SUMMER SUNDAY IN THE GARDEN

I spent a wonderful day in the garden pottering about, a bit of weeding here, a little fruit picking there but mostly just enjoying the perfection of a summers day. I tried very hard not to think about the future of the garden I a large ask since we have now discovered that they also intend to alter the flower garden at the front of the house and that would be sacrilege. These two gardens have won prizes in the London in Bloom competition as being perfect cottage gardens, oh well such is life.

Tomorrow is the day we fire off the artillery in the form of a letter of objection complete with photographs and a petition of goodly size, this will we hope at least slow things down a little.
In the mean time Pa and I spread a pretty cloth on the garden table and treated ourselves to an afternoon tea of home made lemon drizzle cake and cookies and a nice large pot of Earl Grey tea. We were joined by our little cat and a pair of robins who cleared away any stray crumbs and at one point our tame robin hoped onto my shoulder to pick of a small green caterpillar foolish enough to show himself in the presence of such a voracious pair. The cat made lazy by the hot sun watched with an air of disinterest for a few moments and then went to sleep, and so did Pa.

The sound of crickets and grasshoppers was louder than ever and every where there were bees and butterflies doing a sterling job of pollinating my runner beans and courgettes. I wish that you could see just how lovely the garden is , surrounded by tall trees and scented by many flowers. The sunflowers opened up today following the path of the sun with their bright faces and the bees like little lovers kept them company all through the afternoon.

This is my sons last night shift for a week and tomorrow he begins his week off, I have seldom seen him so tired, the past weeks have been tough and I shall be very
glad whenen he is safely away on his annual trip to Avebury, he needs to recharge his batteries and there is no better place for the purpose. I have promised him a breakfast of waffles with hot jam sauce tomorrow, this is becoming a tradition, it is a bit fiddly but we all love them so it is well worth the trouble it takes to make them.

Yesterday my food mixer blew up, this is the third in less than a year, I am very hard on my kitchen aides as there are in daily use. I suppose that I need to buy catering standard in the future as domestic ones can not take the strain. Pa popped out yesterday and picked one up from a local shop to tide me over and this was just as well as I had promised him pancakes for breakfast this morning. Once upon a time I did such things with a hand whisk but the advance of arthritis means that this is no longer possible......take my advice folks, do not get old, its a pain just about every where!

Dinner tonight was a pasta dish of which my son is very fond, I must have read his mind as he tells me that he spent all night hoping that it would be a pasta meal tonight, his face really lit up when I told him what I had decided. He is so appreciative of everything that is done for him that is is a pleasure to please him,I expect that by now any one who reads my blog can tell how loved he is.
I feel so lucky to have him for my son especially since I spent many years thinking that I could not have children,so you see I have had lots of good luck in my life.

Now that the day is over I am sitting at my desk in the window of my room watching the geese make their way to their night time roost on the river, I am never fast enough to catch this on camera but I shall keep on trying because I should love you to see how beautiful they are and how close to my window their flight path is. Dusk will bring out the bats tonight as it is warm and quite still, twiggy watches them from my window before curling yo in the magazine basket and falling fast asleep as I hope soon to do. Good night to all, I wish you fair weather and a happy week to come. X

STRETCHERS

Something most alarming occurred last night, something which I find incredible. A young woman who works with my son suspected that she had gone into labour more than three months prematurely, obviously an ambulance should have been sent but when the young ladies boyfriend rang N.H.S direct he was aparently told to drive his girlfriend to her birthing centre.......in Cambridge!
As you can imagine every one was astonished at this advice, Cambridge is a long way from London under such circumstances and I for one find it totally beyond belief. I can only say that the N.H.S. Must be in a much worse state than we have been led to believe,if you can believe it. Let us hope that all goes well!

I have been very busy today trying to catch up with all the gardenong which I have not done due to other pressing matters like saving the afore mentioned garden from the bulldozer.
Now that the weather is fine once again and as my son is at home next week I opened up the brick stove in the garden ready for a cook out. I also moved a large table that has been cluttering me up for weeks and now the dinning space is ready for action.

The fig tree now full of fruit has made so much growth this year that I had no choice other than to cut it back a little so that I could use the pathway. There are still a great many figs on the tree and we should have a bumper harvest....parakeets permitting! Having given the garden a jolly good watering last night I was amazed at the amount of growth that the squashes had made since yesterday, I swear that you can almost see them growing. The winter festival squashes are plentiful and large and the crown prince,a blue squash is also doing well but it is the leaf growth that is most amazing, and very lovely they are with their mottled shades of green. The young frogs have now left the strawberry patch in favour of the pumpkin beds and I can easily understand why, all that shade is perfect for them in hot weather.

My morning was spent in the kitchen baking lots of treacle oaties for the biscuit tins and a cake for my neighbour who returned last night from a holiday in Devon with his mum, he will probably join us for breakfast tomorrow as we have a lot to talk about.

I am toying with the idea of holding a carouse in the garden quite soon, I shall send out invitations to a evening of drunken debauchery, sounds good don't you think? I have lots of home made liqueurs which with a few other ingredients make a lethal punch and now that the fire is operational again I thought I might roast a big piece of pork and serve it with new bread and lots of salad. If I can stay awake long enough We have loads of fireworks left over from last year and these will make a good show if can find some where to let them off the garden being rather full at the moment.

After a week of worry and two weeks of ill health I feel the need to do a little rejoicing after all even if we lose I have learned something that almost makes the whole thing worth while and that is how very kind and caring people can be. In a world full of takers, cheats and liars it is wonderful to find that there are still some good guys out there and if that is not cause for celebration I do not know what is.

NAME GAME

Our petition is growing faster than I could ever have dreamed,some wonderful people, they know who they are filled a page and a half with signatures. Pa toured the village today and every one he asked declared their support and signed their names. Peoples response to the idea of our garden being built on has been one of shock and anger and those who have lived all their lives in the village,are very upset that this last cottage garden is to disappear. We hope that those who make the decision will take this in to account, so far not one person has been in favour of the new build.

I am still working in the garden whenever jam making and baking permits, things are doing wonderfully at the moment and it looks as though by next week we shall be making damson jam, jelly and of course chutney, a gloriously rich concoction which is perfect with cheese. Many of the recipes I use have been in our family for as long as any one can remember. When I was a child at home it was my father who made the chutneys and pickles, it was a job he loved and he was very proud of the variety of relishes which our larder could boast. During late summer and autumn the kitchen would reek of boiling spiced vinegar, I hated it then but now that smell sends me back to my childhood and I love it for the happy memories it evokes.

During the past week a succession of fist sized beetroot's have been boiled, skinned and bottled, for some reason they have grown much larger than usual this year. Yesterday I boiled up a cauldron full of apples bullaces, sloes,blackberries Rowan berries and elderberries to make a special fruit jelly, having strained through a jelly bag it was ready for the final stage of boiling with sugar and bottling, this does not take long and soon I had a dozen jars full of rich ruby red jelly with all the flavour of the wild fruits within, a jar of this will grace our Christmas table, if it lasts that long!

The effects of my late bout of flue are taking a long time to clear up, I feel permanently tired ,still cannot sleep for coughing and the sore throat comes and goes. My son is experiencing the same symptoms, he is a hardy soul and keeps going but the effects of sleeplessness are beginning to show and he is crotchety and just plain weary as am I. Pa for once is the only fit person in the house, a distinction of which he is very proud, he has been such a help today both in the house and in trundling around the village with the petition,bless him.

Sometimes I feel that we have a good chance of winning and some times I think quite the reverse. Most of the estate workers and quite a few of the tenants on the estate are afraid to sign the petition or become involve as they fear they will lose their jobs or be have their tenancies terminated. These threats are not new and many people on the estate have been told that if they ask for repairs to their property bad things could happen, it is like living in the dark ages and difficult to comprehend in these enlightened times.
Not-with-standing we are organising revolt, expose the blatant lies and half truths and we shall not rest until we have struck a blow for the peasantry. I pinched that speech from Robin Hood,and paraphrased it slightly

. In the last ten years I have thwarted the closure of the local allotments on three separate occasions and each time every one said that it was a lost cause, then there was the battle of the church yard , the illegal hotel and now this. I should add that the allotments are under threat once again and you will not be surprised that the land is lease to the council by a certain titled gentleman....you know who! It seems as it they are determined to build on every green space there is. The local hospital was recently rebuilt and is now much smaller than formerly because over half the land was used to build houses, guess who owns the land that the hospital is built on...........that's right! I could go on but I think that I have said enough to illustrate the type of skulduggery that has been going on, it makes my blood boil!

My son had a craving for chicken with forty cloves of garlic, a vintage Floyd recipe which Pa and I both detest and so Pa had mozzarella and prosciutto crudo with fresh tomato and basil salad
and I had I very large prawn and salad sandwich. The café Avie is now CLOSED.

RAISING A RUCKAS

Good progress is being made with the objection to the planning application and we are in hope that it will be in a fit condition to submit very soon, we have twenty one days and so far we have used six of them. What is odd is that none of our neighbours have received letters like ours and no notification has been published in the local newspaper or indeed in the form of an announcement somewhere near the proposed site, on a lamp post say or the fence. Since these are legal requirements we are beginning to wonder if our letter was perhaps in the nature of a tip off. Perhaps we have a friend in the planning department,I do hope so.

Quite a few people have asked if we are getting up a petition, so many in fact that it seems like a good idea, even people from quite far away, visitors to the Park have expressed their disgust at what is being proposed which means that our campaign is not just a local one. So now we are preparing to raise a ruckas , suddenly I am no longer alone, my courage has returned and I am ready for what ever comes. Wish me luck.

I treated Pa to eggs Florentine for breakfast, it is a bit of a fiddle but well worth the trouble, Our spinach is wonderful this year and I love the smooth sharpness of the Hollandaise sauce against the richness of the egg yolks, yum!

My little cat had an alarming experience this morning for which it appears she holds me responsible, in any event I am persona non grata as far as she is concerned, let me explain.
I believe I mentioned the huge pile of ironing that was threatening to avalanche well......this morning I opened the airing cupboard door to extract a shirt. All would have been well had not the cat, always keen to avail herself of a new and exiting roost whizzed past me ,made a jump for it and brought the whole lot down upon her head! She was buried completely, muffled howls of rage emitted from the disorderly pile of t shirts ,trousers and shirts, and it took a good deal of careful excavation to remove madam from beneath the weighty load. On gaining her freedom she bolted from the room with a wild shriek and has since then maintained an air of injured dignity which is comical to behold.

When later in the day I offered her some catnip and a cat treat the simply turned her back and stalked off in high dudgeon. As if that was not punishment enough I then had to tackle the unruly pile of ironing and it took hours as that by the time I had picked fruit , cooked it , put it into the jelly bag to stain, made two large orange lavender cakes it was time to cook dinner.
I have promised myself that I shall spend tomorrow in the garden so woe betide anything,or any one who interferes with that resolve.

My sore throat has returned with renewed vigour and my son says that he feels whoosie and aches all over, I do hope that we are not in for round two of whatever that blasted virus was, I have dosed myself with large amounts of vitamin c and zinc, apart from prayer I can do no more.

I cooked one of our favourite pasta dishes tonight using courgettes from the garden, this is a real seasonal treat which we only eat for a few months of the year. This year I have also grown some yellow courgettes which look very attractive on the plate. If I am not mistaken I posted the recipe for this dish last year, however if you can not find it let me know and I shall post it again.

The sun is very bright this evening and the corn marigolds in the field opposite look even more like shimmering gold than usual, there is a queue of young blue tits waiting patiently for a turn at the bird bath, they are so tiny and yet so full of life. I am always surprised at how polite they are compared to other birds, take starlings for instance they squabble continuously, their antics are comical and quite absorbing.

Here comes the cat, I wonder if she has forgiven me yet, I think it much more likely that she wants her supper, the way she has behaved you would think that it was she who had spent all morning ironing.......perhaps I should have a good old fashioned sulk and see what happens. The last time I had a soulful fit some offered me a dose of indigestion mixture....charming!

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT

Since writing of my unhappiness about the possible loss of my garden I have been touched by the kind concern expressed by some of my readers. To all those who work with my son many thanks for your kind messages of support it meant a lot, and do not worry I shall fight this one whatever happens.
To alifemisplaced,, bless you for your message, I was feeling quite tragic and it cheered me up a great deal, although your style of writing rather puts my own to shame, I can forgive you anything since you are so kind.

Today I found myself unable to settle to anything and this is a state of affairs which cannot continue. There is fruit to pick and bottle, weeds to pull and the pile of ironing now threatening to engulf me whenever I open the airing cupboard door has reached epic proportions. Shelving all these concerns I did the only thing which will ease my mind and continued with the letter of objection to the planning department. I went through the plans again and again so as not to miss any thing and set out my reasons for objecting to the proposal.

Losing the garden is only a part of the problem, we shall also ,it seems lose our access down the side of the house to the rear of the property so that we shall have to bring the dustbins out through the kitchen and living room. Also we shall loose the only place where we can house our mobility scooter and if we have to part with that our lives will be unbearable, it would be true to say that our landlord has been keen to get us to leave ever since Pa became top ill to work on the estate , if these plans go-ahead it will not just be our garden that we loose but our home too since we will not be able to cope with the new conditions. The garden thought is the most important thing and as a family we are agreed that we will do whatever it takes no matter what.

Now that I have things down on paper I do feel a little more settled and as my wonderful son has promised to do the formatting for me I hope that soon it will be on its way to the planning department.

What is really funny is that the Local Authority along with the estate which wants to build houses on my garden have just jointly launched a biodiversity plan with a splendid launch at the stately home of the duke who owns my house, talk about hypocrisy...you couldn't make it up..

After all that writing I took a stroll down the orchard to pick a few apples and to check up on the progress of the damsons, this year will be a bumper harvest of both.; already the jars of jewel coloured preserves are filling shelves and cupboards in my kitchen. After a slow start the courgettes are now prolific and I predict that within a week of two I shall be hearing “oh God , not courgettes again.” from the boys.
I have enjoyed the cooler air today, soft weather I think the Irish call it , as I sat writhing skein upon skein of geese flew past my window heading for the river and all honking wildly as they passed, a spectacle with entertained my little cat very much. Incidentally the little madam woke me at the crack of dawn this morning importuning to be let out in to the garden, when she starts to howl she is impossible to ignore and so I staggered down stairs to play door man to her Ladyship. No sooner had I opened the door than she sped up the garden path skirling like a novice bagpipe player and chased off a pair of young foxes who had the temerity to sit on her catnip bush. She has patrolled the front harden all day, growling and with her fur fluffed out Those poor cubs have got not chance against her.

Soon now my son will leave for work and I shall see Pa safely in his bath, he has been great today and my son treated him to his favourite railway magazine,its wonderful to see him taking an interest in these things again. I am in sore need of a good nights sleep and shall do all in my power to make sure of it...lime flower tea, lavender bath, lemon balm pillow you know the type of thing,actually I think that a 5lb lump hammer applied to the cranium would be more successful, but perhaps a little too permanent for my taste! Night night all.

MAKING A START

It was very late last night before I switched of my little net book and very late indeed before I managed to get off to sleep. I had suddenly decided to make a start on the mountain of documents downloaded from the Planning Department, it was a good idea and today I feel much better for having made a start. As I ploughed through the statements made by the applicant I was amazed at the amount of untruths and glaring inaccuracies and I am hoping that the fact that they told so many lies will help my cause.

My head was buzzing with all the arguments , points and counterpoints but when sleep came I sleep for four hours and woke feeling much more hopeful, somehow things seem to be falling in to place. Yet it is the sense of just what is at stake which still sinks my heart down to boot level whenever I think about it, this battle is very close to home and heart.

Eager to make amends for my gloomy demeanour of yesterday I made a special breakfast for Pa, Eggs Florentine using spinach from the garden, the spinach this year is the best I have ever grown and we have been enjoying it for some weeks.

Now that the strawberry season is at an end I have removed the nets with which I cover them while they are fruiting, I would normally have done this a while ago but the weather has been rather inclement. I gave the bed a good weeding as I worked , some of the plants are getting rather old and are ready to be replaced, a job for later in the year, I hope. The pumpkins and squashes are doing well now that they have had some rain and that part of the garden had a jungley appearance and is the haunt of many frogs and toads.
In the green house the tomatoes are ripening at last and soon we shall be feasting on them every day,also the experimental sweet potatoes I planted seem to be doing well judging by the amount of top growth,it will be interesting to see what is beneath the soil when the time comes to dig them up.

I have been asked to publish a recipe today and so I have chosen one which I cook quite often, the recipe calls for pork chops but I have cooked this dish with gammon steaks and most recently bacon chops and it is always delicious. It also has he virtue of making boring old chops in to something rather special.
Pork chops a la Avie
4fl.oz. Olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper
4 large pork loin chops
1 lb of canned tomatoes
half a tablespoon of chopped fresh tarragon or a quarter teaspoon of dried tarragon
Heat the oven to 190oC
Heat the oil in a flame proof dish and saute the garlic. Remove the garlic and fry the chops with the salt and pepper until brown on both sides.
Add the tomatoes and tarragon and return the garlic to the pan.
Cover and cook in the oven for About and hour and a half, a little less if the chops are thin.
This amount will serve four people and can be served with boiled rice and salad or as I often do with butter sautéed potatoes and French beans. It is a good meal to prepare if you have worked all day as there is not much prep is and while it cooks you can have a hot bath, tidy up or play with the children. Good luck and I hope your family enjoys it as much as mine do.

Pa is still improving and it seems like a miracle, because of this last week was lovely in spite of the fact that my son and I were both unwell. If it were not for this awful business with the garden I should have nothing left to wish for. Oh well as my Mother always says “The day you don't have a problem you will probably be dead.” She always was a cheerful soul, bless her!

HIGH SUMMER LOW EBB

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How beautiful today has been with the bright sunshine the warm gentle breeze and the murmurous humming of a million insects going about their busy lives. The sky has been a landscape of mountainous white clouds adrift among the blue and high almost to invisibility dozens of swifts wheeling and calling to each other with their characteristic screech. A perfect summers day to be sure, except that now there is a cloud, my own personal cloud looming large on the horizon.

Today as I picked the wine berries and collected some apples and while I cut courgettes for dinner I could not help wondering if this would be the last summer for my lovely garden.
I had promised myself that I would be philosophical about it, that I would say with an air of relief that it was getting too much for me and that it was an ill wind...etc. but to say the truth the thought of watching the bulldozers move in and to see the ancient fruit trees cut down is breaking my heart.

There is no need to tell you that of course I shall fight to the bitter end to save it but suddenly I feel desperately tired. The documents outlining the planning application fill a folder and I must put together a document which refutes their bogus claims and illustrates the need to keep this area intact, a daunting prospect and one which I must face alone. There is a time limit for objections and it will take several days to complete my objection, how I wish that this was my sons week off so that I could enlist his help with the technical stuff. He is tired and has been unwell and in any case I make it a policy not to place upon him any extra burdens while he is at work, he is under quite enough pressure as it is.

So I shall battle on although just now I really feel like hiding somewhere quiet and crying for a very long time. I am one who must fight, I cannot give up, but the cost of all this campaigning is taking its toll and every moment I spend writing takes me away from some important household task and things can soon pile up. There is a fog in my brain and I cannot see what to do, yet I must do something ,and soon.

Through my whole life I have wanted nothing more than to live in peace and be left to potter about my beloved garden, it is a small ask and yet so many times have been forced to fight to survive,I am battle weary and I am getting old. Planners, and developers have been the bane of my life and here I am again about to begin what will be perhaps the most important battle of all.

You see this is so much more that just my garden, it is a piece of social history and a way of life which though long since gone should be remembered in places like this . This kitchen garden has been here as long as the house is was built to serve, its ancient walls and old moss covered trees are a part of the heritage of this small London village.

This garden was here when the artist Turner lived in a house just across the lane, It was here when Vincent Van Gough lived and worked in the village. Kings and Queens who visited the nearby stately home would have driven past this spot and perhaps noticed the hollyhocks growing against the mellow brick walls. This garden kept families supplied with food through wars and hard times and it should be allowed to remain for the benefit of others long after I am gone

The titled Lord who owns this piece of land is in a perfect position to see that its history and tradition are maintained for future generations to learn from and enjoy and I am certain that as he is acknowledged as one of the countries riches t men he does not need the revenue that the sale of two tiny houses will bring . Men such as he should be the guardians of heritage, nobles oblige and all that, sadly too often these days this is not longer the case.

I write this way for God knows what reason? Perhaps a sense of hopelessness and the feeling that for me their will always be another battle, and another, and another. Perhaps it is just that I am feeling sad. What ever the reason forgive this maudlin ramble through the emotions of an old war horse. Tomorrow I shall be better, I promise

TRIALS TRIBULATIONS AND TRAGEDIES

Troubles never do come singly that much is certain but my own paled in to insignificance this morning when I heard that a friends young granddaughter had died suddenly yesterday. Nothing van ever prepare one for the death of a child and as you may imagine my friend is devastated, but when one adds to this the fact that her son in law also died recently of Motor Neuron disease the full scale of this tragedy can be seen. Her own child has now lost both husband and child and my friend is in fear for her daughters sanity ,and with reason. Such troubles as these are often more than can be born, I too have felt great grief and I know just how easy it is to descend in to the abyss.

My dear friend already has and elderly mother and a husband both in poor health and has spent the past few years shuttling between them, my admiration for her knows no bounds. Nothing that can be said or done a=can ease this burden of grief and this is the great sadness for only we ourselves can find within ourselves the strength to go on. I hope and pray that they can survive as a family the dreadful battering that fate has deal them.

My son is insistent that he will go to work tomorrow and this is very much against the best advice.
Although he say that he feel much better I happen to know that he did not sleep at all last not, I know this because I too lay awake coughing until well past dawn. Quite apart from the debilitating effects of the virus he is exhausted through lack of sleep and this is no trifling matter for someone about to embark upon a week of night shifts. I have begged, pleaded and layed down the law but to no avail. I must say that he seemed quite bright when he went off to his game this afternoon but as we all know very well things like colds and flue are always much worse at night. All the same I think that this is one argument that I shall lose.

I am now in possession of the plans which have been drawn up for the building of two house on my vegetable garden, acres and acres of plans maps and bumf! There are so many discrepancies in the statements made by the land owner that if the document were a news paper it could be called “the daily liar”I shall of course point this out with as much force as I can muster to the planning department with who's vagaries aim unfortunatley all too familiar.

While the world seems to be going mad it may seem trivial to some that I would make such a fuss about a garden but it is so much more than this,it is a way of life centuries old which is fast disappearing altogether and is rarely seen outside of a museum. I want this garden preserved not just for me but for those who came after, a Victorian kitchen garden , tended and used as it has always been. If I should fail then my small world will become much smaller and so you see I must fight .

THE FALL OF THE AXE

Today the long expected blow fell in the form of a letter form our Local Council informing us that our land lord has applied for planning permission to build two three bedroomed houses and car park space on what is at the moment my vegetable garden and orchard. Of course we shall fight but having only just won our campaign to save the churchyard I would have liked to have drawn breath before having to begin again.

What I find strange is that so much building is being considered in what is a conservation area of considerable historic interest and I suspect that if it were not for the fact that the land is owned by a Duke these applications would be thrown out neck and crop by the planning department.

Once again I shall have to bash the keys writing to all and sundry but if that is what it takes then so be it. I hope that the many contacts forged whilst stopping other similar protects in to the area will be of assistance in the new battle. This piece of land was the subject of a tussle earlier this year when the owner wanted to build a car park for a proposed hotel, you will know if you are a regular reader that the hotel was being converted from a large house without benefit of planning permission, as yet we are still awaiting the result of the local protest against this project. Oh well another day another dolore as they say.

Looking on the bright side I do feel a little better today and have managed to bake six dozen cherry shortbreads and I have six pounds of apple pulp in a jelly bag dripping into a large bowl. Tomorrow if all goes well I shall turn this bounty in to another batch of apple jelly, I must say it is pleasant to be back in the kitchen again. This time next year there may not be any apples so I shall make hay while the sun shines!

Early in the spring I installed a solitary bee house in a secluded part of the front garden and today I was delighted to see quite a few bees going in and out of the small holes. Each time a hole is filled the bee seals it up and then leaves her eggs to develop all alone .Several eggs are laid in each tube and it looks as if we shall have a full house very soon. This makes me very happy as I adore bees.
The cat Twiggy is also fascinated by the doings of these little creatures and has spent hours this afternoon watching them as they flew in and out of their nest holes. Curiosity caused the cat to flee the garden pursued by and angry bee, she never learns.

Tonight I do not have to cook ass e are having fish and chips for a change and I am rather glad as the days exertions have left me feeling very tired, it was kind of the boys to suggest this meal to give me a break and we all like fish and chips so it will be a treat.

July has still a week to run and I for one will be jolly glad the see the back of it for it has brought nothing but grief and aggravation for every one I know. Personally I have found it to be a complete bummer and on the world stage no one can say that it has been hunky dory.

I have just turned on the television and cannot believe what in happening in Norway , it is too awful to contemplate , it looks as if the random nutter has struck again and my heart goeout to the poor souls involved in the carnage. July as been a bloody awful month

SOME SLEEP AT LAST

For the first time in ten days I finally got an appreciable amount of sleep last night and although it was hardly blissful undisturbed slumber it was most welcome and I feel better for it. Thankfully there were fewer collisions on the landing last not as my son also fared better in the sleep stakes than he has for some time. We are both still coughing like a couple of old pit ponies and my throat is still horribly sore but I do not feel so desperately tired and that is wonderful.

I was in bed by six thirty last night and slept on and off until five this morning I made a coffee and remembered that I had a small bar of chocolate in my desk which I sat in bed eating and felling very decadent indeed. My son recently purchased for me the first series of “Upstairs Downstairs” and I watched three episodes before any one else woke up, it was lovely to watch while curled up in bed with my chocolate bar and coffee. The early episodes of this ancient series were in black and white and do not seem to be repeated on this account, in fact I do not remember ever seeing one of the episodes at all.

Another cup of coffee delivered by my son arrived and I spent another hour or so lazing about before getting up to bake the days bread. Downstairs it was quiet and cosy I enjoyed pottering about and the bread rose very quickly in the warm kitchen, soon I had four lovely seeded white loaves with glossy tops cooling under clean tea towels on the kitchen table. Pa had made a good job of tidying up last night and everything was clean and in its place.

Breakfast was at ten and we enjoyed our crumpets and jammy croissant while discussing various battles fought during the first world war. This may sound strange but we are all historians and this period is a special interest for us, although my field of expertise lies in a much earlier period. Having Pa able to join in the conversation on equal terms again was wonderful and has been throughout the week. My son and I both agree that al;thigh we have been unwell it has been a special time for us, the wonderful feeling of being at home and together has made up for all the rest, it is odd just how happy I have felt in spite of all the sleepless nights.

Twiggy has enjoyed being cosseted, she has spent a good deal of her time with me and as I have spent so much time awake she has often spent the entire night having her pretty fur stroked so at the moment she is a very happy little cat.

My son has at last lost something of the haunted air which he has had about him for the past few weeks and can at last check his e mails without dread, the fact that non of his team are being forced to leave is a great relief to him I know. Weather there will be any other repercussions it is not certain but knowing the inept bunch who are currently running the show I will wager that there will be, I have been amazed by the number of cock ups and the frankly bizarre way in which the whole business was handled. Those in charge managed to make a situation already fraught with worry and distress for all concerned even worse by their lack of backbone and their woolly mindedness .

Something about which I am delighted is that Pa is working on is model railway again, I peeped in on him at around eleven last not and there he was at the kitchen table with his track plans and modelling paraphernalia it is something I thought that I should never see again.

Tonight I intend to go to bed early again, I think that it will be a while before I am truly myself again but I am grateful that the fever has gone at last and hope that the rest of the symptoms will soon be gone. My son still seem to be in the grip of what ever this bug is and he too intends having an early night, who knows, tomorrow we may both feel much better, I am hopeful.

A GRIM DAY DAY ALL ROUND

I write today while on a high caused by an overdose of cough medicine and the effect is certainly very odd. Last night desperate for sleep I glugged down about half a bottle of the wretched stuff and then topped up with another glug every hour or so and while I admit that the cough was less of a problem the sore throat was and is still appalling and the strange feeling of unreality and a sort of floating feeling is most disconcerting.

The groceries arrived earlier that planned this morning, why do they allocate time slots and then ignore them? At any rate the early arrival was most inconvenient and I would have given the driver a piece of my mind had he not been such a sweetie. My son and I managed (God knoweth how) to put everything away and I will wager that things will be turning up in strange places for weeks to come as neither of us were truly compos mentis.

I just do not know how much worse this can get, at the moment my temprature is 101 and one thing is certain, what ever this is it is definitely not a cold as I had first thought. My son is experiencing the same light headedness and sickening aching of all the muscles and his cough is if anything worse than my own. We have soldiered on trying desperately to keep going but unless there is a change for the better soon I for one will have to give up and take to my bed!

In the middle of all this ghastliness there is Pa who has been wonderful these past few days. He has helped with the chores were possible and has shouldered a good deal of the day to day tasks and I am so very grateful , what we would have done without him I can not say. It is the little things like folding up the laundry and putting it away. feeding the cat and generally tidying up and what is more he has kept his room immaculate,. Thanks to whichever God is responsible for this miracle, for miracle it is. In the midst of this misery to see him in charge, coping well and proud of himself is such a joy. He is his lovely, kind and thoughtful old self again, I dare not hope that it will last but for now it is a blessing for us all.

What an old misery I am at the moment I have had nothing but bad news to report for ages now and it is certainly difficult to be jolly under these circumstances. One nice thing that has happened today is the my son received in the post a photograph of the shuttle launch signed by Bill Nye.it is beautifully framed and now takes pride of place on his desk.
Perhaps ypu will remember last year I bought Pa a Slanket, a blanket with sleeves and he liked it so much that i recently ordered bought another for him and it arrived today I was very lucky because as it is not really the season for such things I got it for half price. I also bought for him a very large faux fur blanket again because he loved the one I bought for him last year, he does love to feel cosetted, as do we all.

He dislikes duvets and because of his disability finds getting in and out of bed troublesome so in the winter time he sleeps in a king size faux mink rug placed double on the bed which is easy for him to slip in and out of without tripping over sheets etc. With this arrangement and the slanket next to his skin he is cosy and snug and feels cosseted all night in or out of bed. When the pain is very bad he sleeps in a big soft armchair and again we find the rug and slancket the cosiest and most practical solution to what used to be a major problem and most important is most important of all, Pa loves the arrangement.

I have done very little baking of any sort this week but thanks to a little forward planning we had been able to eat quite well with home made soups and pies from the freezer and although tomorrow I must bake some bread the evening meal is to be cold meats and cheeses with salad so I am sure that I shall cope.

Oh blast it is the conservation group meeting tomorrow, I shall have to send my apologies I think.
I am sure that they will manage perfectly well without me, they are a very able group of people.
I have rambled on and occupied your time for quite long enough and it is time to go, just on more thing, with the earth shattering sneezes and the coughing arpeggios as they are I am considering forming an orchestra called perhaps The Philpnuemonia, what do you think. At the moment we are short of a lead wheezer in the wind section, percussion we have in spades.

HALT,WHO GOES THERE?

Picture if you can the windy battlements of Elsinore,it is the dead of night, all should be quiet...but all is not quiet. From a darkened chamber groaning can be heard and from another dim lit room a second groan ,almost in answer to the first. Disturbed by the eerie sounds a lone figure mounts the steps half fearful, half curious, slowly step by tremblous step he nears the sharp turning,what could it be that waits around the corner. Another step and he gains the top, all is quiet there is no one there, but wait there is a faint creak and a sliver of light, a door is opening, he feels a twinge of fear. Oh God another creak and a sudden flash of light and suddenly two ghastly figures appear, both doubled up and both with the same
rattling cough, there is a pause and then all three protagonists jump ever so slightly out of their skins!

No folks not the opening scene of Hamlet, this scenario took place last night at the top of our stairs.
What an appalling night, the worst yet. I could not sleep because I coughing constantly and my throat was ablaze. My son could not sleep as he was similarly afflicted and Pa could not sleep because of all the coughing and spluttering and so ,bless him he came to see if we were all right. How was he to know that we were both about to open our bedroom doors and if it comes to that how were we to know that he was lurking on the stairs.

Wide awake and still suffering from shock I made coffee and after drinking this welcome brew we returned to our respective chambers of torment and another vain attempt at sleep. From that time until morning it was exactly like the changing of the guard, First I got up, then my son got up we took it in turns to make the drinks until at a round seven in the morning I finally fell asleep....we all finally fell asleep and not one of us surfaced until nine thirty. What a sorry looking crew we were, hair standing on end from all the tossing and turning, faces pale,noses red and still spluttering.

Although I can not conceive of this affliction becoming worse it must be faced that so far every day has brought a worsening of the symptoms and often some new and exciting ones to boot. Upstairs the pervasive smell of eucalyptus oil is almost overpowering and here and there bottles of cough mixture and sticky spoons are to be seen.. Yesterday much needed supplies of Victory V lozenges and dequacaine were dropped outside the door, the black cross painted there tells all to stay away as we are in the grip of a plague.

Whatever this affliction is the shivering and the sweating are a real menace, I used a total of seven nighties last night after which I gave up and wrapped myself in a towel. All semblance of normality has ceased and today even I have had to admit defeat, nowzwork at all has been done, woe woe and thrice woe, the laundry baskets are overflowing and we are running out of dry clothes.
Even if I could find the energy to cook no one is in a fit state to eat, hot drinks only is the order of the day.

It is three in the afternoon and already I am dreading the return of night with its attendant horrors , so much fruit tea was drunk last night that this morning breakfast consisted of coffee and imodeum all round and the landing has been busier than ever. What horrors wait in store for us tonight I can not imagine nor what tomorrow will bring. Actually tomorrow is bringing a grocery delivery so at least one of us will have to drag our selves to the door ,woe ,woe and thrice woe, I will wager that I draw the short straw. I wonder how one goes about buying shares in Kleenex .

A RIB CRACKING TIME!

After another night with no sleep this morning found me no better in fact if anything I seem to be getting worse every day. The pain from the cracked rib when I cough is acute and after a week of coughing my diaphragm and every muscle in my back and chest is protesting vigorously every time I have to move. Bending has become impossible and of course you never drop things on the floor so often as when you have a backache.

My son must have been really tired last night as he slept through my coughing and spluttering and did not wake till eight thirty. In spite of the fact that he slept for twelve hours he was still tired all day. As for me I felt disinclined to get up this morning but Knowing that I would fell much worse if I gave up I made us all a coffee and then set about making the bread which should have been done yesterday.

Five loaves were required this morning, it is as easy to make five as one but I had underestimated the effect that a cracked rib can have upon my kneading technique. While the bread baked I made a breakfast of poached eggs on toast, nice and simple and we sat about the breakfast table looking seedy in the extreme. My son decided to go in to Twickenham rather than spend the day writing, Pa had the bins to do and the birds to feed and as I had set six pounds of cooked apples to strain over night my day was already mapped out.

By two in the afternoon there were another fifteen jars of crystal clear apple and thyme jelly cooling on the work top, a good afternoons work. Only another twenty five jars to go and then I can start on the apple chutney and the damson jam! I had promised the boys a dinner of roast pork tonight so that was the next thing on my agenda.

The meat would be served on trenchers with a roasted garlic sauce and served with a selection of roast vegetables , jacket wedges, baked courgettes and a couple of creamy herb dips. I would not dare to serve pork any other way these days as this is the declared favourite of the boys.
I have cooked this meal so often that I could do it with my eyes shut which is just as well as I was not firing on all thrusters by any means, a week without sleep plays havoc with the concentration I find.

Through the afternoon the sky got blacker all the while and eventually I had to switch on all the lights and it felt, and looked more like October than July, it began to hail with a vengeance as I was serving our meal. Dinner was very well received and I was glad that I had made the effort, the boys are so appreciative always so I do my best to give them things they enjoy. We have finished dinner now and the kitchen is clean and tidy and ready for tomorrow, in a few moments I shall barricade myself in the bathroom for half an hour to soak my aching bones in lovely hot soapy water, some thing that I have been longing to do all day. Last of all I shall make hot chocolate all round and then to bed...hopefully to sleep...wish me luck.

IN THE MANNER OF THE WORD

Years ago when I was at drama school we used to play a game entitled “In the manner of the word”. The idea was that one player chose a word and the others had to guess what the word was by asking him or her to carry out some action in the manner of the word. Let us suppose that the word I had chosen was cowardly, you would then ask me to, shall we say visit the office in the manner of the word where upon I would carry out the action as directed probably by scuttling in and out of the door like a mouse who has spied the cat,. I am sure that you can guess my meaning. Verb sap.

One way and another this has been a tumultuous week, every way I turned I have seen some kind of skulduggery going on. If it is true, and why doubt it, that the highest in the land have been doing dirty deals with the press and that the police force was involved I can only say that these kind of goings on are despicable. If the head of the Metropolitan Police has seen fit to resign for employing a “tainted journalist” I can not see how David Cameron can stay in office, but since we see that practically every one in authority is involved in some way it could be difficult to find someone clean as it were.

I do feel strongly that even in the light of these appalling intrusions into the private lives of people like the Dowlers we must at all cocost maintain the freedom of the press. If have the media manipulated by the Government would be even more catastrophic to every man's personal freedom, and his right to know the truth about what is being done in his name. I hope that the government do not fool succeed in tricking the public in to giving them power over the press as with out this check on their iniquities they would feel able to do as they please, and lets face it they are quite bad enough as it is.

While the hue and cry is going on it is distracting attention for the fact that it is entirely possible that the finances of the European Union and the United States of America are about to take the final plunge in to the abyss, The fact that the director of the New York Stock Exchange resigned recently has not been widely reported, why is that I wonder? Given that the President is at odds with the Senate and that several States such a California are already broke the speed with which the straws are blowing in the wind suggests the possibility of a hurricane in the not to far distant future.

The richer countries in the European Union are bankrupting them selves ion an effort to save countries already in default on previous loans. If things continue in this vein for much longer money will be worthless any way ,one thing is certain folks when the crunch does come us plebs will be the last to know!

I spent last night coughing and sneezing to such an extent that it seems I have cracked a rib, this sounds far more alarming than it is and as it happens I have done this several times in the past . Unfortunately it causes a good deal of pain as I am still coughing all the time so I am all strapped up and am rattling with pain killers. Tonight I shall have to sleep sitting upright which will please my little cat who will certainly spend the night sitting in my lap instead f in the magazine basket where she has spent the past couple of nights,

I treated the boys to a breakfast of waffles as promised and I am so glad that I did as they had been looking forward to them for days. Dinner tonight was a home made lasagne another promised treat. I have felt powerless all week in the face of my sons anger and distress at the events which have unfolded at his work place, all I could do was make special treats and offer tea and sympathy. Somehow these things seem inadequate in the face of such unhappiness but it is in the end all a mum can do when her little boy has become a man ,now if I had a magic wand...........

NEWS FLASH
My sons employers have just ordered him by e mail to inform the rest of the workforce by e mail that there are to be no mandatory redundancies, again I ask if my son is doing this what the hell is the H.R department doing?

ANOTHER RAINY SUNDAY

After yet another restless night I was quite glad to get out of bed this morning, that is until I opened the curtains, the weather looked exactly as I felt,ghastly! Last night I had the pleasure of Twiggy,s company,she slept for reasons best known to herself in the magazine basket by my desk and now and then she jumped up on my bed to be fussed. She seems to have gone in to her Autumn routine
since the weather turned stormy, she keeps on sniffing at the radiators to see if they are warm but at the moment she is having to make do with the warmth from my desk lamp.

I am still shaking with pestilence and I feel disinclined to work which is unlike my usual self, I expect I shall improve soon, I do hope so. My son and I had coffee together this morning, I shall be glad when this week is over for his sake, it has been a total bitch all round one way and another.

Today was the day of the Church Fête I watched the poor souls struggling to erect stalls as they were being lashed by the heavy rain and the strong wind played havoc with the bouncy castle and the bunting. Pa and I have attended this fête for years but today the weather was daunting so we waited until the last moment before making up our minds about going this year. In the end I nipped off on the buggy during a lull in the showeres and picked up some pretty its and pieces, soft toys mostly for some children of my aquaintance, a couple of cache pots for our indoor plants and a nice bottle of perfume for myself. On my return Pa went off to have a look around, it is fun to look at the stalls and chat to old friends and today as the weather was so dreadful they needed all the support that they could get. Pa told ne that as he left the barbeque was going well in spite of the rain
During
the late morning I decided to label the jars of apple and thyme jelly which I made a couple of days ago. I managed to down load some nice ones on a web site called preservingyourharvest.com they have all sorts of nice odds and ends to down load for jams and dries herbs etc. I should really have made another batch by now but I have not felt well enough to be bothered, oh dear, still I expect that a few days will not make too much difference, providing the parakeets do not scoff all the apples!

The damsons are beginning to turn purple already and at the bottom of the orchard I picked the first blackberries of the year yesterday, just a handful but it is a sign that there will soon be lots more ready, I love blackberries, the flavour, the colour, everything about them is glorious. This year I hope to make blackberry and rose hip jelly, a wonderful preserve for eating with any kind of game and equally delicious on a hot buttered scone, it makes a perfect gift.

This is the time of year when I am obliged to begin moving things around in the kitchen and the cupboards to make room for the new seasons preserves. Every inch of space will be filled before September is out, I hate to think what one of those de-cluttering types from the television would make of my kitchen, she would probably go in to shock and have to have therapy for months.

The boys call this urge to fill the cupboards my squirrelling tendency and I suppose it is true to a degree,in my defence I would say that we are never short of preserves throughout the whole of the year and I always have plenty to give as gifts or to make up hampers for charity auctions .While the fruit is there and I have the strength I shall continue to squirrel away goodies in the late summer and Autumn against the long harsh winter months and besides there is nothing quite like having cupboards an shelves full of good things, call it security if you will. Children in my village were brought up to make and brew and bake so I suppose that it is in my blood. With fruit fro my garden I can make a dozen jars of jam for the cost of one jar of decent stuff brought in a shop, I saw a tiny jar of Duchy Original blueberry jam priced at almost four pounds last year, that is ludicrous!

This year it will be a real race against time to get things done as my health has not been the best this year,each new batch brings me closer to the self sufficiency at which I aim, and frequently achieve.
The afternoon was dark and we had the lamps on in the living room from around two in he afternoon. My little cat curled up on my bed and slept through the storm, she is fascinated by the canopy and from time to time gazes up at it wonderingly before drifting off to sleep again.

The one thing she dislikes is the fan, she has taken umbrage against it and if I am foolish enough to turn it on when she is present she leaves at once with a snarl, I have observed her, back arched threatening the fan on ,ore that one occasion, perhaps it ruffles her fur the wrong way, who can say.

Hoe glad I shall be to see my son come home tomorrow he needs to think about something other than work for a while but that will, I know be too much to expect, I shall spoil him all I can by cooking his favourite dishes but this time I think that he may be beyond any comfort that I can give. It was so much easier when he was a tiny boy to kiss better all his small griefs, the less I can do the more I worry....Oh dear....such I am afraid is life.

WHAT GOES ON?

What a rotten week this has been, I shall be truly glad when it is over. I cannot help feeling that things have happened that will change things for ever and it makes me sad. My son has become unsettled by the whole business and in particular the shameful behaviour of those supposedly in control of things. The situation has been at best mismanaged and at the worst shows a flagrant disregard for the feelings of those in their employ. It is one thing to suspect you superiors of being inept, it is quite another to have it proved conclusively, and he,like me does not suffer fools gladly.

So now what? Who can say, for my son I think that this has shaken his previously unswerving loyalty so its roots,and I am prepared to wager that his disillusionment which has been growing for some time will bare fruit before long , unless things change drastically which seems unlikely.
These are challenging times and though some might say that any job is better than non I believe that this debacle might just prove to be the last straw and as I believe I have said before loyalty is a two way street. I can only sit and watch these things unfold and my son is behaving exactly as swallows do in the Autumn before they fly......no I do not mean that he sits chattering restlessly on telephone wires......but he is restless and he spends a good deal of time chattering on the telephone, in his room with the door tight shut.......most unusual. I know that he was offered a job recently and I think he may have reconsidered his refusal. What it is and where it is I do not know, but I have my suspicions.....

My cold kept me awake again last night and by now I am very tired indeed, I do not need a lot of sleep but I do need some. I am still keeping company with the sumo wrestler I mentioned yesterday and my other symptoms have become much worse . Our old family doctor used to say that a cold takes three days to come, stays three days and takes three days to go. After that if you still feel ill you have complications, well now have a rather unpleasant earache to add to my list of symptoms.....complications it is then!

I love the pretty mosquito net , my son hung it for me last night , he is turning out to be quite the handyman. It goes well with the other things in my room and although it is perhaps rather little girly it is the bedroom that I always wanted as a child and never had .and now thanks to the boys my room is pretty and cosy and I love it .This room is my sanctuary and although the curtains are old and the paint a little chipped here and there it is a haven of quiet when the world crowds in on me and the view from my window makes up for any minor faults. Besides I love the look of the old faded green velvet,the colour much mellowed by age is in keeping with the colours of nature on the other side of the glass, something that is old can still be beautiful I think.
Most important though is the fact that although I slept with the widow wide open all night I have no new bites,many thanks for small mercies.

Thank the Gods that it is Sunday tomorrow and there will be no parcels, no post and with luck no one else banging on the door at the crack of dawn. The bread and the cookies are made for the weekend and in the morning I intend to laze about or a while .Pa and I were to have gone to the Church Fête tomorrow but as the forecast is for weather similar to today,s I shall probably give it a miss. Getting soaked to the skin even in a good cause would be silly in my present condition.

All this coughing and sneezing has given me a headache.......here we go again, now where did I put the tissues, I have used so many this week that I wish that I had shares in Kleenex.

The sun has just come out and how welcome it is, the cat Twiggy is picking her was with care up the garden path, she hates to wet her pretty paws. She has sat disconsolate on the window sill for most of the day. She is watching steam rising from the path with a keen interest, strange little creature, but so very lovable.

MY GOOD NEWS

My own news is good,today I saw the consultant about the problems with my kidneys and although I do have another stone he thinks that it can be treated with Lythotripsy. This is quite a painful treatment but it does work and it is certainly better than surgery.
The really good news is the he does not think that the lumps on my kidneys are anything to worry about which confirms what my doctor told me a few weeks ago. It seems that they are the legacy of the damage that was done some years ago when I almost died, an incorrect diagnosis had left me with several large stones and an infection so severe that it almost killed me. This time they are on the ball so things should be easier, I hope so. Even so I should like to give a large piece of my mind to the G.P. who told me that the lumps could well be serious, it is fortunate that I am not the type to panic although I had picked out the music for my funereal,
just in case you understand!

My lovely son, always generous has given me the gift of his poxy cold, he has been suffering for a few days and now so am I. I feel as if I have cotton wool in my ears, chewing gum in my sinuses and a sumo wrester sitting on my chest. I do wish that he would keep these minor pestilences to himself.
It seems that the dust may be beginning to settle at my sons place of work although I fear that the fall out my linger for quite some time not least because of the appalling way in with it was managed.
Sadly my son will be loosing many good friends and a in particular a colleague of whom he thinks very highly.
It could have been worse I suppose but for those who are leaving it is very sad indeed. I wish them all the very best of luck where ever they go and whatever they do with all my heart.

This affair has ripped the guts out of an already demoralised workforce and I hope that the owners of the company(Hedge Fund Types,Need I say more) do not live to regret their decision. It has been my experience that if someone gets where they want to be by stamping upon the heads of others sooner or later he,or she will get their come comeuppance, karma if you like. Even the likes of Rupert Murdock are not immune from the flying fickle finger of fate!

I had visitors this morning, they young couple who are to be married soon, she is so sweet and he obviously adores her. I made them a breakfast, and chatted for an hour or so, it made me stop and take a break so that was good for me.
The meeting of the conservation group which should have taken place today was cancelled late last night and it came a great relief as with a cold I did not feel like sitting in a stuffy pub for three hours, there is nothing that cannot wait until next Friday which will be much more convenient for me any way.

I have invested in a couple of mosquito nets for my son and I, we have both been bitten so often in the past few weeks that that we look like a couple of “Spotty Muldoons” and oh boy do they itch. I stood in a supermarket queue the other day scratching away at the bites on my arms and before I knew it the whole queue was scratching and one woman actually changed queues after giving ,me an accusing stare. I must remember that next time the supermarket queue is a long one, it is certainly a great way of thinning them out!he odd thing is the they never ever bite Pa, lucky devil!

Weekend is almost here and for those with plans to have fun and I hope you enjoy every moment and for those who, like my son have to work keep safe on your journeys and may all you bosses be out of the office for the weekend.

MUSICAL CHAIRS

Today is judgement day and it sounds as if even these tragic events will have more than a small element of farce attached. It seems that the people whose arrival has made redundancies necessary are to begin work today, on the day when those who opted for voluntary redundancy learn their fate which seems a trifle insensitive to me. To make matters worse it has been deemed unnecessary to make seating arrangements for the new comers, I foresee a good deal of embarrassing shuffling about. Good Grief, if management can not even decide where these unfortunates(late face it folks they will hardly be welcomed with open arms) are to park their bums it bodes ill for any more complicated arraignments, such as who does what.....and when?

While I expect that the new comers will not be expecting a warm welcome one might suppose that they will expect to be able to sit down. Having an impromptu game of musical chairs is unlikely to lend a party atmosphere to these sad proceedings and may well increase the natural resentment of those displaced on their behalf.

It is also rumoured that they bring with then their own leader and assistant leader and once again no provision has been made for them as regards their proper accommodation. I would also suggest that this may well cause much confusion as to who is actually in charge and the balance of power will certainly alter as a leader and deputy are already in post.....so who decides whom is in charge, May I suggest pistols at dawn behind the cathedral?

I expect from my trenchant remarks you will have realised that I am more than a little partisan, that is to be expected, however I am sorry for the poor souls who today will enter in to the seventh circle
they must be apprehensive to say the least. This is a situation fraught will difficulties being made more so by lack of preparation . The expression “Managerial Inertia “ springs to mind, these people do nothing until catapulted in to it by the force of events or a swift kick in the pants!

To any readers who are not concerned in the events which have monopolised this blog for days I say this, there is every chance that your own managers are every bit as inept as the ones featured here. It will there fore perhaps place you on your guard against such overpaid under worked characters. as these. While people I care about are in trouble I do not feel able to prattle airily away about the birds , the garden and the menu for today. Please bear with me,I feel that I must report these matters for as long as this situation continues. It feels a little like publishing an underground newspaper in time of war, my only regret is that I did not have the facts earlier.
Disclaimer

No phones were hacked to obtain information for this article, nor were any bribes offered......Oh hang on a minute, there was that bag of toffees.........does that count​?

I had occasion to visit the hospital today as the confirmation for my appointment tomorrow had not arrived. There were people sobbing in corners, hugging each other, groups of people were huddled together whispering and every where I looked I saw hospital staff talking on their mobile phones. It seems that today the entire admin staff were told that they would have to re-apply for their jobs and to expect drastic cuts in staffing levels.......20 per cent plus! I spoke to a member of staff I know and she told me that most of the cuts were to come from the lower orders and not from the higher echelons who's main concern is not to lose their hand made leather shoes in the thick pile of the luxury carpet in their offices.......no surprises there then!

GOING TO HELL IN A HAND CART

There is now another problem facing the inept bunch of clowns who's antics have preoccupied this blog for some days now. They have made so many people feel that they will be the ones who will be forced to leave that the redundancy package is now over subscribed...who would have thought it?
The short time that people were given to make yo their minds has lead to a panic which will if allowed to run its course lead to a double decimation of the workforce. Perhaps though it is simply a matter of some many people have had enough of being jerked around by a bunch of jerks!

I was certain that my son was considering taking the offer and I was right .In the end all that stopped him was the feeling that he would be leaving people in the lurch. I have reason to know that he has recently rejected an offer of employment that would have been very much to his advantage.
I am afraid that in light of what has happened he now regrets his decision and I do not blame him, after all no one likes to be treated as a worthless piece of trash!

I read last nights missive from H.R with disbelief and since few people have taken a chance on it it would seem that they do not believe it either. It is to be hoped that the management will make up its collective mind as to what exactly is on offer, assuming that is that they have a mind between them, recent events have called that in to question. An employment lawyer could drive a truck through what has gone on lately, it is a shame there is such a long waiting list for tribunals.

I know that there is an person who is in over all charge of the place and he did flash about making rash promises a few months ago, where is he now? Not leading from the front that much is certain.

As I have said this matter has occupied y blog for some time and for that I make no apology, this house has been turned upside down by the matter even before I knew for sure what was going on, and now, now I vent my anger at those who have caused this grief .Do they I wonder realise that it is peoples lives that they are playing with here.

Many years ago I worked for a titled tycoon at his country house in Berkshire he and his wife hired and fired people for the fun of it. She would say “Oh my,I have,n't fired anyone for weeks.”
They once hired a couple to work for them in New York flew them out there and fired them before lunch on their first day, leaving them to make their own way back to England,. They told the story at dinner parties afterword as is it was a great joke. Lord and Lady.........are now dead, for which relief much thanks. While they lived they were so unpopular that they had a private army guarding them at all times, fully armed too!

If you are wondering what the point of that little story was it is this,while the titled pair thought that we were powerless in their grip we were busy putting bogies in to the lemon dressing and using Her Lady ships face flannel to clean the bidet! There is more than one way of getting a bit of your own back and it can be fun too

While “Them Upstairs” dither it is difficult to know what will happen next as if things were not unsettled enough they keep on moving the goal posts. The only certainty in these uncertain times is that what ever they do they will without a doubt make a complete Horlicks out of it, not that this is any consolation. Question. What percentage of points related to performance?......Hmmmmmm!

SNAKES IN THE GRASS

This has been a dreadful day which has seen me worried, angry and very sad by turns and it has left me in murderous rage. My son arrived home today more distressed and unhappy than I have seen him since Primary School and a thousand plagues upon the spineless reptiles who are largely to blame for his misery.
His description of what happened yesterday sounded like the scene on the deck of the “Titanic” when all the life boats were gone, People jumping overboard, people without hope, it sounded ghastly. The difference being that this ship did not hit an ice berg,no it was scuppered by its officers who then basely buggered off in the only lifeboat. We talked for hours before I managed at last to dose him with a sleeping pill and get him off to bed and I freely admit that I am worried. In his present mood there is no knowing what he wile do but this much I know, he is at the end of his rope and when his sadness turns to anger,which it surely will those who have provoked him will wish themselves a mile hence.

It did not help that yesterday the efforts he had made to make the redundancy procedure fair was hurled in his face by the person who should be dealing with the matter in the first place.
What will happen now is any ones guess but I happen to know that my son has written one of his “letters” to one of the managers about the current debacle and the unnecessary panic that their methods have produced. They are like a bunch of panto mime villains and deserve to be hissed at every time they show their cowardly faces!

Why things have been handled so badly is what I would like to know, the ratio of managers to staff is more than sufficient for one of these exhaled persons to have at least fronted up to wield the bloody axe instead of farming out the dreadful task to people like my son. The managements attitude is at best arrogant and uncaring at its worst it shows dismal cowardice and an inability to clean up their own mess. They are in short despicable, worthless and as they are not doing their jobs , redundant.........just a minute, I think I may have the answer to the problem, and a much fairer one after all who will miss them? How much do the actually do? And how much of that do they actually get right? Answers on a post card to........

For what it is worth I am desperately sorry for all who are caught up in this mess, I know only too well what it feels like to be where you are but this I will say, The darkest hour really is just before the dawn, good luck to you all and God bless Mama Cass.

NO ROOM AT THE BOTTOM

Until this morning I have only been surmising as to what on earth has been the matter with my son for the past couple of weeks....now that I know I have to say that a more ridiculous woolly minded amateurish, cack handed way of going about things I have never, even in my wide experience with damn fool managers been unfortunate enough to encounter. You could not make it up and if you did no one would believe it.

So people are to be made redundant, and for no good reason that I can see, that is bad enough. There is a department called Human Resources, in my day it was called the personnel department,. Still I suppose that Human Resources as a title separates the work force from the Lower Order Primates Department, which comprises “The Management including and this is important ,the Human Resources team.

As I understand it there are several tiers of “management” higher than my son so that if redundancies are to be made you might suppose that one of them should and in fact is probably paid to deal with the matter,. It should be the higher management who make the decision as to who is to go...and why, but no either they whimped out, which is my guess, or in an attempt to give things a democratic air they have turned it in to a nauseating travesty by having the poor buggers chose a representative to liaise with the work force. This has the effect of keeping themselves well out of the way when the excrement gets in to the air conditioning(which incidentally has not worked properly for years,)

Since the Human resource department seems to be doing bugger all at the moment perhaps they could be made redundant as according to my understanding of the criteria they certainly are well ahead in the cock up stakes. Already there is talk of protests as although the Management has stated that all departments will be able to avail themselves of the redundancy package since at least one department has been told that there will be no redundancies amongst their number it hardly seems likely that any of them will avail themselves of this generous offer . They have in effect been ring fenced.......why? I am not surprised that people are angry, protest away guys .In my day we would have been wandering round with a length of clothes line looking for a tall lamp post to hang the buggers from, but please don't shoot the messenger, who through no fault of his own cannot defend him self at this time

During the entire process “the Management have been conspicuous by their absence presumably cowering cravenly in the trenches.........I mean their offices while the poor reps go over the top on their behalf. I suspect that they are afraid that some one might speak harshly to them, poor dears. It seems to me to be a despicable act because you see these representatives are by no means exempt from the threat of redundancy themselves.

You may think it odd that a company could be run by such a pack of baboons but why not. There is a town in the north of England which recently elected a chimpanzee to Mayoral office so there is , as you see a precedent.
I have marvelled at the apparent ineptitude which has over the years seemed almost mind boggling.

For a company that relies for its very existence of hard ware that works it seems insane to continue flying by the seat of their pants as they have for some time But what is in my opinion the worst of their crimes is the fact that without the loyal hard-working people , some of whom are about to get the push there would not be a company. These people have stuck it out through years of mismanagement and dodgy decisions. They have soldiered on in spite of having their morale at rock bottom for months, in short they deserve better that they are getting.

They deserve at least to be told by some one in authority what is going on and why. In fact they do not deserve to lose their jobs at all.

The sentiments expressed in this fearless expose are entirely my own, however if anyone out there knows what I have been burbling on about they may well agree with me, the whole business sucks!

RAINY DAYS AND SUNDAYS

Today was a real damp squib for me as I had intended to spend it working in the garden, but after having to dive for cover from the rain half a dozen times I gave up and admitted defeat.
Last night bat walk, the first of many we hope was a resounding success, due mainly to our secretary who has become an expert on bats during the past weeks. The bat walk was attended by a member of our Local Councils conservation team and our secretary was able to tell even him things about the little creatures that he did not know. That what I call dedication. He has asked to be present on our future walks and of course we are delighted with his response.

I was unable to attend as I cannot get about on rough terrain so I spent the evening writing thank you letters to all the people who have helped us to save the church yard . It was so nice to write my thanks instead of the usual verbal kicks up the backside which have been my stock in trade for so long, I still cannot believe that we won.

Next summer we hope to hold a special open day when we shall invite all who helped and encouraged us along to see what their assistance has achieved. I am in the throws of trying to find a wild life celebrity to come along to open our little nature reserve officially, this could prove difficult as we do not seem to be high profile enough for some, we shall see. If any one out there would like to come along I shall publish the detail nearer to the time, I guarantee your welcome.

Our next committee meeting on Friday will be a celebration of course but this is just the beginning for us and we fight on until we have stamped out the present culture of tidying nature out of existence at least in our area and further if we can.

Next week promises to be a trial in more ways that one for my family. My heart goes out to my son and all those involved in certain “TOP SECRET” doings, if you ask me it's a bummer! What ever it is !
For my self the long awaited hospital appointment is next Friday morning, I shall be glad to get this over with as I have been waiting for months to find out what the bumps on my kidneys actually are and hopefully to begin treatment for the kidney stones the pain of which I cannot begin to describe.
I shall have to go directly to the meeting from hospital so it will be a busy old day.

I am making quiche for dinner with a salad from the garden and some fresh beetroot cooked today, they have done well this year, I love them so much that I eat them by the pound, greedy me.
I took a picture of a grasshopper today, they are so pretty when they fly as most of them have beautifully patterned wings, this little chap was however stationary when I immortalised him. If ever there was a good reason for not hacking down all the long grasses I our parks this is one. I shall have to get a new soap box soon as my old one is falling apart due to overwork!
This blog has done more jumping about that any grasshopper so I will stop before I make you all dizzy. I wish good luck to all in the coming week.

IN THE KITCHEN WITH AVIE

I have just spent the entire day in the kitchen cooking up a storm and I have loved almost every minute of it. There were a few hairy moments as my cooker is still playing up, however I am coming to terms with its strange ways and this week apart from a malt loaf which resembled nothing so much as a house brick all has been well.

I decided to make a large batch of Hungarian chocolate biscuits, a delicious grown up chocolate cookie with a hint of freshly ground coffee. They are a bit of a pain to make and of course as everyone knows chocolate is the messiest cooking ingredient known to man. I have to psych myself up to make them but it is worth the bother I promise you.

HUNGARIAN CHOCOLATE BISCUITS
8oz butter
4oz caster sugar
8oz self raising flour
2oz cocoa
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Filling
2oz cocoa
3 table spoons of strong black coffee
2oz butter
2oz caster sugar

Cream the butter and sugar and the n work in the flour, cocoa and essence to make a soft dough. Divide in to walnut sized pieces and roll into balls, place on a greased baking sheet and then flatten with a fork dipped in water. Bake at 350oF/ 180oc for twelve minutes, leave for a couple of minutes and then lift carefully on to a wire rack to cool.

Filling
To make the filling put the cocoa and coffee in to a pan and heat together to make, a thick cream, do not worry about any lump . Take of the heat and add the sugar and butter and beat well to make a thick creamy filling then leave to cool. Sandwich the biscuits together with the filling and allow to set before serving or storing.

Remembering that I had promised my neighbours a lemon drizzle cake this week end I next set about the making of two of these delectable cakes. This has been proving tricky of late as my oven refuses to play ball. This time I made two loaf sized sponge cakes and these came out perfectly...phew! As soon as they were out of the oven I drenched them in a mixture made with four ounces of granulated sugar and the rind and juice of two lemons, I then breathed a huge sigh of relief and poured myself a beer, I really needed the beer by this time.

The sudden change in the weather has been playing havoc with my courgettes, they go yellow and drop off before they have made a good size, a nasty affliction as you may imagine. Today I decided to pick all the small ones before this happened again and with these I made a pasta dish, a favourite with my son, the recipe for which I believe I published last year but if any one would like it again please let me know.

My son returned from his game happier than I have seen him in weeks, I know that something is badly wrong as he has taken to eating chocolate again, he has been on a diet because of his hypertension which I am afraid he inherits from me. He also has my temper and I am truly worried as by my calculation an explosion is well overdue.
In spite of various worries it has been a pleasant week, we love to be together and always make the most of time when we are all at home. I love days like this and now I am tired but content, my little cat is curled up on the bed awaiting my attention so I had better not keep her waiting, good night to you all, and blessings lite upon you.