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.

TEL # 0142033227197 DO NOT ANSWER OR SPEAK TO MEN CALLING FROM THIS NUMBER

The men say they are calling from HM Dept of Works & Pensions.. but they are not, they are evil scammers trying to get you to part with money.

The DWP, as it is called, never call you.. never ever, so when she answered this call this morning and a man said "My name is Mr. So&So and I am calling from the Dept of Works and Pensions. May I have your name to verify that I am speaking to the right person" he must have received one hell of a shock when this pensioner said "No, you may not and I know that the people from the DWP never telephone anyone so you are a individual otherwise known as a nasty scammer.. goodbye".

She ended the call and placed a block on the number.

So be aware of these and other scammers and.. do not ever give your name, your date of birth, your address, your National Insurance / Social Security number or any of your bank details to anyone over the telephone because these evil people are after your money.

Be safe.. Not sorry.. Nor scammed.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 5th, 2019.

WE'VE BEEN VERYVERY BUSY!

Our weather, yes, I know I'm an African Grey but I'm an English born African Grey and we English, especially us gardeners, always talk about weather and it has recently been decidedly 'iffy' to say the least.

We've had days so warm that I dozed in the shade of my umbrella whilst she gardened in a sleeveless t.shirt and days so cold and wet that she has stayed in bed! Well, not all day but she's found stuff to do indoors. 

On Tuesday it was bright but far too chilly to take me to the allotments, so she wore many layers of clothing and went off to plant onions and shallots and check on 'stuff'.

Everything looked fine, the early narcissi are coming to an end and larger double white varieties are in bloom, along with our little friends, the self seeded Forget-me-nots who are such a welcome visitor.

They've spread under two apple trees which are by the gate and with the dark red stems of the peonies, there is such a pop of colour it makes everyone smile.

LOTS of work was done, hard work.

There was a big square bed that had tomatoes and peppers in it last summer, it was a double height raised bed that she filled with good leaf mold, compost, horse manure early last autumn and to which she has added all of our food waste since November.

Mr. and Mrs. Worm have eaten every scrap of the food, manure, wood chips and turned it all into the most perfect soil. But at nearly 20 inches (50cms) high and approximately 6 feet (1.80cms) square the bed was too big.

So gathering shorter pieces of timber together, she split the bed in two. One is now shorter than the other to allow a rose and a clematis to have a properly weed free area around their base.

The path between the beds was tramped on, thick cardboard laid down and topped off with a layer of wood chips.

Job done! The smaller bed was planted with Spring Onions, aka Green Onions or Scallions, we lurve them!

Did you know that you can regrow them as you can also do with Celery as well?

With the onions, cut off the green bit leaving at least an inch and a half (3.5cms) of the white base which must have the roots!

Put the root end into a clear glass jar in about an inch (2.5cms) of cold water and place the jar in a light place. After a short while you will notice that the green ends are growing, this is when you can plant them outside.

With celery you do the same thing but suspend the 2 inch (5cms) root end (celery never are sold with their roots) in water, do not let the bottom sit on the base of the container as it will cause it to rot. Use wooden toothpicks to hold the celery in place and change the water every day.

After a few days, you see a tiny spear of dark green growing from the middle of the cut off stalks, this signifies that magic is happening and after about a week, skinny roots will start to grow!

She plants it out when there are lots of roots and protects them from frosts with a Sun Tunnel.  

Our last frost date is June 9th! Yes, that late. She managed to keep a couple going through last winter, they were planted in August last year in a bed with very high raised sides and amongst the Perpetual Spinach.

They've rewarded her by growing 'fat and happy', the taste is superb. We have six growing at home, a couple will be 'blanched' by wrapping cardboard around them as they grow.

And when we go to have lunch or supper with friends, we take celery stalks and peonies or roses as gifts, it is a such a delight to watch people's faces as they taste or smell our home grown produce.

We have a visitor. Boy Cat is staying with us for ten days. He has grown very big and developed weird habits! He likes to sit on the top of doors and on your lap when you are in the bath or on the loo aka lavatory! Most bizarre.

And she found him up high on a bookshelf in the bedroom so he's, unfortunately, had to be banished from this room because she found him eyeing up the shelves where she keeps her collection of glass and porcelain treasures.

Do not feel sorry for him, he has free-range of the rest of our home and finds the old boiler room of 'particular interest', as well he might, for mice used to be in there quite not so long ago and it must smell very interesting indeed. 

And the smell of a cat would certainly make any sensible mouse think twice about coming into our home, so Boy is most welcome! 

We've had snow in London. On the day she cut the big bed in two, she saw a ominously dark cloud approaching from the north west, so packed up and got to the bus stop very quickly!

A bus came on time and it started to rain, she was mighty glad of her 'Pat's Hat' as the bus heating was off, on Hammersmith Broadway a man got on and said "Phew, it's grim" and then down it came.. sheets of snow, BIG white flakes. It stopped after about thirty minutes, luckily before she got off the bus. 

Talk about hurry scurry down our steps! She was SO grateful she had turned the boiler on before she left.

And that she had a chicken stew which all she had to do was heat through.. we lurve chicken stew and save the bones to boil and make a stock with which she cooks Spring Greens.

That's your lot for today. later I'll tell you about her taking Jane on a jaunt to Shepherd's Bush and introducing her to new exciting places!

And about the wonderful things happening up in |Ayrshire in May. so come back soon!

GeeGee Parrot.
April 5th, 2019.