I'VE BEEN IN JAIL.. A NEW JAIL.

Oh.. BOOHOO.. Yes, it's truly a very big boohoo. For our wonderful pet supply shop Animal Fair, which was in Abingdon Road, London W8, has closed.

She bought my food and vitamins there and it was also my jail, aka the place where I went if she had to go away and wasn't able to take me.

She telephoned them a couple of weeks ago but the phone was disconnected and when she went there, the premises were being transformed into something else.

And no one in any of the offices either side of the old shop knew anything. BooHoo.. no more Sandy or Colin or Biggles, she was Colin's Scarlet Macaw who lived in the shop.

So she took me miles away to another pet shop, having telephoned them first to see if they would have me to stay and they were enchanting! 

Stef, who was worried as I was being stubborn and not eating, boiled me sweet potatoes as he knew Mia, his own African Grey, is partial to them and got me to start eating.

Which was a good thing for I was there for five days! But I am now home and settling back into our own routine. 

We haven't posted for ages for all is not well here. She has another medical problem which is very serious, caused by a medical person neglecting to pass on some test results to her GP.

Last Sunday she ended up in an A&E department. They saw her very quickly and the doctor was appalled at what she saw and has written a complaint to the head of the department at the other hospital where she was tested, as has her GP whom she saw the next day.

But none helps the situation, the medical team, whom are now treating her, say that until the infection has cleared and the inflammation gone, they cannot do any further tests to ascertain the level of damage.

It was SO cold that she switched on the boiler and the radiator in our bedroom! Normally we sleep in a cool room, but on Friday when she went out to bring me home, it  wasn't cool or cold.. it was icy!

And yesterday, it bucketed down with icy rain, she received a selfie from Debbie goaty mum, we recognised her hat and eyes and she was wearing a coat that mama had given her, it's Bill's coat that he used to leave with her for when he came to stay. 

It is too long for her but perfect for Debbie and she's happy knowing that it is safe and being used.

Today it is bright, clear, dry and much warmer! We awoke to a blue sky and sunshine, what an amazing difference! But she isn't crazy and much as she would have loved to go to the allotments, it wouldn't be sensible. 

She's got a new stash of library books, a good supply of yumyum, so we're hunkering down and being quiet.

She read a book yesterday that is haunting her. It deserves a post unto itself and so I won't tell you anything apart from the author's name, which is:

Adele Parks.

Have any of you read any of her 12 books? 

Whoops.. It's past our lunch time. I'd better give her a poke with old Beaky.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 16th, 2018. 

TODAY IS THE 18th OF NOVEMBER AND CAN ANY OF YOU REMEMBER WHY THIS DATE IS SO IMPORTANT?

It's the date in 2004 that she drove to Shropshire to collect me from where I was born.. yes folks, today is our 14th anniversary!

Fourteen years, goodness me, that's a long time, isn't it? When I arrived, I was a little parrot and so well behaved, now I'm fully grown and as naughty as a bag load of monkeys and veryvery naughty monkeys, they are too apparently!

I don't have a lot to report or tell you.. she went out yesterday to take stuff to the allotments and whilst she was there, took a few photos of roses and sweet peas, they're as happy as Larry because their roots are in a very raised raised bed (work that one out). 

Jack Frost strikes at ground level so she's raised the level of the earth in her beds to a minimum of 5cms - 12" and in some of them, it is 8cms - 20" deep.

It was far too cold for me to go. especially as I've been a Silly Billy and taken off my vest aka waistcoat and nibbled one of my shoulders.. sigh.. well, what would YOU do if your mama was / had been ick-dick = sick and confined to 'barracks' for nearly seven weeks?

Exactly, you would get a bit 'stressed' as well, to put it politely! So the waistcoat had to go.

However, let me tell you about other stuff. The weather here in London is glorious, lots of trees still have their leaves on and they're golden and red, a truly magnificent sight on the allotments is a Silver Birch whose leaves are a pale gold.. 

We have had a couple of days of heavy rain but nothing like other parts of the country or on the continent, poor Italy has been hit with horrific floods and hectares of the Dolomite range have been denuded of trees by avalanches of trees being swept down the mountains by torrential rain.

Our politics, well, let's not go there, because no one knows what is going on, least of all me or her.

What I do know is that she had a lovely lunch today when she met up with an old friend but I only had the remains of my breakfast plus some slices of citrus fruit and they were all cold so a smidgen of hot food wouldn't go amiss.

Fourteen years, which is almost as long as she and Dagga Parrot were together - they lived together for over sixteen years. I have a couple of years to catch up on him and then, perhaps, I'll be able to 'train' her a bit more.. fat chance.. that has made me laugh so much I slipped off her head!

Chirps to you all.. we are both full of chirp and hope you are too.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 18th, 2018.  

'GREEKS BEARING GIFTS' BY PHILIP KERR AND KNIGHTSBRIDGE IS WET.. AS IN VERY WET.. TODAY.

If you are up to date with my blog, you will remember that earlier this week we didn't get the rain that they forecasted and it has been mild and pleasant.

Well, that all changed this afternoon and it's wet out there and she's thanking her lucky stars that she raided the North End Road market yesterday and gathered up eggs, fruit and other bits n' bobs.

Unfortunately, she didn't make it to the library and is out of library books but luckily, Tereza, our upstairs neighbour had given her a bag of books for the charity shop, so she stuck her hand into that and came out with a cracker of a good book.

It's a novel woven around history, history that wasn't in her history books when she was at school.

'Greeks Bearing Gifts' by Philip Kerr.

Based in Germany and Greece in 1957, the book revealed to her the story of the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Thessaloniki.. aka Solonika and the theft - plundering of their gold and other items of value.

The ramifications of that plundering still rumble on to this very day because Germany has never paid one pfennig, mark or euro to Greece or to the Jewish survivors in compensation.

We recommend you read this book. Everyone should read history.. especially people who think of themselves or call themselves politicians ..

Philip Kerr, who sadly died of cancer on the 23rd of March, 2018 just before this book was published, wove an extremely clever tale of espionage, trickery, murder and subterfuge.

He wrote several books and armed with his name, she will be getting them out of the library in order to read more of this man's excellently crafted work.

It's now pitch dark out there and heavy rain is falling, we are grateful to be indoors and dry, with both food and water to hand. 

A great many others, some through no fault of their own, are much less fortunate.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 10th, 2018.
PostSript: Tomorrow at 11.00 o'clock on the 11th day of the 11th month 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1. 

The phrase 'The war to end war ' was penned by H. G. Wells.

If she was well enough, she would be going to commemorate this anniversary at our local church, St.Columba in Pont Street.

This site certainly knows about war because the original church, built in 1884, was destroyed by wartime enemy bombing on the night of 10th May, 1941.   

EQUIFAX - SUPPOSEDLY A SECURE FINANCIAL COMPANY - WERE HACKED & SHE'S RECEIVED DODGY TEXTS

Enough about health viruses.. here's something that will make you 'wonder' about the level and quality of security that our financial institutions have in place.

For many years now the banks have been warning their customers about not releasing details of any kind to anyone about their accounts and especially not to respond to any calls and text messages about their bank accounts and NEVER to transfer any amount of money.

She's never shared any detail of any account with anyone and if she has to discuss anything with a bank, she goes into a branch to talk with someone.

In September 2017, the giant financial company Eguifax was hacked and 400,000 UK consumers had their personal details stolen. 

NICE.. huh! Maybe their HQ should have their 'windows' blocked up in the interests of security.

She immediately changed log-in details and passwords and was thankful that she had never had any links to any accounts in / on her mobile / cellphone.

So she was 'amused' to receive - recently for the first time ever - a slew of text messages saying that her two accounts with a bank had been frozen due to three attempts to use a Debit card and would she please respond to a particular telephone number to speak to someone about this.

'You have to be joking, I don't think so' she thought and picking up her landline, she called the banks customer service number.

Edward took her call and sighed and said "Oh dear, another one, I am so sorry about this but ever since that breach at Equifax and particularly this week, scammers have been incredibly busy and I cannot tell you how many calls we have received about exactly what you have experienced, your accounts are ok, nothing has happened."

She thanked him.

NOT NICE.. And the banks, who are closing their branches left right and centre, wonder why we, their customers, are losing our trust in them.

I don't have a bank account and I don't have any money because she doesn't give me 'pocket' money, 'why not'?, I hear you ask, "well you see, I don't have any pockets". 

"Boom Boom" as Basil Brush used to say!

GeeGee Parrot.
November 10th, 2018.
PostScript: Which financial institution is window-less in the interests of security? 

A PERFECT STORM.. PART 3. LIVING IN ISOLATION!

Well, she's not really in isolation because I'm here but we are not allowed visitors and if she goes out, she has to wear a scarf a la Hepburn, dark glasses and have every inch of herself covered up!

One day when she had to go to see her doctor, her own mother would not have recognised her! It was a bitterly cold day, so she put on a wig, they keep your head warm, added a scarf and dark glasses and went out.

The receptionist recognised her voice, squealed with laughter and said "what a disguise, I'd love to see Dr. William's face when you go into his room" and buzzed her through to the staircase. Well, he loved it and chuckled.

Today there's doom and gloom about a weather front that is, apparently hitting the UK. I write 'apparently' because there are photos of rain soaked streets in London, besides other places, but it is all most curious..

For, on our steps, there is not a drop of rain water to be seen. They're as dry as baked bone and bones are what I want to tell you about.. 

For she received a gift yesterday which make her cry.. she works as a volunteer for a charity shop in Fulham.. where she'll go back when she is given the 'all clear' by Moorfields.

One of the volunteers and she were talking about food, stews in particular, as you do when you have a great butcher and a brilliant fruit and vegetable market right outside the shop door!

They said that they bought trays of bones from Dickinsons, the butcher and she remarked that she roasted bones before using them in a stew. 

"Wow.. I have never thought of doing that and it makes perfect sense, doesn't it?" said her colleague.

The night before last, we were tucked up and watching a lovely dvd when we heard someone shutting the top gate but thought nothing of it until she received a text from that colleague saying that they were all sad to have heard about her not being well and that there was a 'little' something on her doorstep.

Hmm, she thought, how nice and pottered off to investigate what it could be. 

'WHAT!! NO.. I can't believe it!' But yes, she had better believe it, her sweet colleague had been to their butcher and bought her a bag of lamb bones!

A wonderful mix of end of neck (her favourite cut for lamb stew), chops bones and ribs.

If you have a PROPER butcher, who doesn't just buy his meat in already cut, they should have bones that are wonderful for: stews, soups and stock. 

Our butcher sells a well laden tray for £1.00 and you had better get there early if you want any for the good folk of Fulham are not stupid!

So, yesterday afternoon, she divided the bones into two, turned on the oven and slid a large roasting tray into the oven to cook for 90 minutes at a medium heat. 

She had seasoned the bones with a mix of herbs, salt and pepper, (one of her favourite from The Spice Maker) but added no oil, for the fat from the lamb would render down in the heat and stop the meat drying out.

Her eyesight might be dodgy, her hearing certainly is certainly but there is nothing the matter with her (or my) sense of smell! 

After 90 minutes, the fat had melted, the meat was cooked and the bones had started to break down.

The same was done with the remaining bones, then the trays were put aside and when we went to bed, the bones had cooled and the fat hardened.

Today she'll take a huge casserole and will fry, until they are soft but not browned, onions, garlic and tiny amounts of ginger and turmeric root.

She'll add and fry a mix of herbs, spices and brown and yellow lentils. Add a good amount of water, bring the pan to the boil and then drop the heat down to a simmer. 

After a good hour and having kept a careful eye on the liquid level, she'll add the bones, carrots and top up the water so they're covered and it will sit on a back burner for a long time.

You cannot rush a good stew and as you cannot put a pan of this size into the chilly white larder, aka fridge, it will live on the stove and be brought to the boil once a day.

It will be delicious, you can use barley but she cannot as barley contains gluten to which she is highly allergic, her right hand finger joints swell, both knees become painful and vicious hives break out all over her body. 

When she showed a particularly bad attack to her doctor, his mouth opened, he gulped and then called in the senior partner of the practice to see them. 

Who grimaced and said "And ignorant people poo-hoo food allergies and the devastating effects of those horrifying chemicals they use on non-organic farms, I know you use homeopathic medicine, which remedy are you using to counteract these hives?"

So, dear reader, you are now up to date.. she has to get some yumyum organised for our lunch and then she'll 'do the stew'.

We hope that you're happy and healthy wherever you are and if you're not, then if you can do something about it pretty quickly, do so, for life is too short to be wasted.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 7th, 2018.
PostScript: The Spice Maker. (44) 01689 897677

They sell brilliant herbs and spices in grinders, 2 sizes and everything that you could possibly want for decorating cakes! We have posted about them before and will, undoubtedly, do again.. She loves their products and their prices! 

Tell them you read about them on GeeGee's blog. 

A PERFECT STORM.. PART 2. HOW IT UNFOLDED.

Ok, where was I? Ah yes, we went to stay for two days with friends in their glorious house up in the hills above Streatham.

We caught a bus to Streatham Hill, then another which took us up Leigham Court Road, where we got off and met Roy, who drove us to their house.

The weather was glorious, her bed comfy, the food magnificent and Ann and Roy had no objections to me sitting (very quietly) on the dining table at meal times.

She had gifted Ann two days gardening work for her birthday. The first day, she tackled their very big terrace. She weeded and cleaned it and then did the same to the paths which lead up to the top of the garden where the vegetable patch is.

The next day she worked on the large vegetable patch and tackled two large 'hot box' compost bins.

The contents had stuck half way so nothing was dropping down, compost must have a ratio of green and carbon in order for it to decompose properly and there were far too many grass cuttings in both boxes.

Dirty.. Messy unpleasant work but as both her hosts are over 75 years old and not up to doing this kind of work, she raked out what compost had been made from the bottom and sorted it out from the top. 

Jobs done.. 

She got a massive hug from Ann and a lift from Roy back down onto Streatham Hill where we caught a 137 bus to take us home.

That was on Thursday October 11th, on Friday, she went to the library and did grocery shopping and called into see our Lebanese friends.

Then all hell broke loose!

For she awoke on Saturday with an incredibly sore neck and throat, her hearing was non-existent, she was running a temperature and her ears were blocked and her sinuses were.. ohhh.. so painful.

Ginger, garlic, cloves (and sesame oil) were brought in to 'play', they are anti: bacterial, inflammatory and viral and any thoughts of gardening were banished.

Luckily she had done the food shopping and had plenty of fruit and bird food, she had caught 'the mother & father' of a cold (or so she thought) and put herself back into bed with another quilt on top to keep herself  warm.

Sunday more of the above

Monday. Having spent a gruesome night with a high temperature and chills.. she woke up at about 7am and had a major panic attack. Her eye lids were stuck together!

She felt her way down the hall and into the bathroom where she soaked both eyes with water until the 'glue' was washed away.. to find.. oh no!

Oh yes.. both eyes were covered in what looked like thick creamy white string.. very scary.

Action stations.. wash, dress, put fresh food and water out for me and out of the door to catch a bus to Moorfields A&E, she had the sense to take her Moorfields hospital number with her, her vision was dreadful so she didn't feel safe enough to go by tube.

She followed the 'green' line down City Road.. lucky are those who don't know what this means.

And went into reception at A&E, she was wearing dark glasses as the string had formed over both eyes and it was both hideous and scary.

"How can I help you" said the pleasant woman behind the desk, she said "Here's my hospital number, I'm a patient here and this is the problem" and with that, she took off her glasses.

I won't write what the woman said.. too rude but she literally sprang into action, she gave the hospital card to another colleague and said "access her file asap, I'm taking her into isolation, come with me" and she led mama, who had her glasses back on, past an astonished bunch of people and off into a corridor where she had never been before.

"Sit here and rest, someone will be with you as soon as we get your file down from records" and she closed the door.

In a very short time, a charming doctor was with her and asked to see her eyes.. he was angelic. He took her into another room and cleansed her eyes, asked her for the sequence of events which had led up to this and then examined her eyes.

"You have contracted several different serious complaints, you have both severe viral conjunctivitis with pseudo-membranes and you have picked up an infection" explained Dr. George, "I am just going to get someone else to examine your eyes" and he left to come back with a pretty and smiley woman who introduced herself as Emma.

Much cleaning of hands went on, then she looked at mama's sore eyes. "Ok, 2 drops into each eye, wait 1 minute, then use forceps George", she then explained that pseudomembranes are like fish scales that attach themselves to the eye ball and if left untreated, would cause her to lose her sight.

It didn't hurt but it was mighty scary.. just the mere thought of those fishy scales being peeled off your eye ball is scary in itself.. let alone seeing the forceps coming at you!

Emma returned with a prescription, "You must follow these instructions to the letter, for the first week, you take 1 drop every 2 hours, then every 4 and so on for 7 weeks, I've made you a follow-up appointment on Wednesday at 11am. You mustn't socialise with people, keep your head and throat warm, bed rest is essential, keep on taking the ginger and other herbs. IF, you have to go out, you must wrap up warmly. Please eat lots of fruit and drink a lot of water and hot ginger tea. We'll notify your GP by email of what we have found, now go home to bed and we will see you on Wednesday", she bent down and kissed mama on the top of her head and said "Don't worry, we'll sort it out, thank goodness you came in and didn't just think it was because of your cold". 

So there you are folks or rather here we are, she's down to 3 drops a day, so slowly. very slowly, she is getting there, the creepy white string is now just a hideous memory but she did send a photo of her eyes when they were at their worst to her surgery.

Who have been angelic, they called her the moment they received the email from Moorfields and discussed it with her. 

They've made an appointment with audiology for a hearing test at the end of November and a friend took her hearing aids to be checked and collected her new prescription long and short distance glasses.

Most of the time she has slept, I've plucked my tummy and nibbled my shoulders again.. yes, it had all grown back but now I look as if moths have been at me. Because this is horrid.. I'm not used to mama just lying there.. 

Emma was certain that she'd had a cold brewing when she was in Streatham and that combined with a bacteria which had been in one of the compost bins, she had created the perfect storm.

GeeGee Parrot.
November 6th, 2018.
PostScript: If you are cleaning or clearing out an old compost bin, wear goggles and a mask. The bacteria that break down food waste and plant waste are extremely powerful and you do not want to breath them in or get them in your eyes. 

A PERFECT STORM.. PART 1. THE BEGINNING.

'Tra-la-la' she thought.. 'what could be nicer than a jaunt with Juliano and Andreea to see Amanda's new house?' So having kissed Beaky, she sped off to Philbeach Gardens to meet them and to set off for Black Horse Road.

Andreea squeeezed - she's pregnant with Amelia and Lukas - behind the wheel and off they went. She had her mouth open within 20 minutes at the sight of the new (to her) Westfield and all the building works taking place behind the Holland Park area.

Zoom zoom.. no traffic om the roads and they made such good time that they pulled off into a huge shopping area and Juliano slipped out to them buy coffee and edible treats. Having 'wasted' quarter of an hour, they drove to meet Amanda at her new house.

Juliano, who is in charge of the refurbishment of the house, opened the door and in they went. Both Andreea and mum's eyes rolled about a bit as they explored this - extremely - weird dwelling. "What an extraordinary layout" they both remarked and she went through the kitchen, the only decent room in the house, out into the garden.

Which was why mum was there, she was to give Amanda ideas of what she would do if she decided to take on the job of making a garden for her.

Dear Readers.. if I say it was a complete nightmare, I am not exaggerating! The courtyard, which is what it is, measured 7 metres - 22 or so feet - across by 10 metres - 33 or so feet deep BUT the entire surface was covered to the depth of 30 cms - a foot - at least with large stones. Not pebbles.. stones!

The walls were tall panels of cheap fencing topped with arched metal posts which supported a fine mesh and curved inwards. 'Curious, no, not curious, absolutely extraordinary' she thought and went inside as it had started to rain.

Amanda arrived and they went back out and looked at the area, the side passage and into the poor broken down outhouse at the end of the garden and spoke of what mum would create and how she would achieve it. And then Amanda dropped her bombshell.

"That sounds absolutely lovely and I would love that if the garden were for me, but it's not, I have 13 rescue cats and a dog and the area is actually for them and I will be putting down covered litter trays out here and the outhouse will be for them if it gets too hot or if it rains during the day when I'm out at work or at university".

It was, excuse my French, pissing with rain, the temperature had dropped below 10 degrees and she was, frankly, more than a trifle pissed off at being asked to come and look at something that didn't require any input from her whatsoever!

GRRR.

So she smiled at Amanda, for whose father she would walk over hot coals in bare feet and said "Sweetie, you don't need me at all. What you do need is to call a rubbish clearance team and get them to take away the stones, then Juliano and his team will be able to get in to the outhouse safely, they'll replace the roof, make good the walls and flooring and put in a proper window, job done. The floor of the courtyard is concrete so nothing has to be changed there, the garden gate to the street has to be strengthened and made burglar proof and you will have to extend the cat security fencing all the way along that fence and over the gate".

And she walked back into the kitchen where Andreea looked at her and who then 'waddled' off to speak to Juliano.

Within a few minutes Juliano appeared carrying a monster box of tools and said "Ok Amanda, the first refurbishment phase is finished, call me when you are ready for me to start on the next phase. We're leaving now I have to get Andreea home as she is cold" and with that he scooped up Andreea and mum, opened their car, packed them in and off they went.

Andreea turned a few corners and stopped.. she hit the wheel and ranted "What the hell was that for? Why did she ask you to come over here to design a garden when it's going to be a cats' lavatory!" and they roared with laughter.

They dropped her off at her house and she ran down the steps and into the flat.. brrr.. she was so cold and her jacket was soaked. Kettle and soup were both heated.. she had a shower, got into her PJ's and jumped into bed.

The next day was glorious, sunny and warm and we had three friends to lunch on the allotments!

Monday arrived.. also dry and sunny, she had a very sore niggly patch on the inside of either side of her throat just below her ears. She gargled with salt water, brushed her tongue with a squirt of tincture of Myrrh and went about her business.. which was to gather me up again and head out to the allotments.

The next day in the afternoon, she packed a backpack with things for a 2 day stay away, gathered me up but this time we were off to visit friends in their lovely house way up above Streatham Hill.

This is a two part post.. so come back later to read the second part.. pippip.

GeeGee Parrot.
October 20th, 2018. 

EASYLIFE TELEPHONED HER TODAY & OFFERED HER A £10 FUEL VOUCHER. I WONDER WHY? WOULD IT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT SHE HAS BLOGGED ABOUT THEIR APPALLING CUSTOMER SERVICE? SURELY NOT.. BECAUSE THAT SOUNDS VERY LIKE A ... WHY DO YOU THINK THEY DID THAT?

She is very deaf at the moment as she has a head cold, sinusitis and is not very well, in fact, she's in isolation as she also has a severe eye infection and is putting drops into her eyes every two hours.

So when a woman telephoned at midday demanding to know who she was, she got the rough side of my mum's tongue and was told in no uncertain terms that the caller better identify herself otherwise this call was being terminated immediately.

She identified herself as being a representative from the EasyLife Group and said that they wanted to know if she would accept a £10.00 fuel voucher and that this call was being recorded.

You know God doesn't always give you these opportunities to say wondrous things - especially on a recorded telephone line but HE certainly gave her the goodies today.

She grinned a wolf-like grin and said to this strange woman "No, I don't want a £10.00 fuel voucher from the EasyLife Group, I am a pensioner, I don't run a car, I use buses. Goodbye" and hung up.

Ah.. EasyLife, how silly you were to think you could 'get' to my mum with £10.00.. very silly because now there's another post floating about on the web but this time with how they tried to 'give' her money.

Sorry that we haven't posted for ages, she was incredibly busy at the allotment, then she caught a chill which swiftly turned itself into an evil head cold and then she contracted this monster of an eye infection. The photo taken of her is beyond scary, her eyes are covered in white string like pus.. it's a terrifying sight.

She off to sleep, I will doze on a cupboard door. She'll get better, we will post again but when.. I don't know.


GeeGee Parrot.
October 18th, 2018.
PostScript: The EasyLife Group took her money but failed for three weeks to deliver the goods. They never did arrive and then it took over two weeks to get her money back. 

BRIGGS & STRATTON.. NOW HERE'S A TALE OF AN AMAZING MACHINE BUILT BY THIS GREAT COMPANY.

In the summer of 2003 she purchased a lawn mower, the chassis was by Mountfields and the engine by Briggs & Stratton. 

What with being ill and the rubbish that was going on in her life at that time, at the end of the summer of 2006 it was put away under a tarpaulin into Big Shed and, I regret to say, forgotten about.

Until this past month when she got into Big Shed and emptied it in order to drag out the rotten floor and renovated it with pallets for supports and thick slabs of marine plyboard for flooring.

And there, hidden away under a sun lounger and the tarp, was the lawn mower.

Not looking its' best, I must say. The paint's flaking in places, there are areas where it's a bit rusty, well, it looked very much like we would if we had gone through the life this poor machine has led for the past twelve years!

She dragged it out and put it in front of the Shack under a huge waterproof bag.

Yesterday, she spoke with Stuart, he is our opposite plot neighbor and asked him if he knew of a local company who would service it.

No, he didn't know of anyone but said that he would look at it for her. 

He took the top of the oil tank and looked at the dipstick, there was a minute amount of oil in the tank, then he looked at the spark plug and gave that a good rub on his jeans, he took the top of the fuel tank and asked her for paper towel.

Luckily, the Shack runs as a fully equipped kitchen and she had two rolls of it, he pulled some off, twisted it and put it into the tank to take up as much petrol as he could.

Having poured in a good amount of engine oil, a litre or so of fresh petrol and replaced the spark plug, he asked her to hold the cut-out handle whilst he primed the engine and pulled the cord.

It coughed twice, belched blue smoke and started.

To be truthful neither Stuart nor she could believe what they were hearing.. but it was true.. it was the noise of a Briggs & Stratton engine purring away happily.. having not turned over for twelve years.

She is going to send them an email tomorrow to congratulate them on this extraordinary machine. Yes, she's a bit rusty and her flakey paint work isn't as pretty and shiny as when she was new but everything works and having adjusted the height, off she trundled cutting the grass as she went.

Wasn't that a happy thing! Especially as the weather is dry and she is absolutely on target for getting all the plots ready for winter.

She's trundled up and down the track with many, many barrow loads of both manure and wood chippings, so there is now a huge amount of well rotted manure on almost all of the beds, the tall raised beds will be topped up with a mix of both manure and wood chippings, which is also what she will put onto the strawberry beds. 

She cut all the leaves down to a height of about 2" just after they produced the last flush of fruit in early August.

The garlic, onions, shallots will go in this week as well as flowering bulbs, she'll do a light prune on all the roses and cut back the vines who have raced each other up into cherry and plum trees.. silly grapes!

When she's finished planting and covering the beds, all she'll need to do is.. mow the grass.

Isn't that a happy tale.. and we had a very happy day today with a bbq. That will be in another post.

It's now bed time, she's having breakfast with Pat at Wetherspoons in Fulham at 10.30am tomorrow so chirps to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.

September 30th, 2018.

WELL! THAT STORMY WEATHER CERTAINLY GAVE OUR TOWN A GOOD 'SCRUB'.

Today has dawned bright, clear and dry! And we are off to the plots to work, she'll work whilst I sit in  what looks to be glorious sunlight.

The courgette and cucumber beds have to be turned over and manure and wood chippings piled up on top to get them ready for winter. She just cuts the bean and pea plants down and puts on manure and chippings, their roots will break down and, in doing so add, nitrogen to the soil.

Two of the Bokaski bins, which are already out there, are now ready to be emptied, she has already dug the trench into which the fermented food waste will go and in a months time, all there will be is soil, it's a great system and she wishes that more people did it, food waste that goes to landfill just encourages rats. When, if treated properly, it enriches the soil from which the plants grew.

It makes her cross when estate agents are idiots! Her much beloved Godfather was the head of the College of Estate Management and in those days, estate agents were trained in the profession of taking care of properties and land, nowadays, well, it isn't 'quite' the same!

A charming family who were going to move into one of the flats in our house have called it a day and asked for their deposit to be returned.. the estate agents kept 'faffing' about and wanting more details..  you would have thought they would have asked all the relevant questions before taking the first three months rent, wouldn't you! But apparently not.

Ahhh.. these companies are enough to drive you potty! It's a good thing we have somewhere to escape to and do sensible stuff in sunlight, isn't it?

So off we go..

GeeGee Parrot.
September 25th, 2018.

SPLISH SPLOSH, OUR STREETS ARE AWASH!

Rain! Vast amounts of huge buckets of lubbly-jubbly rain are falling.

Now, you would think that as she had a bbq planned for today that she would be as mad as a wet hen but no.

Why not? I hear you say to yourselves, well, she looked at the weather forecast earlier this week and notified all the guests that it was being postponed until next Summer.

The rain started to spit and pitter-patter on Friday in the early afternoon and the pavements got a bit of a lick and a promise of lots more to come.

And early on morning Saturday in it came but after we had eaten our eggs and fruit, she said "I've got to go out GeeGee, I've library books to exchange and those empty buckets, plus one full of IshPol, to collect from Bartek in Streatham".

So, she thought, quite sensibly, I cannot go out wearing sandals and went looking in her shoe cupboard for her largest pair of ankle boots.

And prayed and they were answered. Her left little toe went happily into a sock and boot without a squeak or a twinge and she slipped an extra sole into her right boot and trod down hard on it.. NO pain. Yippee. Little toe mended and verruca on its' way out.

She blew me a kiss, turned on the radio, loaded up WW with library books, put on a jacket with a hood, picked up her keys and left for the Kings Road.

It was very quiet.. there was almost no one in sight, only a few brave souls with an urgent need to be out and about were on the streets, the ground in St.Luke's gardens were covered in twigs and leaves. The wind was certainly a'blowing, that was for sure and the rain was absolutely tipping down. 

Any thoughts of going out to the allotments were dismissed immediately but she smiled and was thankful for the rain, for although the grass is green again, the ground is still rock hard and October is just around the corner, this is the month that she plants bulbs of all sorts, flowers, broad beans, garlic, onions.

There is a lot to do before Autumn really sets in and if you want good things to eat next year, you start off now.

The RHS Autumn Show will be held at Vincent Square in London on the 2nd and 3rd of October,
she goes every year to buy good quality vegetable seeds and to see Selina, do you remember her, from Marylebone Farmer's Market?

She makes those Malaysian dumplings and will be in the Great Hall, two words to describe them are slurpicious and scrummydumptious. Yes, they're really that good!

Now it's Sunday morning and it is a very wet day indeed, but she is thinking of her soil going glug glug glug and is very happy and those autumn raspberries will be very happy indeed. 

Mr. & Mrs. Worm will be ecstatic, this summer has been bad for worms and thousands of animals of all breeds have died through lack of water.

Yes, she could get up and start working on the sitting room but no, she isn't going to. She did our bedroom one day this week, it is now a calm, clean and immaculately tidy room.

Tomorrow she's having breakfast with Pat at Wetherspoons at Fulham Broadway, they have much to talk about and are meeting at 10.30am.

So the sorting out, cleaning and tidying of the poor sitting room will start on Wednesday. Tuesday she will go out to the allotments to see how they fared with the rain and the wind and to cut Brian's grass.

He is film set designer.. an Oscar winner no less and is very busy, so she's offered to cut his grass for him. It means that it won't go to seed and they won't blow all over her plots.. method in her generosity! 

There's food in chilly white larger and vegetable baskets, she's books to read, me to cuddle, sees no point in going out there and I've got a huge chunk of ripe SpinyApple to munch.

PipPip.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 23rd, 2018.  

EASYLIFE GROUP (UK) STILL HAVEN'T BOTHERED TO CONTACT HER NOR HAVE THEY DELIVERED THE ORDER..

If ParcelForce, Royal Mail, UPS, Fedex, DPD and Uber can all find our house.. why can't that useless delivery company Yodel?

Well, I don't have the answer to that but I guess it is because they are as bad as the catalogue company, EasyLife Group, who employ them.

They take your money, oh yes, they're quick to do that but packing and sending out your order and getting it delivered to the correct address? 

Well, they're not very good at that, which might explain why, if you telephone their customer service line on the dot of 9am, you will be told that you are number 25 or higher in the queue waiting to speak to an advisor!

And no, they haven't refunded her money.

So yes, she is going to complain about them verbally, on-line and to the Citizens Advice Bureau because it isn't legal to take money but fail to deliver goods.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 22nd, 2018.

STAN SMITH ISN'T A SHOE..

Living in London and being a member of the British Library, the English Speaking Union, the Royal Academy and the Victoria & Albert Museum means that she has lots of things to do when the weather is dire or when they have something fun / interesting to watch or listen to.

On Wednesday off she went to the V&A to listen to a talk being given by Stan Smith.

No, she isn't dotty because he isn't just a name that Addidas puts on a white leather shoe, for those of a certain age, he is the young American who won the 1972 Wimbledon singles title and lots of other titles as well.

He's the man who married the first woman to wear a white sweater with the orange P, the P stands for Princeton. Margory Gengler was a phenomenal tennis player who swapped tennis for marrying Stan and having their four children.

When she saw the talk advertised in the Autumn programme of the V&A, memories flooded into her mind, memories of Andalucia in the '70s.

I have written before about her friend, his name was Lee Setomer. Lee had been a civil engineer who settled in the very early '50s in southern Spain buying a vast acreage of land to the back of Torremolinos.

His hospitality was legendary and there were always people staying and coming and going. 

And that is where she met this couple, they were engaged to be married, Margy gave her parents' address in Locust Valley but time moves on and she never did call or write to get in contact with her. 

And forty five years later.. they were going to be here in London at the V&A and he was going to talk about 'How people think I'm a shoe'.

She was early and first in line, behind her came a couple who introduced themselves, they were brother and sister, her name was Charlotte and his was John Beddington,.

When she asked them if they knew the Smiths, he smiled and said he had played tennis with Stan two weeks ago and when he asked her if she knew the Smiths she laughed and said "this will be the first time I've seen them in 45 years" and told them about meeting them all those years ago.

They were let into the museum and guided to the lecture hall, suddenly Margy was there and greeted the couple with whom she was walking and John said "And here is someone whom you haven't seen for a very long time.." 

And my mama shook her hand and said "Andalucia, the summer of 1973, Louise, your mother and you were staying with a friend of mine".. and Margy smiled and said "Yes, indeed we were, with Lee Setomer".

The lecture hall was packed.. full to the brim.. of all different ages, to listen to a man talk of his life. A man who has led a 'good' life. A man who has never disgraced his family.

She left the lecture hall and smiled as she walked home. How very pleasant to hear a talk of good and happy things that people have done with their families and for other people, for there are tennis players whose lives are train wrecks and whose behavior on and off the court leaves a great deal to be desired. 

So, take our word for it.. Stan Smith ain't just a shoe.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 21st, 2018. 

THE EASYLIFEGROUP CATALOGUE.. WHAT A WASTE OF TIME & MONEY.

Sometimes you should realise that some deals are too good to true and sadly, after paying quite a bit of money on the 5th September to the EasyLifeGroup catalogue for four items to be delivered, she realises this is true.

After waiting for over a week, she had to call them and ask "Where is my order?" A customer service representative told her that Yodel had been unable to deliver the items as the address didn't exist.. she told them in a rather sarcastic tome of voice that as DPD, ParcelForce, the Royal Mail and Uber all find this house with no problem whatsoever on a regular basis she found that really hard to believe or understand.

The EasyLifeGroup customer service woman said that the order would be delivered on Monday, 17th of September. So she put a large note on the door but guess what? Despite the large note, despite her being in ALL day and Yodel having her mobile number they failed, yet again, in the simple task of delivering this order.

And despite multiple calls and emails to the EasyLife Group customer service department on Tuesday, 18th September no one had the courtesy to respond explaining why the goods did not arrive on Monday.

So having checked to see if there were any emails from this company this morning, she gave up.. she telephoned their customer service department, there is absolutely no point in emailing them as they never respond, and waited in line on the telehone for eleven minutes and told a man that she wanted a full refund.

He said it would take at least two weeks for this to be activated.. when she asked why it would take so long, his response was it has to be sanctioned and then to go through our banking system.

You know what?

She has had it with these online virtual 'shops', their delivery company are usually rubbish, they don't deliver on time which is a waste of time and so she's going to go to WILCO - bless their hearts - on Fulham Broadway, she will look at their catalogue, place an order and get the order delivered to the shop.

Job done.. yes, she may pay pay a fraction more BUT.. she won't have to wait for over two weeks and still not have the goods for which she paid .. she'll get the goods within two days with no delivery fee.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 20th, 2018.

EVEN GREENER.. WHISTL & HERMES.. THREE COMPANIES THAT ARE A NIGHTMARE TO DEAL WITH..

Regular readers of my blog will know that she works a couple of allotments on which she grows most of what we eat in the way of fruit and vegetables. She is constantly adding things to improve and replenish the soil by way of compost, horse manure and wood chippings and recently, she has added / introduced Bokashi bins to the set-up as well.

Bokashi works on all food waste by way of fermentation and it is speedy! So she contacted a company called Even Greener who supply Bokashi bins and the fermented bran which does the fermenting process.

The two pairs of bins arrived but they were incomplete. Each pair of bins is supposed to have an two inner trays, two taps, two lids, a bag of bran, a scoop and a padle with which to flatten down the food waste. She was missing a lot of these items and complained to their customer service.

They said replacement items would be sent out. Then she got an email saying that the goods were delivered two Saturdays ago.. to which she replied "Not possible, there wasn't anyone here at the house. Send me my goods for which I have paid".

So they agreed to send another delivery, she received an email from Even Greener this morning saying delivery would be attempted today.. so she took a book, a cushion, a mug of coffee and went upstairs to wait for the delivery. Then she was told at 15.00 that the delivery would be between 16.00 & 20.00 hours, so she stayed upstairs reading her book on the steps until 20.30.

Havin received no delivery, she contacted Whistl on their Chat line and was told that they had subcontracted the delivery out and that the item had been delivered.. by an Hermes courier.. oh groan.. for they are renowned for being the worlds worst possible courier company and there on the Hermes website it said.. 'delivered to recption at 18.26'.

What a load of crap.. we don't live in an office block or a hotel or a block of flats.. the driver has either ditched the package or delivered it to a wrong address.. go and have a look at what customers write on Facebook about Hermes as a delivery company, I promise you it will make your hair turn white instantly.. forget about over night!

So she took photographic evidence of her 'Chats' with Whistl who suddenly said "we can only talk with the account holders and not the person to whom the delivery is going to.." so she has sent these photos back to customer service dept at Even Greener and wonders if they will repay her some money.. for she will never ever do business with them again and neither will she ever buy anything from a company who use Whistl or Hermes as their delivery agents.

ParcelForce.. how she lurves these guys and girls.. you pay your money and the goods arrive.. always on time and.. sometimes before the due time.. sigh.

But at least it was a good book.. it was the latest Quentin Jardine 'Bob Skinner' thriller. Pity he doesn't write faster..

GeeGee Parrot.
September 13th, 2018.

SPINYAPPLES AKA PINEAPPLES ARE BACK.

Oh.. the joy! She went and had her new tooth fitted yesterday.. it isn't great. Her old dentist Doctor George Taylor would be horrified by it and so too would Doctor Crease, who did all the dental work when she was a child, but these two lovely men who were brilliant dentists are now both dead and she cannot go around just with that ugly stump for ever, can she?

So put up with it, she must.

However, her day got considerably better when she walked up the North End Road and came across Geoff and Sally's fruit and veg stall selling the most gloriously ripe spinyapples - you know them as Pineapples - at two for £1.50!

So she spent the huge sum of £4.00 and left with three ruby grapefruits, a huge bowl of bananas and two spiny jobs.

On up the road she went to see and talk to David, he always has fresh beetroot, so she slid £2.00 into his hand and he slid a bowl of small beetroot and six lemons into her basket. For a total of £6.00 she now had lots of fresh fruit and beetroots.

Off up the road she continued. Only to see something sad on the side of the road by St.John's church. It was a beautifully marked pigeon lying on its' back with not a trace of blood, the body was still warm and soft. She put her bags down and picked the body up, walked into the churchyard and laid it down on its tummy underneath a tree.

And her thoughts flashed back of holding Dagga as he died in her hands.. Poor pigeon. We know that people don't like them but we do and having had Tumbling Doves when she was a child and Peter-the-Pigeon for seven years, she knows how funny and intelligent they are.

Oi vey..

Next into Holland & Barrett which is a health food store, only to discover that they didn't stock pure Vit C, their products had all manner of evil fillers and, God forbid, sweetners in them! No wonder people are obese and overweight. These wretched manuafacturers slip ghastly things into everything.. fillers made of corn and wheat. Both of which trip off hives and sore swollen joints within half an hour of her ingesting them.

Up onto the Broadway to catch a bus home, stopping off at our Lebanese friends house to have a coffee and show them the new tooth, they were polite but Myra rolled her eyes.. which said it all.

Next stop home.. I was waiting for her on the top of our bedroom door and she reached up to stroke me and said that we had a huge treat for tea. Tea? We never have tea, I thought, I wonder what she has brought home.

She took off her jacket and shoes and went into yumyum taking the big bag with her. There was the sound of chopping and then I smelt.. SPINYAPPLE! Oh, yum.. we haven't had a fresh and properly ripe ones for ages.. WHAT A TREAT!

Peeled and chopped into bite sized pieces she brought the big plate into the bedroom and we both slid up onto the bed. She had the wisdom to bring a towel and she draped it over her left shoulder whereupon up I hopped and we settled down to eat this, one of the most delicious of all fruits, it was truly delicious and tasty.. Scrummydumptious.. and Slurpicious in fact.

And so we say "Thank you Geoff for running such a great fruit and veg stall".

GeeGee Parrot.
September 13th, 2018.

FRIDGE PICKERS WEAR BIGGER KNICKERS..

Yes, they do! So it's a good thing that I don't know how to open chilly white larder, isn't it? For it always has got something tasty tucked away inside, she eats twice a day, we share our morning fast breaking meal.. you know this as breakfast.. it is always features boiled eggs, sometimes cheese if she has any of our own cucumbers or fruit.

But before this, when she first wakes up at some hideous hour, she makes a mug of LapySang tea and so that's what she starts her day with. She'll have been into the bathroom and put in her first lot of eye drops. They make her eyesight a bit 'dodgy' for a while so she has trained herself to wake up early in order to take this medication and then she goes back to bed with her tea and lies still whilst her eyes absorb the liquid.

I get up much later.. I don't like waking up early, we parrots like a full twelve hours sleep and get grumpy if we don't get it! I wake up to the sounds of activity in yumyum hq, water being boiled, the rattle of eggs boiling in a pan, chilly larder's door being opened, cutlery on china, all good sounds I'm sure that you'll agree.

She's trim to the point of being slim but not thin, she has too much muscle to be thin. You cannot work as physically hard as she does for the hours that she does if you are unfit or fat. Surprisingly for other people but not for her, she finds her body works best in hot weather, really hot weather!

This summer was perfect! She made new vegetable beds, cleared the terrace of invasive herbs and yes, it wasn't glamourous to have sweat dripping off her nose but she did a huge amount of work.

Then she comes home and we eat our supper together, I may, of course, been with her and she always makes sure that I have a full bowl of delicious things but she only eats apples and drinks water whilst she works at the plots, sometimes she'll make a pot of coffee if Joska or Corinne are there but usually she works all through the day without a break.

Supper is usually some meat or fish with whatever she has picked from the allotment. A courgette, a lettuce, chard, spinach, chicory and sometimes it is just vegetable, a huge bowl of steamed vegetables ith olive oil and herbs with garlic and maybe an apple with a sliver of cheese and a piece of dark chocolate as a HUGE treat.

Which brings me back to the title of this post.. she doesn't ever pick at what's in the fridge but she did find a breathtakingly wondrously good treat in the store cupboard last week!

You may well be aware of the way that some companies have changed the size of their packaging so that the contents are smaller .. with the prices remaining the same.. so about a year ago there was great excitement in a shop called PoundWorld, sadly no longer in operation, because it had the DARK chocolate Toblerones.. IN THE BIG BAR SIZE for £1.00!

She couldn't remember when she had last seen the dark edition of this chocolate on sale anywhere, so went 'Banco' and bought several bars and carried these treasures home. She ate one.. not all in one go I hasten to add.. and put the others most carefully away up high on a shelf in the store room well out of the reach of Mr. Mouse.. And forgot about them!

So you can imagine the surprise and pleasure she experienced when she went into the storeroom last Saturday to get a bottle of her favourite herb mix which she gets from The Spice Maker and to tidy and dust shelves and lookie lookie, she came across her stash of chocolate!

I don't know if Toblerone make the dark chocolate edition throughout the year or if it is a special edition but it's certainly a special treat for her. I am never given chocolate as it is poisonous for all animals and birds, she only eats one piece at a time.. very slowly and licks her lips.

And this is why she only wears a size 10 UK - USA 6 jeans!

GeeGee Parrot.
September 12th, 2018.

9.11.. DAGGA DIED 14 YEARS AGO.

9.11 is a dreadful date.. One that invokes anger, disbelief, horror and great sadness. It is also the date that Dagga-the-Parrot died.

So it was a quiet morning here in deepest Knightsbridge, she spoke with a couple of friends and then asked me if I wanted to go to the allotments. "Neh" I said and flew off speedily in the opposite direction.

So off she trudged to catch several buses and to wreck havoc on an unsuspecting clematis which had gobbled up a plum tree.

Poor little plum tree, an evil blackberry shoot which had shot up and grown through the tree had enabled the clematis to climb up and twist itself all through the upper branches. The growth was so thick that you couldn't see daylight if you stood at the base of the tree.

But strong hands, a good pair of secaturs and two hours later little tree was free and naughty clematis clippings were in the incinerator and she had pruned the tree at the same time.

She then sat at the table and looked at where she buried her most beloved bird.. wrapped in a shroud of red felt, his body had been placed into the grave that Stephen, a fellow plot holder and parrot lover who had Douglas, an Orange Winged Amazon, had dug for her.

There aren't any words to describe how you feel when a much beloved animal dies.. they had been together for sixteen years. Yes, your maths are correct, she has had African Greys aka CAG (Congolese African Grey) parrots in her life for over thirty years.

Today she has an appointment to have her new crown fitted.. she hopes for her dentists sake that it fits and looks better than the last one he made for her which was dreadful. So dreadful that the Senior Consultant at Guys Dental Hospital was visibly appalled at the shoddy work and she wrote a very strongly worded letter to her dentist, a copy of which she received.

It is a dull day here, the sky is the colour of dirty dishwater with not a trace of sunlight to be seen. She will come back home after the dental appointment as there is housework to be done and it looks as if the skies could open at any minute and pour buckets of rain down.

Tomorrows post will be more cheerful.. it will be about food and fridges.. nope, Beaky is shut, you'll have to read the blog tomorrow to know what I'm talking about. PipPip.

GeeGee parrot.
September 12th, 2018.

HER LEFT SMALL TOE IS BROKEN, SHE'S GOT A VERRUCA & THERE ARE APPLE TREES TO ORDER & PLANT..

Grrrr.. Ouch.. That hurt breaking her little toe. In fact both of her feet were mighty painful for three weeks but now the swelling has gone down from around her broken toe, life is not quite so gruesome.

You can't put a small toe into plaster, what they did was strap it to her next toe and recommend that she take Knitbone, a proven Homeopathic remedy which assists in the healing of broken bones.

And as if not to be left out, underneath her right foot, absolutely in the middle of the ball of her foot, is a verruca! The first one she has ever had and she is at a complete loss as to how she got it. 

But.. however she got it.. it's mighty sore. She has to treat it twice a day and wear a pad to prevent the bandage being rubbed.

This makes wearing either her gardening boots or shoes absolutely impossible, she's only able to wear sandals and with the departure of summer, the weather is becoming cooler and it's rained a few times..  so grrr is her favourite expression at the moment!  

Never mind, it hasn't stopped her from 'cracking on' with her intensive plans for changing plots number 35 and 37.

She cut back two of her oldest roses, they had grown too leggy and a couple of blackberries had grown up through them, so as soon as the fruit ripened, she cut the roses down by two thirds.

In the long bed in front of these roses she plans to plant a couple of Apple trees. One will certainly be a Russet but which variety of russet is what she has to decide.

There are two apple trees at the entrance to the plots, one is Temptation, which is a late variety and the other has two varieties on the same tree, one of which is a variety of russet, but which russet is it? 

She thinks it could be an Egremont Russet as the skin is entirely 'khaki' coloured and rough to touch, the flesh is dense, creamy coloured and it tastes divine but she has noticed that it sometimes has a disease called Bitter Pit.

However, she has come across a website called Garden Focus and this gives good, very detailed information upon the care and prevention of this and other apple tree diseases.

The other variety will be a James Grieve, one of which she already has, it's partially self-fertile, as is Egremont Russet and they'll be each others' pollination partners.

She will order these two bare rooted trees from a company called Victoriana Nursery Garden, they will be delivered in October / November time, so she had better shake a leg and get the ground ready to receive these two new babies. 

In the meantime, she's lots to do before it gets to be real autumnal weather, multiple barrowloads of manure have to be carted down the track and put around all the existing fruit trees as a mulch.

More barrowloads of manure has to go onto all the raised beds mixed together with huge amounts of wood chippings. Mr. & Mrs.Worm love this, it makes their home very snug and they repay her by turning both into excellent top soil.

All the fruit trees and bushes have to be pruned, it is a massive job but if you want a more than just a decent crop of fruit it has to be done! 

And she hard prunes her roses each time a flower dies, she always has glorious roses well into December, Compassion, Pristine, Royal William  and Savoy Hotel being four varieties that respond incredibly well to being treated in this fashion.

Fashion! Huh.. we aren't very fashionable! She has to get rid of this evil thing, it is a virus and her much beloved Homeopath, Maggie Dixon, told her how to treat it. 

So off we go.. I want an egg and hummus and she want eggs, cheese and coffee.. pip pip.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 8th, 2018.
PostScript: 
Victoriana Nursery Gardens.
www.victoriananursery.co.uk
Tel # 01233 740529.

UPON BEING DISAPPOINTED BY PEOPLE.. AND REALLY RAISED BEDS!

Ah.. I know we / she / I haven't posted for a month but life has been a trifle (to put it mildly) strange around here!

The main source of strangeness was someone whom she has known for many a year and had never had any reason to think or voice a cross thing about.

A sequence of weird things that happened has resulted in her having to cease having anything to do with this person and to ask them to return any keys and not to come to the allotment ever again. She informed Denis, the allotment manager, and his rsponse was something that really shocked her..

"Did you never think it was them that took your cherries and those apples, they were certainly here very early a couple of times with their car". And no.. she had never thought that but it did explain how no one had seen anyone 'strange' around and about.. because the person wasn't strange.

Anyway, the 'cirfuffle' upset her greatly but she has done as Denis suggested.. "Never mind, just change every lock and if we see them we will tell them that trespassing is illegal". And bless his heart, he turmed up with four new padlocks for her that afternoon.

Onto much happier things..

One morning she met up with a small bunch of gardening friends and had a guided tour of the kitchen gardens at Hampton Court Palace with Vicki Cooke, the Keeper of the Kitchen Gardens.. what a wonderful title to have!

Not a weed was in sight.. but what was on the site and IN sight were replicas of 1700 century melon pits!

She couldn't get to Hitchcocks & Kings (timber merchants) fast enough! And she's transformed the 'slightly sad little' plot number 35 into what will be a highly productive place for melons and deep rooted vegetables.

The REALLY raised beds are of two sizes, down the middle, facing the clematis and rose walk, are a trio of big guys, length of 2 metres with a depth of 90 cms, the back height is 70 cms, the front height is 50 cms, flanking them on both sides and facing inwards are two pairs of slighly shorter beds.

She covered the entire plot several weeks ago with sheets of thick cardboard on which she piled vast amounts of wood chips and even though the ground was dry with our lack of rain and high temperatures in June and July, our dearest friends, Mr and Mrs. Worm, have already started to break down the cardboard and to munch the chippings.

Draught.. what draught?

We've now had copious amounts of lubbly-jubbly rain. The grass is as green as ever, so too is Mr. Weed and Evil Slug and Snail are back but never mind, the birds are happy and Old Thrush is estatic!

The boxes will be filled with compost, wood chippings and the fermented stuff from her brilliant Bokashi bins, we recycle ALL our food waste and have our Lebanese friends and our upstairs neighbours saving theirs as well, we supplied each family with several airtight buckets and either they leave them on our doorstep late at night or we collect the buckets every other day.

Bartek, our wonderful Polish Deli, are thrilled to give us their buckets! She collects them once a week, sometimes they have lots & lots of them, sometimes there are only a few but they said they always felt awful putting them out for the rubbish trucks and having explained to them why she wanted them.. other people are now keeping their food waste and giving it to neighbours who have allotments or have composting bins in their gardens.

It is exactly like this.. a small idea that creates a change and we no longer have a wiff of anything from our dutbins as paper and plastic have no smell!

And it stops food waste going to landfill!

When the beds are full to a height of 50 cms, she'll give them a good watering, tuck a heavy sheet of black pastic over the top and leave the contents to rot down over the coming Autumn and Winter months. Come early next Spring, she'll start Melon, Persian Cucumber, Carrots, 'Hamburg' Parsley seeds and Sweet Potato slips off at home in the propogators and, when the time is right, they'll go out to the raised beds.

Each bed will be covered up with a Sun Tunnel, she bought nine of these over 14 years ago and they have been worth every penny of the £9.00 that they cost! They'll stay in place until each seedling is fully acclimatised to being planted out.

So she happy again. Corinne and Joska, who are two of our allotments neighbours, both said "Good riddance, all that person did was pick your produce and they never did any work apart from when they first started" but Corinne even went so far as to say "What DID they do, they raked windfall apples together but never picked them up and then they stupidly put plastic, broken glass, wood and weeds all together in a pile that you and I had to sort out before we could take the separate lots to the council waste dump".

Isn't it 'funny' what other people see..

Well, I see a new bowl of fruity-tootie and pumpkins seeds.. adios amigos! Yumyum calls.

GeeGee Parrot.
August 29th, 2018.

HIPHIP.. HURRAY!! I'M 14 TODAY!

None of the usual suspects have not sent me a card but as they didn't send her on her birthday which is on the seventh of July, I'm not surprised! Neither have any of the usual suspects children thanked her for their birthday presents this year. Well, they're all in for a shock next year, that's for sure.

We have spent today at home. It started to rain just before sunrise and went on through into the afternoon. You would have to be living in an isolated igloo not to know about the extreme heat that europe and we are experiencing here in the UK.

On the evening of the lunar eclipse on Friday, it rained whilst she was waiting for a bus at Hammersmith Bus Station, she was in shorts but had, luckily, taken a waterproof jacket with her, she'd been working at the allotments and her feet were dirty - read black - for she was wearing strappy sandals.

As the rain started, she lifted her head up and let it fall onto her face.. oh, how good that felt and it also washed her feet clean! Everyone else who was waiting for the little 391 was inside and it was only herself and another woman out on the bus stand getting wet.

The woman caught her eye and said "Gardener, I know you're a gardener, that look on your face is how I feel about this rain falling on my garden at home.. and you had dirty feet.. you're certainly a gardener", she laughed and confirmed that, indeed, she was a gardener and wasn't it blissful to feel cool for a change.

The allotments are in full production mode, a lot of leafy things have bolted, for it's only rocket, oakleaf lettuce, mizuna and Japanese leaves that can survive this heat.

But roses, dahlias, white carnations and sweet peas are brilliant full production mode. Courgettes in every colour and shape are busting their guts and exploding into mega growth - she picks them every three days before they turn into marrows. Jalapeños, scotch bonnets, peppers are growing very well and two varieties of Persian cucumber plants are copying Mr.Jack and the Bean Stalk!

Crisp and crunchy and dunked into either labneh or yogurt with mint.. they're sensational this year.

She gave a bbq on her birthday and we've had lots of people out to lunches or suppers because the building works are still going on at home and our sitting room is un-useable! Thick dust lies everywhere and after trying to keep on top of it, she's given up and will tackle it when the works finally finish.. in apparently another months time.. oi vey.

Thank goodness we have had the plots to escape too, for she can't open the back window to let air into our home, the level of dirt and dust which is being created just the other side of our window is appalling, she took photographic evidence and sent it to the owner to show how her builders have been treating her window and window ledge.

Lots of work has been done out there on the plots, she cleared the terrace of the massive amount of herbs gowth that had grown over the paving. Reinstated her old bbq area, for which she bought a new sink with a draining board from Screwfix for very little money!

B&Q wanted her to spend lots of money, she laughed at their prices and went off to see the lovely Lisa at ScrewFix in the Fulham Road and paid a tenner for one complete with its' drain and magic stopper!

She dug about in a cupboard back at home and pulled out her old solar shower, it holds 20 litres, you lay them flat in the sunshine, the water gets hot.. very hot with the temperatures we've been having.. then you hang it up and hey presto.. you've got HOT running water with which to wash up!

She and Dean erected a chain link fence and moved one of the three parts of the wooden fence over onto the entrance to plot 39. This was painted green with wood preservative and next to it is now a 1.80m high gate which she keeps locked.. And eureeka.. The fruit and vegetable thefts stopped immediately!

Because to get onto her plots now, you either have to have two keys and go through the new gate or if you go over or through a fence, you risk being torn to shreds by pyracantha, old blackberry briars or a very thorny rose.

She's got plans for a funny concrete 'door' mat.. we have a dear friend who has a mat that she puts out around Christmas time.. it reads "We only drink good wine in this house, I trust you brought some?" She'll make a large slab out of quick drying cement and either 'write' that into the cement or she has lots of tiny mosaic tiles which would make it look even funnier!

And on that silly note.. I bid you adieu.

She's off to cook my birthday supper of Pork Belly with gren and yellow courgettes in labneh, with strawberries, merinques and double cream for pudding. Diet? I never need to and neither does she, she works 8 to 12 hour days when she's at the allotments which is mostly everyday, in fact, you'll find that very few vegetable gardeners need to diet!

Chirps to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.
July 29th, 2018.

SHE'S CONFINED TO BARRACKS BECAUSE THE WASP MAY HAVE WON THAT BATTLE BUT SHE WON THE WAR.

Ha.

Back to the beginning mes amis, for you all know that is my favourite place to start a tale.

It was Monday morning that she noticed the fine wood dust on the floor of the shack and in the afternoon she realised what it was, wasps had squeezed between the outer wall of the shed and the lining of plyboard and had built a nest.

"Oh, I'm not having that" she said to herself and picking up a very long handled fork, she banged it hard on the plyboard and out flew about twenty angry wasp

They all headed outwards into the daylight except one.. there's always one bugger who has to be different, isn't there?

He flew onto her, unfortunately bare, arm and stung her. The bastard! Luckily she was in the shed and right in front of her was a bottle of TCP, a liquid disinfectant she keeps for cuts and bramble scratches.

It stung quite a lot and went red but she went on with getting rid of the nest and the larvae out, then she soaked the nest and the surrounding area with vinegar. 

The nest was abandoned by the wasps, a couple of them came back and crawled in, only to come straight out again when they found 'no one at home'. She got on with her other work and thought no more about it.

When she got home late on Monday night, she cleaned the area with a antiseptic wash and applied neat Iodine. Do you remember being painted with this marvelous yellow stuff? 

Tuesday morning, we had an early departure with a huge amount of cardboard boxes which were given to us by builders who are installing a new kitchen in the house, we needed petrol for the lawn mower, to make a trip to the dump with broken stuff and tools that had been damaged when Big Shed's roof blew off last winter.

Lots to do in other words.

At about 4pm, she stopped for an apple and water break and looked at her arm which was, to put it mildly, now VERY red and mighty swollen.

A&E for me, she thought, so put her tools away, locked up the sheds and caught a bus to take us home. She checked my food and water and left for the hospital.

A triage nurse saw her very quickly, took her temperature and drew a line around the swelling. She was seen by a doctor who said "if it starts to swell beyond this line or if you notice a red line moving out of the swelling area, come back here immediately" and handed her a prescription.

She took the prescription to a chemist and got the pills. It made her drowsy, so we had an early supper and went to bed.

Only for her to wake up in pain at 1.30am, she turned on the light to see that the swelling was way over the line and angry looking!

Out of bed, dressed, out of the house. Down the road at a gallop into A&E, where she was seen quickly. It must have been because it was poison related and not a broken bone that wouldn't get any worse sitting in a waiting room.

However, she did have time to read the notes with the drugs which she had taken with her and realised that they were not for her! They shouldn't be given to someone with glaucoma.

The new doctor changed the pills to a different antibiotic with a more powerful dose but only one a day and told her about the 24 hour pharmacy on the junction of  the Earls Court Road and the Old Brompton Road and off she went. 

It's many a year since she walked home from anywhere in the middle of the night and it was surprising hw quiet it all was! She was glad to get home, to take a pill and get into bed.

I woke her up at 10.30am, for it was past fast breaking egg time! She's tapping out my post and lolling about, it seems  weird not to going to the allotments but she's taking notice of the doctor and not gardening for two days.

She'll get up later and do a quick but gentle trip by bus down to the market for there's very little food in the fridge.

And about those 'Thieving Bastards' who have robbed us blind at the plots, I'll write a separate tale.

In the meantime.. the Shack's clear of wasps and after what she has done to it, I doubt they'll ever contemplate making a nest in there again, for yes, although they scored a 'goal'.. she won the war.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 27th, 2018.