INCOMUNICADO

Most of the time I am a friendly soul, I welcome people into my home and as you know we often have a kitchen full of friends for a late breakfast...

late being the operative word. Every one who wants to visit us is told at once that we do not do early mornings here and we tell them why.
You all know of course that Pa's disabilities mean that it takes a long time to get him up and dressed each day and if you combine this with my son coming in from his night shift you can see that visitors before ten thirty are impossible for me. Our friends both old and new know this and accept my limitations...until now!

Two weeks ago I was in the front garden when I noticed a lady with a pretty little girl admiring the flower's so of course I asked them in to have a look around, during a tour of the vegetable plot she told me that she had not been in the Country for long and was staying with her sister, the child was her niece. I picked a selection of herbs and salad leaves, something I always done for visitors and she asked if she could come again and bring her sister, of course I said that she could. It was at this point that I explained that my day had to revolve around Pa because of his illness and I mentioned that as my son would usually be asleep in bed I would prefer her to come during the early afternoon, mornings were out of the question.

The very next morning at a nine thirty my son had gone to bed and was fast asleep, Pa was in a state of undress as I helped him with his morning routine and all the curtains were drawn. Suddenly there was a knock at the door which as I could not immediately answer soon became a violent crescendo accompanied by loud calls through the letter box. I could not at once leave Pa as without his brace he tends to fall over, the knocking and the calling continued until I could get to the door which took several minutes.

I did not recognise the lady at the door but the child with her was the same pretty girl that I had welcomed in to my garden the day before. I could not stay and talk as Pa was still not dressed and by now my son was wide awake, not matter what I said I could not get this garrulous lady to speak quietly. I explained to her that I was unable to show her around the garden in the mornings as I had an invalid to care for and mentioned that as my son was a night worker I would prefer her not to knock or call through the letter box. In short I was often unable to leave what I was doing to answer the door and would she please come back in the afternoon when I would be better able to entertain.
She did not seem pleased, but she nodded as if she understood and then left.

The following afternoon she arrived with her sister and a friend, I was happy to show them the garden as I had promised but as I picked some herbs fr them I was a trifle disconcerted to hear that they intended to come daily to see me and to pick herbs, during this entire visit one of the ladies had spent the time stripping the strawberry bed of fruit after which she turned her attention to the raspberries, I thought her behaviour rather rude.

The next morning we were once gain subjected to hammering on the door and calling through the letter box, exasperated I went to the door as soon as I could and found the lady and her child sitting on the step, I explained again that I could not see her before the after noon and that my son was trying to sleep and she left. Since these events one or another of these ladies have turned up regularly and always in the morning, nothing I say seems to make any difference and I am at my wits end. I have no wish to be rude but the time is fast approaching where I shall have to take drastic measures. It is such a shame that I can not make them see my difficulties, I have so little free time and the early morning hours are always taken up with Getting Pa ready for the day. One way or another this will have to cease.

I have decided to go incommunicado next week when my son is at home and he has volunteered to explain to them why it would be well if the stopped hammering on the door every morning, I wish him luck!
In every other respect today has been quite ordinary,cooking and shopping, bread making and a little gardening. While at the shops I found some wonderful dried white figs and as they can be difficult to find I brought a pack and a bottle of very inexpensive brandy, the figs with a little brown sugar will soak in the brandy until shortly before Christmas at which time the delicious fig brandy will be bottled , some of the figs added to the Christmas cake and the rest will be served with iced cream, a real treat for boxing day tea. These home made liqueurs cost so little to make and are always welcome as gifts for friends and neighbour. The figs and the brandy together cost less than ten pounds and will make two gifts , help t make our Christmas cake very special and provide a luxurious tea time treat, I should say that was very good value indeed.

Here at the cottage it is almost time to make the first of the apple based jellies,these are traditionally
made from windfall and the first of the jellies is usually apple and thyme. This seems to be everyone's favourite although I prefer apple and elderberry . The season for making these will last until the end of September and during that time there will be damsons to deal with, it will be a very busy time. The tomatoes in the green house are doing quite well and I hope to have enough to make a few jars of tomato chutney. During the pat three years the tomato crop has failed and we have had to make do with apple chutney instead, I rather like apple chutney bur =t I must admit that most people prefer tomato.

Pa has been much better these last days, he has mended I pile of broken items such as damaged china , and broken necklaces, yesterday he stripped down an old fan, cleaned it until it looked like a new one and then mended the broken stand. It now works perfectly and looks terrific, it is good to see him taking an interest in things again, bless him.

I am counting the days until my son finishes his week at work, he is like a bear with a sore behind and is very worried about a friend at work who he feels is getting a raw deal, I honestly believe that who ever is causing the problem would by now have been challenged to a duel, pistols at dawn behind the cathedral had we been living in more civilised times!

Watching the news I see that there are riots every where,this is a worry but I believe to paraphrase Al Jolsen “We ain't seen nothing yet.”

TWIGGIE'S STORY

Twiggy is now a much loved cat, mistress of all she surveys, well fed and cared for and with a family of her own, but it was not always so.
I first met Twiggy eight years ago on a freezing cold February morning on one of my allotments(I used to have four). I had not visited my allotments for several months as I had been nursing a friend through his last illness, he and I had tended the allotments together for some years. A couple of weeks after his funereal passed and I had still not visited our gardens. I was weary and unhappy and desperately needed the solace I have always found in a garden , I gathered my courage in both hands and set off to face the four large plots alone for the first time..

As I looked around the wasteland of dead plants I realised that I was being closely observed from underneath my shed, an anxious little face peeped out and as I made eye contact disappeared not to be seen again that day. It was evident that during my absence a cat had moved in. The shed had a cat flap in the door, put their for the convenience of my cat Thomas, a gorgeous stripy creature of great intelligence and regal bearing. Thomas had recently graduated from being the allotment stray to a comfortable home as the spoiled and pampered ruler of our cottage, it seemed that the vacancy he had left had already been filled.

It was some time before I got a good look at the new cat, she took care not to be seen but I would occasionally catch a glimpse of here mousing desperatly some distance away, she was very young, and she was painfully thin. I began to leave food for her which at first she ignored but as the weather worsened she began to take the food left for her in the shed. I also placed a cardboard box under the potting bench lined with and old woollen sweater; at least now she would be warm at night.

Through out the spring and summer she steadfastly refused to come near me, or any one else for that matter, an abortive attempt had been made by another allotment holder to capture her and this had made her even more nervous of people. Thomas, who still visited the allotments regularly took a dim view at first of this interloper and I feared that even if I managed to get her to come home with me Thomas would chase her away.

Winter came again and as Christmas aproached the weather became bitingly cold, three times every day I took food for the little cat . Each time she would hide until I had closed the gate and them I would see her slink in to the shed to eat, hungry as she was her fear of people was still strong enough to make her wait until all was safe.

A week before Christmas the weather became even colder, every morning a thick rime of frost covered every blade and twig. One morning I took the usual plate of food to my allotment shed and as I approached a troubled little face appeared through the cat flap, I realised that I was much later than usual and she had become anxious that she would get no breakfast that day. I called her and she ran down the path and jumped straight in to my arms and I carried her to the shed. She tucked her stone cold paws inside my jacket and snuggled as close to my body as possible for warmth, The water in her dish was frozen , it had been a terrible night for a little cat to be lost. She stayed cuddled up under my coat for a long time before she ate her meal, poor little thing she must have been so very cold during the night.

After that she would run to meet me every morning and spend half an hour warming her toes before eating her meal. Each day I left and she would follow me to the gate but would never come through, she would walk up the inside of the fence and watch me until I was out of site,it almost broke my heart.
All through the Christmas holiday this ritual continues. I knew better than to force her to come with me, and then what about Thomas? It began to look as if the could be no happy ending.

New years eve arrived cold, dark and damp, I set off to the allotment to feed my little stray for the last time in the old year, Thomas who had cut through the churchyard met me at the gate. He greeted the stray by touching noses and I thought that they seemed on friendlier terms than I had realised. They shared a plate of food and as darkness fell I prepared to head for home < Tom and I strolled down the path and she followed, we went out through the ate and into the lane, and she followed, She followed us all the way home and as I opened the front door feeling sure that now she would bolt Thomas stalked in to the house and turned to look at her and she followed him in.

Noble, gentle ,generous Tom has been gone for some years and is still much missed but thanks to his good nature we have the pleasure of sharing our home with the gorgeous Twiggy.
She is now sleek and glossy, unrecognisable as the stick thin, frightened little stray of former times. She is sure of her place, she is secure, and yet even after all this time whenever I pick her up she tucks her little paws in to my cloths as she used to as if she remembers, although I truly hope that she has forgotten her sad past.

STORMY WEATHER...IN MORE WAYS THAT ONE!

I do not know what happened at my son's place of work last night, but whatever it was he was as mad as a hornet when he arrived home from work this morning. He keeps on saying that he cannot talk about it but this morning when I asked what the trouble was he muttered darkly that the next time some one called him liar..........I did not catch the rest, what the hell is going on is what I want to know, and I also want to know who is calling him a liar and why?

He spent all of last week worrying about what was happening at work and told me that their might be another meeting thought in the end nothing happened. Whatever is going on it has made him extremely unhappy and angrier that I have ever known him to be. All he would say before he went off to bed was that the he intended to spend no more time worrying about the loud mouthed troublemaking b*****d's and that they were not worth a s**t! It is a fool who makes an enemy of my son, he is honourable, honest and loyal to the last degree and will stand through thick and thin by his friends, but once some one proves they are not worthy of his loyalty he can be a dangerous and implacable enemy.

I want to help him but I am batting in the dark, all I know is that whatever is is that he is having to deal with he does not like it one little bit. If he takes my advice he will tell them, who ever they are to s** **f, he does not have to justify himself to any one, and if he won't say it I will SOD OFF , or words to that effect!

The heat kept me awake again last night and I felt rusty this morning as I went down stairs the make breakfast for Pa and I. To cheer us up a made eggs Florentine, we only have this when there is tender young spinach in the garden and at the moment there is a plentiful supply. It was a lovely meal even though it made a lot of washing up, it was worth it.

The moth man arrived as we finished our meal to check the contents of the moths trap installed last night in our garden. This time there were many moths hiding beneath the egg boxes at the bottom of the trap, it was a warm and sultry night , just the weather moths enjoy most and we were pleased with our catch. After cataloguing the moths they were released in to the orchard carefully so that they would not attract the attention of hungry birds, he went away delighted and I reappeared to got to the shops.

Barely had I reached the end of the lane when the first rumbles of thunder rattled the air, the violence of the storm increased rapidly and by the time I reached the supermarket the storm was directly over head and the lightening was wonderful to behold. My main purchase today was a small bin for the kitchen, our old one ,after five years of hard labour had developed a leak and was spilling its noisome contents all over the kitchen floor.

The sound of the storm could be heard up stairs in the household department and the noise on the rain increased and then quite suddenly change to an ear splitting drumming which became louder and louder. Children began to cry and people stopped in their tracks looking scared, I went down in the lift to see what was occurring and was astonished at what I saw. Hail stones larger than marbles were pelting down in such numbers that the view across the car park a=was totally obscured for a while. Inside people were leaving their trolleys in the aisles and rushing out side to close car windows, raise sun roofs and just to see in if their vehicles were being damaged by the storm.

Having finished my shopping I put on my rain poncho, and fared forth rash fool that I am. The hail had stopped but the rain was now heavy and there were deep puddles everywhere. Intrepid to the last I ploughed on through the rain and spray and made home in record time only just a little bit soaked to the skin and feeling very adventurous. Soon afterwards restored by a hot coffee I installed the new bin, put the old one out for recycling and got on with a few chores.
Tonight should be cooler we are promised and I sincerely hope that it is, my eyes are tired and heavy from lack of sleep and resemble gooseberries in syrup, not a pretty sight!
I shall be glad when this week is at an end, the tension is unbearable, my son is livid and I hope that things sort themselves out before he blows a gasket and gives some one a right royal rocket, it is coming there is nothing so certain.

SUMMER IN THE CITY

I got up very early this morning to bake the days bread before the heat became unbearable, getting up was not difficult as I had not slept at all due to the heat, in fact none of us slept for more than an hour or so. Monday is a six loaf day as I bake two extra loaves for friends so today I made three granary cobs and three split tin loaves, these should be enough to last until Wednesday, with luck.

My son who usually sleeps late on Mondays as he has to work tonight was awake very early and as he did not go to bed until one thirty he was not at his best. Poor old Pa had another fall last night, this time he was attempting to evict a mouse, a gift from Twiggy, tripped and fell heavily against a large oak coffee table and there is no doubt that he came of worst as he is now sporting a pair of very nasty bruises and a long scratch upon his chest. These complement his black eye beautifully!

It was a tired, bruised and battered trio who sat down to breakfast this morning and I decided to make French pancakes to cheer us all up. Our neighbour wandered in and joined us for breakfast and although he had slept a little last night he had been awakened early by the aeroplane noise, the price we pay for leaving the windows open on hot nights. We consoled each other over another pot of tea and were soon larking about as usual although we did use up half a kitchen roll between us as we repeatedly wiped the sweat from our faces, the kitchen was like a furnace by ten this morning.

We needed a few odds and ends from town an so I volunteered to go. The heat striking from the road and from the walls was dreadful, I hate towns and cities at the best of times but in hot weather I find them unbearable. I find all cities claustrophobic the poor souls who have to work in the tall buildings in these airless smelly overheated places are treated no better that battery hens by their employers , I have worked in the city myself and I know this to be true.
I did my shopping a quickly as possible and hurried home to shelter and shade. Out little cat had found a cool place under the apple tree and was stretched out on her tummy enjoying the feeling of cool earth and for two pins I would have joined her but the arrival of more visitors intervened, just my luck.

All through the afternoon the heat mounted and we all felt that a very light meal would suit us best and so I prepared an old favourite of melted cheese in milk served with crunchy celery sun dried tomatoes and fresh granary bread. It does not sound like much of a dinner but in hot weather it is lovely to spread the soft melted cheese upon new bread and the celery seasoned with just a little salt is very refreshing. The dish originates from Switzerland and there they use their own type of cheese, I use whatever we happen to have in the refrigerator which today was a mixture of Cheshire and Brie.

I must say that I very worried about Pa, the number and severity of falls is increasing and my own ability to lift him up when this happens is decreasing by the day. All our efforts to obtain help from Social Services have come to nought and I begin to wonder how long we can continue to be lucky as so far there has been no lasting damage or broken bones. Even so it is a fact that there are many people in much worse circumstances than us and so I shall continue to count my blessings and keep taking the tranquillizers.

My son will leave for work tonight in much the same frame of mind as he used to go off to school, truly I have never seen him so utterly demoralised, there must be something truly awful going on at his place of work: he says nothing but I am his mother and I know when something is wrong. I am also quite certain I know where to lay the blame for his unhappiness and in these times is does not take a Miss Marple to guess what is going on.

I am a great believer in the saying “What goes around comes around” In this case I hope with all my heart that it holds true!

SIZZLING SUNDAY

This morning I awoke to see that the weather forecast for today was perfectly correct and I congratulated myself upon having the foresight to do all the baking yesterday. I was still feeling rather smug when I drank the coffee brought to me by my son, this is the life I thought. Then I remembered that I had not been clever enough to also do the ironing and there was a sudden evaporation of my self satisfaction, pride does indeed go before a fall.

After a second cup of coffee I went down stairs to breakfast also kindly made by my son, this has become a tradition the past year or so and it is perfectly lovely to have a meal prepared for me. Today we had hot buttered crumpets and muffins spread with our own strawberry jam and a pot of English breakfast tea.

After breakfast we went our separate ways, I to the garden centre, my son to his Sunday role playing game and Pa to the sofa for a little nap, he had not slept well during the night and when this occurs a nap after breakfast often helps. There were lots of people about dressed in bright summer clothes out to enjoy their Sunday by the river or in the park. At the garden centre I bought a flat terra cotta pot to replace a broken one, some of our pots are rather elderly and it is sad to lose such old friends.

On my return I decided to tackle the ironing and this proved to be a sensible move as during the afternoon it became to hot to do much except laze about with a cold drink to hand. A couple of Christmases ago I was given by my son a beautiful illustrated copy of “The Wind In The Willows” and armed with this, a rug and a jug of iced water flavoured with raspberry juice I repaired to the swing seat at the bottom of the garden to spend the rest of the afternoon in the best way possible reading about the adventures of Ratty, Mole and Badger along their own beloved riverbank.

Alight breeze ruffled the leaves gently and in the apple tree a collared dove cooed gently, the effect was so soporific that I fell asleep for a short time. It is seldom that I have the time to sit in my garden in spite of the fact that there are seats everywhere, today I enjoyed my handiwork from the perspective of a visitor and found it vastly satisfying. The cat Twiggy wandered between sunshine and shade and eventually retired to one of her tree houses to sleep in the shade for most of the afternoon, to hot and sleep even to ask for her daily fix of cat nip!

As I sat all the lazy sounds of summer drifted around me, the distant clatter of a lawn mower mixing with the sound of happy children playing ball in the fields opposite, the buzz and hum of millions of insects could be heard in the intervals between aeroplanes heading for Heathrow, I drank my raspberry cordial and was thankful for the blessing of an hours peace and quiet.

Dinner this evening was a simply home mead pizza covered with mozzarella cheese fresh and sun-dried tomatoes , ham anchovies and olives served with a plentiful salad from the garden and followed by the remaining orange and lavender cakes, a prefect dinner for a hot summer evening.
I had placed some beer in the refrigerator to chill and this too was a welcome addition to our simple meal.

We hurried through our evening chores as fast as possible, the new season of “Top Gear” begins tonight and we all love the show and usually watch it together. My son returns to work tomorrow and with all that is going on there at the moment he would I think prefer to be going to hell for a week. He loves his job but in my humble opinion there are times where higher management take unpardonable liberties with his good nature. I wish that I could warn them to have a care and not push him too far, he is a patient man but he has unfortunately inherited his mothers temper, think Krakatoa and you will know what I mean. I have cleared a room with my temper in the past and my son is even more imposing in anger.
Niether of us have ever used physical violence to make a point but people have often remarked that they would have preferred a punch on the nose to the devastating verbal onslaught which can be the result of our pent up rage. I pity with all my heart the poor bugger who gets on my sons wrong side for any reason during the next few weeks!

I am sorry to see the end of our holiday week, it has been fun and we are all much happier when we spend time together, as a family we are very strong and we love each other very much. The happiness this closeness brings is my most treasured gift and I would not trade places with any one in exchange for what we have as a family, no not even on a bad day. We are there for each other no matter what and it is this which makes us strong, trust, faith and above all love are the most priceless gifts of all, nothing else is worth a damn.

ROASTED HAZEL NUTS AND BOILED AVIE

My entire day with the exception of a quick trip to Home base has been spent in the kitchen and very hot I found it. Once breakfast was over and my son and his comrades had departed to do battle, I girded up my loins for the marathon baking day and hoped for the best. My oven is still misbehaving and is the cause of much annoyance, but where there's a will and all that.

The first batch of baking was a test batch of orange lavender cupcakes. As a rule I make a large version of this cake but as one or two people at my sons place of work have expressed an interest in trying this unusual summer cake and a large sticky cake is difficult to slice individual cakes seemed a good idea. Much to my amazement the first batch of a dozen came out well ans so I soon had another two dozen in the oven.

This type of cake is so popular with my neighbours that I have to make sure that I send enough for both to have an equal share of there is trouble. Today I used toe fatless sponge recipe as the orange sugar syrup has enough calories without the addition of butter.

With four dozen of these little cakes cooling I washed up the clutter of dishes and started again. Soon I was chopping and toasting hazelnuts for a special roasted hazel nut short bread and again several trays were needed, luckily my oven will hold six trays at a pinch today I made three, a few of which will be served with strawberries and cream for a pudding at tomorrows dinner.

All afternoon the kitchen became hotter and hotter until at last I could stand it no longer, feeling faint and very dizzy I walked out in to the garden to cool off. It was pleasant to sit for a while on the oak bench silver with age and watch the birds doings from under the shade of the damson tree. I had taken with me a pint of beer, it was an enjoyable few moments and then the timer I had put in my apron pocket roused me from my day dreams and I hurried back top the kitchen to remove the shortbread from the oven and dust if with caster sugar
.
By the time I had clear the kitchen again it was almost time to start dinner and although by now it had cooled down a little I felt that I should be very glad to have a good long relaxing bath. We had a simple meal of scrambled eggs on toast with pannchetta fried very crisply followed by some of the cakes I made earlier. It was exactly the right meal for tonight and we all enjoyed it .

Yesterday I had a surprise gift from my son, a DVD of a very old film called “The Ghost Goes West” starring Robert Donat, a brilliant actor of the thirties and forties. I have only seen this film all the way through once when I was five years old. By that time I had already met several real ghosts and young as I was I remember thinking that if ghosts were as good looking as this one I should not mind how often I was haunted. A few dats ago my lovely son tracked down a copy and it arrived yesterday evening. With all my chores done and everyone safe in bed I snuggled up with a cup of tea to watch this long lost treasure. I was not disappointed, it was even better than I remembered funny in places too, I enjoyed it so much that I watched it again and finally fell asleep watching it for a third time.... marvellous.

I do beg your pardon for last nights rant, not that I did not mean every word of it, to bend your ears in such a fashion was rather naughty and probably rather a bore. I have now become Aunty Avie again so for a while at least you are safe!

THE DARK CLOUDS GATHER

I have been watching with both interest and concern the unfolding events in Greece. It seems to me that which ever way the cookie crumbles there is trouble in store. While I appreciate the problems that would be caused if Greece went bankrupt I fail to see the sense in throwing good money after bad. Perhaps I am being simplistic but if Greece already has debts which it cannot service no good can come of lending them even more money in order that they can pay us back an instalment on the debt they already owe.

Since it seems almost certain that Spain and Portugal will follow the same route where and when do we draw the line. What I find appalling is the inevitability of the whole scenario, the idea that countries can share a currency on equal terms when there economies are so diverse borders on insanity in my opinion; but what do I know, I have no specialist knowledge in financial matters, just a degree in common sense.

For nations such as France and Germany to tie their respective economies to these poorer less stable ones seems rather like tying ones life raft to the sinking ship of jumping out of an aeroplane tied to a boulder, there can be only one result. The world economy is in a dreadful state and no nation is immune from the catastrophe that is sure to come sooner or later. It is built upon a system which has failed in the past and as the earth's resources dwindle things can only get worse.

What we should be doing is paying less attention to profit and loss and concerning ourselves with survival, not financial survival but our survival as a species. Prices will continue to rise as both fuel and food become scarce, this is already happening in some parts of the world and the state of the global economy will not mean very much when these things run out altogether, and it is upon these commodities that our economies are built. I short we are pinning all our hopes upon a house of cards and there can be only one end.

While governments joky for position in the pecking order for purchasing food and fuel from the countries that still possess them the cost of these things rises higher and higher. Now it will not matter who has what if no one can afford to buy it. What will happen if the price of food and fuel continue to rise as they have in the past couple of years, how many of us will be able to afford even a rudimentary standard of living. The countries which still possess oil run the risk of being invaded by others desperate for supplies, if you have any doubt about this you have only to look at what is already happening in the Middle East.

The consequence of attempting to maintain the worlds crumbling economies in the face of earth's dwindling resources is to awful to contemplate. It is time for the governments and the people of all nations to bite the bullet and admitted to themselves and each other that thing must change,drastically and soon. It is in every ones hands to stem the tide by taking less and giving more.

This week I have been sickened to watch an event staged close to my home extolling the virtue of expensive cars. Thee tickets this Salon Prive event cost up to £250 and most of the cars are gas guzzlingmonstrositiess both ancient and modern. He people who are attending this event are not the type to worry about having enough to eat or being able to heat theeir homes in winter, in fact they probably belong to the bunch who got us in to this mess in the first place.

Now I don't know about you but I object to being told to tighten my belt while having to watch such a display of atrocious ostentation, I like millions of others have to live on a small fixed income and I am finding it hard to keep going in the face of rising food and fuel costs.
I should be even more angry however if I was one of the millions of people who are starving to death and having to watch their children die of want.

I have sited this one event but you and I know that it is by no means an isolated occurrence. It is all very fine for those in privileged positions to talk about everyone tightening their belts to save the country from bancrupcy, it is a pity that they do not pracctice what they preach.

Large companies and corporations, banks and to a degree even governments have for years convinced the general public that they cannot live without the latest this or that in order to make more money for themselves for make no mistake they are rich because we made them rich. Governments are culpable as they too have ,in order to look successful allowed massive borrowing to fuel the rampant consumerism with is killing our planet and crippling our finances.

People feel pressured into making purchases in order to feel successful, when are they going to realise that “Life style”is not something you can buy.
“My sofa is so last year” you hear it all the time. So off they go to the shops with their credit cards to purchase the new sofa, car or kitchen appliance, they may feel good for a while but for how long.

Speaking for myself I would not be at all comfortable in a smart house full of new furniture and a new car in the drive if I had to worry every month when the bills arrive. The tragedy is that this behaviour has been encouraged in every way by those in authority to the pint where even our children fell pressured in to plaguing their parents for this or that in order to fell they are the equal, or more to the point the superior of their fellows and once they are on the slippery slope it is almost impossible to get off again.

A man goes out to work to earn a living for his family but ||I wonder how many e=realise that they are made slaves by the aspirational world in which they are forced to compete. The trend in recent years to treat the purchase of a house as an investment rather that the purchase of a home in which to live happily and bring up afamily is a sorry symptom of this pernocious disease. Aspiration has become a dirty word and is responsible for much discontent. No one, no matter how pro is immune from this pressure,even a woman shopping for her families food with little money to spare can be conned in to making the small purchase of some new make-up of hair care item when she is bombarded with advertisments telling her that she will be more attractive when wearing the product. Weather it is a new sports car of a bottle of shampoo the trick is exactly the same and it sucks!

The only way to win as some one once said is not to play. It is becoming obvious even to those in charge that things cannot go on as they are. What they are doing now is making sure that when the excrement hits the fan they will be all right and damn you Jack!

There is no easy way out of the mess we are in and apportioning blame helps no one, so why are they trying to blame us? Things are bad and what ever we do now they are bound to get worse for quite a long time . It is well past time when our government and indeed governments all over the world stopped trying to stem the haemorrhage with a stoking plaster and face the truth, because weather they like it or not the good time are over and will probably never return.

We have a young generation of people all over the world who have no hope and that is dangerous,when people have nothing to lose they do desperate thing ans who can blame them.
Our children cannot afford to buy a home, they can not afford to have families, what price “Life style” for them and their future.

This is not a lecture, it is a plea for common sense from every one before it is too late and I suspect that it is a hopeless one, yet think of this, what future is there for any of us unless we change and unless we make those who run things change first of all? It is up to all of us , if we want to survive to make this happen after all to have a little less is better than to have nothing at all.

TWIGGY AT LARGE

Yesterday evening just before darkness fell I was of disturbed by an ear splitting shriek from the garden followed by a low whining sound, the racket continued accompanied by much scuffling and in the end my curiosity got the better of me and I got out of bed, went to the window and looked out over the rapidly darkening garden.

There in front of me on the lawn was Twiggy, back arched and with her tail doing a passable imitation of a Christmas tree. She hissed, fizzed and spat like a firework, she was quite a sight.
The cause of all this fury was cowering amongst the tall herbaceous plants, it was a large fox, quivering with fear and whimpering so pathetically that I ordered the cat to stop bullying the poor creature forthwith.

Dark as it was I could not make out at first which of our foxes it was that Twiggy had taken exception to, usually she does not mind there comings and goings at all, unless of course they choose to sit in any of her favourite roosting places in which case they need to look out. Pa had only fed the foxes a few moments earlier and Twiggy would normally watch them eat with all the interest of a student on nature. So what on earth was wrong this time?

On the path between the two animals was a chunk of meat, I knew that the cat would not be interested in the food as the meat which we had for dinner was cooked with a good deal of garlic which she hates. No they were not fighting over that. All the time twiggy kept up her caterwauling and the fox , not knowing what to do remained glue to the spot, Twiggy in a temper can be intimidating to say the least. I was totally baffled and was about to go dawn stair to sort them out when around the corner came another fox, our own tame male fox and all at once he pounced upon Twiggies adversary , rolled him over a couple of times and for a while all was fur and teeth.

By now I realised what had caused the trouble, with the extra light from the living room window I could now see that the other fox was not one of ours, It must have smelled the food and come in to the garden to grab a snack and met the terrible Twiggy.
With the interloper chased away our handsome dog fox took the piece of meat and jumped the fence in to the orchard where the other food had been placed, soon our vixen and her cubs were eating their evening meal and as usual Twiggy sat on the fence watching with interest.

If ever you hear people telling stories of cats being eaten by foxes don't you believe it. I think these stories may have begun when a fox was observed either carrying off of eating a cat killed on the road by a car. Twiggy strolled in to the house a few minutes later as if nothing had happened.

Tonight she is pretending to be a cute little kitty, after last night I know better!

THE TROUBLE WITH PA'S EARS

We waved Pa off this morning as he headed for his Doctors appointment,happy that when he returned he would at last be able to hear properly. I was a little concerned for him because I know he hates having his ears syringed, yet hoping for the best. About an hour after his departure he called to tell me that the wax in his ears was so compacted that the Doctor could not get it out and would have to apply some oil in the hope that by next week it would have softened up sufficiently to be removed. Disappointed we retrieved the megaphone from the dustbin, gargled with Port wine and prepared to yell our sympathy for his plight on his return.

I had several abortive attempts to do a little gardening but the weather was against me, three times I reached the bottom of the orchard and tree times it began to rain the moment I arrived there. Three time I waited for a while under the shelter of the old apple tree and three time I ended up having to
give up and walk back up the path through the deluge and arrive in the kitchen soaking wet. By one thirty there were three wet shirts hanging on the airer and I called quits and retired to the kitchen to bake a fatless sponge for tea. The oven is still playing to fool but with a good deal of care I managed to retrieve it from the oven only slightly scorched this time.
FATLESS SPONGE CAKE
4 eggs
4oz plain flour
4 oz caster sugar
a pinch of salt

Grease and line 2 x8” sandwich tins. Crack the 4 eggs into a bowl add the sugar and salt and beat until very frothy and very pale in colour. Sieve the flour and fold in to the mixture with care. Divide to mixture between the two tins and bake in a pre heated oven 200oC for twenty minutes.
Turn out on to wire racks until cool.
I sandwiched my cake with the few fresh strawberries which I managed to pick between the showers and of course some fresh whipped cream, but is is equally good spread with jam and sprinkled with a little caster sugar.

I have heard it said that fatless sponges are difficult to make when in fact they are one of the easiest, have a go and see what you think..

My son asked for his favourite pork dish for dinner and as he manfully chewed his way through last nights steak(not his favourite meat) I happily agreed. This dish requires a lot of sage and at the moment ours is plentiful and at its best. I served the pork with new potatoes for a change but with the usual dips and garlic sauce.

Pa now has a new DVD player and is happily watching films about British Railways. We had planned to install my sons old machine which he no longer uses, however the remote control was not working well and as Pa cannot move about much we got him a new one. This machine five star rated on Amazon cost only eighteen pounds more that a new universal remote control for the old machine so it was as my son said a no brainer!

The dishes are done, the kitchen is clean and tidy and it has at last stopped raining, this is annoying as I am now far to tired to do any gardening and besides at this time of night after a warm rainy day the garden is the haunt of certain vicious mosquitoes. These little horrors have feasted themselves upon my person all to often, I do not choose to give them another opportunity as I have only just ceased to itch after their last onslaught. Tomorrow will be soon enough for Twiggy and I to venture forth again.
We must be up early tomorrow as Pa has yet another medical appointment, this time with his haematologist.....oh well, variety is the spice of life, or so they say!

A FAMILY SOLSTICE DAY AT AVIES

When I consider how very tired we all were last night I am amazed that we were all awake and out of bed very early indeed. My son and I were both wide awake before four in the morning on this Solstice day. We had a coffee together and having decided to leave Pa to rest a little longer and so at eight thirty we woke Pa with a hot drink . I know that Fathers Day was on Sunday but as my son was at work we decided to have it today instead including a special dinner a double celebration for us.

We breakfasted on blueberry muffins well stuffed with fruit and after washing up my son and O went to the supermarket to buy lots and lots of flour. I wonder if you have noticed how difficult it is lately to buy Granary flour, Kamut and quite a few other types of flour that until recently were readily available. I must confess that I am becoming quite concerned as I make all our bread ,cakes and biscuits and I do so with good quality flour and not the bog standard rubbish with seems to be all that is available at the moment. Today I purchased a storage bin and filled it with a good supply of wholemeal and seeded flour, all I could buy as once again there was no granary four to be had.

Bread is still a staple food with us and the idea of trying to eat shop bought bread is appalling. Cheap flour makes poor bread which does not keep well and therefore it is a false economy to by the stuff.
I suppose that you might say that I am hoarding and yet having seen the way people behaved when clean water was scarce a few years ago and being disabled I would say that it would be a fair wager that I should be at the back of the queue if push came to shove. I have a;ways kept a good stock offff rice, pasta, bulgar wheat, cous cous and other staplin-casease of emergencies and I have been glad to have these suplies on many occasionss. Some years ago in a severe winter we kept everyone down our lane supplied with candles, something else I always keep plenty of .

Pa had his special dinner, steak, roast potatoes and salad followed by a hugePavlova well stuffed with strawberries aand raspberries from the garden. I enjoy cooking nice things for Pa and it is good to see him eat with a good appetite as all to often these days he does not eat enough. I take any opportunity to fill him up with cream, butter and his favourite Stilton cheese, any thing to keep his weight up. He is lucky in that he has been told to eat lots of dairy produce, I wish I was so fortunate.

All in all it has been a lovely day ,Pa is cheerful and now has a small television and a DVD player, he the television but like me he loves to watch films and any thing to do with railways. He used to watch these on his old computer which died of old age a few weeks ago. Now he can watch Dads Army in style. He seems very happy tonight and bright and cheerful , tomorrow he is getting his ears syringed as he has been rather deaf of late, this will we hope mean that the radio is not quite so loud and for myself I must say that not having to repeat everything three times will be wonderful. I am sure that Pa will find life much easier when he can hear properly, I was totally deaf for several months some years ago and I found life very difficult indeed.

It has been a happy day for all of us and to see Pa enjoying himself makes me the happiest of all .Our neighbour came round for an hour this evening and we sat drinking tea and laughing until our sides ached. Now the day is over and we are all sleepy, I must go out to the garden to light the candles to celebrate the longest day, and for once it has been a beautiful midsummers day.

Good night, and good fortune to all on this special day, may strength,wisdom, happiness and a quiet mind be yours,always.

A SMALL VICTORY FOR THE LITTLE MAN

Do you remember my telling you about our problems with the new owners of the house across the road. They had without planning permission built a large wooden stable block within a couple of feet of our neighbours kitchen window. Today victory is ours and they have begun to tear it down, with a very bad grace I might add. These people are incredibly wealthy and believed that they could do as they pleased without let or hindrance, now they know better. Score one for the peasants!

My son starts his week off today which is just as well. I do not think that I have ever seen him angrier than he has been this week, a break will, I hope restore his usual calm otherwise I fear some one may be lucky to get away with just an mouth full of course abuse. Provoke a patient man at your peril!

After a breakfast of poached eggs on toast I escaped to the garden, first to mow and edge that grass paths in the flower garden and then to strim out the pathways in the vegetable garden. This is a job which I have been attempting to do for over a fortnight and finally today I got the job done., and not before time as the grass was so long that it twizzled around the strimmer head and made much trouble. Every where looks better for the attention and I am pleased to have finished before that rains came again. I understand that the forecast for the week is abysmal.

We were interested to watch lots of classic cars arriving today for a rally of some sort, there is a beautiful vintage Morgan, a type of three wheeled sports car. I have always said that I would by one if I ever won the lottery, actually I would buy a traction engine because they have so many uses and besides I love steam driven machines. Incidentally if any one knows the whereabouts of a Showman's Engine called “The Pride of the North would they please let me know where she is. I saw her last at the Chelford Steam Rally in Cheshire about Thirty years ago, she is black, shiny and stunningly beautiful. I fell in love with her in 1976 and have adored her ever since, she is a living c
breathing creature who throbs with power and life, as to can see I am besotted!

This afternoon I planted some Nicotiana scented lime, these plants have a glorious scent and I plant them for the moths as their fragrance is strong in the evening, these with the evening primroses will I hope bring a good many species in to the garden. Speaking of insects, today I managed to photograph a rather lovely beetle, iridescent green, quite small but very striking among the yellow flowers. Now that the lavender is in flower the garden is full of bees of all species, butterflies and a host of assorted bugs, this state of affairs is not at all to the liking of our cat Twiggy who has been wary of things that buzz since she sat upon a wasp. Such an accident is no laughing matter I did the same thing myself a few years ago and sitting down was most inconvenient for several days afterwards!

My son's new Television arrived this afternoon and he has spent a happy time trying it our with his Play station,I hope this will occupy his mind this week and distract his thoughts from certain matters which have been making him cross of late.

And now we are all going to have an early night, my son is in the bath now and he will soon be fast asleep, Pa and I will not be far behind and then it will be up to Twiggy to decide upon who's bed she will sleep tonight. Once she curls up all will be peaceful, I hope. I happen to know that she let loose a mouse in the living room this afternoon. I have kept this information strictly to my self as I have no intention of spending the evening big game hunting while the cat snoozes in an armchair. With a little luck she will catch the poor creature before morning, of better still it may escape through the window..I shall live in hope.

FIRST OF THE YEAR

Today I picked my very first tomato of the year, it was a tiny sweet plum tomato and I ate it at once still warm from the green house. I knew a gardener who always made a wish each time he ate the first of anything he grew each year,he was a brilliant gardener and today I honoured him by making my wish on the first tiny but perfect tomato of the season.

I had breakfast early with my son this morning, tea and toast which we ate in my room while we chatted. Later we woke Pa with a cup of tea and gave him his fathers day gifts and cards. Pa likes casual cloths and they are practical as he has to wear his brace over his trousers so my son and I brought him a super track suit with a gillet and in the same two colours as his brace. When he tried them on the brace looked more like a fashion statement than a walking aid and he loved the outfit at once.
We also gave him a large photograph of Twiggy complete with a lovely frame and it is now hanging above his desk.

After my son had gone to bed I made breakfast for Pa and then hared off to the shops to pick up the thing I should have brought yesterday and hurried home before the heavens opened again...I made it in the nick of time. Pa and I had tea and biscuits until the shower was over and them he went out to feed the birds and I headed for the garden to pick fruit, water the green house and tie up the tomatoes which are growing like weeds. The sunflowers also needed tying in and as I tackled the job I noticed that the first scarlet flowers had appeared upon the runner beans, how glad we shall be when they are ready to pick as we all love them and tend to gorge when they are available.

I picked a big salad for dinner which tonight was a selection of cooked meats and cheeses. Pa is having his Fathers Day meal on Tuesday when we are able to take our time and enjoyed it , tonight my son has to work, the last shift for this week and next week he will be at home. Twiggy has noticed her photograph and spent quite a time regarding it with a critical air, she looked so cute that I took another picture which unfortunately did not come out well.

I baked this morning and the five fresh loaves have been stored away an I shall not need to bake bread again for a few days. We had a crusty bloomer loaf with our dinner and for a treat we had some Ossau Irate cheese served with cherry conserve, I can not tell you how good these two things taste together, we all tucked in and enjoyed ourselves. The sun has come out and the dark clouds which have hung about all day are breaking at last. I love summer evenings,I always have. When I was a child living in the north of England my friends and I always began a game of hide and seek as the light began to fade, it was much more fun to poke about in the old barns and the woods near by as dusk began to fall, Twilight lasts much longer in the north and the sun sets seem to go on for ever, blue crimson and gold shot through with deep purple and the far hozizon dark and mysterious against the glow of the setting sun.

I think that far horizon is one of the things that I miss the most now that I live in a city, you cannot see in to the distance for all the buildings. One morning a few years ago I had spent the night curled up on a chair in the intensive care unit at Charring Cross hospital. As it happened that gardener I mentioned earlier was dying and I had stayed over night because he had no relatives close at hand.
Worn out and miserable I wandered down the hospital corridors looking for a place to charge my mobile phone, and arrived at the porters lodge just before sun rise on a chilly October morning. The porters took me in and asked the reason for my early arrival at hospital, when I told the my story they were very kind and I was so tired and unhappy that I burst in to tears.

Some time later after toast and coffee some how the conversation turned to the subject of fine views and I said that there were none in cities. One of the porters took me in the service lift to the roof of the hospital and we arrived there just as dawn was breaking over London. It was breathtakingly beautiful, in the distance the gilded weather veins and finniols on the fine old buildings in the heart of the city shone and sparkled as the sun touched them. I stood speechless with wonder as the city came to life and for a short time I forgot my heartbreak and tiredness in the wonder of all that was unfolding that morning just for me it seemed.

That friendly porter who's name I never knew will have my grateful thanks for ever, he change my view, as it were of city scape's and more importantly, now when I think back to those dreadful days when my friend fought for his life and finally lost his battle, I remember too the deathless glory of that morning, and treasure it as a parting gift from my friend.

DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND MY CONTROL TONIGHT'S ORIGINAL BLOG DID NOT PASS THE CENSOR SO I AM AFRAID THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO MAKE DO WITH TRIVIA!

My son arrived home this morning more tire that I have ever seen him after a night at work,I am worried about him but he says that he is fine so that as they say is that.

It has been an odd sort of day, Pa went to the pharmacy to pick up our prescriptions, on his arrival at the shop he realised that he had forgotten to take the prescriptions with him. Back he came to collect them and then he set off again. I needed to go out myself today bit by the time Pa had finished footling about it began to rain heavily and within a few minutes a thunder storm broke complete with lightning and large hail stones.

While I had been waiting for Pa to return from the village the second time I had picked a pound of raspberries, a pound and a half of strawberries and half a pound of Logan and Tay berries. Since I was now unable to go to the shops I decided to mixed these newly picked fruits with some of our frozen wine berries and some bilberries to make a mixed berry jam. Just over an hours work produced eight jars of rich red jam which glowed like ruby port when light shone through it.
I was quite satisfied with the afternoons work, the more I can squirrel away for winter the happier I am and these home made jams make handy gifts at Christmas I find.

During a short lull in the storm I popped out to the garden centre to buy a hazel Trellis for my small winter jasmine. I grew this plant from a tiny cutting about two years ago and last autumn I planted it under the front window. Now it is large enough to need support and I hope that soon we shall see its lovely yellow flowers peeping over the window sill during the long winter months.

Twiggy has become a trifle morose on account of the continuing wet weather, this morning I discovered her roosting inside a long cloche to the detriment of the plants which the cloche was there to protect, poor old puss. It took a prolonged fuss and a tasty treat of two to restore her temper, she is now sleeping in an enormous armchair and very cute she looks .

During a lull in the work today I found myself musing about the now outlawed custom of duelling,I do think it a pity that we are no longer allowed to take vengeance upon those who provoke our wrath or damage our family honour by this quaint challenge. I have a couple of candidates in mind tonight and I am a bloody good shot. Do not ask any questions but left to me it would be pistols at dawn for these twerps and I guarantee that by breakfast time we would be to quote Mark Twain “an idiot short!” Perhaps even two. Such were the charming thoughts which occupied my moments of rest today!
I spent quite a time composing my blog for tonight knowing all the while that it could not be published , it was rather controversial, a pity really as it was rather good and the language was quite picturesque.

Dinner tonight was gammon with eggs chips and a home made tomato sauce, the recipe of which I learned from my father who was an excellent cook.
Here is Twiggy come for another cuddle and so I had better oblige, good night every one and good luck to all who may need it.

OFF AT THE GALLOP

Having to jump, well crawl out of bed half asleep and attempt to get two people who are even sleepier than myself out of the house on time is not my ideal way to begin the day. So it was this morning, Knowing the pitfalls that lay in store for me I slept ill last night and this morning I felt is if there was a fog where my brain used to be.
My son, who had been awake all night and would normally be off to bed was a great help even though he was very tired indeed. Pa did much better than usual but finding that he had plenty of time dawdled about until he was almost late leaving the house, by nine fifteen I was a nervous wreck.

Bread had to be made and with my oven still behaving like a Prima Donna I was even more nervous as six assorted loaves went in to the oven at nine thirty. I cleared the kitchen as the loaves cooked and fed crumbs to a certain spotty young robin of my acquaintance, he is becoming very tame and will now come in to the kitchen to see what goodies he can find. It must also be said that one of the squirrels has taken such a liking to buttered toast that it came in to the house this morning and pinched my breakfast while I was answering the front door, I returned just in time to see it disappearing over the step with my breakfast firmly clamped between its teeth, charming!

The garden is full of young birds of many species at the moment , all a little lost and most of them not quite sure what is edible and what is nasty. I watched two newly fledged wood pigeons attempting to eat ash leaves this morning so I quickly put out a little bread for them, I just hope that they do not find my lettuces! Judging by the huge numbers of young great tits it has been a very good year for them and I am happy to note that the wrens have been successful this year bringing off two broods already.

Pa returned from the doctors on time and I was able to attend the meeting of our conservation group a twelve, due to circumstances beyond my control (Pa) I have missed the last two meetings.
The meeting went on for over three hours and was stormy to say the least. We have a member who can not tell the difference between conservation and total neglect and she absolutely refuses to see any ones point but her own. We have undertaken to control certain areas in order to prevent the local authority from sending in contractors to hack and slash some rather sensitive areas, Even conservation areas must have management and we stand to lose all we have gained if this lady is not made to see that she is partly the cause of the problem. You see one of the areas in question happens to be a pair of allotments rented by her. For the past ten years nothing has been done with either of them and they are now above shoulder high with brambles. If she can not be made to see sense these areas will be sprayed with weed killer and all the wild life will be lost.

Her response is that she will not , “conform”and no one is going to tell her what to do. I fear that she did not quite like my own trenchant remarks on the subject and stormed out. A number of our members have allotments on this site and are desperate to prevent the chemical spraying and tree felling which we have temporarily managed to stop. This one woman's selfish disregard for others could well be fatal to the wildlife on this site as another group wants to have the whole site cleared and so far as they are concerned the wild life can go to hell as long as everything is neat and tidy.

I hate committees as I may have already mentioned before precisely this reason, I do not suffer fools gladly and I meet enough of them in the normal course of events without going out deliberately to meet then. I offered to resign but since I had voiced the private opinions of everyone there my resignation was not accepted......well I had to try!
We are to hold another fund raising event in September and I shall be providing lots of preserves to sell. We have had a good deal of success and I hope that we can win round our problem member before she does too much damage.

My son is less that happy with the meeting he attended this morning and feels that he was called in under false pretences, I can not go in to any details at the moment , all I will say is that he was pretty damn cross when he arrived home from his meeting.

Having been out for a good deal of the afternoon I made Pa and I a quick dinner of Eggs Florentine ans left my son to sleep until seven when I cooked his favourite chicken pomodori in an effort to cheer him up, with only partial success. I have decided to have an early night as I am shattered, I intend to get Pa off to bed as soon as possible and then retire to my room with a pot of tea and a bag of rather delectable looking nougat and to hell with the calories...a short life and a merry one say I!

UP THE DOWN ESCALLATOR

This is the second time I have written this blog as the first time I managed to press the wrong key and deleted my first attempt, And that sums up the quality of today.

For some bizarre reason my son who should be at work tonight has been told to take the night off as his presence is required at a meeting tomorrow morning at around nine, hang on a moment, if he went in to work tonight he would already be there to attend the meeting, that sounds sensible yes?

So why has he been forced to take tonight off and then have to work tomorrow night having been detained at work by the afore mentioned meeting. Surely it would have made more sense to take of Friday evening after the meeting. As it it my son will have to stay awake tonight in order to be able to sleep tomorrow. After torturing himself to stay awake to night he will then be obliged to catch a train in the morning in order to attend the meeting and then catch another train home after the meeting and hopefully get a little sleep before having to catch yet another train to go to work tomorrow night. I do hope that you managed to follow that little lot, the whole idea defies logic if you ask me, but there, it is a management decision, need I say more!

I just hope that “The Management “ understand if on Friday night my son falls asleep at work through sheer exhaustion..
All this malarkey has thrown the house into a state of confusion, my sons sleep routine for his working week is in as indeed is in tatters and tomorrow promises to be much worse, as it is I shall have to cook two breakfasts and two dinners tomorrow and I don,t even work for the blasted company

I am supposed to attend a meeting of the conservation group tomorrow at twelve noon , unfortunately Pa has a Doctors appointment tomorrow morning which clashes with my own.
This is no fault of Pa's, it is entirely due to the fact that Pa had to reschedule his appointment having arrived at the surgery a few days ago to discover that his GP was in a meeting and had neglected to let his patients know that he would be unable to see them, how tire some and how typical; that is.


Even the cat Twiggy had a meeting of sorts this morning, on rounding the corner of the house she came face to face with out fox, both cat and fox almost jumped out of their skins Nd I should say on balance that Twiggy was much less put out the the fox who jumped the wall to escape while Twiggy collected herself , remembered her dignity and stalked off up the garden path with a regal air.

The weather being inclement she has spent a large part of the day roosting in my bedroom, curled up on a fur rug, she is fond of luxury, as are all cats. Twiggy has been known however to take her love of the good life to excess and on chilly winter nights insists upon getting in to bed, right under the covers, and she hogs the hot water bottle too!

The summer pudding that I made yesterday turned out wonderfully and we ate it all up with lots of fresh cream, naughty but irresistible. We began the meal with sticky chicken skewers, bulgar wheat salad, roasted peppers, coleslaw and crispy lettuce from the garden. The marinade is the secret of this recipes success and is as follows.

In to a large bowl put two tablespoons of runny honey
I teaspoon of garlic salt
2 tablespoons of paprika
a pinch of nut meg
a pinch of powdered clove
Juice of 1 lemon
Six twists of black pepper.
Stir the ingredients together and then add two tablespoons of olive oil and stir again
You can add a few strands of saffron if you wish it is nice but I find it rather expensive and the marinade is almost as good without it.
Cut your chicken breasts in to strips and place in the bowl with the marinade, stir and leave for a few hours them thread on to skewers and either grill or cook on a ridged griddle as I do.
I do hope you enjoy it, oh I forgot, you can do the chicken on a barbecue also, but you know my views on the wretched contraptions.

Having spent the day swimming through treacle, paddling madly and achieving very little I am inclined to be rather cross. If there is one thing I hate is is being messed about by other peoples woolly mindedness.
So if any one else, I don't care who they are decides to pox up any more of my week, a gypsies curse lite upon him ,or her, and may the fleas of a thousand camels infest their respective underwear!

THE OVEN IS STILL ON THE FRITZ

Just as I suspected the oven is still not working correctly, the experimental loaves made last night are passable but that is not good enough. Because they are not properly cooked they will not keep well and of course they do not taste as good as usual. Refusing to give up hope I made two orange and lavender cakes this morning and just like the two chocolate cakes I attempted to make on Saturday they sat down in the middle due to the fact that the oven temperature fluctuated during the cooking. This time I watched the whole process and saw exactly what happened and it was not a pretty sight.

Being a glutton for punishment I decided to pit my wits against the refractory appliance and set about making a large batch of cookies, this time with more success. By dint of a great deal of fiddling about and great diligence I managed to produce several dozen cherry cookies, I tried one and they are not bad. This however does not alter the fact that my oven is at the moment more temperamental than Naomi Campbell, and will have to be fixed multo pronto.

Pa had an appointment at St Tommy's this morning and I packed him off in a taxi, the whole experience was rather like getting a small child ready for his first day at school, except that the only tears were my tears of frustration as he forgot first this and then that and then his mobile phone. I am certain that the taxi driver was convinced that we were both potty! Alone at last I returned to the kitchen to make yet more strawberry jam, this will be the last batch this years as I am rapidly running out of both jam jars and cupboard space.

Within a few weeks I shall by making all the fruit jellies, chutneys and the damson jam, I need to make a great deal of the later as it is required for the produce stall at our next fund raising day. Incidentally the moth trap, purchased with the proceeds of our last fund raiser was tested in our orchard last night and although the weather was chillier than we would have liked we caught a few moths, we really need a still balmy night to do well.

Pa returned at around three safe and sound and chaos descended upon the house once more, still a few hours of peace and quiet was better than nothing and I was glad to have him home all safe, really I was.

Twiggy has spent most of the day asleep in her favourite tree house, during the past twenty four hours we have been twice visited by a lady with a dog and Madam Twiggy is not amused. When ever I happened to pass her retreat she gave me a stare filled with reproach, hey ho!

Tonight's meal at the request of my son was a soup we call London Particular. Really it is a sort of pea and ham soup but it is as thick as the London fog from which it takes its name and is very good with home made bread.

During a lull in the kitchen while the fruit was boiling in the preserving pan I made a large summer pudding for tomorrow, at least this did not depend upon the vagaries of my electric oven and therefore should turn out well, fingers crossed! After spending so much time in a hot kitchen I am in urgent need of a bath and that is exactly what I intend to do so goodbye for now, and don't forget to tune in tomorrow for the next thrilling instalment of Avies culinary disasters!

IS THE OVEN FIXED?

Dawn broke as they say ans I was wide awake, the morning mist did strange things coming and going several times before finally vanishing in an instant at around five. I fell asleep at last at about seven and my son brought me coffee at eight, to say that I am a little weary today is a gross understatement.

As soon as my son had gone to bed and P a had breakfasted I whizzed off the the shops to buy a few necessaries, having the oven out of action has thrown a very large spanner in to the household works and I have had to rethink our menus for the next few days. I was home before eleven thirty and after tidying up the kitchen I went out to pick fruit, once again the mozzies were very much in evidence but this time I had rubbed my skin with elder leaves. As a child I used to weave them in to the headband on the horses harness to keep the flies off and it worked well for the horse so why not for me? I must admit that I smelled like a cats earth box but it seemed to do the trick.

There were plenty of gooseberries, Tay berries and raspberries today as well as a few strawberries, all in all quite a good haul. Picking fruit had made me very hot and sticky so I set of down to the river to visit my pet swan and to take a few photographs. The tide was high and boats on the river made a lovely wash, it is a sound that I love. Swany was in his usual spot waiting for food and he came straight towards me as he always does, I have known him to cross the road to come and see me, he is such a sweety.

I had not been out long when my Mobile phone rang, the electrician had arrived and so I hurried home. Trying to explain the problem caused by a fault oven to a man who has never cooked is like trying to knit fog! He kept on telling me that the oven was working and so it was, if that is it was turned up a high as possible, even Yorkshire puddings would be tricky with a fan assisted oven at maximum. It was in vain that I tried to explain about the necessary temperature for sponge cakes, biscuits, egg custards and so on, as far was he was concerned the oven was on and so the oven was working.

At last he appeared to grasp a little of what I was telling him and after fiddling about for a while had said that he had fixed the problem and all would now be well. With that he departed leaving us scratching our heads , I quickly made five loaves and put them in the oven, this is not really a fair trial as bread is cooked at high temperature but at least now we have bread again. Tomorrow I shall try cakes, that will be a better test of t=weather the oven is fixed of-r not.

Throughout the day my mobile phone has been ringing it's head off, I had no idea that I was so damned popular, if it was not for the fact that I need to keep in constant touch with Pa if either of us are out I should drop the wretched thing in to the Thames this very evening. The human race is fast becoming the slave of technology. Years ago there was a television programme called “Tomorrows World”, its presenters would constantly talk of the time when everything was automated, when we had communicators as they did on “Star Trek”. A time when everything would be run or made by computers and mankind would be free............so what happened. Certainly many thongs are made by machine these h=days leaving mankind to draw unemployment benifit and be called a scrounger!
Now that we have mobile telephones any Tom, Dick or Harry can disturb our peace and quiet whenever they wish and answer phones and voice mail make sure that you cannot claim that you did not get the message. E mails, the devils own invention mean that every time I switch on my computer I am obliged to read a mass of epistles for all and sundry and worse than all I have to reply to them. Speaking for myself I had much more free time before these pestiferous gadgets were invented...........”beam me up Scotty!”

ALL IN A DAYS WORK

Last night I slept, for the first time in almost a week, I did wake a couple of time during the night but I was so groggy that I fell asleep again almost at once. Waking this morning was like climbing out of a well,it took the better part of an hour for me to wake and to stay awake . Thank the Gods that I was unable to make bread today, I can not imagine how it would have turned out with my brain in such a state of fogginess.

Having collected myself at last I provided viands for the boys, cheese on toast this morning and having little to do I went on line, found some nice jam jar labels and down loaded them for use on my jam jars. The site I used is called Domestifluff and I heartily recommend it to any one who requires some good no nonsense labels. Once upon a time we designed new labels every year, I no longer have the leisure for this and I am grateful to these on line sites, they ,make my life a little easier.

Pa had an appointment with his G.P. this after noon, I prefer him to have afternoon appointments as this means that I do not have to spend ages waking him up to be ready on time. Even so it can be tricky getting him out of the house as he has no concept of time what-so-ever, an irritating character trait which he shares with my darling mother. I grew up in a wild and lonely place you understand and there was only one bus a week which took us to the nearest market town. This bus left promptly at nine in the morning, not that early really and yet not once that I can recall did we catch that bus with pit having to run for it. I have always been punctual and this type of slackness makes me cross as I am frequently made late by the dawdling of others. That makes me sound a complete pill.. perhaps I am!

With Pa out of the way and my son resting I headed for the garden to plant out some beetroot seedlings, pick some fruit and to plant a new catnip bush for Twiggy, the one she already has is getting sparfse through over use as every cat in the village is now getting high in our front garden, often with noisy consequences. When other cats are around Twiggy adopts a proprietorial air and even quite large Tom cats are forced to flee from her wrath if they take liberties,when Twiggy ha s a hissy fit she is a force to be reckoned with.

When Pa returned from his appointment he too was in a hissy fit as the appointment had been cancelled because all the doctors were in a meeting, no one had bothered to tell Pa. Of course they claimed to have tried several times to let him know but as his mobile phone log showed no evidence of any calls from the surgery it would appear that they were not being exactly truthful. Pa now has another appointment on Friday at ten in the morning, God help us all!

The recent rain has done wonders for the fruit crop and this afternoon I picked a large bowl of early raspberries, these are destined to be steeped in vodka to make a delicious liqueur for Christmas. Some one bought a bottle of Raspberry vodka to the party yesterday and it is still haunting the kitchen as it is horrible. It tastes as if someone has dissolvedd a couple of pounds of Harribosweetss in alcohol and it is truly vile.
The strawberries are producing larger fruit and the gooseberries are as big as ping- pong balls, just right for gooseberry tart of gooseberries cobbler if only my oven was working.

Mt son woke very early this morning and as a consequence is very tired , not a good thing as he has to work tonight, he puts a brave face on things for my sake but I can easily see how he really feels, you can never fool your mother and that is absolute.

Now it is my turn for the bathroom and I shall have to anoint the numerous insect bites I squired while fruit picking this afternoon, a plague take the little devils, I look like “Spotty Mulldoon.” I can not help wondering what tomorrow will bring, good or bad I will take what comes, that is all any of us can do.

RAINY SEASON

Hopefully in the nick of time the weather has turned and rain has arrived with a vengeance, this will with luck

scotch any talk of a hosepipe ban in our area. The drawback, and there always is one is that the rain has been accompanied by a rapid and somewhat drastic drop in temperature which will not do my tender crops any good at all.

With my oven on the blink and the garden out of bounds due to inclement weather I decided to make another batch of strawberry jam with the fruit picked yesterday, and soon another six pounds of jam was cooling in the kitchen and waiting to be labelled.

My son and his friends had departed to their gaming session and I decided to pop out for a while to pick up some suet for the birds, cool off, get a breath of fresh air and to have a look at a craft fair in the park . “Local Artisans” said the legend over the gate along with “Special Event” Admission five pounds. Having chosen the first wet Sunday for months the “Local Artisan who turned up looked rather tragic as did the poor sodden soul on the gate waiting presumably to take the entrance money. I went to the pet shop to pick up the bird food and had a look around the garden centre on my way home. Passing through the park at two O clock I noticed that there were now four soggy rain drenched gazebos with more artisans that customers, I just hope none of the artisans had watercolour paintings for sale

The ironing awaited me on my return and amongst the pile was......da, ad, daaaaaa!...The Shirt of Doom, so called as it has so many epaulettes, pleated button over pockets, appliquéd badges and other embellishments that in the time it takes me to iron this monstrosity I can iron five ordinary shirts. Last year I basely hide the wretched garment to avoid having to iron it but my poor son was so grieved by its disappearance that my heart smote me and I replaced it in his wardrobe without a word. The look on his face was reward enough until I had to iron the blasted thing again...I am too soft for my own good you see!

Tonight's meal was a very large Chinese takeaway, this has become a tradition when birthdays or other occasions are celebrated by my son and his friends and I was not at all sorry not to have to cook. Pa and I ate our share of the feast and the left the gang to their festivities having donated a large bottle of damson gin to the party.

In the peace and quiet of my room I made a pot of Earl Grey tea and decided to opened a box of chocs and have a good old laze about for a couple of hours. I confess to feeling extremely tired today probably due to the fact that I did not sleep at all last night. I stayed awake through !the Shawshank Redemption” “The Quick and the Dead” and “Bogus” a film of which I am rather fond although a could not say why as I detest child actors and dislike Gerard Depardue. Much as enjoyed this film show I would have much preferred to be sound asleep. The chances of my getting an early night tonight are minute and I have resolved to spent the time writing and drawing for a change.

My little cat has had a rotten time today and as she dislikes company she is now sitting on my bed with the air if a refugee, I have a small secret supply of catnip in my desk draw and I shall shortly cheer her up with a nip of the pongy stuff. The ways of cats are odd indeed.

Another week is over and my son returns to work tomorrow, I hope the cooker repair man comes soon, the cooker is only a few months old and so is still under guarantee, until it does I shall be unable to bake, God only knows what I shall do with al the spare time. What if it keeps on raining and I can not do any gardening, I may end up painting the bathroom out of sheer boredom, sad isn't it!

WHAT A DISASTERPIECE

Thank the Gods that today is almost at an end,it has been one of those days when absolutely nothing has gone right and it began in the early hours of this morning. For a variety of reasons my sleep was disturbed but the crunch came when having got up to make myself a coffee I spilled the whole cup full on to the bed. By the time I had cleared up the mess and changed the sheet I was even more wide awake and rather cheesed off into the bargain!

Sleep eluded me after that and I was glad to get up at seven thirty to make tea for Pa and my son.
The high spot of the whole day was looking at photographs of my sons recent visit to Sark, today we looked at the garden of the Seigneurie, it was quite beautiful and I was pleased to see that lots of the flowers and herbs which grow in my modest little garden also grace this much grander show place. After this delightful interlude things went down hill quickly.

I believe I have mentioned that we have a friend from America visiting tomorrow and that he had asked me to bake him chocolate cake, a breeze, I thought......until my oven gave up the ghost half way through cooking the blessed thing. The result was not entirely a disaster but certainly not worthy of our guest. Having ascertained that the oven was not maintaining an even heat we fiddled about with it and I tried again................the result this time was to awful to contemplate so I shall hurry on.

Obviously a home baked cake was out as indeed were my neighbours who I know would be happy for me to use there cooker so I set of to buy the largest nicest chocolate cake that I could find. I was in such a hurry that I left the kitchen covered in chocolate and the dreadful remains of my failures, I needed to be somewhere else, so that was that.

After much travail found a cake which looked good, I had already purchased a box of Swiss chocolates to decorate my own cake so I thought that I might add these to the bought one to glam it up a little. Leaving home as I did in a terrific hurry I had not noticed that the battery on my electric buggy was low, I made it home but only just and at a crawl which a snail could ha e outrun.
There was my kitchen, smothered in chocolate, I opened a beer, downed it in one, gritted my teeth and pitched in.

Chocolate is without any doubt the most messy ingredient there is , I even managed to get some in my hair. Woe, woe and thrice woe the sink became blocked and I had to poke about with a wire coat hanger for ages before the blockage gave up and the sink emptied. The clock struck four, I had been working hard all day and had achieved damn all.

Outside the strawberry bed was heaving with ripe fruit, the green house needed watering, fifty young beetroot seedlings were waiting to be transplanted and I had less than an hour to do all three jobs. Strawberries must come first so I took of the nets and began to pick, there were lots,and lots,and lots, the rain had swelled the fruits to a good large size and I filled a very large bowl before I tripped and fell while trying to avoid treading upon a toad, the toad fared better than I did as I sat down with a bump and hurt my back.

Hey hoe and on with the motley I staggered off to turn on the hose and watered the green hose where the tomatoes are looking excellent and the potatoes which were very dry and was just about to plant out the beetroot seedlings when my son arrived home and in I went to cook dinner.

Than heavens we had decided upon scrambled eggs on toast with fried panchetta which is nice and easy and needs no oven. Doubled up by this time I managed to present a decent plateful to each of the boys and was pleased that they enjoyed the meal so much. After the meal was over I washed up , again cleared the kitchen and escaped to my room to apply some liniment to my outraged back muscles and to write this blog.

The way things are going today anything could happen and I shall not draw a clear breath until tomorrow arrives...that is if it does.

I feel like the old Irish man who exclaimed “Sure and if it wasn't for the bad luck I'd have no luck
at all.”