She was up with the lark last Friday but it was far too early for me to even think about getting up, I looked at her, wagged my tail and putting Beaky back between my shoulder blades, back to sleep.
But she left my cage open and a couple of hours later, I clambered out and saw that she had made my breakfast and left it on a tray on her bed.
And the radio was on.. boohoo.. she must have gone out and not having spoken to her, I had no idea where she had gone and had to wait until she came back to find out where she had been.
Apparently, one of her old lamp clients, who had been instrumental in getting mama a HUGE amount of work in years long gone by, had moved out her big house downsizing to a cottage.
But her very old gardener said he wasn't up to starting or making a kitchen garden again, so she had called mama and asked for help, mama had said "yes, of course, I will help you but on one condition, that you don't try to pay me, for I owe you so much for all the clients you sent to me in the old days" her client had grumbled but agreed.
One of her old drivers is a good man, very tolerant and he loves to garden, so she called him and said "Hello Jorge, how do you like the idea of a day working in a garden with me next week?" He laughed and said "Why not, where are we off to?"
They picked the client up from her home in London and drove to her cottage in the country, after showing them where she wanted to put the kitchen garden, she made them hot drinks whilst mama drew up a sketch of what she thought would do the trick.
"Ah, you do know me so well, that's exactly what I'd like, clever girl" she said.
Jorge and the client went up to the farm and picked up a long wheel based truck and drove to a nearby builder's merchants and came back loaded up with lots of brand new scaffold boards and several metres of 2' by 2' wood.
A scaffold board is 13' long by just over 8" wide and the perfect raised bed size is about 6' long by 4' wide.. so lots of them had to be purchased in order for her to make eight beds as she wanted them to be double height.
When they got back, the client telephoned Brian who works on the farm and he went off with a trailer and brought two loads of topsoil together with another of a huge amount of very old, well rotted manure and then went off and came back with an electrical saw.
She and Jorge measured the boards and cut them into halves and thirds and the 2" by 2" into ten inch lengths.
Brian, who brought the soil and manure, stayed to help and before long, there were eight raised beds in place. Now, all they had to do was fill these beds with rotted manure, top it off with a good 4" of top soil and call it a day!
She asked Brian to go and get 'boss', who had been working with the farm secretary, to come and see what they had done.
You know when you've done something right.. for people express happiness and the three of them knew they had done right because the look on the faces of her lovely client and the farm secretary were pictures to behold!
Especially Judy's face, for when she had come to open up the cottage for her boss earlier that day, all that had been beside the little house was a field.. just a little field with grass growing it it.
But now there were eight raised beds, stakes to show where fruit bushes would be planted and another eight raised beds would be made and other stakes had been placed to show where a solar house would be erected and a hedge to be planted to act as a windbreak.
For every foot in height of a hedge gives 6 feet of wind protection.. which is very useful around a vegetable garden!
Then it was time for a well deserved late lunch.. Judy had made a delicious shepherds pie and had cleverly remembered my mama can't eat white potatoes, the topping was made out of mashed sweet potatoes. Pudding was a hot compot of stone fruits.. topped off with cream from their own cows.. yum!
What a day it had been.. the rain held off until they had finished, everything is now ready for all the seedlings to be planted when the weather gets a bit warmer and client was beyond satisfied.. in fact, she grinning from ear to ear.
Mama went upstairs to change back into proper clothes and on her way down was asked to go into client's tiny study.
She handed her a little box and said "Don't refuse this, for it is a gift to thank you for all those years you worked for me, my family and my friends and now for my new kitchen garden where I won't ever have to dig a spade or bend down to weed and I am giving it to you with love and gratitude for our friendship".
She opened the box to find a chunky silver ring with two tiny pieces of gold in the shape of a acorns on the shoulders and the top is of cut out leaves.. a perfect gift for a gardener. It slipped snuggly onto the little finger of her right hand.
Then she said "I'll give this to Jorge" and they went together out to where Brian, Judy and Jorge were waiting by his car and she gave Jorge a very fat envelope and thanked him for all his very hard work.
Hands were shaken and hugs were hugged.. they said their goodbyes and drove back to London.
What a day it had been.. what a lot they had done and how well everything had gone and what a lot of fun it had been to be given a small little field and to give back a proper kitchen garden.
It's good when people work together and things go well, isn't it?
She told me all about her day when she got into bed with a plate of fruit and then she slept the sleep of the dead that night for she was tired but oh, so happy. I like to see her happy.
GeeGee parrot.
March 12th, 2019.
But she left my cage open and a couple of hours later, I clambered out and saw that she had made my breakfast and left it on a tray on her bed.
And the radio was on.. boohoo.. she must have gone out and not having spoken to her, I had no idea where she had gone and had to wait until she came back to find out where she had been.
Apparently, one of her old lamp clients, who had been instrumental in getting mama a HUGE amount of work in years long gone by, had moved out her big house downsizing to a cottage.
But her very old gardener said he wasn't up to starting or making a kitchen garden again, so she had called mama and asked for help, mama had said "yes, of course, I will help you but on one condition, that you don't try to pay me, for I owe you so much for all the clients you sent to me in the old days" her client had grumbled but agreed.
One of her old drivers is a good man, very tolerant and he loves to garden, so she called him and said "Hello Jorge, how do you like the idea of a day working in a garden with me next week?" He laughed and said "Why not, where are we off to?"
They picked the client up from her home in London and drove to her cottage in the country, after showing them where she wanted to put the kitchen garden, she made them hot drinks whilst mama drew up a sketch of what she thought would do the trick.
"Ah, you do know me so well, that's exactly what I'd like, clever girl" she said.
Jorge and the client went up to the farm and picked up a long wheel based truck and drove to a nearby builder's merchants and came back loaded up with lots of brand new scaffold boards and several metres of 2' by 2' wood.
A scaffold board is 13' long by just over 8" wide and the perfect raised bed size is about 6' long by 4' wide.. so lots of them had to be purchased in order for her to make eight beds as she wanted them to be double height.
When they got back, the client telephoned Brian who works on the farm and he went off with a trailer and brought two loads of topsoil together with another of a huge amount of very old, well rotted manure and then went off and came back with an electrical saw.
She and Jorge measured the boards and cut them into halves and thirds and the 2" by 2" into ten inch lengths.
Brian, who brought the soil and manure, stayed to help and before long, there were eight raised beds in place. Now, all they had to do was fill these beds with rotted manure, top it off with a good 4" of top soil and call it a day!
She asked Brian to go and get 'boss', who had been working with the farm secretary, to come and see what they had done.
You know when you've done something right.. for people express happiness and the three of them knew they had done right because the look on the faces of her lovely client and the farm secretary were pictures to behold!
Especially Judy's face, for when she had come to open up the cottage for her boss earlier that day, all that had been beside the little house was a field.. just a little field with grass growing it it.
But now there were eight raised beds, stakes to show where fruit bushes would be planted and another eight raised beds would be made and other stakes had been placed to show where a solar house would be erected and a hedge to be planted to act as a windbreak.
For every foot in height of a hedge gives 6 feet of wind protection.. which is very useful around a vegetable garden!
Then it was time for a well deserved late lunch.. Judy had made a delicious shepherds pie and had cleverly remembered my mama can't eat white potatoes, the topping was made out of mashed sweet potatoes. Pudding was a hot compot of stone fruits.. topped off with cream from their own cows.. yum!
What a day it had been.. the rain held off until they had finished, everything is now ready for all the seedlings to be planted when the weather gets a bit warmer and client was beyond satisfied.. in fact, she grinning from ear to ear.
Mama went upstairs to change back into proper clothes and on her way down was asked to go into client's tiny study.
She handed her a little box and said "Don't refuse this, for it is a gift to thank you for all those years you worked for me, my family and my friends and now for my new kitchen garden where I won't ever have to dig a spade or bend down to weed and I am giving it to you with love and gratitude for our friendship".
She opened the box to find a chunky silver ring with two tiny pieces of gold in the shape of a acorns on the shoulders and the top is of cut out leaves.. a perfect gift for a gardener. It slipped snuggly onto the little finger of her right hand.
Then she said "I'll give this to Jorge" and they went together out to where Brian, Judy and Jorge were waiting by his car and she gave Jorge a very fat envelope and thanked him for all his very hard work.
Hands were shaken and hugs were hugged.. they said their goodbyes and drove back to London.
What a day it had been.. what a lot they had done and how well everything had gone and what a lot of fun it had been to be given a small little field and to give back a proper kitchen garden.
It's good when people work together and things go well, isn't it?
She told me all about her day when she got into bed with a plate of fruit and then she slept the sleep of the dead that night for she was tired but oh, so happy. I like to see her happy.
GeeGee parrot.
March 12th, 2019.
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