HeyHo.. Off to work SHE goes.

WE have lots to tell YOU Dear Reader..

But today is Wednesday, the day that SHE does HER voluntary work for The Trinity Hospice and so there will be a big fat post on MY Blog tonight.

Ohhh, yes indeeedy it makes ME very happy to see HER with smiley face again.

GeeGee Parrot.
Leap Day.
February 29th, 2012

Having a nap..

Greetings from a mad house..

It is not really a house for the mad... but WE are a little different from most other people, I think that is the correct way to say it without offending HER.

We very nearly had that dreadful Mr. Woe in the kitchen... he was prancing about on the steps laughing and saying "SHE can't get it right, she never was good at maths, I am coming in", luckily for peace-in-kitchen and good-humour-in-the-morning, our much beloved Ellie was selling her delicious Goaty milk in Wimbledon at the Farmer's Market.. and when ole Mr. Woe saw Wicker Trolley coming up the pavement he mooched off back to where he lurks whenever Goaty Milk is in the fridge.

Ellie had sad news, Little Goaty Gurl has died, she and Ellie and everyone had tried so hard to get her better but it was not to be, so Little Goaty has gone to Goaty Heaven..

SHE is very tired as SHE is not sleeping properly, so after a very busy morning with going to Wimbledon and onto Earlsfield to the Farmer's Market, back via Clapham Common to see the Telephone Shop, up hill to Lidl to get MY favourite bread, yum... Sunflower with Rye, into Bank and home to make ME lunch, SHE has gone to have a sleep... this is very strange behaviour in middle of day, most unlike HER, normally SHE would have put gardening boots and clothes on and gone to allotment.

I am sitting on pole looking at people on the street, leaving HER to be quiet. Papers are full of very strange things... how weird people are! WE are reading fascinating book on Italy, it is a mix of food, history and travel, good stuff indeedy but it is lying in HER basket.

I hope SHE will be feeling better after this nap, SHE has a guest arriving in a weeks time so room needs to be changed into a bedroom. Housework has to be done, so I will do MY bit and flap dust about, Mr. Dyson is all clean and ready, though I do not think this will happen today.

But YOU have a happy day wherever YOU maybe.

GeeGeeParrot.
February 25th, 2012.

Beatrix Potter and Nursery Rhyme

Were all of YOU laughing at ME? Because I have realised that I muddled up Mr. MacGregor, the old gardener who Beatrix Potter wrote about in her book 'Peter Rabbit' and ole MacDonald who had the farm..

Never mind... no harm done, I gave YOU a free laugh at MY expense... that is IF YOU realised MY error.. sometimes I do wonder about YOU lot out there, are YOU awake or dozing whilst YOU read MY Blog? None of YOU write comments in the box which I leave for such a reason!

Have been feeling blue and in dump, and it appears I am not the only one in dump, one of my MOST loyal and very beloved Dear Readers from Oxfordshire has told us that she has also been in dump.. not nice place to be. That is why WE should all laugh and enjoy ourselves.. laughter is a great medicine along with sunshine and the sight of pretty things growing wild.

SHE went to the allotments on Sunday, half expecting to find little shed vandalised like before Christmas but no.. what a nice surprise, door to little shed was still in one piece.

But Master Mouse and Mister Rat have spent the winter there, I cannot say I blame either of them, if I was a furry person of no fixed abode, I would spend the winter in cosy warm little shed.

But it means that SHE will have to go down with strong rubbish bags as they have nibbled at many things and made BIG mess but with brush and the fierce Mrs. Sterlisation Fluid SHE will soon have it as clean as little shed can be and then SHE is going to have a serious talk with Mr. Weed.

For it seems that silly Mr. Weed has decided that he might come and loiter on HER terrace, very foolish Mr. Weed as SHE has HOT Mr. Flame Gun and SHE will burn you. Talking about burning..

SHE did do some work with secaturs and cut down all the old asparagus and raspberry canes, put them into incinerator, tossed in a lit BBQ lighter and whoosh, up they went in orange flame, no smoke.. jurst hot flame, SHE will put the ash onto a bed and mix it into the soil. Good for soil.

On Monday SHE went to Hammersmith and bought several packets of Beans, Onions, Galic and Shallots to plant this coming weekend. SHE starts the Beans off at home and then pops them into the ground. WE are supposed to be having glorious weather this weekend... uh, but actually LAST Spring sprang out of nowhere.. HER asparagus was SIX weeks early!

SHE also cut down the old leaves and stems on all of HER beloved Peonies, and oh joy.. there were a huge amount of dark pink noses saying "Is it Spring, shall we start growing yet?", SHE advised them not to grow too quickly as OUR last Frost date is June, yes June 9th... very late and SHE doesn't want everyone to have their noses burnt by norty ole Jack, he is a bad boy, he comes when you think it is summer and scatters his icy ice all over baby plants and they look as if Bad Mr. Blight has been to visit. SHE left Peonies with a little shawl around their shoulders, as it were.

Lots of work to do at allotments, grass to cut and burn, idle Strimmer jurst thinks he is having an easy winter, little does he know SHE has new Sparky Plug... hahaha, and petrol with oil, so idle Strimmer is going to have to do lots of work and cut back long grass on path and around by Blackberry hedge, SHE leaves baby Nettle as SHE luvres making him into soup.. very tasty, MUCH nicer than Spinach soup.

SHE found Sorrel is awake and growing and so too is that charming old Italian with the strange name Radicchio! She is dark burgundy coloured as it has been snowy.. such a tasty leaf she has and is very good for ones' digestion, like ole Dandy-the-Lion.

And guess who was there to greet HER, in fact they were doing their version of the Welcome Dance.. none other than the very graceful Miss Snowdrop, she was looking very fetching in a white bell shaped skirt and green accessories. Also there to greet HER were a couple of Miss Daffodils, I regret to say that Miss Narcissi was still fast asleep, well, it is still only February and she does have a LOT of work to do.. she has to get all that delicious perfume all sorted out ready to explode up one's nose when YOU bend down to sniff...

Talk about 'sniffing'.. I can smell roast vegetables in oven.. with garlic, chilli and homegrown thyme.. I LURVE these.. I hope YOU have something equally delicious to eat?

Best wishes to YOU all, STATS say WE have a couple of NEW Dear Readers.. 1 in Bangladesh and 1 in The Dominican Republic! WE have Charles and Milli-Coon Cat reading in Welsh Wales and several Readers are reading in Russia... laugh lots please.. all of YOU, laugh and smile, for YOU know what WE say.. fit and toned muscles keep everything up!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 22nd, 2012.

NORTY POST EATING BLOG

Sorry everyone... I HAVE written and no sooner did I press 'SAVE' than the entire post disappeared into never-never land.. and never were seen again.. this has happened three, yes, three times and the ONLY thing Blog does not eat is the title.

Tomorrow SHE is working at the Charity Shop, SHE leaves at 5pm and will take norty iPad to Apple Store and ask them "what on earth is going on"...

So this is why YOU haven't heard from ME. SHE even went to look in iCloud but there was nothing there, I do hope there is nothing wrong with THIS iPad, SHE has already had one that was faulty and didn't store things.

WE send YOU our best wishes and hope to be back with Parrot Tales of Life as soon as possible. So "hang in there folks", WE have to get this norty machine to behave, if the truth were being told, "is it?", I ask HER, I am not very impressed by the behaviour of iPad...

GeeGee Parrot.
February 21st, 2012.

The Pie Spy and The Paper Muncher..

Dear Readers, good evening to YOU all.

I didn't want go to Studio today, I heard the weather forecast and whilst it does not seem to getting as cold as 'they' said it would, at 9.00am this morning I was perched on top of cupboard door in our bedroom with delicious warm air flowing in my direction from radiator below, suffice to say that I let HER go to work by herself.

SHE doesn't need ME to get HER onto the # 19 bus, SHE's taken that bus for more years than it would be polite to tell YOU. Off SHE trundled with ole faithful Wicker Trolley and I settled down to a peaceful day. Very good for ONE to have a day like this occasionally, to do claws and preen new feathers that are coming through. To doze and dream of old friends and of warmer times.

Before too long, I heard the noise of ole Wicker and HER coming down the stairs, goodness ME, I did have a long nap! SHE always calls ME when SHE is inside the house and I fly to top of bedroom door to welcome HER back... oh, it makes MY heart SO glad to see HER, even after a short space of time.. YOU see, Dear Reader, SHE maybe human but SHE is MY mum and I do so LURVE HER very much.

Hungry and thirsty WE both were, so it is a simple thing of opening kitchen door and stepping inside to YumYum HQ, everything was neat and tidy, WE eat left-overs in this house, SHE is frugal and doesn't believe in wasting food... what have WE got for tonight's supper?

Well, it is Ravioli with a thickening of last night's mashed Sweet Potato and a bit of Carrot, with a topping of Chilli and parmesan flakes. Good stuff! I hopped onto top of fridge and whilst SHE got the Ravioli and the Carrot and Sweet Potato together, SHE gave ME first course which was a slice of Rye and Sunflower Bread.

Delicious nibble nibble stuff it is too... then SHE gave ME three WHOLE Ravioli, Carrot and Sweet Potato and WE settled down to eat our supper. SHE eats faster than I do and went to get basket, basket slides into Wicker and is very useful, basket had a newspaper in it, SHE made herself comfy and making sure that I ate supper instead of playing fool, SHE decided to read ME a couple of articles.

And this is when I started to laugh.. for a certain supermarket chain that shall be nameless but whose name begins with T and ends in O, has employed a 'Pie Spy'. WE want to know, what is this woman's training? Did she do it in Melton Mowbray.. no, she comes from St.Albans.

All I know about St.Albans is that it is in Hertfordshire, near to where SHE went to school at Tring, that a descendant of King Charles 2nd carries the Title of Duke of St.Albans, in fact, the current Duke dined in this home at the party given to celebrate Peter Pigeon's Seventh Birthday and in honour of the occasion, Duke wore red socks!

WE were not aware that St.Albans has a Pie Spy School.. but who knows, maybe they do?

The other piece that made me laugh is headed "I devour my paper hot off the press...".

This woman, who is pregnant, eats newspaper, she munches away at her paper and just in case she gets hungry when sheis out and about, she keeps some shredded pages in a plastic bag in her basket, words failed. I was laughing too much!

And her paper of choice is The Dundee Evening Telegraph, she says that when her three children are norty and mix up this paper with others, of obviously inferior taste, she can tell which is which. I rest MY case Your Honour, the woman is a nutter... a paper munching nutter. What MUST her children feel like when they are out and about and they see other people watching her as she pops a couple of pages into her mouth? Eh... does she think about her unborn babe having to read this Scottish Weekly? Poor wee bairn, is what WE say.

One of OUR Readers up in Welsh Wales, he must be a bit shy because although he reads us, he hasn't put his wing up and joined up as a Follower... obviously NO RED'Y for him then! Anyway, he asked HER what does SHE grow on the Allotment? No, it is not a question of what does SHE grow, it is a question of what DOESN'T SHE grow.

No allotmenteering for HER tomorrow, Amber sent a message asking HER if SHE would go and help them put the Charity shop back together again tomorrow morning, there is 'A grand re-opening tomorrow in the afternoon', if it is a reasonable day on Sunday, SHE will go to the Allotment and do lots of work, Asparagus has to be cut down as do Autumn Raspberries, SHE gave all of HER Roses a 'wind pruning' in November and will do the next hard prune in March.

WE are going to finish a book that SHE has to return to the Libary, SHE is so grateful that HER Library hasn't been closed. For it is an extremely busy one and they make very good use of the excellent facilities and space. Lovely Librarians as well, so kind and helpful... SHE is very grateful to her parents for giving HER this love of books.

On that happy note, WE hope YOU stay snug... Lovely Assistant is sleeping in a Yurt... Dear Man, mad as a hatter!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 17th, 2012.

ROAST CHICKEN..

So that there will be NO nonsense in the kitchen tonight... not one mouthful of any member of the Foreign Food Brigade is to appear at the table. SHE went into the kitchen last night to get a glass of water and they were still muttering and so SHE gave them a warning.. they were to stop all the nonsense immediately OR SHE would get Mrs. Steriliser out.

Not one peep has been heard from that moment on.. Do YOU have Mrs. Steriliser in YOUR kitchen. She is very good and WE use her to keep kitchen cloths, washing-up brushes and drains clean. Also she is very good in Mrs. Wash Machine for white clothes and dish towels. But Mrs. Steriliser is very strong, strong enough to make eyes water, so all those norty Foreign Food Brigade Folk knew it was time to pipe down and behave themselves.

What a pleasant night it was, tummy full and weather warm meant that both of US slept very well, what a difference from last Saturday. But that dreary Weather Forecast says WE will be having another cold week-end, why? SHE wanted to go to the allotments this weekend, it is sad but as there have been so many very unpleasant things happening down there SHE doesn't feel safe any more. SHE used to go all the time and sometimes SHE would get up very early and be there by 08.00am! But since the nasty men hitched up Elaine's little caravan and drove it away, SHE only wants to go when SHE knows other people will be there in case there is any trouble.

SHE went up the road to Gill's flat today in just a sweater! And it was warm... such a difference to last weekend when I was more than willing to get under HER big feather quilt and be cuddled... oh, MY ears and feathers were so cold.. why was it SO cold? What was ole Wind trying to prove or tell us? Yes, it is winter, WE know that, what was he up to, norty Wind, apparently this new cold is coming in from the North West.. well, Beak into shoulder blades is MY answer to that.

Next week SHE will be back at the Charity Shop doing HER Volunteer work, the shop had to have new electrics, SHE was there with Amber one day when a fire started out underneath the sink... scary stuff, suppose the fire had broken out just three ours later... the whole of the building would have gone up in flames, fire and smoke... the whole place has been redone and I think it re-opens this weekend.

That will mean I am 'home alone' on that day but as long as there is cardboard to chew and an ample supply of YumYum, I am used to HER doing this work for this Charity, it is a very well worthwhile one too. The shops support a Hospice. OUR shop raises the most money every year, the shop is always pretty and smart and considering that they are selling stuff that people have given away.. well, it takes a lot of work to make it look so that someone else will pay a reasonable sum for it.

Tomorrow is HER day at the Studio. And if I go with HER depends on the weather, the forecast is dire for tomorrow, so I may stay 'home alone', SHE goes by bus and much as I would LURVE to go and see everyone, I don't want ole north-west Wind in MY air sacks. SHE tried to go by the underground but by the time SHE had walked up and down all those internal passages, HER knees were in such a sorry state that they started playing up again. HER knees have been very well behaved for a very long time, so SHE was sad that they were made sore by going underground, there are stairs at Studio so SHE has to be able to go up and down them.. so a number 19 bus is the way WE go to work.

If WE are having Roast Chick-the-lick, then I get some BONES... oh, this is a serious munch and scrunch time.. crack those there bones open and lick out the marrow, why yes, of course, I have a tongue, it is black and very chic.. However, marrow which is beyond delicious, get's all over Beak, so SHE is very kind and wipes Beak with a napkin.

Did YOU all go onto YouTube to watch 'Two Dogs Dining'?... oh ME, oh MY, how WE laughed. It was very clever and very funny. "Thank you" to whoever made that video.

OK, Dear Reader, it is time to go to the kitchen and watch HER do the vegetables, WE are having, as a special treat for me, mashed Sweet Potato with butter and a little Nutmeg.. jurst what WE need if old man Wind is coming back to see us. I hope YOU have something delicious to eat for YOUR supper?

GeeGee Parrot.
February 16th, 2012.

NEWS FLASH.....

Shortest Post ever...

'TWO DOGS DINING' is on YOUTUBE..

YOU will "Thank" ME for this...

GeeGee Parrot.
February 15th, 2012.

A fight in el cantina

Que pasa... what is happening, ooh, there is a fight going on in OUR kitchen.

Honestly, YOU would think that there is enough room in there for them to behave properly, but no.. Foreign Food Brigade is in turmoil and up in whisk, they're all banging their favourite spoon and rattling saucepan lids.. such a palaver all because WE were having Chilli con Carne for supper but SHE decided that WE would have Ravioli with Tomato Sauce instead.. Gordon Bennett, such behaviour, such BAD behaviour. Chilli feels slighted and Ravioli is not being discreet about being the chosen one... oh dear, I hope this doesn't delay YumYum time?

But I have to tell YOU, very quietly so SHE doesn't hear, that SHE caused this froll-de-roll, because SHE brought home Cheese Tortilla Chips by mistake instead of Chilli flavoured ones... I turn Beak away from such things as I only eat the Chilli ones, SHE didn't think anyone would get their tomatoes in a twist and upon seeing HER mistake SHE got ole Ravioli out of Mr. Freezer, then two tins of Plum Tomatoes from store cupboard and several cloves of Garlic with which SHE has made HER very famous 'Calabrian' Garlic and Tomato Sauce.

And THAT, Dear Reader, was when those two hot blooded foods started muttering "Wooden Spoons at Dawn" and rattling their whisks... such nonsense hehehe and I made it worse, deliberately, by asking for some Italian Olives... I know, so NORTY of ME but really, such a fuss about who-gets-eaten-first.

Whatever next..

Well, actually, it isn't next, it should be 'Whatever Before'... because this morning Simon Playle sent US the funniest thing WE have seen in a very loonng time, it is on UTube and it is two dogs dining in a restaurant... oh, Jiminy Cricket WE laughed so much, not a word is spoken, they sit there with proper dog heads and human hands... it is so very, so very clever.. the human ... NO, YOU go and find it. WE laughed so much SHE had to telephone Cornelia and ask her to thank her husband for sending it to US.

SHE sent it onto a lot of HER friends and the responses are coming in fast and hysterically... WE would love to thank the people who made this, let alone congratulate the two stars, the dogs, who are wonderful and the waitress HAS to be commended for keeping a straight face!

Garlic and Tommie Tomtom Sauce... mouth wateringly SCRUMMYDUMPTIOUS stuff. Off WE go, please try and find the UTube link .. if I remember, I will get HER to write it down and I will post it on MY Blog for YOU tomorrow.

Adios.. whoooops I didn't mean to say that, it was a slip of Beak, I meant "Ciao"..

GeeGee Parrot.
February 15th, 2012.

A Sunny Day in London Town..

Hop-diggedy-dog... IT IS SUNNY! Yes, ole Man Sun has come to visit, Sun is pretty clever because he can and does shine his golden torch on several places at the same time, WE are here in Knightsbridge but he could be, and I hope he is, shining his light on Debi-in-Sheffield and on those norty Goaty Folk in north Kent.

And as it is a sunny day, I have a feeling that SHE is going to scamper off with ole Wicker Trolley, really those two are so bad, at the slightest sign of a 'good' day off they run ... either up or down our street and away they go.. and now ole Wicker doesn't squeak any longer I am unable to know which way they go.. off on a jaunt without ME. When SHE was working I always used to go with HER if SHE had car.. all over England WE used to go to see clients, restorers or suppliers, it was a jolly and very merry life.

Dearest Debi-in-Sheffield got up very early this morning and sent HER an interesting piece of information. SHE has sent it onto Lesley-in-NYC. Now there is a Gurl who goes down and underground a lot, SHE hasn't heard from Lesley for ages, but bless-her-heart for she wrote a very nice comment about MY Blog right at the beginning when I first started it last December but WE haven't heard a word from her since.

She writes the 'UNOFFICIAL GUIDE BOOK TO LONDON' which is a truly marvellous guide book and this is THE ONLY GUIDE BOOK TO LONDON YOU WILL EVER NEED... I wrote that in BIG letters so that YOU would all see it properly AND remember the title.

Our Gurl Nora, aka Lesley and Tom's (Lesley's husband) daughter is now living back in NYC, she was in Bali for a year, she works with silver and semi-precious stones and is selling her work. .. yes, apparently her work is being much admired.

WE LURVE to hear of people doing well and especially OUR friend's children.

But back to today, SHE spoke to The Wizard a couple of days ago, he has been so sick, poor Wizard. He has had blood tests and so the doctor knows there is nothing 'nasty' going on but he feels very 'crook', as they would say in Aussie language. SHE promised him that SHE would get him some stuff from the MARVELLOUS Herbalist in Streatham Hill. So that is where SHE will go with ole squeak-free Wicker.

Did I tell YOU about Gill-up-the-street, well, she is isn't up the street at the moment because last week she flew to Thailand to meet up with a couple of people and do business. She had only been there a couple of days when her bag was snatched off her shoulder, yes, Dear Reader, she was 'mugged' in Bankok in the business area.

The bag had her wallet with her credit and debit cards, her iPad and both of her Blackberries, she had two because one was her UK one and the other one had her sim card for the Far East, she does business in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Bankok.

Poor darling Gill, she emailed HER in panic and shock, the folk she is staying with in Bankok are being LESS than kind or supportive. The email gave HER all relevant details, SHE called Orange and spoke to their Customer Service and the man was extremely helpful and said "give me her email address as I need to verify this account with her but we will put a temporary stop on this phone immediately, when we have verified what YOU say to be true, we will MELT the Blackberry"...

HOOOORAY... did YOU know that if YOU have a mobile, which is classified as a Smartphone, that your service provider can do this? It doesn't even matter if the norty thieves change the sim card, if YOU tell your service provider as soon as the mobile / cellphone / portable (as the French call them) is lost or stolen, they can, by remote control render the phone to be just a piece of plastic and metal.. the magic piece of information that the companies need is the IMEI number, this is UNIQUE to every computer or telephone .. mobile, YOU know what I mean.. do YOU know the IMEI number of all of your electronic equipment? It is VITALLY important that YOU do, YOU may not take your computer out of the house but for safety sake, log all of the IMEI numbers of electrical gadgets somewhere safe.. and I don't mean on your Laptop...

And Barclays Bank were very quick to be helpful..

NOW.. I have let YOU into TWO very valuable pieces of TRUE information.. or rather, IF YOU have been reading MY Blog and concentrating, YOu will have absorbed TWO pieces of truth.. the first was that Peppers are PERENNIALS, the second was in this post about YOUR IMEI numbers..

DRUM ROLL please... the third is the origin of the name 'Chuck Wagon'... ok, which one of YOU knows the answer?

A 'REDY' will be awarded to the first person who posts the correct answer into MY Comments box. Now as this is an on-line Blog, the REDY, which is one of MY highly prized TAIL feathers, cannot be posted BUT .. whoever wins this quizz will be known as 'The Person Who Got One of MY RED FEATHERS'... so go one YOU lot, rattle those cells, give ole brain, a good shake and give ME the answer.... Remember MY motto, if YOU don't use it, YOU will lose it!

OMELETTE? WE are having EGGIES for break-the-fast. ZOOM ZOOM, stomach rubbing, wings a' flapping, this is mighty good news.. Wagons are a'rolling.. yes, it is off to el cantina for US..

Bye Bye, Dear Reader, WE hope that ole Man SOL is a'shining wherever YOU are.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 15th, 2012.

WASHING THE DYSON...

Please don't all shout "WHAT" like that.. MY ears are very sensitive.. haven't YOU ever washed YOUR vacuum cleaner?

I must say, I was pretty confused today.. "Tuesday", I thought to myself when I woke up this morning and got ready to get into travelling cage and go to work at the Studio... wrong! It seems they only want HER one day a week and so HER telephone conversation night the night before last with HER beloved friend in New York now made sense, he is an Interior Designer and he told HER about a friend of his who has some work starting here in England, he thought SHE would be perfect as a part-time liaison and project assistant for this man. SHE would like to get back to working with a design team and doing some hands on work.

So this is why SHE had the time to dismantle poor old DYSON and give it a scrub-a-dub-dub from inside out and top to bottom! It is still in bits but they are now drying happily near radiator and tomorrow SHE will put Dyson back together again.

Tomorrow SHE is going to do 'whooosh' work with MY old friend Mr. Steamy-Iron, SHE took him and Mr. Board out of Boiler cupboard this evening, got smelly Lavender Water together with a pile of sheets and clothes onto Board and covered them in a damp towel. Now, of course, LIFE would be absolutely BLOOMING marvellous if the impossible happened and Gloria walked down our steps... but I have to be very brave, wipe away tear and realise that that is never going to happen.. Gloria has gone back to Columbia and WE will, probably, never see her again..

If YOU don't know whom I am referring to, read an early Post to learn about whooosh, Steamy-Iron and Gloria, sigh sob.

SHE had an email discussion with Simon Playle today about feathery faced people's food aka yumyum, he and Cornelia don't have two Amazons, they have one and another feathery faced person which might be a Cockatiel.. they eat truly amazing food, one of them eats Grapefruit! I thought eating Pomegranate was a bit exotic but Grapefruit, it makes MY Beak want to squeak at the mere thought of it! But they also eat Skippy Peanut Butter on toast, I haven't ever been offered that, it sounds truly delicious..

NOTE.. get HER to buy Skippy Peanut Butter, I hope it is crunchy?

For a Gurl has to have a good crunch now and again. I had a pretty good crunch and munch yesterday, SHE took all the meat off Goaty Bone and gave it to ME.. the whole thing! WOW, it was almost too big to get into Beak but I tried harder, like that Car Hire Company, and gave it a really good munch. Then today, WE had Spiny-Apple, I say WE because SHE cut a HUGE slice off for herself, which was a little cheeky but it was dirty work washing DYSON and I have to give HER a few treats now and again.

This is a short post tonight, neither of us slept well last night and so WE are going to go to b-e-d early.. yawn.

Sleep well Dear Reader, I hope to write to YOU again tomorrow.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 14th, 2012.

BIGGER WINGS THAN MINE!

It has gone, whatever 'IT' was that was troubling HER has gone, like water down a drain, it swirled about in HER brain for a while and then whooosh, it vanished! I think it was talking to Anne Beddo and Debi-in-Sheffield that did the trick. Oh, I am so glad that SHE is happy again, it takes a lot to make HER 'blue', I only heard a tiny bit of a conversation SHE had with Debi-in-Sheffield, SHE said "was such a slap in the face and I hate mean"...

We had a delicious break-the-fast today, I had Sunflower Bread with Whole Rye.. indeedy this stuff is truly SCRUMMYDUMPTIOUS! SHE makes HER own mix of oats, oat bran, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, dried white mulberries and barberries. WE have this with HOT Goaty milk when WE don't have buttery eggs. Why don't YOU try making your own cereal, then YOU know it won't be full of dreaded sugar... ugh.

I am not going to say all of the saying because SHE would put ME instantly into 'Black Book'... But it is still 'Brass Monkey Weather' here in London... oh, to be a Pirate's Parrot and to be sailing The Spanish Main, they didn't hang about in cold climates.. no, they swashbuckled their way around the Caribbean Islands and around Zanzibar.

SHE went to Zanzibar right at the beginning of the 70's, SHE and Pilot flew a small plane from The Isle of Wight all the way to Ndola, a town in Zambia, it took them over forty, yes FORTY, flying hours to do this but oh, what a lot of fun they had on the way!

Bembridge, Versailles, Alghero, Malta, Benghazi, Luxor, Khartoum, Addis Abba, Nairobi, Lusaka and Ndola. What a trip.. in a twin engine light aircraft called a Britten-Norman Islander. There was only one set of controls as this plane had been equipped to be a 'Flying Doctor' plane, it had the pilot's seat with controls, the co-pilots seat, which had no controls, was for the doctor and then behind was one seat and the rest was left empty for stretcher use. Their plane was full of spares with jurst enough space for their two small cases. This meant that when it was HER turn to fly, they had to swap seats in mid-air, as neither of them were small people it must have been pretty funny.

Lots of 'funny' things happened to them on this trip. One incident was when they landed at Addis Abbab, which is at a very high altitude. The plane touched down, the wheels rolled for a few yards and then BOTH engines cut out, the men in the Control Tower were obviously used to this happening for almost immediately a Land Rover came at high speed towards them with a tow rope, meanwhile there was a 747 stacking and waiting to 'come in', Pilot went onto the radio and apologised for 'blocking up the runway', back came laughter, for the 747 pilot was none other than an old friend of his from The Fleet Air Arm.

For YOU that are unfamiliar with the British Armed Forces, the Fleet Air Arm is the Royal Navy's Air Force, they fly the jets off Aircraft Carriers, these are HUGE ships that have flat decks. Because jets need to take off at high speed they are, literally, caterpulted off the ship... whoosh... they go up into the air.

When they had refuelled and stretched their legs a bit, SHE had a cup of tea in the canteen, "most unwise" said Pilot.. and off they flew, destination Nairobi... meanwhile higher up in the sky, they were flying at about five thousand feet (above sea level), there was the 747 also heading for Nairobi.. a bit of banter went between 747 and Britton Norman Islander.. and they arranged to have dinner together.

Suddenly SHE knew what Pilot had meant by "most unwise"... for the tea had whooshed through HER kidneys and there was another hour to go... luckily SHE knew the lay-out of the bit of Nairobi airfield where the 'light' aircraft come into... SHE hit the Tarmac running, threw her passport at the slightly startled man on the desk and made it into building.

Feeling considerably 'better' SHE apologised to the now very smiley man at the desk and took back HER passport, he laughed and told her that Pilot had gone 'to park' and that there was a message waiting for them at reception. The message was from 747 pilot, dinner was 'on him' at such and such restaurant. What a very jolly evening they had with a couple of local friends also invited to join the party. The next day was spent by the pool of the hotel, then the next morning the two sets of 'aircrew' said "see you in London" and the two planes flew off in different directions.

Pilot had lots of work to do when in Lusaka and Ndola, his company had the contract to supply The Flying Doctor Service with these tough little planes, they only need very short airstrips for take off and landing, so are ideal for up-country / bush work, they are the Land Rovers of the Sky. They enjoyed their time on this trip, Ndola is in the Copper Belt of Africa and that part of the trip was fascinating.

NOTE.... Must send the Rolex Watch Agent's TALE to Pierre Winkler, he would jurst LURVE this story. He is an old client of HERs and is the owner of Rolex.

And when they had finished all of the business in Zambia they spent a day relaxing by the hotel pool in Lusaka, they 'hopped' about on business in another light aircraft to such places as Lamu, Malindi, Mombasa and Zanzibar! And then back to Nairobi where they boarded an East African Airways jet and flew home to London.

SHE did other 'long haul' flights with Pilot, NO.. not today, I will tell YOU the Tale about HER Aircrew ID another time.

TootlePip, Dear Reader, I am going to flap MY wings to the YUMYUM Control Tower, aka Kitchen, because it is lunch time.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 12th, 2012

I LOVE HER....

And I tell HER this every day.. Do YOU love a special someone Dear Reader, if the answer is yes, then I hope you do not wait for this one day a year to tell them how much you appreciate and love them. We don't celebrate Saint Valentine's Day in OUR home, SHE spends the day quietly giving thanks for Hugo, he that spoke Goat, for he died thirty one years ago on the fourteenth of February 1981.

SHE values HER friendships with people and says "thank you" whenever someone does something kind or nice to HER. That Goaty woman, I am beginning to wonder if she actually exists because, yet again I was left behind when SHE went to Balham today! And when SHE kissed ME upon HER return, I smelt just the faintest smidgen of 'Fermin'.. I bet Ellie gave HER a morsel and I have rootled through Wicker but there is of sign of Fermin or the wrapping which means SHE ate it all.

Anyway, back to Ellie Goat. SHE always has a smile on HER face when SHE has been to see her and has collected Goaty Folk produce, there is a leg of Kid marinating in the kitchen, apparently they discussed this and agreed on garlic, thyme, black pepper and pomegranate syrup with a bit of good olive oil... and SHE brought home enough Goat milk to chase Mr.Woe out of town!

Something has happened as SHE is pensive and quiet and this is most unlike HER at weekends! Doubtless I shall weasel it out of HER. SHE went to see HER beloved Anne Beddo today, Anne gave HER a delicious supper at her local restaurant in the Fulham Road night before last so SHE took Anne a pot of Jasmine as a "thank you" present.

SHE now looks slightly less 'tight' around the face, I think SHE and Anne spoke about whatever it is that is troubling HER. That is good, for Anne is extremely wise in worldly matters and will have given HER very good advice with reference to whatever it is that is disturbing HER.

Joanna is going to have knee surgery on Monday... poor Joanna, I MUST remind HER to tell Joanna to take some Arnica before she goes into surgery, it does help the body to heal and stops the shock.

Our Debi in Sheffield is in such BAD pain, but the Doctor is 'on the case' thank goodness and the nurses that come are being very supportive and sweet. She now cannot walk without a frame and is sleeping downstairs as she is unable to walk up or down her stairs, our poor darling friend, how WE wish we could magic her better and take the horrid pain away, evil, evil pain, all because some horrid man drove badly and caused Debi to be in a terrifying car smash... ugh.

SHE was in a bad smash once.. a very scary Tale indeed. SHE was nineteen when it happened and working in the South of France. SHE owes HER life to two strangers walking in the garden of a restaurant, they saw a car pull out of the restaurant car park and they heard the crash, SHE was on a little Mobylette and they hit HER broadside on, the car stopped, they looked at the Mobylette, then drove off. The two people ran out into the road and found the Mobylette but there was no sign of a rider. They ran back into the restaurant and called for people to come, it was dark and it took them some time to find HER.

SHE had severe head injuries and was in a coma for over four weeks..... when the specialist gave the all clear for HER to travel,'Pilot' flew down to fetch HER back in a plane, they landed at Biggin Hill and took the train up to Victoria. SHE only had one shoe on, her other foot was bare as that had also been hurt. Pilot had telephoned Constance and Hugo when they landed and told them that they were on the such and such train. He said "Won't our parents mind about your foot?", SHE laughed and said "Pilot, they won't even see I am only wearing one shoe, you watch"...

The train pulled into the station and there ON the platform were Constance and Hugo, they ran towards Pilot and HER, Constance cradled her daughter as if SHE were a tiny child again and Hugo took hold of the Pilot and started to cry... who hugged who? HER family never did like drunk drivers.

Do YOU see that YOU never know what is going to happen. SHE might never have come back alive from the South of France. Do not wait for 'the special' day to tell and show someone YOU love them.. I know SHE loves ME, SHE shows and tells ME this every day and I love HER... goodness ME, it sounds like that Beatles tune... SHE has always been a 'Stones' fan.

I am tired, SHE is really tired for SHE walked with Wicker Trolley a long way today, so WE are going to go to the dreaded b-e-d. Good night to YOU all, sleep well.

Oh, nothing was ever said about HER bare foot.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 11th, 2012.

MY Blog is being eaten alive!

Dear Readers..

Something awful is happening, there is an evil nasty bug in this new version of BLOGGER and it has eaten 2 whole posts that I 'saved' and then pressed preview.. nothing was saved, the entire posts just disappeared.

The really weird thing is that one of them escaped and the first paragraph can be viewed if you look at MY PROFILE.

SHE is going to go to Apple in Covent Garden on Saturday to see if they can do anything to save MY Blog from being eaten up.

I do hope it 'saves' this one so all of YOU know what is going on..

Best wishes to all.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 9th, 2012.

CINCINNATI!.. SAN LUIS OBISPO!.. SYDNEY!... TURKEY!.. Where are the Tales from overseas?

Dear Reader..

THIS is thrilling news, it has come to OUR attention that WE have a new Dear Reader who lives in Cincinnati! MY Blog is spreading and what is MORE, Barbara joined as a MEMBER!

Huh, I bet YOU lot didn't think I would be able spell the name of that city in Ohio city did you? Well, YOU see I am not just a pretty face, I frequently sit on HER dictionary.

Rosamund from Germany, who has flown to Sydney, has 'confessed' that she reads
MY Blog. Rosamund, the weather here is dreadful, don 't come back until it get's warm again.

Spread the word gurls, everybody should have this prescription from ME... Read 'The Parrot Tales' on GeeGee Parrot's Blog at least once a day and laugh freely.

Now I want to hear from Hawaii, for WE have two people over there who have not realised the benefits of laughter as a medicine, when times are tuff and they are tuff times for US all, some innocent humour goes a long way to making our lives more cheerful.

Rosamund said she would write to us, I hope that she does, maybe she will send us a bit of sunshine, if YOU do, please address it to Ellie c/o Ellie's Dairy, North Kent, England. I am sure Ellie would appreciate every golden ray she can have at the moment, did YOU see those photos of the snow INSIDE the farm buildings!

If you click on MY Profile you will see the other Blogs I follow, there is the link to Ellie's Dairy.

WE have other friends in other far off sunny places, WE haven't heard a squeak from Ana Lilia, in Mexico for ages, she joined as a Follower but she hasn't been reading MY Blog.. WE can tell who has been by looking at the Stats tag, this is a little place on my Dashboard.

Neither have WE heard from Patsy in California for ages and ages, We hope that she is ok and getting better / happier day-by-day, she has had a not-so-nice-period-of-time and WE would like to know all is well with you Patsy, send us an email.. please?

Dear Readers in Turkey, where are YOU, are YOU ok, for there has been no sign of your reading MY Blog for almost a week, are YOU still recovering from sore tummy muscles after laughing so much or has your cafe banned YOU from reading MY Blog as YOU make too much noise when YOU laugh?

In fact, there have been several of YOU not taking your daily dose of foolishness.. please don't hesitate to read MY Blog, for, although I cannot guarantee that YOU will 'learn' something very day.. for instance, did YOU know that Bell Peppers were Perennials? But at least it is free entertainment and that can't be sneezed at in this financial climate!

SHE has to do something, so I will come back to YOU later, no, SHE says that it is late and WE have to go to bed... yawn.

So "Goodnight everyone, wherever YOU may be".

GeeGee Parrot.
February 6th, 2012.

VOGUE MAGAZINE SAYS "SMILE".. But MY Blog SAID IT FIRST!!

Dear Reader.

What can I say, except WE did, YOU have read on MY Blog about 'fit and toned' muscles keeping everything UP" and now VOGUE Magazine has a model on the front of a new issue and shock... horror, SHE's SMILING!

Haven't I been telling YOU that for OVER a month now. I say that YOU do not have to resort to Surgery.. they used to call it Plastic Surgery, now they call it Cosmetic Surgery.. with what Madame 'BIG' in France has done to herself to herself recently, I think plastic is a better word, she now looks as if she is wearing a mask over her face and WE find this sad as she used to have a very pretty face but now she jurst looks weird.

YOU know who isn't wearing a mask today and that is OUR HM The Queen. Today marks the start of HM Diamond Jubilee Year, sixty years she has done this job... SIXTY YEARS, she said she would do it for all of her life and MY goodness me, she certainly has given it her best shot!

SO Dear Reader, give those facial muscles a bit of a work-out, try and see if YOU can make them jump about a bit, for YOU who are regular Readers will remember the other thing that I say.. "if YOU don't use it, YOU will lose it".. and WHO wants have a neck like Mr. Big-Bird YOU eat at Thanksgiving and Christmas? YOU certainly don't want to look like old Mr. GobbleGooble, if anything, YOU want to look like Mr. Goose, whose neck is lonnng and slim and elegant.

SHE got dressed up and went out today, NO, I did not want to go for it is cold out there and although I am a Northern Lass and I am big and brave, WE Parrots do not, actually have lungs, WE have Air Sacks and I don't want icy air in mine, thank YOU very much.

SHE and faithful Wicker Trolley went off down the road, since SHE gave ole Wicker her Christmas present which was a squirt of WD40, Wicker doesn't squeak any longer.

However, this actually, is NOT such a great thing. I fully appreciate that Wicker feels much happier but ole 'Squeak' used to alert me to their homecoming and gave ME time to stop whatever I was up to and swiftly flap back into the position on top of bedroom door, playing MY Role of 'The Faithful Pet awaiting HER Mistress'es Return'.

Landseer would have painted ME brilliantly!

Supper time in London folks.. Boiled mixed vegetables, I saw them go into huge pot, potatoes, onions, garlic, beans, parsnips, carrots, chilli flakes with Ham bone, SHE will take some of the stock and cook barley in that, this is proper food that sticks to your ribs and keep US warm, of course, I eat HER food! YOU think I eat that dried up stuff called Bird Seed? HUH.. YOU are joking, of course.

"Happy Evening" to YOU and remember to "whistle a happy tune".

GeeGee Parrot.
February 6th, 2012.

The Referee's Whistle and The Under Eleven's Game.

Hello Dear Reader.

Somewhere in the world it is, at this very moment in time, a sunny day. It is strange to think about the world and the sun and how they do their merry dance, isn't it?

We all like sunny days with warm weather and last March, the weather, which had been gruesome suddenly changed to glorious so SHE and I went down to the allotment and did a huge amount of work, well, SHE did, I sat on perch and did diddley-squat but I watched to make quite sure SHE did whatever she was supposed to be doing properly.

The sun shone and the man came with his big grass cutting machine to cut the football pitches and then another man came and redid the white lines.

I, as YOU all know, LURVE noises.. mobiles, landlines, incoming faxes, beepers, door bells, YOU name them.. I LURVE them!

On many days there are a couple of games of Football played behind OUR back fence, WE see these men all dressed in 'strip', I believe it to be called, run about and try to get the ball past the other coloured team and INTO the net.. NOT over the fence and into OUR Asparagus bed, there is a lot of shouting encouragement from the players to their own teams and, of course, there is the Referee and HIS whistle... "whistle whistle" he blows, it is a very distinctive whistle and he blows it a lot.. in fact, a great deal of a lot.

One Saturday WE went to the allotment very early, SHE was going to do a full days work, then pick a BIG bunch of Asparagus and then WE were going to have supper with friends on the way home.

It wasn't different to any other Saturday, there came two teams of men, they played a game and left and WE thought to ourselves "that's nice, We are going to have a quiet afternoon without them shouting and whistling". But what was this, for several cars had driven up and parked just behind our fence, out of the cars got parents with picnics, then a small little coach appeared out of which got two teams of 'baby' footballers.. it was an Under Eleven's Game.

But it wasn't a single game for it went on-and-on, suddenly, I could bear it NO longer and I blew MY Referees Whistle several times, very accurately and very loudly.

It drove the Referee crazy, he screamed out "stop the game" and the little boys stopped running around, then he shouted "who has the whistle?", no one spoke for no one HAD the whistle, I am very good at throwing MY voice so no one thought that the whistle noise had come from OUR side of the fence... the man became angry beyond belief, so SHE who hates to hear grown-ups shouting at children called out in a clear voice, "I've got the whistle here", there was a collective gasp from the little boys and they came running with their parents and the very angry Referee to the fence.

He started to call HER very silly names until SHE said "STOP IT IMMEDIATELY, I said I had the whistle, I did NOT say that I was responsible for blowing it", the Referee scratched his head and said " I don't understand"....

There was an extremely tall father standing against the fence and he started to laugh, his wife looked at him as if he had 'lost the plot' but eventually he managed to say "I understand, I know WHO blew the whistle" and with that, I let rip with one of my finest...

Oh, indeedy, I like a good whistle.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 6th, 2012.

SINCERE APOLOGIES TO ALL FOLLOWERS & FRIENDS

I have just been notified that MY Blog has been doubling up as it goes along and that some of you have received MULPIPLE postings of the same Post.

I have NO idea how this could have happened but in order to fix it, I will be doing the following, which is that I will not be forwarding MY Blog onto you, this way, IF you do 'receive' it, we will know that there is a problem within either my iPad or BLOGGER and they will have to fix it for me.

AGAIN, my sincere apologies to you all.

GeeGee Parrot and HER.
February 5th, 2010.

Poor Goaty Family

Good afternoon to YOU all.

WE have received an extraordinary comment in the box attached to MY 'Latvian Readers' Post.

Those Goaty Folk down in Kent, who are having a bit of a chilly time of it, are obviously suffering from 'frozen brain' syndrome as they wrote they are 'never cheeky".

HELLO, are WE all singing from the same song sheet here, this is ME YOU are writing to, an African Grey Parrot, I am not some easily confused, numbskulled Orange Winged Amazon Parrot.

WE remember all those photographs that Ellie posted on Ellie's Blog, there are even one of your lot sticking their tongue out at David! NOT CHEEKY! I wouldn't dare to stick MY tongue out at HER, I might find MYSELF in Black Book and that, Dear Reader, is NOT where any sensible person wants to be.

So YOU are not cheeky huh. The person I feel sorry for is Ellie who has to 'deal' with YOU lot every day and is now up to her arm pits in snow and ice.. don't YOU dare behave badly whilst it is so ghastly. WE got a text from Ellie this morning saying that the conditions were dire and that she would not be at our Farmer's Market.

All WE can do is to send warm thoughts to Ellie and her bovine, canine, feline and Goaty Folk.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 5th, 2012.

Moles in their Holes

Good Day to YOU.

Hop-diggedy-dawg, I think it is cold enough to freeze ... Oooops, I was jurst about to quote one of Hugo' favourite sayings but SHE gave ME 'that' look, YOU know the one, it says "I FORBID YOU TO SAY THAT", so I will jurst say that the saying features things that Jugglers juggle with, a certain metal and what happens to water when it gets below zero.. there, YOU should be able to work it out.

SHE received an email this morning from Mark, a friend who had 'disappeared', do YOU have friends that do this? SHE finds it upsetting because of what went on in HER childhood when SHE disappeared but the world is a very different place now with pocket sized gadgets that enable friends / people to keep in touch.

Anyway, it transpires that Mark is now in or on Hawaii. ( Perhaps someone will let US know which is the correct word to use). He is a chef and they met many years ago when Mark was 'chefing' for a family in Kensington and SHE was working for them organising teams of clock and furniture restorers. SHE is going to ask him how he got to Hawaii, for the last thing SHE knew there was a plan to open a restaurant somewhere in California.

Suzan is an old American friend of HERS that had very bad and sad stuff happen five years ago and spent a lot of time underground. SO SHE was mighty relieved to hear from her recently. But even before the bad/sad stuff happened, Suzan was always bad at keeping in touch, so much so that way back in the 90's SHE nicknamed her Moley, for Susan would go down into her hole and stay down there for months and then, in true Moley fashion, she would come up and out into daylight and say "Hello, is there anyone there?".

All WE can hope for is that she keeps her face towards the light and stays in contact with US. She has sons that WE hope are making sure their mother is 'ok', she has good friends whom WE hope are being kind and supportive and WE know she will have some Canine folk with her.

Now I am going to write about a circumstance that caused HER to 'disappear'.

When SHE was young there was a financial crisis caused by Hugo being very, very ill. It meant that a lot of very significant changes occured.

Hugo collected HER and the school trunk from Euston Station at the end of term and started to drive in a different direction to the one they normally took to go home, SHE asked him where they were going and Hugo said "Hasn't Mummy told you? We had to sell Bishopsdale and we have been lent a cottage near Littlebourne by Jimmy Hale" and he told HER what else had had to happen, including the fact that he would no longer afford to pay HER school fees.

SHE had left school without knowing it.

The family went to live in this tiny cottage on the other side of Kent from Tenterden. SHE now lived where SHE knew no-one apart from her parents and a brother, he was two and a half years older and still at boarding school but he spent no time with the family in the school holidays, he spent all of his holidays with a friend in Suffolk where there was lots to do and he had a happy time.

SHE did not have a happy time, for another of the significant changes that occurred was that all HER animals had been given away. That caused HER to be very sad. She also lost contact with most of the people SHE had known at school and home.

WE all forget, Dear Reader, what it was like before, telephone calls were expensive, there weren't computers in people's homes, mobile phones didn't exist and besides, there was no money to send HER on train jaunts to stay with friends who lived far away.

Circumstances got better and the family moved to a lovely home in Sandwich that SHE saw advertised one Saturday in the paper that Constance had been reading. SHE met a new group of people and made some friends but the whole experience had scarred HER.

For SHE felt as if SHE had literally disappeared from sight.. recently (within the last eight years) SHE put HER name up with the names of the three schools that SHE went to.. one day SHE received an email from a Frances ... a name that SHE didn't recognise at all, SHE responded saying as such, only to receive a immediate response saying "whoops, of course you wouldn't know that name but you WOULD know me as Fanny .... wouldn't you?".

And there, Dear Reader, after a gap of over FORTY years, was a very dear childhood friend.

Fanny came to stay and brought HER a gift, in a long cardboard tube, what could it be? Do YOU know what it was Dear Reader? No.. well, clever, clever Fanny had found out the name of the firm of Photographers who took the Penderel School photos and there, was the school photo circa 1959 of Fanny, HER and all of their friends.

That has made me 'wet-eyed' and I write this stuff...

SHE has also met up with Caroline, another lost friend, SHE and Caroline met about three years ago, also through Friends Reunited and talked and talked, they took it in turns to talk about what happened to them both, the last time they had seen each other was in 1964, so there was a LOT to talk about. Caroline is married to Gustavo, they have two grown-up children, certainly ONE grandchild and live in Calabria in Southern Italy, Fanny is retired and lives with her new Canine friend in Paguera on the Island of Mallorca.

But there are a lot of friends who have disappeared over the years, most of them disappeared before the explosive invention of email and mobile phones and Blackberry's with their instant messaging system or Skype. In Australia there is a woman called Pamela Sweeting, SHE last saw Pam when they were both in New York City in 1981, Pam moved to Los Angeles and then wrote to HER saying that she was going to move back to Australia, Pam's family come from Perth but SHE believes that PAM headed off to Sydney.

So if any one of OUR Australian Readers knows Pam Sweeting, please would you ask her to contact HER via MY Blog, We would like to know that she is happy and having a good life. That's all WE want for OUR family and friends, isn't it. To know that they are happy and healthy.

And on THAT happy note.. I know that there is a bag of Beetyrooties and Potatoes and lots of Onions and Garlic and Bulgar Wheat.. perhaps SHE could be cajoled into making 'Ingrid's Soup' for although it is a fine soup which means that I only get to eat the dumplings, it puts HER into a remarkably good mood when SHE has it!

We're off to the Kitchen.. hurray.

Thank you for reading MY Blog Dear Reader, I hope YOU are happy and healthy wherever YOU are?

GeeGee Parrot.
February 5th, 2012.

OUR Lithuanian Beauties with frozen toes!

Hello Dear Reader.

I hope YOU are as snug as WE are? And even if YOU are wearing your fur coat in bed, which BiBi dearest is doing now if she has any sense, YOU probably don't look like SHE does, SHE looks, well to be honest, SHE looks like a a gobbledegook, which is MY way of saying SHE looks hysterically funny (haha AND peculiar).

When Debi came to stay she gave HER a pair of long black thermal mittens, so SHE has those on and SHE has a white zipped up fleecy jacket with a hood on, all I can actually see of HER are HER fingers and thumbs and a little of HER face, but SHE looks warm enough, so I guess I'll just have to live with it!

SHE brought HER three little Orange Trees in a couple of days ago, they were looking very sorry for themselves as they were suffering from lack of water but YOU cannot water them in this weather if they are outside as it would freeze and cause their roots aka toes to be damaged.

YOU might well ask "where did SHE put them", they are actually 'living' in the bath! SHE gave them a shower and a good drink and that will be their 'lot' until they go back outside sometime in March.

It means they have to be lifted out when when SHE wants a bath but it is better than them dying because their toes froze.

Which brings me to plants that thrive on having their toes frozen... very bizarre I find this!

SHE has a passion for Peonies and when SHE got the allotments, contacted the Nursery Gardens very near to where Constance lived in Somerset. SHE had worked out a planting plan and knew which colours SHE wanted and asked them to send HER a catalogue.

This arrived and that was when the idea of a 100 foot Peony Walk came to a screeching halt, for each plant was listed at £16.00 and she wanted somewhere in the region of 100 plants!! A Peony Walk is usually several plants deep, not just one row of plants in a line.

Big rethink!

Then SHE thought to HERSELF "where do peonies come from?" and going on-line SHE came across an amazing website called www.peonynursery.com, they are based in Lithuania. GO on-line and see these beautiful plants, they stock all the ones SHE wanted and they start at $4.00 a plant.. which is a great deal less than £16.00!

SHE didn't order as many as SHE had originally worked out SHE wanted but half the amount and planted them, as they had said on the planting notes, NO MORE than 2 cms below the ground with a 'nose' showing. Then SHE marked the place with a stick and the name of the variety.

Three summers later (2011) these breathtaking plants have started to come into their own, some were stronger and settled in better than others, some were not quite what SHE wanted but ALL of them are beautiful beyond belief and now SHE does know exactly which ones SHE will buy in order to complete her Peony Walk.

Coming from Russia and Lithuania and other places which experience severe weather temperatures, cold and hot, they don't mind their toes being frozen in the slightest.. and in fact , they flower better when they've had a good frosting!

And MY last piece of tonight's Tale will astound quite a lot of YOU and if YOU didn't know this little bit of gardening knowledge, well, neither did WE and WE'VE done this for eleven years but won't do it again!

SHE was reading a Gardening Book by an American author who works a big vegetable garden in Maine. This is a state way up on the northern part of the eastern seaboard of the United States. SHE has read this book before but suddenly SHE READ this phrase "and the Perennial Bell Pepper"... Perenial? Pepper plant is a PERENIAL? SHE scurried off to look at a couple of gardening 'BIBLES' and there, sure enough, in little print was the magical word!

The reason SHE got so excited was SHE had a HUGE Red Bell Pepper,growing outside with lots of peppers growing at different stages, all doing their stuff and as happy as could be, but as the days were getting colder and it was slowing down a bit, SHE repotted it into a HUGE deep pot, gave it some delicious Bone Meal and Phostrogen Plant Food and put it on the window sill in the sitting room... where it has proceeded to grow like a trifid!

It has grown another seven inches in height and has grown five new peppers which are now in various colours ranging from dark red through to brilliant red, they are as sweet as can be and the plant doesn't even object to the radiator being on underneath the sill!

And come next Spring, Pepper will go into the courtyard with the Oranges and Debi's little 'Eureeka' Lemon tree and they'll all live happily ever after.

And now it is b-e-d time... WE hope that YOU sleep well or are having a very happy day if YOU are reading this in the Southern Hemisphere.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 4th, 2012.

LATVIAN READERS...

Welcome to MY Blog.... I know, I know a lot of YOU have been reading MY Blog right from the very beginning but this NEW Reader in Latvia has not and so WE must make them welcome to MY Blog which is where they will read 'FUNNY' stuff.

And yes, I mean 'funny haha' as well as 'funny peculiar / strange". If YOU read MY Blog on a daily basis, YOU will never have to resort to having Cosmetic Surgery in order to look as if YOU have facial muscles, for YOU will laugh so much at the sillinesses that SHE and I, not forgetting dear Dagga Parrot-in-the-sky, get up to, that YOUR facial muscles will be fit and toned and Dear Readers, let's say it loud and clear so they can hear it in Latvia....

"Fit and Toned Muscles keep everything UP" yes indeedy, they do!

And YOU know why else? It is so WE can truly be a BLOG STAR! And 'STAR' in a Video filmum ALL about ME and YOU!

Enough of all that foolishness. WE actually don't have any snow on OUR doorstep but the other parts of England etc have had and the whole of Europe has had huge amounts, even the seaside areas of Spain have had snow! It only seems a short time ago that the Alps in France has NO snow and they had to cancel some ski races. NOW, well I would be surprised if anyone could see where the race course was!

In Gmunden, near to Salburg Austria, where we have Dear Reader Gabi, she reported MINUS 18 degrees yesterday morning, but in places like Serbia and Moldavia it is way below that.. We feel so sorry for these people, some are living in their newer houses which were built with no fireplaces and they don't have any way of lighting old-fashioned fires, the supplies of heating oil are unable to get to these out lying places as the snow is too deep... what a bitter winter it will be for so many people, let alone the farmers, who have to struggle to keep the water supply from freezing and have to get food and hay to their animals.

Many birds, too, will literally freeze to death. And so will homeless people.

Do you know if YOUR neighbours are OK? Last Sunday WE had to be rescued by Gill-up-the-street as WE had a Power shortage, it was off for four hours, just imagine being in a place where there is NO power AND NO heating, so many of our homes are reliant on electricity, OUR boiler is although it is a Gas one but it needs the electricity for the control panel.

So please, if YOU know there are elderly folk who live nearby, go and check on them, a thermos of THICK HOT soup will be received with gratitude. Take them an extra blanket or quilt. When SHE was a child HER parents always kept, not just one but several 'eyes' on elderly friends.

The sad thing is that it is beautiful 'out there', WE are in central London and SHE would love to go and do some work at the garden, however, SHE does, sometimes, have ONE iota of sense and knows that it would be REALLY silly to do that, SHE would get hot and sweat and then that would turn to a chill all before YOU could say "Bob's your Uncle" yes I know SHE had an Uncle Bob but the Bob in the saying refers to 'Bob' Kitchener, did YOU know that?

YOU see Dear Latvian Reader, MY Blog is a fund of USEFUL information! "What was that?" I heard that.. someone muttered "useless" under their breath, there are a couple of YOU who are known to be are extremely cheeky and I'll lay a wager that it was one of those norty Goaty Folk down in Kent.

WE are having a little break for SHE is sorting through papers, I SWEAR that if one piece of paper meets another piece of paper .. well, they make babies and then one ends up with masses of paper..the wretched stuff breeds just like Mice!

But before paper meets Shredder it has to be looked at...

Next SHE is going to start sorting through HER clothes... SHE used to wear very smart clothes for work to see clients, now SHE either works in the sorting office of HER Volunteer work or at the Studio where SHE never meets clients. Next week SHE has to investigate a flood at a property, not somewhere that SHE would need to wear a pretty suit. And gardening clothes are different entirely!

SHE got rid of a huge amount of paperwork when all of the design files went... SHE only retained the original order books which have all the details, the rest.. all out of the door, Purchase Orders, quotations, supplier files, all went, SHE shed a small tear when SHE threw away the photographs.. and I had to be very gentle with HER for a couple of days as SHE said "Goodbye" to HER career of over twenty years.

Funnily enough another very old client of HERS called yesterday when SHE was at the Studio, Simon Playle, he is an Interior Designer who knew Miss Betty, aka Elizabeth Hanley. She was a wonderful mentor and great friend to HER, she died ten years ago this month. WHAT stories she told.. it was Miss Betty's Aunt, Fern Bedaux whose husband introduced HRH The Duke of Windsor to Adolf Hitler.

Simon and Cornelia (his wife) have two Parrots, little Amazons, very cheeky folk they are too!

Whooops, wait for ME, SHE is up and off to make tea... Lapsang here WE come... a quick slurp of that tea is just the ticket on a cold and chore-filled day. Adios, Farewell, Auf Wiedersein, Goodye...

See YOU later Aligator, in a while oh Crocodile, see YOU later Aligator, in a while oh Crocodile, doo de doo, oh doo de doo, toot toot oh tootie toot, WE're off to the YumYum HQ!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 4th, 2012.

Bit occupied at the moment..

Hello everyone.

WE are so sorry there was 'nothing' for YOU to read this morning, SHE collected BiBi dearest from the hospital and then spent the night with her in Barnes with NO iPad!

I was very lonely but it was 'ok'.. as there was lots to eat and I spent the night on top of bedroom door, comfy but very strange not to go to b-e-d to sleep in c-a-g-e but it was only for one night.

SHE's back now and sorting out a cupboard so that Wizard will be able to put up some shelves.

Don't worry, WE will write on MY Blog later today. STAY warm.. very chilly today.

OH... before I forget... BIG "thank you" to Sue for sending us that link to the CRAZY Aussie Parrot... what a wonderful video it is.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 4th, 2012.

Music to Flap to...

Anything to bounce about and get warm... IS that boiler 'boiling' like it should be or does it think that WE should go into The Library to keep warm?

I had a great break-of-the-fast this morning, some Pumpkin seeds, a small amount of buttered egg, a beakful of Rye and Sunflower bread and a slurp of Lapsang. This so raised MY blood sugar that I went and did the daftest thing.. SO stupid. SHE had a mass of papers on the bed so, without thinking, I jumped into water dish and starting chucking water at HER.. heehee, I thought!

Wrong... SHE took ONE look at ME and walked out of the room. Leaving ME standing in cold water up to my stomach and VERY wet.. not the cleverest thing to do on the coldest day of the year. Thank goodness wings were not waterlogged so I flapped an extremely dodgy flight down to find HER in the bathroom and landed on HER head, SHE got the message immediately, SHE's pretty swift on the up-take is MY Mum, mind YOU, SHE could hardly NOT be with drips from Tail going down HER back.

SHE plugged in hair dryer and aimed it at me.. but ugh, I had to leap about like some crazy Parrot for it was on COLD.... have YOU ever had cold air up YOUR Tail, I know most of YOU don't have a Tail but it does tell YOU which region of body I am referring to!

Then I saw the fun in it and flapped and carried on like Doug, the Orange Winged Amazon WE know, does when he is sprayed with a water bottle, YOU do that to ME and I am out-of-there but daft Doug loves it!

I flapped wings, I shimmied Tail.. I thought of Music to FLAP and WHISTLE to... something jolly and loud.. ahha.. for there is NO ONE in the flat above or behind us and so music goes up LOUD and I Flap and ZoomZoom about. Of course, Salsa will ALWAYS BE MY favourite, have you read about OUR much beloved Gloria? Goodness ME, I squealed with joy as I LURVED that woman so much, SHE had no idea that Gloria and I had such fun whilst dashing away with the smoothing iron.

When I was completely dry SHE went to the Post Office, also to Bank and gave it a bit of money ... I don't like Bank, if power goes out, there is NO way that ONE would be able to get at money, think about it, Dear Reader, for example last Sunday when WE had NO power for FOUR hours, no on-line banking, no ATM's.. I like a bit of money tucked away somewhere safe.

SHE came back and after lunch SHE received a call from one of HER most favourite old clients! And this was just for a chat, he didn't want anything, he was passing through and gave HER a call. I know that (secretly) SHE misses HER old career very much, SHE misses the people, the designing, working with glorious fabrics and giving HER clients something beautiful.

There was once a job which rendered two clients speechless... with gratitude! The wife was a very tough-hard-to-please-woman who had a pair of Chinese Burial Urns, except that she didn't know that was what they were. SHE made them into lamps wIth extraordinarily hand carved bases painted to look like earth. For that is how the Urns would have been placed in the Burial tomb. The lampshades echoed the ribs of the Urns and were a devil to do but it was worth it. SHE set them up in the client's dining room and then asked them to come in ... not one word was uttered, these two people just stared and then smiled at HER. SHE misses that.

I know that if circumstances were different SHE would prefer to do HER own work again, but HER work was so very demanding physically, plus the fact SHE used to travel a huge amount which was sad for ME, I stayed with Doug when SHE was away but now he has gone to live in the country. So it was very nice to hear HER laugh as SHE talked with HER old client.

"Don't be sad", I whisper to HER, I am on HER head doing a bit of Feather Work and Proof Reading at the same time... "Things change and maybe it is better this way, YOU aren't having to fly backwards and forwards to America anymore and YOUR health is better"... but I can tell that SHE is thinking of how HER life used to be and how it is now...

Beastly winter, if it was warmer I would make HER go to garden to dig and prune and cut back and down and SHE would be out in the daylight and fresh air ... and SHE would be ok. But it is bitterly cold and the garden is very exposed. But SHE has not had a holiday for four years.

Friday tomorrow, WE are going to the Studio and have to leave early so that SHE can drop ME at home, then collect BiBi dearest from the hospital, so off to b-e-d, boring.

Good night to YOU all.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 2nd, 2012.

Frosty Tiger, Daffy Duck and Leo Lion.

Greetings from Frosty London.

Oooooh, what a chilly start to the day. It is obvious that Jack-the-lad-Frosty was out and about last night, he threw his icy ice around when he should have been in bed all tucked up and fast asleep. SHE knew yesterday that he would be up to no good when SHE was in the Market talking with Kaza, the sky was blue, a beautiful CLEAR blue sky, with no fluffy pillows, aka clouds, to prevent Jack spreading a thick and icy layer all over the place.

But SHE is ahead of Jack as SHE has anti-ice things that SHE straps onto the bottom of HER walking boots... and very clever things they are too, SHE also has ones for ice + snow, they have wires and studs that grip old icy snow and then SHE is safe to whizz about.

For most of the year, if one says "Frosty" in OUR house, I assume that ONE is talking about MY friend Mr. Frosty Tiger. He is usually to be found sitting on top of sitting room door and is such a nice chap that I hate to throw him on the floor so that I can do 'nibble-nibble' on top of door frame, he acts, I suppose, as Top-of-Door-Frame-Protector in OUR house.

The other two people who carry out this arduous task are Mr. Leo Lion and MY oldest friend of all.. Mr. Daffy Duck, YOU realise from HIS sir name, is a Fellow Avian and although HE speaks Duck and I speak Parrot, WE are tremendous friends. HE has lived here for much longer than ME and actually knew Dagga Parrot! But D-the-P didn't nibble door frames, so THEY has an entirely different relationship.

By the way... Someone has to teach HER how to get pictures from BIG computer onto MY Blog, Ellie Goaty Person says it is very easy but Ellie is much cleverer than HER where computers are concerned. SHE can't do it with iPad, it isn't possible, well, it probably is but SHE hasn't asked the guys at the Apple Store in Covent Garden how to do it and as sitting room is chilly (to say the least) SHE won't sit in there and use Laptop which has all HER photos tucked away inside him.

But, when SHE finally (if ever) gets Laptop, ME and Blog all together, I will be able to show YOU pictures of Mr. Daffy Duck and ME talking. And oh yes-indeedy WE talk because Mr. Daffy Duck has lots of Tales to tell ME, one at a time Dear Reader, one at a time, because HE goes away sometimes and then I am not privy to HIS endless store of stories.

I am having a Eureeka moment.. Why don't WE bring Laptop AND Router into snug warm bedroom?

When HE is away and Frosty is busy elsewhere, Mr. Leo Lion takes their place, I am a bit unsure of Mr. Leo Lion and after the news yesterday from Colchester Zoo about my friend Ash Barn Owl and his very sad demise.. I am even more unsure about him.

Poor Little Ash Barn Owl, apparently he hit his head on a window, got dis-orientated and flew TOO low over the Lion enclosure ... YOU probably read the sad story, so I won't finish... makes ME too sad. I was VERY wet-eyed when SHE read ME the story, what a dreadful shock for everyone.

What doesn't make ME sad is the thought of staying inside and AT home. SHE has to go out to the Post Office, vest, woollen tights, thick trousers, sweater, jerkin, woollen coat, scarf round neck, hat on head, phew, it makes me tired just to think of putting all those clothes on!

But out SHE must... I have proof read this so SHE can post it now.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 2nd, 2012.

A Parrot's Tail and Tales of a Parrot..

And a very good morning to YOU all.

I have been laughing to MYSELF as I was told something SO pompous the other day, the poor mother of the idiot who voiced the remark about another woman, was seen to shudder when told what her daughter had said. Constance used to describe the daughter in the following way "jumped up, never come down", she had known the family for a VERY long time and felt sorry for charming parents that had a daughter whose head was so full of her own importance...

Anyway, back to subject matter... Subject Matter is Hair or in MY case, Feather washing...

Oh, I HATE that shower in the bath, in fact, I hate the bath full stop, I spelt it for you to make sure YOU realised how much I hate it... it is TOO big for ME and I fear I look ridiculous. And YOU know I don't like to do that! I can just tolerate the hand basin but what I really prefer is the kitchen sink.. strange but true.

I mean, why not, it is, after all, MY favourite room in our house! THE YUMYUM HQ as it were.

I like a shower now and again as when I grow new feathers they come through with a protective layer of hard skin over the shaft. This has to break off in order for MY feathers to fully expand to their true glory. And the 'skin' breaks off in tiny, tiny pieces and makes me look dusty, I can't have that. So a bath or a shower is the way to get rid of the dust and keep ME in perfect plumage.

MY HUGE water bowls are, in fact, full sized Souffle dishes, they hold a lot of water and if SHE hasn't given ME a bath in the kitchen what I do is plunge in and out of MY water dishes... this actually is much more fun than HER giving ME a bath. For sometimes, when old wind gets under Tail and I feel-bit-above-station, I am sneaky and wait until SHE comes into the room, I duck MY whole head into the water, get MY feathers well and truly soaked and then I fling MY head in HER direction.

OH... the squeal as the icy water hits the mark is well worth the odd rude word SHE says about MY parentage... Parrot 10 ... Human wet!

But back to baths and showers... yes, kitchen sink is the best place. The base is flat, the shower is not to big or powerful and it mixes well so the temperature is perfect... I shut MY eyes and let the water stream over me, lift up WING one at a time, do a little jiggle about to get TAIL wet and enjoy being taken care of and fuss being made of ME .. it is very nice to have fuss being made of one but the BEST is yet to come.... hahaha.

For YOU must be wondering HOW do I get dry when I am so wet... "SIMPLES" as my VERY DEAR FRIENDS The Meerkat Family say "Simples", SHE has a HAIRDRYER and Oh Heavens-to-Mergatroid, HOW I jurst LURVE that warm air rushing through MY feathers.. Infact, I confess that even when I am NOT wet and SHE is drying HER own hair, I make a bit of a flap-about to make HER send ME a blast or two of that COLD air... BLISS.

And now YOU are wondering about MY claiming friendship with The Meerkat Family. I bet YOU think I am telling a-gross-porky-number aka Gross Fib.. no, I am not and so here is the TALE.

This is a grand Parrot Tale and involves MY Hatcher, generally known as Beck. MY Parrot parents live in Northern Emgland on a huge farm owned by Beck's family. US Parrots live in huge outside wired aviaries with breeding boxes and two fields away from OUR field is another field which looks as if Beck or one of the men trashed it with a JCB digger.

Which is exactly what they did do, then they tipped in tons of sand and rocks and made the 'nice green and pleasant English field' look like a bit of the Kalahari Desert... for guess who came to live in the depths of the English Countryside... why, none other than a couple of pairs of breeding Meerkats and oh boy, did they take to Shropshire like a duck to water..

Also on the farm are the 'Tropicanas'... WHO are they? I can hear YOU say, don't you remember the six HUGE Amazon Macaws who were on Television advising Tropicana Fruit Juice?

Beck bred them and although they 'belong' to Tropicana Ltd they will always live with Beck and her family, then there is Sydney, a Hyacinth Macaw.. you just wait until YOU see pictures of him.. MY word, he is an enormous Parrot! Then Mr. Owl, who is famous beyond belief because of being a Film Star! Yes, he starred in a series of films about a boy called Harry Potter...

I kid-YOU-not.. I have very famous 'brothers and sisters, WE call ourselves that as WE were ALL Becks Babies... this is why I am not shy, I met a huge amount of very famous people when I lived there. Beck and a couple of the girls hand reared me, I 'chose' HER when SHE came up to see US when I was nine weeks old, then SHE came back again to collect ME in November 2004 and WE drove down to London and I have lived with HER since then.

Now it is time to do which I am not keen on, in fact, I have been quietly proof reading as SHE wrote this.. but I have to confess even I think it is time to go to B-E-D.. Hate saying that word, yes, I KNOW it is very childish... but guess what, I am a child, I am only seven and a bit, WE Parrots live for the same length of time / years as YOU guys, about sixty to seventy years, so give ME a break, I am a child and I don't like going to bed, I might miss something, I don't know what but something might be missed.

But I go all the same.. SHE's bigger than I am and pretty strict, that is why when when I am sitting on her head proof reading I am quieter than a mouse.

But before I go to bed.. I am going to put YOU out of YOUR misery and tell YOU what pompous woman said... I hope it amuses YOU as much as it did me.. for it is beyond "jumped up, never come down.. ".

She described another woman as "someone who washed their own hair"...

Yawn.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 1st, 2012.

Talented creators and beautiful things that grow in the ground.

How am I to greet YOU Dear Reader?

YOU see if I write and post this Blog in MY early evening, it might be sunrise time if YOU are in the Southern Hemisphere.. aka 'Down Under'. I have the answer.. I'll say "Hello".

Curiousity is a major part of MY make-up, together with the fact that MY ole beaky Beak likes to explore, so each day I have a quick peek at MY Stats to see who has been reading MY Blog and where THEY live. Eureeka, I am being read in the Phillipines! And now there are 2 Readers in France... are they Monsieur et Madame little Big man, I wonder?

I would much rather it were that wonderfully talented Interior Designer and his most chanting wife. He is a man with extraordinary clarity of thought and vision, and like the very few GREAT Interior Decorators and Designers around the world that have this rare and vital talent, he is able to transfer to his teams of Craftsmen and Craftswomen his vision and they are able to 'realise' his designs and make people the most glorious homes.

Now, not everyone wants to live in homes like this, not everyone can afford this level of decoration BUT, and this is important.. so concentrate please Dear Reader, their designs show YOU what can be done. You may have a few old Blue and White plates that are very pretty but a little bit bashed about and so you don't use them, where are they? Probably sitting forlornly in the bottom of a cupboard never seeing the light of day, have a look at all of the very famous and talented Interior Designers and see what THEY do with a few Blue and White pots, it is very stylish. look and 'SEE' their usage of colour, scale and texture, for it is only by LOOKING at great work like this that YOUR own eye is formed.

I cannot remember who said this, please write in MY Comments Box if YOU know the answer but a woman once said "that things should be either beautiful or useful" and I think that's true.

It is the way that SHE looks at plants that SHE puts into the ground at the allotment. They have to be either : Simply glorious-beyond-belief-beautiful to look at or have a Perfume that knocks-your-head-off OR taste good-mouth-wateringly yup, you got it, it HAS to be jurst scrummydumptious-beyond-belief!

And it is for that reason, that although SHE hates the cold, SHE welcomes it because MOST plants like a cold winter, strange but true! Apples, Cherries and Plums always do better when the winter has been a cold one and certainly HER favourite flowers, Peonies, LURVE a cold winter but Dear Reader, they come from lands where the winters are really cold, places like Russia and Lithuania.

SHE is growing a Peony Walk, SHE saw one when SHE was quite young and has always wanted one and quite soon HER Peony Walk will be along the front of HER allotments. They are a mix of colours and of early, mid and late season flowering so WE have them in the house for a good period of time and one of HER favourite things to do is to pick a BIG bunch of maybe 10 stems and take them as a gift when SHE goes to a friend for supper. Some of the plants grow to over FIVE feet in height, with huge heads of flowers, WE don't have a favourite WE jurst love them all, jurst like HER Roses... when SHE has learnt how to do it, I will get HER to put up some pictures of HER flowers..

And I will ask HER to put up a photo of the Asparagus, do YOU remember the LOVELY Barbara Aveling who sold HER the sixty (yes, sixty) Asparagus Crowns? Well, they like a cold winter too and last year the Asparagus was very early and delicious despite the fact WE had a very cold winter, it was an extraordinarily early and marvellous Spring, SHE spent about 10 days working every day at the garden and it looked great and everything grew like crazy!

And a lot of the result of that hard work is in the freezer... all sorts of berries and plums, Broad and French beans together with some RED, yes RED Gooseberries.

Whoops, SHE is off to do paperwork. I must go Dear Reader, I send very fond Greetings to a new Reader who lives in The Isle of Man... "stay warm Bruce".

With best wishes to YOU all wherever you may be.. I hear that a cousin's daughter is in South America.. if She were in Mexico, I would put her in touch with the lovely Ana Lilia.. send US the photo Ana Lilia.. send the photo.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 1st, 2012.

And the WINNER is.........

Foodle-the-Doodle.. Dear Reader, in the land of Turkish Delight there is a 'Lone Reader', no, I didn't say Sloane Ranger.. concentrate, I know it is mighty chilly everywhere except in the Southern Hemisphere but that is no excuse... somewhere amongst those casbahs and minarets wanders a Reader of 'Parrot Tales' by ME...

I wonder who it is, are they Turkish or a visitor to Turkey who relies upon MY Blog to make them do The Fandango? And do they read MY Blog whilst in the privacy of their home or hotel room or are they brave enough to read it in public, smiling and laughing as they read about US discussing them?

Will WE ever know? And that bring me to the Challenge I 'threw' at YOU about a week or so ago.

I asked YOU if anyone would be 'bright' enough to work out HOW I learnt to 'speak' Chicken and Duck'... and the response was amaaaazingly awful!

For NOT ONE OF YOU entered into the spirit of Mad Challenge and even ventured an answer.. what is wrong with YOU lot? Because it doesn't matter if YOUR answer was wrong, at least it would have showed you were awake when YOU read MY Blog!

So NO Red Feathers will be awarded to anyone ... nope, YOU only 'cop' a Red'y if YOU win and to win it, YOU have to be IN it, it is rather like playing the Lottery, YOU can't win it if you're not in it!

SHE had an email from Joanna yesterday, Joanna writes a Blog called 'La Vie en Rose' about her SEVEN boys and J-J and their life growing up in very far-off-lands.. WE wrote some time ago about Winter Fruits, if MY memory serves ME right, WE were writing about Patsy who lives in California, she works for her brother-in-law at weekends selling his fruit, he has a BIG acreage of fruit trees. Back to Joanna, she wrote that Persimmons were rare in Texas, where she lives now, but she can occasionally find them in the Mexican shops but that they were dreadfully expensive.

POOR Joanna.. oh, WE are sad for her because she doesn't have a lovely 'Kaza in the market', OUR lovely Kaza sells us delicious fruit once or twice a week, last Saturday SHE bought a whole box of Persimmons and today SHE bought some more and a bowl of SCRUMMYDUMPTIOUS Reine Claude, the Yellow Plums. Sadly SHE knows that Persimmons and Pomegranates (MY VERY FAVOURITE FRUIT) are coming to the end of their season, for they truly are God's Gift to Winter. Winter is dull and grey and winter fruit are all the most glorious colours, they sparkle and bring bright cheer into our lives with their radiant skins and BIG amounts of Vitamin C.

SHE wouldn't dream of buying fruit in a supermarket, yes, they're good for such things as washing powder, etc and dried stores but for proper FOOD and SHE likes HER and MY food to be very proper, SHE goes to Dickenson's, the Butcher, for meat, the LOVELY-DUBBLY Fishmonger for OUR fish, to Carol for vegetables that SHE hasn't grown and to Kaza for OUR fruit. And as all of these lovely people work very hard even in dreadful weather SHE buys all of OUR food from them and Wicker Trolley runs along beside her with no complaints carrying everything home.

Like today.. Eggs from the Egg Stall, Fruit from Kaza, Beetroot and Potatoes from Carol's son and refills for HER diary.. I know, I know, it is the 1st of February today and SHE is a bit late but SHE's had a lot on HER mind and had been managing to "get by on the smell of an oily rag"..... Don't look at me, I didn't dream that expression up, it was one of Constance's.. goodness knows who told it to her.

Probably one of her norty brothers whom she LURVED so much, Lesley and Bob Hooper, yes, Constance was a Hooper before she married and changed her name. I would find it very hard to change MY name, but the way things are going at the moment and seeing as I don't EVER go out on dates with BOY African Grey Parrots, MY chances of marrying one are pretty slim. I don't even go out to school, SHE 'Home Schools' ME.

I met a BOY African Grey about six years ago, his name was George and he lived near to The River Thames with his 'mother'. That woman was pretty strange, I tell you... MY HER had to TELL George's mother that she was a really mean old witch leaving George alone all day with just a daft Siamese and a deaf old Pekinese for company.

WE used to whizz about all over the place, SHE spent a lot of time 'on the road' collecting and delivering stuff to all the clients and suppliers and I went too, in the medium sized cage, and it was fun, WE used to go up to Audley End to see Mr. Laws, her wood turner, to East Ham to see Linda her fabulous lampshade maker and backwards and forwards to everyone else!

And that was how I first met Debi, by going to see the boys in Deptford... oh boy, did I JURST LURVE going there. The workshop was an under-the-railway-arches-building and I used to ZOOM up and down the entire length of the space which was over a hundred feet long and when I was tired of flapping MY wings, I used to land on one of the 'boys' heads, shake MY tail and think "what fun that was!"

Goodness me... it is tea time.. sorry folks, YOU should know by now that MY passion for Lapsang Soochong tea cannot be described or transcribed into real words.. so I have to bid YOU a very speedy farewell and IF anyone knows who it is who is reading MY Blog in the land of Turkeys, do let US know... there's a good Reader.

Fry's Turkish Delight...... dumdumdedummmmm.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 1st, 2012.