Saturday 31st August

Oliver Cromwell lay buried and dead, hee haw buried and dead

There grew an old apple tree over his head, hee haw over his head

The apples were ripe and ready to fall, hee haw ready to fall

An old woman came for to gather them all, hee haw gather them all

And so on. I can promise you that Oliver Cromwell is not buried under our apple tree, but the rest of this verse is true enough. 

Earlier in the day a shower of rose petals blew across the garden as the wind got up. A friend replied to a text saying it was stormy outside,  and raining acorns! Her garden backs onto a hedge of mature oaks.

When I looked out, our apple tree was surrounded by recent windfall apples. The apples this year are plentiful and enormous,  the biggest I've seen for many a year. I started collecting some, and saw our neighbours returning from a visit to the swimming pool with their little boy. 

'I need your help,' I called. They were amused to find it wasn't a real emergency, just an over-supply of apples.

In the end, they picked a bucketful to take home, and we took a bucketful for ourselves, and another bowl full for our neighbours on the other side.

I've already stewed three huge apples, and BB and I have eaten a more moderate sized one each, and I've still all these left. Plus the ones still on the tree.

I first heard the Oliver Cromwell song in the Benjamin Britten arrangement, rather than as a nursery rhyme song. At this speed it becomes a nearly impossible tongue twister!

I've carried on messing about with painting and drawing all through August, but it was a collaboration with my notebook swap friend so I've not been sharing any. 

But this is today's, not in the collaboration; it's a square of slightly inky water, and then random lines drawn with different fountain pens filled with different btands of royal blue or black ink. I find it rather intriguing. I wasn't aiming for anything in particular; I just wanted to fill a blank space.

Friday 30th August

It's arrived!

Friday, the weekend? No, no, no, the post! Ang messaged me to say that she had put this month's Cover Story Collaboration in the post yesterday so I was hoping it would come today. She'd already let me know that mine had arrived safely. 

So, The Big Reveal;

I absolutely love this. I've been having a bit of a 'thing' about seed heads and grasses this summer, especially silhouetted against the sky. It turns out that Ang also loves the shape of umbelliflors (that's what these ones are called, I know that now because she put that in her notes).

She also sent me a miniature 'canvas', about the size of a fridge magnet, to paint on, a booklet of embroidery designs and an intriguing pale grey highlighter pen which I've already been experimenting with.

I chose to make a crazy log cabin patchwork using several batik-style prints;

About fifty years or more ago, (seriously, that long??? Oh my word) my parents were living in Indonesia and we usually put on long dresses (the ladies) in the evening because it was cooler, and they helped protect our ankles from mosquito bites. I had a lovely Thai silk dress in exactly the colours of the central motif.... ah, memories, memories... I still have about a dozen cotton batik sarongs in my cupboard from those days.

Thursday 29th August

 Today threatened to be another day of 'nothing'.

I slept so badly last night that I ended up listening to 'The Franchise Affair' by Josephine Tey for far, far longer than was sensible. I use cosy-headphones, which are in a soft headband so I can sleep in them. I do look a bit like a demented old bat in them, but if the lights are off, who can see? I've got a small tablet beside the bed, with the headphones connect by Bluetooth so I can choose what I listen to without switching on a light.

I realised that half my slothfulness was caused by tiredness, and the other half was due to a number of fiddly jobs that needed doing  but I couldn't face them. 

Somehow I summoned up the willpower to drive myself to get them done. It's astonishing how much better I felt once they were done and dusted and the bits and pieces of paper cleared away! 

I did pootle out into the garden a couple of times for a bit of fresh air. 

My unexpected rewards were;

Watching a very large dragonfly hunting for prey at the bottom of the garden, methodically criss crossing the lawn

Seeing a large bee land on a salvia flower, only to have the flower give way under the weight so bee and petals crashed through the leaves together until the bee sorted itself out and managed to fly back up before it landed in the flower bed

Wondering about a black and orange beetle sunning itself on a mauve verbena flower. It was about as long as my little finger nail, not very wide, with symmetrical markings.

Touching the seed heads of the cardoons; they look as soft as thistle down, but have hidden spines making them surprisingly prickly

Wednesday 28th August

After two flopsical days we agreed that Getting Out, even for just an hour, was required. 

I think an hour at the Prairie Gardens was exactly the correct remedy for us both.

I don't think I've posted a picture of the young two pigs which live in a perfect enclosure. They are usually dozing on a comfortable pile of earth, leaves, whatever...

Their paddock is a small area of woodland, with plenty of mud, rootling space, and garden trimmings to snuffle through. 'Happy as a pig in muck', as they say.

The Indian Bazaar is still there until the weekend. The large open-sided marquees are full of clothing and textiles, all in glorious colours. Outside, there are tables piled high with 'wantables'. This table was all buttons and beads, pom poms and natural twine.

I sat in a shade of one of the gazebos,while BB went back to the cafe for a cold drink. People watching,  and especially children watching, was very entertaining. A small child, probably about two, buried her hands in a basin of large glittery, shiny balls, picking out some and putting them back, I'm glad to see. A chubby boy, about six or seven, maybe, was completely engrossed by a shiny brass padlock shaped like a fish. 

Elsewhere another girl wearing a lovely fuschia coloured sundress had found a matching fan; 'Mum, Mum, I NEEEEED this,' she called... but I don't know if her wish was granted...

Away from the Bazaar the gardens were as peaceful as always...

Monday 26th and Tuesday 27th August

 Yesterday was very tiring, for me at any rate. 

There was quite a big family lunch at one of the hotels near us; cousins from America, and near and father, my brother and some of his family, and my father. They all travelled to our neck of the woods on purpose so that my father, who is 95, could be there.

Ten altogether; too many for me and BB to feel comfortable joining for the meal, even though they were sitting out side, but we joined them for coffee at the end of the meal.

It was lovely to see so many of the family all together. We all had a good time, especially my father who adores this kind of occasion. 

So, what with one thing and another, I was feeling too flopsidasical to post yesterday. 

Today's been a slow, sitting-about day too; at least I managed to finish wrapping the August stitching for the Cover Story Collaboration and BB posted it for me.

I will leave you with a picture of a slug; from the BBC wildlife news, a rare rainbow sea slug, usually found in the Mediterranean, and discovered by a family while rochpoolinb in Devon.

Weirdly beautiful. 

Sunday 25th August

 

Our homegroup verse for the week

Surely God is my salvation. 

I will trust and not be afraid.

The Lord, the Lord himself is my strength and defence. 

Isaiah chapter 12, verse 2.

And the opening hymn from the church zoom today

A most excellent earworm.

Have a good week.

Saturday 24th August

 Be careful what you wish for...

A friend whatsapped me to apologise; 'it's all my fault! I was saying that the garden could do with some rain!'

But I couldn't let her take all the blame because I had been thinking exactly the same thing.

So for most of the day there was rain, or drizzle, or cloudburst, all with or without wind. 

The skies cleared around teatime; too late to go anywhere. But I did get some adm8n done, and I read a whole lightweight rom-com which I had been saving for the right time, which was today.

It was a Trisha Ashley, completely predictable, but enjoyable for doldrums days. I do wonder if she has a standard skeleton plot and list of stereotypical characters ready to insert as necessary, but hey, if it works, why not?

Anyway, the right people ended up paired off together, and the nasty ones got their just deserts so I was happy.

Friday 23rd August

Hello Friday!

It was a socialising sort of day...

In the morning a friend and I zoomed for an hour, catching up on each other's week, and news, and general chit chat. We could ignore the gusts of wind and occasional rainy squalls; with the wonder of zoom we could meet up without braving the weather.

After lunch my last remaining 'piano family' called by to say goodbye. It's a big change for the three siblings; I probably started teaching the oldest when she was 6, 8 years ago, and the younger ones, now 11 and 12 years old, started with me when they were 6 or 7. But they are now grade 6, 7 and 8 standard and zoom teaching just doesn't do them justice. The sound quality just isn't good enough, and I need to see their whole body when they are playing - feet, back, shoulders, arms and head as well as their hands on the keyboard. 

So, some sadness. They are going to another teacher in September for face to face lessons and I hope they settle in quickly. It's a big change for them.

But look what they brought me:

A lovely bunch of roses and a most beautiful Dartington vase. It is perfect, and I have been after a vase of that size and shape for years.

I hadn't finished meeting people yet; at 4pm we had a zoom to meet our friends in Canada - zoom really has been a transformation in being able to keep up with family and friends. It was so good to chat and exchange news.

Finally another zoom at 8pm for my lovely church homegroup, 

We needed another early night after all that socialising!

Thursday 22nd August - My Oxygenated Life

Random observations about the stairlift 

The stairlift takes 50 seconds to go up or down. This can seem like an eternity! However it means I have tine to dust all the annoying panels on the stairs with my big toe as I travel. It made my socks rather dirty at first, but now the panels are so clean it hardly needs doing. I'm experimenting with brushing down the stairs (they are wooden ones) with a brush now as I slowly glide along.

BB can't get past the stairlift easily when it is in its 'ready for use' position at the top of the stairs. 

Both of the above need to be factored in when we both decide we should go to the loo before going out. It's also a consideration for deciding 'who go up first' at bedtime!

As far as I am concerned there's no such thing as a 'quick dash to the loo'. It actually takes a bit of planning as I need to take supplementary oxygen with me; either cuddling a cylinder, or, my preference, taking the Inogen portable concentrator. 

We send the lift to the bottom of the stairs every night, to make it easier for BB to go down in the morning as he is always first up. (I'm lucky enough to have breakfast in bed; a cup of coffee and a piece of toast!)

I usually bring it back up and ride the lift down in the morning, but more and more I'm tending to walk down using the Inogen, which means I appear in the sitting room without alerting BB with the gentle whine of the stairlift. He calls this 'stealth mode'!

Wednesday 21st August

 This blog could become a litany of medical matters and online form filling shenanigans if I'm not careful. 

Somethings I mention partly in the spirit if sharing information that others might find useful. Other things are more in the nature of a rant. But, things will calm down.

This morning's little wins were discovering how extraordinarily simple it is to renew a passport. That is, if you were born in UK, live in the UK, and are renewi g it in the UK. I donknow what it be like under more complicated conditions. 

First stop, Timpsons for a passport photograph. It took just ten minutes before I came away with four little photographs of some mad, sour-faced, grey-haired crone purporting to be yours truly. And also a code number.

Next stop, fire up the computer,  answer some unexpectedly easy questions and enter the photograph code.

Thirdly, pay a whopping amount of money using my card.

Finally, post the old passport to the passport office.

I rewarded myself with a coffee and two biscuits. It's a nonsense, renewing my passport as I am unlikely to travel abroad; it seems such a complicated undertaking and the health insurance would be something else. But having a valid passport seems to be the easiest way of proving my identity an all the varied administrative situations I encounter along the road to activating the powers of attorney, getting my hands on my tax rebate and everything else.

Sigh.

This afternoon we enjoyed an blessed hour of peace and quiet while I had my annual infusion of zolendronic acid. I love the name of that drug. I feel I should come out with renewed space-agey, science-fictiony, super powers  - alas, not so. It's to treat osteoporosis, caused by the menopause, or by the steroids I take or both... 

Anyway, we were given tea, and biscuits, and generally well looked after, and the day ward where infusions are given is always serene and unhurried,  with views across to the wooded hills in the distance... 

Overall it's a good experience, relaxing in a reclining chair and cheerful music on the hospital radio (the Carpenters singing 'Top of the Morning' for example). I listened to some more of 'The Franchise Affair ' by Josephine Tey on my headphones and relaxed.

Now the list of jobs for the day is complete. I'm off-duty, off-line, just.... gone.

Tuesday 20th August

 After a torrid morning of arranging optician appointments (for me and BB) and routine doctor appointment for my father) I went into the garden to recalibrate, and take my eyes away from telephone and computer screens.

This morning had started out as Autumn. Drizzle and a cold wind. By midmorning it felt more like early spring weather, with the promise of sun - maybe.

In the garden I rediscovered a heap of 20 little Egyptian Walking Onion bilbuls or bulblets or whatever they are called, lying abandoned in a pot of earth. Not knowing what else to do, I planted them in the empty pot. Perhaps I'll use the young leaves as a sort of spring onion substitute in stir fry.

 I've already got 24 baby Egyptian Walking Onions growing well in another tub! 

And I've given away a dozen to two keen veg growing friends. I did warn them to Google first, and do some research before deciding to plant them!

I discovered a big handful of garlic cloves in another pot. I had planted half a dozen cloves last autumn and then forgot about them, especially once the leaves disappeared (when did they go? Where did they go?) 

The four little garlics on the left have already got roots. I'll plant them, and I'm roasting the rest in the airfryer before freezing most for later. I looked up 'how to preserve garlic in oil' but too many of the results mentioned the dangers of botulism...

The Last Bean Standing's slug defences have been breached! So I've added another layer of pellets around its stalk, and removed a couple of leaves that were touching the soil.

Then, what! a load more baby EW onions lying around the original parent plant, now mysteriously turned into a cluster of 6 plants!

If anyone wants to experiment with an EWO of their own, let me have your address (write it in a comment, and I won't publish it) and I will post you some little bulby things. own. They are fascinating to grow....

After lunch the weather had turned into Summer. I went to the local nature reserve for coffee (tea, actually) with a friend. Being outside in the sun, the cold wind of the morning replaced by a warm breeze made everything fine again.

Monday 19th August

You know that dreadful feeling when you turn up at the wrong place for an appointment?

I got a chance to experience it all over again this morning; luckily, due to an unusually easy drive through the pre-rush hour traffic we were 45 minutes early getting to the further of our local hospitals for more routine tests. 

I discovered the mistake when I got into the lift to go to the 3rd floor, but worryingly the lift only went up to the first floor! Then I re-read the letter properly.  Ah. We retraced our step and got to the correct hospital with time to spare; 45 mins to get to the car, 25 mins to drive there left me with 15 mins to find the right department! All's well that ends well...

The rest of the morning (after a hectic 45 mins of breathing in and out into the contraption that measures lung function) was also a bit chaotic; a phone call on the way home to say that my father’s chair was being delivered an hour early meant that BB was scrambling to drop me home and get to my father’s flat in time... 

but everything was achieved,  'swan-style'.

This is one of my Daughter's illustrations drawn for my old music teaching blog. It always amuses me that if I search for 'paddling swan' it's still the first drawing that comes up!

After all that this afternoon has been an oasis of calm. 

I've finished a very quick fabric A6 book cover for a second notebook swap that an old university friend and I will start once her allotment harvest is safely gathered it. She can only do it during the 'slow season' as once things get growing in the spring she will be far too busy!

I've used some Japanese 6" charm squares. One for the front, one for the back, and a couple more to make up the extra width and depth I needed.

Later I went up to find a warmer jumper and a pair of socks... is this the early arrival of Autumn? Or a lull before the next heatwave? Either way I'm ready...

Sunday 18th August

Three stranded ropes

I learned a new word this week; anhedonia

 Today I read an article in The Guardian (online) written by an Annalisa Barbieri, an 'agony aunt', who found that she had lost all joy and pleasure in - well - everything. So she consulted various experts to discover more about this state of mind, often, but not always, one of the symptoms of depression.

If this state of mind is too deeply rooted, you may need professional help. But there are things you can do to help turn yourself around if you are just 'in a rut' or 'a bit of a slump'.

I know that state of mind, and having experienced it for relatively short periods a few times in my life and been hauled out of it by my husband I'm on my guard against being like that again.  

This is what Annalisa Barbieri learned:

Three strands, 

mind - meet people; 

body - do some exercise, go for a walk; 

spirit - see what God has created, leaves, flowers, trees, and more.

If we take care of all three strands, then we will be stronger.

Saturday 17th August

 A day of 'just us two' after a week of meeting family, friends, doctors, chair salesmen... and an 'old' piano student. 

He's now at university; but recognised me in my mask, greeted me with delight and then, after saying I had been 'a really, really scary teacher (moi? Well, maybe!) told me how much he had appreciated the way I related the lessons on how to learn the theory and succeed at aural tests to how to learn almost anything. 

I have to say that (when I stopped blushing) I was absolutely delighted at how well, alive and bright he was looking, and how much he seemed to be approaching life with confidence and assurance. Such a change from 7 or 8 years ago.

I did stress how the stuff and techniques I taught in music lessons, be they ukulele, recorder, djembe, samba, piano or theory, could in outline be applied to every subject - sport, maths, languages, science - anything. It's the 'soft', or 'how-to-learn' skills that unlock the way into everything else  in my view.

So I was delighted that this young man had embraced them so well. And yes, I did feel a little choked as we waved goodbye and went our ways...

Anyway, I'll just jump down from my soapbox and share photographs of... yes, Prairie Gardens again. 

It's so different every time we go.

Here's the path from the entrance, towards the pig pen (they were dozing in their shady muddy patches) and the gardens proper

Winding through banana trees... and on between huge drifts of flowers. I wish I could photograph the scents...

They have an Indian Bazaar all through the Summer and the sight of the tops of the marquees over the flowers exerted a magnetic pull

One tent was full of beautiful Indian textiles. I just took one picture as inspiration for the future. 

Sometimes the cliché 'a riot of colour' is the only description. 

We didn't stay very long; that's the big advantage of a season ticket! We can always go back.

.

Friday 16th August

 I need to learn a bit more about wild flowers. Many of these are not known to me

This clock comes from the book 'Woodston, the biography of a farm' by John Lewis-Stempel. It's a beautiful (in my view) and lyrical account of English history seen through the lens of a man who is passionate about real farming, working with nature instead of in spite of it. He tries out stone age, bronze age, iron age tools and techniques on his own land, and gives his own take on archaeologists, re-wilders and tree-planting schemes and explanations based on his own, generations-deep in farming practices and knowledge. 

It's thought-provoking. I've reached the eighteenth century in his version on history... I  shall be sorry to reach the end of the book.

Rory Stewart's 'The Marches' is on the 'pending' list. Tove Jansson's 'the Summer Book' is one I have read before, about a 6-year-old girl spending the Summer on a tiny island with her family and grandmother. I'm thinking of suggesting it to the book club, alongside the Poems on the Underground '. We usually offer a choice for the group to pick one.

The Jill Mansell is light rom-com reading. 

Thursday 15th August

 First, the good news; my father’s YAG laser eye treatment yesterday afternoon seems to have gone really well so far. Yesterday evening he reported a noticeable difference in his sight, and this morning he was enjoying reading ordinary books again for the first time since the beginning of this year. It seems like a miracle, and has made such a difference to him.

And then, the rest of my day...

Sometimes days, if not life, really can be like a bowl of cherries. (This was my midafternoon snack.)

A friend came round for coffee in the morning and we were having such a good time in spite of the rather cool blustery weather that we had lunch together. She has been an absolute dear, getting my old saxophone repaired as there is a possibility a young niece might like to learn. I'll repay the repair costs, and she's taken it away so the niece can borrow it for a while so see if she really wants to learn. Brilliant! 

I sat at the piano for a while and did my piano exercises before continuing to work on the Beethoven Sonata for a little while. Once I settle to the piano I really enjoy getting stuck in. It's the getting started... always the getting started... excellent!

Hands up everyone who remembers these books from their own childhood piano lessons? I still use them with my own students. I've just three 'grownups' left, but they all enjoy using them. One child had a coloured version; all the little stick people at the beginning of the exercises had different coloured tunics! On closer inspection we discovered that a previous child had very carefully coloured each one as they (probably 'she') completed each little study. Ever since, I've coloured in the stick people in my copies and encouraged my students to do the same.

As well as musical exercises I've restarted doing the daily 5 minute 'strengthen and mobilise' ballet-based exercises again.  Result!

If music = mind, and ballet exercises = body, then if I can find some short spiritual exercise to do, I shall have covered all three!

Yes, it's been a really GOOD day today. One to keep mind and 'bring out to remember'.

Wednesday 14th August

 This morning, it felt as though my diary was disintegrating into

Planning how the next few days could work, with two deliveries to be arranged, three medical appointments, the trip to the bank to validate my ID, several zooms, and my head was spinning. I grabbed a blue paintstick to 'express myself' on the blank art page for this week in my diary, and discovered the way to remove the cap is most definitely NOT to unscrew it! Help!

And help came. Luckily BB was able to remove all the paint from our wooden floor and most of the paint from my desk. The explosion completely missed me, my clothes,  the chair cushion, and some brisk work with the nail brush made a decent job of my hands.

The days ahead were still a chaotic jumble but venting my feelings helped.

My father had laser treatment this afternoon for the eye that had gone cloudy after his cataract operation about twelve years ago. I was astonished; we went for a consultation knowing that sometimes the treatment can be done at the same time, and so it proved. He emerged from the treatment room after about ten minutes and we eere on our way home shortly after. Now he has to wait while the cloudiness disperses over three or four days, and then hopefully his vision will be as good as it ever was. Miraculous.

I managed to untangle a couple more scheduling problems this afternoon, and the chaos is dispersing too. Who knows but my diary will also become clear again?

Tuesday 13th August

 It's been one of those days when it has been hard to settle to anything. Yesterday was the day of rest, but today was definitely NOT!

It seemed that as soon as I lifted my head from one task, another two or three 'must answer today' emails appeared... so the day felt chopped up into little bits.

(I admit I copied this cartoon from a selection of very similar cartoons on the Internet)

However nothing new has arrived since half past seven this evening so that's that. For now, at any rate. 

Tomorrow is filling up with an eye appointment for my father, a rare visit to a banks for me, various deliveries due or to be arranged, a couple of phone calls, two parcels to wrap and post (not the Cover Story! That's still all in my mind) and the window cleaners are coming. 

Is that the lot? I'm off duty, I'm not looking at my diary again tonight. Well, maybe a weeny little peek...

So, apart from finishing a second Jill Mansell rom-com (memo to self; reading two of her books is like going for the second cream cake. Seems like a good idea to begin with but then you feel as though you've had too much of a goodish thing) there has been no more reading, no sewing or knitting - no concentration!

I thought I had retired, you know, days filled with hobbies, leisure, eeting friends, that sort of thing?

Still, I do have a couple of treats - going out for coffee, zooms with friends - lined up for later this week.

Monday 12th August

 I'm back!

Our neighbours came round for a drink and snacks late yesterday afternoon and by the time we'd shared a bottle of wine and eaten the crisps....well, time flies when you're having a pleasant evening. And one glass of wine - I'm out of practice. Perhaps we should open another bottle tonight.

They had spent the day at the seaside with their 4 year old boy, doing proper seaside things; crabbing with a weighted line and pieces of fat bacon ('you can buy a complete set of bucket, net and line, and then bits of bacon at 10p each!') they said in amazement. I didn't know about the kits either. You had to make your own back in the day...

We were supposed to be meeting in their garden but even at 5pm it was still very warm, and the coolest place is under our apple tree, inside the den made by the branches almost reaching the ground. 

I set up an entertainment for the lad by having an as yet unharvested tub of potatoes in the den with us, so he could dig for potatoes. This went well,  especially when I said he could keep all the ones he found.

(I had added a couple of biggish ones to the tub, just to be sure...)

I'm getting a list of possible books together for the book club as it's my turn to choose.

Have you discovered this website?

https://poemsontheunderground.org/this-months-poems

Here are two offerings from it;

I love them both. 

I wonder what the group will make of having the book 'Poems on the Underground' as one of my offerings?

(I'm thinking I will read 'Go Set a Watchman', but as a totally separate book to Mockingbird. I'm curious about it. But I can't say I haven't been warned!)

Supper... it's soooo hot...

A sachet of Jamie Oliver quiona/other stuff heat and eat mixture (can be served cold)

mixed with a tin of drained canelli beans, chopped cucumber, tomatoes, dill pickle, sundried tomatoes, and a dressing concocted from mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Stirred up into a - what would you call it? Gloop comes close. Served in a heap with sliced cold meats. It was actually pretty good, and is apparently to be aded to the menu. Only one problem; I doubt I could recreate the exact same salad. We'll have the other half with cheese tomorrow. 

If I get round to chopping green herbs into it, that will massively improve the appearance and freshen the flavour. 

Saturday 10th August

 Hah! It wasn't that long after I posted yesterday's blog that the emails came surging into my inbox,all needing a response of some kind or another!

Ah well, I'd had a very peaceful day until then. So I didn't do much any whinging or complaining and it didn't take long to deal with them all.

Today was another peaceful day, including friends for tea-in-the-garden-enjoying-the-sun in the afternoon. I invited them round earlyish in the morning, when it was lovely outside, and the skies promptly turned greyer and darker and even threatened rain. But as 3pm approached, why, hello 🌞 sun and we got out the parasol and arranged the chairs.

I've done a lot of reading recently; it's a bit eclectic.

I'm currently reading Jill Mansell 'The Wedding Of The Year'; 99p on kindle. It's one of those completely unbelievable rom-coms where the combined situations of all the characters are ridiculously convoluted that I'm looking forward to discovering how it all ends. 

I've only read the sample of 'The Hard Way' by Susan h Walker. It's out in kindle and hardback and is a sort of walking journey by the author combined with the history of the countryside and the tracks, autobiography,  history of women walkers, why women don't walk... I'm looking forward to it.

'Voices in Summer' by Rosamud Pilcher... oh yes, it's coming back to me... set mostly in Cornwall. Yes, I did enjoy this. I's a sort of modern (as in 1970s) DEStevenson/Molly Clavering. Romantic,  of course.

Tom Hanks 'The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece' is one I loved and will return to. It takes a long while for the Motion Picture part to get started; I found the patchwork of backstories fascinating,  as was the whole process of making the film. The film itself is very slight, a sort of sentimental Heroes of the Universe story, but then it's not the actual film that's the point of the book. Th8s was the Book Club choice, and for once I read it all with great enjoyment. 

I very nearly gave up on 'the man who didn't call' by Rosie Walsh early on in the book. Another rom- but not so -com, but with some very funny lines. In the end I skipped to nearly the end to check it ended happily, but got completely the wrong end of the stick from the short bit I read. This left me a bit bemused until I did get it straightened out. It ends happily... phew!

Two more 99p kindle downloads are awaiting my attention... both new to me, although I have read 'To Kill A Mockingbird' several times.

Friday 9th August

 Nothing to report. 

No knitting 

No sewing 

No gardening 

No going on any outings - BB walked into town but that hardly counts...

A blissfully quiet day. I savoured every minute!

Thursday 8th August

 Evenin' all

as Dixon of Dock Green used to say... 

I used to watch that on tv when I was little, and then I discovered a radio version on BBC sounds...I don't know if it is still available. Very soothing, and most problems resolved by a stern warning taken seriously by the miscreant.  Those were the days? Maybe. Probably not. I don't think 'the good old days' were ever as good in reality as people dream.

Here's the next installment of the 'Cover Story' stitching. Ang looked to sashiko for her inspiration;

Lovely waves of stitches in light blue on cream fabric to make a very calming design. Beautiful. 

Here's mine;

I've used the same fabric as the last one, but this time I used a perfectly cotton to outline the flowers with close packed rows of chain stitch. My inspiration was the Kashmiri style bedside rugs I saw when we went to stay with my Oma (grandmother) when I was little, made from thick cream felt embroidered with bright animals and flowers in rows of chain stitches.

As it happened we each included a piece of fabric as the 'flat gift' in our respective packages. I'm not showing the piece Ang sent me as I'm pondering how to use it...

It's a little spooky how often we end up thinking along similar lines, especially as we've never actually met!

Wednesday 7th August

A day full of variety  - but then, so many days are...

Leaving the house in good time meant that I was at the London hospital for routine lung function tests an hour early. How did that happen? Last time, we allowed exactly the same amount of time and I barely made it in time, leaping out of the car outside the hospital and leaving BB to park the car and come and find me. London traffic is very unpredictable. 

We were fully prepared to wait,  but they called me straight away, I managed to do all the tests without any mistakes and we were back in the car at the time of the original appointment. Wow!

We had brought a picnic, and thought of stopping somewhere on the way home, but sky clouded over, a brisk wind blew up so we picnicked at home.

Ang's parcel with her 'Cover Story' stitching was waiting for me when we opened the front door which was a lovely surprise. I'll post photographs tomorrow. 

Later in the afternoon I went into the garden and picked three streaky pink/red/cream sweet peas. They looked a bit lonely so I added some lavender. 

Somehow this turned into deadheading, and then pruning the lavender which had overgrown its space. I'm hoping I've pruned enough but not too much, taking the woody branches from the underneath, and making sure that I leave plenty of green growth above. So far, so good!

Now I'm curled up on the settee eating pizza...

I've written this post on my phone so I expect it will be more typo-ridden than usual - sorry...

Tuesday 6th August

Chipping away at....

the decluttering;

four bags of books, clothes, bric-a-brac GONE out of the house! Yes sir, yes sir, FOUR bags FULL!

and at getting a proper chair for my father, who currently perches on a pile of three black square wheelchair cushions in a corner of the settee. I can quite see him losing his balance, toppling over and down to the floor and hitting his head on the coffee table on the way down;

 The printed catalogue and fabric swatches arrived today, sample chairs to try are being brought to his flat on Tuesday, and if we decided to order one of them, they could be delivered in 3 days... I have deliberately picked out the two styles and fabrics that can be express delivered. This is definitely the expensive way to go, but I do not have the time or the head space to shop around, visit showrooms, comb through secondhand shops and advertisements. I'll see how Tuesday turns out and I'm hoping we shall be successful.

and working through spreadsheets and collating information  - the time has come to give my father (95 years old!) a hand with his finances. The first step is to work through the paperwork!

NOTE TO SELF; if you want to show your love for your family, create a box, kept updated, with information about ALL my affairs. It's what my godmother did, bless her heart, and made our job as executors so much easier that it might have been. 

and finally, 

steadily getting on with all the twiddly fiddly little jobs that I would much prefer to put off 'until later'.

Parcels wrapped and posted, oxygen cylinders ordered, garden watered... no, I can't claim to have done that, as it rained all morning! 

Monday 5th August

 Our lovely neighbour was out trimming the edges of his front lawn. BestBeloved went out and offered him a loan of our half-moon edge tool. The neighbour was so impressed at the way it made the job easier that he asked if we would mind if he did the verge outside our house when he did his own?

Would we mind???? When we came back later in the afternoon from meeting friends for tea he had trimmed his lawn, the verges out side his house, our house and our neighbours on the other side. He'd also cut our grass, trimmed it, and rootled out most of the weeds in our paving. I can't quite make out if he did our neighbour's lawn as well...

What a hero.

The view from the pub garden, where we had tea, was stunning, across to the other side of the valley. Such a typical rural scene. Away in the distance in the further field were a couple of lads throwing a boomerang around. They aren't really visible in the photograph; too far away.

The pub is called 'The Frog and Nightgown'. I have no idea why it has such an odd name. There were little frog shapes in icing sugar on top of the scones!

We didn't have to worry about this sign in the carpark; but I imagine they have to warn off people who use their carpark as a convenient place to leave their car while they go off on one of the walks or cycleways nearby.

I dug up some potatoes, picked over and scrubbed them for our energetic and helpful young neighbours as a thank you for all his hard work. When the next tub is ready to be harvested I shall invite their little boy, aged 4, to come and help. I reckon he will enjoy that. He's very keen on the garden, and particularly likes going on slug and snail hunts with his Dad!