THE MONDAY POST.. MADE UP OF ALL SORTS OF VARIOUS STUFF..

Dear Readers, we wish a good day to you all.

It is a 'fair' day here in London town, old sun has his torch just on at half strength but it is warm. Now yesterday was a 'mighty' strange day weather wise, it was warm but not a direct ray from Sun's torch hit her all day long. 

But listen, don't feel sorry for her, for she received an email from MaryLou in Illinois saying the lake near to her house is still frozen.. gulp!

She was pleased to see that the two rows of 'Kelvedon Wonder' peas, that she planted on Saturday, have not been munched by mr.slug and the bed of dwarf broad beans is still intact also.

This makes a change, for usually all she has to do is plant some fresh little green thing and old slug comes slithering along and devours it overnight. 

Grass was cut, edges were neatly trimmed by the new trimmer that she took with her, the areas under the Gang of Six was weeded. They will be watered, yeah, the water has been turned on, and then mulched later this week.

The Gang of Six are a group of six fruit trees on Plot # 41. The gang consists of three 'Stella' Cherry trees, one 'Morello' Cherry, who is a bit of a delinquent, one 'Victoria' Plum and last, but not least, a 'Transparent' Gage, also a delinquent!

She calls these trees delinquent because the three sweet cherry trees and the Victoria plum settled down and started growing fruit just as all well-behaved fruit trees should do. Not these two, oh no, although they are in same soil, they didn't want to grow any fruit.


Last year, for the first time, they both produced a few blossoms, so she said "I have had enough of your bad behaviour, you are both having a hard summer prune". So snip-snip went those cutters. 

In fact, all the Stone fruit trees got a snip! The Yellow Gage, at the front, got the biggest snip of all, that Gage is part of the Gang of Four, they grow in a straight line just back from the front fence on Plot # 39. They consist of two Stella Cherry trees, the Yellow Gage and a sweet little Concorde Pear. 

Yellow Gage thinks the word 'tall' should apply to her, for despite the fact she is grafted on to miniature root stock, she has been growing ever upwards since the day she was planted in 2006.

Why can't all trees be like that sweet little Pear, who was only planted in 2010 but ever since 2012 has has produced some beautiful fruit and is still only under six foot tall!

Sigh.. 

Truly there must be an invisible sign somewhere in the garden which says "All new Cherry trees can behave badly here", for there are a pair of very delinquent Cherry trees in another bed.

They came from Phoebe in Catford, an excellent garden and plant centre, Rachel is the woman you want to speak to about outdoor plants and trees, she knows her stuff, does Rachel!

Anyway, these two trees were planted on 24 April 09. They were pruned and trained into an Espalier shape.

Huh and ever since the day these two were planted, they have been hell-bent on escaping any form of structural guidance! 

And let us not discuss the sanity of those two 'White' Cherry trees at the back of Plot # 41! 

Mentally deranged is the only phrase that properly describes this pair, despite the fact that they came from a well-respected Nursery Garden called Reads, who are in Bungay, Norfolk, they are very, very norty! 

They were both staked properly.. but huh.. one of them has refused to stand up straight from the day she was planted and pulled the stake with her!

Yes, she does know how to stake a tree!

But all the Stone Fruit trees, except the two Miss Pluots and one little Seneca Plum, are in for a very nasty shock in June, nope, we are not saying what is going to happen, you might tell them!

But today is not a Gardening Day, for my Blog has to be written, several chores have to done and I am playing with her feet.

She sits up on her bed to write my Blog, you don't wear shoes whilst lying on a bed, heehee, those 
cute toes are just lying there unprotected, if I sneak up on them, Beaky gives them old Nip.

But I swear she has eyes in the side of her head as well, for she twitches them out of reach just as Nip is about to happen.

Papaya broke our fast which was truly delicious, it was scrummydumptious, in fact. She is buying Bavette Steak for supper which we will eat with some home grown Greens.

But there has to be movement, for Bavette Steak is still on Butcher's slab, so "Goodbye" from us both. 

We will later today post about Roy, an African Grey Parrot, who was locked in a dog crate and left in a garage for three years. Grrr.. Ugh.

Also this post will be about an extraordinary woman who lives in Stockport, England. We defy you to read this woman's poetry and not be moved.

That's it folks, I'm off to sit on pole by front door and she is off to the market. I hope that a Papaya or two will come home in Wicker. Yum.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 31st, 2014.

Sorry folks.. not a long post tonight.. she is too tired and I can't tap iPad!

She took the grass trimmer engine out to the garden and did all of the grass.. it is a heavy beast and she is tired, so having had a very light collation, our lights will go out at thirty minutes past nine of the evening clock.

Fresh air plus hard strenous exercise is great for the figure and health (but boring, "who goes to bed at this hour", I asked her, "Us" was the response). Huh, I am almost ten, will I ever be allowed to stay up late, I wonder? 

Never mind, going to bed early means that we will be as fit as a Butcher's Dog. No, I have no idea where she got that expression from.

Tomorrow's post is about VERY serious stuff. Part of it will be about another African Grey Parrot and the other part will be about a woman who lives in the North of England.. an Animal person. 

No.. Beaky ain't giving you any more clues, you, Dear Reader, will have to come back and read my Blog tomorrow.

Good night to you all.. wherever you may be.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 30th, 2014.
Oh.. I know why I am so discombobulated, it is because the clocks went forward last night.. duh.

HOW MUCH FOOD DO YOU THROW AWAY? DO YOU GROW ANYTHING?

Think about it Dear Readers. 

Do you throw away the outer leaves of green vegetables, potato, parsnip and carrot peeling, do you, God forbid, peel your Beetroots before you cook them?

Throw away bread, make your own bread?

I ask you this as she was privy to see such waste being exercised in a friend's kitchen recently. 

I wrote in a previous post that she took vegetable peeling out to bury in the Bean and Pea trenches.. let me assure you, they were the very old, dried up leaves from a couple of Leeks! 

Onion skins put into a pot of bones with a clove of garlic, vegetables leaves, some spices and herbs and water make for an tasty stock or soup.

Which freezes brilliantly in ice cube trays, ready to pop straight into a dish to add delicious flavour to your food and you have the added bonus of KNOWING there are no suspect additives of any kind in it. 

Keep a plastic bag in your freezer, place the vegetable peelings or skins in and there they are, ready in a trice to add to a pot to make a tasty soup. Likewise with left-over mashed potatoes, they are great as a thickening agent. And any Bread which has gone dry can be added to pasta or to soup.

I know that you all know that she keeps a stock pot going most weeks of the year, at the moment it is a Fish Pot. 

We, for I LOVE prawns, had some BIG prawns the other night, the heads, tails and skins went into the pot along with a couple of very savage looking Salmon heads, it smells very rich and unctuous (such a great word).

She cooks with very little salt, so makes her own mixture of 'Salt Free Mixed Herbs', of course, she is lucky enough to grow these herself. 

There is nothing like knowing that these plants, which add so much flavour to our food, have never been sprayed or 'encouraged' to grow with any chemical!

It surely beats having to pay x amount of £, $, € etc to companies who bottle their Herbal products in those cute little plastic bottles with a shaker top. 

She does not like storing any food in plastic. She trusts glass and an old jam jar is useful and will sit happily on a pantry / store cupboard shelf.

Even if you only have a window ledge you can grow your own Herbs, in the sitting room there are growing various varieties of Basil, Chervil, French Tarragon, two types of Parsley, Coriander.

The packets of seeds cost her about a £1.00 each, they will produce several plants, half of which she will pick and use fresh, they are 'cut and grow' again so the supply is pretty endless. A lot will be cut and dried in a warm place, then she crumbles them and places them in a glass jar.

She was extremely appreciative to receive these from a dear friend called Carla, who grew a huge amount of wonderful things in a tiny beach-side vegetable garden on the outskirts of Marbella in the '80's. Carla used to package her dried Herbs and send them to friends all over the world as / for Christmas presents. 

Dill heads, Lovage and Poppy seeds are dried and truly delicious added to bread and soups.

Think about Dear Readers.. think about waste, for it is such a waste.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 28th, 2014.

TREASURE IN A POCKET. A QUIET DAY READING OTHER PEOPLES' BLOGS.. NORTHWEST EDIBLE LIFE IS A GOOD ONE.

Loopie-Loo.. great celebrations were celebrated in our home today! 

She wore a jacket to go to the Post Office this morning, one she has not worn for a long time. The outer layer is the softest leather and it is lined in a fabric like wool flannel, it is the perfect weight for this time of year, plus it has a hood.

It has two inner pockets which have zippers, she was walking along and realised that, when she went to get her gloves out of an outer pocket, there was something in one of the inner pockets.

The 'something' turned out to be a little skinny wallet containing a long lost Debit Card, a loyalty card for a Garden Centre and a £50.00 note! Wow was all she could think of to begin with and then, how weird after that.

So home was via the Bank to pay the money in! No point in it lying in a pocket, is there?

Cold, dull, wet here today, it is apparently going to be dropping to 2 degrees tonight. But they say that Summer Time is happening soon with daytime temperatures perhaps going up to 20 degrees! 

Remember to put your clocks forward an hour last thing on Saturday night, for it is 'Spring forward, Fall backwards' time.

And you know, they may be right. Today she peered again at the Cherry pot where she saw the Lily of the Valley are up and noticed that the Lily of the Valley in the old Joro Rose pot are also up.

This is extremely early for those Lily to be strutting their stuff but maybe the plant world knows it is going to be a warm season, the English Bluebells are in bud, they pretty much take over the pot in which an old Brown Turkey Fig lives. 

Each year, after they have flowered, she has to remove some bulbs as they are so happy in this pot that they increase too vigourously.

The afternoon was quiet, potting up some double and single Freesias, how she loves their smell. When it is a little warmer, she will plant the rest of them at the allotment underneath an Apple tree.

Then it was on with the iPad to catch up with the news, to read emails and other peoples Blogs. A Blog that she enjoys reading is called.

   Northwest Edible Life .. www.nwedible.com

It is written by a woman called Erica, she is a trained Chef, who worked in restaurants for ten years and who is now a garden writer and urban homesteader.

Her Blog covers all the subjects which are connected with the growing of food, the different types of soil it grows in, tree pruning, sewing of seeds, the preservation of food by way of bottling, freezing etc and other stuff. Earth, chickens.. go and find it and read it, for it is not your 'average' garden Blog, she writes well and with humour.

She has set herself a challenge, this is to not buy any food for a month, but to use what she has already in the way of stored food : dried, bottled, canned, frozen and what is growing in her garden in the way of fresh vegetables.

Too long to explain why she is doing this, apart from emptying her own store cupboard in order to make way for this coming years bounty, but also it involves the responses she got from two women.

Now we are off to read a new book, or rather she will read it and I will preen my feathers whilst perching on her head, that way I keep Beady Feet on her and know what's a'going on.

Then it will be another early night for us both, I am not quite sure why this new routine has been put into place but it is quite pleasant, so I bid you, Dear Readers, good night.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 27th, 2014.

AN VERY BEAUTIFUL OSTRICH FEATHER DUSTER..

She went today to have her hair cut and coloured by a new hairdresser and very successful it was too!

The price was amazing, because a. she is ancient and b. it was a weekday, so the cost was much less than she used to pay Chris @ Smile and even less than she used to pay Irena @ Luigi's.

Irena had started to get 'very' grand with her prices, it is time to look for another hairdresser, she thought and seeing a very smartly coiffed woman come out of a local hairdressers, she asked her "how much do they charge?"

The nice woman immediately spilt the beans and recommended Anita for both cut and colour. We like it when people are generous with information, it is always a surprise when people do not share stuff like this.

Anyway, there she was, wearing a short bob in a pretty colour that looks like a polished conker! (fruit from a Horse Chestnut tree).. 

Off she went to try and sort out a bank who have sent stuff which has not arrived, there is a nasty 
neighbour upstairs and when he is in residence, important mail always goes missing. 

He is a disagreeable man, the other occupants of the house all loathe him, he is rude, unhelpful, always late paying his service charges for the building maintenance and vetoes anything to do with keeping the house in good shape. Sigh.

She thought of going on to Hammersmith to try and find something but the sky was getting darker by the minute and it was beginning to be chilly.

So she caught a bus and got off opposite Harrods. For parcels, on-line orders etc, the sort that nasty neighbour would make disappear, she has a postal box at Mail Box Etc. She walked into the shop and yes, there was a package for her, a long tube!

(Sadly this bank will not send 'important' stuff there, it has, they say, to go to the account holder's home address.. what tosh, her other bank sends this sort of stuff to her local branch and upon showing them identification they hand it over).

I wonder what this could be, she thought and then remembered, that a couple of weeks ago she had cheekily sent an email to a company telling them "Ostriches are bred and you eat bread".

Andrew responded to this email saying thank you for picking up the error and could he have her address as he wanted to send her one in the way of a "thank you" present.

She walked home, luckily she had an umbrella with her as the sky was releasing bath loads of rain. The expression 'bucketing down with rain' would not signify the correct amount of water.

The packaging was very secure! It took a strong serrated knife to open the tube and get the duster out.

And it is a proper duster too, made out of the most exquisite Ostrich feathers. They're the Rolls Royce of dusters as tiny barbs on the feathers collect the minutest particles of dust.

Their eggs and flesh are delicious, their skins are used and, of course, so are the feathers, not one piece of these animals are wasted.

How very kind of Andrew to send her one. The least we can do is tell you about them, isn't it? So here, with no-more-ado, is who they are!

Embassy Feather Dusters are on-line @               www.embassyfeatherdusters.com

And as someone was generous enough to give her the new hairdresser, here are their details as well!

Anita, has a family, so does not work every day.

Hair Perfect, 14 Jerdan Place, London SW6.

Telephone: 020 7386 3999.

That is all from me today folks.. we are off to start cooking an early supper, we got up hideously early this morning, who knows why!

If it is like this tomorrow, cold, dull and wet, then that feather duster is going to see some action! 

GeeGee Parrot.

March 26th, 2014.

BIRDSONG & OTHER GLORIOUS THINGS..

The flat felt 'not so warm' when we woke up this morning and upon opening the front door, all was revealed.

There was not a patch of blue sky to be seen and it was pouring with rain but instead of making her glum. she smiled, whisked me upside down, kissed my tumtum and said "oh good, now we can spend the morning potting up".. potting up, now whatever can she mean, I wondered.

It happened after we broke that fast, she brought a huge bucket of compost, miniature gardening tools, coir pots, larger plastic flower pots, plant food and several of the seed trays into the kitchen.

Ah, I get it.. take a seedling out of the little cell where it started off life as a seed and 'pot' it up into a much larger pot!

Tendergreen Dwarf French Beans, Bunyard Broad Beans, Yellow Patty Pan Squash, Blue Lake French Beans, Borlotti Beans. Several trays of each are now in larger pots and they will go to the allotment next week to be 'hardened' off and then planted out.

Yesterday, she took out a tray of Sutton Broad Beans, they went into a small raised bed which takes four of her favourite cloches side by side, they are long and high and do an excellent job. She has had ten of them for over ten years now, they are certainly worth the money!

They have been warming this bed for the past week and she was careful to make sure that the plants were planted directly under the highest point in the cloche.

As she was finishing up and cursing mr. rat, for he has dug up all the carefully buried vegetable peelings and coffee grounds, she heard such a happy sound, it was a Robin! She stayed very still and waited for him to appear, sure enough a small person flew onto the Pear tree and gave song. 

He is a small, young bird, most certainly not our old one, who was a fat mr.robin-red-breast who was so tame that he would perch on either her boot or her little hand fork, waiting for an unsuspecting centipede to appear out of the ground.

But it was good to see him and he stayed near-by all afternoon, moving from plot to plot watching what was going on. He will soon learn that a fork and her working on the ground equals food!

As you know from our previous post, she left at half five of the afternoon clock and went home as she was suddenly very cold, hungry and tired.

There was that charming incident with the stranger on the bus, what a loving and kind gesture that was, she was SO glad that she was able to give her those greens. 

Home to a cosy home but as she came down the stairs, her eyes caught sight of the Sunburst Cherry pot, "who has been scratching the soil", she thought, getting to the bottom, she peered closely at the pot and realised, to her delight, that no one had been scratching, there are bulbs in that pot and they have started to break through the soil.

Thin, brown, skinny shoots.. do you know what they are? We posted last year about them, the tradition is to give them on May the First.. yes, Dear Readers, they are Lily of the Valley.

Very early, to be up so far, but does nature know something that we don't, could it be going to be a 'half-way decent' Spring after all? It will have to do an about face change then, for today was a chilly-billy day which demanded warm gloves.

Birdsong and Lilly of the Valley.. how glorious. What a happy day she had, today was as good but different, I will tell you all about it tomorrow.

There is a new packet of cashew nuts with which to play chase the nut and she has a fat book to finish.. PipPip Dear Readers.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 25th, 2014.
Postscript: She has been sent an extraordinary video of an Osprey fishing, I will enclose all of the details tomorrow.. Thanks MaryLou, it is truly a marvellous thing to watch.

THE STRANGER WHO WANTED TO GIVE HER £20.00!..

She worked hard today, you know there is much to do, potatoes to be planted, grass to cut, the last row of the asparagus bed to weed, new beds to be dug over, fences to mend, so at half past five of the after noon clock, she decided she had done enough. For she was very cold, very hungry and very tired.

Oh drat, the little 190 whizzed by as she was locking up the main gate but she was much too tired to walk to the next stop, so waited patiently for the next bus.

And thought about what was in the chilly white larder, supper was ok, she had cooked a chicken on Saturday and there was a bag of just-picked greens in the big old Lidl bag (which travels pretty much everywhere with her). But what was she going to eat to break that norty fast with tomorrow morning?

SpinyApple was what she needed, she was going to be too late for Karen, so it would have to be the small Tesco shop at Hammersmith Bus Station.

Off the 190, down the escalator to Tesco, up again with ripe SpinyApple and three, reduced in price, tubs of Mint, one for home, the others will be planted at the allotment, ants and mice hate mint!

Just in time to catch a 211 that would take her to Fulham Broadway from where she could catch either a 14 or a 414.

As she got on, she smiled wearily at a smartly dressed elderly woman and sat down in the seat directly in front of her. The combination of being tired and, now, warmer made her dozy and she kept nodding off. Only to awake with a jolt now and again.

The bus pulled into Fulham Broadway and she stood up, there was a stream of people coming down the bus stairs and suddenly a woman, who had been sitting beside the other elderly woman gave her a nudge.

The woman, at whom she had wearily smiled, had her hand outstretched towards her, in her hand were two loosely rolled up £10.00 notes.

"Here" the elderly woman said "take this".. she said "but why, why should you give me money?".. "oh lass, don't be proud, you look as if you need it" the woman replied.

She laughed and said "That is just the sweetest thing but I am ok, I just look like this because I have been working on my allotment", waving her (very) grubby hand at the woman! 

She bent down and kissed the elderly woman on the cheek, then reached into her 'bag lady' bag and handed the woman her bag of freshly picked green leaves and said "here, this is to thank you for that lovely gesture" and got off the bus.

Waiting for her on the pavement was the other woman, who hugged her and said "we were both worried about you, for you look so terribly tired, your hands are so dirty, we thought you really were down-and-out". 

So she explained that the water to wash muddy hands with was turned off until April 1st and the coat was old but oiled and windproof. They laughed, hugged and went their separate ways.

She came home thinking of the kindness, that spontaneous gesture of support to another human being, it had been such a very lovely day.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 24th, 2014.

HAS THE BBC LOST THEIR PLOT?

I ask this because of the following quotation from her culinary hero Mr. Michel Roux Jr.

"It's ridiculous when you think I have been associated with Albert Bartlett (Rooster Potatoes) for twelve years and on MasterChef for only six."

And, it is not as if he stands on street corners and whisper to passer-bys "Oi, I've got a load of tatties going cheap, want some", no, he advertises this brand of potatoes on television by saying that he serves them in his restaurant (The Gavroche) and has done so, as he says, for twelve years.

So there can be no doubt that the Beeb has lost their plot for they must have always known he did advertisements because the rest of us certainly did!

Never mind, because of the parting of their ways, he is now able to do articles for The Times, the first was in yesterday's edition in the Weekend Section on page 12 and you can also watch him on-line cooking French Classics.

The weekly video series started yesterday at thetimes.co.uk/timeskitchen.

He will also be able to advertise and hopefully he will tell us more about a small company that he is an investor in.

I believe it is called 'Growing Underground', a company recently set up to grow Micro Vegetables in old London tube tunnels. 

No nasty wind, controlled lighting, a constant degree of heat, just think of how Mushrooms and Rhubarb would simply love it!

I suppose you are wondering why he and his famous father and uncle are her heroes.

Well, Dear Readers, apart from having eaten at The Gavroche, and watched as he demonstrated the trick of how to make a very special Potato dish, it is because he is continuing his family's role in furthering the culinary skills of chefs and would-be chefs.

For thirty years ago, yes, you read that correctly, thirty years ago his father and uncle, Albert and Michel Roux founded The Roux Scholarship.

This is and obviously has been a very serious undertaking and their generosity of spirit is remarkable.

Generosity of Spirit is not a phrase she would connect with the BBC after their decision not to allow Mr.Roux to continue to front MasterChef which, she thinks leaves them with egg on their face, an appropriate remark, as I think you will agree?

Anyway, there is no television watching in this house.. grrr. For she touched the AV button on her television last week and the wretched machine has gone back to being Analog, she has tried to reset it, has even put new batteries into the remote control.

But nothing is working, there is just this irritating little box moving about the screen saying 'NO SIGNAL' and now she has to take it, not easy as it is thirty two inches wide and heavy, to a Comet / Dixon store where they will have to reset it.

It is a good thing she likes books, is it not and that she has me to entertain her. 

If the weather is behaving itself, she will be busy gardening all this week, there is still so much to do at this time of year and she has not even started on the delinquent plot which needs serious attention. 

But there is just time for one more game of Catch the Grape before my bedtime. PipPip, my Dear Readers, PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.

March 23rd. 2014.

MYSTERY SOLVED.. PLOT NEIGHBOUR HAS BEEN WORKING ON A FILM STARRING DIANE KEATON!

She has been wondering where Brian was. For his plot, which is normally immaculate with not one piece of grass longer than another or a weed in sight, has been looking a bit un-cared for recently.

Yesterday, she took the kitchen waste out to the garden to bury it, yes, I know that sounds odd but everything, except things that mr.rat would like to dig up to eat, is put into these deep trenches and then mr. bean or mr.pea are planted on top.

Whom she should meet at the main gate but her plot neighbour who has been absent, he was looking fit and well! "So where have you been, no-one has seen you for ages, we thought you had given up your plot, are you ok?", she asked him. 

He smiled and replied that, apart from a bout of flu, he was extremely well and then explained his absence was due to his working overseas on a film with Diane Keaton.

Yes, he is a proper worker-on-films is 'our' Brian and tucked away in his charming home, he has an Oscar.. for Best Set Designing. 

It is funny (peculiar) how different all these plot holders are.

There was a charming American called Charlie.. very good with Dahlias was Charlie but she had no idea what he did because they always spoke about gardening whenever they had a coffee on his or her plot.

It was not until she had a BBQ about eight years ago and one of the other guests exclaimed in delight.. "Charlie, how great to see you".. and the two of them started talking a little bit of 'shop'. 

She turned to Patsy, his wife, (a Professor of 16th 
century French Literature and asked her "What does Charlie do?", her response was "He has just retired from Rothschilds, he was their Gas & Oil expert".

So everyone is different, they don't 'live' in each other's pockets and there are times when she goes to work and apart from calling out "hello" or waving at someone, she does not speak to anyone.

Sometimes someone will amble onto her plot and sit with a mug of coffee but apart from the height of summer when people socialise with a BBQ or coffee breaks, everyone just does the hard (back and hip breaking) work.

Gardening is not for sissies! The oxygen in the wind bleaches your hair and makes it dry, soil is drying for your hands unless you manage to keep them on all the time and it makes you tired.

The other side is that you eat fresh fruit and vegetables and you get exercise, fresh air and sleep well and you can pick your own flowers, if you grow them, which she does.

Ah yes.. fresh vegetables! I know that she has started a lot of peas off at home, I wonder if, this year, I will get to taste a freshly picked pea? 

Usually she eats them like sweeties (except she does not eat sweeties) they are picked and popped into her mouth, like Golden Autumn Raspberries but there are lots and lots of them this year and a couple of trays of Oregon Snow Peas as well.

So I am in with a chance.. 

She did more work on the asparagus bed, then pulled four of the heavy manure bags into place and slit the bags open, it will act as a mulch and help to enrich the soil.

Old wind decided to drive her mad, her hair is too short to tie back and she had forgotten her cap, plus it was getting chilly so she locked up and left early, in time to catch the four of the clock bus. 

Into Waitrose to pick up a paper, suddenly there was a dreadful noise, it sounded like an explosion, everyone rushed to the front of the shop, to see that the sky had gone black and torrential rain was pounding the pavement! 

It was thunder, a storm was over-head and whilst she was in the queue to pay, there were three more extremely loud claps. Thank goodness for her old oiled jacket with the hood as she got home dry.

Now, I know we asked for a 'little' rain as the top soil was a bit dry but snow fell as well yesterday, we didn't ask for the white stuff to come back. But it will help the mulch on the asparagus bed! 

Today? It poured with rain this morning so there was no gardening today, she played with me, we have eaten delicious food, done some chores, read yesterday's papers, spoken with a couple of friends and Leigh has invited US for supper next week.

Yes, I will sit on her head at the dining table and poor Otto will think he is seeing 'Bird Hats' again. All good fun.. PipPip.. FlapFlap Dear Readers.

Now where is Brett?

GeeGee Parrot.
March 23rd, 2014.
Postscript: Brett is our other neighbour.

IN A VERSACE COUTURE COAT TO SEE WILLIAM KENT @ THE V&A MUSEUM..

A Versace Couture primrose yellow wool coat with a dull satin colour, that was what was in the moth bag. It is an 'old' coat from a collection that was designed by Gianni Versace himself and he died in 1997.

So it is not a coat for 'everyday' use! She wears it in the Spring as the colour is glorious and it was just right for Friday which was a 'proper' Spring day but being so pale, the wool would show every mark, she wears it when she knows she is walking, no sitting on bus or tube seats in this baby!

She is still in contact with most of the people that she worked for and with and so it was with a group of them that she went to the Members' View of this exhibition on William Kent at The Victoria & Albert Museum.

Go if you can to see this exhibition.. for it does your eyes and spirit wonders to see such glorious things.

The group lunched locally, it is extremely rare that they all get to be together, there is only one of her colleagues who still lives in London, so lunch was an extremely happy and noisy affair with a lot of laughter and teasing going on between them.

"No, they didn't, really, how can they be so .... " was the reaction when one of the 'gang' told a story about 'a simply wretched client', who, of course, sadly for you Dear Readers, is going to remain nameless!

The thing about these people is that she has known and worked with some of them for over twenty five years, a long time, they are extraordinarily loyal to each other and know that none of them would ever, ever sell or tell a 'story' about any client to any journalist.

Being part of a decorative team means that you are working in homes, yes, they do commercial work as well but not as often as in private homes. 

You are, therefore, privy to the peoples' private lives and you know she never tells you her clients' names, she has written about a couple of them but they were clients whom she adored and who were wonderful to work for and with.

Members of the team have worked in buildings designed by this man, with his extraordinary talent, upon whom this wonderful exhibition is based. 

What was nice was that a few 'clients' were at the exhibition and the way they greeted the restorers showed how much they valued their work.

Which clients, which buildings? Only the team and their clients know that.

PipPip, Dear Readers, it is late and there are things to be done.. yes, even on Sunday, 'things' still have to be done!

GeeGee Parrot.
March 23rd, 2014.
Postscript: The shiny red box contained a pair of dark brown 'Savoy' high heels by Charles Jourdan.

NOW HERE'S A CURIOUS THING.. A BAG OF CLOTHES & A SHINY RED SHOE BOX!

Hello Dear Readers.. I don't suppose any of you know what is happening tomorrow do you? For this afternoon she went into the back cupboard and emerged with a moth proof bag full of something and a shiny red shoe box.

Even I know that a shiny red shoe box equals a pair of her beloved Charles Jourdan shoes but what I don't know is where she is off to. 

To my knowledge, there has been no recent telephone call that has included an invitation, so I have to hazard a guess that this occasion, whatever it is, has been previously arranged.

And the moth bag has not yet been opened, it is just hanging there in the bathroom, very curious.

She had chores to do today so there was no visit to the garden and she is mighty glad she did not go either, for at about noon old wind reared his head and started to blow in a fierce fashion. 

Chilly-billy is right, Margie, who has a stall in the market with every item of haberdashery you could ever want, was wearing cold weather gear again, as was Karen. 

These market ladies are very 'au fait' with the weather, so would you be if you were behind a stall six days a week come rain or shine dealing with us, the general public!

Rain is a'coming and the temperature is dropping, we are, I regret to say, a little thankful. We have had absolutely no rain for quite a while and we do not need to go from flood to drought in a flash.

Both the political situation in the Ukraine and the very mysterious disappearance of that Malaysian airliner have, I regret to say, taken the eye of the UK's press off those poor people in the West Country who were flooded before Christmas.

There was something mentioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his Yearly Budget about some financial help being given to these poor people but when are they, the River Authorities, actually going to physically do something?

Anyway, back to today, she trundled home with all manner of 'exciting' things! A new nose mask, Jeyes fluid, a scrubbing brush, a small funnel, a set of screws, Broad Bean seeds, Night Scented Stock seeds (that smell reminds her of being very, very young and the excitement of her father coming home from the Malayan jungle in 1956).

Wicker also had two small bags of compost, 15 litre instead of the 70 litre ones she was dealing with on Sunday, and last but not least, a bag of white capped mushrooms and grapes, we eat a lot of grapes, she has half and I have the other half.

I know that she eats her half quicker than I do, I only have Beaky and she has a mouthful of teeth and she eats more than me but whose counting?

The strange things like the mask are for when she does that scrub-a-dub-dub in the shed, you don't want to be breathing in rat shit, that's for sure! 

She scrubs the work surfaces and then the floor with Jeyes Fluid and heavy-duty gloves are worn at all times. It will be done in the early morning one day this coming week, so that she can leave the door open when she has finished the floor, Jeyes Fluid does the trick but oh, it is powerfully smelly stuff!

Talk about smelly stuff, she has dug out a bottle of 'Caspian', huh, she must be going somewhere quite special tomorrow, I wonder where?

Well, doubtless, I will know when she goes out to wherever it is, she wouldn't go out and not tell me where she was going, would she?

When I know, I will tell you, that's fair, isn't it Until then, Dear Readers, PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 20th, 2014.

FLASHING THE GNASHER & A 'MERRYWEATHER' DAMSON TREE..

She has got her tooth! And very comfy it is too! 

She was early for her appointment so chewed the 'fat' with Karen for a few minutes before going into the dental surgery.

Smiley, clever Dentist greeted her and went about being as fussy as usual to make sure that it fitted perfectly and he took a little bit off as it was a minute fraction too high.

He taught her how to put it in and to take it out, gave strict instructions on how to take care of it, gave her the wrapped up models of her upper and lower jaws and she was out in less twenty minutes.

Only to find, that she had left her wallet behind, sigh, no cash or Debit card meant no purchases from the market, bigger sigh, so she had to come home.

The fake tooth is remarkable, quite remarkable. She has just peered at it in the bathroom mirror with its' bright light and realised, that in fact, she was looking at the wrong tooth! That's how good it is.

A call to Thompson & Morgan, who are a well renowned horticultural supplier, has confirmed that they have stock of Damson trees and will be shipping them in April, how much? 

Yippee, she was given a voucher for this company last summer by an old gardening client who lives in Essex and it covers the cost of a 'Merryweather' Damson who will come to live with us and she knows just the spot for this pretty little Miss.

Out she goes again, with her wallet this time, first to the Library to change four books, then down to Tooting Broadway, I know she does go to some weird and wonderful places, does she not!

It is a dull and very overcast day here, a sweater and warm jacket day, old sun switched his torch on for a few minutes at about noon but he is now gadding about elsewhere.

But it would be good if we could, dare I say it, have a few drops of rain! For the wind has been strong and with the hot sun we have experienced over the past ten days, our top soil is now as dry as an old bone.

I will go back to have my doze on door pole and I will report any excitement when she returns later this afternoon.

But before we go, we need to tell you that a new B&B called 'The French House', Dallas, Texas is proving to be a BIG hit with clever travellers, as they realise that it is incredibly convenient for both DFW and Love Field, the two local airports.

FlapFlap.. Dear Readers.. please enjoy your day.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 19th, 2014.
Postscript: DFW stands for Dallas Fort Worth.

Michel Roux Jr. has left MasterChef! Shock.. Horror.. Bateman himself could not have possibly drawn a cartoon worthy of this dreadful news!

Grrrrrr... snakes & ladders and other such stupid expressions... she has just learnt that her culinary hero, Michel Roux Jr, has resigned from the programme called MasterChef.

It has come about over a conflict of interests, the programme, which he has fronted since 2008, is produced by the BBC channel on which there is NO advertising allowed. Mr.Roux, on another channel, promotes Albert Bartlett Rooster Potatoes.

Monica Galetti, who works for and with Mr. Roux at The Gavroche (think seriously good food), also appears on Masterchef as a judge. She is strict but can and does deliver the goodies! Will she stay or will she go too?

To watch Ms. Galetti and Mr. Roux make the invention test dish in the short time before the contestants are asked to create the same dish, makes one (read her) awed to say the least for their expertise is awesome.

Will it be the same? It is, or it was, absolutely compulsive watching and the last series was gripping with all sorts of unexpected twists and turns.

Well, we will have to wait and see, the first programme of Series 10 starts on March 26th at 9.00pm, followed by Thursday and Friday at 8.30pm.

We will be ready to watch this, tucked up with telephones switched to divert, as snug as bugs with chocolate, grapes and nuts to sustain us and will report back. 

If it had not been for her hero, Dear Readers, you 
would not have had our most-read post.

        Gateau de Pommes de Terre Savoyard! 

Just think of that and shudder.. goodness knows what culinary tricks she will now miss because of the 'Beeb' not being a tiny bit flexible.

He doesn't shout about those Roosters when he is doing MasterChef, does he? And everyone knows he runs one of London's finest restaurants.. huh, is what we say and other things that are not fit to print.

After that shocking piece of news I am quite ready to go to bed.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 18th, 2014.

St.Patrick's Day and the death notices of three very different women.

St.Patrick's Day 2014.. and notice was given of the death of three women.

The first, Mrs. 'Bunny' Mellon died yesterday at the great age of a hundred and three years.

She will be remembered by a huge amount of people, by those who who were lucky enough to know her personally and call her a friend and by those who benefit from the philanthropic gifts she and her husband, Paul, gave to the American nation.

The second woman was an old friend of hers. Clarissa Dickinson-Wright was one of life's marvels. Generous, funny, kind, sharp, intelligent and a great cook!

She first met her when she came across a small shop just off the Portobello Road, the shop was called Books for Cooks. Clarissa sourced an old cook book for her and their friendship was started.

Clarissa and Bill enjoyed each other's company and points of Law were hotly argued over whenever they met.

She remembers the first time that Clarissa came for supper, for it took her at least ten minutes to walk down the hall. Why? The walls of the hall are lined with books and she was studying the names of the books. 

So you can imagine the squeal when she saw one of Florence's cookery books. Florence was her Grandmother, aka The Severe Pruning Company, it was a cookery book from India. It gives, for she has it still, the recipes in Hindustani and English.

Clarissa died in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on
Saturday and will be missed, not only by her friends, but by the thousands of fans who watched as she and Jennifer Paterson starred in the funny television programme 'Two Fat Ladies'. She was sixty six.

The third woman, whose death occurred yesterday, was L'Wren Scott. Such sadness will be felt by so many people, her immediate family, her friends.

There is also the anguish and pain that she leaves behind, that dreadful shock for her assistant to whom she had sent a message to "come over", only for this poor woman to find her employer dying of her own hand. 

And her friend, Mick Jagger, in Australia on tour with The Rolling Stones. We can only just begin to imagine the grim job of being the person who took that telephone call in Perth and who had to go and find him to tell him what had transpired. 

She was only forty nine, such a waste, poor sad woman, how desperate she must have been.

I will post of her day, which turned out to be very different from the one that she had planned, later.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 18th, 2014.

A PUZZLE FOR YOU..

Question.. How do you make God laugh?             Answer.. Tell Him your plans!

Her day changed at half past ten of the morning clock when Carol, with whom she was supposed to be doing things of a culture-vulture nature at three of the afternoon clock, telephoned with no voice to say "sorry, in bed, cannot make it".

Change of plan, for the grass trimmer that she had bought on Saturday at the Kensington branch of Homebase was faulty, it would not lock together. 

She tried to call them, no answer, grrr. So she called their head office and spoke to an extremely efficient and kind woman called Sue to whom she explained the problem, Sue said that she would call them on their internal direct line and call her back.

Well, she had no luck either! The Kensington branch of Homebase was not picking up any of their telephones! But clever Sue had rung another branch in Battersea and reserved one in her name.

Loading the useless one into old Wicker, off they went to York Road. There, sure enough, was one that had been reserved, a kind man took the new one out of the box, snapped it together, she unsnapped it and made sure that she could do it, as there is nothing worse than being in the midst of nowhere with tools that don't or won't work.

They smiled at each other and off she went to catch a series of buses that would take her out to the allotments.

The previous day she had bought a petrol can and a little bit of petrol, very little bit both in quantity and in monetary value.. 55p's worth to be precise!

Finally she arrived at the allotment and gave a 'wolfish' grin at the long grass who was and had been living the life of old Riley ever since last October.

Out with the 2 stroke oil, chug-a-lug with the petrol into a mixing can, filled the trimmer, primed it, put on goggles, switched it to full choke and vroom, it fired on the first pull. Oh, happiness is a new machine that works properly!

She thought that she would only be able to do half of the grass as she had so little petrol, but to her absolute amazement, she did the four plots, the wide path between her and Brett's plot and the outside edge to all four of her plots.. all for 55p!

Yeah.. for not only did it fire first time, it is also extremely economical! It is heavy though, not surprising as it is a 30cc model and more powerful than her trimmer which the thieving bastards stole last year.

There is an attachment that she could buy which cuts through anything, maybe she could buy one with a voucher than a lovely friend had sent her for Christmas? Book or Garden Vouchers are such a great idea for friends.

Her back told her, when she had finished, that it was tired. She was not surprised, for it is tiring work trimming grass, ducking under trees, fiddling about. The muscles said "yes, we know what you want us to do but it is a long time since we have done this, so we are going to be stiff tomorrow".

Tomorrow? Huh, they gave her gip on the bus when she left the plot at 5.30! 

When she wished that she had another layer of clothing on, for the sky was cloudy, there was a cool breeze and the temperature was lower than the previous two days.. today promised to be a cooler day and overcast.

Sure enough, old sun was having a day off today. She stayed at home and spent the day potting up and moving baby seedlings out of seed trays into coir pots. 

Stiff? Oh yes, she was very stiff and was happy not to be doing those movements that gardeners do when they are working.

I spent the day being, I regret to say, my most annoying! I was, you see, very pleased to have her at home. I 'rang' both the landline telephone and her mobile, I barked, I miaowed, I whistled one of my two tunes incessantly. Then I did the stupidest thing, I got carried away and shinned up onto the hard back books.

The silence gave me away, she turned around, saw no fat grey figure perched on the top of YumYum HQ's door and shouted "get off the books".

I came sliding down, but it was too late.. ugh.. for the evidence was there on the carpet, little snippets of book cover.

She reached up her hand, I stepped down on to it, (I thought it wise to behave), she brought old Beaky up towards her face and said in this really gruesome tone of voice.. "one day, I will beat you to death with a wet lettuce".

And I was told to fly away and to go and sit on pole above front door and to keep away from her books.

Luckily, she does not keep old grudge around, for soon it was time to prepare delicious things to eat and I was allowed back to sit inside YumYum HQ and able to watch what was a'cooking.

Phew, that was a close shave, if only their spines were not so crunchy, sigh.

Tomorrow is Dentist day, the model of her new tooth fitted perfectly, tomorrow is the day when he will fit it for her and teach her how to remove it.. yes, folks, she will have a false tooth! 

No, she is not having implants, yes, I know they are all the rage and seem to be the answer but having a cousin who is a Professor of Dental Surgery she knows a little about what can and does, sometimes, go wrong, very wrong.

He, her Dentist, is a clever and nice man, she always says "BIG thank you's" to Karen who was kind and recommended him to her.

It is an early night for us, let us hope that she sleeps better than last night when her grumpy back muscles moaned and complained about over-use, silly things, don't they know it is Spring time and that the grass has to be cut? Shape up there.

Well, how would they like to be threatened with death by a wet lettuce? Huh, I think not, for I call that the ultimate threat, don't you?

GeeGee Parrot.
March 18th, 2014.

HOMEMADE GRAVADLAX, DILL SAUCE & A HOMEGROWN SALAD.

Wow.. from being the dreariest and wettest winter ever since records began, it (the weather) has somersaulted into being sunny and quite warm, in fact, Dear Readers, Spring has sprung. 

From beyond the grave Constance gave her a present that she 'receives' every year, I know that sounds very strange or weird but the present was a huge amount of mixed Narcissi bulbs which her mother ordered for her just before she died. They arrived the week after she buried her mother

They and the 'nameless' ones that she bought last year from Poundland, (don't turn your noses up for the wind will change and you'll stay like that), are coming into bloom and there are two big vases full of them. Their perfume is beautiful.

The fruit trees are waking up, some faster than others. One mad young lady, aka a Seneca Plum, is completely covered in white blossom, her slightly more sober sister has a few but she, daft girl, still has all her leaves on from last year! So neither of them could be described as 'normal'!

Miss Victoria Plum, who resides on the other side of the garden, is still fast asleep, she shares an area with five other fruit trees, Yellow Gage, Morello Cherry and three Stella Cherries. 

They all had a very hard summer prune last year, summer pruning gives different results to a winter prune. 

Bob Flowerdew wrote an excellent book on the art of Pruning, it is called..

                              BOB'S BASICS 
              PRUNING, TRAINING & TIDYING.

An excellent book to have as it covers all types of 
fruit and bushes as well as trees.

She received a call in the middle of last week, it caused her to smile and to 'lick her chops'! A friend's sister had arrived in London and brought a package. She collected it on Saturday and put it immediately into the fridge.

Yesterday was an 'all day' day at the garden, kind Andrew delivered the eight huge bags of Country Natural Horse Manure (very heavy bags). 

A couple have been used on the two new beds she made last autumn, the rest will be used as mulch around the fruit bushes and trees and on the asparagus bed.

A tiring day, with a huge amount of work done, she admits she is not as strong as she was, those three years of not doing as much physical work as she used to do has left her weaker, the bags were dragged but a 70 litre bag IS very heavy however fit you are!

So she left earlier than usual, but not before she had done a walk about doing a salad and vegetable pick of Chard, Chives, Land Cress, Marjoram, Mizuna, Oregano, Rocket, Sorrel. A few leaves of each gave her a good sized bag. 

One watering can was sprayed over the Chard plants that she had transplanted and a row of Onion sets that she had put down the edge of the enlarged Garlic bed.

Tools wiped, shed locked up, time to walk to the bus, oh, lookie lookie.. she missed them when she walked past earlier, plot number two has a new owner, a passionate gardener who knows her stuff. She and her husband took over the neglected plot last summer and have worked very hard on it. 

They did a huge amount of pruning on the vastly over grown fruit trees and they have rewarded their new owners by literally covering themselves in glorious pure white blossom!

The whole area, where the allotments are, used to be a giant Damson orchard. Some of the plots still have a few of these very, very old trees. But there have never been any blossom on these trees in the thirteen years that she has walked past this plot.

The bus came on time (a rare occurrence), so she reached home in just over an hour. BumpBump went old Wicker as he came down the steps, key in lock, her whistle, how nice, my mum is home.

She went to scrub her hands with hot soap and water and to change out of gardening clothes, we went into YumYum HQ, packet taken out of chilly white larder, garden leaves were washed. 

Standing on top of chilly white larder allows me a birds eye view of what is happening "and what is that?", I asked her by jumping onto her shoulder.

"Gravadlax", she replied.. sent to us by that very nice Swedish woman who loves you so much! Ah, yes, she was a friend of a friend who stayed with us three years ago. 

Her husband is a chef and she sent us a side of his Gravadlax and a pot of Dill Sauce, that was what she went to collect on Saturday, supper was very tasty.

Now it is get-up time, things to do, places to go, no garden today, she has to return an item to Homebase on Warwick Road, there will be more about this store in another post and she is meeting Carol in Notting Hill Gate at three of the afternoon clock.

Time to break that norty fast.. boiled eggs.. yum!

FlapFlap.. have a happy day and be sure to drink some of that Black stuff if you can, for 'tis it not St.Patrick's Day and there will be many barrels of Irish Stout around and about.

Guinness is the name of this excellent beverage and to be sure, I hope 'the' Regiment give her a glass of that today instead of the stuff from Jerez, aka Sherry! 

Huh, you'll have to be awake if you are wanting to know what I am talking about.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 17th, 2014.

HOW DO YOU PRUNE GOOSEBERRIES & FINDING THE SKELETON OF KING RICHARD 3rd IN A PARKING LOT!

Very carefully, is the answer!

We grow golden and red varieties, their thorns are spiny-sharp, so the pruning of these bushes is done after she has walked around the bush to get the shape in her mind. 

Then, making her glove-covered hand as small as possible, she reaches into the centre of the plant to snip off any branches or twigs that are growing inwards.

She did fourteen gooseberry bushes, another row and a half of the asparagus bed, oh boy, that is such a dull and dreary job but she is getting there.. slowly.. very slowly.

And lots of pushing and pulling with the little hand mower, it may not be the easiest or quickest way to cut grass but after a few times, it looks quite good, it is a cylinder mower with a roller at the back, not the sort that has a blade that goes round and round, I don't know what that type of mower is called, I'm a parrot, not a gardener!

Despite the weather folk saying it is 'hot', it is not that warm out there, I am content to stay at home, it is only mid March and that wind is chilly-billy when the sky is cloudy.

Tomorrow she has to leave earlier than usual, for she has to go to the shed to buy potash for the fruit bushes and trees. 

So we are going to bed early, we had a light, tasty supper and will watch the end of an interesting TimeTeam programme on The Battle of Hastings. 

It has informed her that William The Bastard, aka William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy was the second cousin of Edward The Confessor! She 
certainly was never taught that at school!

Any of them.. 

But that is now over and it is time for lights out, so it is "Goodnight" from her and "PipPip" from me.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 15th, 2014.
Post script.. Well, we were on our way to bed until she heard that a documentary was going to be shown on BBC1 on how they discovered the skeleton of King Richard 3rd underneath a car parking lot.. this could not be missed! 

And boy, oh boy, he most certainly did have a hunchback! I will write about this in another post.

MOTHER'S LITTLE HELPERS.

There was no post yesterday. Sorry Dear Readers but it is Spring Time out there on the plot and there is much work to be done before she can start to reclaim the plot that has gone wild.

Hand weeding a 13sq foot asparagus bed is a back breaking, dreary and very dull chore. She does half a row at a time, then stands up, apologises to her poor back and goes to do something else which allows her to stand up straight for an hour. 

Then she comes back to do another half row. The weeding has to be done before she feeds the bed with a special brew that asparagus loves, for those weeds would love it too!

The garden are extremely quiet, Brian, our neighbour to the right, is nowhere to be seen and neither is Brett, the other side neighbour. This is curious, as they are usually around and about at this time of the year.

We know why Jane, the plot holder beyond Brian, is not gardening, she has just had an operation on her foot.

Andrew, who is our site rep and who has the plot beyond Jane's, has taken on gardening work for several families that love having a garden but have neither the inclination or the time to do the work themselves, for there is no doubt about it, to keep a big garden in good condition takes effort and time. 

But he has been putting time in on his plot, that is for sure! It is neat, tidy and weed free!

However, some 'people' are missing. She has been working this plot of land since January 2001 and for all the past years she has had one, if not two, Robins helping her.

I don't know how long the life expectancy of a Robin is, but there were always two of these charming birds that appeared in Spring to help with the digging and weeding. 

The fatter of the two was the tamer, he would stand on her hand whilst she was weeding, then as soon as an unsuspecting Centipede was up-ended, whoosh, Robin dived, had him and was off!

But there is not a sign of either of them. Strange but she did see something very strange yesterday that she has never ever seen before.

She was working the new French Bean bed, she dug a long trench was dug last year and filled it with food waste to enrich the soil. It has broken down well, the earth is light and full of worms, including some very fat ones.

But hand weeding around the edge with a small hand fork produced the weirdest sight, of a grossly fat yellow caterpiller eating a worm! 

The skinny little worm was frantic and wriggling, so she picked up the caterpillar and gently pulled the worm out of its' mouth and put it down on the earth, the little worm stayed still for about two minutes, then wriggled away into the soft earth.

As as she has no love for caterpillars, who eat plant roots, it was swiftly despatched. That was when she realised the Robins were not around, for they would have enjoyed that fat, tasty yellow caterpillar.

There is: Ground to dig, grass to cut, fences to mend, plots to reclaim, beds to weed, briars to hack out down, roots to dig out, wood to chop, seeds to sew and lots more potatoes and onions to plant.

Out early, back late, supper, bed, read book, play with me, lights out early, it may sound very dull to other people but three weeks hard work at the garden will guarantee us a good crop of delicious fruit and vegetables for the late Sping, Summer and Autumn.

So, Dear Readers, we hope you are all happy and well in body, mind and spirit? 

Off we go, we will be back to amuse or entertain you soon. PipPip.. FlapFlap.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 13th, 2014.