The Real Saturday post for 11th July

 This morning my brain when I wrote the previous post, I was clearly not properlyawake!'. I'd had woken up far, far too early and the caffeine hadn't really kicked in..

The reason for seeing in the dawn? I had a hummingdinger of a nosebleed at 4.20 am - I checked the time - and it was half a box of tissues and over 25 minutes before it stopped. I was very pleased that I reacted quickly enough to save the bedding! (But my pyjamas went straight into the wash once I was up!).

Anyway, all's well that ends well, and I've been fine, if a bit scrambled what with early rising and a heatwave. The heat seems to suddenly envelop the house at about half past two, and then all sensible thought processes cease. We've been opening the front and back doors to let a draught of cool air sweep through. 

Weren't the men's Wimbledon semi finals interesting yesterday! I stood in the hall and watched through the open door...

and then had a better idea; BB helped me set up a camping chair in the hall and brought me my laptop.

Now the tricky thing is that iplayer is about 2 seconds behind the TV... so he switched off the sound and watched on TV from the comfortof his armchair and listened to the delayed commentary. Confusing, or what, huh?

....

Assembled meals have been the order of the day; sliced ham, salad, potato salad...

'Pasta pockets' as my friend calls them (filled tortellini) with sauce out of a jar

Crustless quiche made first thing in the morning, with boiled potatoes, also cooked in the morning, and salad... you get the idea.. 

Although I've come to the conclusion that all the bought coleslaw salads have been dressed with the same generic mayo-type dressing, and it really is Much Better to make one's own.

.... 

I'm very much enjoying 'Mrs Endicott's Splendid Adventure' by Rhys Bowen, although I haven't reached the quotation I posted yet.

Saturday! NOT Sunday 11th July - Mrs Endicott's Splendid Adventure

 I was searching through my Commonplace book this morning for a poem (which I don't think I have written down yet) and tripped across this quotation

"Prayers don't have to be elaborate things. Why don't you start with 

three things you're blessed with,

three things you're afraid of,

and three things you ask of Him?

And don't forget to listen, too."

Underneath, I have written "Mrs Endicott's Splendid Adventure - by Rhys Bowen". Not an author I have read. 

It's the advice on prayer that caught my attention. It seems doable to me...

On the strength of those words, and the blurb, I have downloaded the book for £1 onto my kindle. 

 "Blindsided by betrayal in pre-WWII England, a woman charts a daring new course in this captivating tale of resilience, friendship, and new love by the bestselling author of The Rose Arbor and The Venice Sketchbook.

Surrey, England, 1938. After thirty devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s appeal for divorce. It’s Ellie’s opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She’s taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora—each needing escape—impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France."

The book looks interesting, (if not particularly 'holy') and I am already wondering who said these words to whom... 

Ang's comment below alerted me to the fact that today is SATURDAY! So my Sunday-style post is a day early...

Thursday 9th July - Seriously?

 Oh please, please, could everyone in Clacton-on-Sea vote for Count Binface?

 He looks to be the only candidate standing against Nigel Farage in the by-election after NF resigned as an MP (oddly enough the same initials as National Front, I'veonlyjust noticed). NF resigned as MP, apparently, if I've got this right, in protest at being investigated re potentially breaching the code of conduct for MPs.

Reading the ITVX article it seems he's a 'comedian, satirist and Intergalactic Warrior'. Plus he's written for 'Have I Got News For You'. Sound at least as well qualified as many, then?

Am I serious? Um... well, actually,.... yes?

Meanwhile, I dug these plums out of the fridge;

Perfectly ripe, according to the label... definitely NOT! I remember plums being soft and sweet and luscious, nor crunchy and sour. I'm stewing them with sugar and cinnamon.

I've been looking forward to these plums because of this poem

Wednesday 8th Wednesday - move along, nothing happening here...

 I bought kitchen towels that were about an inch too wide for our wall- mounted dispenser. 

No problem, I thought;

BB looked at my DIY fix, and walked to the shop for some new rolls. 'I'll keep these for the car or the shed' he said...

And that's about all I accomplished apart from lunch (sausages, home-made pasta salad, home-made coleslaw, tomatoes, cucumber, crisps and fruit) and supper (exactly the same all over again, except for the coleslaw).

Happy hot Wednesday!

Tuesday 7th July - at last! Post!

 There was a muffled thump in the hall - post!

we were eating lunch; sea bream with roasted onions, peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, herbs etc. Plus some purple sprouting broccoli for 'greens'.

The new revised second class post delivery schedule is beginning to bite; Ang posted this last Wednesday, or maybe Thursday morning;

a pink and maroon slip stitch pattern with some suffragette safety pins - purple and dark green. Plus a postcard of an amazing quilt. She describes it here.

Knitting is Not Happening at the moment. Too Hot!

 Otherwise it's been a fairly quiet day. I sat in the shade first thing this morning and watched and chatted and answered questions while Vicky sorted out the chaos of all my pots, abandoned for nearly a year now, ever since we decided that this extension was more than a dream. It was an education watching her at work; even if I was physically able enough do to this, I would never have been able to match her quick, quiet efficiency.         

Then I came in, and while BB was out sourcing a new key safe for beside the front door, I defied the Builders by working out how to open the patio door, and then fixed a string to the handle in such a way I could open it, and haul it back closed without ever stepping down to my doom. The half open door is now completely blocked by the chair, and we can operate my door control system without moving it.       

So that was most of Tuesday... here's the whole poem about peace dropping slow...

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

By William Butler Yeats

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

By William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

from the poetry foundation

Monday 6th July - peace descends, dropping slow

 I had meant to post yesterday, but after all the activity on Saturday I ground to a halt. No surprises there.

But it was a good day to read Ang's post for Sunday 5th, and right now is a good time to read it again; 

A reworking of Psalm 23, published back in the 1960s and written by the Japanese poet Toki Miyashina...

The Lord is my pacesetter, I shall not rush.
he makes me stop and rest for quiet intervals.
He provides me with images of stillness
which restore my serenity.
He leads me in ways of efficiency,
through calmness of mind, and his guidance is peace.
Even though I have a great many things to
accomplish this day,
I will not fret, for his presence is here.
His timelessness, His all-importance,
Will keep me in balance.
He prepares refreshment and renewal
in the midst of my activity
by anointing my head with the oil of tranquility.
My cup of joyous energy overflows.
Surely harmony and effectiveness
shall be the fruits of my hours,
for I shall walk in the pace of my Lord,

and dwell in His house forever.

Today started with the builders arriving around about 7.30am. They have worked steadily, fueled with tea, coffee, biscuits and plenty of water until the last bits were tidied away at 4.30pm, with a few short breaks.

 I think the most exciting part of the day was moving the shed - entire, intact, complete with contents still on the shelving!

'Have you done this before?', I asked the Man in Charge.

'No, but he says he has,' pointing at Second-in-Command.

So they set the two young men to work...

They managed to lever a pumped forklift trolley under each side, and sort of push-me-pull-you the whole shed from here... 

To here, about three or four metres. If you compare the trees in the before and after pictures you can get the idea. It's now sitting where my veg patch used to be.

I took a photograph to say 'goodbye' to the Fatsia

 But one of the young men has extricated quite a lot of the roots from the raised bed. It's currently sitting in a tub of water at the shady end of the garden util I can work out what to do. It going to have to live in a large tub, I think.

We've now hit a snag, first of many, no doubt. Work has more or less stopped for the rest for the week, as they can't do anything much until the building control inspector has inspected a small section of the footings to agree the proposed depth. That can't be until Monday.

'Please make sure you lock you back door,' said Man-in-Charge several times. 'People forget, open their door and fall out as the steps have gone. We'e seen it happen so many times.' He gave us a considering look....

and has left one of his machines parked right across the door! I think it is rather sweet of him, and don't resent it at all. We can get out safely from the front door and walk round so it is not much of an inconvenience, and we can leave the door open to get a through breeze without worry.

  

  Peace is all around now...

Evgeny Kissin, Chopin Waltz in C# minor op 64 no 2 

(Yes, we are with the AA!)

Saturday 4th July - So much to do...

 I'm enjoying the last few days of the garden... it won't look like this later in the week! The patio, and everything on it, will be the first to go; pots and furniture to the bottom of the garden, papers to be stacked somewhere for later, and as for the border, I shall just have to look away!

I've moved my herb pots to the front door

They are all supermarket herbs, and cuttings (apart from the geranium!).

I'm hoping they can bevjoined by a bay tree - small bush really - which is probably completely toot bound in its wooden half barrel. I say hoping; a couple of our half barrels totally disassembled themselves when the iron hoops dropped, enabling the wooden staves to open like flower petals and cease being any use as a plant container. I've a replacement tub in mind should this happen to ours, or we might make hurried trip to a garden centre. 

I will be able to reach the herbs easily by the door; if they were moved to the bottom of the garden with everything else then that wouldn't be at all convenient. 

We've hung new bedroom curtains! They are nothing flamboyant. I refuse to spend money on expensive bedroom curtains when we hardly see them! They will improve the look of the room though; the light had faded and rotted the red blackout curtains we've replaced.  I never liked them anyway; we bought them in a hurry because neighbours had installed a motion sensitive security camera which was reacting to every passing fox, waking us up several times a night.  Both the neighbours and the light have changed, so at last we can go back to ordinary lined curtains. No picture yet...

We've also played with our new 'toy'; BB had the joy of assembling it, fitting all the pieces together (he does enjoy making up kits) and then we took turns...

It's a Flash Spraymop! And it made very short work indeed of the kitchen and bathroom floors, without leaving them too damp. We could be entering a new era of cleanliness around here...

Friday 3rd July - this is getting ridiculous...

'Synchronicity ' is a lovely word. I like the sound of it, and the meaning as well; 

Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept introduced by Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, to describe events that coincide in time and appear meaningfully related, yet lack a discoverable causal connection.

(Wikipedia)

This keeps happening with Ang and me. I could have called this post 'Many a slip' like Ang's...

She's posted today about the Double Knitting Collaboration square on it's way to me - the link is above - and here's the one I've sent to her;

also a slip-stitch pattern, also knitted in two colourways. Mine's a two colour stripe; the left hand is blue as main colour,  cream as second, the right hand reversed with a paper blue as the second colour. 

This pattern comes out looking completely different to Ang's because the rows knitted in the second colour are interrupted by two main colour stitches being slipped - carried up without knitting - creating the continuous vertical stripe. These slip stitches also pull these rows more tightly together, making a very dense, firm texture. Good for a winter sweater!

Here's the back - the horizontal lines of yarn show where it has been passed behind the slip stitches rather than knitted in. It's much easier to knit this pattern than explain it.

Apart from Ang knitting the cable square last time, we seem to have been remarkably in sync with our choices so far; something I noticed that kept happening during our previous collaborations. I promise we don't ever confer before we decide what we're making!

Which colour did I send? I could make up my mind. So I closed my eyes, shuffled them and picked one. You'll find out tomorrow; my parcel arrived with her yesterday. 

Which square has she sent me? I don't know; we both posted them on Wednesday afternoon but hers hasn't arrived yet... hopefully I'll find out when the postman gets here around lunchtime. Things seem to travel quicker going from west to east than east to west. Riddle me that one if you can!

Wednesday 1st July - cock-a-doodle-doo!

Here are my step totals for this half of the year;

What a massive difference for May and June!

I'm very grateful to RusticPumpkin for inspiring me to stop being such a blob.

Wednesday 1st July - Bad Ideas, better ideas

 Good idea;

Bad Idea;

I tracked down the name of the wonder app; it is called mellowflow and the reviews are SCATHING;

Following up on the Reddit forum, I've come to the sad conclusion that my gut feeling of 'if it looks too good to be true, then it really is too good to be true'. My advice; stay away, and just stick at lesson no 1; 'tidy three things in your line of sight'.

Sadly, for tidying up and keeping it tidy, there's no way around actually... tidying! There doesn't seem to be a magic method, especially for butterfly brains like me. 

I do try to;

• Set small, quickly achievable goals, like 5-10 mins, or one surface, or one task at a time.
• Take time to gloat and congratulate myself on the little successes.
• Never, ever, berate myself if I don't manage to do 'it', whatever 'it' is.
• Never push myself too far beyond what I am already able to do.
• Switch between types of tasks fairly frequently. 

These have all come from the way I've learned to teach piano over the past 40 years, the main idea being to try and always

• Build upon successes; start with a low bar and raise it slowly.
• Associate the activity (even scales and sight reading!) with positive emotions.
• Avoid all negativity, crossness, tension, distress in learning.
• Gamify Just about everything.
• Constantly cheer oneself on.

Now, what three things can Iput away next? Oh dear, I'll have to find somewhere to put them first...

Now, here's a little 'spot the difference' game;

Before;

After three things were tidied;

I seem to be on a roll; three minutes later;

Happy happy happy! 🌞 💐 🏆 

.......

I've shared this before but here we go again!

Chopin Minute Waltz, Luca Sestak Trio

Tuesday 30th June - genius idea

I took a mug of ginger tea for a little walk around the garden. My cardoons are flowering;

So spectacular. 

They were covered with blackfly at the beginning of June, and I persuaded BB to rub his fingers gently up and down the stalks while he still had his thick heavy duty leather gardening gloves on. That totally dealt with the problem, which is why the top part of the stalk looks black.

The jasmine is flowering now, with clematis twining through the shoots, and below the saliva 'hot lips' is adding a splash of colour.

I'm trying to make the most of them; sadly they are all likely to be demolished one the little diggers get going. We might be able to dig out the salvia, and take cuttings from the jasmine,  but the cardoons will have to take their chance. The roots will be on their way to Australia by now!

....

The genius idea? There's a tidy-up/declutter app around that gives you a simple task every day. I think it is a Swedish system, and keeps popping up as an advertisement in my newsfeed. I refuse to be beguiled into paying for something, but there are examples of the tasks. I've only paid attention to the first task;

'Tidy up three things in your line of sight'

So I did; I put away three things on my little swivel-top table beside me on the settee. I even threw away a fourth!

It made a ridiculously big improvement for a minute's effort, all without getting up from the settee. I think that's enough for me to be getting on with; just put three things away at random times of the day.

...

I've already hit my step count for today, so I know I've d one at least 100,000 in June. I'll total all the steps tomorrow. 

Happy Happy Happy!

....

I've made a start on finishing the little sewing square for for my on-going QAYGO (quilt as you go) project. 

A 'start on finishing' is a bit optimistic! I want to use couching to outline the leaves, and then I'll embroider the centre veins, also in green. After that - I'll see .

So my 'Finishing up Days' have been effective in finishing two things; a collaboration square and the back of the cardigan, and doing some more to the QAYGO piece.

Monday 29th June - National Finishing Up Days

 I made that up.

I've got a number of nearly finished projects and I have decided that today and tomorrow are the days for sorting them out.

Starting with this;

The experimental patchwork cardigan. This is the back - I had less than 8 inches left of the last panel left to sew, and I finally, after much procrastinating completed it at morning coffee time. About half an hour was all it took, including sewing in all the ends, and probably about ten pound's weight off my mind. I've already made a start on the front 

I've a few rows to add the the current double knitting square, and about an hour's stitching to add to a patch that has been stalled for about a month while the Double Knitting Collaboration with Ang absorbed my interest. 

Yesterday I sorted some books to sell back to wob or donate to charity if wob won't take them.  This morning I updated my piano teaching records and put away a couple of sets of knitting needles that were cluttering up my life.

Maybe 'Manic Monday' would have been a better title for today's post - I seem to begin every week full of enthusiasm and then crash out the next day... I'll write that idea down for next Monday's post!

I'm learning to accept that I'm a great starter of things, but not so good at finishing them off!

    

  'Snurretoppen' means 'Spinning Top'.

Meanwhile, my step target took a bit of a dive last week, unsurprisingly, although as the cooler weather returned I did manage a marathon effort on Sunday so I reckon I might well meet my target of 100,000 in June. Which makes me very happy!

Dr Alan Howard, University of Iowa, playing 'Promenade' by Prokofiev, Op 65 no 2   

Sunday 28th June - Beati quorum via

 meaning 'Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord', here set by C V Stanford and sung by Voces8.

Which ties in with the reading for today Matthew chapter 10 from verse 40;

“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 

Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

There's a certain amount of synchronicity going on with Ang's blog here; I wonder if she had the same reading in her church? 

Saturday 27th June - rest and relaxation

 After yesterday's ridiculously early start and busy morning we were both ready for Very Early Night last night. Indeed we slept through the thunder and lightning and heavy rain - a friend told me this morning that it had kept her awake! If she hadn't mentioned it I wouldn't have known, as there was no sign of it when we got up at 6.

I met up in the park with a group of friends - teaching colleagues - that I haven't seen for years. It was lovely to hear th

eir news and what they were doing now, ranging from 'retired and loving it', to 'working part-time in a gift shop an loving it'; a few were working in teaching related areas, but no one was still class teaching. The modern classroom is a whole new world these days. 

Lunch; I'd poached some salmon fillets yesterday morning. Those, arranged on the plates with a decorative line of mayonnaise, accompanied by a near instant salad of a packet of Tilda's precooked rice with sweetcorn and peas and french dressing stirred in, couldn't have been easier. No-cook either, unless you count tipping frozen veg into a bowl and zapping them for a few minutes as cooking.

After lunch we sat in the last patch of shade near the house, a little table which should hopefully become the kitchen sink, and currently has my herb pots.  

This is looking across to what will become the living area...

Yesterday's meeting with the builder and architect was very useful and reassuring; the traffic lights are amber (wait), moving to green (GO!) over the next week... all being well, with a fair wind...    

Friday 26th June - prepping...

 Not the 'armageddon survivalist kind of prepping... just 'heatwave survival' prepping.

After another hot and sticky and restless night, and a other very early 'rise and shine' (hello sun, good morning, do you know what time it is?) I got up and plunged straight into a luke warm shower before I could think too much about the day ahead. Oh yes! That made all the difference! 

By 7am we had finished breakfast - BB is still eating porridge in the mornings but I've switched cold cereal  - and we're relaxing with the First of our three coffees of the day.

By 7.30 I was in full prep mode;

Crustless quiche going in to the air fryer:

And 25 minutes later;

Broccoli prepped and in a microwave pan ready to zap in the microwave, and two fillets of salmon poached for 8 minutes in water with peppercorns, rosemary, bay leaves and a sliver of lemon.

We'll have crustless quiche, broccoli and air fryer frites for lunch today.

 The salmon is for tomorrow with my go-to dressing of equal quantities mayonnaise and Greek yoghurt, some French dressing to taste, and lemon or mint or finely chopped pickled gherkin or something.

I have a pint bottle full of water with a green tea teabag infusing in the fridge... I just keep topping up the bottle more water until the teabag stops working.

We've been eating lunch outside at this little round table;

BB  cleared the erigeron daisies from underneath, while I was meal prepping. They were so pretty, like the ones under the bigger table nearby. But they were full of little black insects, or maybe ants, that kept biting my ankles! Once we finished our coffee he'll remove the others ones... more bitey insects and, regretfully, they are a bit of a trip hazard. It's only 9.30 am, and still relatively cool here.

The sun slowly creeps up the grass towards the house until the only bit of shade at lunchtime is here, and that's gone by 1pm. After then, all the garden is in full sun except under the apple tree at the bottom. 

An early lunch has to be the order of the day!

The afternoons have been hard going... so hot... today we have a site meeting with the architect and the builder, to dot some 'i's' and cross some 't's', with a view to agreeing a start date of 6th July. I reckon that where I'm sitting now should be about where the little table in our new extension will be. Now there's a vision to cling to.

The recipe originally came from the good food website. I like it because it doesn't use cream, which I almost never have in the house. Today's version has more cheese, and no pancetta/bacon, and mixed peppers.

Tuesday 23rd June - it's too darn hot

 Normal blogging will resume tomorrow... maybe. 

Ang sent me a link to this today...

'Too darn hot' from Kiss Me Kate on Broadway. 

I hope they had air conditioning on stage!

Sunday 21st June - Out and about

 We met up with our son and daughter about 45 mins drive away. That meant going over the top of the South Downs, which meant seeing the beautiful view across the valley towards Amberley. Sadly I don't have any photographs...

But I do have a sketch of a very similar view, from Ditchingly Beacon as opposed to Bury Hill (Summer 2021)

Do you know this version of the popular hymn 'All things bright and beautiful' composed by John Rutter?

Friday 19th June - I received a cable!

(I've pinched the blog title from Ang!)

 I remember visiting Porthcurno in Cornwall, on the beach below the Minack open-air theatre and seeing the curiously small and insignificant hut where the huge, vital trans-world undersea cables came in;

Oh my, this brought back memories of watching a play as the sun set into the sea, a fishing boat slowly making it's way across the horizon...

The sea really was this colour, the sand really is golden....

The hut is at the head of the beach. We trudged up the sand to see the massive tarry cables emerge up through the floor, and continue to the office (now a museum) at the top.

But I digress. It wasn't that sort of cable...

I was momentarily baffled that she had only sent one photograph of the squares in the write-up, but she had created two the same. I love tracing the paths of the different strands in cable knitting. 

It's a nice shade of green, very soft wool with good stitch definition so the cable really stands out. 

The flat gift is an interesting guide to a textile exhibition she went to at Blickling Hall with fascinating pictures and information. 

I sent her a square from one of my favourite patterns for knitted squares;

You cast on enough stitches for two sides, and steadily decrease at the centre until you are left with only three stitches, which you knit together. The thing to watch out for with this version is you do a double decrease in every other row... you have to keep track of where you are and what you are doing! It's not as easy as marking the centre with a stitch marker, as the centre stitch is involved in the double decrease (slip 1, knit 2 together, passed slipped stitch over). I call this 'mindful knitting' and not entirely relaxing! 

(For 'mindless knitting' I  mark the centre and do a single k2tog after the marker on every row. Not as tidy, but with fuzzy yarn like this who can tell?)

The pattern actually called for Liquorice Allsorts stripes;

but I used self-striping yarn and let it do its thing. Two ends to sew in instead of many.

I've kept the pale square and sent Ang the darker one; it looked a little neater.

Finally, another flashmob. Clearly a setup, but still brilliant. The 'flute' player, Michel Tirabosco, is amazing.