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.
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.
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