DRAUGHTS AND DAFT MISTAKES

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THE FIRST DAY OF THE HOLIDAYS

There are few things to beat the wonderful up rush of spirits I get when I awake on the first day of the holidays, the feeling of being off the treadmill for a while makes me feel every bit as happy as it used to when the school holidays began.

We began our holiday with a special breakfast of waffles and hot strawberry jam, everyone’s favourite at the moment, we made a few plans for the day over breakfast and then my son popped in to town and I went out to look for elderberries. My luck was in, a little searching produced a carrier bag full of wonderfully ripe fruit, the juice of which had poured down my hands and wrists as I reached up to pick the berries.

Once at home I picked all the berries off the stalks........dreadful job.....and put the full three pounds onto the maslin pan with four pounds of apples and the juice of a lemon and just enough water to cover the fruit. Leaving them to simmer until the fruit was soft I had just enough time to prepare the pork for dinner and a tray of roast vegetables topped with maple syrup then it was back to the jam pan. Bubbling merrily and splattering the kitchen copiously the fruit was now ready to strain, a messy job after which I was every but as besmirched as thee kitchen, after hanging the jelly bag over a clean bowl from and old camera tripod I set about cleaning up the mess.

Scarcely an inch of the kitchen tiles was free of small red spots giving the place a festive air but also attracting numerous wasps beside themselves with excitement at the fruity smell emanating from the kitchen. One jump ahead of the little perishers I cleaned up the mess double quick as the meat was ready . The boys arrived for dinner as the wasps were leaving so that was al right and dinner was much enjoyed being a favourite feast day meal.

Still rather tired from our respective exertions we all decided on an early night as Pa has a hospital appointment at the crack of dawn tomorrow. It has been a lovely day and the prospect of the weeks to come is cheering, it may sound dull but to us spending time together, just the three of us has always been important and we have such fun.

Twiggy is delighted to have all her people at home, all the more people to tickle her tummy or to trail here toy mouse around for her to chase. I love to see her content, happy and sure of her place in the world, she really is a dear little cat and much loved by her people.

COPING WITH COURGETTES

I have received a request for some recipes that use courgettes, I suspect that someone other that myself has an embarrassment of these vegetables, they certainly have been prolific this year. Here goes.
Tomato and courgette pasta
1 pack fresh penne
3 or 4 courgettes, some of mine are so enormous that 1 would be sufficient.
2 tins chopped tomatoes
half a tube of tomato purree
2 clove of garlic c
1 small onion roughly chopped
Fresh basil, thyme, rosemary and marjoram , a tablespoon of each if you have them, if not don't panic a teaspoon of Italian seasoning will do.
Two tablespoons of olive oil
1 large mozzarella ball
4 oz of Cheshire cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper

Put the tomatoes, tomato purree, garlic and onions in to a blender with the herbs and blitz until smooth. Simmer gently in a saucepan for fifteen minutes.

While you wait slice the courgettes to about the thickness of a pound coin. Put the olive oil in a large frying pan and heat. Add the courgettes and turn in the hot oil for a few minutes without browning then add half a pint of water and cover and cook over a low heat until they begin to soften , stirring once or twice. This is called fat steaming.
While this is going on fill a large pan with water and bring to the boil, add salt and then the pasta. When the courgettes begin to soften remove for the heat and our the remaining water in to the boiling pasta. Cook the pasta according to the pack instructions. Slice the mozzarella then heat your grill.
Once the pasta is cooked drain and put half in to a greased baking dish and layer the courgettes on to followed by the mozzarella. Add half the pasta sauce then the rest of the pasta. Pour the remaining sauce over the top, sprinkle on the cheese and grill until the cheese is bubbling.
Serve this dish with a crisp salad and some garlic bread.

COURGETTE SOUP
6 Courgettes
4 cloves of garlic
1 onion roughly chopped
A good hand full of sorrel leaves if you have them, for the lady who asked for these recipe I can send you some sorrel via my son.
Otherwise use carrot and a parsnip
Stock, a cube will be fine
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 oz butter
half a pint of skimmed milk
I tub crème fraich
Chop every thing except the sorrel and sauté in the oil and melted butter until they begin to often a little. Pour over enough stock to cover and simmer for thirty minutes.

Pour some of the milk in to a blender and add some of the vegetables, blitz until smooth and pour in to a large sauce pan,then repeat this process until all the vegetables and milk are used up, in the final blitz add the sorrel and the crème fraich. Stir thoroughly and re heat, do not boil. Check for seasoning and add more if you wish. Serve with crusty bread and a sprinkle of parmigiana or if you prefer croutons are also good.

BAKED COURGETTES AND HAM IN A CHEESE SAUCE

For the sauce 2oz butter malted
1 tablespoon of plain flour
1 pint of milk
6 oz cheddar cheese
salt to taste

3 courgettes about 6” long
6 slices of ham
2 0z grated parmigiana

Melt the butter in a saucepan .add the four and stir briskly to form a paste, remove from the heat and add the milk whisking constantly then return to the heat and bring to the boil then reduce heat and cook for four minutes stirring all the time.

Split the courgettes in half and fat steam as described as described in the first recipe. When they are just beginning to soften wrap each half courgette in a slice of ham ans lay in a greased baking dish, when all six are done pour the cheese sauce over the wrapped courgettes and sprinkle the parmigiana on the top. Bake in a preheated oven for about fifteen minutes at 180oC. This makes a great supper dish or a lunch for three on its own or with a salad of tomato and basil.

I hope these recipes help I have more if you need them, let me know if so, Love Avie.X

WET FETE

The day of our fund raising fête dawned dim and dismal, dark clouds swirled around in an angry sky and the prospect of a good day faded by the minute. Ever the optimist I got myself ready, gathered up a large tray of home made jam and a big tin of shortbread and trundled off down to the allotments. Those of us who arrived early set up the stalls and erected, with much huffing and puffing a very large gazebo under which the food and drink was to be served. We set up table and chairs for the diners and at eleven thirty the food arrived, wonderful spiced apple cake, sandwiches of all sorts flat bread baked with herbs and topped with goats cheese and spicy tomato relish, spelt cakes a truly amazing bowl of salad made pretty with nasturtium and borage flowers, baked custards topped with a confit of greengages, it all looked amazing.

Twelve O clock came and we were ready to open the fête and in the first half hour a trickle of people came through the gates and then came the rain in torrents for almost an hour. We sat under the gazebo drinking tea eating sandwiches and generally larking about, any one passing by at that time would have thought that we were potty. As soon as thee was a lull two of us went out touting for business along the river and around the park, my friend is the most persuasive person I know and between us we rounded up quite a party who all headed of to the fête. By the time we returned the place was heaving with customers and my home made jam was disappearing fast.

Another lull and another whiz round the block brought in more people ans things began to hum, in spite of the weather we were doing well. I decided on one last trip around and found young family, mum dad and two lovely boys of seven and eleven sitting on a bench by the river, the man asked it there was any where he could buy iced dreams for the boys. I handed them a leaflet for the fête and told them about the lovely cakes and stalls , the boys seemed pleased and so the family followed me back to the fête.

They had a great time, winning tombola prizes trying the cakes and cookies while mum and dad made purchases at all the stalls. Four O clock came and it was time for the grand raffle draw and the youngest boy was chosen to draw the tickets, he was so pleased and proud to be asked and did a sterling job, his older brother was busy learning about vegetable growing at the other end of the field.

I had brought lots of tickets and actually one two prizes, a fabulous glass paperweight beautifully boxed and a gorgeous china plate decorated with a Kingfisher which is destined to hand in my mothers house, she is a collector of plates you see.
The young family thanked us for telling them about the fête and I got a huge hug from the boys who said that they had had the best time ever.

It was a very happy bunch who sat for a last cup of tea under the gazebo before going home, almost all the food had sold, all my jams had gone the vegetables had sold out except for a few apples and all the stalls had been well patronised, we could not believe that we had done so well after such a rotten start. Packing away began and after packing up my bric-a -brac stall I went home to get my son up and ready for work. Pa treated us to fish and chips and it was a treat indeed not to have to cook as I was very tired and sore after my busy day.

I do not know yet how much we made but whatever it is it will be more than we could have hoped for earlier in the day. Our last fund raiser helped to save the churchyard and the bat walks run by the group secretary using the bat detectors we purchased have done much to raise the profile of these rare little creatures. In our area. None of this would have been possible without the funds we have raised this year. What this proves is that a few dedicated people can make a huge difference to their neighbourhood with persistence, a positive attitude and by just having the will to change things for the better, even one person can make a difference but if a few like minded people band together anything is possible.
Tomorrow I shall cook a festival breakfast for my son when he returns from work, hoorah for the holidays. When I was at school we used to sing “One more day to go,one more day of sorrow, one more day in this old dump and we'll be free tomorrow, sung to the tune of “one man went to mow” this song was always sung on the last day of term. Not at all flattering to the teaching staff but always sung with feeling.

READY FOR THE FETE

I have spent most of today preparing for our fund raising fête at the allotments tomorrow and I now have a crate of assorted jams, jellies and preserves of all sorts labeled and ready to be sold. These with an enormous container of shortbread, about twenty pounds of apples and some damsons make up my contribution. My son has set aside a box of books to be sold, he had hoped to be able to help out at the fair but at the last minute they changed to date from next Sunday to this Sunday, he is very disappointed as he loves to play the fairground barker and is very good at it too. I am also concerned as it will make the transporting of the afore mentioned goods difficult for me to do alone, not to mention the two large tables and the benches which I have promised to the organisers and the erection of a huge gazebo, oh well, that life.

We are in the main a fairly elderly group and quite a few of us are rather infirm which makes life difficult when these sort of affairs are in train, still I expect that we shall manage somehow,hopefully without any hernias or slipped disks. What makes the situation worse is that the date was changed to accommodate the Chairman of our committee who is now hinting that he may not be able to attend in spite of the change, a pox lite upon the man and a plague take him!

The weather has been atrocious again and bodes ill for tomorrows junketing s, I shall take a very large umbrella with me tomorrow as a sop to Pluvius. The entrance to the site of the fête is at the moment cut off by a lake of a full twelve feet across and ten inches deep,at this rate we shall need a pontoon bridge in order to get people in!

Today we received only one visitor and she was warmly welcomed when she announced that she had with her a massive shopping bag full of jam jars, as I am down to my last three jars this was as welcome as the relief of Mafeking . First thing on Monday morning I shall make our special Shropshire apple chutney a pickle which is both sweet and sharp and is wonderful with cheese. This years apple crop has been tremendous, it is almost as it the tree knows that it may never fruit again.

The boys are treating me to fish and chips tomorrow so that I shall not have to cook a kindness for which I am grateful as I shall have very little time to prepare food tomorrow. I shall be glad when it is all over and Monday morning brings my son home for a three week break from work. I can see how tired he is and work has been a nightmare ever since he returned from his last vacation in May, but I believe that he has seen the light at last, I hope so.
By the way if you want to read about my sons new book his blog site is polaris printworks, yesterdays blog featured the cover of this soon to be published work.

SCREAMING THE BLUES

Having spent all day yesterday entertaining an endless stream of callers I awoke this morning fervently hoping that today I would be left in peace to get on with the work I have neglected recently, it was a vain hope indeed. My darling son, grrrrrrrr! Informed me almost at once to expect a guest who was coming to look at some boxed games with a view to purchasing them if the price was right, where at I groaned loudly and ducked under the covers declaring my intention to remain in bed all day!

Scuppered again! My dear boy also informed me that the kitchen e=resembled a battle field and that Pa was responsible for the mess, I had no choice but to venture downstairs to see for myself, the kitchen did not resemble a battlefield at all, it resembled more closely the corporation tip! Apparently poor old Pa had decided to do a bit of tidying up but having got everything out on the kitchen table ran out of energy had gone to bed, charming!. The remains of his super lay all around as the cat had also feasted on the leftovers while Pa was asleep, I was distinctly dis-chuffed by all of this and set about bringing order to the chaos, this was not done soon.

By eleven I had the kitchen in a fit state to work in and as it was bread day and I was running very late I decided to get the bread in the oven before cooking breakfast and had just finished when there was a knock at the door, the visitor arrived and I thought that as we were about to eat it would be churlish not to offer breakfast while privately was done with difficulty as Pa was messing about in the kitchen looking for something which I had binned as rubbish whole clearing up. But the time our guest had left, undecided about the games and breakfast was over my temper had frayed considerably and I decided to go out to the shop for a few necessities hoping that by the time I returned my temper would have cooled a little.

I must have been out of my mind,the shops were full of screaming children,frazzled mothers, and it poured with rain right up to the moment I drove through the gate on my return when it stopped quite suddenly , as it someone had turned off the tap.
Pa had now piled heaps of railway magazines all over the living room furniture, the cat had not been fed and the back door had been left open and the doormat was awash. I counted up to ten........and then with no thought at all for my blood pressure I let rip..*********!

After that things went a little more smoothly. I still have not labelled the jam, I have not done the ironing, I have not picked the beans, the courgettes or brought in the beetroot to boil and bottle. I have not made the second banner for the fête, in fact today I have done bugger all!
Again!
This leads me to wonder anew at the strange phenomenon which invariably occurs when aim ill. Any worsening of my health causes Pa to have an immediate relapse and to commence making as much trouble as possible. Everyone I know decides to visit all at once, and the behaviour of my family in general becomes unpredictable to the point of lunacy, all this is very strange and damned aggravating the cat becomes more that usually picky about what she eats and at such time often decides on take away leaving me to hunt out the half dead mouse t=which she has allowed to escape behind the refrigerator!

There is no doubt that pain makes me grouchy and pain killers make me sleepy, perhaps after all it is me and not everyone else whop is potty just now? All I can say is that tomorrow had better be better. I shall paint a skull and crossed bones on the front door with a red cross below. I shall pin a rude note on the back door declaring my disinclination for company and woe betide the rash fool who fronts up expecting tea, coffee, toast or anything else. The only thing on the menu tomorrow for anyone who ignores theses distress signals will be a large piece of my mind!
This afternoon we had a spectacular thunder storm this afternoon which I thoroughly enjoyed, at the hight of the storm the sky was inky blue and suddenly a streak of bright sunlight cut through the clouds and gilded the trees tops, the effect was breathtakingly lovely.
The rain has stopped now and the sun is still shining, my little cat has gone out into the garden and is sitting on her own little seat carefully placed in a dry corner, here she can watch the moths come out and the bats flitting about the orchard without wetting her pretty little paws.
She, like me has been an old misery today, if the truth be told neither of us has spent enough time outside this week and neither of us like it.

I took a large dose of codeine half an hour ago and for the first time today the pain is beginning to subside a little, my relief is beyond words. I am not sure how much longer I can continue with this level of pain and I worry very much about Pa when I am ill. With luck it will pass or with even more luck my referral to Charring Cross for treatment may come through soon, I do hope so, in the past I have ended up in A&E far too often for comfort.
For now the pain is lessening, the evening is lovely and soon I shall;; be able to climb in to my bed and rest, my son has just printed out a rude message to stick on the door tomorrow, shall I put it up.?Of course I shan't.

AT THE CAFE AVIE AGAIN

THE CAFE AVIE AGAIN

Last night I went to bed in a good deal of pain and resolved that today I would do a little as possible in order to be rested for the Sunday fund raiser, alas it was not to be. During the whole of this week so far our kitchen has been even more that usually popular, today we broke all previous records and I am , not to put too fine a point upon it Knackered!

My son called at eight thirty, the time he normally arrives home form work to tell me that he would be late as he had been for a drink with a friend who is leaving, I had expected this so it came as no surprise, my son told me that he would have breakfast in town, he is almost the only person of my acquaintance who did not eat breakfast in my kitchen.

Pa and I decided on boiled eggs and soldiers, a nice easy breakfast and we were enjoying it very much when there was a knock at the door, it was around ten thirty. I ushered in the young couple who recently married and who I am always glad to entertain and we chatted about their honeymoon in Venice while I made more tea and toast. We were still chatting away at twelve....another knock at the door, another pot of tea and more toast. I still was not too worried as I only had to make four trays of short bread and label a couple of dozen jam jars,make soup and stock take the freezer.

By one thirty they had gone and I washed up the mountain of cups saucers, plates etc. before warming 2lb of butter in the microwave and setting the oven to temperature. I had just begun to mix the flours with the butter and sugar when there was another knock at the door, Pa had seen who it was coming down the path and we both groanied knowing just what we were in for . The last time these ladies visited us the kept us occupied for over two hours and left with half the garden between them in six large bags. Although I say it myself I am noted for my generosity but these three mendicants are enough to try the patience of a saint....which I ain’t.

We were civil of course and as welcoming as could be but oh how I wished them a mile down the road, we loaded them up with goodies and they left staggering up the garden path under the weight on apples , damsons, and jars of jams and jellies. What a scourge politeness can be and yet I feel sorry for these ladies in a way as most people shun them and although I can quite see why Just cannot bring myself to be cruel to them...hey ho!

The shortbread was out of the oven ans looking at the clock I began to panic as the kitchen was once again full of messy dishes, I had not labelled the jam and it was well past time to begin to prepare dinner,till I told myself surely there would be no more visitors today....no sooner had this foolish thought escaped from my brain that the door knocker clattered again, I could not believe it, it was four O clock as I sat them down at the kitchen table, put the kettle on ...again and cracked open the biscuit tin which had incidentally taken quite a bashing during the course of the day.
If any one is curious as to why I make biscuit in such large batches you have your answer here.

They had come to discuss the proposed building of houses on my garden and so in spite of being by now pressed for time I sat and explained what was happening as they drank their tea and munched their cookies. To my delight they promised a stern letter of complaint to the planning department , to my horror I glanced at the clock, it said five....help...now what?

Just as they were leaving they asked if my son was working nights this week and \I confessed that he was, they glanced at each other and I though...now what? I was soon to find out.
Their son and a number of his friends formed a group a few years ago and I must say they were very accomplished performers...with one slight problem......TO MUCH BASE!......TOO DAMNED LOUD! LARGE FRENCH WINDOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We could not hear ourselves think and my poor son was bounced out of bed by the rhythm section. After a couple of days I was obliged to ask if they could tone it down, had I failed to do so my long suffering son would have marched round there and punched their lights out!

Peace has reigned for a year or two as they have been away at university,not any more, they are back and the band is to reform for a few days, specifically the next few days. Let us pray for wet chilly weather so that they keep those blessed French doors and their double glazed windows closed. I certainly do not wish to be a kill joy but if those youngsters wish to live to be chalet boys in Switzerland this Autumn it will be well if I get to them before my son does.

After they left I blazed around the kitchen washing up yet more dirty crockery and put the kettle on again for ache a wake up cuppa for my son, I was by now so far behind that I had no choice but to serve the meal late as at the time we would normally be sitting down to eat I had not even begun to cook, what a day. Other interruptions included the arrival of four parcel all by different couriers and not all of them for us, a lost lorry driver with a dodgy sat nav and the man who reads the metre.

This has without a doubt been the busiest quiet day I ever had, it is my intention to borrow a JCB and dig a moat all around the house and install a drawer bridge and a portcullis. On the other hand it I much nicer to make tea and serve cakes and cookies all day than to spend every day boiling oil to throw down on inopportune callers, is is not?

FOR KAI

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Last night I received a call from my son telling me that a friend had died suddenly, there was a catch I his voice and I knew that he was fighting hard not to break down.
The young man has been a friend for many years and was part of a group who were very close as youngsters and have remained so even though the group has spread all over the world.
Now working in many different fields they still meet quite often for a celebration at the pub when ever one or another is leaving for a while or returning from overseas.

One member of the group found on his return from a two year stay in Canada found the entire group waiting to welcome him home. These guys are really close and this is the first loss of this sort that they have suffered and they are all devastated. When one member of the group was seriously ill a few years ago the others rallied round and did everything they could to help him to recover.

They young man who died had returned that day from visiting relatives in Hong Kong there would have been a welcome home sometime in the next few days, instead there will be a funereal and things will never be quite the same again. When a close friend, a contemporary dies ,especially if it is the first loss of its kind within a group there is of course the dreadful sense of loss but beyond that their is the sudden realisation that you are not immortal,that it could so easily have been yourself. I lost several close friends in a car crash when I was sixteen and it gave me such a jolt as I have ever forgotten, I could so easily have been in that car,with my friends. Worse than all is the void they leave that can never be filled,, an aching chasm which threatens to draw you in when the knowledge of what you have lost forever becomes too much to be born.

Kai was a fine young man, he was exceptional in many ways, he will be much missed by his family and friends, he will not be forgotten.

LOOKING FORWARD

LOOKING FORWARD

I cannot begin to tell you just how much we are looking forward to my sons three week holiday which begins next week. The first week will be spent at home together and I have planned some fun and a great feast which will if the weather is kind be accompanied by fireworks.
Ave bury is my son's destination on the second week , it I a place we both love, a place to relax, a place which dreams of the past but which holds the key to the future...for those who know where to look.

I am glad that my sons holiday comes at this time, he needs to step back from the present and take stock of what is important to him now and he needs to plan his future,he could not have chosen a better place to do this and I hope that he will return with his way clear and his mind and body soothed. He is strong and he is young he is the master of his future and he is nobodies fool, there is in him a hidden steel which gives him courage yet he keeps his compassion and understanding of others needs.
He is my son, my pride in him is without bounds, my love for him is measurable . He has overcome so much to become the man he is today, another source of pride to me, but if there is one thing I value most in my son it is his integrity,that is beyond price.

Today's rain meant a day indoors and as I had lots of indoor things to do this was perhaps as well. Breakfast needed to be quick as Pa had yet another hospital appointment and so as the bread was nice and fresh I boiled some eggs and cut lots of well buttered soldiers, this with a pot of stronge tea some orange juice was exactly what we needed to start the day.
Having packed Pa off I put the pan of apple and rose hip juice on the boil, popped the jars in the oven to sterilise and before long I had a dozen bottles of blush pink jelly setting nicely on the work top.

Next I prepared the bechamell sauce and the meat sauce for tonight’s lasagne and then I decided that the banners for the fête needed to be my next project. The banner did not take as long as I had imagined and having completed one (I need a second) I decided to try my hand at a new kind of preserve.

Last week I bottled the orange rum and the lemon vodka and the fruit used to make this was sitting in the refrigerator. I chopped up the boozy fruit and added four pounds of apples, some cardamom and some cloves and this concoction I boiled to a pulp and set it to strain overnight. Tomorrow sugar will be added to the juice and I hope that the result will be a spicy apple marmalade, a treat for Christmas and raffle prizes for the fête.

If I had any doubt that Autumn has arrived today put them out of my mind. Towards four in the afternoon I drove out to get some fresh air, it was still raining but I enjoyed the cool breeze. My camera was in my pocket and I took some very Autumnal photographs until the rain became worse and then I headed for home . Up in my room I discovered that the cat Twiggy had also decided that Autumn was here. She had made a comfy roost at the top of Mt bed snuggled down amongst the cushions and pillow shams, sensible little girl, note to self, be sure and brush the bed down before retiring.

BAN THE BAND

There was little or no risk of getting any sleep last night as there was a very noisy party going on somewhere close by, I know most of the local bands ,and most of the D. J’s this lot I did not recognise and I hope they came with a health warning. This noisy ensemble disguised their paltry talent in the usual way...TOO MUCH BASE ! It is time that these rowdy no hoper’s were subject to some kind of regulation.
Before being let loose upon an unsuspecting public a little more musical ability than the knowledge of a few chords should be necessary, these days it seeks that the more amplifiers a group has the worse they play. Last night I thought that they wee taking a long time to tune up only to discover that they were half way through a set............had they not announced what they were going to play next I would have been hard pressed to have guessed, as for the singer, he was more like Freddie Parrot Face Davies than Freddie Mercury, bloody awful!

Around six thirty a convoy of pantechnicon s arrived loaded with furniture for the house opposite, they made the devil of a racket shunting up and down and then the drivers proceeded to hold a shouting contest that lasted for well over an hour, long before then I had given up trying to sleep and was in the kitchen baking the days bread.

It was as I was kneading the dough that I became aware of a loud clanking and crashing sound accompanied by the occasional profanity that I realised that the scaffoldings had arrived at the church. The lead has been stolen again and is to be replaced after much fund raising.

Soldiering on in spite of a splitting headache I organised breakfast and was just laying the table when a friend arrived to join us, now that is what I like, someone who knows when to arrive. We ate a jovial meal and he commented on the amount of noise at that moment their was a loud crash, a shriek and a mouthful of very picturesque language, someone must have dropped a clanger. Our guest departed and I set about clearing the kitchen and then delivered a loaf to a friend a the garden centre.

On the return journey I picked almost three pounds of rose hips, a prickly sort of job the effects of which I shall be feeling for days to come! These with six pounds of apples will make a very tasty jelly for the store cupboard and for the fête on Sunday, as the fruit bubbled in the pan I prepared the meat and vegetables for a roast dinner, our first for weeks. Roast pork with all the trimming was chosen by the boys and I did as I was told, it was a lovely change after weeks of pasta and salads.

When ever I had a spare moment I wrote and sent our thank you e mails to those who helped us to sort out the cooker problem ad notes of another sort to those who did not! Just when I thought that I was getting ahead of the game the buggy repair man arrived to fit the batteries, now reclaimed and I began to wonder if I should ever have the time for a coffee. Hopefully I asked him if he would like one, he refused and so without an excuse to make one I carried on working and before I knew it it was five thirty and I was serving our meal.

I had meant to make h banners for our fête which I was told on Saturday would be next Sunday, that does not give me long to make the blessed things leave alone get them up in time to advertise this forthcoming extravaganza. They will have to be done tomorrow and that is that!

Tonight my son returns to work, brave soul, I would rather walk naked through the fires of hell that do his job as things stand.

Tonight I intend to sleep, I have procured some earplugs, some herbal sleeping pills and a bottle of gin, one or all of which should work...I hope

Although there have not been enough hours in the day to do all I would have wished I do seem to have achieved quite a lot and though tired I feel that I have made the most of the day. Now a hot bath beckons and my snug bed, the cat has forgiven me at last and Pa gave me a box of chocolates this afternoon, sleep or no sleep it will be a nice not for me.

A HOUSE FULL OF FUN

Oh for a quite morning , one were I could lie in bed late and drink my coffee without needing to hurry..............some hope! Moan over.
Coffee was drunk in a hurry as per, and then it was down stairs for a fast breakfast, and fast it was as the new grill is so efficient that we toasted our crumpets and muffins in less than half the usual time.
As I congratulated myself upon the fact that I now had plenty of time to do the washing up in peace my neighbour arrived and that was that. Fortunately we had lots of muffins and there was plenty of tea in the pot so we chatted away until my sons friends arrived for their game whereupon our neighbour departed and I made haste to do the dishes.......Pheeew!

The dungeoneers, well equipped with bottles of soft drink and lots of nibbles enjoyed their game while I did the ironing upstairs in my room. Way back in the sixties I remember a Tomorrows World programme which claimed that we would all be wearing disposable togs by the year 2000..........I wish!

My son has a blog site of his own now which he hopes to update daily as I do, it is much more swish than mine and has video footage as well as the usual photographs. He has the jim-jams at the moment as he sent off his book for publication last night. When he came out of his room having doe so he was as white as a sheet and somewhat shaky, it is after all the culmination of about five years research on a subject about which he is passionate. I am convinced that the subject matters to him more than the book itself. He tells me that future works will be of a lighter nature which will take less time to research, I wonder if that is what Terry Pratchett thought before he began to write about disc world, being a perfectionist I am sure my boy will go to the limit to get things right.

My own book has had to be shelved due to the endless letters I have been obliged to write to all and sundry about the cooker, The building on my garden and various matters relating there to. I am to make the banners for the conservation groups forth coming charity do. “Give me plenty of notice.” I said. Yesterday I was told that the event is to take place a week today...****..!!!!!! *. I had better get scribbling !

I did some shopping for Christmas this morning and now I have almost all the gifts I need for family and friends. I must say it is a relief to have pit done. So many things have to be posted early these days and I find that the older I get the less I enjoy the mad scramble around the shops at the last minute. Truth to tell although I adore Christmas I have always detested shopping so getting the job done is always a priority.

Since we were not sure what time the tribe would be leaving this evening we decided that we would have a quick meal tonight of eggs toast and panchetta with fried tomatoes and I am glad we did as some of the group lingered to chat after the game and it is good for my son to relax and they are such a merry group of youngsters that it is impossible to be unhappy in their
presence

After a hectic end to a very hectic week we all feel that it is as well that a three week holiday for my son is pending. Pa and I shall of course stay on the old home stead but it will be good to be off the treadmill for a time.

Rose hips are ripe which means that beginning tomorrow rose hip jelly and rose hip syrup will be made, I have a lot of catching up to do now that I have an oven again in which to sterilise the jam jars. Next weeks fund raising event will take at least fifty jars of whatever is available....and I am rapidly running out of jam jars ,.Hey ho!

TESTING THE NEW OVEN

Five and a half hours of baking an assortment of goodies put the new oven through its paces and it passed with flying colours. Two dozen blueberry muffins for breakfast, perfect, three loaves, perfect, six dozen cookies, perfect ans two lemon drizzle cakes also perfect. The past few months since the rogue oven arrived have been tough, never knowing it things would either burn or come out of the oven half cooked has been for someone who bakes as much as I very challenging and I am glad that it is over.

Now I an going to do some unashamed advertising for the prince among men who mended my little net book, yes it's back and working perfectly, he only charged forty pounds and fixed it in less than twenty four hours. TAM PC SUPPORT 24/7 is the company name and Steve Broughton is the wizard who worked the miracle. His no fix no fee guarantee and honest dealing makes him a valuable commodity in these difficult times and I cannot recommend him too highly. He is based in West London and you can reach him on 020 8230 2740 or 07985 108265, give him a try next time you need any help with a computer. He guarantees his work and references are available. Thanks Steve.

The Kamikaze Dungeoneers met at our house today, their usual haunt, a local public house was apparently harbouring a rather foul smell which the intrepid heroes found offensive and so they repaired to my living room which smelled rather nicely of new bread and warm cookies. It was good to have them here again, before their numbers swelled to make the group too large for our little cottage they spent every other weekend gaming in my kitchen and a more pleasant group of young people you could not wish to meet. We shall entertain them tomorrow and I am jolly glad that I made plenty of cookies a they all have healthy appetites .

For the past three days I have been too busy to go foraging in the garden which has resulted in some ridiculously large courgettes which are destined for the soup pan and a glut of runner beans, these I shall share with the neighbours. The pumpkins too have grown a good deal since I last looked at them and today I harvested a beautiful crown prince pumpkin large and perfectly round, these are invaluable during the winter months as they keep for a long time and are delicious either roasted or
mashed with butter as a change from potatoes.

Tonight we decided on a cooked meats and cheeses meal as the bread was new and there is still plenty of salad in the garden. Pa likes anti pasto, my son prefers cold ham and chicken and I love crayfish on granary bread with salad and mayonnaise, we finished with iced cream and all agreed that for tonight it was the perfect meal.

I am experiencing a good deal of pain at the moment as my wretched kidney stones seem to be on the move again, I am glad they behaved long enough to allow my to finish the baking as tomorrow if necessary I can sit about groaning and no one will be the worse for it now that all the baking is done.

How it rained today, poor Pa got soaked on his way back from the shop but now the sun is shining, everywhere is fresh , the air deliciously cool and with a hint of autumn spice. Poor Twiggy is not best pleased about the weather a he does not care to be indoor when the house is full of tall young men, I found her sitting in a pot plant in the greenhouse and looking seriously disgruntled. Now I expect that I shall be in the dog house again, she has only just forgiven me for my last misdemeanour......and she does not yet know about tomorrow, oh dear I shall be in trouble!

THE DAY WHEN EVERYTHING HAPPENED

It really began last night when I notices that the R key on my net book was sticking,this was the last thing I needed and I was quite worried until my son told my that I could borrow his until mine was fixed. So at the crack of dawn this morning I got up,did a load of chores and at a reasonable hour departed complete with net book to he repair man found for y by my son last night. Had I known how long it was going to take me to find the residence of this person I should have taken with me pack rations, I did have a map printed out for me but the print was small and in the rush I neglected to put my glasses in my bag,typical!

Having lived in this area for some years I can say nothing to excuse myself for getting so hopelessly lost except that for a country girl on street a
of houses looks much like another and I am not in the habit of cruising the streets for the fun of it. Finally I bethought myself to ring the gentleman and he very kindly came to meet me , my relief my relief knew no bounds. He agreed to have a look at my baby and let me know the cost of repairing her.
One out fit quoted fifty-two pounds to have a look,eighty pounds for a new keyboard and sixty pound to fit the blessed thing, all this without having even seen it. Since the total cost of this would be considerably more that I paid for it when it was new ans since buying a new one would be cheaper I politely declined.

On my return the electrician
, who had promised to be with us a t ten thirty had not yet arrived and so we decided to have breakfast, my neighbour who wanted t see the fun joined us and just as we were about to bite into our first crumpet the electrician turned up with his mate , the new cooker and another chap, a friend of ours arrived also to watch the fun, thank the Gods I have a large table and a decent sized kitchen. The new cooker chosen by my son is a vast improvement of the shoddy item fitted by the estate just six months ago. It has a huge oven, a great advantage to someone who bakes in such quantity as I. It also has a full sized grill,again a huge improvement as the other had a grill so small that only two pieces of toast could be cooked at once.

I baked a pie for dinner, chicken and bacon topped with puff [pastry and served with sweet potatoes, I like my new oven. Tomorrow I shall put it through its paces as I need to bake bread and lots of cookies, I am ashamed to say that my sons friends at work had to make do with b ought ones last weekend. I also need to bake several cakes so that by this time tomorrow the oven and I should be well acquainted.

Major hoovering and steaming work needed to be done today and this was done by my son and I, he hoovered while I went to the shops and on my return I steamed all the floors and carpets, a fortnightly task which keeps the dust and mites at bay thereby easing my sons asthma and my own allergies at the same time. I was looking forward to a quiet evening after all the exertions of the day when my friend called to say that she wanted to do a preliminary bat walk in the park and as Se had been let down by our chairman, who is often incommunicado would I please join her.

Now I must tell you the[at during the past week I have had two rather nasty falls and have some serious bruising to the derrière. I have spent much time sitting on the buggy today and the idea of spending several hours this evening bouncing around the fields and lanes did not appeal,. Add to that the fact that I have been more than usually busy for the past few weeks and have spent today running around like the proverbial blue tailed fly you can easily see why I felt it best not to go, and yet how I wanted to, I adore being out after dark and I love bats and bugs,so although I thankfully delegated to walk to Pa and my son I did grieve a little that For sheer tiredness I was missing the fun again.
\The computer I am writing on tonight is my sons traveling one, a net book similar to my own and the machine upon which he wrote the learned journal to be e published next week and in hard copy in a month or two. The research for this book is the work of several years but the first draft of the book was written while he was on holiday in Castleton Derbyshire earlier this year. The third proof reading is finished at last and am very excited about it .

Although the book is about space flight at is a darned good read, it sets out to explain what went wrong with the dream and why after so long so little progress has been made. Of course I would say that it is a fine piece of work but it is not my opinion alone. My son has been publishing magazines on line for some years with success but he heart is really in the stars.
Future projects induce a series of science fiction books a genre in which he excels .He has promised me a signed copy when it is published, I am so proud of my clever boy,and it is good to see him happy again and even better to see him thinking of himself for a change.

The boys will be leaving soon and the hose will be quiet, as things are I am seldom alone, the truth is that no matter how much I love the people around me time alone is precious. Time for thoughts which are just my own, things that I keep inside myself, time for remembering and perhaps time to think sad thoughts without causing pain to others. All my memories are not happy ones, I suspect all of you could say the same, but they cannot and should not be denied their place , they are a part of us , they helped to make us what we are and painful though they may sometime be there are many that I could not bear to lose. Often it is not the memories that are sad, it is the fact that the people who made them with me are gone and I miss them more than I can say.

THE CALM AFTER THE STORM

Sleep came for me almost at once last night, tired as I was from the days battle and from the strain of these past weeks I slept like a child until about 4am. Waking early is not unusual for me and I made a coffee which I drank in bed while watching the 24 hour news. Afterwards I drifted in and out of sleep for a couple of hours hugging myself each time I woke and remembered that we won and that the new oven would arrive on Friday,I still cannot believe what happened yesterday as the result was by no means guaranteed,

After the Estate manager had departed much chastened , he instructed the acting maintenance manager to purchase the new oven at once, declaring I am told that he wished that he had done so at once. There is little love lost between these two and so the acting manager spread the tale abroad . Within half an hour I began to receive congratulations from Estate workers and other fellow sufferers of the Estate Managers callous arrogance, everyone was delighted to hear that he had been trounced at last. I predict that their will now be a rush of applications from other tenants for repairs long overdue.

We had a lazy start to the day as this is one of the few days this week when Pa does not have a hospital appointment. I cooked a breakfast of Staffordshire Piklets on the griddle and we ate them with maple syrup an cream, we are all looking forward to having blueberry muffins again it has been weeks since I was able to make them.
The grocery delivery arrived late ans my son and I unpacked ans stashed it all safely in the cupboards after which I made us some French coffee for a treat.

The weather has turned chilly and there was a distinct hint of Autumn in the air, this bodes no good for the squashes and I wonder now if this will be the norm as for the past few years we have had a succession of chilly Augusts. We have had some lovely Octobers and even Novembers but this is no use as once the plants make up their minds that Autumn is here they stop production, shrivel and die. The runner beans are flourishing however so it is not all bad news.

Pa had an eye test today at a special clinic, a routine eye test some time ago showed that their could be damage and we hope that the results of today’s test will show that there is not a serious problem. We recently made a joking list of all the parts of Pa which are either malfunctioning or not functioning at all and a list of those in good condition and I have to report that the former was much longer than the later. It seems that every time he goes to hospital to have something fixed they find another couple of problems, the list of consultants who regularly see him as almost as long as my weekly shopping list......well not quite but I think we have eight regular, thee occasional, thee clinics. One physiotherapist, a monthly blood test and then their are the regular visits to his G.P . This merry round is spread over a couple of months three hospitals and a number of clinics and on this account we are loved by our local taxi company.

Wile Pa was out I decided to give the bathroom a a good clean, I find that doing this while he is off the premises makes life easier as he has a habit of needing the loo the identical moment that I squirt down half a bottle of Harpic and this has been the cause of much strife in the past. With the bathroom sparkling I turned my attention to the kitchen and prepared some potatoes for the fritters which will accompany the gammon and eggs for tonight’s dinner.
Tomorrow I hope to be able to do a roast as it has been weeks since we had one,Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding sounds good now that the weather has turned foul.

My son has one more week of work before he begins a three week holiday. Now what was it we used to sing at school in the last days before the end of term,oh yes I remember
“One more week to go, one more week of sorrow,
One more week in this old dump and I'll be free tomorrow.”

A BATTLE IN THE KITCHEN

Today my kitchen was the scene of a great battle with much skilful sword play and all the thrust and parry of two seasoned swordsmen. He attacked with vigour but I refused to retreat, and remembering the instructions of the great Perigore of Paris I fought with the head and not the heart. In short I won and the new cooker arrives on Friday.
As my adversary departed from the field he was actually shaking, possibly from frustrated rage. He had as he was leaving fired a parting shot about the proposed trashing of my garden and I informed him that we and others had lodged objections to his proposal. Evidently he was not aware of this and the look of fury which flashed across his face was a wonder to behold.

I felt exhausted after he left and had to go out for a while to calm down, it has been a dreadful few weeks and I hope now for a little peace and quiet before the newt crisis comes along.
I actually felt sorry for the man when I saw that his hands were shaking but I buried my concern in the knowledge that he had come to threaten and bully me and had failed.

He has allowed me to choose my own cooker which is helpful I hope that now things will return to normal. I am a reasonable person and I do not go out of my way to pick fights however anyone who takes me on should know that I am always sure of my ground before I strike and that is why I always win . The Estate manager who but the dust in my kitchen should have leaned this lesson long ago, the fact that he has not done so is his fault and not mine. He was wrong from the beginning and we both knew it, he thought that he could use his position to intimidate me, he was wrong...again. I do hope that this time he has leaned something, but I doubt it.

I am as I write indulging in a very large G and T all the kerfuffle of the afternoon left no time to make a chicken stew and so we have ordered a Chinese takeaway to celebrate and afterwards we are going to reinstate the old family tradition of fright night. This is great fun as we sit in the dark watching a scary film and stuff our faces with lots of Haribo and pick and mix sweets....naughty but very nice.

I hope that the battle of the garden goes my way that is even more important than the electric cooker, but for tonight we celebrate.

COMINGS AND GOINGS

This morning I decided to put my Autumn patchwork quilt on the bed, it is perhaps a little early but I felt in need of a change and besides I spilled coffee on the summer on last night, I actually feel asleep while having a late night drink, I must be getting old. These patchwork quilts are almost all gifts from my son who is in the habit of spoiling me with unexpected treats. This week have managed to find for me two DVDS which I have been wanting for ages and have been unable to obtain. It was funny because I had ordered a shirt for him as a surprise ,it was exactly the colour he had been wanting and I could not resist. I have a surprise on order for Pa, more about that another time.
Some how tonight I feel more relaxed than I have for quite a while, it is actually more a case of being at peace with myself, a rare enough occurrence to be sure, long may it last.

Today the hedgehog who left us to stay at the hedgehog equivalent of the Ritz, he is to stay safe for the rest of his days at Tiggy Winkles Hedgehog Sanctuary and I do not mid telling you that I shall miss the little mortal very much. Many such creatures come have come my way during the past few years, victims in the main of strimmers and brush cutters which in careless hands are lethal to small animals. I use a strimmer myself but with great care and never in an area that I have not already inspected to make sure all is safe , a practice which takes little time and is worth the trouble I am sure.

Our buggy have a new clutch fitted today and she now goes even faster than before which is greet for me but maybe not so great for anyone I meet, I do tend to speed, just a little. I cannot imagine life without it now so I treat her with care.

Still no word on the cooker front but tomorrow the Estate manager is coming to see me and I intend to give him a large piece of my mind, I just hope he realises what he is walking in to , I am a very angry woman at the moment and like the “Incredible Hulk” I can be a fearsome beast, like all reasonable even tempered people when I do explode it can be spectacular, I have cleared a room more than once with a fine display of Pyrotechnic Temperament. The man has done the two things that I will not tolerate, he has treated me like a fool and he has called my honesty in to question and I won't have it. He is further more the man who is pushing for the building of houses on my garden and so I can guarantee that his reception will be a hot one.

Before Pa went off to hospital this morning the three of us breakfasted on freshly made waffles and hot jam sauce This shows how much better Pa is these days as formerly we would have had trouble just getting him up and dressed in time, it is a miracle for which we are all truly grateful. Afterwards I prepared the hedge hog for his journey, packed his things and then spent a very prickly hour or so tying in the wine berry bushes and the Tay berries which have made a huge amount of growth this year. Every thing I do in the garden now is an act of faith as perhaps next year there will be no garden, I fight and I hope , I can do no more.

Runner beans are plentiful at the moment and for dinner this evening I cooked Cumberland rings with mashed potato, runner beans onion sauce and apple gravy, working in the garden had made me hungry and I really enjoyed our meal. There is nothing quite so good as eating vegetable which were still growing half an hour before. I have some Pink Fir Apple potatoes growing in large bags , these will not be harvested for at least a month and I am looking forward to seeing how well they have done. They are not widely grown as the can be the very devil to prepare but we love the texture and flavour of these nobly little spuds , it is a few years since I grew these so this year they will be a treat.

The cat Twiggy watched the departure of her rival with a casual air, afterwards she sniffed around as I dismantled the hedgehogs pen, though still inclined to be standoffish with me I think that she will soon forgive me now that the interloper has gone. I never knew a cat to be quite so territorial as she.



<

CLOCKING ON

CLOCKING ON
I really must buy a new clock, this morning and not for the first time, I woke, looked at the clock, panicked and got up at once,only to discover half an hour later that I had miss read the time and got up an hour early. Pa old Pa had a hospital appointment this morning and I bounced the poor man out of bed far too early and I have to report that he was not at all pleased.

Looking on the bright side it was a beautiful morning and it was pleasant to drink my coffee in the orchard as the sun sent spears of golden light through the branches of the apple tree.

Baking the days bread was my first task and as I still have no oven this meant baking today’s six loaves next door, a performance of which I am becoming rather tired. Having been given another bag of flour, stone ground spelt from a mill on the Isle of Wight I decided to use some, blended with whole meal flour , some white flour and some flax and millet seed. Loaves made entirely of spelt flour tend to be quite hard and require stronger teeth than my own.

My son arrived home late from work as he had attended the leaving party of a friend from work, they joined the company at the same time and have been friends ever since, my son is very sad but it serves only to harden his resolve to leave himself during the course of the next few months,. Both young men are dedicated and hard working, it is MY opinion that a company that allows such people to slip through its fingers deserves all it gets! Alienating an entire workforce is quite an achievement and takes a degree of dedicated carelessness that takes my breath away.



By the time my son arrived home Pa had breakfasted and left, two sitting breakfasts are not at all uncommon here and I made a batch of waffles for our meal and although we were both tired it was a merry one. We talked over our plans for the week and plans of a longer term, the sun streamed in to the kitchen and the morning air, still cool was pleasant.
Afterwards my son went to his room to rest and I set off to deliver a loaf to a friend.

My route took me past some fields I which a herd of cattle were disporting themselves under the shade of a group of oaks, they grazed in desultory fashion on the few leaves that still hung down, the underside of these trees is almost entirely flat as a result of these attentions.
They did not raise their heads as I passed by but swished their tails to defend themselves from biting insects .

This morning I was informed that the long awaited cooker knobs will not be fitted tomorrow as the wrong ones had been sent, was I surprised? Of course not, I predicted it a early as last Wednesday,and the reason for my certainty is that I happen to know that the model has been obsolete for so long that the manufacturers no longer carry spares. Now I imagine the electrician who supplied the wretched thing is trying to work out what his next excuse will be. Some one has been rather naughty I think and now the birds have come home to roost.
Meanwhile I am still without an oven and getting crosser by the minute. The Estate Manger
who is really to blame for this mess is desperately attempting to shift the blame for his mistakes on to anyone and every one to save himself, This is the way of most managers of his type and is therefore also no surprise.

Refusing to be unhappy on such a blissful summer day I repaired to the garden with a pot of tea and a plate of toast as at twelve O clock I realised that while I had cooked breakfast for Pa and later for the estate worker who came with the bad news I had eaten nothing myself. I shared my meal with my tame robin who adores buttery crumbs. All was peace and calm and I enjoyed my breakfast as much as if it had been a banquet . There is such solace in nature, such a balm to stress and trouble that I wonder that Doctors do not prescribe it as a panacea for these ills instead of peddling endless pills , it would be so much nicer.

The day is over and we have finished our meal of soup and new bread, as always on this day we are all tired and an early night is on the cards I think. Looking out across the garden, over the lane and into the fields I can see the cattle again moving towards the trees , the air is sweet and fragrant with the smell of cut grass and at this moment in time our lovely little village looks as it has looked for centuries. I send out to what ever Gods are listening a fervent prayer that nothing happens to spoil its calm timeless beauty, the tawny owl has just flown in to the lime tree at the bottom of my garden as he does every night. Goodnight everyone sleep well and wake happy.

BUMP, BRUISES AND HAPPY MEMORIES

Did I mention the fall I had yesterday,it is a common occurrence and I usually bounce, at the time it was quite a while before I managed to get up but I thought that apart from a bruise of two all was well. During the night an increase of pain made me aware that I could have a problem and this morning I could barely move my leg and my ankle was swollen=en alarmingly. Further investigation revealed that my shoulder and wrist were also swollen and some truly spectacular bruises had appeared all down my right side.

Instead of attending a wedding I spent hours in A and E being x rayed, thankfully the damage is slight and I should be mobile again when the swellings go down.
Having the rest of the day free and with nothing to do I decided to sort through some old photographs. In one of the boxes I came across a wonderful photo of my father ans suddenly the day when it was taken came rushing back and I scrabbled about in the box because knew that there were more photos of that day.

It was 1974 and a very hot August day, for reasons I cannot remember we all decided to walk down the old farm track to the trout pools with a picnic. The whole family including Gran who lived with us and a young friend from a neighbouring farm. Pa and I had just returned form two long years in Coventry and I was revelling in being home again. I remember everything ,the chirping grasshoppers the rising heat ,the woods in the distance mysteriously blue and shimmering slightly. The walk was more than a country mile but we laughed and joked all the way, my Father was in fine form that day strong ,and suntanned and jolly.

Surrounded by woods and fields in a long valley were two trout pools fed by a small and cert pretty stream, further down a twelve foot water fall splashed in to a pool, always ice cold and shaded by trees. My brothers and I had played there as children and some how it seemed much smaller since I had been away and yet ever so dear to me.
One by one we shed our clothes and jumped in to the water, I had the camera which Pa had given to me for a wedding gift and I snapped away using up two rolls of film. These photographs taken light-heartedly on a hot summers day long ago constitute some of the best I have of my family and the memory of the day shines the brighter as I look through them.

Faced with a camera my father would always strike a pose and rather like those dreadful Victorian family pictures the personalities of the sitters were lost and the terrifying fixed stare that took its place. That day everyone was having so much fun that no one noticed me clicking away. The pictures of my father show the fun and sheer love of live that made him so wonderful. The photo of my mother chewing gum for which she had developed a craze, when she saw it she said she looked like a cow chewing the cud, she never chewed gum again.
My Gran plump and bossy, presiding over the tea things and my two brothers so different from one another yet both so dear to me.

Each photograph plunged me still deeper into the happiness of that perfect day,a tiny moment in my life when everything was perfect. My brother Tom diving fearlessly into the deep water and my brother Ritchie thoughtfully watching the dragon flies which darted over the smaller pool further down the valley, and the girl from the farm down the lane who was ,secretly,she thought in love with my brother,happy with the attention her swimsuit was getting.

Suddenly I felt that I would give anything to hug my father and to feel his strong arms pick me up just once more, and such a deep longing almost too great to be borne to be that carefree young girl again,for just a few moments. I packed away the photographs and closed the box.

Sitting in the garden a little later sticking the labels on to jars of home made jam I suddenly realised how lucky I was to have such wonderful memories. How lucky to have a country childhood with endless fields and woods to play in on those seemingly endless summer days.
My Father was only fifty six when he died not so very long after that golden summer day, to have the memory of him laughing and happy is really a great joy and not a thing to be sad about.
I have never stopped missing the man who always saw the funny side of things, who always had the answer to a problem and who never got discouraged no matter what, but he is in my heart forever.
Quite suddenly today when I had seemed to be surrounded by problems and felt tired with the struggle , I thought of him again and somehow I knew that no matter what happened I would be strong enough to carry on, I am after all my fathers daughter.

ALLIA IACTA EST

If my son had any lingering doubts that he was right in planning his departure are rapidly being erased with every passing day. Had he taken my advice he would have moved on a couple of years ago, he is however a man who makes his own decisions, and quite right too.
I am happy to see him a little more relaxed, he has a three week holiday soon and is off to Avebury for a spiritual recharge and we are planning a few things for the days when he is at home.
He has learned at last that nothing and nobody is worth the kind of stress he has been under for so long and for all the good it has done him he might as well not have bothered.

My luck ran out today and my attempt to bake some shortbread in my refractory oven was a dismal failure , they are just about edible , only just. We had a guest for breakfast today and that cheered things up a little. His daughter is getting married tomorrow and he is a fugitive from all the female bustle that such events engender. Poor soul, things must be pretty tough. Pa and I are going to the wedding ceremony and are looking forward to it very much, we declined party afterwards though, Pa will have had enough excitement and for that matter so will I.
Our hedgehog is fine and still stuffing his dear little face with every tasty morsel he is given, the cat is still sulking and when she sulks she really really sulks, I am left in no doubt at all that I an in the dog house, ho hum!

Although we are eating the courgettes as fast as we can they blessed things are now producing about five good sized specimens a day and we shall soon be at saturation point,. Today I disguised them with a rich tomato pasta sauce and lots of cheese, God only knows what I shall do with tomorrows clutch!

Bottling the fruit jelly was hard work today as without being able to tell the oven temperature I almost shattered the jars again I am getting quite nervous about it but this is high season for jam and jelly making so I shall have to trust to providence and hope for the best. Aim told that the new knobs will arrive with the electrician on Tuesday, I shall believe it on the day it happens and not a moment before. I never seem to be amazed at the inefficiency I see all around me, I does not seem to pay to do a good job any more, in my day the Burk responsible for this fiasco would have been sacked ages ago, no doubt he has friends in high places. Why work hard if you can get away with doing nothing and why do a good job if a bad job pays the same wages, I suppose I can not really blame the man when I look at it that way and yet it is not only myself that he is ripping off, his boss is the real fool for letting him get away with it after all he is the silly bugger who is paying the bill, not me.

This has been a time of burning bridges and taking tough decisions for all of us at the cottage and a time of fighting battles, we are strong because we stand together and we would fight each others corner to the bitter end Not Lords nor ladies, Maintenance managers, estate managers or any other perfidious persons prone to pompous posturing , pheeew, cut any ice with us. That is absolute.

Tonight I am being naughty and have squirrelled away a treat of two, I have been having a hard time lately and I feel the need for a treat. A box of chocs, a double gin and a favourite film to watch,lovely, and woe betide anyone who disturbs my solitary revel.

WEIGHTY AFFAIRS WILL JUST HAVE TO WAIT

With all the riots and redundancies, broken cookers and land grabbing landlords I have not had much time for writing about the things I love, tonight I shall put that right.
Perhaps I forgot to mention that a few days ago I was given custody of a small, heartbreakingly cute three legged hedge hog! He had been checked out by a vet and apart from the missing leg and the fact that he was rather under weight he appeared in good health and was amazingly totally devoid of fleas!

Since he arrived I have managed to return him to his normal nocturnal habits, during the day he sleeps in a large hay filled flower pot inside a small run, he has water if he needs it. His snoring has puzzled that cat Twiggy and she has become a little jealous of the attention I give to this unseen but snuffly guest. Shortly before dusk I move his bed, with him still in it in to the greenhouse , there I have made a small water hole and I leave a dish of the choicest cat food we have;one more reason for Twiggy to be humpty.
Blackberries are in season and the very ripe sweet ones are a hedgehogs favourite fruit, in the wild they will eat any fallen fruits they find.
Finding slugs has not been easy as the ground has until recently been dry but by spraying a little water around the plant pots and on the log piles I have managed to keep my guest supplied with his all time favourite nosh.

Today I added a few suet pellets, the ones with insects in as the little chap needs to gain weight as fast as possible, he is adorable and we all love having him around.....except of course for the cat!

I should love to be able to keep him and in normal circumstances the orchard would be ideal as it is completely walled round. This would mean the the hedgehog would have lots of space to roam about with the others of his kind who inhabit the gardens here, while at the same time he would have access to regular meals and some one to keep and eye on his disability.
The trouble of course is the spectre of the new houses that my landlord hopes to build here.
Having him in the garden if this happens would only be one more heartbreak and I need to know that he will be safe.
Hedgehogs I a told are not to be kept as pets, possibly because their habits are a little, shall we say unfortunate at times so I need to find some one with a nice big walled garden with no pond,no dogs and a nice quiet dry and bosky corner where he can sleep the winter days away safely and in peace.

The electrician did not turn up with my new knobs and so I am still without an oven, hey-ho.
Sterilising the jars for jam making is proving difficult as I need the jars to be hot so the the lids will seal. In spite of this I made a batch of damson sauce yesterday. This is a marvellously versatile condiment as it can be poured over iced cream ,or hot sponge pudding, rice pudding or on to pancakes. Whenever I am making a game stew, pie or casserole I always add a good dollop of this to the pot as it make the gravy wonderfully rich. We even use it to make milk shakes in a blender by whizzing it round with some milk and some iced cream. Whenever it appears at our charity stall it is always one of the fist things to sell out,

Today I made damson and apple jelly and tomorrow it will be elderberry and blackberry(I picked the fruit today) Tomorrow is also bread day so I shall be bothering the neighbours once again.
I am happy to report that my son is feeling all the better for having given some consideration to his future, and about time too, after all if he does not who else will, it is well past time that he put himself first and I am glad that he sees things more clearly at last.

I am off to a wedding on Saturday, I even have a posh frock for the occasion, since I hate posh frocks it will probably appear on e bay sometime next week! I am afraid that the Avie is most defiantly a tramp!

OF TWERPS ,TWITS AND POLITICAL NITWITS

I never cease to be amazed at the level of perfidy to which some are prepared to sink. Our world is one where caring is considered a weakness and in order to progress one must be uncaring,untruthful and unprincipled, one must be prepared to rip and tear ones way through friendship and loyalty in order to succeed. Why then if this is know n do we express such amazement when top people turn out to be either total shits, clueless clots or just plain crooks? Are we really so naïve as to think that any one out there cares a damn about anything other than them selves. Yes, we are, because we need to think so in order to feel safe, and until we face the facts we shall continue to be imposed upon by these unworthy individuals.

During these past few days I have monitored the news with more than a passing interest, you see what is happening now is exactly what I predicted just over a year ago when the Tories and the Lib Dems formed their diabolic pact and sold us all down the river in the process. These are the pompous self serving cloth heads who have brought and paid for the infernal mess we now find our selves in. Our young people , those in deprived areas and the working classes have been criminalised by these people in order to provide the middle class with a common enemy and they fell for it hook line and sinker, as always

What went round came back round with a vengeance because now those same comfortable middle classes have have their nice Ikea cages rattled by cuts unemployment and falling house prices. Every section of society is threatened by the bad decisions of governments past and present
The New Labour crowd smiled as the greedy bankers gambled outrageously with other peoples money while their Chancellor looted pension funds to pay for his Parties excesses.
Those I power at the moment tell us that it is all our own fault and oh boy are they making us pay.

During the last few nights the birds came home to roost ,now they are worried and with reason, if a mob can storm and loot a town how long will it be before Whitehall gets its comeuppance, it will happen just as soon as people realise who is really to blame and now that they know there own strength God help us all!

I went for a drink last night with an old barrister friend of mine,I had a little problem that I wanted to run by him and his mates rate is always a couple of large Scotches. I explained my difficulty and when he had finished laughing, which was not soon he told me not to worry and we fell to discussing the riots. He told me that he felt that the whole system was breaking down and that even if the police managed to arrest every rioter the courts would not be able to process all the cases, which is , if you recall what happened during the Pole Tax riots some years ago.
The prisons are too full to hold any more miscreants and the number of Police Force is about to be cut by our forward thinking Government. He is worried.
This morning I spoke to a local shop keeper who is prepared to defend his livelihood with his life,
He is worried too.

If we are going to treat people like criminals we should not be surprised when the behave as such. In a way we are at fault because we have allowed things to come to this by our apathy,and inactivity. There are other ways that violence to get things changed of course but for the people in the streets on these last dreadful nights who have nothing to lose, this is the last resort. They have heard all the talk and they know that their lives are about to become even bleaker and more intolerable than ever. This is the only way left to them to make themselves heard and it is time that those in authority started to listen before we descend in to total anarchy.

The genii is out of the bottle and we have lost the cork,listening and being seem to do so is now the only way to go, I just hope that it is not too late.
These rioters are out to settle old scores, to take back their own. They have been robbed of their employment their children’s future and the young people involved it the riots are in and even worse case.. No education, no jobs, no homes no family, no future. People can survive without most things but hope is something that no one can live without.
If I was a fat cat banker, or a mealy mouthed politician I should be worried about my own future just now because eventually some one is going to realise where the blame for all this really lies, no wonder they are shaking in their well polished boots.

THE INVISIBLE WORM

Many of you will have watched to rioting last not and some of you probably saw it at a range too close for comfort. Pa and I went off to bed last not armed to the teeth, we have quite an arsenal between us and a our next door neighbour is a champion archer we felt we had done all we could.
I was working for a theatre company in Birmingham during the riots of 1981 and experienced first hand the terror of mob rule, I watched people burning down the shops ., flats and offices in their own neighbourhood it was awful.
A man who stood beside me told me that the people who were burning down his shop were all customers who used it regularly. I was appalled.

Unfortunately it is far to easy to say that all the rioters are criminals although it is certain that many . Are. What we need to ask is why do things like this start and what will it take to stop it.
My own theory , for what it is worth is that out there are thousands of disenfranchised young people with no future. They have been stung in to action by a sense of injustice and they have nothing left to loose. Injustice, think about the word and what it means. People who are pushed to the limit, people h=who are condemned without good cause, people who are blamed for the wrongs of others and people who have been backed in to a corner, people with no futur4e will inevitably come our =t fighting and make no mistake, when a man feels that he has nothing to lose he will fight hard.

Our society is corrupt, this cannot be denied. All to often the people at the top are not worthy of the positions they hold, remember the parliamentary corruption scandal of last year. The police scandals of a few weeks ago. Every where we find inequality, and bully boy tactics and yet we call ourselves civilised. These are the ways of the morally barren, unimaginative and generally spineless and they are not all out on the streets throwing bricks though shop windows. They are hypocrites and deserve to be despised.

I am by no means defending the rioters I merely say that it is easy to understand, push a man too far at your peril, for there can only be one result.

While the mealy mouthed politicians lectured us about our spendthrift ways, they should have realised that they were pushing peoples patience beyond endurance. How does some one who has nothing “cut down” ? The danger is that once people realise that the police can not stop them they become more outrageous as time goes by. Obviously out leaders are a pack of self important fools because they did not see this coming.

Watching the Arab Spring uprising s should have been enough of a warning to anyone that such a thing could happen any where.
Some people have said that the army should be brought in that would mean civil war.., and besides there are not enough soldiers to quell such riots any more than there are enough police.
Last night London burned and its people realised at last that they are on there own, most of them are shocked to the core.

There was a good deal of looting and of course there is always a criminal element involved it these events but not every one who took advantage of the situation to enrich themselves was of the criminal class. The shops are full of goodies that you will never be able to afford you are taunted by those who are supposed to set and example, OK what they did was wrong but who can blame them, most are barley out of childhood and are already cast on to the scrap heaps through no fault of their own.

I hope with all my heart that this mess fizzles out but if it does we should never forget how close we came to total breakdown in society.
While those who really caused the depression still fill their pockets and while ordinary people are being ripped off at every turn we run the risk of more and worse than we have already seen.
Those who are really to blame must take the consequences of their action and this must be seen to be so. If our leaders wish to be listened to and perhaps obeyed in times such as these they must have our respect and that respect needs to be earned. They have by their own actions forfeited that respect and the result of that catastrophe is what really made London burn last night.

As I said when President Mubarak was deposed by the will of the people Tyrants Beware.!