SOUP SOUP GLORIOUS SOUP..

Cold or hot, thin or thick, pale or brightly coloured, vegan or animal broth. Soups come in so many different ways that it is quite beyond her tapping capabilities to list them all!

She makes a soup every couple of days during the winter months and a great deal of them are just made with vegetables, my favourite is a Moroccan style carrot and red lentil soup.

It's very thick as she uses two cups of well rinsed lentils and at least six fat chopped carrots.

Start with olive oil in a big saucepan to which you add a large chopped onion and three cloves of crushed and chopped garlic, fry these gently for about 2 minutes, then add the spices.

Use a teaspoonful of : Powdered cumin, cinnamon, paprika, coriander seeds and an inch of grated ginger and turmeric roots.

Fry everything gently over a low heat and stir well for about 3 minutes.

Add the chopped carrots, continue to fry and stir everything.

Add 1.5 litres of vegetable stock and the lentils, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and puree the soup in the pan. Taste and add salt and pepper.

It's thick and incredibly warming. I love it.. so does she. We give it to our Lebanese friends who live near by. They love it as well and we hope you do too!

GeeGee Parrot.
December 4th, 2019.

YOU KNOW I CAN'T TAP THE LAPTOP.

And she who does has been 'otherwise' engaged.

I don't know why she hasn't written my blog for two months, it's her left foot that is causing her gyp, not her hands, so she should have been tapping away. But she's been in a bit of a blue 'funk', this happens when she's not able to garden.

Alarm and despondency came to town in her left foot. First of all it started in her heel which, when she trod on it, felt as if she had speared by a BIG evil sharp pointy thing.

That has subsequently turned out to be something called Plantar Fasciitis and mighty sore it is too, then a hard sore lump appeared on the outer edge of the foot.. very sore it is too.

After having an mri, it transpires there are several other things amiss in this poor old foot. She's due to start physiotherapy soon.

But, the great news was that there wasn't any sign of a fracture! But enough of this doom and gloom, she's old, things start to go wrong when you're old - poor old bat.

However, it has meant that nothing of any great consequence has happened at the allotments, until they had the results of the mri, she was told not to garden in case it was a fracture, it's mighty untidy.

Almost all the leaves are off the trees and are on the ground, they need to be raked up and put onto the raised beds and covered with thick layers of  horse manure and wood chippings, these will break down and enrich the soil over the winter months.

Mr and Mrs Worm take them down and make themselves a soft bed, which means an excellent harvest next year.

Talking of harvests, she went out there last Friday to collect herbs and four strange vegetables. They were Trombincino Squash and mighty tasty there are too. 

She also pulled a few beetroots, a couple of green onions and picked a large bunch of parsley, it is strange how parsley LURVES this cold weather! Her five big clumps of it are growing like crazy and the taste is strong. 

Just what she needs at the time of year for soup making. We eat a lot of thick soups in the winter, usually vegetable ones, sometimes she may throw in a chicken leg or two but mostly they're made of different vegetables with lots of herbs and spices.

And.. oh yes, coconut milk! As she is allergic to dairy, she now uses coconut oil and milk instead and mighty tasty they are too.

The trick is to find addictive free coconut milk, she uses Biona coconut milk, this is made with just water and nothing else.

Sometimes if she's 'pushing the boat out', she'll soak desiccated coconut in the milk and laksa paste to make a soup reminiscent of her Malayan childhood.

She's off now, not to Malaysia but yumyum HQ to get our supper.

It's a bitterly cold day, luckily we are fortunate to be inside and protected from the weather. Unlike a lot of animals and people around the world whom, through no fault of their own, are being exposed to ice and snow and very low temperatures.

We'll have a large bowl of carrot and red lentil soup which she made this morning. It is very thick as she pureed the vegetables with a hand held blender.

YubbaDubba.. we lurve thick soups, what's not to like, they're just vegetables, herbs and spices with no disgusting chemicals, they warm your gullet and stomach and they're incredibly easy to digest.

Slurpicious, that's what they are.. slurpicious.

We hope that you, wherever you are, have something equally tasty to eat for your supper.

GeeGee Parrot.
December 3rd, 2019. 

IF YOU DON'T TELL PEOPLE HOW YOU FEEL - HOW ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO KNOW & OTHER SUCH THINGS.

You can tell it's grim outside, for here we are back again.

She has received an email from her GP - General Practioner - about her drugs, the drugs she hasn't collected from the pharmacy.

And this, together with something she needed to check with the surgery, prompted her to call them.

"Have you received the results from my latest blood test" she inquired and was very pleased to hear they were absolutely fine and all levels of whatever they had tested her for were where they should be.. always nice to know.

Then the receptionist asked if she had received the email about the 'heart' medications and she gathered up her courage and told the woman, whom she has known for several years, that she wasn't going to take them and why.

And that she had already discussed this with 'young' doctor Ben. "Hmm, yes, it's here on his notes, talk me through it as well" she said and so mama did, that the wretched blood thinners had kicked off a major attack of anal bleeding and that the statins had made her feel like a zombie.

And as the zombie sensation stopped 36 hours later, in the evening of the day after she stopped taking them, she put 2 & 2 together and made 4. 

And last but not least, she told her about yesterdays visit to Burchells, which prompted the receptionist to say. "Go straight to A&E to have your foot x-rayed. If Joanna, the podiatrist, thinks it is a fracture and she's certainly, if not more, qualified about foot bones than our doctors, then you should get it done as soon as possible" she said. 

As it's pouring with rain, she's feeling snug and her foot isn't sore at the moment for not a lot of walking has been done today, she'll do this tomorrow early, she knows from experience that A&E's are like bun fights on Friday afternoons!

In the meantime.. back home on the ranch.. I know what supper is.. it's brown basmati rice which she will cook with ginger and turmeric roots, barberries and two chopped up chorizo sausages. 

When the rice is nearly done, she'll place on the top, chopped red onions, purple sprouting broccoli, crushed garlic and a tablespoonful of flaxseeds on the top when she puts it into a bowl.

It's a dish to drool over, do you do one pot suppers like this, you should, for they're simple, easy on the digestive system and very tasty. If you are a vegetarian or vegan, just omit the chorizo and perhaps add a bit of seaweed to give you iodine.

And now I am going to fly off to supervise the preparation of this dish and to scrounge whatever is edible and accessible.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 27th, 2019.

NATURAL ANTI-INFLAMATORIES BUT PLEASE BEWARE OF VERY BRIGHTLY COLOURED TURMERIC POWDER BECAUSE IT ISN'T ALL THAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE..

You would have to not be a reader of my blog to know how she dislikes and won't take certain drugs.

The only ones that she will take are for her open angled glaucoma. The rest, including blood thinners and pain killers, nah! 

She uses a teaspoonful of ground ginger powder for pain relief and thanks Dr. Michael Greger for his very informative book.. the details of which are immediately below.

HOW NOT TO DIE by Dr. Michael Greger.
Published in 2015, then republished in soft cover form by Macmillan in 2016.
ISBN # 978-1-4472-8244-0

She makes a tea out of ginger root, turmeric root and freshly ground black pepper, this strange 'tea' is allowed to brew for about ten minutes and then is strained and drunk.

These three spices are a magic bullet at working on several ailments, the first two are anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and extremely efficient at tackling pain.

And used together they are a drug free way to counteract numerous conditions with no evil side effects. 

And a day or two ago, a scientific friend pointed her to research published by Stanford University.

Apparently brightly coloured turmeric powder started to appear when Bangladesh suffered severe flooding, for when the turmeric roots were harvested, they were found to be of a much paler colour than normal.

So what was done? It isn't a happy story this.

Some spice manufacturers in Bangladesh have been found to have added an industrial lead chromate pigment to 'brighten & enhance' the colour of their turmeric.

Lead is a source of cognitive and other severe ailments. Lead pipes, of course, have long been banned from use.

The lead in powdered turmeric dates back to the 1980's and the flooding we wrote about earlier, so poor unsuspecting customers have got used to the brighter, richer colour and their food looking brighter too and it has become a vicious circle.

Luckily we don't use powdered turmeric as she much prefers the taste of fresh turmeric root and buys it fresh every week. And mighty fussy she is too about the quality of the roots she buys (this applies to the ginger roots as well).

Lead is a neurotoxin, which increases the risks of heart and brain disease and interferes with brain development.

The report is long and we recommend that you read it.

Neurotoxin lead sometimes added to turmeric for brighter colour - ScienceDaily.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190924101446.htm

IF you must buy it in the powdered form, buy the palest coloured powder, this also applies to ginger powder you buy. Think of grated ginger root (yum), it is not dark, so powdered ginger should only be a fraction darker than fresh ginger. 

We're experiencing monsoon type rain! It's deluging down from a very dirty grey sky and making a loud rat-a-tat-tat noise on our steps, oh, how lucky Big Juli and Andreea are. 

But I know what we are having for our very late / early supper and so I have to go and inspect the happenings (is that a real word, or is a GeeGee word?) in yumyum hq.

Time to flap a wing to go zoom-a-zoom-a-zoom.

What? You called me silly? Of course, I'm silly, so would you be if you had a parent like mine.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 27th, 2019. 

KARMA.. SOMETIMES HAPPENS QUICKER THAN LIGHTENING!

Those of you who are up to date on my blog know that she is keeping her mouth zipped about an unfortunate incident - the other person involved is very litigious, despite being in the wrong as they initially accepted full responsibility.

So she hasn't said a word but Karma, the all-seeing spiritual 'eye' in the sky, saw what happened, swooped down from the Heavens and has dealt with it.

ON TO MUCH HAPPIER NEWS!

She had an amazing extraordinary day yesterday!

She's recently been experiencing horrendous pains in her left foot and has periodically, for three years now, had chronic pain in her lower back (think kidney region).

The weird thing is that this pain only comes when she is standing in one place for a length of time and when she sits down on a low seat.

But never materialises when she walks or works at the allotments.. curious, no?

She discussed this with her darling Pat, who told her to go immediately to see Burchells, the podiatrists on Fulham Palace Road.

She went to see them and saw Rob Thomas, the manager, he looked at her foot and said that he was going to make an appointment for her to see Joanna who specialises in tendons.

So she went to see Joanna yesterday morning.

Joanna has both x-rays eyes and a huge amount of knowledge! 

For she immediately pinpointed the first area of pain on the area directly under her ankle bone on the inside of her foot, then worked her way over the arch of mama's foot pointing out another area of pain and went again immediately down to the source of pain on the outside of her foot - for which mama had wrongly blamed her strappy sandles.. the ones that give her striped suntanned feet!

The result?

Mama's right leg is minutely shorter her left!

And due to the polio she contracted when she was six, her right knee is not quite as fully formed as the left one.

This minute difference in length in her legs is, therefore, causing the lower back pain when she stands still for any length of time and when she sits down in a low seat, who knew the smallest fraction of loss in a leg could and does cause such pain?

She was given a pair of insoles and the heel of the right one was raised by a minute amount. The difference was instantaneous! 

But then came the 'bad sad' news. Joanna told her that she must not wear them all day immediately (BOOHOO) but only for an hour for the first three days, a couple of hours for the next three days and so on, this is so that the hip aligns itself slowly to being in the proper position.

Mama has to have an x-ray as Joanna's clever fingers also think she might have fractured the skinny bone on the edge of her foot, no, I don't know which one, I'm not up to speed on human feet. 

And she wants her to visit the osteopath she recommended to check out her lower spine and to do a minor correction which will help her balance which is a bit wonky at the moment.

The rest of the day will be put into another post, suffice to say, she travelled out to Essex by bus and train to see Emma, the lovely daughter of ValerieAnn Worwood.

Long time readers of my blog will remember ValerieAnn as a magical woman with miraculous fingers who stopped mama from going blind.

Well, meanwhile we're deeply envious of Big Julie, Andreea, Amelia and Lukas who are in sunny Spain and living the life of old Riley on a beach.

PipPip meanwhile back here, splosh goes the rain.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 27th, 2019.

HOW MANY TIMES DO / SHOULD YOU 'SAY' "THANK YOU"

Well, let's work through this question carefully.

I think, for instance, if you went to have a meal or stay with someone that you should say it twice.

The first time you say the magic words is when you actually take your leave and the second time is when you write your thank you note.. please not an email but an old fashioned note / letter.

Now if someone gives / sends you something then I think you say it once, probably in writing.

And having said it, that is it. You don't have to say or write it multiple times.

But some people, or to be more precise, the person she has recently had unpleasant dealings with, is either not reading her mail or is stupid and expects her to say it at least twice in one day.

Dream on.. is what I say.

On to certainly more pleasant subjects!

We've discovered, I tell gross fibs, she discovered the most divine crisps! Oh, they are so tasty and not made from potatoes!

Do not fret folks, I am only allowed to have the most minute pieces and never more than three pieces per evening and when I say minute, I mean if you don't peer at it very closely, you won't see it.

They are made from, wait a minute whilst she looks at a bag, sweet potato, beetroots spinach and corn and they're studded with golden linseed.

Don't fret, of course I'm going to tell you where to buy them but it's going to be sad if you don't live in the UK, because they're sold by the CO-OP!

She has attempted, in the past, to make crisps but they were not a great success, we certainly didn't offered them to friends, that's for sure.

But recently she was talking with a very savvy young friend of hers who is a cracking cook, Lucy is a wizard and came to work the next week with an airtight box full of the scrummiest crisps, all made by her own fair hands.

Man, they were good! So she is going to ask for the recipe as why buy them when you can make them out of your own homegrown vegetables - like Lucy does!

So she is pleased that she gives her (Lucy) more than the odd bunch of roses and other goodly things as 'thank you' gifts for taking in her parcels and courier deliveries.

Full circle back to thank you! How tidy was that? 

Now I'm off to investigate her bedside table, there are all manner of things that Beaky wants to prod, poke and push onto the floor.

I know, it doesn't take a lot to amuse a small fat grey bird.. but it certainly gets her attention when she hears stuff go 'plop' on the floor.

TeeHeeHee.. 

GeeGee Parrot.
September 25th, 2019.

IT'S A VERY LARGE POT.. IN FACT.. IT'S SO BIG I COULD PADDLE IN IT!

Our lubblyjubbly butcher has all manner of meats to sell and last week she bought a large cut of pork, it has a bone in it, a big bone but it wasn't being sold by the weight, it was, hold onto your hats folks, £3.89 a piece.

And she knew exactly what she was going to do with it. 

Up on the top of one of the cabinets in yumyum hq, aka the kitchen for those of you who haven't been reading my blog for the past eight years, there live two pots, one medium sized one and one huge one.

Their official name is a stock pot for that is what this shape and size pot is usually used for and it was exactly that she was planning to do with this cut of pork.

She put the pork in, then added all manner of vegetables - no carrots, plus spices and herbs, covered it with filtered cold water and brought it up to the boil, then it was heaved over onto a much smaller gas ring and left to hubblebubble for several hours.

I pity any hungry person who walked past our house that night for the extractor fan was on and the smell was wafting out onto the street and a mighty fine smell it was too.

Off went the gas and we went to bed.

The next day she skimmed some of the fat off and put it back onto simmer. After several hours of being on a low heat, she turned it off again and went out about her business.

The next day, more of the same happened and then taking two large glass jars, she ladled stock into them, cleaned the ouside of the jars and put them into WW aka her wicker wheelie.

They were given away as presents and the recipient was literallly speechless! And very sweetly later that evening she telephoned to say how she had used one of the jars.

She had gone and bought a packet of pork belly strips and cut the strips into small pieces and had poached the meat very gently in the stock until the meat was tender, then she added purple kale and some black rice she had in the fridge, then she and her boys had had it for supper.

"Mummy, that was delicious, what a tasty dish", the elder boy said, so sweetly she called us to say how much they all enjoyed it.

If people give you something, anything, please say "thank you". It's such a slap in the face of the giver when you don't.

She remembers giving a pretty cloth and leather bad to an friend a couple of years ago, it would have been perfect for her knitting or needle but the recipient looked at it and said, and I kid you not as I was there, "oh, West African" and put it down on the floor.

Ahh, let's not go there, for all of them have to be the rudest family we know.

So guess what we had for our lunch today? She had pork belly in frosty white larder aka the freezer and took it out last night to defrost. 

So now we know why the boys liked it! For it was delicious, she added barberries and black rice, a couple of stalks of purple sprouting brocolli and half a courgette which sat to steam on the top of the meat for the last few minutes.

Do you make stock? You can also, of course, make vegetable stock which is well worth making, she makes and uses stock throughout the year and freezes it in ice cube trays. 

Chicken & Garlic stock is always in frosty white larder.

She is off to do her feet, this involves Epsom Salts, Tea Tree oil, Savon de Marseille, a nail brush and warm water. I once played the fool and attempted to splosh in the water, being young and foolish, but I was banished and am now never allowed into the bathroom whilst she does her feet.

So I'm going to fly up onto my shelf and chew the fat with Frosty Tiger and Daffy Duck, doubtless we'll be back with another post before too long.

Chirp.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 22nd, 2019, 

WHICH TYPE OF APPLE SHALL WE PLANT GEEGEE?

Bless her heart, she does credit me with an enormous amount of intelligence. How the hell would I know which variety of apple to plant, I don't read books on fruit, I eat it and occasionally look at our existing apple trees but only to check that some naughty bird isn't doing a scrump.

You don't know what a scrump is? Of course you do, it's when you set out to steal fruit and go scrumping!

There's been a lot of scrumping going on this summer out at the allotments.

First of all, some unmentionably evil people stole 99% of her cherries, then there was a massive raid on all of the pear trees on the entire allotment site, stealing everyone's fruit in one night, there must have been a gang of people stripping the trees and it must have been done early one morning. 

But almost the saddest of all was the raid on her little Violetta fig. It happened last week, for we were there last weekend, she watered the small tree and picked a couple of very tasty ripe ones.. yum slurp.. then tucked and pegged the horticultural mesh securely back around the tree.

Birds of all breed loves figgies and as they've eaten all the Marseille figs above the height of two metres, she reckoned they had had their fair share of her figs this summer, so she wrapped the Violetta up to prevent beaky people from scrumping.

Yesterday she walked down the path to the little fig tree yesterday and upon spying trampled grass, she thought 'Oh no, not these as well', the thieves hadn't even bothered to replace the mesh, it was hanging down on one side and sure enough, had been stripped of figs.

Again, it must be someone who has a plot on the site, someone who has access to the site and comes in very early. 

For there are families who have suppers out there and as the weather has been glorious, a lot of plot holders come down later than normal to water.

Yes, she's saving up for two surveillance cameras!

But onto happier things, she cut the grass and tidied up a few of the beds, tied in a few long blackberry shoots, which will grow along the chain link fencing which borders Brian's old plots.

Which leads me to write about a very unexpected gift she received.She arrived one day about a month ago to find, parked outside her gate, a large green wheelbarrow and a matching watering can. 

'How strange', she thought, then remembered that Brian, her neighbour, had these, so she went onto his allotment which is now a jungle and peered into his shed, upon seeing neither a wheelbarrow or a watering can, she assumed they must be his and sent him a message and received a message back saying 'yes they were his and he'd given them to her as the wretched Sycamore trees had defeated him and he was giving up his plots'.

How sad she thought, he had been a pleasant neighbour and very circumspect about weed control, particularly weeds that have seeds!

Ah well, people's lives change, isn't that true!

Her life has certainly changed in the past twenty years, it will be the 19th anniversary of her taking on the plots this coming January, and apart from the three Cypriot families at the other end of the site and Joska, who came to the site a month or two after she took on her plots, she and Rose, the owner of Gerty, her Jack Russel, have been there the longest length of time.

Elaine and Stephen went well over four years ago, Jack Baker died three years ago, his wife did take the plots on but in a very half hearted fashion, the charming Iraqi family with Nancy, their African Grey have been gone for at least six years, Jane gave up her plot due to ill health and so too has Stefano, the wonderful chef.

But let's go back to apples.. I lurve a crunchy apple and so does she and my bet, yes, I am a betting parrot - it's a good thing I don't get pocket money (no pockets to keep it in) as it would all go on the odd flutter.. gettit! Flutter.. feathers.. perhaps not, not everyone is as mad as we are in this house.

Anyway, my bet is that it will be a variety of Russet apple, all the rest you can buy at Farmer's Markets but it's rare to see Russets for sale, yes, they're an old breed of apple and I think she'll go for an Ashmead's Kernel.

This variety dates back to the 17th century! And has an unusual, almost pear like, taste. It is an extremely versatile apple as it is delicious cooked, is brilliant in a salad (!) and keeps well.

So that's a no-brainer, but as she has room to plant two trees, which other would be a good one, perhaps a D'Arcy Spice but as she hasn't been able to find any available, it will probably be a Saint Edmund's Russet. We already have a Egremont Russet and the St. Edmunds are richer and juicer, so that is what she'll go for.

She'll order them this week for delivery this 
Autumn and at some point before then, will prepare the ground for their arrival, buying two stakes with the rubber ties and get a load of mulch ready to put around the trunks of these trees when they are planted.

Jolly Dolly is what I say or should that be Tooty Frooty? Whichever, you get the drift, the more fruity tooty the better.

Goodness me, it's way past one of the afternoon clock, where's my lunch? I had better let her go and rustle a pan or two in yumyum hq. Stay happy, healthy and safe wherever you may be.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 22nd, 2019.

YELLOW PICKLED RELISH - YUM.. TASTY!

She'd seen them in the market for years but never bought one, the long white radishes called Daikon.

But recently a young friend gave her a jar of very crunchy bright yellow pickle, the yellow coming from turmeric.

She thought, I am not an idiot, I can make this, so off she trotted, her foot wasn't sore then, down to the market.

You need PURE rice vinegar, always check the ingredients of rice vinegar as a lot of them have very little vinegar and LOTS of water in them!

She gathered turmeric, both powder and root, homegrown bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, garlic, black pepper corns, filtered water, salt and sugar, plus the rice vinegar.

She cut the radish quite finely as per the example in the jar, put the ingredients, minus the radish, into a stainless steel pan and boiled the liquid for some time to get it infused with the spices and herbs.

Then added the radish to the liquid and poached it for about twenty minutes. Then tipped into a large glass bowl and left it to cool.

Before she went to bed, she put it into a tall Kilner jar and into chilly white larder.. aka the fridge.  

She let it sit for two days before she tasted it. I thought that showed great restraint!

Yum, she thought, now that's another tasty thing to make for gifts, I'll add a piece of ginger root to it as well to add a bit of heat to the taste.

Yes, Christmas is a'coming folks, she'll soon be starting to make crystalised ginger that so many of her friends love and now she'll make the Yellow Daikon relish as well.

Gifts do not have to be expensive, more fool you if you think so or if your so-called friends expect expensive presents. You clearly know the wrong kind of people.

As she obviously did for a few years, as someone has accused her of being dishonest.. ouch! That's pretty 'rich' coming from a person whose life and behaviour is, what Bill would have described as 'decidedly suspect'.' ie dodgy!

But now she knows and that person is 'history'.

It's tea time! See what happens when she is under my feet all the time, I think of nothing but food, but then I know there are the most divine drop scones* in chilly white larder, made with a wonderful mix of ground up nuts instead of flour.. oh, slurp the durp with fresh almond butter.

Goodbye farewell.. yumyum hq is calling me.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 18th, 2019.
PostScript: Hugo used to call them Babies Feet.

9/11 DAGGA DIED THAT DAY & OTHER THINGS.

What a horrible day that was, it's never a 'good' day - 9.11 - for all of the thousands of people who were affected by the terrible things that happened and, of course, New York City itself.

For her, it's like Valentine's Day, the day that Hugo died or October 30th on which Edgar, Bill and Moley died, all on the same day but in different years. 

Darling Dagga, he would still be alive if that idiot hadn't put the box of washing tablets behind the mirror, he died at almost the exact time the first aircraft hit the north tower.. on the deadful third anniversary of that day of terror.

When she came back from burying him later that day, she took down the huge dressing table mirror from which he had fallen, put it in the hall and gave it away that next week.

It didn't matter that she loved it and had known it all her life, she would never be able to look at it again and not hear the scream of pain as his neck broke.

Gruesome days.. ugh and she had another last week when the nurse taking a blood test, couldn't get any blood out of her first needle, so she had to take it out and put another needle in.

Her lovely GP had called her in to the surgery to talk to her because he had come back off holiday to find her emails and to be told all about the fun and games that happened two weeks ago.

So various blood tests were ordered.. but as she bumped into a lovely friend on her way out, that was a treat as she lives miles away and we don't get to see her very often.

Fifteen years ago, such a lot has happened since then. She misses that big bird, Dagga Parrot, more than she lets on. She seldom talks about him and 
it's only old friends who knew and remember him and his funny ways.

However, there was a story published recently about her and the three African Grey, yes, you read that correctly, because if it hadn't been for her meeting Tunku, an African Grey in Malayia when she was eighteen months old, I wonder if I or Dagga Parrot would have come into her life.

She's loved us birds for a long time, she and Dagga met when she was rising thirty eight, she's now sixty nine, she has had Greys for over thirty one years but if she had had her way, she would have had one when she was eighteen months old and the parrot would probably still be alive!

Our species live, if loved and treated properly, for a very good length of time! Longer than a cat or a dog, that's for sure!

I have her 'captive' at home! The strappy sandals she has worn for three summers which make her feet striped with suntan, have caused a huge bump on the outside of her foot, which is so weird as they have never in the past caused her to have the slightest pain and in fact, were extremely comfortable to wear for both walking and working in.

But the strap that comes from underneath her foot and then over her arch has caused this extremely sore area on the edge of her foot which is also slightly underneath, it is probably a bursa, as in bursitis. 

Boring! And incredibly painful. The rest of that side of the foot swells up if it is contained in a shoe or boot so that puts the mockers on her working at the allotments, that's for sure!

She had breakfast with her much beloved friend Pat on Monday who asked mum why she was limping, mum explained and Pat immediately told her to go to Burchills, the podiatrists on the Fulham Palace Road, as they'll be able to help you. 

She knew immediately where they were as she passes them every time she goes to the allotments or to Charing Cross hospital, which is located on the same road, so when Pat and she parted she hopped onto a 430 bus and made an appointment with them.

She came back via our lubblyjubbly butcher in the North End Road, she was in need of comfort food and a ham hock was what she was after!

Have you ever cooked one? 

You need a big cooking pot, we've two stock pots and it was the smaller of the two that she brought down from the top of a kitchen cupboard, after giving it a rinse, she put in three large carrots, three celery stalks home grown, three bay leaves, a big bunch of both rosemary and thyme, two heads of garlic chopped in half with the outer skin taken off and two huge white onions, everything was chopped in to large pieces, she is mighty proud of the fact that all these before mentioned vegetables were home grown!

A large piece of fresh ginger root was added together with a handful of black peppercorns. But NO salt was added!

She put in the ham hock, topped up the pot with filtered water and put it on to boil, once it had come up to the boil, she dropped the heat down and reduced the liquid to a simmer. It simmered for a long time, a very long time indeed, she took a bone out, the flesh dropped off and she knew it was ready.

Having turned off the heat, she stripped the flesh and skin off the bones and allowed it to cool. Then added more celery, carrots and a monster Patty Pan squash which had grown too large, put back the bones and the skin into the pot, added more water and brought it back up to a rolling boil, then turned it back down again to simmer for another hour.

We now have a large bowl of the most succulent pork and a massive amount of pork and vegetable stock, most of which she will freeze and some she will give away as a treat to a family who don't really cook this sort of food but oh, they love it!

For who doesn't like home made pea and ham soup and guess what, frozen peas make brilliant soup! 

Now, it is lunch time and I'm annoying her by tooting and whistling whilst perched on her head, she finally has got the message as she's just looked at her watch and realised.. guess what?

It's lunch time!

So, we hope that you are all somewhere safe, the worlds' press has seemingly forgotten about those thousands of unfortunate people and all of their animals in the Bahamas. 

We haven't.. 

GeeGee Parrot.
September 18th, 2019. 

PEOPLE'S RUDENESS NEVER CEASES TO AMAZE ME & HER .. PLUS MUCH HAPPIER NEWS!

You do someone a favour saving them quite a considerable amount of time and money and get kicked in the teeth. 

It certainly leaves an unpleasant taste in your mouth especially when it means that, through no fault of your own, it ends up costing you nearly £500.00!

This happened to her this last week and why is she surprised? You may well ask. But because of the litigious nature of the person involved, she has decided to zip her mouth. Pity that, for it's a good tale!

On to happier things..

Like reporting that a lot of the vegetable beds on her plots are winding down slowly but that doesn't mean that things aren't growing. 

Beetroot are growing, as are Cucumber, Onion, Cabbage, Purple Sprouting Brocolli, Shallot, Chard and Kale and ROSES!!

The White Marseille figs have been quite the best ever and she's still harvesting them, they are like no other fig for when they're fully ripe, their flesh turn to liquid which is like honey.

Now it is the turn of the dark fig Violetta to come to the fore, she was bred in Bavaria and will take quite a degree of frost, when she comes to ripeness, if there is such a word, in September / October. This is the first year she has produced big figs and it has certainly been worth the wait!

Mama has hard pruned her from the get-go and now she is on quite a short trunk with a huge amount of branches. They say tht you should only prune fig tree in June but 'phooey to that' she says and nips out every single little growth after it has grown two leaves right up to the end of July.

If you are a professional Fig Tree grower, do not bother to cry and shout "Fig Abuse" at her, because, guess what, she's going to continue to do it!

She didn't do this to the White Marseille fig, she didn't know about pruning fig trees and look what happened to that tree! She's now over 5 metres tall and feeds all those norty Starlings who sit on the uppermost branches gobbling white figs as fast as they can and who squeak back at her when she shouts at them.

So Miss Violetta and her new Miss Brown Turkey fig tree will be pruned and loved - this is not to say that she doesn't love Miss Marseille - and taken care of and wrapped in horticultural mesh when their fruits are of a decent size and she'll tell the birds that they have to be content with white figs.

But fruit thieves are about! Two weeks ago on the Saturday night, they struck at every pear tree on all the allotments! Almost every single piece of fruit was stolen! And none of them were ripe, pears ripen later than a lot of apples and none of them were even approaching their proper picking size.

So who would want literally hundreds of unripe pears? All of the plot holders are quite mystified. But having looked at a couple of old recipe books, she's seen there's a LOT you can do with them, so they were obviously stolen by people who intend to sell them as cooked items.

Next year, she intends to net her fig and pear trees with horticultural mesh and she has been given the 'go-ahead' by the allotment site secretry to install a couple of poaching cameras, they're what farmers and gamekeepers use to monitor their lifestock.

And any member of the allotment seen on camera (or in the flesh) stealing from another persons' plot will be evicted immediately. Dennis, the site secretary, who was a magistrate for 30 years (!!) is absolutely positive it is someone who is a plot holder, for all of us holders go in and out at strange times and so someone there late at night or very early in the morning is never thought of being 'up to no good' as it were!

Sad that.. stealing.

Onto happier things. We had a brilliant day yesterday! She went through a huge amount of paperwork, magazines and other 'stuff' and threw away masses of it, the sensitive stuff she takes out to the allotment and burns in her incinerator along with dried weeds, the cooled ashes get spread onto the vegetable beds.

But everything, aka the rubbish and other things she wanted to save, was tipped onto her bed and what a fine mess it was too! Made even messier, if that was possible, by me landing down in the middle of it and tramping about seeing what I could rip or chew!

All she did was laugh.. I do hope your mother laughed when you got into her messes,

Then the bed was stripped, clean sheets and a clean bedspread were put on and lo and behold, you would have never known chaos had ever existed! The carpet was vacuumed, shelves were dusted, bedside tables sorted and cleaned.. and oh, LOOKIELOOKIE! Her second pair of reading glasses reappeared from where they had been hiding under a book!

Now she has to go to Squires of Twickenham, which is absolutely her favourite Plant and Garden centre, she has a credit note and intends to spend it on seeds. 

And on the way home she will stop in at a brilliant new food shop on King's Street in Hammersmith to purchase: 2 red onions, a bottle of Pomegranate molasses, a Pomegranate and a packet of Barberries.

She also needs a box of Black Rice, you can sometimes find this at Sainsbury's, where it's called Thai Black Rice and always at Whole Foods, which is where she will buy a packet.

Why? I'll tell you in another post as it's a surprise gift for a friend. So that's all for today, we will be back later in the week. Stay happy and healthy folks and above all.. please be kind.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 10th, 2019.

2 MIXED BAGS OF FRUIT & VEGETABLES WERE GIVEN AWAY TODAY..

When you have friends who do you favours and you have a vegetable and fruit garden, it is a 'no brainer' as to how to say "Thank you".

Yes, a selection of fresh fruits and vegetables to people who live in cities with no allotments are always well received, that's for sure!

Her kind optician who mended her sunglasses free of charge received a motley selection this morning as well.

Halfway through today, she became grumpy, she is in the process of changing suppliers on her second mobile phone and do you think their wretched website would accept her card number.

So tomorrow she's going to the store and asking an assistant to do it for her and will let them come up against their stupid website, however, knowing her luck at the moment, it will probably go through first time and leave her with egg on her nose.

Onto happier things.. she has two very young friends, as in really young! The eldest is five and his brother will be three in January and she saw the perfect gift for them on a friend's nursery floor!

It is a collection of squares made of dense foam, with the alphabet and figures from 1 to 9 printed on them and they join together to make a mat or a cube.. it's very clever
1
Indestructible.. perfect for young boys!

That was why she made two deliveries of fruits and vegetable today, for our kind friend, Andreea who had Amelia and Lukas last November, went into her file and ordered another set of the foam squares to be sent to her.

Now it's bed time, you will be pleased to hear that sometimes I climb onto her hand and from that onto a perch in my night cage.. the operative word being sometimes..

But tonight I was willing to go to bed and in fact, I wish she would hurry up and post this post so we can turn the light out and go to sleep.

Well, that has to be a first, you have never heard me say that before, have you!  

Good night everyone. 

GeeGee Parrot.
September 2nd, 2019.

I'M BACK.. OH, YUBBA DUBBA.. HAVE YOU MISSED ME?

Yes, it is me! Not a fakey makey pretend parrot, it is I,the real McCoy and it's with the greatest pleasure that I'm watching her tap out my post.

Goodness me, what a Summer we had! 

First of all, we actually had a Summer!

 By this I mean, old man Sun came out and shone his torch on us, rain fell in appropriate quantities and everything - flowers, fruit, grass, vegetables and weeds, grew like crazy things at the allotments!

We had lots and lots of bbq's, either on our plot or across the track on Joska's.

Melons grew in profusion, as did cucumbers of several different varieties and the yellow figs are out of this world!

We have had one scary day, she woke up very early and thought she was starting a heart attack and she hustled about and got herself to A&E at our local hospital, strangely enough, the previous evening she had had a call from a divine doctor, one of our GPs.

She had wanted mama to go into A&E about something but mama had refused to go. Saying that she was in bed, very tired and that she would go to her gastroenterology team the following day at Charing Cross.

The end result was it wasn't a heart attack but they picked up something else, that she wasn't and shouldn't be on blood thinners of such a high dosage.

So, in a way, as the very sweet doctor up in ACU said, it was a good thing you came in and we noticed this in your blood level.

Now, she is off to deliver lots of very fresh vegetables to our friends Andreea and Juliano, you will remember it was she that gave birth to twins last November, Amelia and Lukas are now nine months old! Time has flashed by.

It will be a busy week but I'll be back soon. 

We pray that hurricane Dorian doesn't cause the loss of lives of animals and humans. Please follow the advice of officials if you are within the danger zone.

GeeGee Parrot.
September 2nd, 2019.  

TO SAY LIFE AS BEEN DIFFICULT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT..

I know, no posts in May. It has been a very strange month, to say the least, because as everyone kept asking her, why did you have those attacks?

She will know the answers shortly as - finally - the cardiac mri unit has given her an appointment date, she will be going to the Brompton Chest hospital to have this done in June.

As for me, I am very well and guess what? I am not plucking my feathers any more! 

So soon I shall be pretty again, for three years I have looked decidedly 'manky', to put it politely! With a vest that looked as if moths had been chewing it and my wing feathers didn't look too good either.

But soon I shall be ravishing and we will know what caused mama to have those two naughty heart attacks.

Boy oh boy, I do admit to being somewhat scared by feeling that weird sensation, I was sitting on her head when the first one kicked off and her blood pressure plummeted.

Anyway, she has been taking care of herself, we have been at the allotments a great deal and no, she hasn't been overdoing it, as she did all the hard work in February and March.

I'm not sure when I will be back, as we are pretty busy at the moment.

But I wish you all well and hope that you are keeping yourselves happy and healthy?

GeeGee Parrot.
May 30th, 2019.

SORRY FOLKS, SHE'S ALIVE BUT HAVING A DIFFICULT TIME, WE'LL BE BACK MORE OFTEN WHEN SHE FEELS BETTER.

Back to A&E she went but to a hospital where she is a patient and for another medical reason. 

The nice doctor said "You were right to come in, your blood tests show you have a severe infection and we are going to put a drip into you. I've updated this information onto your medical notes and to your consultant, he will almost certainly want to see you quite soon to run more tests."

But they didn't keep her in overnight and armed with things that look like horse pills (yes, that big) she came home but by then it was much too late to pick me up from where she had left me.

Which wasn't with our Lebanese friends as they had both been out when she left to go to the hospital, so I was left with a kindly neighbour where I have been before but it isn't the same.

Mama collected me the next day, by which time I had chewed a lot of my wing tips again.. that made her very sad.

I know, silly me but it is worrying for a small fat grey person, aka me, when things like this happen.

Anyway, she isn't feeling 'great' and as the weather is grotty, to say the least, we're at home, she is taking life quietly and remembering to take the antibiotics 3 times a day for the infection and first thing in the morning for her heart.

This is my mum.. who gardens all day long, I can't believe (neither can she) that these two medical things have happened. But they have and so she has to be a little careful for a while until all is revealed as to the reason for her heart attacks and this infection.

This explains our silence.. we're here but ticking over quietly.

GeeGee Parrot.
April 27th, 2019.

MAMA'S HAD TWO HEART ATTACKS BUT SHE'S ALIVE..

We were having an easy day at home last Saturday, the weather was iffy, she had had a very stressful week, chilly white larder was full of delicious yumyum so there was no reason to be out there.

We had eaten the most delicious supper of lamb chops with home grown 'greens' at about 6.30pm and were snug as two bugs in our rugs watching television when at about 9pm she felt a weird little pain in her chest.

Shouldn't gooble chops so fast, she thought and ignored it. It didn't go away but she still ignored it and went on doing so until it got considerably worse and by that time, I knew something wasn't 'right' at all.

I abseiled down her neck, ran onto her chest and turning my head upside, gave her a couple of hard bangs on where the pain was and said "WooWoo" and then rushed up onto her right shoulder.

That got her attention, I can assure you for I NEVER sit on her right shoulder.

She got out of bed, called our Lebanese friends and said "I'm not feeling well, can I drop GeeGee off on my way to A&E", they said to do so.

She put a bag of my food into my Ikea bag with my travel cage, I walked into it (I knew something was very wrong with her and now was not the time to muck about).

She got dressed, put her mobile, the charger, eye drops, a nightdress, underwear and wash bag into a small bag, took her keys, wallet and other stuff and we left the house in under 15 minutes.

She dropped me at Myra's house and walked up to catch a taxi, one stopped immediately and she said "A&E at Chelsea & Westminster Hospital please", she sat down and, zoom, he took off.

They got there in record time and when she went to pay, he said no, that she looked not at all well and wished her good luck!

It wasn't that busy and she went to say what was wrong, the woman looked at her and said "Sit there, someone will be out for you shortly".

Sure enough, she was called for by a Triage nurse who had a wheelchair with him within a few minutes.

And ZOOM.. she was into the emergency ward on the ground floor quicker than she or you could say bang! 

And her feet didn't touch the floor again until about 7am on Sunday morning.

To cut this short.. she was in hospital for four days, she suffered another heart attack the next night but by then she was in bed in ACU hitched up to a heart monitor being watched like a hawk.

It gave a loud warning noise and someone was by her side within a nanosecond with a draft of morphine.

Now wasn't the time to say "I don't do drugs".

Monday morning, she was taken to West Middlesex and had an angiogram, which showed that her arteries were completely free of plaque or sediment and they certainly didn't have any other type of blockages!

As the doctor said "You may have a minute bit of plaque on one of your back teeth but you certainly don't have any in your arteries!"

Back she went to ACU, to find her charming team shaking their heads and saying "Well, that's ticked that cause off, what's next, your blood pressure is too low but we know from your GP that this is certainly not your normal pressure, hmmm".

By that time she was ravenous and someone disappeared to find her some lunch and some fruit, for she had been 'nil by mouth' for the angiogram.

More blood tests, blood pressure taken on the hour along with other tests and copious amounts of blood extracted from the intravenous cannula which was in her left arm.

Her right wrist was still under pressure in the tighter than skin rubbery plastic 'bracelet' which covered the place where the angiogram had gone in.

But hey, she was feeling happy.. the staff were adorabubble to her, it was cheerful, no one was grumpy, she knew I was safe with Myra and Raja and probably being spoilt.. correction.. she knew I was being spoilt!

She had the sense to bring both her mobiles with their chargers so she had access to the outside world and the ability to play games and a lovely woman came around every day at tea time with magazines and daily papers.

She felt very sorry for the people in the small private wards on the other side of the corridor! 

There were a couple of them literally sitting in their doorways so that they could see what was going on.. she talked to one young woman who said that she had forgotten to bring her charger (very silly), so she lent her one and lo and behold, the woman suddenly had lots of emails and telephone messages which hadn't come through because her mobile had run out of power.

Always travel with your charger is the motto to that tale!

Meanwhile, over on the NHS side of the corridor, there was too'ing and fro'ing and the staff had been clever enough to stick 'grumpies' together in a ward by themselves and those other patients who were happy AND polite to staff of any kind, were treated wonderfully!

What an amazing four days.. the level of care was faultless, the kindness, the attention to detail, she is extremely glad that she does voluntary work for, quite fittingly, the British Heart Foundation and the NHS.

So I am saying "Thanks to the two branches of the Chelsea & Westminster university teaching hospital, thanks for taking such wonderful care of my mum".

And.. I'm thanking those of you who have taken the trouble to call her or send personal messages and emails rather than just leave public comments on FaceBook.

GeeGee Parrot.
April 18th, 2019.

CAMBRIDGE LADIES AND MENS TEAMS WERE FIRST OVER THE LINE!

A double win for Cambridge in today's Boat Race as the ladies and the mens team both won.

Go on line and read their times, it makes my legs and wings creak at the mere thought of the work that goes into pulling those oars hard enough to propel the boats through the water.

                      CONGRATULATIONS

You'll be pleased to hear that I'm dry! Mama took pity on my forelornly wet torso and fetched the hot air blowing machine, you would call it a hair dryer.

And in no time at all, I was blown dry and looking ravishing.

Lunch was delicious.. slurp. A chunk of chicken thigh meat together with the bone, a decent sized dollop of hummus as well as one of labneh, together with a large piece of celery and several monkeynuts, that was my meal, she doesn't eat monkey nuts.

Her pudding was a small dish of almonds, brazil and cashew nuts together with a chunk of dark chocolate.

We're now settling down for the late afternoon, she has the book about Margaret, Duchess of Argyll to read and I'll doze on her head.

Cat's asleep in his bed, tired after pulling towels off the towel rail, such bad behaviour. 

GeeGee Parrot.
April 7th, 2910.

SPLISH SLOSH.. I HAD A WASH! PLUS CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT BROCCOLI & CABBAGE!

Poof.. it certainly isn't worth paying £5.00 to go the allotments, however, she feels sorry for people watching the Cambridge versus Oxford boat race for it is chilly and more than a little damp underfoot.

But the on-line papers say that in London we're due for a wonderful weekend weather wise! What utter rubbish, where do these weather people live?

Never mind.. luckily when Jane and she were out jaunting about on Thursday she bought food and has no reason to have to go out in this dreary weather.

Yes, I know she should go and take exercise but she isn't getting dressed and going out just to get wet and cold.

          Mind you.. I got very wet this morning!

It was after we had our eggs, I thought I should have a bath and so launched my fat little body, her words not mine, into my large water bowl.

This bowl sits in a big flat Pyrex aka Corning Ware dish on the side of her bed and no, she's not daft, for underneath it is a very thick towel.

Room temperature water and not too deep, just perfect for standing in one foot at a time whilst I dunked my head, then it was the turn of the other foot and both wings, soon I was as wet as could be and climbed out.. dripping wet!

What fun.. I started towards off towards her on the other side of the bed only to be told "NO, you are not coming to dry yourself off on me, fly off to your cupboard door and drip over there please".

She is such a spoilt sport sometimes!

Goodness me, is that the time? Where does the time go? She has to boil water to soak her bottom eyelid with, she got a sty which may pop any moment, boiled water, allowed to cool a bit and lots of good sea salt, is drawing the poison out.

And at the same time she will chop broccoli and take meat out of chilly white larder.

Sulforphane - which is a wonderful ingredient of the cruciferous family - is in the inactive form of glucoraphanin that belongs to the glucosinolate family of plant compounds.

Sulforphane is activated when glucoraphanin comes into contact with myrosinase, a family of enzymes that play a role in the defense response of plants.

Myrosinase enzymes are released and activated when a plant is damaged. Therefore, broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables (bok choy and cabbage) must be cut, chopped or chewed to release myrosinase and activate sulforphane.

Raw cruciferous vegetables have the highest level of sulforphane, a recent study showed that raw broccoli had ten times more sulforphane than cooked broccoli and if you do cook them, then steaming for only 3 minutes or less is the best way to retain all the healthy stuff.

What a good thing I like my veggies raw! 

Now you've today's useful information.. pip pip.. I'm off to yumyum hq.

GeeGee Parrot.
April 7th, 2019.

THE WHISTLER' a novel by JOHN GRISHAM.

Mission accomplished! She found just what she needed in Rymans on the King's Road, in fact they were purrfect so they were put into a mysterious package for they were just the right colour for a lass who loves purple.

Then it was a quick trot down the road to the library, a very quick trot indeed because it had started to rain, luckily the library books were in a bag inside WW aka wicker wheelie.

The place was jumping! Not surprisingly for it being cold and wet, it was the perfect place and time to read papers and to choose new reading material for the coming week.

She returned her books and selected eight new ones to see her through the weekend and the beginning of next week.

The weather forecast isn't happy making, not for jaunting to the allotments, especially as she lost her travel pass on Wednesday. 

Grrr, she isn't willing to spend £5.00 a day on bus fares only to be frozen or drenched with cold rain or snow, not when you could be at home as snug as a bug reading a scary book!

After walking down Sydney Street and over to Bute Street, she met Debbie, aka goaty mum, who runs Ellie's Dairy and handed over the mysterious package.

Her birthday was on the 2nd and the package was her birthday gift, they were writing cards with the picture of a cheeky Sanaan goaty kid which mum had had made but the supplier had not been able to supply the right coloured envelopes, hence the trip to Rymans.

It is always fun when you can dream up a fun and useful gift for someone.. that they don't have and is totally unique to them! Those cards hit the spot.

Then she came home.. by foot, she was not about to pay £1.50 for a bus ride when she could walk, especially as WW was happy to trundle along beside her with his heavy load.

She checked on Boy, our guest and gave him a little more yumyum, he had been naughty, the room was in a dreadful mess, he pulled the curtain off its' track and everything, which had been on top of the cabinet, was now on the floor!

Luckily nothing had broken as it had landed on a rug.. otherwise she would have been very sad indeed.

Lunch had been cooking on a low heat whilst she had been out and it was soon on our plates and we settled down to homegrown greens and chicken drumstick stew with button mushrooms.. slurp!

Then she selected a fat book and start to read but had the television on for my entertainment, I like it when she reads aloud but she wasn't up to that today - or she was too engrossed aka idle!

She enjoys this author's work and has read most of his novels, have you? John Grisham is his name, this book, 'The Whistler' was published in 2016.

The next book she'll read is 'The Grit In The Pearl' by Lyndsey Spence, a book about Margaret, Duchess of Argyll.

Now she'll check on our guest and then she has to persuade me that it is the dreaded hour aka bedtime.. ugh.

We'll be back soon, so don't go too far away.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 6th, 2019.

SHE DRINKS 'G & T' ALL DAY LONG.. BUT NEVER GETS DRUNK!

Ha ha ha.. you thought I meant Gin & Tonic, didn't you? No no no.. she drinks the other G & T.. aka Ginger & Turmeric all day long!

It 'kicks' starts her digestive system in the morning for she no longer drinks coffee, pity that, for I love the smell of fresh coffee and so does she but it does sneaky things to her fingers and that dodgy knee.

Why does she drink this strange tasty drink? Well.

Ginger is a pain killer and keeps her completely pain free. 

Turmeric dramatically increases the antioxidant capacity of your body, it also contains a natural anti-inflammatory compound called Curcumin which is in Ginger.

And to kick start curcumin into working, she combines it with freshy ground black pepper, for pepper contains piperine a substance that enhances the absorption of curcumin by 2,000%!

Inflammation is the cause of almost every chronic disease: Cancer (all types), degenerative conditions, arthritis, heart disease, Alzheimers.

The day started off overcast and dull, it's cheered up somewhat but as there is a chance of rain and she has library books to return and to hunt for the second part of a present, she won't be going to the allotments today.

Rain is forecasted for all of this coming week so April is living up to her reputation of showers, for which we are quite glad, as February and March were mostly dry with small amounts of rain.

This means the ground was remarkably dry at the start of this week and that's not what you want when fruit trees are putting out their blossoms.

And shock horror, there was one day last week when she actually had to water all the raised beds by hand with buckets and watering cans!

Garlic won't grow big and fat and smelly if the earth is dry, that's for sure! She hoes between each plant to make sure the earth is soft and noticed it was dry, hence the watering. 

If the ground is dry the bulbs cannot swell and grow properly and you must keep weeds away as they take moisture away from the bulbs.

We have two very large beds of garlic, she grows both hard and soft neck varieties, some bulbs have purple skins and some white, don't ask me the difference, I just eat it.

You have to 'watch' garlic and not let the 'scapes' stay, they grow on the hard-neck varieties, they're like long green curly stalks with a bud on the end. They drain nutrients away from the bulbs, so cut them off and use them in cooking, they're tasty.

If you don't grow hard neck garlic yourself, you might be lucky enough to find them later on in the year at a good farmer's market.

There are several way of using them in cooking, she grills hers lightly and tosses them in olive oil with salt and pepper and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

Mince and chop them and add them to softened butter, then freeze the butter to use on a steak or a fat lamb chop.

They're very long so cut them into shorter lengths and stir fry them much as you would french beans in a stir-fry.

        Go and find Melissa Clark's recipe for :
                        Double Garlic Soup.

Put Melissa Clark's recipe for Double Garlic Soup into your search engine and up it will pop.. it is mighty tasty!

Ok, we're off, she's things to do and places to go, I will doze and we might be back later on today.. if you're lucky!

GeeGee Parrot.
March 6th, 2019.