WINTERY WINDS & A CHILLY CHAIR..

Yes folks.. it is a two post day.. for SHE had the very brightest of bright ideas half an hour ago.. and so here I am to share it with YOU!

OUR bathroom, when the days become cold, is not the warmest of rooms and certainly, the 'seat' that is not a chair is a chilly place to 'sit' as it is right by the window!

SHE does the trick of putting two layers of bubble wrap against windows to act as double glazing and had just pinned them into position, when out of nowhere came the brightest of bright ideas..

There is a bamboo pinoleum blind that hangs in front of the bathroom window, how about lining it with a large bath towel' was the idea, it would be so easy to do, all SHE would have to do was stitch the towel to the inside of the blind.

Out of the linen cupboard came a thick bath towel, exactly the length that was required and only a little bit too wide, which would be no problem as it would be folded over. 

Opening HER grandmother's sewing chest, SHE took out the necessary thread, needle and a small pair of scissors, no, SHE no longer snips cotton with HER teeth..

A row of overstitching and hey presto.. one very smartly lined pinoleum blind!

It was hung back on its hooks.. and SHE smiled.. for instantly.. oh, what bliss.. the smallest room will no longer be the coldest room on these chilly, frosty winter nights..

GeeGee Parrot.
November 21st, 2013.

JUST LIKE MASTERCHEF.. A group of ingredients..

Do YOU know this television programme Dear Reader? It is addictive stuff to watch.. well, WE are addicted to it as it is all about food.. aka YumYum in OUR house.

Today on OUR work surface was a large chunk of lovely home grown tangerine coloured squash, a few small potatoes, an onion, a head of garlic, a ginger root, two small heads of pak choi, three oyster mushrooms, a leek, a packet of Freekeh (I love this) and another packet of rice vermicelli.

From the beginning of November until the end of March there is always a stock pot on the stove, the contents change, sometimes it will be a meat stock.. beef or chicken.. or fish or sometimes just a vegetable one with a lot of root vegetables which always includes, of course, OUR most beloved Hamburg Parsley root.

But today's stock was fish.. three very large and 
mighty fierce looking Salmon heads, together with herbs and spices, had hubbled and bubbled and made the most eddibubble of deliciousness.. 

Into a large pan went two litres of this stock, added to this were the chopped fore mentioned vegetables, a cup of Freekeh and the same of rice vermicelli.

This was allowed to boil gently until the potato and the squash were tender.. the seasoning was adjusted and I was settled onto MY favourite eating perch..

SHE scooped out a dollop of the vegetables with a small sieve and placed them onto MY board.. the smell was delicious.. but never mind about the smell.. oh, but all was well in MY life.. for there, nestling underneath a fat chunk of squash, was the
Freekeh..

If YOU don't know this most delicious of things.. it is wild, smoked wheat.. go to a Middle Eastern food market / shop and ask them for it, it can be used in many different ways.. but today, for lunch, WE had in a thick soup..

Yes.. Soupa-la-doupa was HER creation today.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 19th, 2013.

T'WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT..

Much like tonight Rear Readers.. except I am talking about nine years ago..

SHE drove with a friend to the top of Shropshire, the weather was not kind but the trip was urgent and as they got nearer to the destination, the weather turned from being 'not kind' to dire and by the time they arrived, it was pitch dark and the torrential rain was being driven hard by a lashing, merciless wind.

The people were expecting HER and sweetly there was hot chocolate waiting for them along with everything that SHE was due to collect.

The final paperwork was done, the estate car was loaded up and then, when everything was packed, the main reason for the trip was placed carefully onto the back seat.

Hugs and kisses were exchanged along with a little bag of edible goodies were given to HER for the very long trip back to London.

Oh and such a loonng trip it was too.. the storm rampaged over England and everyone was driving very slowly as the driving conditions were just appalling.. they came slowly down the M1 and then finally, there ahead, were the lights of the city .. London. 

It was with a HUGE "thank you" to HER friend when they stopped in front of HER house.. the car was unpacked.. then the most important box was taken inside..

Tonight.. there is a very scrummydumptious thing on the stove in the YumYum HQ.. for OUR ninth 
anniversary supper.. for yes.. Dear Readers.. for it was ME that SHE collected from Shropshire on that dark and stormy night!

GeeGee Parrot.
November 18th, 2013.

CHEESE & BREAD.. TWO NEW COMPANIES FOR YOU..

Hello Dear Readers.. if YOU are up to date with MY Blog, YOU will recall that last monday SHE was going to do a day in the shop where SHE does volunteer work. 

The forecast was for grim weather.. so a day working in a cosy shop sounded jurst the ticket, however, sadly the shop was neither cosy or warm.. for the customers kept leaving the door open to the driving rain and very chilly-billy wind.. ugh.. and SHE was sent home early when HER very chesty cough erupted with a vengeance. 

To take a call from a charming friend.. who said, upon hearing the cough.. "you and GeeGee are coming to stay with me for a few days and it is bed for you, so pack a small bag and I will pick you up in an hours time"..

And so that is what happened.. SHE put an away notification onto HER email contacts list and WE slipped away to a very cosy and warm home and this was where WE stayed until thursday.. bliss.. so adorabubble, kind and very sweet of OUR lovely friend..

Sometimes being sensible is what YOU have to do. WE have NOT gone to the garden, although the weather has been glorious with blue skies and warm, it is deceptive.. SHE would have worked hard, then got hot, taken off a layer or HER jacket and whoops.. been back where YOU and SHE don't want to be! 

But yesterday.. what was this? A sunny day at the Wimbledon Farmer's Market.. with no rain or wind.. how very strange indeed. Off SHE went to see Goaty mum Debbie of Ellie's Dairy.. yum. 

On the way home, SHE went to get some very scrummydumptious LapySang tea and a paper but was too late for all the Guardians had gone, a Saturday Telegraph would have to do.. but lo and behold.. what was this that SHE found in the Colour Magazine? 

Two new London based food companies for YOU.

A North London based Cheese maker is the first.. and why not? WE make VERY good Beer and Bread in this city.. so why not Cheese? 

His name is Philip Wilton and he started making cheese in 2011. wildescheese.co.uk finds him.. say WE sent YOU!

The second is a article which has touched HER deeply.. it was written by Rose Prince about her two children but especially about her young son Jack. 

The article is wonderful to read for many reasons, it is in the colour magazine of yesterday's Saturday Telegraph, the article is called 'The son also rises'.

Fast forward and after doing a stint working for Carole Bamford in her wholesale bakery, under the eye of the chief baker Eric Duchamel (Mrs 
Bamford owns the organic food company called Daylesford), Jack moved back to London to the Pocket Bakery.

In March of this year, the Pocket Bakery was invited to 'pop-up' for two weeks in Fortnum & Mason's! WOW.. 

And so I am going to quote from his mother's article and I defy YOU not to be touched by what she wrote..

'Three years on and much has changed. The bakery, set up simply to earn a little cash and smooth the troubled waters that parents and children travel together, has done much more: bringing together a neighbourhood; giving a troubled young person a purpose that had been absent before we made a single loaf; and creating 
something that has won praise at the highest level. That all this comes from bread, the stuff of life, is perhaps not surprising. We just forget, from time to time, how important the simple things can be.'

The Pocket Bakery,
Trades from the Doodle Bar near to Battersea Bridge. (South side).
Friday & Saturday - 12 - 3. 
pocketbakery.org

SHE cannot wait to visit both of these two new companies.. to get some of Philip's cheese and to eat it on Jack's bread! YumYum indeedy.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 17th, 2013.

SOMETHING UNUSUAL HAS HAPPENED..

I know YOU all think SHE and I just loll about all day.. this is not true.. for today after church SHE came home with a certain look in HER eyes.. it did not bode well for the chaos that was living the life of old Riley in OUR sitting room..

I retreated to bathroom door, it pained ME to see such ruthless behaviour!

And at four of the clock SHE stopped to write an email to a friend who wanted information about a mutual friend's whereabouts.. and saw.. eureeka!

One of those books that SHE sorted out last week-end has been sold on Amazon.. whooo.. that does make a change! Now SHE spent a lot of time checking prices on the web site, if others were selling for silly money, then SHE gave HER copy to New Horizons but some, like this book, HER copy was the only paperback one.

How about that.. money coming in instead of going out.. it will go in the post to the buyer on Tuesday, for SHE is working tomorrow.. it is forecasted to be another grim and grizzly day, so cosy shop is just the place to be.. and I will be snuggly-buggly on bedroom door. 

This is jurst a small hop from top of cupboard where MY big water and yumyum bowls are.. the radio will be on and I will spend the day quietly.

Life is calm and pleasant.. and WE have a friend coming to stay whom I have never met.. hence the tidying. I wish YOU all a happy week.

GeeGee Parrot.

November 10th, 2013.

TWICE A STRANGER.. Tales from the 20th century.

YOU know, those of YOU dear Readers who are up to date on MY Blog, that SHE reads books voraciously. HER favourite subjects are political and social History and one thing that has always interested HER are the Greeks - Turks.. what caused the start of their problems?

There are NO Reddies being offered to anyone who guesses where SHE went to find answers.. off SHE went down the Kings' Road to HER favourite place.. aka the Library. SHE took old Wicker as SHE had thoughts of jumping a bus to Streatham.. hahaha.. fat chance!

Old Wicker creaked and groaned all the way home as he was full to his brim with tombs of history.. not a paperback in sight!

One of the books, whose title is also the title of this post, has been a revelation.. spelling out, quite simply, the situations as they occurred, the wars, the injustices, the treachery, the enforced mass expulsion of thousands upon thousands of people, the ramifications of these movements on both the Grecian and the Turkish populations, the cruelty inflicted upon innocent people, of children being kidnapped, murder, rape, heart breaking stories. 

Equally, the extreme bravery and kindness from 
people who had absolutely NO connection to 
either of these countries but who knew that they 
had to go and help these poor, unfortunate people who were dying of Typhoid, Cholera and starving to death.. whilst the politicians talked about the situation and who was supposed to be doing what. 

SHE recently received an email from a lovely friend, in it was the story of how in 1945 her husband, at a very young age, was put into a pram, with a collapsible bath, a typewriter and with his 
mother and father fled their home in the town of
Marienburg, in advance of the Red Army.

Constance (pregnant) left India holding a suitcase in one hand and her first born son's hand in the 
other. She left on a troop ship with Hugo bound 
for England. Two months later after landing, Constance joined Hugo in Hamburg with two sons!

SHE was born in Malaya (as it was then), SHE left when SHE was nearly three and a half, Constance had one suitcase with the thickest clothes that she had been able to find for two children and herself.

They docked in Liverpool in December.. both times Constance and her child / children were not 
refugees.. they were just another British Army family returning 'home'.. but because Constance had no home in England.. they had absolutely nothing. 

For England had never been her home.. home was, or rather had always been, Madras.

Recently SHE has met an extremely nice woman called Kay. SHE had been told that Kay was Malaysian, so SHE was delighted to be able to greet her in Malay.. only to be met with a very confused face! Not Malaysian.. Cambodian!

They had coffee and talked.. ooooh, what a story. Of being well educated, of the Krymer Rouge and Pol Pot taking power, of losing all her family to the regime, of being smuggled out to the coast by people who had adored her father and mother, of being a boat person, of being in a refugee transit camp for over two years.. madre mia.

How do you keep your sanity and faith? Here, 
Dear Readers, is a story of such generosity of spirit, honour and courage that, although I know the story well, it makes US both very wet-eyed.

Kay, having been properly educated, spoke English and French as well as her own language, after a 'difficult' boat trip, she arrived in the camp with nothing apart from what she had on her back.

Date of leaving refugee camp for anywhere else ?Completely unknown.. what to do? Make other peoples lives better, decided this extraordinary woman.. so she badgered and badgered the authorities for a blackboard and for chalk.

And every day.. for over two years.. this simply wonderful woman taught English, French and Mathematics.. because she knew that being able to read and write these two languages and being numeric would help these people and it would give her 'something to do'.. read that again.. give her something to do....

The Greeks and Turks, the lovely friend's husband, Constance, HER and Kay have all been 'twice a stranger'.. YOU never know what people have had to do or have gone through.. 

GeeGee Parrot.
November 9th, 2013.

JUST LIKE SNAKES & LADDERS.. UP & DOWN..

Ok.. now let's see which of YOU, Dear Readers, can get this puzzle?

What goes up and down very fast like a game of Snakes & Ladders or creeps up or down very slowly?

The answer.. OUR temperature, sadly from being a very pleasant Autumn / Fall.. it has now turned into Winter.. brrrr.. SHE actually had to wear a pair of fleecy socks yesterday for snug toes was indeedy the order of the day.

SOCKS! Yes, alas and alack, I fear there will be no more bare feet in slip-on shoes for HER for several months.

Never mind.. Winter brings.. oooh, delicious yumyum to mind, baked potatoes, proper green vegetables, with chillies, hot soups made with proper stock, stews, PERSIMMONS.. these are MY favourite fruit apart from a Cox Apple or a ripe SpinyApple (pineapple to the unknowing new Dear Reader).

Yes, I know WE said WE were going to post on an email that SHE received earlier this week but SHE is tying it in up with a story about a new friend called Kay. and SHE has to confirm a detail with Kay before WE post.

So SHE is off to do whatever it is that parents do on Saturday mornings and I am going to sit on a comfy door and give MY feathers a beaking.. 

WE will be back later on today.. 

GeeGee Parrot.
November 9th, 2013.

HEY HO HEY HO.. IT'S OFF TO WORK.. SHE WENT..

SHE didn't exactly skip up the steps on HER way to work but SHE went! Slightly pasty faced but with lots of layers of clothing.. rather like the Michelin tyre man.. at least SHE was warm.

For today was a very dismal day.. cold wet.. but in a bag there was a BIG flask of hot ginger & cloves (without the garlic) which would sustain HER through the day.

And, despite the grotty weather it was a very jolly day at work.. now YOU know that there are and there always will be folk who go out and about with Mr.Grumpy and they had a real corker in the shop today.. oh, such a miserable woman who made the BIG mistake of directing her grump onto the wrong woman.

No, not onto HER.. but onto HER lovely boss. 

BIG mistake.. Boss is burying her eldest sister tomorrow so she was not in the frame of mind to pander to any nonsense.. as YOU can well imagine..

I was home alone with LBC 97.3.. until past five 
of the clock when I heard HER key.. I don't mind the odd quiet day but it is better when SHE is at home.

For YOU see, I can't work old kettle or toaster.. and a cup of hot steamy tea with a hot toasted brown crust would be just scrummydumptious on an afternoon like today.

Tomorrow's post will, in part, be an open response to an email that SHE has received from a very dear Dear Reader.. WE know her, in fact WE know her and her daughter. they are Rosamund and Lotta.

So now I am off to that magic place aka YumYum HQ. it is now soon to be seven of the clock, the sky is dark but all is well.. as WE trust it is with YOU, Dear Reader, wherever YOU may be.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 7th, 2013.

CLOVES.. GARLIC & GINGER.. WITH ORGANIC SESAME OIL.

Oh dear.. SHE ignored the scratchy feeling in HER throat yesterday morning and carried on trotting to and from Cadogan Street with all of the 'goodies' that SHE was donating to New Horizons, the over 60's centre.. it was a gloriously sunny autumnal day but SHE has gone down with a big bump.

For SHE started to feel 'very poorly' in the early evening and by bed time was sneezing, coughing and feeling most wretched.. grr.. so much to do.. very bad and norty of virus to visit just now.

So it is an at home day today.. a flask of the strangest potion was made last night and another this morning.. spices and herbs are the way to deal with old virus.. he won't be with US for too long.. that is for sure!

SHE takes a teaspoonful of Cloves, two cloves of Garlic and a big chunk of fresh Ginger. They get bashed together until they are a pulp, put into a small thermos and then boiled water is poured in. The top is put on and it is left to brew..

It tastes.. simply disgusting! But the combination of inhaling these powerful smells plus drinking the 'tea' of the steamy garlic with the spices really helps to clear the nostrils and generally fight a very good fight.

At night SHE does the other part of this magical anti-virus fighting trick.. up each nostril, SHE puts 2 drops of Organic Sesame Oil. It must be Organic.. the oil seeps through and helps to prevent YOUR sinuses becoming blocked and dry.

No.. it is not for the people who think (mistakenly) that squirting a chemical up their nostril will help them.. or those who like to dose themselves with pills and potions, nor will this virus remedy make a drug company rich.. but it WAS given to HER by an extremely nice and highly qualified Doctor.

His name? Dr.Mosaref Ali. HRH Prince Charles is a great fan of this clever man, who trained in both 
conventional and homeopathic medicine.

Viruses are not welcome in OUR home.. 

GeeGee Parrot.
November 5th, 2013.

SURPLUS TO REQUIREMENTS..

In an email to Joanna, aka writer of excellent Blog called La Vie en Rose, SHE said that SHE was culling books.. well, they have now ALL gone.. whoosh! Up the road they went in old wicker and were donated to a wonderful place which is for the over 60's.. 

Then SHE cast an eye upon the very deep and very long drawers in OUR bedroom.. what was lurking in them.. 

Oh lordy.. well, SHE and I both doubt that SHE will ever be a size 4 US or a size 8 UK again.. so all HER trousers / slacks / jeans / shorts / dresses treasured or otherwise have gone.

Tomorrow it is the turn of sweaters and tops, jackets. SHE has culled a most favourite coat.. sigh.. but if it doesn't fit.. it doesn't fit and now someone else can have it.

I must say that I think SHE was very 'brave'.. there were several items at which SHE looked at and 'sighed over'.. of course, I don't have this problem, I am in the same clothes all the time.. I admit sometimes MY 'reddies' aka tail look extra snappy 
when new ones have just grown through.. but otherwise, what YOU see is what I wear.

But OUR life has changed so much in the past five years as SHE no longer leads the life that SHE lead for so many years.. HER life is much simpler now.

And tomorrow SHE is sorting through fabrics, SHE gave a HUGE amount away to a friend who makes curtains and is starting on lampshades, but there is another even bigger amount of beautiful remnants, these will go to the same place as the clothes as they have lessons on patchwork quilts and lavender bags.. they were just thrilled with the small bag that went there this morning.

Slowly cupboards and drawers are being sorted and tidied.. but in order to go through things.. unfortunately YOU have to be able to see them.. so the sitting room is a disaster zone.. WE have a friend coming at the end of the month for four days.. SHE has to finish this job, that is for sure.

ME, well, I get to watch all this from comfy doors, 
SHE doesn't require MY help.. in sorting through 'stuff' which is surplus to requirements.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 4th, 2013.

Theolonious Monk.. 'Nica' Rothschild.. a passion for Jazz and HER old school..

Greetings Dear Reader.. WE have a sunny morning here in deepest Knightsbridge and so our plan was to go to garden.. until SHE checked the weather forecast.. grim.. heavy rain due and as it takes an hour to get there, it makes no sense to go and get wet and cold when there is always stuff to do at home.

If YOU have read the last post, YOU will have gathered SHE is on a history reading jag.. on HER last visit to favourite place aka library, SHE spied a book that connects directly to HER history.

'The Baroness' by Hannah Rothschild is the story of her great aunt 'Nica' Rothschild. The book takes YOU back in time telling warts and all about this extraordinarily gifted family and then brings the reader up into the present age.

YOU might wonder why the name of a famous American jazz pianist and composer is in the title of today's post.. well, Nica, by now married and on a trip away from her family, heard a record composed and played by Theolonious Monk and never went back home.

The author tells how she became aware of this 
relative that she did not know.. how she meets her great aunt.. I know.. YOU are still floundering around in the dark wondering where I am going with this post..

Well.. the point is this.. IF Nica had not heard the music, she probably would have stayed married to her husband.. she would have lived a 'normal' life like so many other Rothschild daughters. 

But she DID hear the music, she DID leave her family and because of these facts and several more for which YOU will have to read the book, her great niece wrote this book on her great aunt's 
extraordinarily incredible life.. all of her life.. which included Tring Park as her childhood home.

So here, Dear Reader, is the connection, YOU see SHE was at school at Arts Educational Trust, Tring, in the same house in which Nica Rothschild was born and lived as a child.

SHE has often wondered what the house was like when 'the' family lived there and now SHE knows.

SHE wrote an email to the author thanking her for the book and giving the reader such a vivid impression of the house when it was a home.. SHE was charmed to receive a response which included "to think you probably slept in Nica's room".

Memo to Dear Readers Sally Dingle in France and Caroline Pizzini in Italy.. aka friends from Arts.. read this book..

SHE is off to Chinatown.. I am off to favourite door.. 

GeeGee Parrot.
November 3rd, 2013.

"AND WHEN THE EAGLES DIE, WOE TO THE SPARROWS"..

Which periods of world history were YOU taught at school Dear Readers? SHE will tell YOU that SHE was not taught the facts of history that are relevant to this day and age, that is for sure.

From the back of one of HER most treasured books comes this quote.. "From 1848 - the year of the revolution - to the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire: an epic, Europe-wide drama that revolved around the lives of the Emperor and Empress of Austria. And when the Eagles die, woe to the sparrows..."

'THE EAGLES DIE.. Franz Joseph, Elisabeth and their Austria' by George R. Marek. 

This is NOT a novel.. but a factual book which presents extremely relevant details as to today's world in that it explains some of what and why the jigsaw of central Europe is so complex.

What IS a novel but which has lead HER down another path of history is a book called 'THE THREAD' by Victoria Hislop. This novel is about Thessaloniki, a seaport in Macedonia, Northern Greece. 

By sheer coincidence, the night before SHE found the book, there was a programme on television about the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Having not been educated about the fall of the Ottoman Empire - or even the rise of it - SHE had always wondered about the cause or reason for the Greek - Turk problem. This novel opened HER 
eyes.. so whoosh.. off SHE went to HER favourite place.. aka the Library. 

Holy Moley.. and all the rest.. and now SHE wonders what are the schools teaching these days for History.. are they still ploughing through The Stone Age? 

Or.. are pupils being taught late 1800 and 1900 political history.. all of which is extremely relevant in today's European situations. The Balkans, Macedonia, Albania to name a few..

Yes, indeedy, Mr.Marek.. "Woe to the sparrows".

GeeGee Parrot.
November 2nd, 2013.

Mr. Robert Fisher and his compliment..

Where to begin.. I suppose at the beginning is the best place.. otherwise I will have YOU, Dear Reader, very confused..

But first I will explain the title of this post.. WE don't know Mr. Robert Miller but Joanna of La Vie en Rose Blog does and he wrote an extremely complimentary comment in an email to her.. and the comment was about MY blog!

And that is all what was needed.. to motivate a fat grey parrot aka ME and an old woman aka HER back into blog writing mode.. so here WE are Dear Reader.. back in print.

"Happy days are here again".. apologies but I don't know any more words of this tune.. 

The September weather was simply glorious for which SHE was grateful.. YOU see HER darling and most beloved Dagga-the-Parrot died nine years ago on 9/11/2004 and SHE makes a point of spending the day out at the garden with HIM.. yes, HE is buried at the allotment. 

This year was a particularly beautiful day, apples were ripening and the pears would have been 
wonderful.. if some evil person had not stripped every single fruit off the trees..

SHE was not a happy gardener as some of them should not be picked until October.. some were still so small.. but the thieves did not care.. every one was stolen.. grrrr.

Anyway, much work has been done and new beds 
made. SHE is clearing where the raspberries are, they were awful this year and SHE wondered why and then realised, of course, they are at least twelve years old! Time for new canes.

So where they are now is going to be where SHE will build a Solar House.. a totally different shape to the traditional green house. SHE will plant new autumn raspberry canes on the old potato and bean area.

October.. more of the same.. SHE is back working for Trinity Hospice but in a different location.. this is much nearer to home.. a fast ten minute walk from door to door. So no waiting for buses in cold or wet winter weather.

Middle of October brought a huge surprise.. a telephone call from a client of long ago.. they want HER to come out of retirement for a job. SHE asked about.. found out that SHE could get some of the old team together, enough to handle this.. SHE will know more in the New Year

End of October.. ah well.. what can I say.. it is never easy.. Constance, beloved Bill, Edgar, Suzan aka Moley.. they all died in the latter part of the 
month.

Then this last week.. SHE went in to work and upon greeting HER 'boss' said "are you ok?".. oh dear Dear Readers.. poor lovely boss had had her elder sister die in front of her.. aged seventy and in good health.. 

I have written this before and I probably will again.. as the last line of Teenage Wedding goes.. "You never can tell".. if YOU love someone.. tell them.. don't have regrets because YOU never did.

I tell HER all the time.. when I am not giving HER a hard time because SHE is being norty.. 

This month SHE is off to join up with Bill's family, it was going to be New York City and Washington DC but his sister thinks that it would be too sad and is thinking of somewhere else.. it is so sweet of them.. ten years, sometimes it seems just like last year and sometimes.. much longer.

So there YOU are.. well, of course, lots and lots of 'other' stuff has happened but it is nearly eight of the clock, aka supper time, so WE are heading for Yumyum HQ.. to eat delicious Freekeh Wheat.. MY latest passion.. with steamed vegetables.

I hope that YOU, wherever YOU are, also have something delicious to eat today.. I am happy as I saw that WE have a golden SpinyApple to break that norty fast tomorrow morning.. YumYum.

PipPip.. "Thank YOU Mr. Fisher".

GeeGee Parrot.
November 1st, 2013.

I am alive.. so is SHE.. and WE will be posting tonight!

Oh dear.. Dear Readers.. please imagine how low WE are grovelling on the ground.. WE admit WE have been AWOL.. service speak for 'Absent WithOut Leave'.. but mighty strange things have been a'going on.. plus lots and lots of gardening.

But when SHE comes back later on today.. WE will post a new post for YOU.. and it is all due to a very kind man in America who wrote mighty kind words about MY Blog.. he actually sent an email to Joanna, YOU know her, she writes that most excellent of blogs called La Vie en Rose and has seven.. yes.. seven sons plus J-J.. and Joanna very kindly sent it onto HER!

But later is not now.. now SHE has to go out.. as SHE is doing an extra day for Trinity Hospice.

PipPip.. WE will be back.. so don't go too far away from YOUR blog reading machine..

GeeGee Parrot.

November 1st, 2013.