AND ANOTHER GIFT TO COME.. BEING TEN AIN'T SO BAD AFTER ALL!

We always check the email in-box before we go to bed and guess what she found for me?

There was an email from Debbie, the goaty mum, who has just won a GOLD at the International Cheese Awards at Nantwich with one of her cheeses and another Silver, she already had one from last's year show. Very done to all those Goaty folk and their cheese making team.

Anyway, back to Debbie's email I go, she was wishing me belated birthday greetings and saying that, when she next sees my mum, Debbie will give her a special tub of Goaty Curd for me!

Yes, it will be ALL for me and this time I hope I get it, not like that tub of Walnuts, of which not a single one was offered to me, she scoffed the lot!

"Thank you Debbie" and we are both off to bed, she has to'ed and fro'ed all day long today and she is tired and quite ready to go to sleep and so am I.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 30th, 2014.

DRAMA AT NUMBER TEN!

No, Dear Readers, not that number 10, our number 10! The Tale unfolded in the following fashion, read on, read on!

She woke me up in a very different way yesterday, normally the first thing I hear are little kisses being blown towards me but yesterday I heard her singing "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday darling GeeGee, happy birthday to you".

Yes, indeed, for it was my tenth birthday and so I am saying "thank you Rosamund for your birthday wishes email", "thank you Leigh for your birthday wishes email" and "thank you Tereza for that delicious melon that you brought me from the south of France, I had some of the seeds last night, more this morning and they truly very scrummydumptious".

Yesterday she was going to have a coffee with Tereza, who lives above us, and so she got dressed, fixed my bowls of yumyum and water, put a book into her bag, blew me a kiss and then looked for her door keys.

Gulp! No door keys on the hall tray! Help, did she leave them in the door last night? Opened the door, no keys hanging in the lock, oh, duda duda.

She sent a text saying "slight delay" to Tereza and starting hunting in all the usual suspects where she might have put them.. nothing! Grrrrr.

Time was marching on and, besides having coffee with Tereza, she was due at the hairdressers at 1.15 in Hammersmith.

What to do.. simple, as she was inside the house and not locked out, she opened the hall cupboard and took out a bag which had the old mortice lock and the keys and fittings in it.

She removed the one in the door, fitted the old one, put the key into the lock and turned it to make sure it connected properly, bent down to pick up the bag and the screw driver.. and her keys fell out of her shirt pocket, flop, they went, onto the carpet.

Yes, dear Readers, they had been in the pocket of her pretty linen 'big-shirt used as a jacket' all the time.. sigh.. oh, it did made her squeal and rock with laughter, for in all the years she has lived here she has only 'lost' her keys and been locked out once.


But that, also, is a Tale for another day.

Upstairs for coffee with Tereza who had brought me a birthday melon.. all the way from France.. how sweet was that, I ask you? 

Then whoosh.. underground to Hammersmith to the hairdressers who have done a wonderful job on starting the change of her hair colour, they will do the second stage in August.

Then to the shop to meet lovely boss, their shop had won a dinner for doing especially well and they were going to meet up with two other volunteers at 7.30 in Notting Hill Gate at the restaurant.

A very pleasant evening was had by all, then she came home and had another supper with me, or rather I ate my delicious birthday treats whilst she sat on the kitchen sink and talked to me and so we went to bed quite late.

We slept in today for she got up yesterday at 04.00 of the morning clock, it had been so stuffy and as there were two big jars of Kefir hubble-bubbling away in the kitchen, it seemed more sensible to get up and start her day rather than just toss and turn in a too warm room.

Now she is off to collect parcels and take them to the Post Office and so I am off to find a cool, comfy perch and to think 'warm' thoughts about my friends who take the trouble to bring and send a small grey person, aka me, birthday gifts and emails.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 30th, 2014.
Post Script: And in today's post was a birthday card for me, a real card one with a stamp-on-the-envelope-delivered-by-the-postman-kind-of-card! It was from my (second) cousin Bruce, all the way from the Isle of Man. "Thanks Bruce, we hope you are feeling better?

A SCARY LETTER & A TELEPHONE CALL!

Now I know you don't like being bored for we certainly don't and it was for that reason that she did not tell anyone about the scary letter and the telephone call she received on Friday.

Because there has been enough written on this Blog about hospitals and gruesome proceedures.

But very scary letter requested her presence at the hospital and the telephone call was to make sure she had received the letter! Gulp! She is under the care of the Gastroenterology team but this letter was from Colorectal Surgery! Help!

Surgery.. oh, duda duda.. she thought and then remembered she had been their 'guest' when she spent those three days in hospital.

So off she went, thinking 'brave' thoughts and feeling mighty protective towards her Colon.

She was very early for her 14.00 hour appointment and had taken a book with which to pass the time but there was no one else there at this clinic and at 1.45 a smiley faced, never met before, man came out of a room and called her name.

He gave his name as Mr. So & So and explained he was a surgeon and went onto say that he was one of the surgical team, under whose care she had been when she was admitted earlier in the year due to the haemorrhage. 

That the team had reviewed the results of her recent Colonoscopy in great detail and he was delighted to say that whatever she did to keep her Colon as clean as it looked should be continued and please, what exactly was it that she did do?

So for twenty minutes, they talked about her rather 'strange' habits of drinking Tinctures of Dandelion and Liquorice Root, Swedish Bitters, home made Beet Kvass, Raw Goat's milk Kefir and Sole Water.

His computer was on and he went into all the websites she told him about and 'book marked' them. 

Then he smiled, pulled a pad towards him and said "You know we are always here IF you need us but I am delighted to say that you are not due for any surgery and so I am discharging you back to your GP".

She smiled too, said "goodbye" to Mr. Surgeon and walked out to the receptionists with her discharge paper. 

They said "when do they need to see you again?" and she was able to smile a very big happy smile and say "he doesn't, I am discharged, no surgery", several people smiled and someone said "how great is that" and she replied "exactly, how great IS that, bye bye everyone" and she walked out and down the stairs.

     Happy day.. yes.. a very happy day indeed.

    And tomorrow will be a very happy day too! 

Because it is MY birthday! I'll be ten years old, now you have all had plenty of warning, certainly I have not been shy about telling you that I want cards and presents, so I expect to see our postman bent over double as creaks his way to our door.

She has got my favourite yumyum for me, it is known as Pink stuff, you know it as Taramasalata and I love it! And a small lamb chop has, I know, also been hidden in that chilly white larder.. aka fridge.

We have to send an electronic birthday card to a friend Sally who lives in France, we don't know her snail mail address, so a virtual card will have to do.

But now I am quite ready, in fact we both are, to go to bed, that way tomorrow will come sooner, won't it?

So, Dear Readers, it is goodnight from me and from her, who has been 'Discharged'.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 28th, 2014.

SHE SHOULD NOT GAMBLE.. WHY? BECAUSE WE HAVE NO MORE SPACE!

Now, Dear Readers, is that not a curious title for a post? Read on and you'll see why she bets on things and why it makes her (and me) laugh!

Recently she did something very foolish indeed, which I will not go into further except to say it was a big mistake on her behalf. But we all do very stupid things sometimes.

However, God truly does work in very mysterious ways and on one of her many jaunts this week, she found another abandoned chair, a very pretty little French chair. 

"Hello" she thought " now what are the odds on that" for this little chair was on the same street as the last one but on the other side!

She stood there looking at it not quite believing her eyes, then turned and asked one of the Gas men, who were working repairing a pipe, if it had been there all day.

"No" said an engineer "ten minutes ago a man brought it up and dumped it because the market rubbish men are due any minute, they'll take it".


    Shock.. Horror.. Rubbish.. Ground up.. Gulp.

Time to rescue 'another' chair, she thought and with that, she up-ended it into Wicker Wheelie, said "thanks" to the engineer and left.


Oh boy, thanks goodness for WW, for the chair is, although dainty, extremely heavy, so she and WW slowly trundled home up the Fulham Road.

The chair, upon very close examination for wood worm etc, is in absolutely amazing condition! 

The material cover is gruesome but she has just found the bolt of raw silk that she was given by Cecilia, a silk agent friend, years ago as a present to cover another chair and never used, so hey presto hei-lei-cheese, she has the silk and a magnificent new bedroom chair!


So she sent a text to the friend to whom she gave a chair three weeks ago to ask the name and address of the restorer / upholsterer who they used to restore and recover it.

Now, she could take it to the lovely Barry Ansell but that means getting it over to the other side of London, Notting Hill is a great deal closer!

She was very pleased to receive a call yesterday morning from the friend giving her all the contact details of the firm they used to upholster the chair. 

She then went up to meet Debbie, goaty mum, at the Farmer's Market in Marylebone, it is situated on the parking lot, directly behind Waitrose if you are live in this neck of the woods but are unaware of its' existence..

She unpacked old Wicker and Debbie's eyes lit up and she pounced upon a bottle, Gin or something else alcoholic? 

No, Dear Readers, this was MUCH nicer than 'Mothers' Ruin', Gin's old nickname, it was a bottle of home made ginger syrup with crushed fresh mint leaves in home made soda water. It is very thirst quenching and she had taken a smaller bottle of soda water with ginger as a top up.

Also in old Wicker was a small green 'bomb', in reality a small round courgette and a box of the first blackberries from the allotment.

And the last thing? It was something of Bill's, his English raincoat, a long green Timberland. She had packed and shipped everything else back to his nephews but by hiding in broad daylight in the hall, the raincoat had been missed.

Yes, she could have donated it to the shop as it is in good condition but, although she doesn't mind seeing other women try on and buy her clothes, she did not want to see strangers doing that to this coat, so she gave it to Debbie.

Who will wear it and now she knows it will be loved, after all, it was very loved by Bill to whom she gave it to all those years ago.

And this morning she woke up and her first thought was.. "oh, of course, Tim and Susie Keen of Bampton Design, drat and double drat and blast, why did I not think of them before?"

They were the company that she used to work with when she worked at The Savoy Hotel, they do wonderful upholstery work and are 'trade'. 

I know, I know, Dear Readers, you are very curious about the title of this post, are you not?

Well you see, this little French chair is not the second chair to be rescued, oh no, indeed not. In fact when she was mentally kicking herself for giving away the French armchair a few weeks ago, she went and flopped down in a sulk.

Yes, Dear Readers, a big sulk because there is nothing worse than when you know you have done something really dumb.. 

Back to flopping down, she flopped down in a pretty little chair in the sitting room. After a few minutes of sulking, such an unattractive state of mind, she started to laugh. 

Why? Well, the chair in which she was sitting is covered in a glorious fabric, the colour is known in 'the trade' as Imperial Yellow and the fabric and the deep 'bullion fringe are made of silk, silk at its' very best.

But this little chair and the silks also have a story behind them, for this little chair was the first chair she rescued, in 1998 and the story behind that rescue is very funny! But, it is a story for another Tale.

Yes folks, there are lots more Tales to be told and all you have to do is come here at regular intervals to be amused or informed by yours truly, for I'm GeeGee, an African Grey, probably the only Blog writing, Parrot.

I had better go and see what is a'going on and so, until later, Dear Readers.. PipPip.

GeeGeeParrot.
July 28th, 2014.
Post Script: Imperial Yellow refers to a particular yellow that was used as a colour during the Ming Dynasty on Chinese porcelain.. it sings!

Wonky Tonk Hearing Aids!

Whoopie.. Yippee, it wasn't her ears.. it was the hearing aids which were wonky! 

How about that, huh? Who would have thought that clear plastic tubes would be the guilty party? But with a quick "all change Charing Cross" of new tubes, she can now hear a mouse fart!

Thats it, Dear Readers, after visiting YumYum HQ, I will be supervising the second part of the mammoth task she is undertaking in our home.

No.. of course I'm not going to tell you what it is, you will have to "read all about it here' when I post it!

It's time to fly to YumYum HQ. Chocks away!

GeeGee Parrot.
July 25th, 2014.

PLUCK.. CHUCK.. GIVE.. TIDY!

Howdie folks.. it is I, aka GeeGee your Blog Star.

What a day of action there has been down home on our ranch.. hop-diggeddy-dawg!

She worked at the shop the day before yesterday and all that a'sorting and a'hanging must have played on her mind, for yesterday she did not do what she had planned to do, which was to go to Baldwins, the herbalists.

However, instead, after having some delicious yumyum, she got semi-dressed, you'll understand why in a minute, and opened up the big cupboard where she keeps her outer jackets / short coats.

Every one was taken out, tried on and looked at with an extremely critical eye. Some went back, some were put on the bed. 

The bottom section of this cupboard is the home of the BIG handbags. Most of which came back from America when her work wardrobe was shipped home. They had to be of a certain size in order to carry the order book, a camera, swatches and her own personal stuff.

She no longer needs handbags like these and so with the exception of a scrummy orange leather one, they 'flew' to join the pile of jackets on the bed!

Then she moved into the front section of our bedroom where there is a cupboard, half of which holds blouses, tops, light weight jackets and cotton cardigans. I won't talk about the other half of this cupboard, well, I will but in another post!

She went through these clothes with a very fine 'comb', a couple were tried on but mostly it was no, no, no, yes, no, yes, no, over and over again.

The no ones soon formed a substantially large pile on the floor. She then changed the yes ones onto different hangers. 

She did a cull of the light weight jackets last week and collected enough to fill a large bag. It was full of beautiful, but not worn any longer, boiled wool cardigan-jackets and a big yellow jacket! 

Big yellow jacket went to the Antarctic! She was supposed to go on the trip of a life time but both her doctor and specialist said "absolutely not" and so she lent this jacket to someone who did go.

So last Friday she donated the bag of boiled wool cardigan-jackets and the Antarctic jacket to the shop, where she priced and hung them up. 

Early on Saturday afternoon her lovely boss sent her a text saying "Hey, your yellow jacket is going on a trip to the Himalayas". Great, sold within a day!

And that's going to happen to these clothes and bags today, they're off to start their new lives.

So now you understand the title of this post!

Pluck = Take from the cupboard.
Chuck = throw away.
Give = give away or donate to charity.
Tidy = put away.

These actions will make for a much tidier room.

Next it will be the underwear, scarves etc drawers that get the eagle eyed treatment, then she will get those big trunks out from where they are hiding underneath her bed, be afraid trunks, be very afraid!

It was very tiring watching all of this, I bounced from pile to pile and flew from door to door, so I was plum tuckered out and very glad to see the last cupboard door being closed.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 25th, 2014.

Looking for a half-way decent bathroom light.. she ended up in a lingerie shop!

And now, Dear Readers, 'the cobbler's child is barefoot', for do you think she can find a pretty bathroom light fitting?

She rounded up and went to all of the usual suspects but not one of them had anything even half-way decent. Grrr. In the old days, she would have gone to the workshop, spoken with Zaffy and Ibrahim, they would have nodded, smiled, asked what colour metal finish was needed and, within a few days, would have produced something simply marvellous!

But those days are long gone, she now has to deal with shops and all they have is this ugly, EU law abiding gruesome tat.

She doesn't like tat..

So after a long morning of looking at all this very gruesome stuff, she said.. excuse our French.. "sod this for a game of soldiers, I'm going to buy some new undies" and hot-footed it to Tavistock Street.

What's in Tavistock Street? Well, if you are not fortunate enough, which she isn't, to be able to go to The Wizard of Bras in Monrovia, LA, CA, USA you go to a shop called Bravissimo instead.

She explained what she wanted and then sat and waited for a fitter. Clever Bethany. For she got it absolutely right with the first bra.. and the second as well.

Done.. sorted.. so she took two of the first style in different colours and one of the second style.

And thought, that actually, she might just have something in the store cupboard that would work very well as a bathroom light.

Tomorrow she has to go back to the Audiology Department at the hospital, for either she has gone almost completely deaf in both ears or the hearing aids are wonky. Please let it be the hearing aids and not her ears that are wonky. Pretty please..

Yesterday, over a light collation of salted almonds and homemade ginger and mint fizz, Debbie told her a very distressing, gruesome tale about some, think of several very rude words, cruel, idle and incredibly cretinous person who clipped their rhododendron bushes and then threw the clippings over into a field where two little goats lived.

Who ate the clippings and who have since both died, not very easy deaths, from being poisoned.

She saw the six o'clock world news which was both equally depressing and distressing and has no book that will take her mind of what is happening, so that's it folks, we are off to bed. 

GeeGee Parrot.
July 21, 2014.

BHAM-ZAP-KAPOW!..

Nothing to do with me, Dear Readers, I am not reading an old action filled comic, these are the noises she made after she drank some of a very special brew that has been hubbly-bubbling in a bucket in the YumYum HQ! 

She has lots of Horseradish growing at the garden and came home with this very knobbly looking root, I thought, as she did also, that she was going to make Horseradish sauce but having discovered the loss of the Magimix knife, that plan had to change.

The strange root was banished to the white chilly larder until.. "Eureka" she cried "Hamburg Parsley with a little bit of Horseradish would blow any sock off".

But before she could go anywhere, she had to discuss air locks and grommets with cousin Bruce, who being his father's son, knows all about such things!

(Uncle Bob, Bruce's father, her uncle, hence we can say "Bob's my uncle".. was a spirit and wine maker).

So off and down she went to Brixton, a quick wiggle across the street and down onto Nursery Road and a right turn brought her underneath the arches and to a Master Brewer who sells you all the necessary equipment for not too much money.

HeeHee.. Back on the bus.. forget about us.. her bad humour banished.. she was very grumpy this morning for some reason.. could it be to do with the fact I gave her right hand a nasty hard crunch last night?

Less said about 'that' slip of manners the better.

Moving swiftly back to Brixton, she stuffed the equipment into poor old Wicker Wheelie and jumped a bus going up hill to Streatham.

Bartek, (Central Parade, Streatham) is the only place you can find Hamburg Parsley, lordy, we jurst lurve this stuff! Oh YUM!

Home again.. home again.. jiggedy jig! She gave the vegetables a good scrub, made a brine solution out of sea salt and whey and then chopped the vegetables straight into the liquid. 

Having given them a good stir with a wooden spoon, she topped the bucket up with filtered water to within an inch of the top, placed a glass saucer on top of the vegetables to weight them down and put on the lid.

Which has an airlock and grommet fitted into it. She'd sterilised everything before starting the vegetables and just had to fill the airlock halfway up with water.

I know someone who will jurst lurve this! It's that Goaty Woman, aka Debbie of Ellie's Dairy, she thought the beet Kvass and whey fermented vegetables were 'pretty good' last week end, haha, just wait until she tastes these concoctions!

Also in line for a session with a fermenting bucket are a huge amount of our own red onions, oh yes, slurp that durp! But these are going to be done in a monster of a bucket, a proper 23 litre wine making bucket. We grew lots of them this year and cannot think of anything nicer than glass jars of red whey pickled onions.

She's off to the Farmer's Market at Parson's Green tomorrow to meet up with Debbie, for whom she has a BIG bottle of our own home made Beet Kvass. I am just crazy-daisy about those delicious fermented beets!

And she'll come home with several pints of raw Goaty milk with which to make the Kefir, which is where she gets the Whey from with which she ferments all our vegetables.

Yes, I know she could get it by straining yoghurt but we don't use shop bought stuff like that, she makes everything from scratch, like Ricotta which has not been made recently.. uh hum, do you think she'll take that hint?

Whoops.. it is B-E-D time for this Dolly.. PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.. Must not bite her hand.. very naughty Beaky.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 19th, 2014.

TOO HOT.. TOO TIRED.. NO POSTS!

Dear Readers, you all know that it is not me that taps the iPad, it is she that taps it, whilst I sit on her head and dictate.

Now, I have been fine as I get to loll about in our deliciously coooool home but she, poor dear, has been working in a very HOT shop.

They have been inundated with masses of massive donations and have not stopped all week, yes, she has been there more often than her usual one day.

They are very good at drinking lots of water but even still, she is 'wiped-out' at the end of the day and just about has the energy to chop her salad and to sort my supper out before she has a cool shower and crashes out on her bed.

So no posts have been posted, but we don't have any new news to tell you and the world's news is grim beyond belief, Gaza, Syria, Ukraine, the Malaysian aircraft shot down over the Ukraine.

I am not surprised that her hearing has deteriorated recently, for what nice things have there been for her to hear?

Not a lot, Dear Readers, not a lot. A couple of so-called friend's behaviour has been so off the wall that she actually discussed it with two colleagues at work this morning and by the way their jaws opened, she realised it was not just her that thought it more than a 'little' rude. 

But on the other hand, a dear friend, with more going-on in her life at the moment than five other people, took the time to take her out for a belated birthday lunch AND the trouble, when she was in California last week, to go a'hunting for her most favourite Caron perfume which is no longer available in the UK.

Dear friend.. aka Tereza.. thank you.

So there you are folks.. not a lot but I just thought I'd let you know we have not run away to never-never land where they have no WiFi.

I know I promised you all lots of yummy recipes but we are just drinking home made Sole (more on this in another post, yes, I know but I will tell you about it), Beet Kvass and raw Goat's milk Kefir, eating our dear Debbie's Goaty Curd Cheese and eating fermented summer vegetables (red onions, Hamburg parsley and beets) with our own home grown salad which is growing on our front wall.

I don't know whats a'growing on yours!

PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 19th, 2014.

CHERRY JAM WITH A TWIST.. How to make really delicious cherry jam!

Don't you just love summer fruits, they look good, they smell good, they taste good and by golly, they do you good. We're right bang in the middle of summer, so eat up, Dear Readers, eat up!

She went down to Fulham Broadway to change an appointment and to buy grapefruits this morning and oh, lookie, lookie, there were piles of cherries for sale and she had a £2.00 coin burning a hole in her pocket.

This old family recipe is one she has been making for fifty eight years! True, not a gross fib, for when she was six she stood on a little squat stool and sliced and de-pipped cherries for Constance, then the stool was moved in front of the Aga and she was shown how to stir the pot. 'Health & Safety', show a child how to cook properly and they don't get burnt.

Buy as many cherries as you can carry home (try not to eat them all), old Wheelie Wicker was not with her yesterday but she will go to the market again on Thursday and WW will go with her.

Take the stalks off and the stones out. She just cuts them in half with a small sharp knife and flips the stone out with a twist of a finger.. there is no fancy cherry de-pipper in our kitchen.. she does this over the big stainless steel saucepan so that the juice drips into the pan that they will cook in.

Add the thinly peeled skin and juice of two big lemons to the cherries. Slice the skin into very short thin slices as otherwise you will be chewing long strips of lemon peel!

Simmer the fruit for about 15 minutes, she gives it a good pressing it with a potato masher, then measure the fruit and juice.

Add a ratio of 3/4 of sugar to the amount of fruit, for example, if you have 4 mugs of fruit mix you would add 3 mugs of sugar.

Bring to the boil, watch very carefully that it does not burn, stir the fruit frequently with a wooden spoon making sure the fruit is not sticking to the bottom of the pan. 

When the liquid level starts to drop and it looks thicker, test for setting point, chill a small plate or saucer in the freezer, take it out, plop a spoonful of the mix onto the saucer, place it back in the freezer for a couple of minutes, take it out and push it with your finger.

It is wrinkles, it is ready. If it is still very runny, it needs a little more boiling, be very careful NOT to burn it! Constance taught her that to have it a bit loose-wrinkly was best as it always hardens up a bit more when it cools and who wants 'stiff' jam!

When it is ready to bottle, pour in a big slug of (preferably homemade) Cherry liqueur. She made several bottles of this six years ago when we had our best ever crop of fat and very juicy Stella cherries! She used Lidl's own brand White Rum and Vodka as the base alcohols.

Give it a good stir and ladle it into your washed and dried glass jars and close the lids lightly.

NOW you see why she collects glass jars! Allow the jam to become cold and then tighten the lids.

There you have it, the very best cherry jam with much less sugar than shop bought stuff and NO chemicals! 

She uses this recipe for Plum jam as well, there are masses of Seneca plums and Yellow Gages out at the garden which will be picked this week end and made into jam.. to help us get through dreary winter days when there is no fruit a'hanging on the tree.

It is, of course, utterly divine on ice cream and a spoonful does not go amiss on a breast of duck either! Both the lemon juice and the alcohol stop it from being ordinary cherry jam, go and get some cherries, two lemons, use a large pan, make some and see. You'll never buy cherry jam again!

Slurp.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 14th, 2014.
Aka Bastille Day.

PostScripts: 

There are a couple of other twists to her family's recipe for Cherry jam.. one adds fresh Mint leaves, another adds freshly ground black Pepper and one adds Spices! She will reveal all sooner or later! So hang about as Cherries are in season.

Oh, we cannot wait for Miss Montmorency Cherry to start producing her fruit, she is a sour / tart cooking cherry.

SCATTERING CATS..

The simple pleasures of my life are just that, very simple. Good company, a comfy head to sit upon, tasty yumyum and the odd bit of funny fun. Let me explain myself.. are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

It all began about seven years ago, she was in the North End Road and there was this wooden framed armchair, just sitting there all alone on a corner, she asked the two nearest stall holders if they knew anything about it and they both said it had been there when they set up that morning.

It was a very pretty shape with elegant legs and casters, the poor dear had obviously seen much better, grander and happier times, so she telehoned Dean and asked him if he was free. 

Dean replied that he was, she asked him to pick her up, they loaded the chair into the back of his car and took it home.

For years it sat in a corner of her sitting room, then she rejigged that room and moved it into our bedroom. It badly needed restoring, the horsehair had practically gone, the strapping under the springs had gone, an ugly fabric had been covered in canvas which, oh, horror of horrors, had been nailed on the frame with upholstery tacks!

But it got relegated to being the 'ironing' chair. I know, very naughty. But she made sure that the back, which has very pretty carving, was always covered up, we hate to think of the damage that Beaky could have done on this, gulp.

About three weeks ago, she was sorting out 'stuff' she looked at the chair and thought to herself "I cannot afford to ask Barry Ansell, a dear friend and a wonderful furniture upholsterer, to restore you and you need to go off to a good home".

She telephoned a dear friend Leigh and explained that the chair need work doing on it but that it was an antique and the frame and original casters were in good condition. Happily Leigh was delighted to be offered a proper chair free! 

Initially it was thought the chair would go down to Brighton to their eldest daughter Katie but they changed their minds when it came back from their upholsterer!

She had suggested an 'Old Gold' Damask for the cover, the colour would complement the inlay on the wooden frame and the fabric would suit the age of the chair.

Leigh asked her to supper and she asked if I could come too, so last night we went to Kew.

First off.. let's see that chair! Oh, how beautiful! 

There it was in all its' glory. A three hundred year old French 'King' chair, beautifully restored and covered in exactly what she had envisaged.

Then the four of us had supper.. yum.. pasta! I love a good pasta and tucked in to her plate after having eaten my starter of Water Melon seeds. 

Meanwhile, there was not a sight of either Phoebe or Otto, the two resident cats, whom, if you are up to date with my Blog, you'll have remembered from other posts.

Supper finished, we adjourned to the sitting room. It would be a lie if we said she was not a tad sad about her chair.. sniff.. but she knows it has gone to an excellent home and to people who love and appreciate beautiful design.

The three grown-ups chatted and I did a couple of prancy-dances upon her head, it always amuses people and you know guests should always 'sing for their supper', don't you?

Ossie went off and returned with Otto, "oh no", you could see that poor cat thinking to itself "there's that bird sitting on that woman's head again", then Phoebe was brought down, probably from the airing cupboard. When she saw me, she could not believe her eyes, for she slithered off Leigh's lap and stood staring at me from the doorway. 

I don't exactly know what she was thinking, I am, after all, a parrot but as she looked to me to be thinking slightly 'naughty' thoughts and I thought that a little display of avian 'superiority' might not go amiss.

With no warning to cats or humans, I flew a quick and tight circuit of the room with a screechy squawk thrown in for good measure. 

Neither of those cats will ever think any naughty thoughts about me again, that's for sure.

"But Your Honour, I never touched them, all I did was fly around the room", oh, who laughed the most? Leigh, Ossie, my mum (or me).

I flew back to her raised hand and perched on her shoulder, maybe it is a nice place to sit after all as she gave me a kiss, a smile and a BIG wink.

None of us will ever forget that scattering of cats!

GeeGee Parrot.
July 11th, 2014.
PostScript: Chairs of this type were always made in pairs, a 'King' chair has arms because men wore breeches, a 'Queen' chair had no sides to it in order to allow the full skirt of a lady's dress to fall to the side and not be crushed.

THE WIZARD WAVED HIS WAND..

Those of you Dear Readers who've been a'reading my Blog since I started telling my strange Tales of TomFoolery and other such Fooleries will surely remember reading about The Wizard.

He is not a mythical character but an extremely nice man who happens to be very clever in matters pertaining to building, computers, plumbing and wiring of all types of electrical machinery.

      In short, he is a Wizard with a capital W!

Last week our washing machine blinked once, twice, then refused to work. As you can imagine, many rude words were uttered to this machine who displayed such bad manners and she thought much worse ones too!

She tried all sorts of tricks to trick the machine into working again but no, it did not want to.. grrr.

So she went to the shop who supplied it to us and told them the problem, Mark, the owner, said "the pump has gone, it will cost you £95.00 for me to come and fit it". 

Gulp.. we can think of much nicer things on which to spend nearly a hundred quid on, so she said "ok, I'll call you next week to arrange a day".

She came home and thought about the £95.00, the machine is six years old, does she really need the dryer element, how much would a new washing machine without a dryer cost, etc, etc.

Today she woke up and thought 'Wizard, he could fit it, I'd much rather give him the money, plus he could collect the three lamps that need rewiring".

So she called Rob, aka The Wizard, and explained her sad story, he said,"it sounds as if you're right but it could be the filter is blocked".

                              FILTER!

She had forgotten about the filter.. situated right at the base of the machine.. with NO space for a bowl to be placed underneath to catch any water that might flow out.. grrr.

So that's what she has just done, she wedged a very thick towel under the trap, turned the filter, out came lots of water, then she pulled the filter out.

He was right, it was blocked. With a mass of small cotton threads, gungy soap, which is strange as she uses a liquid soap and a small nail!

She took a bottle of descaling powder from the kitchen, poured the stated amount into the soap compartment and turned the machine onto a short, hot wash.

All it took was a wave of our Wizard's wand. We bless Rob Leary and his knowledge of all things electrical.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 8th, 2014.
PostScript: How about this for a coincidence!
Claudia from Mark's shop has just called to say that she has an almost new second hand John Lewis washer / dryer for sale at a very good price of £150.00!

And today.. is her birthday!

And we have awoken to a very fine day. It was not guaranteed to be so last night.

On the way to eat Pizza last night with Nigel and Lilli, our house guests from Canada, it started to rain and not just little rain either. But today, the sky is dark blue with not a cloud in the sky.

Our house guests are leaving today.. this is why we are awake so early.. they have a long journey ahead of them, Seattle, Vancouver, Victoria Island.

A perfect day.. for my mum's birthday and now you know the significance of the seventh of July.

I will post again later.. got to go.. got to say "Vayo con Dios.. travel safely" to Lilli and Nigel.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 7th, 2014.
PostScript.. I never did get her cellphone.. inside joke!

"Hop on the bus Gus.. Make a new plan Stan"..

Whilst trundling along on a bus this past week she remembered that she had forgotten something.. are you with me or are you still trying to work that out?

The past week has been glorious.. yippee.. with hot and very sunny days, but today old sun did a disappearing act and it rained very hard this morning and then drizzled for the rest of the day.

Secretly she is glad as the fruit and vegetables will all benefit from this rain but it does mean that her trip to the forgotten place might not happen for a week or two, we are, apparently, due to have the good weather back after this belt of low pressure moves away.

Well, it will swell the fruit is what we say!

Back to the title of this post.. it was on Friday that she remembered this place, the bus was trundling across Tooting Bec Common and they came to the stop for the Lido.. Lido.. she thought! Now why have I not been there every day this week, how very silly of me!

And for two pins, she would have got off the bus right then and there and spent the afternoon lolling in that hot sun with not a care in the world, but she was scheduled to meet Dean at home at two of the afternoon clock as they were taking the trees and the buckets of soil out to the allotments.

So she stayed on the bus Gus.. ah.. 'Fifty ways to leave a lover'! Such a catchy tune.. make a new plan Stan.. you don't have to be coy Roy..

No searching for Goaty Milk tomorrow, Debbie is a'jaunting in far distant places like Blackheath! Blimey.. she'd need a visa to go there it's so far away!

What we do have brewing, and successfully this time, is Beetroot Kvass.. the first lot failed as the containers were not air-tight. There are two 5 litre buckets with their own lids hubble-bubbling in the yumyum HQ, one she used goaty whey as the starter and for the other one she used sauerkraut liquid.

They have to be checked twice a day as the pressure caused by the fermentation is forcing the lids up and they would blow, think of those bottles of exploding homemade Ginger Beer and you're on the right track, if she did not release the pressure. 

There are masses of bubbles and the colour is magnificent, all it took were four medium sized Beetroots, a small amount of sea salt, the cup of starter of either whey or sauerkraut liquid, filtered water and strong airtight containers or jars with an air-lock fitted which enables the pressure to escape without letting oxygen into the containers.

Oxygen stops fermentation and allows mold to grow. Not what you want at all.

Next year she wants to do it with her own Golden Beetroots, you have to be very beady eyed to see these at a Farmer's Market in London, she has only seen them once and they were a very silly price indeed.

Oh.. talk about 'silly' price! 

Do you know what half a litre of Raw Camel's Milk sells for in London.. go on.. guess.. or cheat if you have already read Debbie's post on her Ellie's Dairy's Blog.. the herd of camels are in Southern Holland and a Dutchman (his name was forgotten) is selling it.. for.. wait for it.. £12.99!

Goodness me.. it is way past our bedtime.. PipPip Dear Readers.. I hope you are enjoying the sport?

GeeGee Parrot.
July 5th, 2014.
Post Script: Caroline in Exeter knows what the significance of July the seventh is.

Toyota Estate Car..

In the 'old' days, when she was gainfully employed and spent many hours a week 'on the road' going to and from clients or the restoration workshops, she had a wonderful driver called Dean.

He would drop her at one place and whilst she was doing whatever she had to do there, he would zoom off somewhere else collecting or delivering items. They used to travel far afield these two and, most days, I went with them in my large travelling cage.

But those days are long gone and so it must be at least six months since they last met.

He is an incredibly nice and very kind man and when he heard that her shed had been so very badly vandalised the last time, he was furious and telephoned to say that he'd be picking her up and they were going to B&Q to get the necessary things and he would mend it for her!

Hello! 

How nice and kind was that! And not a penny would he accept. Such a thoughtful gesture.

And so this Tale is to tell you how Miss Fig and Miss Cherry both travelled in great style out to the allotment today, plus the eight buckets of soil, placed into huge plastic sacks, went whoosh.. all in one fell swoop.. into the back of Dean's pristine car and off they went, bumpy-bump off down the windy-wobbly track to the plots.

She decided, when Dean arrived this afternoon on the dot of two of the afternoon clock, to take Miss Sunburst Cherry out to the allotment as well. She was not really very happy in that pot by the front door, it was too small and she will be planted in the long bed on the other side of the main walk-way fence. 

With her are several roses and lots of tall red and scarlet flowers, well, they're supposed to be there, their leaves all came up but not one flower has yet to be seen.. huh.. their days are numbered, that's for sure!

Nothing get's to stay living in that garden unless it produces something! And just leaves of flowers are not enough!

As it is at least ten days since she was last there and the weather has been mighty hot with very little rain, she was convinced that the two baby pepper plants and the two equally small courgette / zucchini plants would be dead. It was a nice surprise to see that everyone was alive and, in fact, doing very well!

Maybe our kind plot neighbour, Andrew, took pity on them and has given them the odd bucket or two of water? She will ask him if he is around this week end.

She came home with a bag of the tiniest Broad (Fava) and Dwarf French beans, just how we like them and masses of Peas and Mange-Tout

But the best thing were the first row of Charlotte Potatoes which she dug up. Oh.. heavens to Betsy.. She had them for supper tonight with Johanna's Hot Potato Sauce, oh, slurp-the-durp.

There is lots and lots of work to do, there are lots of plums ripening, she has to finish the summer pruning of the apple and pear trees and to go back and do a bit more on the Morello cherry tree.

Plus she has to pick the Lavender! Which is out-doing itself this year! Dark and very deliciously smelly! Picked and plaited whilst the stems are pliable, they are pretty gifts and make your cupboards and drawers smell wonderful, plus the moths hate the smell, which is an added bonus!

Today is American Independence Day and on Monday, the seventh, it is another very special day as well! I wonder how many of you will remember what it is? No clues but, Dear Readers, if you read my Blog, you should know what July the seventh signifies.

At home on the front wall all the Basil, Spearmint, Peppermint and other herbs are in fine fettle. The herbs are very rich and strong in taste, they like this hot, very sunny weather and it increases the oil content in the leaves tremendously.

The four indeterminate tomato plants are strutting their stuff, that's for sure. Three of them have their pots in a huge plastic store box, the type of which is used for under the bed storage, the box allows her to have a good four inches of water and the tomatoes, a basil, a very hot chilli pepper and a skinny pot of chervil are all as happy as clams and growing like crazy!

The fourth tomato plant is by the front door, a monster! Tommies love her, I know this sounds really dotty but IF I could get SWSBO to post photos onto my Blog, you would know this to be true!

They grow to be enormous, with masses of fat juicy fruits of delicious flavour. The last tommie is a Yellow Tumbling Tom, she gets the sun from sun-up until it pops over the house and already has several fruit, it won't be long now until we are eating our favourite summer food, homegrown tommies with basil and spearmint with some of Debbie's award winning goaty curd from Ellie's Dairy.. yum!

I am off to bed now, she gets up very early when the days are hot and although she does not insist on me getting up as well, I wake up too as you never know, I might miss something and we can't have that happen.

PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 4th, 2014.

A Travelling Turkey..

Yes, it is true, our Turkey is going on a jaunt, a one way ticket-jaunt, what do you mean you didn't know we had a Turkey, huh, well then you haven't read all my posts, have you?

For if you had read all of the posts on my Blog, then you would know that at the top of our stairs, in the large old wooden tub where Miss English Bluebell likes to strut her stuff in Spring, lives a Miss Brown Turkey Fig tree.

She has lived there, ooh, for more years than I have lived here, it must be about fifteen years at least.

But her tub has rotted with age and as she is now so big, she is on the move to the allotment. We are not quite sure where to put her, she might end up being planted in the old flower bed beside the terrace but she thinks that if she does go there, then she will make a 'box' in the ground of sixty centimetre paving stones, this will make sure she doesn't get too big.

And today was the perfect day to take her out of the old tub, to put all the earth and hundreds of Bluebell bulbs into lots of buckets and to collect the rotten wood and the two old metal hoops together for a trip to the rubbish dump in Danvers Street.

Why was today the perfect day? 

Well, we were awaiting the arrival of Nigel and Lilli who have come to stay for five days. The sun was shining and it was a lovely day, she likes to get busy and busy, she certainly was!

The whole area is now immaculate! Not a speck of earth to be seen, for she swept it all up, put it into buckets and along with Miss Turkey, it will all go out to the allotments on Friday, no, she is certainly not going to dump any of that lovely earth at the rubbish dump! Nor throw away our English Bluebell bulbs!

The area was then power hosed and a tub of fine soda crystals was scattered over the area and the steps, this gets rid of moss and cleans water mark stains off natural stone.

Then it was time to go and fetch 'La Petite' from her school at 4.30.. zoom.. can't be late!

Such an active day.. she has been up and working since before six.. me? Huh.. no chance! I got up at the much more civilised hour of a quarter to eight in time to eat my egg and toast.

Doubtless I will have a Tale of two to tell you about Nigel and Lilli, they live in Canada and are 'Bird' people.

I had a little visit with them whilst she was getting supper together, Lilli was using one of those things to read her emails on, you know what I mean, and I kept trying to sneak up on her and it but she knows Birds and just pushed me away with her foot under the duvet.. huh.. no chance of intimidating either of those two.

But I'll get it, I've got five days to get it, she might leave it unprotected, then I'll have it! HeeHeeee.  

But with a couple of very busy days ahead of us and with another early start tomorrow, it is bed time for us.. so "Goodnight" to you all Dear Readers. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 2nd, 2014.