31st March - Mothering Sunday

The children came up trumps;

In order of unpacking/unwrapping

flowers and a card, delivered while we were out and left basking in the sunshine on the front door step. But a neighbour spotted them, took them home and brought them back later. Thank you!   

A wonderful card of Chichester cathedral, constructed so that it folds flat when you close the card, and a whole handful of finger puppets - just the right size to keep me company when I am out and about. (I expect you thought I might use them with piano pupils, but they are mine, not for sharing!) I did take them to church...

The church service today was mostly very un-serious (and I'm afraid I wasn't feeling serious in most of the serious bits). I spent most of the time in between 'writing on a post-it' and 'lighting a candle for your mother' chatting with the young care assistant who now comes with a member of the congregation who needs a lot of support. For years we (in the church) have taken turns in bringing her to church, looking after her, and taking her back, and it was my turn today, but now that she is older she needs 'more care'. This was the third time her assistant came too; every time has been different and I don't think she has been used to going to church anyway. I suspect 'church' at St John's is not what she was expected...

All us ladies were given flowers, including the care assistant, rather to her surprise. Here are mine;
 

I used to take home a bunch for my mother... today, while searching through my phone for pictures to show to 'my lady', I kept being ambushed by pictures of Mummy in hospital after the stroke, Mummy in various stages of recovery, Christmases over the years, and then, the flowers from her funeral, just over three years ago. 

There are a whole raft of 'legacy journals' out there now, 'nearly-blank' books with prompts and questions and suggestions

             

which you fill in for your children, or with your children, to write down all those stories about where you lived, where you went to school, anecdotes, funny stories, etc. I'm rather wishing I had done that with Mummy. I could just write down as much as I remember of the stories she used to tell... I wonder what my father would think if I bought one for him?

****   ****   ****

The sun is out, but the wind is cold. I shall make some 'new you' tea and enjoy the flowers, cards and finger puppets. Thank you, everyone, for my presents.

Friday 29th March - Three in a row?

I had a rare moment of shopping time today. That's because of picking up a prescription at Sainsburys, so I needed  to spend at least £10 in order not to have to pay the parking fee.

It might have been cheaper to pay the parking fee...

Yesterday's burst of energy, which included hoovering or sweeping the whole house as the dust everywhere was getting on my nerves, resulted in me waking up feeling still asleep and never really managing to reach 'awake' at any stage.

I zombied around the supermarket, and came home with a cucumber, a lettuce, a bag of rice for making rice puddings (we have too much milk), a packet of cheap little self-inking stampers to be the next set of rewards for piano pupils, (do you really want to know all this?) a tub of boullion powder because I thought shopper-in-chief may have forgotten to buy some (he hadn't), a bag of dried apricots because I like them in my lunch boxes, and, ever the eternal optimist, a packet of tea.

Not just any tea;

I had some when I got home, but it is a bit too soon to see if they work. Or maybe you have to finish the whole packet?

Thursday 28th March - Two posts in a row

Since the last post, James-the-gardener has been and removed 'about 2 tonnes' of weeds and earth from the border, and replaced it with 'about a tonne' of topsoil and compost.

The bits of plastic that are on the earth are to annoy the foxes, who came and played on the surface, leaving footprints all along the border, and scattering the soil all over the edge of the grass.

The chairs and table are moved forward because he was very keen to show us how good a raised bed would be against the fence there, to deal with a strip of weeds and grubbly stuff. He has managed to convince us - I won't be giving up teaching any time soon...

I've been knitting and knitting and knitting; the hat, knitted on what felt like porcupines rather than double ended needles is finished, and I've been glad of it on a few mornings. The scarf is too,

and  does a very good job of excluding the draughts that chill the back of my neck. I've got two new projects on the go, to help me stay away from endlessly playing freecell. This going to be a square blanket

 What you and see is just one corner. The plan is to keep knitting and knitting, but you increase by one stitch in the middle of the row each time, so that the knitting forms itself into a 'mitred square', and you just keep going until you run out of wool. I've used about half a ball of the murky blue so far, with a couple of stripes of leftover grey, and now started on the reddish pink ball. I bought the blue and reddish pink wool on a holiday in Tewkesbury way back in -  ah yes February 2014 - as a kind of souvenir.

I keep this picture of a dragon over the piano as a reminder of those days; I'm inordinately pleased with how it came out.

This tangle of wool and needles is a large-scale project; the plan is that it will become a cardigan, knitted entirely in one piece, only needing the side seams and sleeve seams sewing together. It will stop being a 'portable project' very quickly.

Here's a picture from then pattern sheet; I've finished the left-hand sleeve and that long thin straggle is the beginning of the front-over-the-shoulder-down-the-back. At the moment it takes me nearly ten minutes to knit a row... slow going. 

Wednesday 27th March - Hello!

It's another time when I need to look and see what pictures are on my phone to work out what has happened since my last post.

I think it would be miles better if I posted little and often, but by the time I have closed the door on the last pupil and eaten my supper, my brain has stopped. I would then normally just sit and Freecell in a mindless fashion, but I have given it up for Lent... We've both been feeling a bit bleah to greater or lesser extents recently - some kind of virus? Who knows. Whatever it is, by the time evening has arrived both of us are dozing like some kind 'Old People at Home' cliche.

Right, here are the latest photographs - all garden ones, I see; Let's have a think;

Ah yes, I remember... on Sunday it was warm enough, for the first time this year, possibly, to sit out in the garden.

 I investigated the vegetable patch, largely ignored since last Autumn, and discovered loads of whatever this is - kale or swiss chard, I think. I could burrow in among the snails and find the label.

Since I had offered to make lunch - minestrone soup from the freezer (Blue Peter style - 'here's some I made earlier') I picked some of whatever this is to add to the soup.

Reheating soup didn't go quite as planned; I burned it. So he took over and produced cappelletti (anyone got any idea how many consonants in that? - I'll just wait for someone to answer '3' although that's not the answer I'm after).

Sitting in the garden, soaking up the sun (with our fleeces buttoned up to our necks to fend off the briskly bracing breeze) was sheer delight. We stayed out until the sun went behind a cloud and the temperature dropped quite suddenly.

There are signs of advancing Spring - I planted broad beans last Autumn, and although they are very collapsed from frost and wind, they are still are still managing to flower.

It is busy in the garden at night, but it looks as though this pigeon managed to escape.

I'll be keeping a lookout to see if I can spot one flying lopsided around the area.

I was distracted when teaching at a nearby primary school because two birds of prey were circling around the playing field. I could just see them from the window.

 

I think that they might have been common buzzards; they had that wedge-shape tail, and I could just make out the stripy pattern on the underside of the wings. This picture comes from the Spring Watch website  which has excellent pictures and descriptions of birds of prey.
They were there on Monday and Tuesday.

Saturday 16th March - Random Post 2

I'm behind with posting... and can't remember what I have been doing this week

one clue to trying to remember what has been happening is to check my phone for recent pictures; here they are in reverse order...

This morning (Saturday 16th) was a teaching day. Here is the room I spend the time in. We have to take 'before' and 'after' photographs as there have been complaints from the school that we are leaving the place untidy (not true) and messing about with the instruments (sort of not true). As you can see there is a drum kit in the corner - irresistible to the younger pupils who have to be enticed away from it, encouraged sweetly towards the piano, and finally threatened (Sit on the piano stool or I'll tell your mother!). I've also taken a picture of the heating control (left 'off') because of the notices in big letters on the wall; 'DO NOT TOUCH THE HEATING CONTROLS. THEY HAVE BEEN LEFT ON FOR THE HEALTH OF THE INSTRUMENTS' - so do I leave it OFF as in DO NOT TOUCH or switch it ON as in FOR THE HEALTH OF THE INSTRUMENTS.  

I surreptitiously switched the heater on because I was slowly freezing into a solid state, and then off again as I left. So I have broken both the commands. Oh well.

Next pictures; two empty tea tins, five scarves, three Hoffnung cartoon books, one 'tone your tummy in ten minutes a day' (as if I'll ever manage that) book, and four brooches (one seems to have disappeared). That's thirteen items all destined for the latest charity bag. The plan is to discard forty items throughout Lent, one a day excepting Sundays which are not 'fast' days. So, as we are in the tenth day of Lent today, I'm ahead of the plan. (If you want any of those things, let me know and I can bypass the charity shop and send it straight to you...)

I'm not sure which cat has packed herself into The New Box, specially sourced by Himself. I think it is McCavity in this picture; she decided to try it out for an hour or so. Boxes aren't really her thing so she hasn't been back. But she has completely spoiled it for Leo, as now the blanket smells of McCavity. Later on in the day, Leo came, snuffed inside the box, twitched her tail and went off in a huff.

Here are the iris bulbs, planted in the earliest days of January and now released from their imprisonment in the cupboard. I could take a more recent picture of them, but they don't seem to have celebrated coming into the light by doing any growing.

It's not sunny today. Rain. Wind. Cold. Usually I get chauffered into work on Saturday mornings, partly on the grounds that I am rather more than 'past it' by the time I finish, and appreciate being chauffered back.

(I suspect it is safer for the other road users too, if I am not driving after the teaching. Although I made it home today without too many dodgy decisions)

He goes for a walk in and around the town, and reads his Kindle in the canteen until I emerge from the music room. However I left him in bed today, not well with raised temperature, sore throat and hacking cough. It would have been a peaceful break, except that a neighbour has had a new piece of computer kit delivered and came round three times for help and advice... (THREE times???)

Right. That's your lot for today! I'm going to make a pot of tea and settle down for television and reading and knitting for the rest of today.



 

Saturday 16th March - Random order post 1

Heard the meowl of a cat in distress this morning. Rushed downstairs and checked all the rooms - no cats - rushed back upstairs and checkd the bedrooms - no cats apart from Leo asleep on our bed.

Discovered McCavity in the bath, all big round eyes in fluffed up black fur.

She ran round in circles, clockwise, twice, reached escape velocity and clambered/slithered over the edge of the bath and ran/slithered/rolled down stairs.

What was all that about?

Saturday 9th March - Lent

Me again, idling tapping away on the tablet until it is a reasonable time to go to bed.

I was looking for the picture I took this afternoon of the iris bulbs after a couple of days of daylight, but for some reason it doesn't appear in 'photographs' yet. Stuck in a cloud somewhere, I suppose.

It occurred to me that their growth might be symbolic in some way of how one is meant to 'grow' in Lent. Or maybe it is nothing to do with Lent.

The advantage of giving up or taking on things for Lent is, of course, that it keeps the season firmly at the forefront of your mind. I have decided to give up the usual things that I usually choose; playing patience and freecell (you've no idea how hard I'm finding it), and speeding when driving (by which I mean paying Extra Attention and Exactitude to speed limits) and to take up praying for myself, every day if I can remember to.

A Latin chant setting of the Gloria Patri from the Liber Usualis, with two euouaealternatives
wikipedia

On the whole, I find saying a sort of rosary is a good way to pray for people, including myself. I use my hands to guide me through; one thumb for The Doxology, fingers for The Jesus Prayer and the other thumb for The Lord's Prayer, and hold that person in my mind as I go along. It stops me from trying to second-guess or speculate...

Christogram with Jesus Prayer in Roumanian
wikipedia

Some aspects of my early education in a Catholic Prep School have obviously formed deep roots. I always wanted one of the pretty rosaries that the school has displayed in a case for sale, (but not enough to actually go spend my own pocket money...)

I use the traditional version of The Lord's Prayer. Recently, because of something I read somewhere, I can't remember where, the word 'trespass' has made more sense to me than 'sin'; as in stepping over the boundaries or out of the pathway that I am meant to keep to.

And, in the Doxology, it is always the Holy Ghost, not the Holy Spirit!

Deep roots.

It might seem odd to end with a poem from a fantasy novel... I've always liked this one.

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes, a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king

Saturday 9th March - Pause until tomorrow afternoon

It's all been a bit 'full-on', this past week or so, and I'm very glad to have reached Saturday afternoon. I did have a 'time-out' morning yesterday, which will have benefitted the recorder pupils, drumming workshop people and piano pupils I encountered yesterday afternoon, evening and this morning!

I suppose it would be a good idea to go out for a walk - the sun is out - but it is cold out there and warm in here and already gone three in the afternoon. Tomorrow is another day...

Lent started without me, that is, in terms of pancakes. I usually make drop scones, rather than crepes, and pretend they count as they are almost Scotch Pancakes. And I usually don't get round to it until several days after Pancake Day, which is rather missing the point. So yesterday I entirely missed the point by making 'Eliza Acton's Rich Rice Pudding'  It's a cross between a delicious rice pudding and a delicious egg custard. The link I have used is a gluten-free recipe site - I'm not a gluten-free person, and the recipe looks exactly like the 'Delia Smith' I followed from my cookery book.

This is her picture (the gluten-free blogger) as we've more or less finished ours. But it looked pretty much the same. I'll make another ordinary rice pudding tomorrow as we seem to be over-blessed with milk at the moment.

I brought the iris bulbs out of the cupboard a few days ago.

They had to be kept in the dark for ten weeks according to the packet. I hate being kept in the dark, can't abide not knowing what is happening around me. They have already lost their pallid look; the leaves are greening to a healthier shade. I hope they manage to express their gratitude at being released from the cupboard by producing flowers in due course.

There. As you can see, a rather ordinary post today. Unless you want to know about a couple of leaves falling from a pot plant into my bath, and looking so exactly like a Praying Mantis (I wasn't wearing my glasses) that I nearly leapt out of my skin and out of the bath, before common sense took over and I was able to scoop the leaves out and dump them into the bin. Praying Mantis indeed.

Catching up - Barometric Pressure?

My grandmother, called Oma (as opposed to my mother, called Oma by my children - pay attention now), My Oma trained as a doctor around the time just after the 1st World War. She would have been appalled, back then, having lost BOTH her younger brothers in the fighting, to hear it called the 1st World War. Back then it was known as the Great War, never to be repeated.

But as usual, I'm heading down a different path... what am I on about? Oh yes, Barometric Pressure.

On Sunday I was suddenly enveloped in a black cloud, a fog of gloom and despair. I was supposed to be playing the organ at church, but when I got there I couldn't see or speak for unexpected tearfullness, so just handed the music to the other organist, turned round and came home.

What was all that about?

It's hard to know what was the trigger, or even the final straw.

Too many 'incoming' events, demands, requests? Maybe.
A couple of wakeful nights? Possibly.
An upcoming school assembly weighing on my mind?

And, almost certainly, the aftermath of a routine clinic appointment earlier in  the week. ('No change, although the distance you walked was considerably less than usual', any reason for that?' 'Yes, I'm feeling tired having just yomped up the hill to thw hospital.' ' Oh, well, that explains it'.)

 I am usually cheered up by a clinic visit - the 'no change' keeps me very happy, but not this time.

Barometric pressure, Oma would have said, nodding slowly and blinking at you though her thick lenses like an ancient owl. The weather was pretty appalling on Sunday, storm Freya and whatnot. Anyway, I came home and had a day of tv and knitting and reading and doing precious little, and the next day felt less fragile. On Tuesday I woke up feeling 'normal'. Howzat!

The usual me is mostly cheerful, mostly pragmatic, mostly happy, sometimes joyous, even. It's always a bit of a surprise to find oneself inside one's own personal thundercloud. But with family and friends all around (and sunshine and chocolate, don't forget the chocolate) normal self can usually be resumed fairly swiftly.

Meanwhile, I have finished one book, started another, and added many many many more rows to the various bits of knitting I am engaged upon.

It's Friday today, and I've been fine all week. Whatever it was that descended upon me last weekend seems to be gone.

I'm having to tap this post out on my tablet, as Leo has taken up residence in the computer chair.

We've provided her with a suitable box

but she likes to pick and choose.  (Honestly, she does fit in that box!)

Catching up - Saturday 24th February

Coffee morning day. It happened. It went ok. They ate all my little cakes and as much of the apple pie that was put out. There was totally an over-supply of cake and biscuits, and maybe one of the most popular items on offer was the tray of fresh fruit for non-cake-eaters.

Afterwards Himself and I set off, off and away... and ended up south. Trundling along the main road I said 'there, there' and we turned the Panda up a short, steep and rutted cart track, parked it to one side halfway into a hedge, and went to investigate St Mary the Virgin, Upwaltham; a church that I've often wanted to visit.

There it sits, with fields behind, a graveyard in front, and the road below. In spite of the traffic noise, and a tractor harrowing the field, there was a sense of peace.or silence. It is a late Saxon church, serving the few houses and farms dotted about, with a Norman apse added at the East end. A couple of kites were making slow circuits above, in the cloudless blue sky.

This modern window was added for the millenium; maybe you can make out the Lamb of God in the top section, and the swallows flitting across the lower panes.

That Norman apse - oh dear. Some kind of major works are underway - I guess it is slowing detaching itself from the main building and sliding down the hill...

We continued on our way reaching the village of West Dean via a circuitous route, and found food at the Village stores and cafe. It was warm enough to sit outside and watch the rooks busy in their small rookery, flying in formation around the field - can just about make out the nests.

We were joined by a very beautiful and very persistant cat who tried to persuade us to part with our bacon croissant, or toasted brie sandwich, or maybe the milk for my tea.

Finding us impervious to all blandishments it abandoned us for a slow prowl around the border of the field - the soundtrack for the cat in Peter and the Wolf came immediately to mind - the cat's movements were an exact fit to the rhythm.

Friday 1st March - Catching up 2 - last Friday

Friday 22nd was a baking day - I set to and made another Slovenian Apple Cake, and then the associated mini buns. Forty-eight in all.

The buns are associated with the Apple Cake because of the left-over bits and pieces; The Apple Cake uses most of a small carton of sour cream, and two egg yolks, to make the pastry-like cake bit. There is no way I am going to make meringues by hand, so I googled and came up with this site;

https://neighborfoodblog.com/2014/07/leftover-egg-whites-recipes.html

which brilliantly lists recipes according to how much egg white they need!

And here I found a recipe that uses two egg whites and some sour cream (or yoghurt). Done deal. Especially as you don't have to whip the egg whites.

That took up the whole of the morning - Himself was taking a neighbour to the 'local' (forty-minutes away) hospital for various appointments, and didn't get back until gone 2pm. He found me sitting in the garden with a cup of tea,

highly amused watching one of the cats, McCavity. She had just spent an uncomfortable couple of minutes trying to find a way to settle on top of one of the Balinese statues

She had clearly thought that its head would make a good perch from which to enjoy the sun and watch the world. I wish I had been able to take a picture of Hanuman wearing McCavity like a Russian fur hat. Sort of like Sophia Loren...

 

Friday 1st March - Catching up 1 - Last Thursday

Half term has been and gone, and I've meant to post from time to time, and then gone and made a cup of tea and read my book instead.

So, what's happened since Wednesday last week?

Thursday 22nd was my last 'free' day of the half term.

We went to IKEA, because I wanted to buy flowerpots. OK, that's a pretty crazy idea, driving all that way for flowerpots. I've looked around here, and the only ones big enough have been about £10 each for something not what I want, and then I saw these;


which are roughly what I had in mind and were only £3 each. I bought four, and should have bought eight. Next time.  We also bought some tea towels and ate a fairly inadequate meal (when will we learn NOT to attempt food consumption at IKEA? I've never eaten anything that was remotely more than fuel)

The HIGHLIGHT of the day was on the way home - the weather had improved markedly, and there was a small church up above Coulsdon that was on my list of Place To Visit. On the way home, indeed, so off we went.

It is a strange little journey; leaving the A23 you navigate through a mess of railway bridges and houses, and suddenly emerge into unexpected countryside. We found the church of st Peter and st Paul tucked into some woods down a single track lane leading to the tiny hamlet of Chaldon.

This is the site where I read of the church's existence, and I recommend that you follow the link for lots of pictures and explanations of the extraordinarily vivid Doom Painting that fills the West wall.

https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/surrey/churches/chaldon.htm



He took several pictures, but I didn't, so this one is from the britainexpress site.

We met someone who used to go ghost hunting with her mates when she was a local teenager - they used to come and frighten themselves at Halloween. She said that her ouwn children came home all wildly excites the other evening, saying 'Guess what Mum, guess where we've been!' Ghost hunting in the church yard! It is a dark and overshadowed place and I can imagine that one would imagine anything in the dusk.

Look what I found on the web;

 https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/gallery/images/11429/chaldon-church-ghost

what do you reckon?