AN UNUSUAL SUNDAY

The pattern of the day has been quite different to my normal Sunday., but oddly enough things have worked our rather well. My son is starting his working week tonight instead of Monday as he is filling in for friend. Normally I bake bread on Monday morning but as fresh bread was needed for my son's sandwiches I baked today,coincidentally I would have had to bake today in any case as the electrician is coming tomorrow and as I have no idea what time he will arrive I would not have been able to bake. I have one of those dreadful ovens that doubles as a grill and does neither well, as the grill is to be fixed I shall be unable to use the oven. It is not often that things work out so well and it is lovely when they do.
The bread I baked today is made of Kamut, the flour used by the ancient Egyptians, it is wonderfully tasty, full of flavour and has a creamy colour that is most appetising. I use so many different flours and often make my own mixes, I have a lot of fun playing around with different ingredients. While I was baking I made five dozen treacle oat cookies, which means no baking at all tomorrow.
The dungeoneers played at the pub today which meant the kitchen was free and I did not have to rush at all. I did pizzas with salad for dinner as we needed to be quick, baby mozzarella, sun dried tomatoes and olives, lovely
I am far behind my in usual Christmas preparations, it may seem early but I have parcels that need to be posted early and by now they are usually ready to go. I intend to spend tomorrow wrapping gifts and writing cards to get ahead again. My mother's birthday is in four weeks and I shall,as usual post the Christmas parcels for home when I send her birthday gift. We are sending her two pairs of warm trousers as the weather came be shocking up north,my son is sending two pairs of the most amazing pyjamas I have ever seen, really lovely, she will love them I know. I went to the garden centre this afternoon, bracing myself for the ironing to come, While I was there I brought a gorgeous teddy dressed in jeans ,boots and a lumberjack shirt, my nephew,Dan is a tree surgeon , the bear seems perfect for his new baby boy, I could not resist.

Pa is well and we have enjoyed our quiet day together. My neighbour came round and offered me some wine jars, saucepans and a comfy leather armchair for Pa, the chair is beautiful, we can not believe our luck. I am really tired tonight and shall be glad when my son is safe at work, he always lets me know that he has arrived safely, then with luck I shall curl up snugly with my little cat and get some sleep. Good night to every one out there, I hope you have a happy and productive week.

A DAY OF SUNSHINE AND GOLD

Today has been a glory of reds and golds, translucent yellows and gleaming bronze, the finest show of Autumn leaves I have seen in a very long time. I am lucky to live in a place that is blessed with many trees,not just at the roadside but in woods, shelter belts and along the rivers edge,all flaunting their beauty in a final shivering dance before the wind and rain carry their loveliness away. My home is surrounded by tall Limes, fabulous Beeches and splendid Oaks, Horse Chestnut and Sweet Chestnut, Sycamore and Birch, no matter which room I am in the view is of trees. This afternoon in a sudden sharp shower it seemed as if every rain drop carried a leaf with it as it fell,I have never lost the sense of wonder at this yearly magic, tinged as it is with the sadness of summers end yet full of excitement for the winter festivals to come.
Autumn is also the time at our house for eating game and today I am making a casserole of mixed game with herb dumplings, a great warmer for a chilly day
Game casserole
I lb mixed game dice …..rabbit,venison, pheasant, partridge...any thing you like
2 large carrots
I medium parsnip
2 onions
2 sticks of celery
1 garlic clove crushed
12 crushed juniper berries
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon of blackberry or redcurrant jelly
1 bottle of pear cider
salt and pepper...as much as you find pleasant
4 rashers streaky bacon diced
1 oz butter
1 dessert spoon of tomato purree
Put the bacon in a frying pan and cook until the fat is released and then add the onion and cook until soft.
Remove from the pan add the butter to the pan and fry the mixed game until it is well sealed then add 1 desert spoon of tomato purree and fry stirring all the time for a further two minutes
add the diced vegetables and stir for about a minute and then transfer the mixture to a large casserole
De glaze the pan with a cup full of the cider, add to the casserole with the rest of the cider,redcurrant jelly and the salt and pepper. Then Tie the crushed juniper berries and the bay leaf in a bit of muslin and add to the pot.
Cook at 185 c foe about two hours then check to see if the meat is tender,if it is not give it another 30 minutes.

For the dumplings
Large pan of boiling water
6oz self raising flour
3oz beef or vegetable suet
1 tablespoon of fresh parsley
a half teaspoon of salt
water
Combine the flour salt parsley and suet in a bowl and add just enough cold water to make a stiff dough. Break in to even sized lumps and with floured hands roll in to golf ball size pieces.
Reduce the boiling water to a simmer and drop the dumplings in to the water, they will take about ten minutes to cook and should float to the surface of the pan.
You can serve the dumplings on top of the casserole or in a separate hot dish. If you can not be bothered to make dumplings this meal is equal good with mashed potato or even crusty bread.
It has been a happy day for all here,My son received some parcels that he did not expect until next week,Pa has been well and very cheerful and I am always happy if the other two are well.
The cat Twiggy spent a large part of last night curled up with me and as I write is once again curled up on the bed having tired herself out chasing leaves in the orchard, think, if I have another incarnation I should like to be a cat, one owned by a softy like me, it seems to be a lovely life.

THE COMMITTEE MEETS AT LAST

As I predicted the day has been extremely busy, also, as I predicted the repair men did not arrive and will now attend on Monday. It seems that having now running water and a grill that flashes sparks is “not a priority,and they only attend emergencies next day”. I have a cupboard full of large rockets and I know where I should like to put at least one of them!

The groceries arrived in good time and we put everything away and had breakfast, I had already made three loaves and so the day was going well, too well. First there was a mix up about where the meeting of the conservation group was to take place, some went to the allotments and others went off to the pub......vastly more suitable in my humble opinion.....finally we were all assembled in the same place and the meeting opened. I am filled with admiration for our secretary, how she manages to write up the minutes with everyone talking at once I can not tell. She stays cool and calm

My next job is to write to the London Bat Society as we have a very rare breed of bat in our area, we hope to enlist there help in putting up some bat boxes. Then I have been asked to contact the Bishop and find out why our vicar is allowing such mayhem to be wrought in the grave yard, she is cross at the moment as she is getting flack form the council, she ain't seen nothing yet.
On my return home , rather later than I had hoped,the meat order had arrived from Devon,the butchers name is Gribble and I heartily recommend his on line service to any one who enjoys good meat, try this and you will never eat super market meat again........and no I do not have shares in the company.
With the meat all packed safely into the freezers we all got on with our chores, Pa did the bins, my son hoovered and I followed behind him with the steamer, working together it was soon finished.
We were all starving so it was lucky that there was no cooking to do, we had our usual cold meats and cheeses with crusty bread, lots of salad,olives and sun dried tomatoes,our little cat loves lamb so she was in attendance at the feast. As I write she is sitting beside me on the desk worshipping the lava lamp and tinkering with a hair band,she is so beautiful and very clever, she has learned how to press repeat play on I tube and has phoned me on Pa,s mobile twice in the last week. I shall not blame you if you don't believe me, I would not believe it myself if we had not caught her in the act . Amazing, and troublesome at two in the morning.
I an quite looking forward to tomorrow it will I hope be peaceful and relaxing...............I hope!

MISCHANCE AND HAPPENSTANCE

We all get days like this from time to time, I seem to get more of them as I get older,my memory is getting as dodgy as my knees! At first light when I switched on my laptop I discovered that two of the urgent e mails I sent out last night had bounced (my mistake) which I corrected at once. Now comes the big mistake. Friday is usually a busy day, getting the house ready for my sons weekend guests, the fortnightly shop arrives and has to be put away, and this weekend I foolishly ordered two months meat to arrive on Friday morning, and I had the bread to make for the weekend. I thought I might as well get it over with. No problem, until I discovered as soon as the order was confirmed that the conservation group meeting was not on Sunday as I had thought , but on Friday at twelve thirty. “Oh blow.” I said and “Botheration.” I then set about trying to do as many of tomorrows chores as possible whilst cooking a rather labour intensive dinner of rosemary lamb with potatoes daupinois , steamed savoy cabbage, carrot s and garden peas I was spread rather thin as you can imagine but I managed to get most of the work done and the meal ready by five forty five

I observed during the course cleaning the bathroom that the laundry baskets were overflowing and upon investigation found a large amount of outer garments some of which I have been looking for for ages,.Who done it? I have no idea but I can take a wild guess.

The repair men for the cooker and the tap did not arrive and their boss said he had not received my emails and that I must have sent them to the wrong address. This is an excuse of which I am getting very tired of hearing as I know this is not the case. To test weather I had indeed made a mistake I sent a very rude message telling him what I thought of his excuses. The answer I received was very prompt, I rest my case.
Pa is much better today and we all feel happy to see him looking relaxed , he is still much too thin and I am going to have a hard time feeding him up while my son and I are both on diets, still I like a challenge.
Good news, I have just hared that the plumber and the electrician are coming tomorrow,Frankly I shall believe it when it happens as I know their promises of old. Dinner was lovely and my little cat was delighted with her share of the meal as lamb is a favourite,second only to any type of game,pheasant in particular.
Tomorrows meeting will be interesting as it happens that several people who usually attend have phoned or emailed in their apologies today, for instance, the woman responsible for using poison on the allotments, the church warden who may yet be prosecuted for the damage to trees and nest sites and one or two others who have been given a hard time by the local authorities;who are themselves looking for scapegoats. These people normally attend on order to ridicule our efforts, I am sure it is just chance that they are all unable to come to the meeting. I am guilty of gloating I know but after all the hard work a little very personal chuckle is ,I hope allowed. I shall be very happy if we can at last have the church yard and the wild things in it left in peace at last, that is far more important than any personal triumph could ever be.

WE ARE ALL IN THE SHIT TOGETHER

(A piece of political doggerel verse)

We are all in this together, is the Tories battle cry,
If you believe that rubbish you,ll believe a pig can fly.
We,re all in this together,we must cut to make things right.
But it,s us who've been dropped in it, the rest,s a load of shite.

Since Robin Hood of Nottingham gave wealthy folk the poke,
And redistributed their wealth among the poorer folk.
The upper classes have been bent on getting their own back,
And they always use the Tories to front each new attack.

But lately there has been a change,and now the working man,
Has nobody to fight his cause, Find someone if you can,
Among the different parties who,ll defend the lower classes,
When every bloody party just look like Tory asses.

If I worked as a builder, and stole from him a brick,
I,d be up in court in no time flat and dragged off to the nick.
Yet bankers rip off billions and get away Scot free,
It really doesn't seem quite fair I,m sure you must agree.

When we borrow money from a bank,with interest we repay,
And if we don't the bailiffs come and take our stuff away.
Yet when the banks nick all our dosh to fund a gambling spree,
We must pay for there cock ups. It don't seem right to me.

When Government used our money to bail the buggers out,
I don't recall them asking If I minded, they said nowt.
And now if what we hear is true the government is broke,
And we must pay ourselves back, what a bloody joke.

So where are all the bankers now who caused this blasted mess,
And how do we poor peasants ever hope to get redress.
The bankers, with fat pensions have buggered off abroad,
While we must work until we drop, don,t they call that fraud.

If this lot ever have their way, the workhouse will return,
Cause if there are no bloody jobs then how do people earn.
We,ll be back in the time of Dickens, the bad old times long gone.
So to paraphrase young Tiny Tim. Gawd help us, everyone.


Anon.

THE PRINTER WORKS BUT I DO NOT

Thankfully my sons E.C.G. And visit to a cardiologist went well,apart from a little hypertension his heart is sound, his cholesterol low, he is in fact bursting with rude health. What a relief.
The hospital visit forced an early start on us but I used the time to prepare a feast of roast pork with trenchers, home made herb and garlic wedges and dips with roast vegetables. I used up the last of the pork joints so I shall be ordering the meat for November and December tomorrow, with the exception of the turkey and the duck for Christmas, we also have a joint of venison as a rule but I think this year we might try a roast of wild boar as it is a speciality of my Devon butcher.

After a breakfast of boiled eggs and granary bread, which we ate as soon as my son returned I cleared the kitchen and began a printing marathon. The new printer is amazing and it was fun to printout all the research material I have amassed for the conservation group and all the letters to and from from various political types. It took hours as I had to sort out the information in to the relevant folders, the printer was fast,I however was not! I am just glad to have all the paper work ready for Sunday,s meeting, it is a huge load off my mind.

My son put our fortnightly on line shopping order in and that will arrive on Friday, the idea of going through the business weekly is anathema to all of us .
The beautiful Lime tree outside my window has taken quite a buffeting today, strong winds and driving rain have shaken its lovely branches but some of its glory remains,to brighten an other sunny day, I hope.
My little cat has at various time during the day disported herself one all the beds , armchairs and radiators in the house and is now curled up on a folded duvet,with a beautific expression on her face and purring loudly. It is obvious that she means to sleep in some ones bed tonight, she likes to be snug. I have in the last night or two resorted to putting a duvet over my patchwork quilt as I too like to be snug.
My son wants to loose some weight to keep his doctor off his back so I am banned from making cakes and puddings, I am still allowed to make cookies and that is all. I too need to lose a stone or two so I shall join him for company, but only when he is around, when he is out I shall have the odd cream bun or chocolate.. bar.........well Christmas is coming,if you believe the dozens of catalogues which keep dropping on our door mat.
I messed up last nights blog, I could not for the life of me get my picture to publish, I hope to do better tonight.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

If any one who did nor know me looked around my room they might be forgiven for supposing me to have a duel personality. The room is mostly in keeping with the house, patchwork quilts, pine wardrobe, oil lamps and candles. Then there is my tiny wiccan alter,complete with athame and goblet,amulets and so forth,so far so good. Since May however the amount of technical equipment has proliferated enormously. Once upon a time I had a vintage T.V and and ancient video recorder, then the rot set in. It began with my little lap top, my son convinced me that I needed one, and I must say he was right
Then the T.V gave up the ghost, and as we rent ours I rang the company and asked for a new one. Until it arrived I had no idea that it would be so big,still We just managed to squeeze it in, along with the digital box and the H.D.V. Player which my neighbour kindly sent round, along with a large set of grey drawers with glass fronts. The drawers were handy as they were larger than mine so we managed to house all the new stuff. Then my son gave me a wind up radio,and now I have a printer. I must say it is a wonderful thing, the scanner is amazing and something I have needed for years. It will be so useful as I make my own gift tags and Christmas cards, it is such hard work without a scanner. Every where I look there are remote controls and gadgets, I have even acquired a lava lamp, although the cat has buttonholed it for her own especial use as a tootsie warmer! I suppose that having resisted progress for so long it was inevitable that I would have to deal with these things some time, but I must say that I have had a crash course this year. Grudgingly I admit that my son, who has always been a techi was right the new things are much better than the old ones, which I say without qualification.

I cooked a special breakfast of scotch crumpets this morning with hot strawberry jam sauce, at my son,s request, and made three granary loaves, they smell so nutty and yeasty. Cooking done for the moment I went to Home base to pick up some timber for a repair job. The boys at Home base are great, they cut the wood to the correct length as we chatted about football. I needed a new adaptor so I chose one with energy surge protection/ it really is worth it,we had a modem ruined by a power surge not too long ago.
Home again, and my clever son had set up the printer, it,s wonderful,but huge, still I am very happy as I have not been able to make my own jam jar labels of wine bottle labels since Pa old one gasped it,s last. We had to rearrange things to fit it in but we managed it at last.

Pa had nodded off so after several prods and the promise of coffee we managed to wake him and then I went off to make the soup for dinner. It is a sort of tradition that we have soup on a Monday, today I made vegetable soup, with squash,carrots, parsnips,onions, red peppers, turnip,peas, and celery, oh yes and some red lentils. I cooked them in butter for five minutes and then covered them with water and simmered for thirty minutes. Lastly I blitzed them in a blender with some milk and cream and seasoned with salt and pepper. It is a lovely gold colour and perfect for such a cold night. I had been asked to make a treacle suet pudding with custard for afters , bad for the waistline but at my age who cares!

We all need an early night so that we can be fresh for tomorrow when I hope to have a firework display. There will be quite a bit of work to do in the garden so it will depend on the state of my toe.
I am a bit concerned about my little cat as I have had to move her beloved lava lamp from the top[ of the H.D.V box, I have a feeling that she will be seriously displeased. She presented me with a large rat this morning and I feel rather churlish for spoiling her favourite roost. Oh well, it can not be helped, I shall just have to give her an extra cuddle tonight.

Back in the land of the living

Yehaa, hooray and hallelujah, my Yahoo mail box is working again, I do not know for how long but at least I have been able to send out thank you,s to the London Assembly members who have been so helpful to our campaign to save our local wildlife. To paraphrase Henry Hobson ( Hobson,s Choice) there has been a gradual decrease of upishness towards me on the part of both the local authority and our elected councillors . They are now falling over backwards to be helpful, offering to attend our meetings and declaring their enormous concern about the goings on in the church yard. So many different people are now “looking in to it “ that I am in danger of loosing track of them all.
I can not tell you what a relief it is, I am hoping now that all the letter writing has been done that I shall be able to take a back seat and let others take over. I am fine when it comes to letter writing but useless at stamping about on allotments and stravaging about in churchyard,especially now as my broken toe is not healing well. We have some fantastic people in our group who are much better qualified than I and frankly much less likely to get cross with refractory council members.

Our new printer arrived yesterday ,Pa was still asleep and my son was in the bath when it arrived so that I was obliged to answer the door in my dressing gown. The printer is a Pixma mp560, whatever that means,according to my son, who chose the beast it scans prints and produces photographs as well, it's all Greek to me , I am a child in these matters. It will have to wait until Monday to be set up as my son is the only member of the household capable of fiddling with it. It will make a huge difference to me as I shall now be able to give out copies of my research and so forth instead of sending endless emails.

We had a great deal of post yesterday the new remote control for the T.V arrived(the old one was drowned in coffee). My new vegetable knife arrived (the old one was thrown out with the potato peelings last week). My new mouse arrived only now of course I do not need one but as Pa is getting a lap top for Christmas we will not have to buy one for him, so that works out well.
I started to make the short bread yesterday morning and discovered that I had no cornflour,as good short bread cannot be made without it I trundled off to Tesco. Great grief what a nightmare, the queues at the check outs looked like the gates of hell on judgement day. On my return I discovered that I was also out of icing sugar,I cheated, I put twelve ounces of granulated in the grinder for a few minutes and hey presto, icing sugar and I am happy to report that it worked well. Any thing to avoid another trip to purgatory! I made a raspberry jelly and pottered about doing odd jobs. We had a cheese and bacon pasta for dinner last night, nice and easy and not much prep.
Last night Twiggy and I curled up in bed and listened to the rain out side, it was a lovely cosy feeling and it made being unable to sleep a real pleasure, a sleep cat is just about the cosiest thing in the world I think.
Today I spent almost the whole day in the kitchen making first two dozen buckwheat pancakes and them six dozen oat cakes, these will be used in next weeks meals and if the number of breakfast guests is up to the usual average it will be well that I made lots. The only problem today has been thee large abscess which has appeared on of my fingers. It hurts like the devil and if it knocks against any thing it produces a marked deterioration in my usual genteel vocabulary! Still it was lovely to be filling the freezer with goodies, very satisfying.

I had promised my son a chicken pomadori for dinner and as Pa and I do not care for it I made us a simple dish of steamed salmon steaks with fennel, orange and parsley which I served with plain boiled potatoes.. carrot and courgette slivers and a sauce made with crème fraiche, eggs and parsley with the salmon juices added. We had the raspberry jelly to follow, we seem to have a craze for jelly at the moment.
Tomorrow is the start of my sons week at home and that means lots of cooking lots of eating and lots of fun. It is so special to us all that we really look forward to our family time, we still play games like a bunch of children. Believe it of not, only three years or so ago, before Pa and I turned into old crocks, we spent several evenings over Christmas playing hide and seek in the dark. It is great fun but deadly dangerous when you have consumed a good deal of gin. I got trapped in a cupboard and had to be winched out! It was a wonderful Christmas, silly but wonderful.
Have a happy week, where ever you are.

A GHOST STORY

I know that it is the custom to tell ghostly tales on the eve of All Hallows but I have a true story to tell you and it happened to me thirty seven yeears ago this very night. I was living in Coventry at the time and attending Drama School there. I had always had an interest in the paranormal, the sort of interest that comes from spending most of my childhood living in a very haunted house. I had struck up a friendship with a couple of girls of around my own age and very quickly became even firmer friends with the parents of one of these,I was just nineteen , had been married only four months and had never been away from home before ,these two splendid people, we shall call them Dora and Eric adopted me and their kindness warms my heart still although they have both been dead for many years. On one of our visits to their house the subject of ghosts was raised and Dora said that if there were any sceptics in the place she would cure them in a single night, and so it was the two weeks later on the twenty third of October 1973 a party of us set out for the village of Kineton in Warwickshir
The party consisted of Dora and Eric and their daughter Amy, my husband and myself, another girl called Nina,a sixteen year old boy named Sam and two very small,very cute little dogs. We were to witness the spectral re-enactment if the English Civil War battle of Edge hill., what we actually saw was more dreadful and harrowing than even the battle,it was the terrible aftermath that we were to see,and God help us,hear.

We were in high spirits has we set off squashed like sardines in a large ancient motor car which rattled even more loudly than we did as we bowled along,We arrived at our destination and unravelled our selves from the tangle of limbs and dog leads that the journey had made of us and piled giggling into a quaint old pub to fortify ourselves with a drink to keep out the chill before we set off. The youngest member of our party, Sam was vociferous about not being allowed to have any alcohol and fidgeted even more than the dogs,I used to say that there was nothing wrong with him that a few years would not cure and I was right but for now he was a noisy distraction and we all wished we had left him behind.
Fortified with our round of drinks we set off into the dark lane and made our way to the place where the action was said to take place,still chatting cheerfully amongst ourselves but also a little nervous behind the laughter. We were heading down a hill on a small country road and as we reached the valley floor a cold mist began to gather so quickly that in a matter of moments we could barely see each other and were obliged to hold hands to keep together. The actual site of the battle was now occupied by an army base and we knew that we would be unable to enter but Dora assured us that it would not matter. The cold became piercing and the mist seemed wetter than rain as we walked on. Our talk became disjointed as one by one we came under the influence of our surroundings,but as we became silent the dogs began to whimper and whine continuously,constantly straining against further progress and at last we were forced to carry the poor things in order to go on

All at once a violent explosion came from a short distance away and the thick mist shook with the sound,we giggled a little and Sam said that it was probably a firework., we were glad to agree,Then we began to see lights all around us and by now the dogs were frantic. I had seen this behaviour in animals before, as a child I had seen dogs act so in certain parts of our house and I knew what it meant, Nina was scared to death and did not want to go on so I went back with her and the dogs while the others walked off into the mist. Over the years I have often wished with all my heart that I had gone with them, because as it happened we got the worst of it, but it,s no use wishing and the memory of what happened next still haunts my dreams . We reached a bend in the road and waited for the others to return and now the noises began,horses hooves thudding upon turf and the jingle of harness unmistakable and coming straight at us in the dark. We had no Idea which way to run as the sound was all around us and were amazed when the sound of hoof beats began to fade,they had passed right through us and we had seen nothing, We walked on a little and stood in a gravel lay by and then................more hoof beats and much worse the shouting and the groans of dying men and worse than all the continuous screaming of dying horses all around us tearing into our very souls, and still we saw nothing. Now and then a shot would hiss through the mist, perhaps some ghostly soldier putting a horse out of it,s pain. It seemed to go on for ever Nina and I clung to each other with the dogs between us, we just closed our eyes now and prayed for the others to return. After several ages had passed we heard the others coming towards us and the other sounds ceased. They too had heard strange noises close by, so close that even in the mist the people and animals making the noise should have been visible,but they were not. They had been spared the dying horses,lucky devils`
We were all pretty badly shaken I had grown up with several resident ghosts and had previously considered myself bomb proof, it was chastening to discover that this was not the case.
Just as we had decided to head back to the car we all saw three figures approaching us from the lane, they were dressed as King's men and certainly looked the worse for wear,particularly the middle one who seemed drunk. Of course we began to laugh a little ,so sure that these were just people in fancy dress out for a lark to scare a few ghost hunters.............until we realised that they were walking on thick gravel...and making no noise at all, they walked on and dissolved in to the mist We had all had quite enough but there was more to come,as we rounded the bend we all saw dozens of tiny lights like candles flickering in the darkness and as the mist began to clear it was plain that these lights were unaccompanied. Dora told us that we were looking at a mass grave where unclaimed bodies were burred after the battle.

I could not get warm that night hot drinks and hot water bottles were of no use an I shivered until morning. Next day we at last began to talk about what had happened and Dora told us that she had seen it all before during the second world war when she had been stationed in the area,and she was right ,after that night every one there would swear to the existence of ghosts for the rest of their lives and even those of us who needed no convincing would shudder at the remembrance,For my self the dying screams of those horses re-echoing down the centuries still lives with me and on this night each year I have never been able to sleep, and I suppose now I never shall.

GETTING INTO COLD WATER

It seems that the problem with my email is not after all the fault of my little mouse. I managed to send a couple of replies off last night and then yahoo packed up again. I have run every kind of check there is and some my son invented and there seems to be nothing wrong with either the computer or the mouse. What is so annoying is that I have so much information in my mail box and if I open a new one I will be unable to tell the people with whom I am corresponding as their addresses are inaccessible........Oh bum ! I am not sure what to do about it, does any one have any ideas?
The lady from the cat charity came to pick up the hamper we made up for her, she was more than happy with the contents and the cute basket they were in. She is a lovely lady.........she stayed for an hour and a half......I need say no more!
I baked a lot of extra bread today as I needed some for the hamper and also for a couple of friends who wanted a loaf each, thankfully they all turned out well. Pa and I had a breakfast of poached eggs an he even managed to get up a little earlier, I am still recovering from the shock.

We have ordered a printer to share between us and we are also sharing the cost which is fair I think, it will certainly make my life a lot easier and I shall in future be able to keep copies of important documents.
Rather late in the afternoon I decided to wash my hair, it is very long and has a life of it,s own. When I was younger if was red gold, it has faded now to a streaked blond colour,my aunt had hair like mine and she went white in the end:I hope I do as it looks nicer than grey. Back to the story , I turned on the taps and waited for the water to run hot, and waited ,and waited and it soon became apparent that something was amiss. Last night the water started to run cold as I was in the bath....most unpleasant. I went down stairs and asked Pa how it had been when he had is morning shave, fine, no problem. We checked the boiler and behold it was on the fritz again! This occurs at least once a year and always during the cold weather. We fiddled about with it for a while and at last the water ran hot again so I quickly washed my hair, better late than never. We shall have to have the plumber out I expect, before it conks out altogether, what wretched nuisances gas boilers are.

I did not have time to make the weekend cookies today but in the morning I shall make three trays of shortbread, ginger I think as the weather is chilly. It is so quick to make and everyone seems to like it. I looked in the biscuit tin this morning , there were four cherry shortcakes left so the baking will be in the nick of time.
My little cat has recovered from her shock on discovering a strange dog in her kitchen, I wish I could say the same for Pa's hat!

TROUBLE WITH A DOG AND A DEAD MOUSE

It has been a very odd day indeed, rewarding, frustrating and terrifying by turns and at the end exhausting. To begin with my son was even later than usual, and as an added annoyance Pa refused to get out of bed until well past eleven. These occurrences slowed my morning down to almost a halt and by the time a had got my sleepy son into bed and his Pa out of bed the morning was spent. It was past noon before I had served a breakfast of grilled kippers and washed the dishes after it.
I was …........disgruntled.........lovely word and exactly describing the way I felt. It seemed to me that wee was being taken. I had a member of the conservation group coming round in the afternoon so I sped off to get some washing powder, we had run out, and returned with as much haste as one can on an invalid buggy.

Earlier in the day I had discovered that my computer was playing up. I could not access my emails which was a bind because I needed information from them for the group secretary. I fiddled about for ages........no luck. I had just begun rather belatedly to prepare a meal when my visitor arrived, an I was obliged to explain that I did not have the information she needed and why. I unplugged my little lap top from the mains and having also removed the mouse took it down to the kitchen., switched it on and behold all was well.I had taken the precaution of locking the cat Twiggy in the bedroom and shutting the living room door tight shut, so how in the the name of Old Harry did she manage to get in to the kitchen and confront the dog. It was awful, Twigs tail looked like a Christmas tree and she was all hiss and fizz. The dog once it had regained it,s composure began to reciprocate with loUd barks and rumbling growls. Twigs stood her ground and in the end I took her outside and shut her in the garden.”Judas.” Heard it just as if the cat had spoken,feeling very downhearted I returned to my visitor who luckily left quite soon.

I searched for the cat...........no luck.......so I had to give up and cook dinner,just a meaty lasagne as I needed to be quick. I washed up......still no cat.
Back upstairs and on opening my e mails I discovered a lovely letter from the councillor who had asked a question for me at the London Assembly apologising for the Majors ridiculous answer, and another from a local councillor now eating dirt and promising to attend our meetings, I really did give her a verbal roasting yesterday. It tmade good reading as to say that this lady had been off hand in the past would not be doing justice to her indifference!
AT LAST the cat returned, still in high dudgeon and expecting to be placated with titbits, treats and cuddles all of which were of course forth coming, I cannot tell you how glad I was to see her, so all ended well. I think we were lucky, the last time Madam Twigs went head to head with a dog its owner threatened to sue me for damages....Pheeeew!

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Today I received a reply from Mr Boris Johnson to the question asked on my behalf at the London Assembly. You may remember that having failed to get an answer from my local council about their cavalier attitude towards the wildlife in my area ( please see previous blogs for the full story), I wrote to members of the Assembly to enlist their help. Mr Johnson,s only reply was that I should deal with my local Authority before contacting The Assembly.
I wonder if he was being deliberately obtuse or just insulting. Does he really suppose that I should have given myself the trouble of writing to all my assembly members if I had been able to get any where with my Local Authority. I need not tell you that I have not finished with the gentleman yet. His arrogant reply will look lovely in the news papers the next time he mounts the Green platform to spout!
We had two guests at breakfast this morning and we made quite a party of it, I made pancakes with syrup, piles of them and every one was eaten. We had such a good time and the meal went on until twelve noon! Thankfully I had already made the days bread, as soon as they left Pa went off for a blood test and I cleared the kitchen and prepared the vegetables for tonight's chicken casserole.
It took ages because during the course of the veggie chopping my tel;ephone was red hot, finally,much to my relief the battery gave up the ghost and peace was restored to the kitchen.
Most of the calls were about a hamper of home made goodies which I am donating to a local animal charity, it is just jars of jam and chutney,s jellies and marmalades with a bottle of home made damson gin and some fresh bread and cookies thrown in. The young lady who organises the raffle is a sweety and very committed to her cause, but she could talk the hind legs off a mule, she had me on the phone for an hour, I kid you not.
I answered my emails later and then went out to buy a hamper to put the goodies in, it should look nice with the addition of a pretty tea towel wrapped around the fresh loaf. I am very flattered that this year my hamper will be the first prize, I hope they will not be disappointed,
The chicken casserole was very good, I had baked a crown of bread buns to serve with it, we ate the lot, I think the chilly weather had made us all extra hungry.
The cat Twiggy is now spending her days asleep under one lamp or another about the house, my lava lamp seems to be her current favourite, she spends hours curled up around it whilst watching the television, she is an odd little beast.
We are once again being invaded by those blessed continental ladybirds, they are every where, I found two in my knickers draw this morning and that is no joke, I am told that they are harming our native ladybirds by giving them a virus which kills them. They are certainly giving my the pip.

BEWARE THE ANGER OF A PATIENT MAN

Two of the most amazing things about my wonderful son are his limitless patience and his ability to keep his temper in provoking situations. There is an old saying “Beware the anger of a patient man.” This morning there could be no doubting the truth of this old saw.
He arrived home later than usual and the moment I laid eyes on him I could see that all was not well
actually he was in a towering rage, I have never seen him so angry. We always have a chat in the morning, so over a cup of tea I listened to the pent up rage spill out.

His anger was largely on behalf of a colleague at work who has been given all the responsibility of running a department, but to suit the companies convenience and presumably their budget has been given neither title or pay increase commensurate with the responsibility he has been asked to assume. During the past couple of years my sons team of people have performed well above and far beyond the call of duty and have received literally nothing for it. Jobs have been cut, their work load increased to a mind boggling degree, and still they have worked with little complaint, their pride in what they do well; undiminished by the total lack of appreciation and understanding from those who benefit most from their diligence.
.
This will be the second year that my son will not receive a pay rise and he has said nothing about it as he knows times are hard. He has fought however for the members of his team, who,s quiet dedication he respects enormously. His anger is for his colleague who he believes has been treated badly,I think he feels responsible in part for what has happened. There is another old saying,also true.”A man is worthy of his hire.” If this man is capable of doing the job, as he undoubtedly is then he should receive the benefits of promotion and not just the responsibility,and my son,s sense of fair play is outraged by what has happened..
He and his team are constantly over worked for the simple reason that others are, not to put too fine a point upon it, slacking off. Nothing ever gets done about this and it is the reason why they often finnish so late. In my opinion if some are allowed to leave work before completing their allotted tasks ,why should others be obliged, out of loyalty to the company to do their work for them.

ASS SHOULD BE WELL AND TRULY KICKED! In my humble opinion.
I hope with all my heart that no one gives my boy further cause for annoyance, I should hate to be in the shoes of any one who does, man or beast!

For my part I had high words with the occupational therapist this morning. Two of them were supposed to be coming this morning at 11 o clock, and having moved heaven and earth , changed medical appointments and asked the electricians to come this afternoon I was not pleased to be told by the O.T that they would now be coming after lunch. Exactly what time is after lunch.........she could not say. Having totally ignored everything we said to them last time they came, she said she wanted Pa to practice using a “bath board.” This is a contrivance which fits on the rim of the bath and upon which you sit out of the water to bathe. Since Pa cannot get his legs over the bath in the first place this seems to me to be redundant.
Then she said we could perhaps be given a stool on which he could sit to wash at the sink. I told her that believe it or not we were already using that method and that is was no substitute for a bath or a shower. I think that is reasonable and I did stay calm. I told her that we needed a invalids shower fitted and a chair lift for the stairs. Hand rails are useless to someone whose hands cannot grip and who suffers from cataplexy, a condition which causes the sufferer to collapse like a puppet with the strings cut,and without any warning. Finally she got the point...........I hope. The half hearted solutions they came up would be as effective as trying to stop a haemorrhage with a band aid....useless.

Pa and I had a nice peaceful breakfast of boiled eggs and soldiers with orange juice and two pots of tea..My son got his first sleep since Sunday night and I think he is ready again for the fray. I cooked him his favourite toad in the hole with baked beans for dinner, “classic” toad he calls it, anything to cheer him up a little.
Life does seem to be a battle sometimes, I think I would prefer to go down fighting,and I probably shall..

Fun with flashing lights

Pa had an early appointment with the Doctor this morning, the electricians were booked to arrive at ten and my son needed to sleep late,so what could go wrong? Surprisingly little as it turned out. Although I had the usual trouble getting Rip van Winkle to wake up, so that he was late for his appointment the Doctor was also running late so that was all right. The electricians were also rather late which meant that I was able to bake the bread and also make some leek and potato soup before they arrive at eleven, by which time my son was awake so all was well. Praise the Gods, a miracle!
The new cooker hood fan was fitted,and the new silent,bathroom extractor fan in record time and all seemed to be going well. Pa was still out so I made a late breakfast for my son and I, cheese toasties for him and poached eggs on toast for me. We sat munching happily and cracking jokes and congratulating ourselves on how well things were going when all at once there was a sudden dimming of the lights,we looked at each other, no we had not imagined it. We continued with breakfast as the lights on the new cooker hood began to flicker rapidly for a minute before finally going out. We looked at each other and roared with laughter. When we had stopped spluttering I called the electrician and told him the news, he said that he would come back to have a look at the problem. No sooner had I hung up than the lights came back of again setting us laughing even more uproariously than before. After that it was like the old joke about the car indicators,on off on off on off, you could,nt make it up! The electrician arrived and replaced a light bulb to see if that would help and said he would call back if we had any further trouble..............so far all is well and I hope it stays that way.
Pa was still absent having been sent to the back of the queue as a result of his tardiness and the fact that the receptionist had forgotten to book him in with the practice nurse after seeing the doctor, to change his dressing. She had been inclined to snootiness until her own mistake became apparent, that corked her up thankfully. I had just cleared breakfast when Pa arrived home and as the poor love had not eaten before leaving I set about making breakfast........again, cheese toasties and a pot of tea. He was really hungry and I was glad to see him polish off the whole plate full.
Then Hey-ho and off to exchange the enormous dressing gown I was foolish enough to buy for something smaller, something less like a small marquee. Mission accomplished I hurried home, cleared the second breakfast dishes and cleaned up the mess the electricians had made, not much at all really.
There was just time to have a coffee before starting to lay the table for our evening meal, Leek and potato soup with fresh crusty bread and a steamed jam sponge with custard, just right for a chilly night.
While I was out I bought myself a rather fetching, I thought , red woollen hat with a pom-pom on the top and silver threads woven into the wool, I thought it looked nice, however the scales were removed from my eyes by the merriment it caused when Pa and my son saw it, I may send it to Oxfam as I do not think I shall ever have the nerve to wear it again after that.
What was it Robert Burns said about seeing ourselves as others see us.

A BREAK MOST WELCOME, BUT TOO SHORT,

Gloriana, the fun starts again tomorrow, my son goes back to work, the electricians are coming to fit a new bathroom fan and cooker hood fan at exactly the time as Pa has a doctors appointment and the occupational therapists are threatening to return on Tuesday. My cup runneth over, it looks as if we are about to have a rerun of last weeks fun and frolic! I have yet to discover the secret of being in two places at once so I am not sure how tomorrow is going to work out. One thing is certain, I have no intention of leaving the electricians in the house unsupervised, they have had two goes at blowing us up, we may not be so lucky this time.
Sunday has been a lovely day for us all. The house was full of my sons friends, laughing and joking, they have such fun . Pa and I treated ourselves to a cream tea, just the two of us which was very pleasant. Prior to this treat I had ploughed through a mountain of ironing, it took over two hours to finish, ironing is the blight of my life. Huge understatement!

The sun has shone here all day and the tree,s are turning colour beautifully now that the weather has turned a little colder. The Swifts have left over the weekend so I suspect it will soon be colder still. We did not have any frost this morning but it must have been a chilly night as all the windows were steamed up this morning and the cat was obliged to rub the window with her paws to see out..
My broken toe still hurts but at least the rheumatism in my shoulder is much better today, I do sound like an old crock, don't I.
I went out for a while this morning, the air was so fresh an d cool that I could have stayed out all day.
I made Mexican food for dinner as it is quick and we all like it, I don't think it is particularly authentic as I never use chillies and we have olives and sun dried tomatoes with feta of mozzarella as side dishes, so it is really just a mixture of things we like with tortilla,s and dips, very relaxed and easy.
We are all tired as it has been a busy week and we all hate it when things happen to spoil our quiet time, especially as we are so often busy, still we all agree that much has been achieved this week.

I did something very, very stupid yesterday, I bought Pa a new dressing gown, a beautiful sable coloured thick fleecy garment which I was sure he would love, as indeed he did. However Pa is quite small, and has recently lost a lot of weight,so what possessed this benighted half wit to purchase a XXL size? It brushed the ground, the sleeves reached his knees and the belt went around his waist twice and tied in a bow. We laughed and laughed, even Pa laughed, he looked like a rather seedy old monk! I shall of course get it changed as soon as possible, and I must try to keep my wits about me when I am out shopping. This time it was,nt them others, it was me!

A BLISSFULLY QUIET DAY

At last a quiet normal day doing ordinary normal things, and how we have enjoyed it. My son and I both woke up at six so we had a coffee and discussed the news, then at eight we had some tea and I began the process of getting Pa up. It was much easier than usual and things went like clockwork. We had cereal, orange juice and boiled eggs with granary bread soldiers for breakfast, it was a really happy meal with lots of chat. After we had eaten my son went off to prepare for his game,Pa went to feed the birds and I did the dishes and cleared the kitchen. One of the gamers arrived, early and we chatted away in the kitchen, he is a great friend of my son's and we have known him for so long that we look upon him as family,and treat him as such. He occasionally looks after the house for us when we are away which is really marvellous for us as the cat Twiggy is very fond of him. Madam is very particular in her choice of friends, and the idea of putting her in a cattery is out of the question, I think we are lucky to have a friend like this, he is one of the kindest people we know.
The gamers went off to the pub,and I popped out to buy some pyjamas, I have been finding it a bit chilly of late as I often have to get out of bed when Pa is unwell. I think that warm Pj,s, fleecy dressing gowns and cosy slippers make chilly nights almost a pleasure don't you?
Back home and with coffee made I set about baking biscuits as the last were eaten yesterday. This time I made 90 butter biscuits, half of them cherry and the other half walnut, I made these last week and have been asked by several people to make them again. Pa tucked in while they were still warm with a cup of tea , I love to see him enjoying things, he suffers so much pain that anything that makes him happy is worth doing.
My son's back seems a little better today, he has had a rotten time of it, even massage did little to help. I hope he is in good shape next week as he is back at work. His room looks amazing now, newly decorated and fitted out with black curtains and bed covers, it looks like a study with a bed in it as his walls are lined with books from floor to ceiling He is very happy with the way it turned out, which is important, every one needs a quite place to relax.........chill.........what you will.
It is almost three years since my beloved Tom cat disappeared. He was a fabulous creature full of feline wisdom and grace, covered in stripes,noble whiskers, and such good company, I still miss him an half hope he will come home one day. I have never slept well and Tom stayed with me all night sharing my glass of milk or a corner of a cookie. Tom never chased birds, I have seen him lying in the garden with new fledged robins hopping between his paws while the parent birds flew about horrified. Twiggy has learned not to kill birds,it is possible to train a cat not to, it takes a while but it's worth it. Yesterday she sat on the bench under the window in totally ignored a blue tit which had flown into the window and was momentarily stunned, you can imagine the fuss we make of her when this sort of thing happens, I suppose the incident is what made me think of my lovely Tom
We are having a takeaway tonight, Chinese I hope, I really fancy some sticky ribs, yum.
We all like Saturday evening when my son is not working, we have treats and sweets and make as much fun as we can,we enjoy our time together, we always have. Last night we watched “Come Dine With Me,” Where do they get those people from, we all fell about laughing, I have to tape them when my son is at work so that we can watch them when he is at home.
I shall be glad to snuggle up in bed tonight and if I am lucky Twiggy might come and curl up with me for a while.

THEY ARE OUT TO GET ME!

I had hoped that after a week fraught with problems today might be different........some hope! This morning we had arranged for a grocery delivery from Ocado, to arrive between nine and ten o clock. The van pulled up out side our house at eight twenty five and in spite of the fact that the curtains were still drawn the driver proceeded to unload the shopping. While I was franticly getting dressed I observed the fellow repacking the bags, I assumed to lessen the number of journeys he would have to make. Leaving Pa in a state of disarray (quite literally) my son and I went down stairs to receive our goods. Then the problems really began. Whilst repacking the bags the hair brained twit had loaded four and a half dozen free range eggs in to one bag on top of a large pork pie and a lovely piece of Brie. Half a dozen of the eggs had fallen out of the up turned egg box and squelched their way to the bottom of the bag , smothering the paper wrapped pie and the Brie in scrambled egg. A carrier bag containing four bags of bread flour was found to also contain a bottle of Cif spray, the top of which was unscrewed and the contents were leaking in to the flour. I was cross. I phoned he depot and explained the problem and the robot on the other end of the phone offered me a refund , with the air of one conferring a great favour, and then went on to say that he would make a note on our account so that the drivers did not come early again. Excuse me , I thought that was why we had booked a time slot in the first place,I should have told him were to shove it but politeness forbade such relief. I spent half an hour wiping egg from packs of pasta and getting rid of soggy egg boxes,I was even more cross.
Breakfast was pleasant and passed with out incident until the occupational therapist who made such a Horlicks of things last week called to arrange another appointment. As she talked it became evident that she had either forgotten every thing we said to her last week, or even more likely had not been listening in the first place. Oh how I wanted to tell her where to get off, I refrained. I was by now Incandescent.
I have an odd sort of temper, I am able to bottle things up for ages and the suddenly quite a small thing will trigger an eruption which registers on the Richter scale; the poor soul on the receiving end gets weeks of pent up rage, I have been known to clear a room on a couple of occasions.
I am so close to going off like a firework on a feast day that I am thinking of going into a retreat before I blow my top. I hate being out of control, I really do.
Many years ago I knew a lovely old lady named Mary, Every one liked her, it was impossible not to. When I asked her how she was she would always say “It's not me, it's them others.” I know exactly what she meant.
We got all the Friday cleaning chores done eventually as we had several distractions, the house is tidy and we are ready for an influx of my son's friends on Saturday and Sunday. Dinner was our usual cooked meats, cheeses and home made granary bread, we almost always have this meal on the Friday of my sons week off , he loves it so it is a treat for us all as I do not have to cook on a very busy day.
What a grumpy old woman I am turning in to, but of course it's not me, it's them others!

WAS DARWIN RIGHT

I find myself asking that question more and more often these days. On the face of it the theory of natural selection sounds reasonable, survival of the fittest, evolution..........hum.............I wonder? If Darwin was correct in his idea,s then how the devil do you explain the large number of clueless twerps that infest the planet buggering things up for the rest of us, with their stubborn stupidity?
I have ,in the past two or three weeks encountered some absolutely mind boggling nonsense in both word and deed from people in all walks of life. Outrageous ignorance, stubborn bigotry, and general
want of basic intelligence from people in positions of power and trust, who's business it is to make our lives better, and doing the exact opposite.
I was almost blown up yesterday by an electrician, who,s knowledge of his chosen skill I was foolish enough to trust. The cooker hood fan had exploded and he had been sent to replace it, thinking to save money he tried to fix it. Now when I tell you that the initial explosion was sufficient to blow the bulb to pieces, crack the plastic bulb cover and melt the bulb fitting you might , if you had half a brain, conclude that there was something seriously wrong with the appliance.... not this candidate for annihilation. He put in a new bulb and in spite of all my warnings blew the blasted thing up again taking quite a few of our other lights with it! We had been waiting for this repair for eleven months as the electrician told us he was having trouble getting the spares from Japan. Today I spent ten minutes on line and not only found the part readily available at a number of outlets but also discovered the reason why the bathroom fan, also fitted by these clowns makes such a racket. They had insisted that this was normal, not so, according that is to the people who make them.
Now what do we conclude from this, perhaps that I possess super intelligence, or is it more likely that I have been dealing with a bunch of total morons, I favour the latter option.
On a different tack, I am still trying to get rid of the van load of zimmer frames and other large walking aides that we told the physio therapist we had no use for before he ordered them. I suppose in his case it was just a matter of ticking the boxes......job done.

Two occupational therapists who,s recommendations have turned out to be a plank across the bath,and two huge hand rails at the front door which will totally block the side entrance. This will mean we shall be unable to get around to the dustbins and the back garden......very clever. I am still trying to get their instructions countermanded.

I have a question, How do these people manage to breath unaided? Heaven only knows what disorganised lives they must lead, and to make matters worse they are so sure that they are right and know what is best for others, and what is worse, they are incapable of listening to a word you say. Selective deafness.

So if Darwin is right, How did the ancestors of these clot heads manage to survive and reproduce? How do they obtain responsible positions and even more perplexing how do they keep them?

They only survive because the rest of us are too lazy to kick their ignorant backsides out and do better ourselves. You must have noticed that it takes a particular kind of ass to become upper mange met, do not try to tell me you have never wondered what your boss uses for brains. These people appear to have all the intelligence of badly programmed computers and parrot the same phrases whether they are appropriate or not. They are totally confused by the simplest questions and became bolshy because some one has had the temerity to ask. It is a matter of.“I am not programmed to answer this question.” How long I wonder will it be before they actual start saying it?

Perhaps we should try having them programmed with Asimov's three laws of robotics!

End of rant.

A GROVELING APOLOGY TO MY SON

I believe that in the past I may have hinted that my son was less than handy when it came to D.I.Y..so here is where I eat dirt. Today my amazingly gifted son not only demolished his old pine framed bed single handed, he also assembled the new one, took out all the packing and old timber and cleared up the mess in less than three hours. He would have finished sooner if he had not been interrupted by a couple of dim electricians who could not find their own posterior,s in the dark, of which more later. So my humble apologies to my amazing son who's prowess as a handy man is now obvious even to me.
Now that honour is satisfied I shall regale you with the tale of two electricians. Over a year ago this pair of artisans were engaged to install a cooker hood extractor and an extractor fan in the bathroom. With in a month if being installed the cooker hood fan blew up with all the glory of Guy Fawkes night and it has taken us eleven months to get them in to replace it. Also the fan they fitted in the bathroom is so noisy that it keeps the neighbours awake, from this you may imagine what it sounds like in the adjacent bedrooms. It is the sort of fan you might fit in a public house lavatory or a municipal loo, not a domestic bathroom. Today they returned and began to do a very dodgy repair to the cooker hood fan, I asked him what he was doing and he said “Bosses orders.” While I phoned his boss he proceeded with his (repair) and eventual succeeded in fusing the lights. At which point he left!
I was somewhat displeased at this turn of events as I was in the middle of preparing a meal. Two telephone calls and a shirty email later the dynamic duo returned, fixed the lights and promised to return tomorrow with a new cooker hood fan as we had agreed previously.
As for the bathroom extractor fan, not only did they bring the wrong size of fan, the article looked as if it had been purchased in a pound shop. I was obliged to get very cross indeed, which is bad for my hypertension, so I escaped for half an hour on the buggy to calm down.
I treated myself to a lovely bottle of perfume, I have wanted for ages but considered too expensive and self indulgent. Today I paid only £4.50 instead of £16 as the bottle top was missing, my luck had changed.
On my return,feeling much calmer I finished the food preparation and we had a few games of poker which is always fun. I made a lemon pudding for afters and it cooked while we ate home made beef burgers on sesame buns with caramelised onions and chips with horseradish dip. Considering the trouble I had in preparing even this simple repast I was very glad I had not chosen a more complex meal for this evening.
I still love my little computer but these days my dressing table resembles an office desk and my email in box is red hot. In a way it's fun though and one thing is certain, though my son does not know it yet I have a few little jobs that I now feel able to trust him with , did someone say I was a conniving baggage?

THE TIDE TURNS

This beautiful swan crossed the road to show me his well grown young, This swan and I are old friends,I have been feeding him for years. I guess he wanted to show them the softest touch in town.
We have almost a total victory in the matter of the churchyard and the allotments, and have now widened our scope to take in the whole village, I still can not believe we have achieved so much.
Yesterday I was visited by the person from the council who has been responsible for the carnage in the church yard. I have been trying to get her to speak to me in person for six months, I think that the letters from three local councillors and a dozen London Assembly members may have concentrated her mind a little. She was hoity-toity to begin with but after much discussion she agreed to write to the private individuals who have been using the churchyard trees as their own winter log pile telling them to cease and desist on pain of prosecution.. She also agreed to stop the felling and poisoning of trees and hedges on the allotment site. Unfortunately she was intransigent when it came to the matter of the fortnightly strimming of the grave yard and the removal of ivy from the old walls and graves.
“The grass.”she said “Must not be allowed to grow more than 8cm high.” What a load of tosh!
I asked her why she had ordered the removal of the nettles and brambles during the nesting time for birds and the breeding season for butterflies. She kept on repeating the mantra of grass being only allowed to grow to 8cm, and said that it would take a good deal of time to arrange to have the strimming stopped. I asked why and she kept waffling on about the contractors. I have to suppose that no one at my local Council is capable of picking up the telephone and telling the contractors to stop.
Finally I was so annoyed that I said “Fine, so who do we send the summons to next time the law is broken .” At last she stopped chanting and said she would see if she could get it stopped while a management programme was put in place. “Conservation is not just about wild life,” she remarked,”It is about the community.” I gave her the news that this particular community would prefer not having their green spaces destroyed.
When a person asks to have a tree removed the council do not look at it themselves, instead they send the contractor who will do the job to look at it. He tells them it needs felling and they agree without question. The tree is felled,the complainant is off the councils back,the contractor gets paid and takes away the wood to sell. Spot the mistake with that practice. I pointed out to her that her approach was it best naïve, and by the look on her face I do not think that she even thought about it from that angle. Perhaps she will now. During the past week a beautiful and very large Lime tree was felled on the grounds that its leaves made a mess in an adjacent garden and that it allowed squirrels access to the roof of a house. Great Caesar's ghost! If we are going to fell every tree that causes that type of nuisance we shall soon as nuisance is one of the few exemptions that can be fiddled ,as it were, to suit convenience .Another member of our group went to a meeting of the Residents Society and got them all fired up about the number of trees being felled. When they discovered that the trees could have been saved by proper maintainance they were very angry and are complaining to the authorities in a body, more ammo!
Of course we are delighted with the ground we have gained but we are by no means finished. To show the lady we would not be put off I called the environment bods this morning and they are going to find out why the grass is being mowed at all..That woman must hate me ,and I do not give a damn! So we fight on but in good spirits,we know we are right and we are sure we will win through in the end. To every one who helped with research and moral support a huge hug and a heartfelt thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

My son's bed arrived to late to be put up today so we still have that pleasure before us...help!
I did a pot roast of beef for dinner with carrots, parsnips, roast potatoes,Yorkshire pudding ,mushy peas and gravy........I am absolutely stuffed, no one could fancy a pudding.
And so in the words of dear old Dixon “Evenin all.”

THE DIE IS CAST

Here,s a funny thing, within less than ten minutes of my laying a curse upon Microsoft the problem disappeared and my little lap top returned to its usual user friendly self, my son says he hopes it was a coincidence as he finds the whole business very spooky. It must be said that I do have previous as far as curses are concerned. It began when as a child , a neighbour who had blocked up all the styles on his land even though they were part of an ancient right of way,which put an extra mile on my journey to the village was standing on the roof of his newly completed bungalow and I said to my mother”Just watch,he will fall through the roof in a minute.” Just as I finished speaking he did . To say that my mother was shaken is an understatement. The man broke a couple of toes but my point was made. Years later when Pa was a health service administrator he had to give a presentation to a rather unpleasant district administrator. He had not been given anything like enough time and needed another week to complete his statistics. I told him not to worry, and that the meeting would be cancelled,as indeed it was, due to the fact that the D.A. was having an enormous boil lanced in A and E and went home to recover. Two days later the meeting was again postponed as the D.A was indisposed with a dose of the runs. Pa gave a brilliant presentation the following week and the rotten old D.A was unable to find fault with any of it even though it was his habit to be hyper critical. There have been a few others, but I have learned to control my temper now,just in case. I have been told that a great great grandmother of mine was renown for the laying of curses so perhaps it is hereditary.

We managed to get Pa off to the doctor this morning only twenty minutes late and that is nothing short of miraculous, typical however was the inordinate amount of time it took him to return,still better late than never on both counts.
My son has ordered the new bed and we are told it will arrive tomorrow......hum.....I've heard that one before. Wisely he has decided not to take the old one apart until the new one has arrived, I just hope it arrives early as if it has to be housed overnight I can not for the life of me think where we shall put the blessed thing. We are still cluttered up with zimmer frames and walking aides, what we need is a T.A.R.D.I.S.
I made bread us usual today and we had a very rich roast vegetable and tomato soup for dinner with the bread and a raspberry jelly for afters, I made a huge pan full and will freeze some for my son to take to work next week, tomato is his favourite
My toe is still swollen but thankfully I have very little feeling in my right foot so I am managing to get about quite well. It is my intention to have an early night if possible, mindful of course of my previous remarks about best laid plans I am not holding my breath!

STOP PRESS
It looks as if we have won the battle of the churchyard and the allotment,I will tell all tomorrow.

SABOTAGE

Can any one out there tell me why Microsoft feel obliged to “up date” my programmes. They have made a complete Horlicks of it this time , I can barely recognise my tool bar, the method use to blog has changed completely and several other changes, none of them for the better have been made. My son tells me that this happens from time to time. Speaking as one who has just learned how to use the blessed thing I take it very much amiss that I now need to learn all over again. Even the email programme has changed I find,and at a time when I am particularly busy and cannot waste valuable computer time trying to understand what is going on this most annoying. “May a red plague smite them and a menace lite upon the poxy individuals who have caused this mayhem, and may the flea,s of a thousand hedgehogs infest their underwear!”

The meeting at the allotments did not happen after all and I am not sorry in away as I have broken my toe and the idea of staggering about on uneven ground did not appeal at all. It is on the other hand unfortunate as I really need to speak to the chairman urgently before I proceed ,as the press want the story by Tuesday and I do not wish to tread on any one's toes. I have masses of research that he needs to see and several contacts that he should be aware of, at the present he seems to be incommunicado. Phone calls go direct to voice mail and emails are not answered. I am beginning to think that he has been bumped off by the opposition! The problem is of course that we all have very busy lives and are not always in control of events, Lord knows I have had my share of uncontrolled moments this week! I suppose that I shall just have to go ahead it he does not surface soon but it will be difficult, oh well the cause is worth it.
Pa is not well today, his poor leg is so swollen that his brace no longer fits, also he has an appointment in the morning to have the infected areas, caused by the brace removing his skin dressed by a nurse. Getting him to the surgery by 10 is likely to be a nightmare, any one got a crow bar!.
I made two lemon drizzle cakes today as the boys next door sent in a request,one of them is so fond of the cake that the last time I made one he ate the lot before his house mate came home from work. I took no chances today and delivered it while they were both at home. I am making a pasta dish tonight full of cheese, garlic and bacon, My son would eat pasta every day, Pa and I are not quite so partial to the stuff but I must say this one is rather nice.
The garden is full of bees and wasps today all making the most of the sunshine and the Michaelmas daisies of which we have a great multitude.

On a more personal not I have once again been on the receiving end of Pa's forgetful streak. Last night I discovered to my chagrin that he has put my lovely soft cotton nighties in the tumble drier on full blast,they are now very small indeed. This is not the first time,I have a drawer full of very small clothing and my poor son has had so many shirts ruined in the same way that Pa has now been forbidden to touch the laundry....but of course will forget,and after all he was trying to be helpful.
Tomorrow starts my son's week at home I understand he is ordering a new bed tomorrow to arrive on Tuesday,this means of course that the old one must be disassembled and carted downstairs before the new one can be assembled in situ......there has been a little too much of such variety of late. The dear boy offered to put it off for a couple of weeks ,but the consequences of sleeping much longer supported by piles of books do not bare much thought. Hey ho!

THE BEST LAID PLANS

I had a lovely cup of tea in bed this morning brought by my son, I was in a hurry to get up as I had quite a lot planned for today. Pa, of course refused to budge, I have noted that this often occurs when I happen to be very busy, perhaps it just seems like that. I need not have worried as the day turned out to be nothing like the day I had planned. Firstly the man who was to bring the long ladder failed to appear so we could not tackle the vines as we had intended. We did however have a lovely breakfast of grilled kippers and of course our neighbour was invited to share the feast. The day was far from the warm sunny glory rashly promised by the weather forecast,why do I always fall for it? Even if the day had been perfect their was no way I could have done much gardening as by this morning my foot was badly swollen and my knee very painful.

Having done all the baking yesterday to leave today free for gardening I found myself for once at a loose end, and decided to go to the garden centre for a leisurely look around, that is until Pa dropped the bombshell that he needed the buggy. Another sudden change of plan, after all I could always go later. It took Pa so long to get ready that I could almost have gone and come back again, hey ho. Off he finally went and I went upstairs to turn up some trousers,next to ironing this is the job I hate most. Incidentally to any unmarried women I say, marry a tall man or you will be forever turning up trousers for a short one!
Two hours and a great deal of research in to the laws on wild life and conservation Pa had still not returned.............typical of course. I called him............he had decided to have a look around the garden centre..****!!!....****!
At last the wanderer returned and I was free, except for the fact that it was now almost time to begin preparing dinner, so I contented myself with a quick spin and then returned to the fray.

Dinner was fish pie and the white sauce is a little complicated as it involves seething lemon grass,pepper corns fennel and spring onion in milk and standing till cool, then I poached the cod and whiting fillets in the strained liquid while the triangles of pastry cooked in the oven (shop bought in this case). Then the flaked fish was returned to the sauce,a bag of cooked prawns and more herbs added along with a table spoon of fish sauce . I usually serve the pastry separately for this dish as it is much crisper this way. Garden peas were the only vegetable, we were all hungry and not much was left.
I have no plans at all for tomorrow and I think it is better that way.

Blessed is he who expecteth nothing,for he shall not be disappointed!

MORE VISITORS AND MORE SUPPORT

First thing this morning I checked my emails and was delighted to discover yet another councillor offering to take up the cudgel on behalf of our beleaguered wild life. After ages banging away suddenly things are moving and I can hardly believe my luck. Pa and I were having a celebratory breakfast of poached eggs and toast when we heard the tell tale sound of strimmers in the church yard. I was surprised as they only cut it two weeks ago. Still in my pyjamas I hopped on the buggie and sped off to see what was happening, sure enough they were at it again. The young man explained that he had been told that in future it was to be done every two weeks instead of every four. He was not at all happy about it and when I told him that we were trying to get the strimming stopped he told me that he had felt unhappy about doing the job as he had been told to remove all the remaining undergrowth and ivy,and was quite aware that this was the wrong thing to do. I am quite sure that the idiot in charge at the council offices will soon be obliged to amend her scorched earth policy, we can only hope. I know that the Environment people are on her case so it can only be a matter of time.

Having returned from my impromptu jaunt I cleared the kitchen and set off to by some fresh fish. I am making a fish pie tomorrow and so I purchased some salmon some whitting and some very large prawns,also some spring onions and lemon grass for the sauce. It is a dish we all enjoy,even my son who is not very fond of fishy things as a rule.

By the time I returned the physio man had been and left behind him quite an array of support for Pa,this comprised of two zimmer frames with wheels on the front, for indoors and a very large three wheeled device complete with handle bars, brakes and a built in shopping bag but no seat. Pa was sitting in the middle of this lot looking bemused and after I had climbed over the blessed things and gained a small space in the living room I could see why. Our house is not large and keeping the floors clutter free with two disabled people in the house is essential,and now thanks to social services impossible. We have a small hall and this is mostly taken up with my sons size thirteen shoe and boot collection,which is rather large, so we could not store them there. Since Pa never goes anywhere with out the buggy the wheelie frame is no use at all . I took one of the other frames to the bathroom and left the other in the kitchen. Needless to say Pa has not used them and I do not think he ever will. I asked him why he had not mentioned the fact that we had the buggy for out door use, he told me that the man who brought them would not let him get a word in edgeways. Trust me to be out, we were not expecting the man until next week. Pa is as overwhelmed by the amount of support he now has as I was this morning. My son fell over the one in the bathroom and assures me that if things carry on as they are he will be using the frames himself,so all is not lost!

During the course of the day I have acquired a very large bruise on my toes and foot,s I have very little feeling in my toes it is not too painful but it looks awful and Pa thinks I may have broken my toe. I shall put a cold compress on it tonight and see what happens, one thing is certain, I have no intention of spending a lovely sunny autumn day parked in A and E,no,noway and never!

WONDERFUL NEWS

This morning when I checked my emails I was thrilled to find I had been contacted by a member of The London Assembly. He wrote that he is tabling a question at the Assembly on our behalf and has the backing of other members. Even more amazing is the news that he has asked The Environmental people to contact our local council to instruct them in the correct approach to the wildlife in the area. I can not tell you how relieved I am that we have at last gained the interest of someone with clout. I was so exited and I actually cried at one point because this matters so much to me. The Conservation group now has some official backing and I thank the Gods for it as we need all the help we can get.

Yesterday I discovered that someone known to us has been cutting down trees in the church yard under the pretence of doing conservation work in order to fuel his wood burning stove. This person sits on a number of conservation committees and I wrote to one of them telling them what was happening but not mentioning the fact that it was one of their committee doing the damage. I got a very snotty reply telling me that it was a matter for the police and advising me to call them at once.
I would love to be a fly on the wall when his sarcastic advice comes home to roost!
The nice ladies from social services came to see us this afternoon and are hopeful that they will be able to help us with the stairs and the bath, it would be wonderful if so as life is becoming increasingly difficult with every passing day. I just hope we can stay in our lovely little house with its pretty gardens I am not sure I could live in a flat even though there would be no stairs. Pa and I told them that we had no intention of giving up and after they had sat looking out into the garden and watching the birds they seemed to understand why we feel as we do.

A good friend of ours turned up unexpectedly this afternoon and the poor soul insisted on sitting in the garden while the two ladies from Social Services were here. She took with her tea and cookies and it was just as well that she had provisions as they were here for ages. Her news was also good as it seems that she has a very good change of a job quite soon, she was recently made redundant, like so many these days.
During a short lull and today,s proceedings I managed to bake six dozen butter cookies half decorated with cherries and the other half with walnuts, I have put some in a safe place for my sons friends on the weekend as after four dozen vanished before yesterdays ravening hoards I am taking no chances with this batch.

It has been an eventful day, in fact the whole week has been full of incident and I am very weary tonight but oh so happy. I shall not care if I can not sleep tonight as I have so many good things to think about and so many blessings to count, so many that perhaps it will work in the same way as counting sheep, who knows.