our garden to discover other cats. He obviously knew about, and understood people, but had not met another cat since he was a kitten. It was very amusing to watch him and our elderly (sadly no longer with us) cats; he was non-plussed by our cats, and they were alarmed by him. Partly because he was a new cat, and partly because he had no idea what was going on when they hissed at him, or tried to stare him out.   

My friends in Canada were asking if we had issued our slugs with passports and sent them their way - apparently their borders are crammed full of them too....

Saturday 2nd September - brilliant day (so far)

This morning began with a morning meet up at our favourite farm shop cafe with son and daughter. Husand and they had their usual waffles, bacon and maple syrup, I had what is becoming my usual; avocado on sour dough toast. (Guess who was NOT plagued by wasps?)

After a rather ominous start to the day, weather-wise, the sun came out, so we walked over to the picnic area and played a board game in the sun - oh joy - we haven't met up for a family games night since the beginning of 2020. 

 

We are playing Ank Morpork, based on the Terry Pratchett games. I wanted to buy another set a few years ago and was astonished to find that they are available on e-bay at over £100 now; they have stopped making them (why?).

Daughter won; himself and I can barely remember the rules, let alone the winning strategies. 

After lunch was an intensive cross-stitching session, followed by an hour in the garden. With some trepidation I decided it was time to transplant my kohl rabi and swiss chard plants after all our diligent slugging.

Horrors! When I looked inside the garden bin, I could see all the snails up at the top, waiting to make their escape, but not a slug to be seen! Some, no, most of the slugs were absolute MONSTERS when we chucked them in - had the snails eaten them all? I doubt it.

I think they spend every night oozing their way under the lid, and it had been the same slugs we have been trapping and chucking every night.

There's nothing for it - we will have to take my friend's advice (she is over 80 and been a true countrywoman all her life) and 'finish them off'. But how? 'Don't ask, don't tell' can be very good advice in certain circumstances and this might be one of them.

Meanwhile I have planted out the kohl rabi;

 Each little plant is surrounded by slug wool, and I have set cider (we haven't got any beer) traps in the tub, unprotected by slug wool, and placed a cider trap at ground level. We have also put a cider trap next to the garden bin. I'm not sure why, (don't ask, don't tell, remember?) but it seemed a good idea at the time.

Since then I have read up on beer traps, how often you replenish them, what to do with the horrible contents, and, finally, why they are such a bad idea according to one website... 

this is because they attract slugs from all over the garden, and many just take one or two sips and then start on the flowers and veg! NOoooooooooo!

Tonight's slugging, and tomorrow's inspection will be nail-biting times.

In other news, I have barely used the oxygen machine at all today; while I was out walking this morning, and now, after that relatively strenuous hour in the garden, and I shall stop the machine very soon.

Monday 21st August - A new week begins

 One short comment on the news, the dreadful, dreadful news about that nurse and the poor babies and families, the missed opportunities to prevent further deaths, and the awful possibility that she could have harmed other babies.

 Most of us manage to trundle through our days without coming into direct contact with such unimaginable evil; my prayers are for everyone directly or indirectly affected by these tragic events. 

So while I am burbling on about my own relatively happy life I have not forgotten that many people here, and also in distant lands, have to endure very different circumstances.

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Last Monday I was feeling a bit low; leaving the hospital after a blood test I struggled with breathless walking up the gentle slope through the dark park. I probably had to pause for a moment about 3 or 4 tomes. Today, after I had the repeat test, I strolled through the car park with no bother at all. What was that all about? Maybe I had a bit of a lurgy? 

Anyway, today started well for me and continued in the same mode. Like receiving a text from the credit card company; 'thank you for your payment, and you can avoid interest charges by making a further payment of 11p by 23:59 tonight'. I always pay off the complete balance every month, but this time I must have somehow underpaid. Last time did - maybe 20 years ago - I was hugely irritated to get caught for the full charge. Sending a warning text seems remarkably civilised behaviour.

There was one glitch in my happy day, one fly in the ointment, as it were.  Or rather slugs and snails in among the pak choi plants. Overnight half my brave little plants had been ruthlessly devoured. It would make a Saint use deeply unspiritual language. After contemplating the scene for some time, I tenderly surrounded the survivors with sluggone wool pellets. 

Tonight Himself and Myself will be out after dark with a torch and the slugging tongs to see what we can see and catch anything that can't run away (that should be the easy bit).

We might be able to see the moon, which rose at half past eleven this morning, but doesn't set until nearly ten tonight. It is a waxing crescent moon.

 Meanwhile today continues well. I have already hit my step target of 3000, by attempting to average 300 steps an hour through the day, Only Connect and University Challenge are on BBC tonight, and there were a couple of chocolate truffles left for chocolate o'clock.

Thursday 1st June - knitting and reading, reading and knitting

Suddenly everything is growing at once in the garden. Even another pea has decided to germinate after I had given up all hope. I guess that's one lucky outcome from being so washed out all week, in that I hadn't got round to clearing out the apparently inert pots in the greenhouse. 

So there are upsides to feeling so sluggish at the moment! 

Every afternoon I've been able to sit outside for a while with a book and a cup of tea. Currently I'm reading an Anthony Trollope romantic 3-volume novel, 'Ayala's Angels'. Not at all what I was expecting from Anthony Trollope,  but good fun, light and easy. More like a Jane Austen in many ways. I wonder what set him to writing it? It poignantly sets out the very limited options available for young women - can they marry for love, or must they marry for money, to secure a future. For a woman without a husband or money has a desperate future ahead.

'The Real Mrs Miniver' and 'A Very Great Profession' have been put to one side until more brain cells are available...

So what do I do all day? I knit the sock; no brain cells required there, not even when it was time to do the forethought/afterthought heel placement at 7.5 inches, thanks to my paper ruler

which has the measurements for the various important moments all marked up.

I found some really contrasting yarn in my godmother's stash

 Now I just have to knit round and round and round...

And remember to stop eventually...

Knitting and reading seems to be the main way I'm spending my time at the moment. That's okay.... for now....!

 

Thursday 29th June - day of rest

Well, it was for me, mostly. Himself had a couple of things to do;

I phone my father on Thursday mornings to find out what grocery shopping he needs, for breakfasts and evening meals. Then Himself goes to the supermarket and does the shopping, then round to my father’s flat to replenish the fridge and cupboard, remove anything that's beyond the 'use by' date and just keep an eye on things.

I haven't joined in since before I went down with a chest infection at the end of May; I just don't have the lung power to walk round the shop or up to his flat, even though I can use the lift. But we've in an efficient routine we seems to be working.

He's also brought back some herbs for me to plant out tomorrow and croissants for breakfast at the weekend, yum yum!

The other day I discovered this compressed tee shirt lurking in a drawer. It was a giveaway from an IBM computer event, from maybe 20 years ago? One of these 'just add water' stunts.

After about fifteen minutes it had soften enough that I could turn it over to see how the trick was done;

Much later I was able to unfold it completely and reshape it. It's XL size, and pretty shapeless, but will make a lightweight top for heatwave nights.

Another bit of space cleared from all the drawers full of stuff. Good.

A couple of hours of rain this morning means we needn't water the garden. Here's hoping for the same tomorrow morning. 

Tuesday 27th June - semi comatose

 That's us two. Slumped in front of 'trash tv' as I call it... train journeys, antiques, repeats of bake off... but why?

Well, having read the above advice I wandered out into the front garden to take some cuttings from our two overgrown rock roses. We'd been discussing what to do with them... Yoicks! The white one had engulfed our ancient and beautiful fuschia. Somewhere in the depths of the foliage and woody stems I could just make out a few determined Ruby red fuschia flowers. I took my cuttings, six white, and six pink, and then Himself set too with loppers and cut it back to just the main stalk. This took all morning, and he was only able to get it all in the garden bin by chopping the branches into tiny little pieces.

Meanwhile I carried on tidying and watering, and went and made lunch.

We've a strange bare patch in the front flower bed now, (which makes it much easier to keep an interested eye on the comings and goings along the road!) It will be even easier once the other bush is taken down, once the garden waste bin lorry has been.

I tried taking basil cuttings from a supermarket pot basil plant last week. I snipped some likely looking stems and put themin water. Then I divided the massively pot bound original into four and replanted them into a much larger pot. They are thriving,  and the cuttings have all grown roots, so now I have one huge pot of basil and four tiny ones.

Encouraged by this success, I have picked some stems of parsley and put them in water. Fingers crossed they root too...

I have three kinds of mint, parsley, coriander, thyme, rosemary and basil. All except two of the mints started life as supermarket pots.

Monday 26th June - staying in

 Somebody had to, and I was perfectly happy for it to be me.

We had two scheduled deliveries of medicines which needed to be signed for, and then two more which arrived sooner than I was expecting. 

One was four pasta bowls in the Spode Blue Italian pattern. I'm slowly replacing the older crockery as we break it with these - fairly expensive unless you can get seconds  which I did! The Blue and white pattern reminds me of my grandmother's willow pattern china.

The other was a cheap solar fountain which I have been wanting for ages;

Sitting in the sun and listening to it burbling away making happy splashy sounds makes me smile. The height of the fountain varies with the brightness of the sun; when a cloud briefly came the fountain became a series of apologetic little hiccups until the day brightened up again.

The garden looks lovely at the moment, providing you pick your viewpoint very carefully. 

For example, the vegetable patch... the cropped photograph

and the original...

Oh yes, editing is everything!

Friday 23rd June - but will they grow?

I have sown more french beans, peas, spinach and spinach beet this afternoon.

The broad beans have got some promising pods growing,, and there are a few on my one remaining pea plant, so I am hopeful for a slight harvest this year. I suspect the potatoes rotted in their pots, and will tip all the contents into the compost heap, or use it for mulch. Thank heavens for shops!

I've also done some more cross stitching after taking a break - I did try earlier in the week, but had to unpick what I'd done s soon as I finished - too many stitches crossed the wrong way round. I'm stitching on what will be my piece of cloth, as was tempted to just let it go - maybe if there had been just one stitch the wrong way round...

Air Fryer Experiments;

Christine's Oatie Biscuits - 

You know how sometimes you meet someone, and you hit it off, and you know that you could be good friends, but somehow time slips past and you don't use your time wisely, and then... you realise you've missed an opportunity and 

oh well. She died (breast cancer) several years ago, and I remember her real Goodness, her remarkable gentleness and honesty. every time I make these biscuits.       

It's a pretty basic recipe - I've photographed the page from my tatty recipe book

If you make half quantities, you can cook just four in the air fryer at 150C for 15 mins. Roll the rest of the dough (assuming half quantities) into balls and put in a lidded container in the fridge.

This way you will only eat four biscuits at a sitting, (or two each shared between us) instead of pigging the lot in one go. The next time, take out four little balls, leave them to soften for about 10 mins at room temperature before cooking them.

I'm very keen on using these reusable non-stick silicone air fryer liners;

 for all sorts of air fryer cooking - they come in different sizes.

But as you will see, the recipe predates all the air fryer excitement. 

Wednesday 14th June - Flowers, Sewing, Knitting

 I'm so pleased to be up and doing again. Maybe doing a bit much? I can feel my eyelids drooping a little... Ah well. That's what happens...

I spent an hour and a half this morning sewing the cross stitch project. Getting properly started and making some progress - and no unpicking - is a relief. I find getting started is always the hardest part. I've done enough to think that, barring serious mistakes, it is not as complex a design as I feared.

Then I had the usual zoom chat and piano lesson with a friend where we put our worlds to rights and incidentally do a bit of piano. 

Lunchtime! And because I had taken off my step counter wristband at the beginning of the lesson, it now recorded at mere 128 steps for half a day! I do try and take it off for playing the piano, as I can gain anything up to 1000 steps (teaching Scott Joplin Rags and any kind of 'oom cha cha' LH is particularly good, or bad, for step counting).

After lunch I answered a question about my work-in-progress sock that was bugging me; did I have enough yarn to finish the pair, or would I need to start the last ball for the second sock? I did all sorts of complicated weighings of sock (2 inches to go), needles (2 stuck in the sock, one free). In the end, if I had thought about it, all I had to do was weigh the sock, weigh the yarn, and think. (Never do anything the easy way, if you can make it more complicated somehow...?)

But in one way I am glad I did, because on the piece of paper I used is this;

'Apricity' the warmth of the sun in the winter'. What a lovely word.

Later in the afternoon I wandered into the garden and started transferring some of the little plants I've been growing on since they arrived as thimble-sized plugs. Of the 72 wee little babies - too young to have left their nursery, surely! - about 56 survived. The main casualties were busy lizzies and rudebeckias, but the petunias, nicotianas, lobelias, gazzinias, bacopas, begonias and pelargoniums are mostly doing well. I just hope the snails don't find the containers I planted today.

This was a nice cool place to set up a little workstation. In the window box are individual lettuce seeds, on in each pot. On the table; right at the back the latest arrivals, some coleus plugs, a re tray with a few remaining petunias and the nicotinas, in the pale tray the geraniums.

On the ground; a mniature Christmas tree - if it survives then 2023 will be its third year, some mint, a tub with petunias, bacopa, and some snapdragons (I think) self seeded from last year, two smaller tubs with petunias and lobelia. 

Here are the three cardoons, already about twice the size they were when they went in. I was thinking of stashing the nicotina plants in the spaces around them.
 

The sweet pea has some companions now, I am pleased to see.

Monday 12th June - Reboot!

 After nearly three weeks feeling stuck in the doldrums I am now ready to launch back into action.

Today I have Done Stuff;

Changed the pillowcases, and hopefully the sheet ntonihht. I have ripped it (not literally!) off the mattress,  as a statement of intent, so tonight we will have to finish the task.

I have just about untangled the unholy mess that is my record keeping of who paid me how much for what and when; when piano students pay half-termly or in blocks of eight lessons (eight? Why eight? That's neither a half term nor a whole term? Madness) or a sort of guesstimate of how many lessons they think they can fit in, or after each single lesson, it doesn't take long to lose track. Especially if they then miss a lesson, when I credit or reschedule. 

Chest infection induced brain fog just made everything- well, foggier. 

I have planted two erigerons into bigger pots, added strings and supports to sweet peas, sown six lettuce seeds into individual pots to go in the window box of shed, and also a tray of radishes. Why are they called French Breakfast radishes, and do the French really eat radishes with their coffee and croissants for breakfast? 

I have charted the current cross stitch 3 times, and, once I have erased the current version,  will chart it again tomorrow. 

And I have taught a piano lesson to a teenager. One of those lessons where I explain how to play it smoothly, they pay no attention and carry on regardless for a while, all the time ignoring my cries to desist, before stopping and in an aggrieved tone of voice demanding to know how to make it sound smooth. 

The lesson was over zoom, and I am not, and never have been a 'knuckle-rapper' teacher so all ended well. Eventually. 

Summer Supper; (we had this on Saturday)

 Fresh capelleti or ravioli or similar, the sort that comes packed in clear pl*st*c with a nice long date (sorry, ecofolks)

Sauce (more of a dressing, really); walnut sized piece of butter, lemon zest and juice to taste, finely chopped spring onions and parsley, suitable greenery like fresh spinach or pea shoots or whatever, roughly chopped if necessary.

Grated parmesan and black pepper

Gather up and prep the sauce ingredients first. Cook the pasta according to the packet. Ordinary pasta is OK but I like capelleti.

Drain the pasta, return to the pan and stir in the sauce. Serve with parmesan and pepper. Pine nuts might be good too, or perhaps chopped walnuts. 

Friday 2nd June - I'm at the stage where

I feel so much better that as well as sowing the carrots again (the watering can wasn't that heavy) and

slipping some copper rings around the stalks of a couple of broad bean plants to fend off snails and slugs

I also staked my one remaining pea shoot this morning.

Then I came over all jelly legged and went inside. I did manage to make the mid-morning coffee without mishap, although there was a moment when I nearly poured milk into the water glasses...

Cross Stitching

I thought this would be a nice quick one to do for May;

As usual I did my charting on an enlarged copy of the actual fabric which seems to almost work for me

Although something changed in the execution and I  needed to copy the half-finished work to help sort out what to do in the white space.

Wednesday May 31st - month end

 Vicky-the-gardener came today with three cardoon plants! I am so excited! We have planted them against the fence; I wonder what our neighbours will think when they suddenly appear?

Tuesday 9th May - Hail! and other astonishments

I've just come in from a quick look around the garden, after a sudden thunderstorm with hail hit us early this evening. Luckily everything seemed to have survived.

The salvia 'Armistead' and 'Hotlips' cuttings that I have been nurturing all winter and Spring were out in their pots, waiting to be planted in the borders, and I was worried about them, and also all the little vegetable seedlings but I needn't have feared.

The slugs have found my broad beans; I have encircled some of them with copper tape and will have to take action over the rest very soon.

This morning was mainly shuffling pots about; the dead lavender and rosemary plants are n longer disgracing the front door step, various other pots which are just full of weeds have been dealt with, and I have looked out 72 little flowerpots for when the plug plants arrive in a few days. We have also worked out how to repair the very, very cheap cold frame I bought a year or so ago. The plastic transparent sheet that forms the hinged lid had crumbled into holes due to the sun. But we still have a large transparent piece of plastic which was used to protect the floor from an office chair that we were using. Today we checked, and it will just about fit, so can be fixed to the old lid frame. Excellent.

This afternoon I was at last ready to chase after the osteoporosis treatment I should have received back in 2020, but since then, there's been 

Covid lockdowns, a routine right heart catheter for me (bit like an angiogram but not quite), various accidents and alarms with my father, Himself's cataract appointments, my medication change which left me seriously breathless (turns out the original dose was exactly right and reducing it did me no favours), and then my pancreas scare 

time can certainly fly when you are 'having fun'. 

I sat down with diary, telephone and the number of the hospital department and settled down for a long wait and explanations. Wow! What happened there? I got through straightaway, the medical secretary consulted her computer and noted I had a telephone appointment which had been cancelled (what? when? by whom? I didn't even know about it!) for THIS THURSDAY, as in the day after tomorrow! It has been reinstated, and so it is being set in motion again without any more waiting. 

This astonishing event left me completely at a loss - a cup of tea, Pukka 'Feel New' seemed most appropriate;

I'm not sure that I actually 'feel new', but certainly revived.

Let's post this NOW as I am about to write up piano lesson plans for yesterday's lessons and may feel a bit jaded after that!   

Monday 8th May - In and out of the garden

It has been a grey day for most of the day, but I managed to get quite a bit done. I go out every day to encourage the broad beans. They give me a ridiculous amount of pleasure. I just stand and contemplate the little leaves bravely pushing up through the soil.

Not all the peas have come up, so I have planted another dozen or so in individual pots so that I haveca Plan B. And with the help of Himself, doing the heavy work of filling the bigger pots, the three tomato plants are now in their 'forever' homes.

Cross Stitching - 

it's always a big relief when I get to the point of starting to stitch. I spent an hour this morning, only unpicking about four times - not bad for getting back into the rhythm after a break of over a week.

Knitting - 

I've managed to unpick and reknit the cuff of one sock, and learned a stretchy bind off from youtube which is easy to do. So that sock is finished, and I have undone the cuff of the other sock, and picked up (most) of the stitches. Is the end in sight? We shall see.

Drawings - 

I copied this from a photograph, the idea being to draw a picture of this church on a card I wanted to send, This is the practice version,  which I drew in my diary which is why it is on dot paper. It's quite small, around three or four inches square.

Would it look better with a bit of colour added? I think so... (the first picture was taken in daylight, the second with the main light on)

In the end I scanned, printed and stuck a copy onto the card because I was running out of time.

Friday 5th May - Such a day, such a day

I think it is going to take a very long blog post to cover today, and yesterday, and probably the day before.

This morning was the dentist, a bit of a long morning, as Himself had over an hour's work finishing off replacing crowns and bridge work. I just had a check up. 

This new dentist just peers intently at my teeth, using special magnifying glasses and a bright narrow-beam light, barely poking at my teeth at all. After years of dentists scritching and scratching and picking at my teeth this is a welcome change!

do you remember that toothpaste advertisement on TV; 'no fillings today, Mum!'? Well that was me today!

Home, but no lunch as himself was still too numb to eat. But there were other excitements as we approached the drive. The entrance was blocked by a white delivery drive - hurrah - we were just in time to sign for a piece of tech (a new kindle reader) which Himself had ordered, before realising there was a very good risk that we would be out and unable to sign for it! That was a real distraction from lunch.

A further distraction was the arrival of a very snazzy rollator for my father.

  Which as you can see fits into the boot of our Fiat Panda with ease. We have unpacked it and set it up to take round on Sunday.

After that we put up the bunting. That makes five houses decorated so far at our end of the road - maybe more people will join in tomorrow.

While I had my phone with me I had a little walk round the garden; EVERYTHING that I sowed in the vegetable plot has come up! That is just so cheering. For some reason it is the broad beans (crimson flower again) that makes me the happiest. They look so eager and energetic, pushing through the soil.

The tulips are still bright and attractive; we are holding off dealing with the forget-me-nots which are very exuberant this year until they have finished flowering.

The 'nursery' is fairly well-stocked at the moment;

The salvia Armistead cuttings are in the 'holey' zippy greenhouse, having been moved from the newer zippy greenhouse to make room for french bean and borlotti bean seeds.

Here are three tomato plants, Gardener's Delight, Alicante and Beefy Beefsteak, and some herbs from the supermarket which will restock the herb garden in the next few days. 

Oh yes, every part of our rather small garden is labelled in my mind; the nursery, yard, vegetable, herb and woodland and wildlife gardens, the sunny border, shady border, lawn, container garden, lower patio and upper terrace... one day (in my dreams) I will have signs, like in a 'real' garden, directing the way to each area... and maybe the number of paces, as opposed to yards, to reach the destination...

I will post on the Cross Country Stitching Project another time - suffice it to say I have the idea for May clear in my mind and can start charting. Phew, because nearly a week has gone!

Saturday 22nd April - I saw a...mouse?

Well, maybe... yesterday I was charmed and alarmed to see a fairly large mouse running along the wall of the raised flowerbed near the house. It sat on the wall for a few moments before disappearing down the gap between the back of the bed and the fence.

So I spent this morning watching and following a couple of video tutorials on drawing mice, in my 'rough book'. The artists in the tutorials used pencils - I used my fountain pen. I am pretty pleased with the results.

Today, our gardener says she saw a small RAT scuttling along the fence down to the bottom of the garden.

Oh.

Tuesday 18th April - Yogurt, Seeds, Quantum Physics

 So here I am, tapping out notes for yesterday's piano student; she's spent the whole Easter break having a wonderful time with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and Einaudi and other things, and consequently forgotten how to play the various pieces we were working on for her Grade 7. Ah well. She's playing, and loving what she's playing which is the main thing. They often drop out when they are teenagers because there are so many other things filling their time, and bringing more instant rewards than unwillingly slogging through a Haydn sonata.

Really, I am watching the weather. It is a sunny, balmy morning, with a bit of a breeze. Yesterday I plotted the veg patch and went through my seeds;

These are the ones I want to plant today and I have promised myself that as soon as I finish typing I will be out there, even though the sun has disappeared and the wind is getting stronger. 

Tomatoes and flower seeds need to be started on the windowsills freed up by moving the salvia cuttings.

I've also been making yogurt; Heat milk until boiling, allow to cool to blood heat (just nice and warm when you stick  finger in to test). Put half a small tub of live yogurt into a wide-mouthed food flask and keep stirring as you slowly add the milk. Seal, and leave alone for 24 hours.

The resulting yogurt is rather thinner than I like (do you remember 'drinking yogurt' - not quite as thin as that) so I strain it.

Here's how much I ended up with - about two carton's worth. This batch is the texture of cream cheese, with a pleasantly milk taste.

As for quantum physics - I really don't have a clue. We (Himself and I) as sitting opposite each other at the table, working away on our respective laptops. I thought he was deep into the online grocery order, as he looked up with that glazed expression one gets after scrolling through myriads of little pictures to select the right kind of whatever. But no, his head was full of some recent development in quantum physics to do with solving a problem to do with predicting tunneling events... I was thinking of tunnels under the ground, but this is to do particle physics. We do have some hobbies in common. I can confidently say that this is not one of them.

Still, if this new development renders Feinman diagrams obsolete, does that release me from any obligation to try and learn about them?

Sunday 16th April - The quickest to clean dirt from under your fingernails

 

... is to do the washing up. Confess - you thought I was going to write 'is to make pastry'....

Anyway, my hands are all clean and pink now.

I've been gardening. My gloves were in 'the other shed' rather than in 'my shed', and anyway, I always say I'm only going to do a little bit and don't need my gloves, but as always one thing leads to another.

I've re-potted the salvia 'Armistead' and salvia 'hot lips' cuttings that have been overwintering on my windowsill. The Armistead ones have been flowering (in March and April? madness) and grown too big for their pots, so now they are in an unheated polythene greenhouse and I hope they will survive. The forecast looks hopeful at any rate. I think all the salvias in the flowerbed have died. They are not terribly hardy so cuttings are a good idea. 

And, with the help of Himself, I have tidied and arranged the vegetable 'garden' ready to make a start in the next few days, DV. It's looking like this at the moment (everything is always subject to change!)

Now I need to figure out what to plant where. The nearest pots need to have low-growing stuff, the two big black ones can have tall things and the others - anything, I suppose. The morning sun comes from where I was standing, and the afternoon sun from the left. The pots nearest the fence will be quite shaded - spinach? Lettuce, maybe?

The main idea is to have the rows no more than 2 deep, otherwise I can't manage to reach over to the ones in the middle, as I found last year.

Onwards - to tidy the horrors that you can't see to the left of the picture. Tomorrow, perhaps.