SHE GOT MONEY & GOODIES TOO!

With her incredibly smart new cards in her old but still smart work case, off she went to Streatham to meet with the management team at Morrisons.

I am delighted to be able to tell you that Morrisons stepped right up to the plate.. yes indeedy.. they surely did! For the charming manager at their Streaham Common branch has agreed to donate whatever food is needed for the breakfasts after the three family mass on July 12th and their BBQ in August and then he put her together with his Community Champion.

Who was a charming young woman called Anya. Anya asked her what she wanted in the form of a financial donation, they discussed the needs of the Streatham Dementia Support Group. Then Anya said what she had available per month in her budget for Charity.

They agreed on a figure which is a great start! She is to issue an invoice for next month and then they will set up a standing order to the bank account of Rotary Club of Streatham Trust Fund. Registered Charity No: 1036425.

Yippee.. and other really great stuff was discussed about free placement of a banner for the group outside in their railings, items for the Raffle at the BBQ, collection tins with a Rotary member inside the store. They could not have been kinder nor more generous.

It was a HOT sticky day yesterday and so I was left at home, she could not have taken me in my small cage to the Morrison meeting, then there was a period of time when she called into other companies. I would have been grumpy BEYOND belief at the end of even an hour and she was out on the road for three hours even before she joined up with the group at 2.00 past midday!

But everyone asked her "where's GeeGee.. where's dat bird?" Oh, I was sorely miseed, I am pleased to tell you!

But there is much work to be done and now she is pulling out her old work related address books. When you have worked for people like: Laksmi Mittal, Leslie and Abigail Wexner, Garfield Weston, Pierre Winkler, The Duke of Westminster and other families who are known to be very philanthropic, you have a fast inside track to requesting financial support for an extremely worthwhile cause.

Bill and Melinda Gates joined their Foundation up with Rotary International as they knew that Rotary was TRULY international and capable of doing the work needed to tackle and irridicate Polio. We are nearly there folks, there are a few pockets left in the world where this dreadful disease lingers on but as long as everyone stays alert, we can and will do it.

However, she was horrified to hear recently that the government of Pakistan has recently closed down ALL the activities of Save the Children Charity within Pakistan. There are no non-Pakistani workers based in this country working for this Charity who do wonderful, life saving work throughout the world but they, the locals, have been accused of anti-Pakistani proceedures. Very sad and strange.

A close friend asked her recently why she was so committed and passionate about Rotary and why she had joined the Rotary Club of Streatham instead of a local (to her) branch like Chelsea or Kensington.. it didn't take her a nanosecond to give her her response.. which was.

"My grandmother suffered from Dementia for the last few years of her life and I contracted Polio at the age of six.. I sat in on a Streatham Rotary Club meeting and listened to them talking about a local Dementia group which they had recently set up, by this time I knew about Rotary's work with the Gates Foundation against Polio, I then joined them the following Friday at the Streatham Dementia Support Group and knew that this was the Rotary Club that I wished to be a member of".

Simples..

GeeGee Parrot.
June 27th, 2015.

UPON SEARCHING IN CHARITY SHOPS FOR A BROKEN NECKLACE WITH WHICH TO MEND ONE OF HERS. WHAT DOES SHE FIND AND BUY VERY QUICKLY?

Yes folks, a hunting she is a'going in search of large dollops of moolah, dosh, loot, folding.. whatever you like to call it, she's after it tomorrow, she got the facts and figures in her brain and has been aided and abetted by Janice, the incoming President, enormously.

They are off on a banner jaunt next Tuesday to finalise the banner artwork and to sign it off, this gives the company the go-ahead to make it ~ as quickly as possible please!

All in all, it was a highly productive day, her Rotary cards arrived, chic and smart they are, clever Cousin Bruce!

She managed to find something for a friend which was supposedly 'not in stock', being nice to her suppliers and always paying their invoices as soon as they arrived has always paid huge dividends. They still say "Hi sweetie, how are you, what do you need / want" and she retired seven years ago!

So it was not a problem finding ten cards of a certain trim, she just rang the manufacturer direct and after a few Italian and English pleasantries were exchanged.. the conversation about the non-stock coloured trim resulted in the lovely words "course we will do that for you, send it to the client direct, no problem, when are you coming to see us again, it's been far too long and you'd be able to go to Madova as well!"

Ahhh.. they knew her well! For they're in Florence and they introduced her to the bestbest place for gloves.. beautiful coloured gloves in lots of different styles. MADOVA.. it's like entering a sweetie shop with little drawers full of heavenly treats!

She had the wrist strap on an old watch shortened, "how much" she asked her jeweller, who looked up and waved her out of the shop saying "bring me one of those delicious chocolate salami the next time you make some!"

Don't you love it when people are funny and nice!

Then she remembered she needed to mend an old necklace, carved ivory beads, goodness knows how old it is as she was given as a child by Flo, aka The Severe Pruning Company. She popped into a couple of the charity shops looking for a cheap necklace with a good clasp that she could use, she was looking for a 'Barrel' clasp.

The second shop she went into was the Heart Foundation, she had to pass the dresses to get to the jewellery and an assistant was hanging clothes onto the rail so she waited until she could pass.. then she saw it.. a cobalt blue and white stripe jersery dress with a white trim along the boat shaped neck.

Nice, she thought and took the dressdown from the rail.. even nicer.. Ralph Lauren still with its' Ralph Lauren shop label on it and in her size.. VERY nice and nicer still when on! And she found a pretty blue and white glass beaded necklace with the type of clasp she wanted for £1.99, the beads will go splendidly on a bracelet that she has to repair.

Back to the Library, after taking the box to be posted to Plymouth, no point in sending it First Class as it would arrive on Saurday, Second Class was just fine at £5.99 for a big box which weighed almost nothing!

There is in old WW, a lubbly-jubbly selection of books for the week end from the Library but we're going to be busy before we get there! I do wish that my tumtum feathers would hurry up and grow back.. they're taking a seriously long time.. and I kinda wish that I hadn't pulled ALL of them out.. sigh..

We had our supper really early, I am dozing whilst she taps this and we'll both be in bed before ten of the evening clock.

Yawn.. oh.. this will make you laugh. She used to be called Blondie by the 'boys' in Deptford at one the restoration studios. And you know that Craig the art teacher, who comes into the charity shop where she works, calls her Blondie.

And as she is the only blonde at Streatham Rotary.. that's now her nickname there as well! She roared with laughter upon receiving a financial file in the form of an email from her out-going President addressed to "Dearest Blonde"..

What a way to start our day.. with a grin and a chuckle!

GeeGee Parrot.
June 25th, 2015.

SUNNY DAYS & STEAMY NIGHTS.!

No.. don't worry folks, she's behaving herself! The steamy nights refer to how hot it is at night or has been recently.

It was a cracker of a day today, she worked from half eleven to a quarter to five and then went to MailBox to get a package before they closed at six of the evening clock. Having crossed the road, she spied a tidy box full of other cardboard boxes.. splendid, just what she needed in order to send a package down to Plymouth. She dragged that home.. waste not, want not.. and they are perfect!

The shop was busy and she spent a happy hour sitting down 'marrying' up endless pairs of clip-on earrings which had been donated and pricing them, she found some lovely stuff and just as she had finished, one of their nicest dealers came in and said "may I have a look" and took three things which she had just priced.

A small bag of Chinese Turquoise, a small 18ct gold charm and an 18ct gold ring set with a small engraved Chrisophrase stone. He was happy with his purchases and she was happy, they'ed been sitting in a box since last winter with no-one wanting to sort the hideous jumbled up mess out.. a BIG box!

Then off she went to MailBox to collect the Swedish Bitters which that lovely Herbalist, Christine Brown who runs Granary Herbs, had sent up to her.. haha.. she isn't going to let that happen again. that's for sure! No Swedish Bitters equals a sore tumtum!

We've had supper, Pork Loin chops on a bed of home grown salad and herbs, what could be nicer? Followed by the very last smidgen of Goaty cheese.. it's mid week, we've now got to wait until next Sunday until we get more.. sigh.

Busy day tomorrow, package has to go to a Post Office and then she's off down to the allotments for a full days' work, Friday has rolled around very quickly, in the morning she is putting on a pretty dress and going off as she has appointments to see people about financial sponsorship and donations for the Streatham Dementia Support Group that her Rotary Club runs each Friday afternoon.

Then she'll whizz home to collect me, then we whizz back up by train to Streatham Hill. Lots of whizzing about on Friday and she must remember to go to collect her new Rotary cards from MailBox before they close tomorrow, otherwise she'll have to go there first on Friday morning, you can't go out to do serious fundraising without your official Charity or corporate card!

Busybusy.. nothing she likes better.. I'm just hoping they'll have the boiled fruit cake on Friday.. keep your claws crossed folks.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 24th, 2015.

A PRETTY DRESS WITH LONG SLEEVES AND A WINTER-WEIGHT JACKET.. IN JUNE!

She washed her hair, did her face, put on a short sleeved dress, took out a favourite summer jacket, checked my food and water, blew me a kiss and left the house. Rotary evening, I thought to myself and settled down.

Only to hear the sounds of her keys opening the front door and her greeting whistle less than ten minutes later! "Cold GeeGee, very chilly-billy windy with rain in the air" changing into a long sleeved jersey dress, taking a quilted winter jacket, goodness me, I'm glad I don't have to go out in weather like this!

A kiss on Beaky and she was back out of the door. Taking the bus to Streatham Hill, the roadworks are finished at the roundabout and she didn't fancy dealing with Victoria Station at rush-hour, it takes longer by bus but there was plenty of time and she could finish an excellent book by Susan Isaacs called 'Red White and Blue'.

The Rotary agenda was busy, a much beloved member has recently died so her funeral arrangements were being discussed and finalised, our fundraising morning for the Dementia Support Group in the Catholic Church was next up, it will be on July 12th and it will start at approximately 09.30am after the first Mass and will finish at about 1.00pm after the last Mass is heard.

This means an early start for us, as we have to be in the church hall at 09.15 to settle me into my large travelling cage and close it with a padlock! We know everyone at the group meetings on Friday but with hundreds of strangers, it will be safer for me if naughty fingers know they cannot let 'Polly' out!

This was the first meeting since the day that Susan and she went out and about giving the information and posters about the Streatham Dementia Support Group, she had to stand up and give a full report about where they had been and the reception they had received.

The meeting ended at fifteen minutes after after nine o'clock, she blew goodbye kisses at everyone and flew out of the door, ran like a hare down hill (thank goodness) onto Streatham Hill and a bus came along in two minutes. It was bitterly cold evening and she thanked her lucky stars that she had changed her clothes earlier!

Home again home again jiggedy-jig! Late but hungry.. haha-hoho.. cold barbecued chichen in the fridge with a bit of salad and hummus! For both of us, it certainly did the trick, with a handful of nuts and a big glass of water and after washing her face and teeth, we were both in bed with the lights out before 10.45 past midday (pm).

Today she HAS to find that sign maker in Tooting in order to get a SDSG banner made, they've brought forward our fundraising event in the church and it needs to be ready for July 1st.

Also has to talk to the team at The South London News about a journalist and photographer coming to see a Friday meeting at Woodlawns, them doing an article on the group and putting news in the paper about their fund-raising events which are happening in July and August.

Back to Morrisons on Streatham Common to talk to their Community Champion about becoming a sponsor and donating food and money to the SDSG - Streatham Dementia Support Group  - for these local community events.. food and money is what she wants.

As Baloo sang in the Jungle Book.. "The bare necessities of life.." a charming film, even if Disney did spell his name wrong!

A busy day, so we're up and off into YumYum HQ to start it!

GeeGee Parrot.
June 23rd, 2015.

THE SUMMER SOLSTICE ~ JUNE 21st, 2015.

What a glorious day. A 'proper' summers day in an English garden.. aka an allotment. What could possibly be nicer than wearing a swimsuit and picking your own cherries!

She always laughs when she hears the phrase 'pick your own', it means, of course, you pick as much as you want to pay for of the fruit that somebody else owns  but she prefers to really pick her own and there was a lot of picking going on yesterday by the looks of what came home in her yellow bucket!

Lots of origano and marjoram, some chives and lovage and the tiniest of tiny sorrel leaves, she had trimmed the plant right down as it was too tall and going to seed. A few self seeded chard leaves and a couple of sprigs of wild land-cress were for our supper but I was much more interested in the jewels underneath!

Black and red currants! And a large handful of the first Stella cherries that were ready to pick. Tootie-Fruitie! Our own fruit. All the fruit bushes and trees have been planted by her own grubby hands. She has brought the bushes and trees from any number of very well respected fruit nurseries but our first two Stella cherry trees and a Yellow Gage came from.. Lidl!

And they have proved to be as splendid as any of the other fruit trees brught from more up-market tree sellers!

Now there is a train of thought that, if you live in a rented house or a flat that has a garden, you don't plant anything as you may move. Well, she knows several families who have lived in rented houses for over eight years, one of them has a thriving fruit, flower and vegetable garden, she knows as she planned and made it for them!

The other two families have gardens that are.. sterile is a good word, The grass is cut, there are a few things in tubs. But there is nothing to cut and smell or cut and eat. She knows that she won't garden her allotments 'forever' but whilst there is the energy and strength to do so, she'll work these four allotment plots. Then somebody else will have the joy of taking a basket and picking 'their own'!

These plots are individually quite different. Each one has fruit trees on it but they're laid out differently and the two end ones, plots number 35 & 37, will be completely different when the job is completed of destroying old Blackberry Briars plan for plot domination!

For this is where she wants to build a Solar House. The tradional green house, as you know, it is not actually ideal for our English sun, the sun is too low for too many months to work properly. Over fifty years ago she recalls seeing the two greenhouses that belonged to a family friend, Priscilla, they were a different shape to 'normal' ones and she asked her why it was like this. "It is all to do with the angle of the sun" was the answer! Priscilla's grapes and melons were lengendary and she grew salad all through the winter!

Then, within the past five years, she found and read a book by an American author who echoed Priscilla's words and went into much further detail! Eureka.. so no overseas summer holiday for her this year. The next phase is to dig out the blackberry and raspberry roots, to turn over the soil and clear it of all weeds. All this is needed as preparation for building the Solar house which she wants to have up and running for next Spring.

Having left early and coming home late.. I was quite prepared to be fierce and get Beaky to give her a nip but wise Beaky said "hey-up, there's something smelly delicious in her basket" and there was!

Coming home via a small Middle-Eastern store who do tasty barbecued chicken at the weekend, she had chosen the most golden one, he had wrapped it carefully in two heat bags, she had bought a tiny cucumber as a treat (bribe) for me and two pots of hummus.

The herbs were snipped into small pieces, olive oil, raspberry (from our own canes) vinegar, salt and pepper were put on top, she scissor cut the hot chicken in two and placed it on top of the herbs.

Yumpy-dumpy! Ain't nothing better than a hot barbequed chicken when you've been working hard all day. Beaky and I made short work of the bones with the flesh and gristle. Then we ate jewels of scarlet balls of heavenly deliciousness and black as night Ribena balls! "The white ones aren't ready yet", she said.. who cares, thought I as I munched on a red currant! Then I ate most of two large slices of the baby cucumber.. crisp and crunchy and wet.. very slurpy indeed!

Much work was done, she's pruned the cherry trees that have fruited and cut off the long shoots of all the other stone fruit trees but needs a short ladder to get at the two naughty plum trees who are playing 'Reach for the Sky', "no plum.. you weren't planted just for you to grow to twenty feet high and wave your fruit around out of picking reach!"

The cut grass was raked up, growth cleared from underneath the gang of six ~ three Stella cherry trees, one Morello cherry, a Green Gage and a Victoria plum and pruned back a Rosamundi Rose who was reverting to a wild rose.

After painting all the fruit trees with white latex paint and replaced all the mothballs around the base of each tree, the next section of work which will be working on one plot at a time.

Starting on plot 41: To finish clearing out underneath the fruit trees and to check the tree guards. Tidy up the peonies who have flowered, tie string around the the stalks and leaves to keep them in upright bunches.

That was her longest day.. the perfect day for the longest day.. our Summer Solstice 2015. How did you spend your Solstice?

Gee Gee Parrot.
June 22nd, 2015

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY..

You probably think of it as a childrens' rhyme.. but nothing, Dear Readers, could be further than the truth. For it is the famous Rifleman song. And was sung by the 95th Rifles as they engaged the French troops at the Battle of Waterloo.

This battle ended Bonaparte's despotic charade in Europe. He'd caused the death of tens of thousands of French, Spanish and Portugese ~ read history to learn about the Napoleonic Wars ~ and had marched his troops into Russia, with no thought about back-up supplies OR the weather, poor men and horses.

We then had peace in Europe for nearly one hundred years until the outbreak of WW1 in 1914. She's been reading a lot of history ~ modern ~ recently. Few people realise, unless you are Italian or know your history, that in both the UK and the USA Italians not born in that country were considered to be, like the Japanese and Germans, undesireable aliens.

There were families who had come to the UK after WW1, during which war Italy was an ally, only to be classied as aliens at the start of WW2. They were rounded up and shipped off and out. It is NOT a pretty story. Likewise in the USA.

So you had the situation of compulsory active service duty for all UK and USA men of Italian origin born in those countries but whose own Italian born parents were imprisoned.. OI VEY.

Years ago, she used to get beautiful plants from Rochfords at Crew's Hill. This is a truly wondrous place. There are acres upon acres of glasshouses! At Rochfords, in charge of the greenhouse was an elderly Italian who had been a prisoner of war on the Isle of Man.

He was asked what did he do before the war, he told the camp authorities that his family grew plants, primarily orchids but also salads and grapes for the family. The next thing he knew, he was on a bicycle with a map with instructions of how to get to ...

And there, he found a sad sight! Going around the large house to the back door, he saw a huge old greenhouse with nobody taking care of an enormous vine and lots of half dead orchids. He had been told to knock on the back door and to give them the note explaining them who he was.

He knocked, a very elderly gentleman came to the door to whom he handed over the note, upon reading it the elderly man greeted him but you can imagine his surprise when he was greeted in Italian and not just Italian but fluent Turinese. The owner of the greenhouse with the sad orchids and vine had studied for years in Turin.

Out of a sad situation there came great joy for these two men. The elderly man had arthritis and could no longer tend his vine, the orchids had been his wife's and she was no longer alive but here, like a gift from God, there was this lovely man who, through no fault of his own, was considered to be undesirable!

He spent the rest of the war years working at the greenhouse, he supplied the local store with salads and vegetables, the grapes were bartered with the Officers' Mess in exchange for vegetable seeds. He revitalised the orchid collection and after the war, he married a Manx girl and stayed on the island.

They moved to Crews' Hill when his Italian family moved to England in the early seventies. He was a charming man whose knowledge of plants was stupendous! The elderly man had taught him English and he had read voraciously everything in the extensive library.

It was an extremely sad day when one of the hothouse 'girls', who knew she adored him, called to say that he had died.. he'd done his Friday walk-about, sat down to take off his gloves and gone.. it was a hell of a shock for his team, his family and friends of which there were legions but for him, it was the best way to go.

"If I should fail to rise
no more, as many
comrades did before, then
ask the fife and drums
to play, o'er the
hills and far away".

GeeGee Parrot.
June 21st, 2015.

HER TUM IS GLUM.. BREAD IS THE CULPRIT.. NO MORE CRUSTS.. SIGH.

Oh dear.. oh dearie, dearie me. She had a sneaky suspicion for a couple of years that bread was not the best thing for her, think slow digestion, bloating and other unpleasant things and so, although she loved the Lithuanian bread we ate, a sourdough mix of rye and wheat with caraway seeds, she stopped eating any bread at the end of February.

On Tuesday she bought a loaf of this to take on the girl's outing to Rackspace. On Wednesday she ate one slice with the picnic and had two slices toasted on Thursday morning when we broke our fast, I am crazy-daisy about those crusts.

Yesterday morning we ate another two slices. Then we went off to Streatham Hill to the Streatham Dementia Support Group. By four of the afternoon clock, she was feeling uncomfortable, by bedtime which was just after ten o'clock, her lower stomach was extremely painful, to put it mildly and guess what!

There was no Swedish Bitters in the cupboard! She'd slurped the last drop last weekend and forgotten to call our beloved herbalist Christine @ Granary Herbs to order two more bottles! Grrrr.

So her plans have changed, for she has now to do an emergency dash to shop at Baldwins, an equally beloved Herbalists on the Walworth Road, who stock Christine's Swedish Bitters. Thank goodness.

The shy is pale beige-grey, not a colour she is very fond of but it was like this yesterday morning at about the same time but however, it turned into a crackin' day to be sure.

So she's got to get going off down to the Elephant & Castle, there is a single decker bus that will take her all the way, she just has to catch it. A book will be taken and she'll resist the urge to get off at the Imperial War Museum, for this wonderful museum must have an exhibition on to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the battle that got rid of Napoleon Bonaparte once and for all.

She'll go next week and she'll go to the National Portrait Gallery as well to look at the new exhibition of photographs of Audrey Hepburn. The article she read in todays' Guardian is fair, she thinks.

But now, clutching her sore and bloated tumtum, she's off to catch the bus to the Elephant. I'm going to doze and perhaps slurp a morsel of cheesy omelette that might be found on Beaky, if I'm lucky.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 20th, 2015.

DANCING A JIG.. ON MY MUM'S HEAD!

I know Dear Readers, she's extremely tolerant. How many mothers do you know who would let their children prance about all over them like I do? Not many normal ones is the correct answer but who said my mum was normal? Not me, that's for sure!

We've been Singing With Dementia up at Woodlawns on Leigham Court Road at Streatham Hill and very jolly it was too! No boiled fruit cake for tea but she had taken a pot of hummus and I had a nibble at an extremely tootie-fruity strawberry, I wanted a slurp of her tea but she had drunk it all so I had water instead.. not the same.

There's a plot a'foot, it has been dreamt up by Rosalina, one of my special friends, she's busting a gut to teach me some Italian. which she is, it might work, you never know with us Greys. Back to the plot, it is a fund raiser for the church and it will be for kids, the human variety. They pay 50p a go to guess my name and the winner gets a baby (toy) parrot!

Whatever next, I ask you? Anyway, my mum volunteered me for this and so we'll be travelling slightly further afield in July on a Sunday. First we'll go to Mass, I've never been into a church, so this will be a new experience, that's for sure! Then we'll play the game whilst parents have coffee and cake.

Rosalina and she have to come up with about a hundred girls' names, each child will try to guess my name and once a name has been chosen, the child's name and telephone number will be put against that name and it will be taken 'out of the pot' as it were. At the end of the morning, which ever child has guessed my name, if anyone does, then they get the prize.

I'll travel in my smaller cage but she'll take the bigger one for me to be in for the duration of the game, it is a good thing that the big one can be carried by old WW as it is quite heavy! My dears, the things she gets up to and is now involving me in as well!

But I must say that this afternoon was a very jolly affair indeed, I flew about a lot, I landed on several unsuspecting peoples' heads, I did a dudu on Susan's, I am ashamed to admit but what can you expect with all this excitement?

We sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes the whole way through, that always gets me going as she has to bend all the way down lots of times to touch her knees and toes, then we bounced about a bit more with head waggling, shoulder rolling, toe and heel touching and then we all danced about doing the 'Lambeth Walk' in a line.

Such laughing was laughed as I held on tight and flapped-the-flap with my wings and today.. I caused them to stop singing when I joined in whistling! It was a tune I knew so I could prance about and whistle.. it was chaos, my dears.. chaos.. they laughed so much.

What a great sight it is to see these people laughing, that's why we started the group, to give these folk a happy time and if all it takes is me being silly and enjoying myself, well, I'll keep on doing my very best at being foolish.

I did NOT want it to end.. no sirree! I bit her smartly at half past four, which was pack up time and made it very obvious that I did not want to leave but she explained that the party was over and it was time to go home and that next Friday will be along before I know it! I hope so.

So she kissed several folk and said our goodbyes, Janice had had a splendid time with her family in Jamaica and Mary had had an equally splendid time at the World Conference of Rotary International in Brazil, she says she only drank one bottle of rum a day! Joke! They looked so happy both of them.

Off we trotted down the road, turned left on to the High Street and along came our 319 bus which was empty, we took ourselves a comfy seat and trundled all the way home to Sloane Square.

Now she'll cook us something light and tasty, she's dug out a pure cotton house dress, it is too hot to be wearing much else! And she's promised me a cool bath with a session with my favourite machine, her hair dryer, which blows cool air through my feathers, it will a MAJOR treat after today's hot day.

It's Friday, so there you have our week folks, we both hope thay you all have had a happy time. We are aware that there have been some terrible things that have happened this week, the slaying of those nine completely defenseless people at a Bible Study Group in a church in Charleston, SC, USA is, without doubt, one of the saddest things.

And there have been other things too, some too gruesome to mention, which is why I bang on about keeping your side of the 'street' and life clean, happy and healthy and about being kind to people who are not just your immediate family.

Gettit..

GeeGee Parrot.
June 19th, 2015.

BY GEORGE.. I THINK SHE GOT IT!

Yes, she has, she's found the top to the petrol tank of the grass trimmer! So off she went, why, she could have been at a fair! For she went round and around, up and down and backwards and forwards, just like you do when you're young and having fun.

And even though it wasn't a fair and she didn't get to eat candy floss, she surely had just as much fun. And ring dem bells.. for old weed and grass are dead! They most surely are, they're now in a big heap and will go snap, crackle and pop in the incinerator! What a difference tidy paths and no weeds waving at you makes!

The bean support was dismantled and will relocate to another plot, likewise with the pea-frame, they put nitrogen back into the soil and next year, their bed will be where corn will grow, for corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder and will just love growing where those beans grew so happily.

It was a hot and very sunny day! She thought of the racing folk in hats and suits etc, with heels and make-up.. and was thankful not to to be there. And it was Ladies Day at the allotments, for several of the other women plot holders were working there too.

But it WAS a work day, so they just shouted and waved at each other but she did give Ros a mug of water as she trundled past with a barrow load of manure.. as you do when it's a hot day with work to be done!

As for their clothing, well, Rose ~ yes, we have Ros, Rose and Rosalina ~ was in shorts and a t.shirt but the rest of them were in thick jeans as they were all cutting back and pulling out briars and nettles. My mum was wearing elbow length gauntlets on as she was pulling out nettles, man, they're really very fierce now, hard to believe we eat them steamed when they are young in the early Spring!

When she was young, and had Bluey (pony) and Victoria (goat), her parents insisted that she worked in the summer holidays to pay for Bluey's shoes and the animals feed. Apples, berries, cherries, hops grew on the farm and by picking these, she earned winter credits for the blacksmith, hay and straw.

But picking cherries is a great deal easier on her 'farm' in 2015 than in the summers of 1963 and 1964. For she lopped six feet off of all the cherry trees last summer! They are now much easier to pick from, not like when she was a teenager and was picking them high up off the ground.

You may have seen old ladders and wondered at their shape, if they're very long and skinnier at one end, you're looking at a cherry tree ladder! For cherry trees can grow to immense heights. Rather like a certain young plum tree who thought that by bearing no fruit mum would forget about her!

Silly tree.. it didn't know that she has 'eagle' eyes where her own fruit is concerned and she had seen the heavy crop forming on this five year old tree. She had also noticed the amount of growth that it has put on this year, so after picking time, it is for the chop.. yes.. chop-choppie. You hard prune stone fruit trees in the summer and pip (apple and pear) fruit in the winter and she's taking at least four feet off the height of this young plum.

But today, no leather boots, thick jeans and leather gauntlets for her, she'll have clean hair and pretty clothes, I'll wear my new feather on my tumtum, for we are off to Sing With Dementia and we'll be hugging and welcoming back Mary, our outgoing President, who has just been in Brazil for two weeks at the Rotary International Convention.

But before then, we have to break our fast, yes, for it is slurpyslurp time with egg-the-peg and goaty curd! Yippee and other such expressive words of happiness.. Tootle toot to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 19th, 2015.

GIRLS JUST WANT & GET TO HAVE FUN!

The six girls all had such a fun day out.. no, they didn't have to wear hats and heels but they did eat yummy yumyum and slurp fizzy drinks! And they were SO fussed over and the paparazzi were crazy about them.. lots of photos were taken.

Yes, it was the Annual Staff Fair at Rockspace at Hayes! The staff were so pleased to see the girls.. four goaty kids ~  two British Sanaan and two Nubian cross Sanaan ~ and Debbie and my mum. Debbie answered the Goaty questions and my mum helped by 'girling' the cheeses counter, well, she isn't a man, so how would she 'man' it?

In a little lull they scoffed their picnic, mum had taken a pot of her garlicky mayo.. it is a veryvery scrummydumptious thing into which you dip a radish into and then into a tub of Maldon salt and likewise with a baby pea or a spring onion ~ scallion.

Lots of the customer remembered them from last year and came whizzing over to buy their favourites again. One big guy grinned when he saw the round one, whose name escapes me but it is famous for it won the GOLD award at the Nantwich International Cheese Fair last year, and said "this is my very favourite cheese in all the world", HOW nice was that!

The baby goaty folk thought the whole thing was very pleasant, for nice people held bottles for them and it was warm so they could zizz in the trailer, it was, all in all, a pleasant jaunt and as the three youngest kids had also been to Balham last Saturday and are going up to be part of a new goaty herd in Herefordshire next Tuesday, you can just imagine the tales of adventure that they will be able to tell!

She left poor Debbie to do the packing up, it is a very detailed job as everything goes in its' special place, and walked up to the station, two stops later she was at Paddington and lifting old WW onto a number 36 bus to Park Lane. A swift 74 brought her home, whereupon, I had to give her a good checking over to make sure those naughty kids had not stolen anything.

Like her heart, we all know she has a secret small place in her heart for a pure white kidney-diddley because of Victoria but she knows that she'll never have her own again, so she just loves from afar.

Funny weather, it was pretty humid, to say the least but hopefully it will be a pleasant day tomorrow when she goes to the allotment, for on Friday we are Singing With Dementia.. yum, I hope they have that boiled fruity cake again, I am extremely partial to that.

Goodness me, it is past five of the afternoon clock and we have not had a cup of LapySang. I must fly away to the YumYum HQ and supervise Mr. Kettle. FlapFlap Dear Readers FlapFlap.. I hope you're having an equally nice life?

GeeGee Parrot.

June 17th, 2015.

TOMORROW'S PICNIC.. NO, SHE'S NOT OFF TO ASCOT..

She's meeting Debbie, Husky Monkey and some other kids at an Open Day in Hayes. She was laughing as she made the mayonnaise, in years long since gone by, she used to make two HUGE tubs of the stuff, one had garlic and spices, the other was plain ~ if you could ever call my mum's mayo 'plain'!

She steamed two carrots, a skinny courgette and a few french beans, dipped them into freezing water, drained them and they went straight into a mustardy sauce and into the fridge. There is a pot of Polish Summer salad with dill.. slurp.. a loaf of Lithuanian rye bread, a bunch each of radishes and spring onions ~ scallions ~ with a tub of veryvery garlicy mayo and a small tub of Maldon salt.

Debbie is also due to be producing goodly things and I do hope that there will be sone Gruff cheese.. oh.. please let there be some Gruff! For my mum surely does lurve this cheese.. then to finish off their picnic, there are some biscotti with dried black mulberries and two little bottles of non-alcoholic Campari, no alcohol as Debbie is driving her big trailer with its' precious load of kiddley-diddleys.

Why was she laughing? Well, in days gone by she'd have had four new outfits made for herself, yes, she used to do four days at Royal Ascot, and she'd have made probably in the region of eighty outfits for other women, all of whom also used to go for the week.

Yesterday, she washed her jeans and polished her boots for she and newly smartened up old Wicker Wheelie will be off a'jaunting off to Hayes & Harlimgton station and playing with goaty folk.

Does she miss her 'old' life.. Cheltenham, Ascot, Newmarket, Henley, Stella Artois & Wimbledon? Not one jot.. she misses some of the people but they're all dead, even if she got all 'tarted up' and went, they wouldn't be there anyway.. so no, is the honest answer.

Case of 'Been there, done that', but she knows that some of the bunch she used to see still go year after year, their lives seem not to change, strange.

Our life certainly has, that's for sure! Whoever thought that I would become a 'Healing Parrot' and work with a Dementia support group? Whoever thought all those years ago that she'd be happy 'playing'' in the mud and have 8,000 sq feet of land to cultivate?

Get up at a reasonable hour, feed me, dress, buy a small bag of ice, come home and put it into a thermos, check my yumyum and water, turn on radio, kiss me on my snitch, she's organised. I'm not jealous, I get to go on lots of picnics and I'll be Singing on Friday with the gang and get to eat all manner of stuff!

Oh.. lastly but most importantly, there are two big bunches of bananas in Wicker Wheelie.. for Goaty folk lurve bananas.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 16th, 2015.

STRIPPING THE WILLOW.. IN KNIGHTSBRIDGE?

Yes, it surely was stripped! She made herself a drink, found a very sharp knife and a board, gathered the willow sticks together and settled herself on the sofa with old Wicker Wheelie in front of her.

Having pulled out the broken pieces, she stripped the long bendy twigs of their leaves and their bark, which is the correct term for tree skin. Then, having pushed the fatter end down and through into the existing basket, she wove the twig along the top, under and over, to form part of the repair to the broken top edge of old WW.

A long and much fatter twig was then fixed into shape at the back by the handle and woven all around the top, this has recreated the original top most layer of wicker, which then had a coil of thinner twigs to fix it to the existing basket and hey presto.. hey-li-cheese.. old Wicker Wheelie is back in good shape and will trundle along for many a year to come!

How satisfying that was! An all home grown and home made repair.. apart from the kind bird who 'planted' the willow six years ago! Our own willow, stripped and woven to form a basket. 

How old are baskets? As old as mankind I would think, as they've surely been in existence since we became hunter gatherers.

She's put the rubbish out, for it is dustbin day today, she's washed the Calamondin orange trees, they don't necessarily like lots of water but they hate being dry so a good wash keeps these trees very content.

It is far too early to be prancing about, she'll make us a mug of our most beloved LapySang and we are going back to snuggle under the bedcovers for a short while. Later she'll 'raid' Karen's stall for over ripe bananas and Bartek on Streatham's Central Parade (# 6) for Polish Summer salad and other such edibubble things suitable for human and goaty picnics.

Yes, she's going on an outing tomorrow to Hayes and Harlington where Debbie will be with Husky Monkey and a few of her friends.. Husky Monkey is a kid, aka a baby goat and there will be a trailer full of them plus Debbie and her all on view at the open day at Rackspace, Unit, 5. Millington Road, Hayes, Middx.

There will be other organic farmer with their produce there as well so come along.. for the more the merrier! She went last year and it was the best show at the show.. these bright Techies ~ men and people ~ all wanting to cuddle small goaty folk.. who were very pleased to be offered bottles and fed bananas!

And.. now you know where the expression 'Stripping the Willow' comes from, from making baskets!

GeeGee Parrot.

June 16th, 2015.

WELL! THE MEN ARE DOING THE WORK BUT VERRRY SLOOWWLY.

If she had their equipment, she'd been finished by now! Silly men, she won't ever recommend them to anyone who wants garden work done, that's for sure.

She left for the allotments quite late but the traffic was light and the weather agreeable, she ate yellow cherries and did some work, there's a lot of work to do in moving the raised beds about, changing the second and third plots beds shape and then making small beds around the base of the four fruit trees, into which she'll put Spring flowering bulbs.

You cannot go digging around fruit trees and doing this means that the area will be kept grass free and weeded but not dug over. It really will take her all summer to get it how she wants the four plots for next year but there's no rush and she works at this for herself, if you've always worked on projects for other people, it is very agreeable to have something that only YOU plan and plot and do.

I stayed home, as she had stuff to bring home, baskets of roses and willow, she has allowed a willow to grow because it gives her sticks with which to repair old WW. His top edge needs repairing and she will do that tonight before the sticks dry out, this way they're supple and she can bend them into shape.

The other basket was full of herbs and stuff, she loves a big salad made of lovage, melissa, oregano, marjoram, chives, mint, wild garlic leaves with olive oil and raspberry vinegar and tops it off with a piece of meat on top.. slurp..

So now we're off to mend old Wicker Wheelie.. PipPip. Short and sweet is this post!

GeeGee Parrot.
June 15th, 2015.

HOW TO KILL A VAMPIRE AND OTHER SUCH USEFUL TIPS!

First of all, it helps tremendously if you like the stuff. What stuff? I hear you think.. why Garlic, of course, which is the magic vampire killing ingredient that all sensible folk ~ animals as well as humans ~ should eat on a regular basis.

I don't think that a day goes by without us eating this wonderous stuff. We both eat it in hummus, she stir fries and steams vegetables with it, it goes into that wonderfully rich mayonnaise that she mades and it is crushed, then chopped very finely and used in every piece of meat that is marinated. Fish escapes! But that is the only thing that does!

But apart from killing those naughty vampires, why do we eat so much of this heavenly clove?

Well.. there are several reasons why we eat it, apart from for the taste which we both love. For garlic lowers blood pressure and the risk of heart disease, it treats acne, hair loss, it's brilliant at fighting that nasty common cold, it strengthens your immune system, is extremely good for the health of her old, and your, bones. And it helps keep you full of vim and vigour.

It is no slouch.. it works really hard and has no bad side effects.. except for those vampires.

Now on the subject of work.. which because it is our day of rest.. aka Sunday.. she was not happy to think about, not at all. Certainly she was not kindly disposed to contemplate a pile of ironing, if fact, she's banished it from sight. It's still there but she doesn't see it as she walks past it.

She volunteered to help a friend but was not needed.. sigh.. the wretched pile seemed to start to get bigger by the minute.. the beige sky from yesterday had fulfilled its' promise of rain, so that had scuppered her working on the allotment.. she rang Cousin Bruce. he's always up for a chat.

And he told her that his brother, our Cousin Steve and his wife Francesca, have bought two puppies, a chocolate Labrador and a Weimaraner. However, they're in disgrace, aka deep-dudu, as they went by car to Italy but came back with NO boxes of Pocket Coffee.. (we think they ate them all en route back home to the Isle of Man).

She loves Weimanarers, an old dear friend had one and it was such a clown.. he did the silliest things on purpose to make you laugh and the only time he wasn't clowning about was when he took his dad out for walks.. she cannot remember this sweet dog's name.. but he dearly loved his walks and his human dad got incredibly fit from first of all walking and then running with this speedy sleek beast.

So what to do? Then like a flash of happy brilliance, she knew what she could do.. she could play in the 'mud' outside the front door! Getting the hose out, she washed down the outside steps and the two windows, moved the very large pots and washed their saucers, pruned all six of the Calamondin orange trees, brushed and tidied up the area, planted another Mint into the big Mint pot and then finally, she hard pruned and watered the Flowering Cherry tree.

Now folks, that was a great deal more fun than doing the ironing on a dull Sunday afternoon. There is no Rotary meeting tomorrow and so depending on the weather, she'll either go to the allotments (oh lordy, she sure hopes those men have kept to their word and taken the stuff away) or she will go to the Library and then come home to do housework.

Either way.. I'll be here. Contemplating my navel which has, I'm sure you'll be pleased to know, a few more arrow shafts growing, my big feathers are growing back, at this rate I might have a completely covered tumtum by the autumn, I surely hope so!

Now she has to wash and change as she's going upstairs to eat birthday cake and to bring down a sick Lemon tree, if it is really sick then it will have to go to the dump tomorrow, for she isn't having a sick tree near to our Calamondins who are in extremely 'rude' health and covered in blossom and fruit.

So I am off to doze until she comes home.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 14th, 2015.

UPON RISING AT A REASONABLE HOUR & SHE MAYBE FOOLISH BUT SHE AIN'T STUPID.. £3.95 FOR ONE ARTICHOKE.. SHE NEARLY CHOKED!

We partook of a loose omelette of three eggs and Goaty curd.. haha.. I bet you didn't eat such a tasty and nutricious fast breaker, did you? She drank cups of Velluto Nero, apart from the scrummy taste which is smooth and very rich, it has an amazing aroma.

The second Saturday equals Balham Farmer's Market and she had business to do with our Goaty friends. So hey-nonnie-no off she went with old Wicker Wheelie rolling along beside her to arrive at Victoria Station just in time to catch a (delayed) train to Epsom which conveniently stops at Balham.

The market was full of kids.. of both types! For Debbie had brought a few very small kids for kids to stroke and feed. Anthony was manning the stall and she went over to talk to him and as he was reallyreally busy she stopped lolling about and helped him with customers.

Zoom went all the milk.. Zoom went all her favourite cheese.. infact, it was busy until just after 1pm when all the customers seemed to disappear for a while but a few came back towards the end ~ 2pm.

She left them to pack up and went off hunting for the banner makers.. not to be found or she had gone the wrong way. She'll have to go back again this coming week and look again as she needs it to be priced asap and ready by the first week in August.

Then she and WW got on a bus and came home, via Waitrose as she wanted something. She perused their vegetables, measly small artichokes with no stems were £3.50 each.. she smiled and thought "not for us", paid for the two bags of golden caster sugar and walked home through Chelsea Green.

Where she smiled and inquired about his health when she was greeted by an old friend but she nearly choked when she saw he had his artichokes at £3.95! He smiled back and winked.. she winked too but walked on.

To deliver WW and her perishable goodies to the safety of chilly white larder.. aka fridge.. and then left the house again and went with a basket to catch a bus to the North End Road market.

She took mushrooms, courgettes and cucumbers from Karen, then found SIX very fresh, long stemmed BIG artichokes on Liz and Mark's stall for £4.50.. yes, two for £1.50! She did laugh, so did Liz when she told her about one costing £3.95 at Frys on Chelsea Green.

On up the street to Margie for a metre of cord, she's going to make a drawstring fabric cover for her basket, this way nothing can fall out and her wallet and mobile are safe from thieving hands.

Home again home again jiggedy jig!

Well.. it hasn't rained. It spat a few drops on the market between midday and one o'clock but there wasn't this horrendous downpour that they've been yacking on about, it may have rained elsewhere in the country but you'd think that with all the incredible satellite technology that they have, they could get it right about where it was going to rain, wouldn't you?

Tomorrow is an allotment day.. without me.. the weather looks decidedly dodgy with a beige sky, it's not a good look. And as she has work to do allover the plots and I was wimpy last Sunday about being in the big cage, she'll only take me in the bigger travel one and that, Dear Readers, is a hefty load to lug about.

But that's tomorrow.. and before tomorrow.. is this evening and I KNOW what we having for supper tonight.. Fish is the dish! Scrummy.. slurpicious Sea Bass fillets. So excuse me but I need her to shake rattle and roll ~ a pan or two.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 13th, 2015.

SWEETS.. COMICS & F-ARTICHOKES

Living with my mum is an aquired art! You have to have your wits, or rather, I have to have my wits about me at all times. For she is only serious about serious things and, therefore, there is an awful lot of 'foolery' that goes on around here.

Today she was given a wonderful example that a friend of hers is of the same disposition.. read on Dear Readers.. read on and I defy you to have a straight face at the end of it. 

She was told that she was being given a sum of money ~ hold your horses for it is not enough to run away from it all with ~ that she could keep it and spend it on sweets and comics!

Oh, that did make her laugh, so much so that she woke me up! For she read it this morning when she got up at Sparrowsfart.. five of the clock.. you may well ask, what on earth was she doing getting up at such a gruesome hour!

She had had the weirdest dream.. it seemed to go on all night long, it involved a delivery of kitchen units that were then put into our bedroom, which was empty.. huh? But they were far too large for our YumYum HQ, so who knows what this dream was about, for we certainly don't!

Anyway, we did get a delivery today and now we hope that the owner will be here on time between 6.30 ~ 7.00 this evening to take it away. So maybe that's what kicked off the kitchen unit dream, who knows.

What no one seems to know, is what the weather is doing? Last Friday we were supposed to be being struck with violent thunderstorms, we weren't, for we didn't get any rain, not one drop of rain fell. The same today, as of midday, we were supposedly getting torrential rain with thunder and hail.. yes.. they said we'd have hail today.

Well, she's been pottering about outside ever since eleven of the morning clock and it is now nearly four of the afternoon clock and she has yet to see a drop of rain drop on the pavement, let alone a hail stone bounce along the street!

Who trains these people? Are they're responsible folk? Where do the powers that are find them?

We are now tired.. sleepy.. for we don't know about you but we are certainly not used to getting up seven hours before midday.. so we are going to have an afternoon siesta.. aka a little zizz. We also ate a huge amount of garlic with a large plate of steamed Chinese vegetables and as every Greek mother knows, that is how you get your children to have a quiet time and be sleepy after lunch. 

She'll set the alarm for 18.15 so that she'll be awake to give the box to its' owner when he comes to collect it but now it's snooze time for us folks.. zizz.. zizz.

GeeGee Parrot.

June 12th, 2015.

PostScript: Her response was "miss, could I spend it on f-artichokes".. you see what I have to live with.

TWO RED PATENT BAGS, THREE ARTICHOKES & A PIECE OF GLORIOUS JAVANESE CLOTH!

Shiny red patent bags is what they look like, they being two air-sealed bags each containing 500g of Velluto Nero ~ her favourite coffee from The Algerian Coffee Store in Old Compton Street. Then she went across Shaftesbury Avenue into Chinatown for she had run out of Langhams Garlic & Ginger sauce and wanted Chinese vegetables. Kai-Lan, Choi Sum and Pak Choi for lunch.

We had these steamed with crushed garlic and grated ginger.. slurp.. and as she had come away with half a huge watermelon, full of big black extra crunchy seeds.. we had a big slice of this for pudding so more slurping went on.

Then it was time to go and hunt for a couple of boxes for the package which has to go to Plymouth, she sees no point in just buying a box from MailBoxEtc when there are all manner of boxes being thrown away every day. But she did finally collect her little package from them and very happy with the contents, is she!

There were no artichokes to be had in Soho! And as she was now on the hunt, she hopped a bus to North End Road, maybe Liz and Marks's stall would have them? Success.. they were there, big and fat and hard ones, very fresh at £1.00 each, for when this woman wants artichokes, she wants them now and her own are not ready yet!

Home via the shop to collect a glorious piece of Javanese fabric that was donated about a month ago, nobody wanted it, she is going to make it into a kimono style coat, she'll line it in a thin wadding and then following the pattern, she'll embroider through the cloth and the wadding, then line it in satin.

It will be a project for this winter, to do when days are short, evenings long and she can do this tucked up on the sofa. She also picked up a pair of very stiff clips, she needed one for the garden keys to the gate and little shed, they have a strong fabric section through which a belt goes so she will always have the keys on her for security. The other set she'll  attach to her house keys.

Windy.. it was very windy indeed today! Are we going to get this dreadful weather tomorrow they've been warning us about? Today was sunny and warm but the breeze was 'stiff', it would have been a glorious day to be out on the water in a sail boat.

Tomorrow we will wait in for the Goaty milk delivery, hopefully it will come in the morning and IF the weather is not too gruesome, she'll hop a bus out to the plots to see if the men have finished the job and kept to their side of bargain.. having been paid.

And she'll pick peonies and roses whilst she's there, they were all coming along last week so there should be plenty ready to be picked by now and there'll be lots more yellow cherries to pick too!

Now it is time to fire up the grill.. we've got a couple of thick, mint marinated lamb chops for supper, how I just love picking those bones! And there's a new tub of hummus, in fact, a reallyreally slurpicious supper awaits us, when she stops tapping this post and we go into YumYum HQ!

Flap-a-dap-a-doo!

GeeGee Parrot.
June 11th, 2015.

"HEY BLONDIE.. YOU'RE LOOKING GOOD GIRL" CALLED CRAIG, THE ART TEACHER!

The long day at the shop was a hoot! A lot of the nicest regulars popped in to either buy, donate or just to say "Hello" and this is the first conversation she had with a regular.

He's a dealer, always looking for pretty stuff and she said to him as he stood and perused the shelves behind the till counter "You should come and work a couple of hours with us as a volunteer", he smiled and said "I'd be like Dracula working in the Blood Bank" and everyone laughed for the shop was full of customers!

Next was Craig, who is an art teacher, he buys auction house catalogues to show pupils great works of art, he is eccentric, charming and very blonde! He is crazy about her blonde look and said to her yesterday "Hey Blondie, it's looking great, have you just had it done, I LOVE the white streak". How nice was that!

Much nicer than the comment said to her by an old aquaintance she met in the street "Why are you blonde, it makes you look so old?", she thought that it would make my mum sad (some folk don't like to see other folk happy) but did not know my mum is made of tough stuff, who smiled as she replied "Why am I blonde? I'm blonde because I want to be" as she walked off down the street.

Glorious day today.. but no gardening will be done. For she's out of coffee! Not really out of coffee but she's finished the beloved Velluto Nero from The Algerian Coffee Store in Old Compton Street so she's doing a run to Soho and will look for artichokes in Berwick Street market as well.

Tomorrow she's taking delivery of Goaty milk for someone else, delivery time unknown but as there is much work to be done at home, this is not a problem. The weather is supposedly going to be ver stormy again with hail, rain and thunder storms but they forecasted that for last Friday and absolutely nothing happened!

Anyway, we don't care as all of our plants are still at home! One poor Courgette plant even has the tiniest babies, can you imagine what it is going to think when she plants it outside!

But it would be 'interesting' to see if the men have finished the work at the allotments that they were supposed to have done. She'll know on Saturday! And there will be, friends or not, a bit of a stink if those clippings are still there.

Two bottles of her essential and most beloved Swedish Bitters have to be ordered, there is something to take to the Post Office to send off to Plymouth. Life to be lived.. places to go.. things to do. I'll loll about and count the new feather shafts coming through on my tumtum, all is well in our life, as we hope it is in yours.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 11th, 2015.

THREE DIFFERENT BLONDES + HER WHITE STREAK!

Tootie Frootie! She's a streaky sandy beige blonde courtesy of Patrick, a colourist who is at L'Oreal doing a weeks intensive course under the eagle eyes of Sarah, L'Oreals senior colour specialist and he did as she asked and isolated her white streak in the front. Talk about chic!

So she had a morning of lolling about drinking hot chocolate and playing games on iPad.. it's alright for some, isn't it! I was left behind, much safer as they might have wanted to perm my tail or put some low lights around old Beaky!

Next up, was a trip to Dickinsons to purchase two packs of Bavette, such tender meat. One for us and one for Tereza upstairs, we don't know of any other butcher who sells this cut, maybe Harrods still do but at an arm and a leg more per kilo than what she pays, that's for sure!

In the old days, before Fayed and the Qataris bought Harrods, the price of all the food was extremely sensible, the old management looked upon it as a way to get people in to the store, plus all of the Food Buyers were absolutely the best people that money could employ! Now, the prices are simply ridiculous and the choice is much smaller.

She has to change books at the Library as there aren't any new thrillers resting on the bedside table for her bed time reading and she must collect a package of herbal stuff from MailBoxEtc.

Chilly today.. brrrr.. it's now brighter but it was very overcast with stormy looking clouds when she was coming home at four of the afternoon clock, the stall holders on the market all had coats on, she went looking for globe artichokes, there were none to be had and she's not paying those silly shop prices for them, however good they may be!

We love them.. she eats them with a (very) garlicy homemade thick mayonaise and I eat them with no sauce. Slurp. Ours are not yet ready to pick, they need another week or so, they are a remarkable looking plant and she has plans to turn over one of the big long beds into an artichoke bed.

She has to go.. so I am off.. for she has to communicate with Debbie about an order of Goaty milk that she's taking delivery for another customer, so tomorrow afternoon I will be back to report upon her jaunt up to Dollis Hill to 'see a man about a dog', this is an old English expression, we're not adopting a dog, well, not that I know about!

Tootie Toot to you all..

GeeGee Parrot.
June 9th, 2015.
PostScript: Aka our last Frost date.. will it be later this year, we wonder?

PR OFFICER FOR HER ROTARY GROUP.. HER FIRST DAYS WORK.

Today was her first day of work for Rotary. Going to medical and dental surgeries, speaking to their practise managers and telling them about the Streatham Dementia Support Group.

Everyone was incredibly interested and wanted to know more.. she extended her route and dropped off information into the local pharmacies and asked local charity shops if they would display the information, everyone said yes and took it.

But the two best things were this! The first happened when she spoke to Janice at the South London Press Newspaper, who said she wants a reporter to come and see what they do and to write an article about the group.

Then secondly, she spoke to the manager of Customer Services at Morrisons at Streatham Station. WOW.. what a gem Sandra is, that store is really incredibly lucky to have her as an employee!

She said " Call us, here is our card, if you need funding or products, we are very keen to support local charities like yours and I know Rotary do a huge amount of really great stuff for their local communities and we would love to help you with this.. and she put up a poster immediately!

Then after walking and talking solidly for over six hours and with no more leaflets or posters to hand out.. she came home. The weather turned very chilly at about half past three, so she declined the offer of tea with a friend that she met en route home.

It was a chilly and frosty night last night in some places.. she's not at all surprised.. she has had old evil Mister Jack scatter his frost stuff over many a raised bed in the second week of June before, which this is, and so our baby green plants may have got a bit leggy by being at home for so long but at least they're safe.

She got up incredibly early this morning, the sun wasn't even peeping over the houses opposite so that shows it wasn't even six of the morning clock. She had lain her clothes out the night before and had put her basket together with pad + pen + posters etc. Shined her shoes, changed her batteries in her hearing aids (most important) and was out of here on the dot of ten minutes to ten.

Allowing herself time to walk to Victoria Station and to catch the overland train to Sutton. Life is MUCH easier if you prepare everything the night before you need to be.. years of travelling with swatches etc has taught her this.

It will be an early night for us, she has to be at L'Oreal tomorrow morning at half past ten.. fourteen weeks almost to the day since they did her colour.. time for colour work to be done again on her head.

So.. here we are again.. another busy week, she has to go and see an old supplier early on Wednesday morning, he is such a nice man, he was at school with one of my human uncles so she's known him for a veryvery long time indeed! She'll work at the shop afterwards, and work again at the allotment (providing it is dry) on Thursday and on Friday, it is Singing With Dementia again!

Ugh.. what a dreary cold grey sky there is out there, I am looking forward to having a snuggle, we've had our early supper, before I go to bed at a sensible hour.

It was a busy and happy day, she's just sent an email to update her Rotary president Mary, who is in Brazil at the Rotary World Conference and who will be pleased to hear what her new PR officer has been doing on her first day.

PipPip to you all.. be considerate and kind and stay happy and healthy wherever you are.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 8th, 2015.

THAT WASN'T A SUCCESS.. MY VISIT OR EMPLOYING A FRIEND.. SAD THAT!

We left for the allotment, me in my travel cage, her carrying me and all my stuff.. bowls, perch, food etc and off we went. We got there in good time, the day was not too hot, a little breeze was blowing.

She unpacked all my stuff, set up the big cage and unpacked me into it. Whereupon I immediately threw a wobble.. climbed onto the front bars and began to squeak! She was in sight, there were no dragons, no nasty noisy grass trimmers.. I was behaving as if I had never been there before and was scared.

After a little while, of seeing me hanging on the front bars of the cage like a prisoner in a cell.. she came up to me and said "ok, we'll go home" and she packed everything away, popped me back into travel cage, locked up little shed and we left.

I was very well behaved coming home.. but at least something nice happened, at the bus stop we met Mimi, a charming Japanese woman who had been selling stuff at the Car Boot Sale at Chiswick school, she had just got a new phone and did not remember the new number, we gave her ours and hope she will call us.

We got home, it took two hours.. grrr..and walked down our steps. She let me out, quite expecting me to explode into flight but no, for in truth I am a trifle ashamed of my wimpy behaviour at the allotments (she certainly won't take me out there again in a hurry) and so I climbed onto her head.

I used to love it.. I loved being in the light, the big cage, the football teams all shouting.. blowing the 'refs' whistle for him.. we've now had a late lunch of which I ate some meat, having refused to eat or drink whilst hanging on the bars, we are writing this post and then I am going to settle down and doze for a bit.

She'll settle down too and finish reading her book.. the sky has clouded over and rain is supposed to come in tomorrow, however, she did manage to finish one side of the terrace and mow underneath the two apple trees closest to the terrace.

She is thinking (sadly) that it would have been better if she'd not used that friend to do the clearing work, for they didn't do a good job, she had done most of the work before Thursday when they were there with her, she expected them to spend the day bagging the clippings up and taking them to the commercial dump.

But the clippings are still there in a huge pile and the three bags that they did fill, they're still there too and the work was done last Thursday! She's tired, it has been a hard working week for her, she did three full days at the allotments plus an hour and a half of raking and mowing today. That's more exercise than she's taken for a long time.

So this quiet afternoon will not go amiss.. I'll just sit and cogitate my (bare) navel.

Next time, if there is a next time, she says she will take me in my bigger travelling cage and leave me in that, plenty of room to flap wings etc and she can move it around the plots with her as she works and if I do the same hanging on the bar behaviour.. well, then she won't ever take me again.

I have no explanation for my behaviour today.. I used to love being out there in the fresh air.. I guess I am just getting to be a tricky old bird.. sigh.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 7th, 2015.

TODAY.. SHE CLEARED THE TERRACE & 'FOUND' MY BIG CAGE!

Boy oh boy.. did she work hard today or what? She cut down the naughty briars and pulled out the nettles that were living the life of old Riley on the terrace.. it's over twenty four by eighteen feet this terrace so that means at lot of work was done but then something reallyreally annoying happened.

She'd mixed two bottles of oil and petrol, refilled the wire on the trimmer head, filled the petrol tank and pulled the wire.. Zoom went trimmer and off they went, only for it to stop in a few minutes! Oh dear.. the top of the petrol tank had come unscrewed and fallen off and do you think she could find it. How dreary, now she has to call the company on Monday and get them to send her a new top, boring!

For there is grass to cut and the guys could have taken it all with them on Monday. But by using the big loppers and a stiff short rake, she did managed to get all the briars down that are on our side of the back fence.

And in doing so, she cut back the huge briar which had woven its' wicked way through my cage and up onto the fence. It's all gone and as she will be working on the terrace or in little shed, I am going with her tomorrow to the allotments! We'll have to remember to take another wooden perch with us as there is only one in the cage and I can't be expected to stay on one perch all day long, can I?

Yippee.. let's hope it is another sunny day like today, it was a bit cloudy but warm and with a breeze.. perfect weather for an African Grey Parrot to be outside. I'll get to loll about and watch her finish cutting back the weeds etc off the terrace, she'll put down weed and root killer this week, NOT whilst I am there, I hasten to add!

And then she will turn out little shed. She has two bottles of sterilising fluid down there and she'll wash and disinfect the surfaces and brush and wash the floor.

Mr. Rat or Master Mouse has been living the life of old Riley as well in little shed and they found a packet of fresh coffee that she forgot to put into a glass jar, everything has to live in glass bottles or jars for they eat through anything made of plastic, they chewed the packet and it has spilt it all over the work surface, which fits on top of the stove, and the floor. Naughty folk.

She'll call Dean and speak to him about helping her build a new terrace table, she had two wooden ones from Homebase which, after fourteen years of sun and rain, have rotted and are going to be burnt in the incinerator, they could make a simple one very easily as she has the wood, however, making something like that out there, is easier if there are two of you doing it.

And she has to measure up how much wood she needs for raised beds. For there are now three big open spaces where she is going to fill with raised beds and maybe, just maybe she'll buld herself the BIG treat.. the Solar house!

But before she does that, she has to repair big shed, he's lost a large bit of roof and there will be probably a piece of flooring that needs to be replaced as well.. good thing we didn't plan on having a summer holiday, isn't it!

Money needs to be spent on making this watertight again, on putting up guttering and attaching it to water butts and she love to get one of those massive water tanks to go behind little shed.. note to her, remember to speak to Andrew and ask him where he got his tank.

The kitchen water tank needs to have another stand made, fourteen years of sun and rain have rotted this as well. This small tank sits up directly outside the back window, it has a screw on lid so it's closed tight.. no bugs get in.. and it's plumbed through little shed's wall into the sink.

She uses it for washing up and cleaning water, for drinking water she goes to the main pipe on the path.. hey ho.. lots of work to do.. we've had a fair bit of asparagus and she had a large handful of the yellow cherries today! Slurpy! The currants and gooseberries are all coming along well.. but not a lot of green stuff has gone out from home yet.

The raised beds all need work but she'd rather do the hard work now of ripping out the briar and nettles, otherwise another year will go by with them growing bigger and bigger. Her energy level is good ~ whilst she's there! But then she creeps off the bus and crawls down our steps.. we're finishing this post now and going off to bed.

Probably to sleep the sleep of the dead until about eight of the morning clock. We'll eat our omelette, pack our delicious melon, Karen gave it to her when she saw her this evening, a pot of hummus and we'll leave at about ten.. that will give us a good length of time out there.

So "Goodnight" to you all.. wherever you may be.. for our bewitching hour has arrived.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 6th, 2015.

I COULD HAVE GONE & I WAS SORELY MISSED.. THERE WEREN'T ANY STORMS AND NO RAIN!

Wretched weather people.. they said "There will be torrential rain this afternoon in the London area and several thunderstorms" so she said to me "I am sorry sweetie, you'll have to stay here, it's going to be horrid".. and got dressed in rainproof boots and wore her long raincoat.

And sweltered in the heat of a hot and sunny afternoon. The whole gang was there and I wasn't.. and they ate boiled fruit cake with their tea.. slurpy-durpy.. and strawberries.. sigh. Grrrrr. Never mind. What can I do? Just insist that I go next week.

She's been invited to join two new friends from Rotary at a dinner in two weeks time, one of the benefits of becoming a Rotarian will be meeting people from all walks of life which will be very pleasant.. for you don't meet people working on an allotment whilst grubbing around in the mud!

All is well in our life.. she had ordered five new dresses from an on-line website, three are simply wonderful, the other two have to go back as she doesn't like the fabric and they're too short. But this was so simple, she collected them from the shop instead of waiting in for a delivery, if it had been cooler, she could have tried them on then and done the returns then as well but there is no problem, for she can do that, and they will handle the refund, on Monday.

Pretty dresses.. she's very pleased with them.

Otherwise, there is very little news, I know there was something that I was going to tell you but I've forgotten what it was, if I remember ~ I hope I do ~ I'll post it tomorrow.

Stay happy and healthy and enjoy your week end.. PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 5th, 2015.

THE GLORIOUS FOURTH.. A SPECIAL DAY FOR ETON COLLEGE & REBECCA,.

Sunny. clear sky.. she's been up for hours.. gross exageration but for at least two!

Those briars are for the chop and burn.. heehee! Nothing like having friends who will help you in times of need.. I know that there is the incentive of 'folding notes' for this is their business but the joy of being able to get at bits of the plot that old briar has been lurking over.

More raised beds.. perhaps the Solar House which she's been promising herself for many a month. A new area of ground to dig over, clean out and manure, this is where her next raspberry plot will be.

A wire fence will be put up, then next to it she'll plant an English hedge, this will be a mix of various bushes all of which have berries, fruit or nuts. Good for wildlife.. and talking of wildlife, guess who she saw visiting the Calamondin trees yesterday?

A Honey Bee! It was visiting the Calamondins oranges which are covered in the most beautiful FAT white buds, some of which are fully open and that's where the Bee was.

And it was having a lovely time! The essential oil of the Bitter Orange is one of the most valued in perfumery and in facial creams and serums.. its' properties are wondrous and the perfume.. is literally out of this world. Brian, her old dustman, always used to sniff these flowers and Alan, her postman, certainly does!

The Fourth of June is a special date for Eton College, as is its' correct name, which was founded in 1440 by King Henry 6th for the education of seventy poor boys who would then go on to Kings' College Cambridge which he founded in 1441.

The various Kings and Queens of England have been 'hot' on education. And not a lot of people know that it was Queen Elizabeth 1st who founded Trinity College in Dublin.

King George 3rd's library went into public hands, it was gifted to the British Library as too have been several other royal collections of books and manuscripts. Go and see this marvellous place, she's a Friend of the Library and regularly attends lectures there.. for tiny sums of money, I think the last one cost her £3.00!

Well.. we've got to get 'cracking'.. gross untruth.. SHE's got to get cracking, I am staying here. Then she'll come back and set up Tereza's gift of the CD/ DVD player.. will we ever get up, we could loll about in bed all day long watching the unwatched dvd's that she has been given and collected over the years.

And I know that she away but it IS someone's birthday today.. she is in Switzerland on a school trip but we still would like you to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Rebecca.. you know the words..

Farewell.. adieu.. auf wiedersein.. goodbye.. adios amigos.. she's off to the plot.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 4th, 2015.

EARLY BIRTHDAY PRESENTS..

Yes, how great is this?

First of all today she was given a fabulous new Sony CD & DVD player by Tereza, this was more than MOST welcome as our machine gave up the ghost three months ago and started behaving in a must peculiar fashion.

Then she was walking up to the recycling depot when she met her old dustman coming towards her, she's know him for ages and he is a funny nice guy. She gave him a grin and said "what naughtiness are you up to these days?" he gave her back an equally big grin and said "looking for you doll" (don't you love being a pensioner and being called doll, she does).

To which she replied "Why, what do you mean, do you want me to wire a lamp for you?" and he dug in his huge bag and came out with a Philips Radio together with a iPad docking system on top of it and said "No, this is for you for doing that lamp for my daughter last month".

She was speechless.. so he gave her a hug and said "I know you ain't working these days and that was real kind of you to do that for Carol, I read you blog and know you've got an iPad and this will charge it whilst you or GeeGee listen to the radio, got to go.. trala love, stay good" and off he went about his business.

HELLO? How amazing was this day? Two months and a couple of days before the magical day and she's received two gifts!

The Philips unit is now up and working.. splendidly! And she will set up the Sony CD / DVD unit tomorrow when she comes back from working at the allotments with the guys.

"ByeBye Briars.. depending on the weather you are heading for the incinerator or the horticultural tip.. so wave your wicked wands at the weeds for the last time.. we're coming to chop off your heads and dig your roots out tomorrow. ByeBye Briars you're leaving my plots. Goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersein, adieu.."

So there you have it! If anyone else wants to send us any more gifts ahead of time.. they all will be received with huge pleasure! Then she went onto have a pleasant day working at the shop.

So we are sending lots of thanks to Tereza and Brian to thank you both for these wonderful gifts.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 3rd, 2015.

NO TNT RACES ON THE ISLE OF MAN.. FOR IT'S BLOWING A GALE.. HERE.. THERE.. EVERYWHERE!

Poor Isle of Man.. dreadful galeforce winds have caused chaos with the TNT Racing.. and down here, in deepest Knightsbridge, it ain't much better!

She went to Hackney to collect her new glasses from EYE Opticians in Mare Street today and all of the trees en route were having a dreadful battering! A lot of building sites were wrapped up but with no work going on, too dangerous with this degree of debris blowing about.

She was stunned.. the only word for it.. by the beauty of Hackney Town Hall.. wow! And a lot of the property in that area is amazing, you can see where the skeins of bombs fell in the first and second world wars by the change in architecture.

Having collected her glasses, she went off for her promised Vietnamese lunch.. oh.. and how very slurpicious it was too. It was a tiny Noodle Bar but it was full of both Vietnamese and Europeans eating.. always a good sign!

BooHoo.. Her Lebanese friend is going to Paris, where most of her family are, for two months.. so no more coffee / tea stops on the way home. We'll miss her, she's always up for a jaunt to a museum and is intelligent and funny, a good mix.

Yesterday was a funny day, Susan was in a 'strange' mood.. and is uncontactable today.. most odd indeed. We just hope she's ok and that she'll be at our Singing group on Friday, when we, yes, her and I, will be taking the group! (And Mary, our President has had no luck getting hold of her either).

There'll be me on her head, putting my left wing in and taking my left wing out, in out in out and shaking it all about.. that always gets them (and me) moving! And she has asked Cousin Bruce to bribe Nephew Jack aka Cousin Steve's son.. with the task of burning some new 'old' songs.. we are bored to tears with the two cd's that they have and would like a bigger, much jollier selection.

So now we're thinking of about twenty four 'jolly' sing-a-long songs that we could have.. any suggestions are most welcome.

Sky has gone beige again, it is so dreary this wet weather with the barometic pressure somewhere lurking around one's ankles.. boring.. tiring too.. ugh. So we're off and going to snuggle up in her cosy bed, she'll read one of her new Library books that she collected on Sunday and I'll doze on her head and have the odd squint down at a page if she laughs.

Yawn..

GeeGee Parrot.
June 2nd, 2015.

SUMMERTIME.. SO SING A PRETTY TUNE FOR IT'S THE FIRST OF JUNE!

"Summertime and the living is easy.. fish are jumping and the cotton is high".. are words from a glorious song. We've woken up to the very palest of pale blue skies with fresh air and very clean trees.

Rain poured out of the sky yesterday, our reservoirs will be full, thank goodness, as they are now forecasting a hot spell. Thank God we get this water, the photos of parts of California are almost beyond belief and she wonders what Lake Powell looks like these days.

She was lucky, oh so lucky, to have been there in 1999 and seen that wondrous place ~ which has more shore-line than the American Pacific Coast ~ when the water level was high. The colours were marvellous and she's happy that she took a camera with her, for words alone do not do that place justice.

Marble Mountain, White River, Glenwood Springs are places in Colorado, places she visited whilst working in Aspen. One of the fabulous perks of working for an international company was the amount of overseas travelling to wonderful places that she got to do all those years ago.

The places she went, the people she met. Probably never to be seen or met again.. but memories can be recalled, can't they? The marble mill on the edge of White River, until America joined WW2, was the largest marble processing plant in the world, then the men left to go to war and the mill went to sleep.

And nature reclaimed the land. Chipmunks live in the towers, Aspen trees grew through the concrete floor, pushing through three feet of solid base as if it were just a single sheet of paper. It is an awesome place, in the midst of untamed country, high up off the main Aspen to Carbondale road.

The river was in full spate when she was there on a bright sunny day in 2003, the name of the river comes from the stone which forms its' bed.. white marble and water.. the water flashes over the stone and it certainly could never be called 'blue' river!

The mill has started again, she met the owner when she was tresspassing on his land the first day after he had bought it! The marble is pure white, as white as fresh snow, she has chunks of it at home which he gave her and there is an extremely important monument in Washington DC which is carved out of the same stone.

The stone is, of course, still there.. for the mountain is full of this stone, plus the vein goes a longlong way underground. The Italians are now sneakily buying it and passing it off as Carrera Marble.. for the sad truth is that their ancient white marble vein is almost depleted.

Our sky is now of the palest pale grey.. she was supposed to be just getting a mug of LapySang and coming back to bed, but today's going to be a busy day, so we wish you a wonderful summer and we say "thank the Lord" for DuBose Heyward, George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin.. but why?

Well, it if weren't for them we wouldn't have had 'Porgy & Bess', would we?

And we wouldn't have had 'Summertime'. And if you don't know the words, I suggest you listen to this song being sung by Ella Fitzgerald with Louis Armstrong.. or Janis Joplin or, IF you can find it, a recording by Abbe Mitchell who was the original Clara in the 1935 opera. The book 'Porgy' upon which George Gershwin wrote Porgy & Bess, was written by DuBose Heyward.

Back to bed for a snuggle and a slurp of tea.. teehee!

GeeGee Parrot.
June 1st, 2015.