October 30th is a day of Rememberance in our home..

For it is the day that three VIP (to us & a lot of other people) died.

Edgar was the first, he died in 1997. They had known each other for a very long time and she will be eternally grateful to him for introducing her to two glorious men about whom we often write.. Bob Dundas and Tom (Thomas) Lampson.

One day soon we will write about the trip that they (Edgar and she) took through Sweden, Russia, Poland, Germany and Denmark twenty years ago. This was a major - think major in capital letters - trip by land and water!

Then her beloved Bill died in the early 2000's, oh dear.. he had been ill for a couple of years, which she only found out later after his death. He had not told her and forbade his family to do so. So it was a massive shock.

And then darling Suzan, aka Moley, died in 2012. It was her poor son, Austin, who had the gruesome task of telling us that she had died. Suzan, her equally adored husband, Lewis, and she met in London in October 1994 a few days after her return from the epic trip with Edgar.

Oi vey as they say..

You have to bless and love your loved ones and when they have gone, remember them for the joy and happiness that they brought to your life. Luckily, she also has some very sweet photos of the before mentioned friends, which reminds her that she has to copy some to send to members of their families and mutual friends.

And she has to go now to see her newly-wed and very happy looking dentist! Correction, no, she doesn't, she just looked at the appointment card and seen it is next Friday!

So she is going to Mail Box Etc to collect her new 'toy'.. a Bissell Vacuum cleaner! Yes, the mad upstairs neighbour who throws away everyone's mail can no longer do any damage, her mail gets sent to Mail Box and she collects it from them.

We will write a review upon this in my next post.. yubba-dubba-doo.. she loves a new electrical machine! So I wonder if I can get her to start using the very clever and compact Canon printer that someone has just given her, it makes photographs!

PipPip.. Dear Readers.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 31st, 2014.

THE LAST TOMATO PLANT..

Good morning Dear Readers and here in deepest Knightsbridge it IS a good morning. For old Mr Sun is out and about, the air is fresh and we have enjoyed a tall mug of our most favourite tea.

Lapsang Souchong is the 'amber nectar' that we drink first thing in the morning and always out of a blue and white mug. Food and tea are strange, are they not? Well, I think they are. You see I won't eat very hot food but I won't drink cold or even luke warm tea. No, it has to be hot.

Ah, the taste of hot Lappy-Sang slurping down my throat reinforces the fact that all is well in my life.

But what has tea got to do with tomatoes I can hear you wondering.. well, in the immortal words of Paul Daniels.. not a lot! But I am in the present and the last tomato is now sadly in the past.

It was Hurricane Gonzalez who brought about the demise of our Plum tomato plant. You see she grows the tomatoes at home, that way she can water and feed them every day if they need it and this year the yield from just five plants has been astonishing! She had already taken down the other four plants who had given up and were just producing growth but no more flowers or fruit.

Because we are in the centre of town miles away from other tomato or potato plants we never suffer from the dreaded blight and so our pretty Plum tomato was still growing and producing fruit.

But then that hurricane blew into town and with it, of course, just baths loads of water. That was it.

With great sadness she saw the dark marks on the stems and blotchy leaves, it was time to cut off the remaining fruit and take down the plant but mid October was pretty good for a tomato plant still to be fruiting, was it not?

That evil hurricane killed three people in the UK. One was Teresita who was one of her customers from the shop. Poor Teresita.. the tree had already been damaged but it had not been cordoned off and the next big wind caused it to fall and it hit her.

Poor family.. she was much beloved in the neighbourhood.

Vayo con Dios Teresita.

Back to Marylebone this morning, no, not in search of yumyum but she has to go to Ainsworths, the Homeopathic Pharmacy on New Cavendish Street. She needs Paramedic Rescue Rememdy and a bottle of Mimulus to give to dearest Leigh.

In order to get it to her quickly, she will jump on a District Line train to Kew to give them to her before heading back to join the team from the shop for a celebratory supper. (Their second!!)

Yes, they have come out tops again for enrolling Gift Aid supporters. Gift Aid allows a Charity to collect an extra 25% from the Government on items that have been donated by UK Tax Payers. The customers sign a form stating they are UK residents and tax payers and the shop gives them a small plastic fob and records their postal code.

Each time they donate something to the shop and show their fob or give their postal code to identify themselves, a special label is produced and attached to the item, this is then zapped by the bar code reader when it is sold. The customer does not have to show bank statements, the taxman does not breath down their neck, it is a way of increasing the donation from the Government.

So tonight, there will be much merriment when she recounts the story of being contacted by Penelope (?) asking her if she would like to do voluntary work for the charity.. for whom she has been working for five years.

And now, Dear Readers, we are off.. places to go, things to eat. Yes, for it is time to flapflap to the YumYum HQ for a late fast-breaking meal.. soft boiled egg and goaty curd is what I fancy with rye bread and sunflower seeds. I trust you eat a good breakfast every morning?

GeeGee Parrot.
October 27th, 2014.

The secret's out! What made the bottle red..

Greetings to you all.

If you have read the last post you will know that she took Goaty mum Debbie two bottles this morning, one was dark red and slender, the other was brown and fat.

The dark red colour bottle was requested by the recipient herself.. she was offered an apricot coloured one but said "that she was very partial to a Slurp (stick around, the word is catching) of Kirsch!"

And on Ellie's Dairies Blog this morning Debbie wrote about having an hour in bed with Marmite, who is a cosy cat not a mug of the strong stuff, and a slurp of Sal's homemade Kirsch.

Bob, her uncle, would be very proud of his only niece.. for he was a Master Brewer of all manner of deliciously scrummydumptious drinkable things.

She is particularly pleased with this batch of Kirsch for the colour is dark velvety red.. it is from a batch of home-grown Stella cherries that she forced to become sweeter and darker by covering the trees in a tent of nylon! It raised the temperature and the cherries, which are normally a pretty red, went completely black! Brogdale Nurseries, from whom she bought the trees, were fascinated and vastly amused by this when she showed them the photos.

The cherries and the vodka soaked for three years, the smell is divine and the taste, well.. Slurp is indeed an excellent word to describe what people think when they taste it. There was a secret ingredient added which shall remain a secret.. nope.. Beaky's sealed.. and no, it was not sugar or vanilla but it does make the liquer have a wonderful smell and a certain je ne sais quoi taste!

She is back from Marylebone, she waddled home for these two foodies had eaten several scrumptious things. First up were the dumplings with the chilli-billy sauce.. yum.. then a cup of good coffee and then the stall holder left her minding the 'shop' only to re-appear with two scones.

Oh.. heavens-to-Betsy.. proper scones, not those light-airy-fairy-taste-of-nothing ones, these had substance and were filled with a thick slab of double cream and strawberry jam.. not a crumb was left for even a poor pigeon and, I regret to say, she licked the paper it had come in!

So you see waddle is an apt word with which to describe her walk up to Oxford Street, mind you, she was carrying a goodly amount of swag, some cheese, a bag of Pak Choi, three pints of raw goaty milk and a wondrous selection of Kilner Bottles, the like of which she has never seen before! Found by Debbie in Ashford, Kent and they have a product number on their label so that she can speak to Messrs Kilner to order more!

Yesterday she was given a tub of the same cream that Omer used in today's scone, so today, before she left the market, she swooped on a pile of Bramley apples.. because in the swag bag is a lonely scone.. she thought he would be greatly cheered up by being introduced to an apple pureed with some spices and a dollop of cream.

What do you think?

Now there is Mount IronMore waiting for her attention in the sitting room.. bed linens and some summer clothes which will be packed away. So with a large bottle of Lavender smelling water for the steamy iron and Chocolat in the dvd player.. whoosh.. we're off.

Flap Flap.. Dear Readers.. Flap Flap.. Sorry about the mini print, but she can't get BlogSpot to make it bigger..

GeeGee Parrot.
October 26th, 2014.

Turning back the time..

Did you remember? Or have you been out and about and wondered where everyone was? The clocks went back at 01.00am this morning and it is a bit strange to have her still lolling about but she will soon be off to eat chilli dumplings so this is a short post.

Bad Blogspot has or rather is, playing up, she is mighty miffed to be only able to use this mini print as nothing annoys her more. A blog she likes very much is written in the tinest print, so she has to 'pull' the iPad's screen to its' maximum width in order to read the blog.. not an easy read! Apologies..

But life is good.. she has had some wonderful (as in happy and also as in hysterically funny haha) things happen recently.

First up.. was a telephone call from her most beloved Tom Lampson in NYC.. for no reason other than he wanted to chat with her. Now HOW very nice was that.. it gave her such a happy surprise to see his number come up on the screen. 

Next was being given the most delicious two cheese, sage and other ingredients Muffin yesterday by dear goaty mum Debbie. She called into see her at the Nottinghill Gate Farmer's Market, (behind Waterstones) on her way to Garcia Brothers on Portobello Road. They are a wonderful purveyor of all types of Spanish food and she was on the hunt for Boqueronies.. aka Anchovies.. slurp-the-durp indeed.

So having been handed this delicious Muffin, she was mighty glad she had a gift for Debbie.. they are such foodies these two women.. if it is Marylebone.. it must be Dumplings with Chilli.. If it is Parson's Green.. it must be cake from HoneyPie Bakery, Brixton meant Falafel & Harissa.. sigh.. they don't do Brixton any longer

Next up was a hysterical email.. from some person whom she has never heard asking her if she would like to do some volunteer work. Now, I KNOW you are all thinking "what's funny about that?", well, you see, she HAS been doing voluntary work for this company for nearly five years.

Moving swiftly along before she starts to laugh again.. 

So there you are.. but life for everyone is not so happy.. dearest Leigh is in such pain and is scared by having very unpleasant symptoms and she is due to see a Medical team tomorrow and so we are sending a BIG thank you to dearest Caroline B. in Exeter who reminded her of the name of the Homeopathic Paramedic Rescue Remedy.

And meanwhile, in an hospital in London, there is Sharon. 

If you are upto date and speed with my Blog you will have read of the appalling road traffic accident in which Sharon was hit head on, her car flipped over onto its' roof, it burst into flames, her life was saved by other motorists who, thank God, righted her car and they had bottles of water and a small fire extinguisher with which they put out the fire.

She was airlifted to the London hospital.. with multiple fractures.. All because a man was driving too fast.. I've said before and I will say it again.. Speed kills, this woman's life has, forever, been changed and damaged.

BECAUSE YOUR CAR CAN GO AT A 100 MILES AN HOUR, YOU DON'T HAVE TO..

I am off to doze on pole, she is off to Marylebone with two bottles, one of which is dark red and slender, the other is brown and fat with a pump, I wonder what's inside them? 

But they both look as if Slurp would be a good word to use about and with their contents!

GeeGee Parrot.

October 26th, 2014.

Lookie-lookie. Here we are back from the place of no writing on my Blog

Very busy is how to describe our life at the moment. A very important (to us) person has been staying in London and my mama has spent a lot of time with them. 

They gave her something that made her extremely wet eyed. She really is a soppy old human mama but it is better than having a hard hearted Hannah, that's for sure!

The shop has been very busy, really really busy. They had an extraordinarily generous donation of the entire contents of a home, the furniture has gone to the furniture branch of the charity but everything else has, and is continuing to, come in to the shop where she works. So she is doing two days a week as there are lots of precious things to sort and price.

Meanwhile the allotments have been getting a great watering! This is, for us, great news as all of September was far too dry and the earth was as hard as rock the last time she tried to turn over a small raised bed. 

Today we are experiencing the tail end of Hurricane Gonzalez at the present moment, he blew into town last night but hopefully he won't do any severe damage, however, he is dumping huge amounts of rain. 

So now no actual gardening is being done but detailed plans are being made to change beds and alter the lay-out of two of the plots. 

Graft paper and seed catalogues are out on the big table, as you know she loves Beets and especially the yellow ones, Kvass made from yellow Beets will be a wonderful treat next year.

Debbie, aka Goaty Mum of Ellie's Dairy, has had more kiddly babies arrive! Fancy that and so late, in mid October. Last Sunday she went off to meet her the market at Parson's Green school. 

HoneyPie Bakery was directly opposite and their 'lunch' was two enormous slices of Butternut Squash and Pecan Cake.

Whoooo.. That baker sure can bake, the cake was truly made by fairies, for it was as light as air but substancial, with tiny slivvers of orange peel and a delicious mix of spices was dusted onto the icing.

Not one crumb came home I will have you know Dear Reader, she and I usually share lunch but she waddled home via the library and I had to put up wih eating Parrot food, huh and this Sunday they are 'at it' again.

Their plan is to meet at the Marylebone Market and eat Malaysian Dumplings with chilli.. slurp.. I am extremely partial to this sort of food but doubt very much if I will even get to lick the paper plate.


Meanwhile at home, several doors are shut in the hall, she and a marvellous Bissell carpet washing machine did the carpets and I have been banished from the bathroom and the sittingroom.. sigh.. but winter is a'coming and at this time of year she does her entertaining at home but last week she took our important visitor to lunch at her club in the West End the week before last.

They had had an appointment with a lawyer in the city so Charles Street was the perfect place to lunch afterwards. A civilised drink in the bar was  followed by a delicious lunch with NO washing up to be done!

Now she has to get dressed in wet weather gear clothing and brave the elements, there is food to be bought and an errand to be run.

So I am off to my pole in the hall and therefore I say.. PipPip.. and FlapFlap to you all.

Gee Gee Parrot.
October 21st, 2014.