Sunday 30th August - plans and pots

It's almost too late to do much with the sad state of my veg patch. I harvested four beans and then pulled up the stalks, so now all that is left are the tomatoes and maybe carrots. Although in 'the nursery' I have a tray of radishes and half a dozen titchy tiny kettuces.

All the physical effort; shuffling the pots and clearing them out took place this morning. Himself came and joined me when he saw what I was up to, and I was very grateful. It's all looking much tidier even if it is mostly bare tubs. We disturbed a big brown toad which shuffled into a nearby flowerbed. I've put a terracotta flowerpot on it's side nearby, and chucked any slugs I uncovered to where I thought it might be.

I spent some time going through this book;

and mapping Huw Edward's raised bed planting scheme for a year of veg onto my 15 tubs, now to be labelled 1-10 to match his plan, T1,T2, T3 (tomatoes at the moment), A and B.  Huw is all too keen on kale - dismal stuff, in my view, and attracts butterflies which lay eggs so you are harvesting caterpillars as well as leaves - and turnips. No thank you. But, in his favour, his month by month instructions are brilliant. I think my lack of success is partly (mostly?) due to my wilfully ignoring them and doing my own thing too often.

So I dug this out for inspiration. It does have a chapter on 'the nine-pot veg patch' which I turned to. Lots of alternatives to kale and turnips, but all the instructions are much more vague. Also they included herbs and edible flowers which I would rather grow elsewhere. 

As always, Google to the rescue. The RHS has useful guides on growing veg in c9ntainers, and on selecting and choosing miniature veg. I shall return to Huw's instructions,  substituting Florence fennel and miniature cauliflowers amongst other things for all that kale.

I shall go back to my pencilled version of Huw's plans and start inking them in, ready to follow them with great(er) attention this time around.

(Apologies to all of you who adore munching on kale...)

July 28th July - A garden tour

 We missed out on a proper April this year, as far as I remember... I think it was in the middle of the cold and dank Spring. As the seasons of the year are all a bit anyhow at the moment, I don't mind a bit of April sunshine and showers now. It certainly saves on watering the pots at the moment.

I've been out sowing MORE flower seeds in one of the sunny moments;

but 'watched seed trays never hatch', or something similar so I will have to curb my impatience. I'm hoping for Miniature roses, Brompton stocks, Michaelmas daisies, pansies and delphiniums so far. We shall see what happens.

While the sun was out I took a few more quick pics; following on from the sunny border yesterday, we go down the garden to 'the woodland orchard' - one apple tree and a dark shady area. 

Across the back of the garden is a massive laurel hedge; seriously huge; 'That's not a hedge, it's a wall' remarked James-the-tree-surgeon after an awed silence. He hadn't seen it for about five years since last time. It extends a further ten feet down the bank to the public paths and woodland behind us, which we can get to through the gate and along a twisty secret route. I'll take another photograph after he's worked his magic. 

Coming back up the garden is 'the shady border', although there is more light at the end since we cut back a lilac tree. 

Coming back up the garden is 'the shady border', although there is more light at the far end since we cut back a lilac tree. 

Halfway up the path is 'the vegetable garden', not very successful this year, but I have to say that I think my neglect had as much to do with it as the unsatisfactory weather. I have a chair and a little table where I can sit and commune with the veg as it grows.

Then 'the yard'; doesn't every garden have a patch like this? This has been the case for every garden we've ever had. The white sack contains the rest of a load of 'pukkamuck' which was for mulching the beds. Unfortunately we had some dry weather before we had finished, so this will have to wait until spring.

The 'real' shed. As in 'workshop' and 'not for storing all the junk that we don't know where else to store  while waiting to tip/donate/recycle'. Can you hear the hollow laugh? But we are making (slow) progress at clearing garden oddments into the sentry box sheds and moving stuff out.The chair and table are for heatwave days as they are in the shade all afternoon. (ha ha ha). I was glad of them last year, though.

Moving swiftly on. 'The pebble and container garden'. This is the year the wooden barrels have started failing one by one. The staves rot and crack, and the hoops drop to the ground... so this area is 'under development'.

The 'lower patio and dining area' and 'the upper patio, sculpture garden and water garden'. 

Oh, alright, it's really just a broad step to the dining room with a cheap solar fountain in a plastic basin, and some garden ornaments which came from my parent's garden before they moved into a flat. I really want to replace the violently green watering can with something more discrete; we use it to prop open the patio door.  

'The herb garden' is around the kitchen steps (mint and basil are supposed to deter wasps and flies)

 

and finally 'the nursery' is at the side of the house.

I expect you spotted the second pukkamuck sack; we were sharing a sack with a neighbour, so decanted some for them. Unfortunately, some previous own used up the entire space at the side of the house for an extension, and so the only way to get anything from the front to the back, or vice versa, is through the house... We are all still working on plan B (and C, and D...) 

One day (in my dreams!) I will have tasteful signs all round our patch with 'to the orchard', 'to the nursery' etc on them, just like a Real Garden like Borde Hill, or Nymans. Well, maybe not. I think of this as a 'toy garden', a lot crammed into a small space.   

I haven't bothered with picturs of the front garden as it is currently 'under deconstruction' and distinctly lowers the tone of our street. Have patience, dear neighbours - next year it could be full of delphiniums...  

  

 

Friday July 27th - Spring, Summer, Autum, take your pick

I reckon we've had all three seasons in one day. In other words, a typical English summer. I think we are better of here than on the Mediterranean coast, at any rate. 

I'm clinging to my belief that a Staycation is when you stay in your own home for holidays. Not your own or a rented holiday home or caravan. Although, in many of the books written in or about the first half of the 20th century many families lived 'in town' during the week and in the country at weekends. 'Mrs Miniver', for one in her wartime essays;

(Oh look; I've just been on amazon to get a picture, and the Kindle price is only 79 pence!)

We shall be having another Staycation for the fourth year in a row. I'm okay with that. There's plenty to to at home and nearby. Back in May after weeks and weeks of cold dismal weather I was feeling a bit stir crazy and started looking online for Kandmark Trust places (at least I know I won't be part of the 'pricing local people out of the villages' problem). The are expensive, for sure, but for the most part in astonishing rescued buildings.

But hey, with the garden looking like this at the moment,  why would I want to be somewhere else?

Well, I can think of lots of reasons, but staying home watching thise cardoons growing and growing is pretty good too.

Thursday 27th July - a garden day

 The weather wasn't that wonderful today; cloudy with drizzle, or cloudy without drizzle. Even so, I spent a lot of time outside. A friend dropped a a load of those plastic trays you buy bedding plants in round to me, so I was able to sow some more flower seeds; Brompton Stocks and Pansies. I'm hoping by dropping just 2 (or one, or three!) seeds in each little section I will be able to grow lots of little perennials to plant out later. Meanwhile I will 'watch the spaces'. 

I also snipped off half a dozen likely looking sprigs of lavender and stuck them into some earth in the hope of getting some more plants as the main plant has become very leggy and may need drastic action. 

James-the-tree-surgeon came round to eye up the laurel hedge which has got beyond us. He stared at it wordlessly for a couple of minutes before declaring 'that's not a hedge,  it's a wall!'. He's not wrong!

I did some walking up and down the garden; from the bottom, by the hedge/walk up (yes, it is definitely an upward slope) to the road. That us 60 steps, and I managed to do up, down, up, down, up and halfway down. (with pauses every so often). I felt as though I should be singing 'The grand old Duke of York', if rather slowly. I'll see if I can improve this.

My father told me that he had been out for a practice walk with his rollator to try and build up his own distances. Up to now he's really not gone far at all; mostly just going slowly from his flat down to lunch and back. But his younger brother (a mere 89 years old) is coming to stay for a few days, and he thought an outing to the park might make a good outing. How much they can take in (Sensory Garden, Dragon's Maze, Sculpture Garden) will depend on their joint capabilites and stamina... and mine!

I recorded a dismal step count of 467 last Saturday, but resolved to try and increase it every day this week. I am so pleased with my self; my daily totals were 750, 1,000, 1,350 and yesterday I managed 2,500. Although some of these 'steps' will gave come from chopping vegetables or playing the piano. It all takes energy...

Wednesday 26th July - in and out of the garden

In the garden;

Dodging the short showers that punctuated the sunshine at various times Himself almost completely filled the garden waste bin with the rest of the rock rose shrubs. They had got completely out of hand and were reaching out with their twiggy fingers and sticky leaves to catch passers-by on the pavement.  I've been thinking about which low-growing, grrowering, interesting, evergreen, hardy shrubs would make suitable replacements. (I don’t ask for much!).

Later he completely filled the rest of the space with grass after mowing the front and back garden.

Just as well; James, who has been doing tree-surgeon and major heavy-duty work on the laurel hedge gor us over the years is coming tomorrow to give us a quote for the hedge, and check if anything needs doing on the big oak. He did all the work digging out and replanting the 'sunny' border and replacing the fence about 5 years ago. I'm hoping he's not too disappointed by our slapdash gardening ways.

Out of the garden; (or, in the house!)

Not much... I played the piano for the first tine in ages. Once I started teaching full time I found I was less inclined to play in the evenings. After all the constant noise and music I wanted peace and quiet. 

Now I'm having difficulty wearing varifocals and reading the music. I am reminded of that snooker player, Denis someone? who used to wear his glasses upside down when he played.

I've got very bored with my breakfast muesli, so used it to make flapjack. Very moreish!

I had three sessions of cross stitching today. As each session seemed to be 50% unstinting and re-stitching progress was slow, but I shall move to the penultimate phase tomorrow. This month is slipping away like water in the hand.

Tuesday 25th July - old songs, old memories

I see the moon and the moon sees me,

God bless the moon and God bless me.

I looked out of the back door just now, and there was the moon in an inky dark blue sky, looking just like a biscuit with a big round bite missing from the side.

I used to teach the lullaby above to the youngest children. If you know tonic solfa, then the tune I know is

S...  m   d   s.... m d s... s... s....

S... m d s.... m-s d.... d.... d....

It's been a day of remembering old tunes from school;

This morning it was an assembly song with words written by Eleanor Farjeon;

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first word,

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning, 

Praise for them springing fresh from the word.

I'm not sure we ever sang this at any of the schools I went to. I must have learned it when Cat Stevens (remember him?) made it popular.

Later, in the afternoon a friend brought me a bunch of gladioli, saying that they always made her think of a song from her schooldays and suddenly started singing;

Glad that I live am I;

That the sky is blue;

Glad for the country lanes

And the fall of dew.

Again, I'm not familiar with this one although I have heard it before. We used very traditional hymns in our school assemblies, and even chanted a Psalm every Wednesday using the chants that nearly all Anglican churches used back then. I can't remember the last time I sang a psalm like that (I have to confess that I rather miss the intellectual exercise of working out when to change the notes!)

All the three songs above have the virtue of simplicity. The get straight to the point; the message is clear and memorable.

Ah well. It's bedtime for me;

You see the moon, and the moon sees you;

God bless the moon and God bless you.

Monday 24th July - in praise of real books (and kindles)

 

I have come the to the conclusion that there is a lot to be said for 'real' books. The sort made of paper. Something that doesn't switch itself off when you are halfway through reading a recipe. Something that you can write in and stick sticky notes and bookmarks in. However many of my older books, especially all the cheap paperbacks, have small print on yellowing, crumbling paper. However did I manage to make out the words? 

If you read your book on a kindle you can adjust the brightness and the size of the text according to where you are and how you feel. And a kindle isn't very heavy compared to some of the paper books. And you can get a dictionary definition of a word just by highlighting it. 

But it is easier to flip backwards and forwards in a real paperback to find the paragraph referred to 100 pages further on. But you can have loads of books in the one little handheld kindle. But you can't share and pass on kindle books to your friends.  

Oh dear. Now, I am confused and can't really choose one over the other. But either one has to be better than reading books on a tablet, surely? I am coming to the conclusion that a tablet is the invention of the devil. There never had been such a device for encouraging one to waste so much time. 

In fact it might be a good idea to put the tablet somewhere out of reach and save myself from myself... I start to read with good intentions but then three hours later I have indeed read some of my book, but also followed an idea from the book deep into the tangles of the internet and youtube, taken in a couple of tiktoks, checked out twitter and the news and accidentally found myself playing freecell and sudoku. How did that all happen?

Ah, but, hang on... if I read books on a tablet I can zoom into an illustration, enlarge it, pore over it, examine the details, enjoy full colour pictures. I can select and copy bits of text to paste into this blog... I can even write this blog if I am prepared to stab it the little letters one by one of the screen...

The only solution is to pick the right method for the right time, and if that turns out to be the tablet, well aren't we all being exhorted to learn a little self-discipline? I suspect it may be too late for me. 

I've allocated this post to yesterday. I didn't get round to posting last night (playing sudoku instead, probably)

  

Sunday 23rd July - what happened to Saturday?

 I don't know what was wrong yesterday. I was OK when got up, did an hour's cross stitch, and then an overwhelming tiredness came over me like a personal cloud or fog. I had no interest anything, only wanted to eat sweet food. I couldn't finish my lunch and left all me peas, and then enjoyed a panna cotta, and just had a honey sandwich and a handful of nuts for supper. 

I had to use the oxygen machine all afternoon and evening.

What was all that about?

I have to say I was very apprehensive about what today would bring. But it was as though yesterday was just a dream. Hopefully just a 'blip'.

I have taken it easy; surfing the Internet, looking up stuff, two zooms, no cross stitching, but I've also helped with lunch and made an orzo salad for my tea;

Cook orzo pasta as directed on the packet (I used vegetable stock). Add suitable veg (green beans, peas, sweet corn, carrots cut up, broad beans, fresh or frozen) to pan at appropriate moments while it is simmering. 

Meanwhile chop up salad stuff and, in my case, some sliced peppered beef.

Run the cooked orzo and veg under the cold tap to cool, and drain well. 

Mix everything together with some kind of dressing (mayonnaise and lime juice today) and serve.

I saved some of the orzo and veg mix for soup or another salad.

Himself had his slices of beef in a sandwich, with tomatoes other side. He prefers a simpler supper.

The sun came out in the afternoon. I watched our neighbours slowly walking along the pavement with their very young son, aged 2 and a bit, on his tricycle between them. Was he pedalling or being pushed along? 

I remember doing the same with our own children all those years ago... we would set off with the children pedalling along merrily. The success of the return journey depended upon oh-so-carefully judging the distance of the excursion so that we all made it back without upset... those were the days...

Look how my cardoons have been enjoying this mix of sunshine and showers!

Friday 21st July - mini heroes

 The chocolate o'clock box contains 'Heroes' at the moment. Back in the olden days they were mini chocolate bars. These days they are more like mini chocolate bites.

When I first discovered how small the contents of the wrappings were I began to feel a bit miffed, but after a  couple of second's thought I find I'm not that bothered. It is a ridiculously expensive way of buying chocolate, to be sure, but this way the amount of sugar and fat I consume (always provided I take only one piece) is kept to a minimum. So, all things considered, it's for the best.

Thursday 20th July - this, no, that, no, the other...

 I had the subject for my post all set up in my mind... this picture from an article in The Gaurdian this morning (I'm still enjoying the pressreader app!)

I am 'certain sure' that I have more than however number of possessions she has. She writes that realised she could do without 99% of them, so if 12,667 is 99% then - oh you do the maths. Anyway, it's a Lot of Stuff. She photographed every dish and tea cup etc separately, and every item in every drawer. I reckon I'd get close to 12,667 just photographing the contents of all the junk drawers. Yes, we do have a lot of those.

Anyway, events overtook this post. I had a few prunes (delicious) for breakfast, and researched 'devils on horseback'. These are prunes (or dates) which might be stuffed with almonds (or not) wrapped in bacon and baked in the oven. Originally served as a 'savoury' at the end of a multicourse Edwardian style dinner, but also served as canapés or with the Christmas Dinner. I shan't risk them on Himself. That might be asking too much of True Love.

I'm interested in bacon again, since I discovered that you can place 2 rashers on a piece of kitchen paper, cover with another piece, and microwave for 2 minutes. In our microwave that produces the very crispy bacon that you can crumble as a garnish. Tomorrow I shall see what happens if you substitute bread for the kitchen paper.... instant bacon sandwich? I will report back.

All this was overshadowed by an involved conversation with the surgery pharmacist. I have been prescribed iron tablets, one twice a day. Oh my days. It took some really hard thinking to work out when to take them. I have to avoid taking calcium meds within 2 hours before or after taking the iron tablets. I take a calcium supplement twice a day. The same restrictions apply to consuming milk or whole grain cereals or eggs or tea.

After a lot of thought I have produced a written timetable to sort out which pills I take at breakfast, midmorning, midafternoon, teatime and bedtime. Wish me luck.

I've also changed breakfast from wholegrain ceresl and coffee with just a splash of milk to a croissant and the coffee. Good job we bought those prunes!

I'll use our remaining wholemeal bread for the bacon sandwiches experiment and making bread and butter pudding for lunch times.

Wednesday 19th July

Early on in our marriage Himself informed me that 'discovering that bowl of prunes soaking in the fridge without any warning' very nearly constituted grounds for divorce! A bit of an extreme react, I thought! He probably doesn't remember that remark, but it made quite an impression on me at the time...

Since then I have been a little cautious about stashing prunes in the fridge.

This blog post will be the first warning he gets that there is a little jam jar of prunes soaking in tea at the back of the fridge... I'll hide it behind the milk bottles to spare him the awful sight. 

Prunes and custard was one of my favourite puds at school. I appeared to be in the minority, so was welcome to theirs as well as my own. We used to count the stones like cherry stones;

Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor, rich man, poor man, beggar-man, thief

I can remember a few more verses;

Coach, carriage, cart, wheelbarrow, for getting to the church

Silk, satin, cotton, rags, for the wedding dress

But I'm sure there was one about the church, and maybe one to find out where you would live...

Tuesday 18th July

Yesterday I hoovered the kitchen, dining room and sitting room in the morning, and then was DONE for the day. Today I hoovered the bedroom; a tougher job because it is carpeted with a patchwork of rugs. And once again, I was ALL DONE. 

I'll leave it a few days before I finish the job; the bathroom, landing, stairs and hall, all wooden floors so easier.

I think I'm not back to where I was before the chest infection in terms of how much I can do in a day!

I thought painting would be a nice restful activity, but only got as far as making a rough sketch using a fineline pen. I didn't have enough energy to wrangle the paints and brushes.

I'm hoping it will become a rustic stone wall in a field. I can see it in my mind... but can I make it happen?

More cross-stitch. I'm trying to aim for about an hour a day. The border is complete, and the first motif. Yesterday I ran out of time/concentration/eye focus with 10 crosses left (I got the crosses done!) Today I ran out of thread with a similar number of stitches to go... 'quit before you start making mistakes', I told myself, and took a wander round the garden.

Yesterday we watched a Van der Valk episode. I had to stop knitting when the action became too exciting as I found I was knitting faster and faster to try and keep up. We've been watching series 1 and 2 again, and it's very disconcerting to find how much we had forgotten. Then suddenly we'd remember a moment, before returning to the' did we actually watch this bit before state of mild confusion. 

I must investigate and see if Montalbano is still available because we might be ready to watch those episodes again too.

Monday 17th July - blogs and blogging (and other stuff)

Today I went on facebook for the first time in - I don't know - maybe getting on for a year? Who knows, I may even post something on it!

What brought this rush of blood to the head?

While scrolling aimlessly (again) through a news feed on my phone, I came across this recipe on a Surrey Live article, and they had taken it from a facebook post by CakeOnTheRun. I was intrigued by the recipe and by the website, so clicked...

Recipe; 'you can make a delicious lemon cheesecake for 1 with yogurt' (oooh, looks interesting, tell me more!)

They appear to be reusing a glass GU desert pot.

Crush three digestive biscuits into crumbs; tip into a mini dish and pour in 1 tsp melted butter. Mix to combine.

Top with 2 heaped tablespoons of lemon yogurt and 2 heaped teaspoons of whipped cream.

Looks good to me....

image from cakeontherun via Surrey Live

I haven't tried it yet... already wondering about ginger biscuits, or strawberry yogurt... the Crafty Chef (remember him) says you should make your own plain yogurt, then if you want it fruit flavoured beat in some 'good quality jam'. He's not wrong.

I remember, decades ago, we were staying with my parents. My mother came in absolutely furious that friends of friends had somehow managed to invite themselves to supper (clearly expecting something more than fish and chips) at a time when life was hectic and fraught. She produced a superb meal, wine, candles, the lot. Her revenge was saved for desert, which was brandy snaps biscuits from a packet, filled with 'milky bar desert' which she had bought for the grandchildren, decorated with a thin drizzle of neat ribena, also bought for the grandchildren.

'Delicious,' they said, 'you must let us have the recipe.' Somehow my mother forgot to send it on.... 

Anyway, I appear to have lost the thread... oh yes, going on facebook. I found a blogger who stopped (not without warning, I might add) a number of years ago, and now has started a new blog. I really missed her sideways look on life so am delighted to have found her again. So my foray into facebook was worth it for that alone.

It set me wondering - why do we - or more specifically I - blog? 

I think one reason is that I enjoy other blogs so much. So I want to contribute to this little world of people somehow connected, but not connected to each other; to hear their views which I might not agree with, get ideas for - oh, gardening, recipes, things to do and make. I like to think that we are a sort of little village; perhaps in the tradition of Fairacre of Thrush Green, but not too much like St Mary Mead or any place called Midsomer I hope!  

Other stuff;

I had an urge to paint, after scrolling through youtube (Voces 8 singing beautifully, recalctrant dogs and horses, drawing and watercolour ideas, 'look what you can make with scraps of fabric', and 5-minute-crafts).

I set out a tray of paints, books, brushes, water mugs and an extra travel mug of water WITH A LID for drinking from and took it into the garden. (why the lid? to thwart absent-minded self who tends to clean the paintbrush in the coffe/tea/water)  

 I made a start, then brought it all indoors again as it was beginning to rain. Once I had resettled myself, the weather changed back to sunny. That's how it goes.

I'm quite pleased... I wasn't 'drawing from nature', just random leaves, a kind of rose and some clematis type flowers (I think I've done too many petals). The video I had watched was about starting by making a very wet outline of the shape in pale-ish colour, and then introducing more concentrated colours and letting them mix on the page. I have to say that I love the randomness and lack of precision. Worth pursuing. 

Sunday 16th July - Broad beans for supper

 The crimson flowered broad beans are ready now, and we had some with supper tonight. They do taste good, nothing like the horrid sullen grey slabs that we were served at school. The convent prep school I went to had an extensive kitchen garden beyond the playing fields. This produced a seemingly never-ending supply of spinach (served slimy and sandy), red cabbage (boiled to a repellent grey colour) and the aforementioned broad beans. 

Luckily I was a day girl, and my mother was an excellent cook or I would never have eaten any of these vegetables again. Pity the boarders...

When I boarded (at a different school) much later on, I pitied us boarders too then. I think the supper dish called, if I remember rightly, 'kidney turbago' went back untouched. The smell, as of a public lavatory, was enough to stop us in our tracks.

Nowadays I'm a grownup (in years anyway) and eat what I like. I even leave the crusts from my sandwiches if I don't feel like eating them!

The mitred square blanket continues...

I had a mega 'sewing in the ends' session yesterday evening while watching television; sewing about 30 ends was no great hardship with various programmes to distracted Mr.

I completed the missing corner today, and will carry on until the current double knitting stash runs out. It's the sort of thing that one can always add to. At this width it us more of a wrap than a blanket.

This time round I've experimented with using patterned and self-striping yarns, and mixing and matching two sizes of squares. 

I found the pattern and concept here at Loiuse Tilbrook designs, but have modified it slightly to suit my less than meticulous nature. The main difference is that I found it was too much of a fuss to remember whether I was knitting a right-side, decreasing row, or a an ordinary wrong-side row. So I knit to the central marker, slip the marker, and then k2tog on every row. That makes it easier to knit and watch TV at the same time.

I'm also not that bothered the my diagonal lines caused by the central decreases go in different directions.

Unlike when I am cross-stitching; 

I managed to do 45 mins cross stitching today so I've reached where I hoped to be yesterday.  Never mind. Tomorrow is another day. Progress was slowed at one point as I became totally confused when I changed the direction of a line from vertical to horizontal and couldn't work out which stitch was the criss (lying underneath) and which was the cross. I think I got there in the end!

 

Friday 14th July - so many reasons for feeling better

 Such as

getting started on the cross stitch! It doesn't look like much yet, and I'm still mulling over the colours but at least I can get on with something while I ponder.

Next, these miniature rose seeds arrived in the post today. I've read the sowing instructions several times over; they need a temperature of 18-22C to germinate, so, having looked at the weather forecast, I will have to start them off indoors. 

Just 15 seeds in the packet, but if they should all germinate then I will have more than enough!

These roses;

There are nine blooms on the one spindly stem, clamouring to be allowed indoors out of the rain!

And talking of rain - there will be no need to water the pots and tubs this evening.

My father nearly had a wardrobe malfunction; we had a plaintive telephone call asking if we had a thingy for making holes in his leather belt! The answer is no; but Himself took round his Dremel drill set when he delivered the shopping and drilled several holes as requested. Things should be easier now! That drill was a leaving present ('you want one a what?') when he retired from work. It has proved its value many and many a time.

I discovered a 'new to me' gardening magazine today (thanks to the pressreader app) called 'The English Garden'. There were only two issues available on pressreader; The older one was 'A Year in the Garden' and goes through month by month with luscious pictures. I am the other issue for tomorrow; it will be my reward for after the next stitching session!

Thursday 13th July - my eyes are gummed I cannot see

 No, not really, but for a while they felt like it;

'My eyes are dim I cannot see

I have not got my specs with me

I have n---o----t my----- specs      with      me!' as the song goes.

That's because I spent the whole morning, interrupted only to teach a piano lesson and make a cup of tea on finalising and then charting recharting erasing recharting and finally inking in my cross stitch pattern.

The central motif for Version 1 wouldn't fit in the space, the borders for version 2 were too big, and it took me three goes to try and centre the design for Version 3. But it is done! Sort of... I think I know what the colour scheme is in outline, enough to make a start at any rate. I always feel So much better once the first stitches are in, and in their proper place.

I have finished 'Mrs 'Arris goes to New York' and immediately downloaded 'Mrs 'Arris goes to Moscow' and 'Mrs 'Arris MP'. They are the sort of books that cheer me up immensely. Somewhere between comedy, satire, fairy-tale, and 'feel-good'.

I also finished listening to 'Winter's Gifts' by Ben Aaronovitch on audible. I suspect one reason I had so much difficulty with charting the cross stitch was that I got too interested in the story and kept pressing the opposite of 'snooze' to listen to another 30 minutes instead of going to sleep. Ah well. 

Reminds me of reading books by torchlight under the bed covers when I was a child, trying to make out the words in the fading light of the torch bulb as the battery slowly and inevitably died.

I used to read them in the bathroom too; this was trickier as you had to keep an ear out for someone (a parent!) coming up the stairs, and then pull the light cord just until the light went out but not as far as the 'click' to avoid discovery.

Talking of lights out - yup, it's time to say goodnight...! Sleep well....   

    

Wednesday 12th July - book club choice/pressreader

This book club choice for this month is 'The House of Elrigg' by Gavin Maxwell. I think it is a biography; I'll report back when my copy arrives from the second-hand sellers.

One of the members of our book club always says how wonderful the 'pressreader' app is, which our library lets members access for  free. I have at last got round to signing up for it. Wonderful! I haven't really got the hang of how it works, but I have fathomed out how to read newspapers and magazines for free.

I can flip through all the magazines that I enjoy looking at, and can screenshot any pages (recipes, patterns, etc) that I want to save. 

I use pressreader on my tablet but I suspect you can get a PC version as well. Well worth having a look at if your library offers the service. 

Tuesday 11th July - what's the time? No idea.

 Time seems to have become non-linear for large periods of today. 

The tinewarp started early this morning; late last night, to be ultra precise; at 23:59 when the gentle monotonous chuntering of the oxygen concentrator changed to a plaintive beeping. If it wasn't that I have to use the machine at night we would probably have slept right through the power cut.

So, now what? Shall I make us a cup of t... no, the power is off. We'll just have to read for a little wh, no, it's not practical reading by torchlight. 

Normal services were resumed about an hour later. We didn't bother to bring up the portable concentrator that I use when travelling as lugging it upstairs and then grovelling under the bed to plug it in is a sure fire way for the power to come back immediately. 

Interestingly we discovered that we are both so acclimatised to the sound of the machine that neither of us was able to sleep until power returned.

So, what with one thing and another I have felt a bit 'not in the real world' all day. I was delighted when this afternoons piano lessons were rescheduled (school end of term productions are in full swing). 

I've also cried off tonight's book club meeting. I didn't finish the book (again) so I shall wait and see what this month's choice turns out to be. I've downloaded and read the samples for three of them and they all look readable and non-alarming. 

Meanwhile no stitching, no charting, no progress with the cross stitch collaboration. I need to get started, then I'll be fine.

Monday 10th July - has it only been a week -

- since the piano lesson that was so frustrating? This week we got on just fine; she'd actually done the work, was all over smiles because she had mastered the tricky technical issues and could bask in the well-earned glow of success. Excellent; how lovely to finish for the summer on a high. (Here's hoping for the same for the rest of this week's lessons!)

I managed to clear some annoying little computery tasks; saving photographs from WhatsApp and from emails and so forth.

Have also planted the remaining two verbena plants, ordered bits and pieces for the garden (peony supports and more slug gone wool pellets) and a selection of flower seeds to sow this month; snapdragon, delphiniums (which I've never had in the garden before), pansies, stocks, honesty and michaelmas daisies. The plan is to sow them now for next year. If winter doesn't prove too severe. 

I've also ordered seeds for miniature roses - it never occurred to me to grow these from seed - but why not? 

This year I bought that mega selection of random plug plants which arrived while the weather was still cold. I looked after them as best as I could, but the survival rate wasn't wonderful so I thought that I'd try DIY.

There is a highly charged match on Wimbledon which needs my full attention so I'm going to have to stop; Alcatraz v Berrettini are 2 sets to 1, and one game all. Both men are absolutely giving it their all.

Sunday 9th July - step counts?

 Yesterday was a 'low energy' day and it looked as though I was barely going to reach 500 steps in the whole day.

I think it was mainly due to the weather; stuffy, humid and oppressive all day. At one point, around lunchtime, there was a massive clap of thunder, like an explosion,  which actually made the house shake. I had hopes tgat there would be a proper storm which would clear the air, but the rain, although heavy, stopped abruptly after just a few minutes and it became just as unbearable as before. 

I was SO breathless (like the weather!) that I spent a good deal of the afternoon and evening slumped on the settee and using the oxygen concentrator. 

So, how come did I suddenly get to over 1000 steps bedtime? Aha! I was knitting some more of the patchwork square blanket (much less demanding than wrangling double pointed needles for sock knitting) 

and the ball of yarn lost its structure and shape, threatening to become a cat's cradle of a tangle. I sorted it out and rewound it into a ball, and my wrist action was enough to add 500 steps. I'm enjoying the effect of knitting the squares with multicoloured yarn. The wooden knitting bowl has a groove in the side for the yarn to feed out through it while the ball is free to bibble and bobble around without escaping.

I did manage to doodle a drawing yesterday, and add a few more doodles while looking to see which seeds I could sow in July

If I do sow some more vegetables it will more in hope than expectation. This year has really been disappointing due to the long cold spring. Today I harvested the first tub of broad beans - all 10 of them - beans, that is, not pods! I threw them in with the ravioli for our supper, so they cooked together for a couple of minutes, and dressed them all with butter, chilli oil, juice of half a lemon, a couple of finely chopped spring onions (bought!) and chopped basil and parsley. Delicious!

Today my step count is less than 600, but I feel much, much less breathless. I reckon I'll gave enough 'umph' to spend time walking on the spot this evening to reach a more respectable figure.

Saturday 8th July - random non-sequituers

 Professor Tim Spector is keen that we should all eat 30 different types of plant per week. I think the newspaper headline

'Eating 30 plants per week will cure all your ills' is probably a vast overstatement of what he actually said. I have learned not to go past the headlines on news items such as 'insert name of minor celebrity here gives update on their devastating diagnosis' when it turns out they have sprained their ankle or some such.

Thirty plants seems a lot, so I kept a running total this week. It seems that seeds, spices, vinegar, pickles, coffee, tea, chocolate can all be included in the list;

so my breakfast of fruit-nut-and-seed muesli contains raisins, sultanas (are they the same?) apricots, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, oats, wheat and barley. Not in great quantities, but I eat a portion of this most mornings. This with a cup of coffee gives me 11 items.

Over the course of the week my meals and snacks included brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, sugar snap peas, garden peas (I think they are different because of the pods), potatoes, rice, asparagus, raspberries, tomatoes, lettuce, pea shoots, baby spinach leaves, red peppers, olives, jalapeno peppers, chilli peppers, lemon, lime, pine nuts, cucumber, apple, basil, parsley, chocolate, tea, edmame beans, black beans, white beans, borlotti beans, canelli beans, ginger, indian spices, mushrooms, onions, spring onions, garlic, and cauliflower.    Around another 38 items. I haven't counted in today yet - indeed, I stopped counting!

It appears that it is not the quantity so much as the variety that matters. No problem then!

Dead-heading sweet peas is an odd sort of task. I went out yesterday and did all three pots as comprehensively as I could. Today it looked as though I hadn't been near them, and I came away with another handful. On closer inspection I saw that they hide their little seed pods inside the faded petals. Aha! You won't catch me that way again!

I brought a few stems indoors yesterday, but today the petals have faded and even have seed pods! The other flowers are coriander from the herb pot and a small bit of erigeron.

I adored 'Mrs 'Arris goes to Paris' and read it in one sitting. Paul Gallico's writing is so vivid. It feels so full of love... with the message that it's the people, inside the clothes, that really matter. I'm in luck; 'Mrs 'Arris goes to New York' came in the same book. I'm almost afraid to start reading it in case it isn't as good...   

   

Thursday 6th July - asleep walking

today's sketch

I don't feel as though I have woken up properly all day... 

I can't work out what to wear. Yesterday I wasn't warm enough; today I am wearing a warmer fleece jacket and have put on socks instead of going barefoot as I usually do through the Summer, and now that the skies have cleared I'm feeling too warm...

Somehow I have managed to teach one piano lesson, write up yesterday's piano lesson (a rehearsal for a 'mock' exam, so a bit tricky). Just one more lesson, and two social zooms to go before I can go back to sleep!

I'm not going to make my step target today, for sure!

   

Wednesday 5th July - Turning over another new leaf...

 What is it about the idea of starting afresh, turning over a new leaf, trying again?

This page should have been portrait orientation but I've even turned the page through 90 degrees to make it use less space. It's been ages since I stopped drawing a sketch a day, and I'm missing it now.

Writing is another activity which has gone by the board; I notice the last entry in my notebook was in April. It is very easy to be overtaken by events and then lose the impetus.

A couple of things have helped re-ignite the creative embers; A couple of books of poems by Wendy Cope were probably the first sparks, then tripping across this book in Sue's blog (actually, I follow a couple of blogs written by ladies called Sue so I am often confused as to which is who!) aha, it's this one  where she lists the books she has ordered from the library. I've picked up many a recommendation from her blog, and others too, I might add;

Anyway, this is the book; 

I wasn't about to pay lots of money for what was obviously a little gift book, but it was for sale on the secondhand book site I use quite often (rather often, to be more truthful).

It is a little bundle of joy, and I have put it out of reach to avoid reading it all in one go...

It is just a collection of just about daily observations; three- or four- lines describing a small, everyday incident, seen while walking in the park, overhead on a bus and so on.

I try an limit myself to just one page at a time, and will pass it on to a friend when I have finished with it.

So now I am trying to 'stop and notice' things and jot them down. Since I am still avoiding what they call 'unnecessary social contact' and indoor public spaces this limits my opportunities for 'people-watching' - something I used to love doing at cafes in the past. (Hopefully those days will come again...)   

I've also downloaded 'Mrs 'Arris Goes to Paris' - the book by Paul Gallico which is behind the film. If I enjoy it, I'm in luck as Mrs 'Arris also goes to New York, Moscow, and becomes an MP in subsequent books!

 

Monday 3rd July - a normal Monday?

While we were in the garden yesterday we spent some time wondering the best approach to dealing with one of the big half-barrel planters we bought back in 2015. Both iron hoops were lying at the base, so the staves were only staying upright through habit. We were thinking it might be possible to lift the hoop back up and tap it in place - it worked on one of he other barrels last year.

  This morning the decision was made for us; an unscheduled but urgent job - normal for us! 

Himself has emptied the barrel (four and a half large plastic flowerpots of earth) taking every care to prevent the earth from spilling all over the pebbles. The staves were either rotten or rotting, as was the base, so quite a lot did get into the pebbles in the process, which meant scooping out another large plastic pot of mixed pebbles and soil, and then separating them. However it was a good morning's work, and a sack of wood and two rusty iron hoops for the tip in due course.

I had been planning to plant my marigolds and petunias in the barrel - ah well, I now have a number of  large flowerpots to fill instead!

......

Just look at these beautiful carrots, growing nicely - in the spinach pot... I have no idea how they got there, but thought I may as well let them stay.

....... 

The day has ended with a most annoying piano lesson which left me very cross with the student. I had set just a few scales (they have been on-going for a couple of weeks so I was hoping for some improvement) and to do some work on a piece -not much as she is not doing a lot of practice at the moment. 

I had already decided to get tough; so we spent the first 10 minutes doing one of the scales properly - it is a difficult one, not something you can blag your way through (G major in thirds, hands separately);  you do have to work at it! So I persisted until she was able to play it.

Then we moved onto the next one... same story, and another ten minutes gone.

And the next...

We were had reached the last five minutes of her lesson before it was time to look at the piece - it's a Grade 7 Haydn sonata, and again not something you can bluff your way through. We have already spent tine going through it in detail including how to learn it and how to practice it.  

'How have you got on? Which bit have you been working on?' I asked.

'Oh, I just sight-read through it a few times,' she eventually replied, not looking at me. I nearly ended the zoom call then and there - I have been having this battle with her for YEARS. But... I pushed through ten minutes of Proper Learning for just the first 6 bars until she could play them accurately without mistakes. She is probably still muttering...

I have some sympathy for her; if you don't practise regularly you don't make progress, and every time you go play you find that you are no better, or perhaps even worse, and a cycle of discouragement can set in. Biting the bullet - getting the job done - these are the sort of things that everyone has to learn at some stage, but the process of learning this lesson is not a wonderful experience.   

Learning an instrument is about so much more than learning to play the instrument.

Next week is the last lesson of term... then a blissful summer break for both of us!

............

Soup for supper;

I had saved the scraps from ends of salad onions, tough asparagus trimmings, and trimmings from broccoli and used these to make stock. Yesterday I had some of the cooked asparagus in my potato and spring onion salad, and today I used the rest of the asparagus and cold potatoes, with the stock, salt, pepper, lemon etc to make a delicious soup, which has almost restored my mood. A couple of chocolate oatcakes finished the job nicely.  

 

Sunday 2nd July - you are closer to God’s heart in a garden

than anywhere else on earth, as they say, and that's where I spent most of the morning.

 The morning church service wasn't live-streamed today as there was a baptism with lots visiting guests and children. I wonder what they made of it all? It was an all-age family service, and led by a science teacher whose talks are always exciting and surprising, and often require fire extinguishers close at hand....

But back to the garden. I (very slowly!) extracted a bucket full of  compost, complete with hundreds of worms and too many so-called biodegradable teabags.  I intend to mix the compost with spent earth to top up the as yet unplanted patio tubs. Meanwhile Himself worked away at clearing all the wild strawberry plants that had overgrown the 'pebble patch'. It's looking much, much better.

A friend came round with three trays of plants for me. I know she often takes friends to the coffee shops at various garden centres, so I asked her to get me some plants if it was convenient. 

I'll work out where to put them tomorrow. 

This year's success has to include the sweet peas. It took them quite a while to get going.

And also the cardoons. The third one at the back is invisible because it is so small; we removed three enormous snails from it the other evening and surrounded the remnants with 'slug gone' wool pellets so maybe it will recover.

The temperature has dropped noticeably this evening. I'm grateful for a rug over my legs and tootsies!

Saturday 1st July - imparadise

Imparadise; verb: to make blissfully happy; enraptured. to make into or like paradise