Friday 23rd June - Nearly a Day Off

Apart from a piano pupil at 4pm, my diary was clear! That must be a first since Term started back in April. (Slight guilty conscience - I realised too late that I'd forgotten to warn the other members of a drumming group I lead that we weren't meeting this evening. Oh whoops)

So, what did I do?

I redeemed my voucher for a free drink and cake at Waitrose (Americano with hot milk, and a slice of lemon drizzle).

I ate sushi for lunch, bought from the new sushi counter at Waitrose. It was OK.

I did gardening. That took up most of the afternoon. I have these plants, bought on Monday, waiting to go into a newly/nearly cleared border.

 One of them is about four feet tall - slightly tricky getting it into my car.

Two were bought from a garden gate plant sale near a school I visit on Monday mornings. I took pictures of the detailed labels, as they had to be left behind. The tall one, with little purple flowers at the top, won me over with "... hardy...self seeds, self stakes, flowers over a long period".

The main attraction of this little silvery plant was the magic description "good ground cover in dry sunny places - SPREADS!"

So this blog will act as a reference when I've forgotten what they are called. The other two plants in the blue tub are geraniums, of the cranesbill type, chosen for "thrives in a poor soil". One has while flowers, the other purplish-pink.

Here's the flower bed; stage 1

stage 2, after he has attacked it with a sort of claw-hoe implement

and stage 3, after I have spent an hour digging over it with a hand fork, as I can't manage to drive a border fork into the compacted earth.

I'll ask him nicely to do the "dig a hole twice the size of the pot" business, and hopefully get the plants in before the end of the weekend. I've also got various pots of variegated ivy that I will put in, and then cover the whole lot with a fine bark mulch. Then any plant that appears subsequently will be considered to be a weed and removed with extreme prejudice. That's plan, anyway.

After a cup of tea, I turned my attention to the dining room table - it's got itself into a state again, somehow.

There's a bit more clear space now, and the heaps have been slightly reduced and squared up. That will have to do.

Nearly a day off?

Wednesday 21st June - New Look - Invisibility

I collected my new glasses this morning and have been wearing them all day.

For the past four years, every sing I started wearing varifocals full-time, from the moment I wake up, until the moment just before I turn out the light at bed-time, I have been wearing frameless glasses pretty much like these..


I thought it was time for a change. My new glasses have Metallic Purple/Red/Pink Frames!
Maybe a bit more red than the pink in this picture.

I have taught seventy-five children and worked alongside at least ten adults today since I put these glasses on.

The glasses appear to be invisible - I've only had one comment, from a child; "Have you just started wearing glasses?"

No dear, I've been wearing glasses for a long time now.

Does that mean the glasses are so unexpected and unsuitable that everyone is remaining tactfully silent? Or does that mean that they suit me so well that no-one has noticed?

I shall see what happens over the next few days.

June 21st - Foraging

"Shall we have pasta and slow-cooked lamb for supper?"

I'm too hot to even think of eating pasta.

So one again, I've raided my tiny vegetable plot. One rather young lettuce, and a handful of spinach leaves make a sort of salad, with bought new potatoes and bought tomatoes. Our tomatoes as still flowering rather than fruiting. I few slices of cold meat... a glass, or several, of Chablis - supper.


Tomorrow we will have about ten broad beans each, and maybe a couple of courgettes from the garden to supplement things from the shops.

It has been properly hot here all week. I can't imagine what it is like for people doing the Ramadan fast in this weather. Hats off to them, I say. Much tougher than trying not to eat chocolate or drink alcohol during Lent.

Tomorrow we have a met office warning of rain - bring it on, I say. My veggies need it.

Wednesday 21st June - Slug-catchers

Who would have thought that our silicone mini-tongs



would have made such brilliant slug-catchers? (We've got the pink ones).

Don't worry, I put them through the dishwasher afterwards.

I might add these



to my birthday list ready for next year's war-on-slugs.

I'm reluctant to poison them because of birds and hedgehogs and I'm too squeamish to squish them or drop them into a bucket of water, salty or otherwise. Throwing them over the back fence into the waste ground isn't a reliable solution, as they are homing creatures. You need to whang them at least 20 metres away, apparently.

So, I pick them off the plants and drop them into the garden waste recycling bin. That's still not the perfect solution, as every time I open the lid they are at the top, ready to make a slow sprint for freedom.

Saturday 17th June 2017 - Tea

To cut a short story shorter, we ended up having lunch at an unusual, but very elegant tea-shop. I'll keep the story even shorter, but when did you last have your tea-shop tea served on vintage china, with a real teapot?

And check out that sweet little salt pot and spoon!

After delicious smoked salmon sandwiches and salad, we had equally good cake.

We were on another round exploring local churches. We had intended to visit three, but it was too hot, and we spent too long in the teas hop, so the medieval church of St Mary's Bletchingley was as far as we got.

The walk to the church looked exactly like this picture (from the wikipedia site)



The church hasn't changed much either;

https://www.achurchnearyou.com/bletchingley-st-mary/

Who would have known that Bishop Desmond Tutu spent some time as a curate here?

from his wikipedia page;

Tutu then attended King's College London, (1962–1966), where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in theology. During this time he worked as a part-time curate, first at St Alban's Church, Golders Green, and then at St Mary's Church in Bletchingley, Surrey.^[5] He later returned to South Africa and became chaplain at the University of Fort Hare in 1967.

 

 

Friday 16th June - What's that noise?

Heard a strange rapid flapping noise from the other end of the room....


one of my souvenirs of Kircudbright is a helenium plant, handed to me in a small cardboard box. I'm hoping it should eventually become something like this.

https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/home-garden/gardening/plants/perennials/how-to-grow-heleniums

I've put it on the kitchen windowsill, but hadn't got round to chucking the box into the recycling bin, so it is still on the floor in the dining room.

The cats have been taking it in turns to try it for size. It does seem to be rather small for them, or maybe the cats are just a bit big for the box. Who knows.

The strange sound was Leo waking up and shaking her head, so that her ears were rattling against the sides of the box. Wouldn't you have thought that would be a bit painful?

Friday 16th June 2017 - Books I have read

I've just this minute finished



which was a tremendous read. It's a young adult book, I suppose, but not for the very young, that's for sure. I downloaded after reading a review somewhere, and set in a modern-day refugee camp and told through the eyes of a child. Once I realised that the refugee camp was in some familiar country - it is never named, and for a long time I thought it might be in the USA, but that didn't make sense I became increasingly upset at the hideous and hopeless like that was inflicted upon the inmates. Is there a happy ending? Well, there is certainly a sense that there will be a resolution, but, no, not an actual ending. of resolution - the story, like the lives of the refugees, has to just live in hope of some kind of ending. Five stars. I'll have to read it again, because the slow pace of the beginning races to a rapid and compressed finish, so I ended up reading as fast as I could see the words just becuase that was how fast everything was happening.

I didn't exactly finish



 as I couldn't wait for the story to unfold to find out how it ended. I'm no good at scary psychological. So I had to skip several chapters to make sure all the characters we ok, before going back to the bit I missed. I think I did read it all, if not in the right order.




is the latest in a series of historical fiction that I adore. Sir Robert Carey is somehow connected to the Royal family, which means Queen Elizabeth the first, and these are his adventures mostly in Carlisle and Scotland, or in London. They are full of plot and counter plot, and also details of everyday life in Tudor times. Here's hoping there's another one already on the way.    five stars

I'm glad I downloaded a free copy of



(which had a boring plain cover) because I didn't enjoy, or even finish this. I think I must have read an abridged version as a child, as this one does have long, long passages that I speed read.

I downloaded "The Daily Stoic"



after reading a a blog about a contentious secondary school in London, the Michaela Academy, where stoicism is explicitly taught to all pupils. Their teaching methods seem extraordinarily old-fashioned in today's world, and it is often getting lambasted in the press. I suppose I must be old-fashioned too, because it seems very familiar. Anyway, apart from stoical having a sense of "putting up with things without complaining" and "making the best of situations" I didn't have much of a clue. This is just a quote for the day and short thought about it - rather like Bible reading notes - and it was cheap. I dip in and out from time to time.

Rather like

 

that also sits on my Kindle. This is read daily in Benedictine monasteries, divided up into short sections so that the whole Rule is read three times a year. It deals with everything from how the young children in the monasteries should be cared for (with firmess, kindness and a consideration for their youth), to exactly which Psalms should be said when.



I re-read this - one of the most astonishing children's books I have ever read. It is in 100 chapters, none of them longer than a couple of pages, and each snippet of the story interlocking with the whole. It is like a jigsaw, or, better, a series of stained-glass windows. The story switches back and forth between "Now" - medieval England, and "Then" - the legend of King Arthur, written so vividly and with such conviction that you feel as though you are there. I've got the paperback (it's out on loan) and I downloaded it to take to Kircudbright.  .....    I have just paused briefly in between sentences of this blog post to download the next two books in the trilogy.    five stars

Sunday 11th June - Sunday in Kircudbright

I know, that was two weeks ago, but things happen and blogs don't get posted...

Church was a good way to start the day - Ascension Day. I was rather puzzled at first, until I realised that the vicar had a Northern Ireland accent instead of the the English one I was used to, or the Scottish one I was expecting. Everything else was familiar - the liturgy of the Church of Scotland is very close to that of Church of England. Singing from a Real Hymn Book (and all singing from the same page - had to put that in before anyone else did) was a blast from the past. It's all overhead projection down our way, and anyway if you are really in the groove you sing with your eyes shut.

Afterwards, the weather cleared, and they had a Sunday Farmers Market as part of the festival - great! I munched my way around the locally produced sausages, pickles, cakes, jams, mustards, ending up at the cheese stall. I would dearly have loved to bring some back as a present, but didn't think it would stand up to the journey in a hot train.

After lunch we set out to a beautiful beach, called Carrick Beach. More disorientation for people more used to the Carrick Roads down in Cornwall.

We wanted to investigate an art installation called "The Edge", part of the art trail. This was delightful; we picked our was along a line of realistic looking driftwood and salvage, all connected to local stories and myths from the villages round about. The start of the trail was marked by a working harmonium, apparently washed up by the sea. This related to a story where the church organ disappeared overnight; apparently it was thrown over a cliff by some of the congregation during some kind of dispute... really?

 
Along the bits of wood and junk were suitcases and boxes and containers

 with letters, photographs, recipe books, dolls, scientific instruments, messages in bottles, clothes, shoes - every one contained a marvel.

I might try and make the Kirk Pudding some day...

The next hour or so consisted of a series of failures to find anywhere that would serve us an early high tea, before the start of a Male Voice Choir concert in Newton Stewart. Never mind. The COOP was still open, and had six packets of sandwiches left. I got bacon lettuce and tomato - not an occasion for pickiness. We sat in the back row of the Presbyterian Church surreptitiously munching - we'd thought the concert began at 7:30 (so did the choir, I overheard) but kick-off was at 7pm.

They were a great choir, all the way from Stoke-on-Trent (award yourself a prize if you saw that coming) and were justly proud of having won the North Wales Choir Competition twice in a row, and being politely asked to enter a different festival next time round. They shared their concert with a very talented young Traditional Scottish Singer, and a local bagpiper to open and close each half.

Long drive home, watching an amazing sunset develop as the day darkened.

Sunday 11th June - Unusual Authenticity

Church today was a joint service - the " 9 o'clockers" and the "10:30" congregation all together. This was because our curate was "priested" yesterday, so this was the first time she had officiated at a Holy Communion.

We had service sheets - now there's a novelty. We only bother with them on special occasions. Ah but yes, this was a special occasion, and very joyful and cheerful it was too.

I hugely enjoyed the way the Confession prayer was printed;

All those question marks kind of mirror the thoughts I have in my mind sometimes. Saying the prayers cann be a bit like making promises with your fingers crossed. I'm often NOT truly sorry. The only bits of which I can be certain are that I will have sinned against God, and I would like to be forgiven. No question (marks) about that.

Later on, at the beginning of the Communion prayer, more queries;

It may well be "our duty and our joy, at all times and in all places to give you thanks and praise, holy Father" but you know as well as I do that this just doesn't happen.

Heigh ho. To err is human, to forgive is divine.

Monday 5th June 2017 - Rain

It's pouring outside. The sound of the rain rattling against the windows is music to my ears. He managed to get the grass cut before it started, and there's no need to water all the vegetable containers.

I may have a different opinion about the weather if it is still like this in the morning.

Sunday 4th June - The Vegetable Garden

Who would ever have thought that this, back at the beginning of April,

would become this?

The brown and black square tubs with sticks in them are now overflowing with broad bean plants, and the huge leaves belong to the nearly invisible brussel sprout seedlings in the first picture. We've eaten all the first batch of lettuces and pak choi and radishes and spring onions, and very good they were too. The spinach was well worth growing; I pick a handful of leaves most days which I store until we have enough for a meal - more like a garnish, perhaps?

Apart from the early days, slugs haven't been a real problem. We started with the extremely smelly wool pellets (made of scraps of wool and sheep-poo, according to one source) called "Slug Gone". I guess it is one of those products which tells it like it is on the packaging.

Here it is, doing a good job of protecting the peas I bought in the market yesterday.

Many years ago I had a few lettuces, bought from a school fete, growing in a trough. I used some plant containers made of tinselly wire mesh that had been used for poinsettias at Christmas, and discovered that slugs and snails can't climb them. The tinsel has worn off, but the pests are just as reluctant to climb up the rust. So, using the same principle, He has made me some chicken wire mats which I am hoping will save his spring onions from destruction.

The spare hanging basket frame seems to be thwarting any attacks on the young lettuces;

We watered them all thoroughly, which means that it is sure to rain tonight. Now that we have all these containers that need watering, I take quite a different view of rainy days.

Friday 2nd June - unwelcome telephone call

I'm typing this on my tablet, a slow process compared to rattling away on the computer keyboard. That's because I am a little reluctant to switch on the computer until I get the all-clear from the IT guru (currently rescuing daughter from the snarls of Southern Rail).

We had one of the usual scam phone calls; "this is *insert name of famous computer software company* and you have a problem with your security blah blah"

The IT guru responded robustly, but not rudely, and put the phone down. The scammer called back, and again, and again... with increasing urgency about the imminent security disaster that would ensue if we didn't switch on the computer and let him on straight away.

We resorted to the samba whistle...

Is he still out there, lurking somewhere in the wires, ready to pounce?

I think I'll wait for a while before I use it again.

Hang on. Visiting IT guru has just appeared and said we are safe; said scammer cannot actually fit through the cables. Phew.

Thursday 1st June - Saturday in Kircudbright

I've just come back - on Tuesday evening - from a long weekend reunion with some friends. We used to live within an hour or so of each other, but then one moved to Cornwall, one to Suffolk, and one to Scotland. Get-togethers where we ALL came together in one place became harder to manage, as you can imagine.

Sadly, one of the group died almost exactly a year ago, and our reunion was partly to share memories, as well as catch up on what we had been doing.

We have had a GREAT time - at least I hope I can say that for all of us! I had been watching the weather forecast - blistering hot on the Friday that we were travelling up, and then cold, wet and rainy for the next few days until the Tuesday of our return journey. The reality was not a bit like that...

Saturday started with a walk along the shore of the River Dee, in warm balmy sunshine. A stop for sandwiches part way round was interrupted by the incoming tide which threatened to surround the rocks we were sitting on, and cut off our retreat to the slipway we came down. No matter, we relocated in good time, and the only one who got wet was the dog.

 
  We carried on munching as the sun shone on the fields across the water. It was a most perfect place.

Kircudbright is an artist's town, rather like Newlyn in Cornwall. This weekend past was their "Spring Fling", so we spent the rest of the day dodging hot sweaty marathon runners and prowling round the artist's studios.

This is probably my most favourite image, by Claire Cameron-Smith, from my most favourite studio of the day:

http://www.cameronsmithdesigns.co.uk/home

I hope they don't mind me copying it from their website. I would have bought the print, but made do with buying a card, which I shall be using for a "bread-and-butter" letter - "thank you" letter to our host. These are the traditional "Belties"; Belted Galloway Cattle found in the area. A piece of furniture made by Ian Cameron-Smith would have been a lovely souvenir too; have a look at their website; but too expensive, (and too impractical to bring home on the train).

So, that, apart from food and wine in the evening, was Saturday. I recommend the Fechan Red, well chilled.

Wednesday 31st May 2017 - A Useful Find

This website - I'm blogging it, so that I don't lose it.

www.britainexpress.com


full of information about various places one might like to visit - I mean places I might like to visit - and somehow slightly quirky, not the usual ones.

I've just printed off a list of historic churches and we're off to go and have a look-see.