A 21.2 DEGREE DAY AFTER A FROSTY NIGHT & THE END OF WINTER.

I chose not to go with her on Tuesday and missed the hottest Winter's day ever recorded in the UK! What a pity for that would have given me lots of vit D for sure! 

The temperature, thanks to the winds blowing air up from obviously very sunny Spain, had steadily risen for two weeks and on Tuesday, 21.2 degrees was recorded at The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, which are but a short hop & a skip from our allotments!

She came back and told me what she had done and how very chilly it must have been on Monday. 

She had gone out early to the allotments and found the grass covered in dew and the bottle of olive oil in Shack completely solid which meant the night had been frosty, for which she was grateful.

It sounds strange, doesn't it? But frost and heavy dew bring moisture to the ground and sure enough, later on in the day when she planted the new strawberries, the soil was moist underneath the top layer.

Last Autumn she filled lots of glass bottles so she would have water to drink whilst our water supply is turned off and she found they were deliciously chilled just as if one had come straight out of chilly white larder.. aka fridge!

It was hot enough to work in a camisole and as long as she drank lots of water and took a tiny pinch of salt every hour, she was ok. 

Yes, a pinch or lick of salt now and again counteracts cramp which she gets if she works hard and sweats in hot weather but doesn't have enough salt in her system.

Leg cramp is painful but certainly preventable with just a pinch or lick of salt now and again. 

Boy Cat came to stay yesterday and I stayed home to keep him company, it was a hot day, not quite as hot as Tuesday but too hot to work in a sweater, she worked in a camisole and at the end of the day, wow.. had a tanned back! 

She dug over the old herb beds which was dirty work so she wore boots, otherwise she would have been wearing her strappy shoes, they always make people laugh as she gets striped feet! 

We had an early start yesterday for she woke up with a jolt and thought 'that wretched diary, when it got wiped it took off the reminder to send Fanny a birthday card', so we called her in Majorca to wish her a happy day and caught her just leaving to take Marcus, her dog, out for a walk before going to have breakfast with friends.

Phew.. that was a near miss! They've known each other since they met at school when they were eight.. a long time ago!

Today is the morning of the last official day of Winter, the past two weeks have been glorious with sunny warm days and all the bulbs at the allotments are up but not everything is in flower. 

But the mini narcissi are flowering underneath the two white cherry trees, they're planted amongst a long bed of French Lavender and are such a POP of colour!

Well, we certainly don't have a pop of colour here this morning! It's past 10.30am and there isn't a sign of Mr. Sun. The weather channels warned us of a 15 degree drop in temperature and sure enough, it has happened.

The heating was turned off two weeks ago and it will stay off now until the late Autumn BUT and this is a big but, if we have snow in deepest Knightsbridge, it'll go on in a hurry, that's for sure!

It's too cold for me to go to the allotments today but she has to go to tuck horticultural fleece over the tiny broccoli, curly kale and pointy cabbage shoots she planted on Tuesday.

They have metal frames over them to stop birds eating them, fleece will be put over the top of these and then tucked underneath to hold it in place.

It would be very silly to lose these tiny plants after growing them in the propagator and then let a frost or pigeons kill them.

She investigated two raised beds yesterday, where not a single shoot has appeared. How peculiar, for she planted lots of Broad Beans aka Fava Beans and Peas last Autumn at the same time as she planted Garlic cloves.

All the garlic is up and growing well, but now she has to do plant beans and peas again, how weird.

There's time to do it again, she will start them off at home in the heated propagator so won't miss out very much.

She isn't bothering with tall French Bean plants this year, for dwarf beans keep on growing and you can cheat old Jack Frost by keeping them covered in the late autumn with a light fleece.

She grew purple and green dwarf French beans last year and the purple variety grew like Topsy! What a lot of beans came off those plants and there are two little packets still in frost cabinet aka freezer.

So now you are up to date and I'm off in search of a comfy perch. PipPip.. hurray.. it's the last day of Winter today!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 28th, 2019. 

BE AWARE OF WHAT DAMAGE PAIN KILLERS CAN DO.

We have a pleasant allotment neighbour, his name is Brian and he was there yesterday and after chatting for a while, she asked him about an old plot holder called Jane.

Jane had taken on her plots in 2003 and had spent quite a bit of effort making her beds and growing delicious things but five years ago, she didn't come so often, then she stopped coming and a friend of hers had worked them.

But she had come down one day last summer with Brian and had called out to us, so mama went on to Brian's plot to chat to them.

And got a dreadful shock! For Jane had gained at least four stone (56 lbs - 25.5 kg) and appeared to be in severe pain. 

Apparently her right knee had become extremely painful, she was on crutches and this was the reason she had stopped gardening.

Fast forward to yesterday and Brian said, when mama asked how she was, "she's out of hospital now and back home but it was touch and go for a few days", mama said "what on earth was the matter?" 

Brian explained that due to the pain in her knee, she had had a knee replacement, however, due to her size and the pain from the operation which still worried her, she had been prescribed pain killers.. namely an NSAID called Ibuphrofen which had eaten through her stomach wall.

A month ago she had been admitted as an emergency at 2am and had been operated on within a very short time!

We have spoken more than once about the dangers of NSAIDs, she never uses pain killing drugs and will be forever grateful to Dr. Michael Greger for his book 'How Not to Die', in which he wrote that a teaspoonful of powdered ginger has the same pain killing power as 400mg of Ibuphrofen without any side effects'.

Poor Jane.. but she is a lesson to all of us who have arthritis.. lying around and taking drugs to kill pain instead of taking exercise to strengthen our muscles, eating good fresh food, not drinking to excess and taking the right sort of supplements which help the body to heal.. can kill you.

In the USA and UK deaths directly attributable to prescribed pain killers are rising. So do not let yourself become a number.

She takes a herbal formula called 'Joint Relief', it is made by Veridean and contains, amongst other things, Boswellia aka Indian Frankinsence, Turmeric, Curcumin, Glucosamine and Omega 3.

Eats a LOT of fresh green vegetables, fish and nuts, we've been known to squabble over a solitary almond, takes a 'fair' amount of exercise and drinks vast mugs of grated ginger, turmeric with pepper! Plus she isn't overweight.

There is a lot you can do to manage pain without resorting to either prescribed or over the counter drugs which can and do cause horrendous damage to your system in more ways than one. 

We are off to 'frolic' in sunshine.. we hope that you too enjoy your day.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 24th, 2019.

OUCH! LAWNMOWERS & STRIMMERS USE MUSCLES NO OTHER EXERCISE DO!

Having helped a friend sort out a storage unit this morning, we managed to get out to the allotments by 1pm this afternoon and what a busy afternoon it was.

They haven't worked for five months so both the lawnmower and the strimmer took their time to spark.. but sure enough, vroom vroom, the mower soon fired up and off she went to cut the grass.

That done, she used the grass strimmer and went over areas where you can't use a lawn mover and
what a difference it makes to the look of the plots when the edges are neat and tidy!

And, what a different set of back muscles you use too! Every single muscle in the lower and upper back are used when you swing a strimmer back and forth or push a lawn mower.

And don't even start on what her poor old right hand goes through after the first couple of times of using the strimmer!

After eighteen years of working this land, she's learnt not do the plots all in one go but to split the work into sections and strim, weed and prune and then repeat the sequence.

This means not one set of muscles works all day long and that she can actually walk off site at the end of the day and not be classified as a basket case!

It was another glorious day, she planted bulbs and corms and pulled out the white carnations, which she'll replenish with new stock from the Richmond branch of Homebase.

After watering the strawberry plants she planted yesterday, she weeded another section of the terrace and a cutting bed of jonquils and dark blue hyacinths, both of which she loves.

And looked at her watch! Goodness me, it was past 4pm, time to leave for there's a bus at 4.30pm on Satuedays which we could catch if she was quick!

Tools put away, Shack locked up, off we went up the track, just in time to cross the road and catch the bus!

It was another very productive day and today will be much of the same sort of work which means that everything has been done.

Now comes the work of cutting down and digging out those gooseberry bushes and cutting down the non-flowering jasmine! BIG jobs, both of them.. but they have to be go, they're old and not earning their space!

We'll be back tomorrow.. with more tales of life on an allotment, which is pretty much what our life consists of at the moment.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 24th, 2019.

LOTS OF FENCE SUPPORTS @ B&Q MEANT A NEW FENCE WILL BE MADE.

Sure enough, Dean drove up at 10.50am yesterday so we were loaded up and on our way by 11am on the dot.

The route changed, we went to B&Q first, where it being still Winter, there was lots of stock on fence building materials. She picked up eight of the heavy metal fence supports which have a long base spike, a pack of 4 of the 2.5 metre wooden posts and two extra large bags of compost.

We dropped this at the allotments, took the broken fencing to the local dump and returning to the site, she put three enormous builder's rubble bags into the car then they drove back up to the gate and filled them with wood chips.

Three trips later, she had enough to top up three of those huge raised beds she made last autumn.

Each time she goes out there she takes buckets into which she puts our food waste. Egg shells, banana skins, orange peel, avocado shells and stones is what's in these waste buckets, we don't have a lot of stuff to throw away because we eat everything! 

These seven huge boxes are being filled with : weeds, dead leaves, nettles, tree and rose clippings cut up into small pieces, shredded paper, torn up cardboard, food waste which are all mixed up together and topped off with a thick layer of wood chips.

This mixture will be allowed to rot down and she will use these beds for special things like melons and Persian cucumbers.

Oh yes, you did read that right! She's grown some cracking melons, mighty sweet they were too!

And if Spring continues to give us this fine weather, then we are in for a bumper crop of everything. 

But, of course, we'll need 'a little bit' of rain soon!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 23rd, 2019.  

SCRAMBLED EGGS AND SUNSHINE.. NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A GREAT START TO THE DAY!

Yum Yum.. soft scrambled eggs were on the menu this morning, how delicious and Old Man Sun has the beam on his torch switched to high, what a cracker of a day it's going to be!

We are off to do lots of allotment themed chores today, first of all, a trip to drop various things off at the allotment, next a trip to the dump with rotten fencing, from there we go to B&Q to buy fence supports and maybe a couple of long posts (we already have the chain link fencing), four bags of compost, that will be dropped off, then three loads of wood chips and manure which will be put into huge builders bags and transported down the long track in Dean's car.

He is kind beyond belief, a star.

He is due here soon at 11am and he is never late, so it's time we got a wiggle on and started to get ready for our day in the warm sunshine.. yippee!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 22nd, 2019.

SHE DISLIKES RUDE PEOPLE WHO WASTE OTHER PEOPLE'S TIME.

What's that saying.. oh yes, 'No good deed goes unpunished', well, she certainly thinks that about this woman whom we won't name but oh, what a pain in the arse she is.

She's pulled and it must have taken some effort, the blinds down in the spare bedroom of a house that belongs to a friend of ours.

She called to say the blinds are faulty, please would you come and have a look and see what needs to be done as the cord is broken, so mama went last week with new cord to fix them.

Only to find that there was nothing the matter with the cord, the entire fitting of the new Roman blind was lying on the floor as the top section had been wrenched off the wall and the screws were out of the rawl plugs! What a mess.

She explained that she needed tools to mend the damage and a pair of steps, that she would return when it was convenient for the woman.

A time was fixed for today at 11am, mama took her tool box and a pair of steps and went up the road and banged on the door at 11am.

To receive no answer, the neighbour said that the woman had gone out at about 10.45am with her dog for a walk in Hyde Park.

So she left a note through the door saying that she had been there at the appointed time and waited for 15 minutes and told the woman to call the blind company who supplied and fitted the blind as she wasn't going to come back again.

She dragged the steps home, gave me a kiss and a cuddle, a fat slice of tangerine and went off to meet a friend in Ealing Broadway at 1pm.

Goodness me, what a busy place! They had a coffee, discussed what they had to talk about and then she came home.

We were supposed to go out to tea with friends but I played hard to get or rather would not step onto her hand, so she said "Bye, I'm off to tea without you, you regret this when you see me go up the stairs and you're left at home alone again" and blow me down, she did too, she went off to tea without me!

And said I had played the silly 'you can't catch me' game (which drives her mental sometimes). I was all over her when she came back and said I was sorry.. hmmm, she said.

Whoops, one blotted copybook, I fear.

Moving swiftly along, we are off on a jaunt with Dean tomorrow to B&Q for fence supports and other stuff for the allotments. She's figured out how the thieves are getting onto the plots, they're coming over the small fence that is the boundary between Brian's and our plots.

She saw him on Sunday and asked if he would help her mend the fence, so they're doing it on Saturday, let's hope it's as sunny a day as it was today.

And that Hilary's, the blinds company, charge that rude woman a fat fee.

Good night to you all.. we've got to go for we need our beauty sleep.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 21st, 2019.

LADEN WITH PLANTS.. WICKER WHEELIE WAS COMPELETLY FULL TO HIS BRIM!

Grrr.. how was she to know that there were so many road works on the way to Squires, the journey took or seemed to take twice as long and she had forgotten to take a book with her.

But the day was sunny and there is always something to look at on the way, including spying a large Morrisons in the middle of Brentford.

What a joy Squires is to visit! The staff are great, as are all of their plants which are properly maintained.

The only disappointment was that there was a 20 minute wait to be served in the restaurant.. gulp.. that's what happens over half term.. note to self, never go again at half term time!

So she left with an empty tummy but not an empty Wicker Wheelie!

They had put aside two Black Elderberry plants, they were good sized plants, so she took them both. 

Then, as she plans to eat more berries this year, she asked Toby, one of the outside staff, if they had strawberry plants in yet and where they were if they had.

He took her to the section and she chose two of three different varieties and found a few more varieties up near to the herb section when she was hunting for French Tarragon.

Her bill was just a fraction over £50 and as she going with Dean on Friday to pick up fence supports and other stuff from B&Q on Friday, we will be on a tight budget for the next month! 

Thank goodness for things in white frosty larder and our dry stores and our green vegetables from the allotment.

Mizuna, Pak Choi, Rocket and Japanese Mustard leaves come home with her each time she goes out there and mighty tasty they are too!

On the way home she got off in the middle of Brentford and went into the BIG Morrisons store.

She has a great affection for this company, their generosity when she was fundraising for Polio with the Rotarians was staggering, so spends her money with them whenever she can but sadly, there isn't a store close to where we live.

She picked up a box of four pots of Tete a Tete narcissi and pot of hyacinths - both at a good price - to give as a gift to Myra with whom she is having supper later this week.

Nice store, large, well maintained, lots of staff, they give 5 points for every £ you spend, she has a lot of points on her card from when she shopped at their superstore that used to be in Streatham.

Sadly it closed, Adam French, the very nice and highly respected, manager said that the site, which they owned, was too valuable not to sell and in its' place now are a M&S food store and an Aldi, both large stores, this tells how big the Morrisons was!  

Today is another glorious day! The sun is shiny bright and it's warm, so warm in fact that she turned the boiler off this morning!

And went on line to British Gas to put in her electric and gas readings and look at her bill for last year, the total for both gas and electricity was £535.00 which is just over £10.00 a week for the year, that's ok. 

This years consumption will be much less, last winter was much colder and she certainly wasn't able to switch the boiler down, let alone off, until well into May.

And sunny days like today mean that electric lights don't have to be on as our bedroom is full of natural light as is the bathroom and nothing is ever left on stand-by! If you're not using something, switch it off!

Today is quiz day and she's taking her own lunch. She pulled out two bags of frozen chicken bones last night and put them into the stock pot with root vegetables and herbs early this morning. 

They came to the boil, she dropped the heat to simmer, picked off a lot of the flesh which she put aside, made a pot of roasted buckwheat with more vegetables and several cloves of garlic, then pureed the meat with a few ladles of the stock.

At 12.45 she'll heat it up gently, put it into a thermos and take it with her to New Horizons,

The quiz starts at 2pm, she'll be home at 4.30pm, I will doze and snack for she has put a couple of dishes out for me.. almonds and red grapes plus a few of my hard, crunchy Harrisons treats.

All is well in our world.. walk on the sunny side of the street folks.. there are two meanings to this old proverb.. work them both out.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 20th, 2019. 

NOT A LOT WAS DONE & WHY SHE DISLIKES DYSON MACHINES.

Well, nothing sensible got done, the post is still in her basket and the jaunt to Squires didn't take place.

For she felt more than a trifle stiff and cold, so she piled on thermal clothes and stayed at home with me.

I certainly wasn't about to complain, she couldn't have taken me on the jaunt as she would have been carrying home two heavy pots.

She did some housework, not much but some, more papers were sorted and shredded and Mr.Bissel, the carpet cleaner, then went around making his noise whilst he cleaned the carpets.

Don't ever use a suction carpet cleaner on 'good' carpets and NEVER use them on oriental rugs, old or new.

For they strip the wool or silk from the threads and cause horrendous damage to valuable rugs. She has a dear friend who is a restorer of beautiful rugs and tapestries and she says that almost all the rugs that are brought to her studio for restoration and repair are damaged by.. guess whose machines?

Why none other that Sir James Dyson's! The man who gained a knighthood but is now doing a bunk to Singapore.

And he 'vacuums' up money in other ways apart from his various Dyson machines.

In 2017 his company Beeswax Framing got £1.8 million in farm subsidies. Just over £1 million of that was for just owning farmland! 

In 2014 he was listed as owning 25,000 acres and by 2017 his land holdings had increased to 33,000 acres. These acres are in Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire and in Gloucestershire, where he owns Dodington Park.

Farmland is free of inheritance tax.. need I say more?

She has called Squires and asked them to put two Black Elderflower aside for her and said she will be with them before 1pm, so she better get a wiggle on and make our fast breaking yumyum in that case!

Yes, I have to stay at home but I will be out there at the allotments for most of the rest of the week, apart from tomorrow which is the day she has lunch with Barbara and takes place in the Quiz.

It's a sunny day, we heard from Pegeen in Illinois that snow is 'deep and crisp and even' all over her garden, meanwhile, here we have 15C and it's climbing! 

Chirp.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 19th, 2019.

FOUR & A HALF HOURS OF HARD WORK IN SUNSHINE.

I chose not to go, silly me for I was home alone for over six hours. I really should listen when she talks as she did say that it would be at least 6pm before she gets back.

She left before midday and returned just before 6pm and so I was mighty pleased to see her for I had chewed the big box and was pretty bored.

She, meanwhile, had had a cracker of a day! 

The sun had shone, she moved ten strawberry plants over to a bed that had dwarf beans in it last year, raked up all leaves, dug over five large beds, weeded and swept the small terrace outside the Shack and chatted to Roz and Joska.

All of the existing vegetable beds are now ready for planting and this week, she'll 'break ground' on the old herb area.

Where she has planned to dig four skinny beds making them into raised beds with a double frame of decking boards. These will be used for annual and perennial herbs and the 'dunking bath' will have a frame made for it so it stays upright.

A boring and back breaking job has to be done this week, it is to weed the terrace.. boring but it has to be done. Another boring job will be to chop up the tree cuttings into small pieces and to mix up the composts which are 'brewing' in the wooden box beds.

And she has to repair the front wall of Little Shed.

This will be a very BIG job indeed, she's got the huge panels of mdf and all the timber for the supports but needs a stretch of good weather in which to do the work, for everything has to come out so she can remove the entire front wall of the shed.

The last 'job' will be to repair the front fence, the pallets have done a brilliant job as she placed them in the spring of 2002!

Then it will be planting time! Time goes fast when you have good weather in the last month of Winter but then, there's always work to be done in any type of garden.

Such as to remove a invasive Jasmine which never flowered but has crawled everywhere and tries to creep under the roofing felt of the Shack, what a naughty plant it is!

To did out old Gooseberry plants which have come to the end of their productive life, she'll plant annuals and perennial flowers in their place.

She loves Pink Elderflower cordial and wants three plants, for their foliage is beautiful besides their fabulous flowers and she'll plant them to make a hedge behind the narcissi walk.

But it is time for her to go to post a birthday card and a letter and to go to Squires to buy mixed Dahlias and Ranulucus, which she loves both of these as cutting flowers and ask them to get her three Pink Elderflower plants.. she wants the Black Lace variety of Sambucus Nigra. 

This was the plant that Constance used to make her elderberry champagne and cordial, she has her mother's recipe and we will give it to you at another date. They are glorious, both in colour and taste and look amazing! 

Chirps to you all..

It's gloomy but hey, it's still Winter unless you live 'Down Under'!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 18th, 2019.

HURRY SCURRY BACK TO THERMALS

When we woke up yesterday we noticed something slightly unpleasant, it was cold and there wasn't any sunshine when she pulled up the blind.

Brr, it was chilly and dreary outside so that put the mockers on our plans to go out to the allotments.

But breaking our fast always cheers us up, she made scrambled eggs and we went back to eat these in the bedroom and think about what she would do instead of gardening.

Housework.. ugh.. she would much rather play in mud than do this but it has to be done. 

She washed, put in eye drops, dressed in comfy clothes and started in the kitchen, pans that were clean but had not yet been polished with the newly aquired Brillo pads were scrubbed until they shone, cabinets and countertops were washed, as was the inside of chilly white larder aka fridge, she took food out of frosty white larder aka freezer for supper and the floor was washed.

She put on a load of washing and cleaned the basin, bath, mirror, lavatory and floor.

The hall and bedroom were vacuumed. All done, well, as much as she was going to do.

For there is still that big fat elephant in the room.. aka the sitting room to be sorted out (rather her than me folks). 

She thought about going to the library but that would have entailed getting dressed in 'proper' clothes instead of comfy thermal leggings, socks and sweatshirt, so decided that wasn't a sensible idea as she was warm and it was mighty chilly out there.

She's still got a rattly cough and her left ear is sore which is affecting her hearing and when she saw her GP on Thursday about this, she took a swab from her left ear and said "This has gone on for too long, I'm making you an appointment to see a specialist at the ENT Hospitals in Grays Inn Road, 4pm on March 26th. You'll need to take this letter and the results of this swab with you when you go, let's get to the bottom of this and find out why it keeps recurring in this poor ear".

She returned calls and emails that had plopped into her phone which had been on silent whilst she was doing housework, then made supper.

Eaten and washed up by 7pm, we settled down for an early night in bed, there were almonds to be crunched and delicious dates to be nibbled.. what a feast of treats!

And we wished for a sunny Sunday, which has duly arrived, but it isn't that warm, I am staying here whilst she goes out to the allotments, she wants to go to the horticultural shed where they have a sale on of primroses and other plants that she wants.

I'll be back to tell you what she bought. Enjoy your Sunday.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 17th, 2019. 

A FEW OF HER FAVOURITE THINGS..

Bird song, crocuses, daffodils, gifts, good food, great company, jonquils, rosy peony shoots, snowdrops and sunshine are some of her favourite things and they were all in abundance yesterday.

Jane, with a suspiciously full looking trolley, was already in the arcade at South Ken tube station when we arrived at 12.10  yesterday, I say we because, having been very silly and not gone with her yesterday, I thought I would venture forth today and I am mighty glad I did.

They greeted each other and went down onto the platform to catch a train to Hammersmith, a train to Richmond appeared in less than a minute and we were 'all aboard' and off on our jaunt!

The sky was a brilliant blue, nasty old and cold Mr.Wind was blowing elsewhere and it was warm, really warm! What a treat for the middle of February.

Off at Hammersmith and up the escalator to the top level of the Broadway we went to catch a 190 bus, one came along quite quickly and we got on and settled ourselves down for the journey out to the Chertsey Road.

She said to Jane to make a note of the noise when they got off the bus and walked to the allotment gate, for one of the wonderful things about the site is the near silence of man generated noise and as you walk down the steps to the plots, the noise fades away, it always makes her relax and smile.

She unlocked her front gate and invited Jane onto her plots. She came through, stopped, looked around, smiled, nodded her head and said "Yes, I get it, Debbie's right, it is an oasis, what a wonderful place".

They walked up onto the terrace, mama put me onto the table, organized shade for me on the top of my cage, checked my water bowl and went to open up the Shack whilst Jane went for a potter about. 

She brought out plates, glasses, water, napkins and the box of cutlery out onto the table and found Jane unpacking all manner of exciting things!

Delicious boxes of Japanese food, a goat cheese, some fruit, three mysterious little packages and a beautiful plant, a pink Hellebore.

They sat down and she was handed the three little boxes one after the other, the first was a set of three olive wood oval bowls, the second an olive wood soft cheese knife and then she opened the third box. It was a small Swiss retractable hard cheese knife with the handle made of olive wood, the blade is very sharp indeed.

What beautiful things to receive and absolutely perfect for outdoor living OR actually anywhere, for who would not be thrilled to receive them and a pink Hellebore as well!

Their lunch was delicious and mine was too, for I had scrambled egg, grapes, almonds and some of my tasty Harrington cubes to crunch.

Mama washed up and potted up the Hellebore into a terracotta pot and sunk it into the ground with a cloche over it, for it has been grown in a green house and she certainly doesn't think this fabulous weather is going to last.

It had been a very cold night as the two bottles of olive oil in Shack were congealed.. it's a test for good oil, pure olive oil will congeal if the glass bottle gets cold whilst oil with nasty additives will not and she never buys olive oil in plastic bottles.

After collecting gloves, two hand forks and a rake, they planted lots of red onions and fat shallots and raked up leaves, then mama walked her around the plot and introduced Jane to REALLY wild rocket which is very different to that poor stuff you buy in shops, wild garlic, self seeded mizuna and Japanese spicy mustard leaves.

The mizuna, which self seeded itself last autumn on the terrace, has been almost eaten to the ground by birds, she begrudges them it not one bit for it's good for them and she was glad to see the water bowls were full of rain water, for birds have to drink just like we do and it is much better for them if they have access to clean rain water rather than having to drink from muddy puddles.

Jane went for a wander about so mama sneaked off with a big bag to pick lots of tasty greens to give to her and managed to push it down into her trolley before she returned. They put on their jackets, mama locked up Shack, organised my travel bag and we left to catch a bus home.

They talked on the bus and Jane told her that one of her grand daughters has asthma so that decided their route home, they stayed on the little bus, getting off at the North End Road and going into Al Baydar to get Black Seed oil aka Black Cumin oil.

Whilst they were waiting to be served, the customer in front of them bought a kilo of fresh dates and then, very sweetly, gave Jane and mama one each. 

The look on Jane's face was a delight as she tasted it and she said "Now I know why people love them, I have never tasted anything so delicious, I will have to take some as well" and asked for a kilo split into two, one of which she gave to mama!

We went off up the street, where she has never been before, with mama pointing out various places for good food or services like her excellent tailor and dry cleaner.

Onto a 414 bus at Fulham Broadway and it was 'home again, home again jigeddy jig' with Jane getting off at the top of Onslow Square and us getting off three stops later.

We returned home to a quiet flat for where was Boy Burki whom we had left behind? 

He appeared after about five minutes, he had eaten and drunk water but there was no sign that he had been sleeping on her bed, he disappeared again and she found him in the boiler room, she has always suspected that is where the mice get into our flat and he obviously the same idea too!

Emi came to collect him at 8pm and we settled down for a snack of fruit and nuts with a hot drink for her and a very early night for both of us, for we were tired, we were full of fresh air and exercise and she had had a lovely day with more than a few of her favourite things!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 16th, 2019.

HUGO DIED 38 YEARS AGO ON ST.VALENTINE'S DAY.. OH DEAR.

Whilst most of the rest of the world was happy to celebrate Valentine's day, it wasn't such a 'happy' day for her and she usually spends it quietly.

Her father suffered a very severe stroke which ended his life on St.Valentine's day in 1981. She was in Spain and received a telegram from her brother telling her and it was such a huge shock.

For she had enjoyed a very happy time with Hugo only a few days before she flew out to Malaga to help a friend move house. 

And so she said to Inez how very grateful she was that she'd seen him and that they had had such a happy time together.

She's now several years older than her papa had been when he died.. rising sixty nine whilst he had only been rising sixty one.

Yesterday there is a chore to be done for a friend first and she spent the afternoon doing 'stuff' at the allotment, the fine weather we were promised had materialized!

However, I decided that I didn't want to go and stayed 'home alone', I know.. silly me, for she came home early, grabbed her laptop and shot out again to go to Raja's house.

Her old laptop of sixteen years died, he took out the hard drive and bought her a reader so that they could take all the information off it.

Yeah.. she found all the photos of the four wren babies who were born in the Shack in 2005! They are adorable photos and Raja was entranced by them.

Today we are going out to the allotments, we'll meet Jane at South Ken tube and have lunch out there, she has lots of red onions and shallots to plant and there are a lot of dead leaves to be raked up and old peony stalks that need to be cut down and burnt in the incinerator.

She's bought several bags of mixed dahlias tubers so they, together with lots of freesias corms, need to be planted.

Oh, you didn't know you could grow these lovely flowers outside? Yes, they're exquisite but you must remember to dig the corms up in the autumn and dry them off as they would rot in wet wintery earth.

We're off now as she has to get everything together. Many chirps to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 15th, 2019.

A TASTY LUNCH & A BETTER SCORE. (THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!)

Lunch was scrummy, even more scrummy as she didn't have to cook it! 

She blew me a kiss, told me to be a good girl and left to go up the road for lunch with Barbara and the Wednesday quiz.

Oh, it's boring that she can't eat peppers for the dish of stuffed peppers looked delicious but she chose spicy beef with quinoa instead and a side salad.

Time for the quiz, the tables were cleared, a space was made for Michael's wheelchair, coffees, teas and grapes appeared and they started bang on the dot of 2pm.

She got the first ten questions right! 

Sherlock Holmes wore a deerstalker cap.
It is the Cutty Sark which was built in 1869 and is in th dry dock at Greenwich.
Samuel Pepys described the pub as the heart of England.
The photo was of Henry Kissinger.
Leo is the astrological sign of people born on 1st August.
The Collezione Peggy Guggenheim is in Venice. 
Borneo is split between Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Vodka is the spirit used to make Screwdrivers and Sea Breeze .
Mc.Donald's staff will serve people on horseback at their drive-throughs.

Sadly she left the rest of quiz papers behind or that's what she's saying!! Nudge nudge.. get my drift!

They were a merry bunch and it was warm enough to have one of the garden doors open! Let's hope that the next two days are also fine, for tomorrow we're bound for the allotments to plant onions and shallots.

And on Friday morning, Jane's meeting us at South Ken tube station, we'll take the Piccadilly line to Hammersmith and then catch a 190 bus out to the allotments.

And Jane's said she'll bring a hot lunch in a thermos! What a treat and Joska's due to be there as well.

Spring is a'coming folks and the gardening gang will soon all be back on their plots working hard to get their seeds and cuttings ready for this year's produce.   

And on our way home tomorrow, we are having tea with our Lebanese friends, Raja has said he'll take the hard drive out of her old dead laptop and transfer the photos onto a disc.

So here we are, halfway through the week with a couple of pleasant things to look forward to. We hope that you're having an happy and trouble-free week? 

Now she's got to rustle up a bowl of fruit, nuts and dried chunky yumyum for me, which is what I like to eat in the evening whilst I watch television.. as you do when you're a much beloved African Grey.

Which I am.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 13th, 2019.

BLACK SEED OIL..

She went to the North End Road to get Brillo pads, a jar of cloves and two bottles of Black Seed Oil.

Do you know this oil? It is an essential oil from the Black Cumin seed and has many properties.

Go on line and read about it.

She learnt about this oil when she asked Anissa, her hairdresser, if she knew of anything that would stop hair loss.

"Yes, you need to get a bottle of Black Seed oil from Al Bayar in the market, mix it with a good olive oil, rub it onto your scalp, leave it for at least an hour and then wash it out with a non-sls hair shampoo. Do this at least three times a week and you'll see a difference within four to six weeks" said Anissa.

Anissa is from Morocco and went on to say that the oil is also great for coughs and that she uses it to keep her asthma at bay.

So she went, all those years ago, and bought a bottle and applied it to her scalp, she also rubbed it on her face at night. 

Sure enough, her receding hair line stopped receding, the hair grew back, has never thought of disappearing again and her skin looked pretty good too! 

The only thing was that she had to go to find a navy blue pillowcase as the oil, as described in its' name, is truly dark and it stained a white pillowcase but that wasn't anything a wash with sterilisation fluid couldn't handle!

She has a dear friend called Judith who had gruesome asthma attacks so, when Anissa told her that she uses the oil to control her asthma, she bought her a bottle and gave it to her.

About ten days later, she received a call from Judith saying that she wanted to have lunch and tell her something and asked where should they meet?

Mama suggested the small Polish restaurant near to Bartek on Streatham's Centre Parade and they agreed to meet at 1pm on the following Tuesday.

Judith had arrived and 'bagged' a quiet table at the back and after hugging each other, they sat and mama said "What was it that you wanted to tell me?"

She grinned and said "I cannot thank Anissa enough.. for after taking the oil for three days, I haven't had a single attack and haven't had to use my inhaler, so here's a letter that I would like you to give to Anissa together with this" and she picked up a pretty bag which had in it a charming bowl full of dark blue hyacinths!

"And lunch is on me".

Woooo! This was amazing news as her poor friend used to have to have her inhaler with her all the time and for her to have nearly two weeks without having to use it once was amazing!

So when her throat felt scratchy and she coughed.. Black Seed Oil was put onto the shopping list!

She gets it from two shops, if she's shopping in Streatham, she buys it from a shop called MFC which stands for Mediterrean Food Centre, where she finds pure pommegranate syrup and the best yoghurt known to exist, in glass jars.. not horrid plastic tubs! They charge £3.99 for a large bottle of the oil.

If she isn't going up there and it is a fair way to go, she gets it from Al Bayar on the North End Road who sell it for £4.99.

You do not have to spend anything more than that! If you do, you are being ripped off! 

The oil has a strong taste and is slightly 'peppery' and a couple of people have said that they cannot drink it, so she tells them to mix it with fresh lemon juice and a bit of honey to disguise the taste but to drink it!

She drank some out of the bottle in the shop and has taken a large teaspoonfull every four hours, it has stopped whatever was brewing in its' tracks and she's increased her intake of water as well as 
her brews of fresh ginger and turmeric root which now have crushed cloves and lemon juice added to them. 

This combination of spices pack a mighty punch against germs and viruses and certainly any cold that thought it was going to invade her has now had second thoughts!

Ok, time to get dressed and go to New Horizons for a light lunch and play the general knowledge quiz and hopes to do better than last week.

Who knows when Elvis married Priscilla? She didn't.

It's vaguely sunny.. the sky is pale grey but at least it's dry and doesn't look to be too windy. Where's all this amazingly good weather they keep talking about?

GeeGee Parrot.
February 13th, 2019.

EVERYONE HAS GUTS.. REAL ONES.. AND THEY HAVE BEEN CALLED 'THE SECOND BRAIN'.

Back in 1992, Dr. Michael Gershon, chairman of the department of anatomy and cell biology of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Centre discovered a network of neurotransmitters in the gut that act in a similar way to neurons and he christened it 'the second brain'.

Since then a huge amount of research has found that all manner of modern day illnesses link back to disturbances in the digestive system. 

These include joint and muscle pain and autoimmune diseases including Motor Neurone Disease aka ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease and Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Dr. Alan Ebringer of the Middlesex Hospital here in London has linked Ankylosing Spondylitis, which is a painful arthritis disease resulting in the stiffening of joints, with a form of bacteria that lives in the bowel and feeds off carbohydrate residue.

And patients found that by cutting their intake of carbs to a much lower level, their conditions were greatly improved and in some cases, resolved. 

Diarrhoea suffers are found to have a bacterial overgrowth in their gut, the bacteria alter the metabolic and immune responses of the body and they turn against the normal gut flora and this is an early indication of a condition known as a 'leaky gut'. 

NSAID stands for non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug. 

As well as being intolerant of certain types of food, caffeine and alcohol, even short term usage of these drugs can cause damage to your gut and long term usage is harmful and is responsible for leaving the gut very inflamed and permeable.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that she reads a lot.. and not just novels, travel books or biographies. 

A book which is beyond scary is 'The Case Against Sugar', yes, I have mentioned it before but it is worth mentioning it again.

For this one simple fact.

That, unless they have stopped adding it very recently, American cigarettes contain sugar. And it is the sugar that, together with the smoke, creates tar in your lungs and nasal passages which leads to lung cancer.

Today is a dreary day, she's brewing a head cold which 'ticks' her off no end.. she coughed a lot yesterday afternoon and today.. her throat is sore, she's coughing and sneezing. Drat.. BIG drat. 

She planned to go to Audiology today to have her left ear tested for her new hearing aid but with a head cold and catarrh, there is absolutely no point in even thinking about going to the hospital.

And she forgot to get pan scourers yesterday.. so she has to go out as there are a couple of pans that are clean but need a good scrub with a Brillo pad.

Yes, she's like a Magpie.. she likes shiny things!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 12th, 2019.

BRIGHT LIGHT.. AND HOW MUCH HIGHER THE SUN IS NOW!

WOW! We got out of bed at a sensible hour and went off to the bathroom to find.. a very brightly lit room! 

Had she left the lights on? No, it was sunlight, very bright and sunny sunlight.

How wonderful it is to see this, the sky is pale but there isn't a cloud to be seen and because it is now at least seven weeks after the Winter Solstice, the sun is that much higher in the sky.

What a difference it makes in our bedroom, the daylight bulb doesn't have to be switched on, nor does her bedside light, for the room is lit with glorious natural light and it's wonderful!

She started reading a book last night written by an very old friend of Constance.. aka her mother. 

Eric Newby wrote wonderful books, mostly on the travels that he did with his wife, Wanda, after WW2. The book she is reading is 'On the Shores of the Mediterranean'. 

She always has a couple of books on the 'go', for one cannot read what she calls investigative health books all in one go like you read a novel.

And Lynn McTaggart's book 'What Doctors Don't Tell You' ARTHRITIS is a far too an important book to read lightly or quickly.

She highly recommends this book to everyone, for it is proven that inflammation causes most diseases and inflammation usually starts in our digestive system aka guts.

The sun has shifted round and is no longer shining his beam directly in through our bedroom window but the room is still bright and light.. what a treat!

She has to buy powdered ginger, fresh ginger, turmeric roots, sweet potatoes and hopes to find Spring Greens in the market, so we will be back later today.

The weather forecast is good for this week but very bad for next week, so she'll be planting lots of shallots and onions this week at the allotment. 

And, some freesia corns in a pot at home. She found them in the market last week. Oh, there is nothing like a pot of home grown freesias to make a home smell simply divine.. except, maybe a pot of jonquils!

I've got BUB's kipper box to beak.. so I send you all chirps.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 11th, 2019.
PostScript: 
On the shores of the Mediterrean' by Eric Newby. ISBN # 978-0-00-736791-7
WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU -
ARTHRITIS
Editor Lynn McTaggart. 
ISBN # 978-1-78180-338-7

IT'S THE CHINESE NEW YEAR & SHE FOUND CRISPY SEAWEED & CHICKEN WITH CASHEW NUTS HANGING ON OUR FRONT DOOR!

Now, I have just told you that she doesn't eat lunch except if she goes out to lunch with friends but today is truly an exception.

For lunch came to us! She was just about to go and make herself a hot drink about ten minutes ago when plop.. a WhatsApp message arrived on her mobile.

It was from Tereza who was up in Chinatown celebrating her Chinese birthday as it is the year of the Pig.

The message read "do you like crispy seaweed and chicken with cashew nuts, if so, it will be on your door in 5".. 'is the Pope a Catholic' she thought to herself as she tapped out her reply.

And sure enough.. a few minutes later, she opened our front door to find a bag hanging on it.

"Oh slurp GeeGee, look what we have to eat, I'll put the fish back into the fridge for tomorrow and we'll have this delicious food instead, what a treat, how kind of Tereza to do this".

I think it is because the first three years of her life were spent in Malaya - as it was called in those days - that she has a liking for food from that part of the world. Vietnamese, Cambodian, Malay and Chinese cuisines are what she absolutely loves and how she didn't stop to eat a bowl of yumyum at the Vietnamese food market yesterday is beyond me!

She's found her chopsticks, made a hot drink of ginger and lemon and we'll settle down to eat this delicious gift.. 

And hope you will go and eat some Chinese food or make a stir fry at home with delicious spices and celebrate.. 

The year of the Pig.. oink oink!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 10th, 2019.

WEAR MORE CLOTHES.. PULL DOWN A BLIND.. MAKE SURE YOUR RADIATORS ARE WORKING.. INTERLINE YOUR CURTAINS.. AND MORE!

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you will know that she is frugal. 

There is an article in today's Guardian about the rising cost of household prices. Electricity, gas, council tax and water are all due to rise this Spring.

We cannot do anything about the council tax but she certainly has done a lot about controlling the costs of the other three necessary items that we use on a daily basis.

She goes out of a room, she turns off the light. Nothing is ever left on 'Standby'. She wants a cup of something hot to drink, she puts just enough into the kettle or boils more and puts the rest into a thermos.. one that actually keeps the liquid hot! 

There's a heavy curtain in front of our front door, this means we have a snug warm hall as no cold air whistles through any gaps. 

There are blinds in both our bedroom and sitting room, they are down and the difference is amazing as they stop the cold coming into the rooms.

The curtains are interlined, unfortunately the silly builders put the new bedroom radiator below the window and long curtains stop heat circulating, so during cold weather she picks up the curtains and lays them onto the shelf which is an extension of the window ledge.

The gas combi boiler is only on during the day at a low degree and goes off at about 9pm, it comes on at 7am but the radiator valves are set at high, all except for the one in the sitting room which is on low.

She washes up once a day at night.

She is frugal with gas for cooking and very seldom uses the oven, apart from red meat, food is steamed over a small amount of water in layers.

Yesterday's supper was a small amount of chicken stock brought to the boil in a saucepan, a large handful of flat Vietnamese rice noodles, two pieces of kale, a Spring Green and a handful of frozen seafood was added, the lid went on and it steamed for about 8 minutes.

The contents were all put into a dish, she added seasoning and off we went to enjoy a tasty supper.

She buys whatever fish are on special offer at our fishmonger and freezes them, they are taken out of frosty white larder aka freezer and left to defrost between two plates on the morning of a day when she decides that's what we are having for supper.

As she eats a variety of steamed greens at every supper, the fish are steamed by being placed on top of the vegetables, she much prefers steamed fish to fried or poached fish.

She doesn't eat lunch but breakfast and supper, that's it. I, of course, have food available for me all day long, Harrisons dried food, grapes, seeds and a piece of cabbage and kale are always there as well for I love those crunchy stems!

Unless, of course, she goes out to lunch, then for supper, she'll have a bowl of sauerkraut and some fruit and her large old Danish beer mug from Copenhagen is always full of hot water with freshly chopped ginger and turmeric with a chunk of fresh lemon or lime.

So do something about those drafty doors and windows, turn your boiler down and wear more clothes.

Men can wear a cotton t.shirt with short sleves under a shirt or sweater or a thermal vest, lightweight or heavy duty woollen instead of cotton or nylon socks which hold absolutely no heat whatsoever! 

Keep your head covered when you go outside and wear gloves and long socks if you are wearing trousers. She has woollen tights that she wears under her trousers.. and very cosy they are too!

Have your gas boiler serviced once a year properly by a CORGI registered engineer. 

And now I am going to tell you two things that will make you a bit sick.. with envy.

Her last gas bill was £11.67 and the one before was £4.14.. ok, yes we do live in a small flat.

The last electricity bill was over £60.00 which was a high one but the weather was cold and so the blinds were down and curtains are drawn and she leaves my daylight bulb and light on for me plus the television.

Take control of your expenditure and yes, change your supplier if you do a comparision and find another supplier who will be cheaper for your level of gas or electrical expenditure.

But I say put a proper wool blanket on top of your duvet if you use one on your bed and wear more clothes.. simples!

GeeGee Parrot.
February 10th, 2019.

BROCCOLI & MUSTARD POWDER - YOU AREN'T GOING TO BELIEVE THIS MAGICAL TRICK!

Yes, we all know that broccoli is good for you but do you know why that is?

Well, it contains an active compound called Sulforaphane (SPN). This valuable compound has been proven to kill cancer cells and it is believed to protect us from free radicals, boost the liver's ability to detoxify and to prevent cancer cells forming.

It is also known that people who have bladder cancer and who eat raw broccoli have a much higher survival rate than those who don't.

Sulforaphane is found in all the cruciferous vegetables but broccoli is the vegetable with the highest content, other vegetables are:

Brussels sprouts. Kohlrabi. Broccoli seeds. Cabbage. Cauliflower. Horseradish & Mustard Greens.

But SPN is a strange thing! For you have to chew or chop a vegetable in order for the compound to be released because it isn't directly present in the vegetable but it is formed in a reaction from Glucoraphnin and to get SPN from Glucoraphnin an enzyme called Myrosinase must be released from the broccoli cells.

Hello.. are you still there! It's a bit complicated but keep on reading! 

And when the Broccoli cells are destroyed by chewing or chopping, the Myrossinase is released and reacts with the Glucoraphanin through a hydrolysis process.. and hey presto.. the result is SPN!

But here comes the bad news.. not all of us like raw broccoli and exposing broccoli to heat kills enzymes and so we don't get any benefit from this or any of the other cruciferous vegetables

When broccoli is frozen, it is first blanched prior to be packed. So the enzyme were destroyed.

However, the Glucoraphanin isn't destroyed by heat, only the enzyme was killed but you can activate it be adding another enzyme and this, Dear Readers, is where the magic begins.

For now all you have to do is to add a small amount of powdered mustard seeds for this to happen.

Think of Colman's raw mustard powder in a small yellow tin. A small amount of this dried mustard powder will perform the wizard's trick.

And as the Myrosinase enzyme is found in *Horseradish, *Wasabi powder or *Daikon radish, you can sprinkle any of these on to broccoli as well.

When cooking broccoli or any other cruciferous vegetable, prepare (chop) them at least an hour before you want to cook them, this allows the enzyme time to react with the glucoraphanin and the SPN will have formed when you start to cook. 

Use chopped raw broccoli in your cooking as a garnish.

Add chopped raw broccoli to steamed vegetables to increase the amount of SPN.

Add a small amount of any of these * powders to activate the powerful agents of cruciferous vegetables.

Soak your vegetables for 5 minutes in salted water and then rinse them before cooking in order to get rid of pesticides.

We are lucky enough to grow most of what we eat in the way of vegetables but when it is dire - as it is today and she hasn't been to the allotments to pick any greenery, we've stuff that she froze earlier in the autumn.

And, of course, we are incredibly fortunate to have the North End Road market, where there is a stall holder called Peter who loves Spring Greens as much as we do! They're grown in Cambridgeshire and yes, she now sprinkles on Colman's mustard powder onto them and.. they're deliciously tasty!

We will be back later today, for in deepest Knightsbridge it is raining heavily and incredibly windy. This stormy weather is causing chaos and it's crazy to even think of going to the allotments which are very exposed.

Stay snug wherever you are and remember to buy some of these magical things* but you may actually already have them in your kitchen cupboard. 

Stay happy and healthy.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 10th, 2019.
PostScript: With enormous thanks to Reading University whose research into the benefits of broccoli and the other cruciferous vegetables gave us these facts about SPN and the other enzymes. 

CHRISTIAN DIOR @ THE V&A MUSEUM.. GO GO YES, GET THERE AND GO!

Boots, umbrella, keys in pocket, telephone and wallet in bag and on the dot of 11.45am she was out of the house and walked out into the most disgusting weather.. cold, wet and extremely windy, ugh.

She raised the umbrella and scurried up Yeoman's Row into the Brompton Road, across the road and walked as fast as she could to the museum.

To find Jane had also just arrived in the front entrance.

They both shook themselves like dogs, grinned at each other in the way that you do when you know you're in for a treat and made their way up to the Friends Room.

They presented their membership cards and said to the manager that they were there for lunch and were taken to a corner banquette. A menu was presented by a smiley waitress and they were off!

It promised to be a lovely time, for these two new friends, who had met in the funniest of ways, can talk for London as they share similar interests and likes and dislikes!

Nice food.. yum! Jane had a warm salad with anchovies and she had a pork chop with baked apple served on a bed of spring greens.. slurp!

Having split the bill, they went off downstairs to the new wing of the museum to see the Dior exhibition.

Beautiful but her only criticism was there weren't actually that many outfits that had been made in the late 40's and 50's.

But then a lot of people don't choose to lend valuable clothes to exhibitions, she herself is guilty of this as she didn't lend clothes to the Cristobal Balenciaga exhibition which was held at the V&A.

And this is why.. for thirty years ago she was given a beautiful long painted silk coat and Fortuny style pleated dress by two men for whom she did a lot of modeling.

Their working names were Ian and Marcel and they did breathtakingly beautiful work. She lent the dress and coat to their exhibition at the V&A and never got them back, they're somewhere in the archives of the museum.. not on show. 

It was her fault, she didn't insist upon a mass of paperwork or a date upon when the clothes would be returned, it taught her a lesson.

But go, for although there aren't that many clothes from Monsieur Dior's era, there are lots and lots of clothes dating from the era of Vyes Saint Laurent right through to the present day creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri.

There's one red wool coat which dates from the 50's which she loved. It is beautiful.. quite, quite beautiful.

Today, so far, it is dry and as she has to do a run to the market for fresh and powdered ginger we are off but will be back later to tell you about the extraordinary information about frozen broccoli and mustard powder.

No, she is not gardening in this weather for the ground is soaking wet and you don't do it any favours by treading on it as it will compact it, besides the fact that Storm Erik is blowing fit to bust with horrendous winds.

But the weather forecast for the latter part of next week is positively warm and sunny so we'll be full of chirp.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 9th, 2019.

'A COMEDY ABOUT A BANK ROBBERY' @ THE CRITERION THEATRE & THE THEATRE ROYAL.

Off she went to Piccadilly Circus, the weather was fine so she took a number 19 bus and after getting off the bus and crossing over and behind Eros, she slipped down into one of the most beautiful of London's theatres.

The play is, as the title suggests, a comedy about a gang of idiots whose aim is to steal an enormous diamond from the bank vault and as much slapping is done, so you could call it slapstick comedy! There was not a seat to be had, it was a full house.

The theatre is small, there are only 588 seats on the three levels and the wall tiles are exquisite! It was built in 1874 on the site of an 17th century coaching inn called The White Bear. 

The area was developed by an entrepreneur called Thomas Verity who developed the large site, which was originally called Regent's Circus.

During WW2, it went 'dark' as it was used by the BBC as a subterranean radio station and it saved in 1970 from destruction by a very determined bunch of actors! One of London's secret gems! 

Another real gem is the oldest theatre in London, The Theatre Royal, the original of which opened in 1663, was built by a former royal courtier and playwright called Thomas Killigrew.  

He received a royal patent from King Charles 2nd, the theatre continues to hold this to this very day!

It was here that King Charles met his future mistress, the actress Nell Gwynne. 

And what a pity that Kings couldn't marry 'commoners' in those days because his wife, Queen Catherine of Braganza sadly miscarried three time and bore no heir to the throne.

Whereas his beloved Nell bore him two sons.

Charles Beauclerk (1670-1726) and James Beauclerk (1671-1680). Charles Beauclerk was given the title of Duke of St.Albans, a title which is held to this day by the 14th Duke.

And the Protestant Stuart dynasty would have survived! 

That's your history lesson for today folks.. she has work to do and I have a box to beak.. pippip.

GeeGee Parrot.
February 4th, 2019.