SHE GOT MONEY & GOODIES TOO!

With her incredibly smart new cards in her old but still smart work case, off she went to Streatham to meet with the management team at Morrisons.

I am delighted to be able to tell you that Morrisons stepped right up to the plate.. yes indeedy.. they surely did! For the charming manager at their Streaham Common branch has agreed to donate whatever food is needed for the breakfasts after the three family mass on July 12th and their BBQ in August and then he put her together with his Community Champion.

Who was a charming young woman called Anya. Anya asked her what she wanted in the form of a financial donation, they discussed the needs of the Streatham Dementia Support Group. Then Anya said what she had available per month in her budget for Charity.

They agreed on a figure which is a great start! She is to issue an invoice for next month and then they will set up a standing order to the bank account of Rotary Club of Streatham Trust Fund. Registered Charity No: 1036425.

Yippee.. and other really great stuff was discussed about free placement of a banner for the group outside in their railings, items for the Raffle at the BBQ, collection tins with a Rotary member inside the store. They could not have been kinder nor more generous.

It was a HOT sticky day yesterday and so I was left at home, she could not have taken me in my small cage to the Morrison meeting, then there was a period of time when she called into other companies. I would have been grumpy BEYOND belief at the end of even an hour and she was out on the road for three hours even before she joined up with the group at 2.00 past midday!

But everyone asked her "where's GeeGee.. where's dat bird?" Oh, I was sorely miseed, I am pleased to tell you!

But there is much work to be done and now she is pulling out her old work related address books. When you have worked for people like: Laksmi Mittal, Leslie and Abigail Wexner, Garfield Weston, Pierre Winkler, The Duke of Westminster and other families who are known to be very philanthropic, you have a fast inside track to requesting financial support for an extremely worthwhile cause.

Bill and Melinda Gates joined their Foundation up with Rotary International as they knew that Rotary was TRULY international and capable of doing the work needed to tackle and irridicate Polio. We are nearly there folks, there are a few pockets left in the world where this dreadful disease lingers on but as long as everyone stays alert, we can and will do it.

However, she was horrified to hear recently that the government of Pakistan has recently closed down ALL the activities of Save the Children Charity within Pakistan. There are no non-Pakistani workers based in this country working for this Charity who do wonderful, life saving work throughout the world but they, the locals, have been accused of anti-Pakistani proceedures. Very sad and strange.

A close friend asked her recently why she was so committed and passionate about Rotary and why she had joined the Rotary Club of Streatham instead of a local (to her) branch like Chelsea or Kensington.. it didn't take her a nanosecond to give her her response.. which was.

"My grandmother suffered from Dementia for the last few years of her life and I contracted Polio at the age of six.. I sat in on a Streatham Rotary Club meeting and listened to them talking about a local Dementia group which they had recently set up, by this time I knew about Rotary's work with the Gates Foundation against Polio, I then joined them the following Friday at the Streatham Dementia Support Group and knew that this was the Rotary Club that I wished to be a member of".

Simples..

GeeGee Parrot.
June 27th, 2015.

UPON SEARCHING IN CHARITY SHOPS FOR A BROKEN NECKLACE WITH WHICH TO MEND ONE OF HERS. WHAT DOES SHE FIND AND BUY VERY QUICKLY?

Yes folks, a hunting she is a'going in search of large dollops of moolah, dosh, loot, folding.. whatever you like to call it, she's after it tomorrow, she got the facts and figures in her brain and has been aided and abetted by Janice, the incoming President, enormously.

They are off on a banner jaunt next Tuesday to finalise the banner artwork and to sign it off, this gives the company the go-ahead to make it ~ as quickly as possible please!

All in all, it was a highly productive day, her Rotary cards arrived, chic and smart they are, clever Cousin Bruce!

She managed to find something for a friend which was supposedly 'not in stock', being nice to her suppliers and always paying their invoices as soon as they arrived has always paid huge dividends. They still say "Hi sweetie, how are you, what do you need / want" and she retired seven years ago!

So it was not a problem finding ten cards of a certain trim, she just rang the manufacturer direct and after a few Italian and English pleasantries were exchanged.. the conversation about the non-stock coloured trim resulted in the lovely words "course we will do that for you, send it to the client direct, no problem, when are you coming to see us again, it's been far too long and you'd be able to go to Madova as well!"

Ahhh.. they knew her well! For they're in Florence and they introduced her to the bestbest place for gloves.. beautiful coloured gloves in lots of different styles. MADOVA.. it's like entering a sweetie shop with little drawers full of heavenly treats!

She had the wrist strap on an old watch shortened, "how much" she asked her jeweller, who looked up and waved her out of the shop saying "bring me one of those delicious chocolate salami the next time you make some!"

Don't you love it when people are funny and nice!

Then she remembered she needed to mend an old necklace, carved ivory beads, goodness knows how old it is as she was given as a child by Flo, aka The Severe Pruning Company. She popped into a couple of the charity shops looking for a cheap necklace with a good clasp that she could use, she was looking for a 'Barrel' clasp.

The second shop she went into was the Heart Foundation, she had to pass the dresses to get to the jewellery and an assistant was hanging clothes onto the rail so she waited until she could pass.. then she saw it.. a cobalt blue and white stripe jersery dress with a white trim along the boat shaped neck.

Nice, she thought and took the dressdown from the rail.. even nicer.. Ralph Lauren still with its' Ralph Lauren shop label on it and in her size.. VERY nice and nicer still when on! And she found a pretty blue and white glass beaded necklace with the type of clasp she wanted for £1.99, the beads will go splendidly on a bracelet that she has to repair.

Back to the Library, after taking the box to be posted to Plymouth, no point in sending it First Class as it would arrive on Saurday, Second Class was just fine at £5.99 for a big box which weighed almost nothing!

There is in old WW, a lubbly-jubbly selection of books for the week end from the Library but we're going to be busy before we get there! I do wish that my tumtum feathers would hurry up and grow back.. they're taking a seriously long time.. and I kinda wish that I hadn't pulled ALL of them out.. sigh..

We had our supper really early, I am dozing whilst she taps this and we'll both be in bed before ten of the evening clock.

Yawn.. oh.. this will make you laugh. She used to be called Blondie by the 'boys' in Deptford at one the restoration studios. And you know that Craig the art teacher, who comes into the charity shop where she works, calls her Blondie.

And as she is the only blonde at Streatham Rotary.. that's now her nickname there as well! She roared with laughter upon receiving a financial file in the form of an email from her out-going President addressed to "Dearest Blonde"..

What a way to start our day.. with a grin and a chuckle!

GeeGee Parrot.
June 25th, 2015.

SUNNY DAYS & STEAMY NIGHTS.!

No.. don't worry folks, she's behaving herself! The steamy nights refer to how hot it is at night or has been recently.

It was a cracker of a day today, she worked from half eleven to a quarter to five and then went to MailBox to get a package before they closed at six of the evening clock. Having crossed the road, she spied a tidy box full of other cardboard boxes.. splendid, just what she needed in order to send a package down to Plymouth. She dragged that home.. waste not, want not.. and they are perfect!

The shop was busy and she spent a happy hour sitting down 'marrying' up endless pairs of clip-on earrings which had been donated and pricing them, she found some lovely stuff and just as she had finished, one of their nicest dealers came in and said "may I have a look" and took three things which she had just priced.

A small bag of Chinese Turquoise, a small 18ct gold charm and an 18ct gold ring set with a small engraved Chrisophrase stone. He was happy with his purchases and she was happy, they'ed been sitting in a box since last winter with no-one wanting to sort the hideous jumbled up mess out.. a BIG box!

Then off she went to MailBox to collect the Swedish Bitters which that lovely Herbalist, Christine Brown who runs Granary Herbs, had sent up to her.. haha.. she isn't going to let that happen again. that's for sure! No Swedish Bitters equals a sore tumtum!

We've had supper, Pork Loin chops on a bed of home grown salad and herbs, what could be nicer? Followed by the very last smidgen of Goaty cheese.. it's mid week, we've now got to wait until next Sunday until we get more.. sigh.

Busy day tomorrow, package has to go to a Post Office and then she's off down to the allotments for a full days' work, Friday has rolled around very quickly, in the morning she is putting on a pretty dress and going off as she has appointments to see people about financial sponsorship and donations for the Streatham Dementia Support Group that her Rotary Club runs each Friday afternoon.

Then she'll whizz home to collect me, then we whizz back up by train to Streatham Hill. Lots of whizzing about on Friday and she must remember to go to collect her new Rotary cards from MailBox before they close tomorrow, otherwise she'll have to go there first on Friday morning, you can't go out to do serious fundraising without your official Charity or corporate card!

Busybusy.. nothing she likes better.. I'm just hoping they'll have the boiled fruit cake on Friday.. keep your claws crossed folks.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 24th, 2015.

A PRETTY DRESS WITH LONG SLEEVES AND A WINTER-WEIGHT JACKET.. IN JUNE!

She washed her hair, did her face, put on a short sleeved dress, took out a favourite summer jacket, checked my food and water, blew me a kiss and left the house. Rotary evening, I thought to myself and settled down.

Only to hear the sounds of her keys opening the front door and her greeting whistle less than ten minutes later! "Cold GeeGee, very chilly-billy windy with rain in the air" changing into a long sleeved jersey dress, taking a quilted winter jacket, goodness me, I'm glad I don't have to go out in weather like this!

A kiss on Beaky and she was back out of the door. Taking the bus to Streatham Hill, the roadworks are finished at the roundabout and she didn't fancy dealing with Victoria Station at rush-hour, it takes longer by bus but there was plenty of time and she could finish an excellent book by Susan Isaacs called 'Red White and Blue'.

The Rotary agenda was busy, a much beloved member has recently died so her funeral arrangements were being discussed and finalised, our fundraising morning for the Dementia Support Group in the Catholic Church was next up, it will be on July 12th and it will start at approximately 09.30am after the first Mass and will finish at about 1.00pm after the last Mass is heard.

This means an early start for us, as we have to be in the church hall at 09.15 to settle me into my large travelling cage and close it with a padlock! We know everyone at the group meetings on Friday but with hundreds of strangers, it will be safer for me if naughty fingers know they cannot let 'Polly' out!

This was the first meeting since the day that Susan and she went out and about giving the information and posters about the Streatham Dementia Support Group, she had to stand up and give a full report about where they had been and the reception they had received.

The meeting ended at fifteen minutes after after nine o'clock, she blew goodbye kisses at everyone and flew out of the door, ran like a hare down hill (thank goodness) onto Streatham Hill and a bus came along in two minutes. It was bitterly cold evening and she thanked her lucky stars that she had changed her clothes earlier!

Home again home again jiggedy-jig! Late but hungry.. haha-hoho.. cold barbecued chichen in the fridge with a bit of salad and hummus! For both of us, it certainly did the trick, with a handful of nuts and a big glass of water and after washing her face and teeth, we were both in bed with the lights out before 10.45 past midday (pm).

Today she HAS to find that sign maker in Tooting in order to get a SDSG banner made, they've brought forward our fundraising event in the church and it needs to be ready for July 1st.

Also has to talk to the team at The South London News about a journalist and photographer coming to see a Friday meeting at Woodlawns, them doing an article on the group and putting news in the paper about their fund-raising events which are happening in July and August.

Back to Morrisons on Streatham Common to talk to their Community Champion about becoming a sponsor and donating food and money to the SDSG - Streatham Dementia Support Group  - for these local community events.. food and money is what she wants.

As Baloo sang in the Jungle Book.. "The bare necessities of life.." a charming film, even if Disney did spell his name wrong!

A busy day, so we're up and off into YumYum HQ to start it!

GeeGee Parrot.
June 23rd, 2015.

THE SUMMER SOLSTICE ~ JUNE 21st, 2015.

What a glorious day. A 'proper' summers day in an English garden.. aka an allotment. What could possibly be nicer than wearing a swimsuit and picking your own cherries!

She always laughs when she hears the phrase 'pick your own', it means, of course, you pick as much as you want to pay for of the fruit that somebody else owns  but she prefers to really pick her own and there was a lot of picking going on yesterday by the looks of what came home in her yellow bucket!

Lots of origano and marjoram, some chives and lovage and the tiniest of tiny sorrel leaves, she had trimmed the plant right down as it was too tall and going to seed. A few self seeded chard leaves and a couple of sprigs of wild land-cress were for our supper but I was much more interested in the jewels underneath!

Black and red currants! And a large handful of the first Stella cherries that were ready to pick. Tootie-Fruitie! Our own fruit. All the fruit bushes and trees have been planted by her own grubby hands. She has brought the bushes and trees from any number of very well respected fruit nurseries but our first two Stella cherry trees and a Yellow Gage came from.. Lidl!

And they have proved to be as splendid as any of the other fruit trees brught from more up-market tree sellers!

Now there is a train of thought that, if you live in a rented house or a flat that has a garden, you don't plant anything as you may move. Well, she knows several families who have lived in rented houses for over eight years, one of them has a thriving fruit, flower and vegetable garden, she knows as she planned and made it for them!

The other two families have gardens that are.. sterile is a good word, The grass is cut, there are a few things in tubs. But there is nothing to cut and smell or cut and eat. She knows that she won't garden her allotments 'forever' but whilst there is the energy and strength to do so, she'll work these four allotment plots. Then somebody else will have the joy of taking a basket and picking 'their own'!

These plots are individually quite different. Each one has fruit trees on it but they're laid out differently and the two end ones, plots number 35 & 37, will be completely different when the job is completed of destroying old Blackberry Briars plan for plot domination!

For this is where she wants to build a Solar House. The tradional green house, as you know, it is not actually ideal for our English sun, the sun is too low for too many months to work properly. Over fifty years ago she recalls seeing the two greenhouses that belonged to a family friend, Priscilla, they were a different shape to 'normal' ones and she asked her why it was like this. "It is all to do with the angle of the sun" was the answer! Priscilla's grapes and melons were lengendary and she grew salad all through the winter!

Then, within the past five years, she found and read a book by an American author who echoed Priscilla's words and went into much further detail! Eureka.. so no overseas summer holiday for her this year. The next phase is to dig out the blackberry and raspberry roots, to turn over the soil and clear it of all weeds. All this is needed as preparation for building the Solar house which she wants to have up and running for next Spring.

Having left early and coming home late.. I was quite prepared to be fierce and get Beaky to give her a nip but wise Beaky said "hey-up, there's something smelly delicious in her basket" and there was!

Coming home via a small Middle-Eastern store who do tasty barbecued chicken at the weekend, she had chosen the most golden one, he had wrapped it carefully in two heat bags, she had bought a tiny cucumber as a treat (bribe) for me and two pots of hummus.

The herbs were snipped into small pieces, olive oil, raspberry (from our own canes) vinegar, salt and pepper were put on top, she scissor cut the hot chicken in two and placed it on top of the herbs.

Yumpy-dumpy! Ain't nothing better than a hot barbequed chicken when you've been working hard all day. Beaky and I made short work of the bones with the flesh and gristle. Then we ate jewels of scarlet balls of heavenly deliciousness and black as night Ribena balls! "The white ones aren't ready yet", she said.. who cares, thought I as I munched on a red currant! Then I ate most of two large slices of the baby cucumber.. crisp and crunchy and wet.. very slurpy indeed!

Much work was done, she's pruned the cherry trees that have fruited and cut off the long shoots of all the other stone fruit trees but needs a short ladder to get at the two naughty plum trees who are playing 'Reach for the Sky', "no plum.. you weren't planted just for you to grow to twenty feet high and wave your fruit around out of picking reach!"

The cut grass was raked up, growth cleared from underneath the gang of six ~ three Stella cherry trees, one Morello cherry, a Green Gage and a Victoria plum and pruned back a Rosamundi Rose who was reverting to a wild rose.

After painting all the fruit trees with white latex paint and replaced all the mothballs around the base of each tree, the next section of work which will be working on one plot at a time.

Starting on plot 41: To finish clearing out underneath the fruit trees and to check the tree guards. Tidy up the peonies who have flowered, tie string around the the stalks and leaves to keep them in upright bunches.

That was her longest day.. the perfect day for the longest day.. our Summer Solstice 2015. How did you spend your Solstice?

Gee Gee Parrot.
June 22nd, 2015

OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY..

You probably think of it as a childrens' rhyme.. but nothing, Dear Readers, could be further than the truth. For it is the famous Rifleman song. And was sung by the 95th Rifles as they engaged the French troops at the Battle of Waterloo.

This battle ended Bonaparte's despotic charade in Europe. He'd caused the death of tens of thousands of French, Spanish and Portugese ~ read history to learn about the Napoleonic Wars ~ and had marched his troops into Russia, with no thought about back-up supplies OR the weather, poor men and horses.

We then had peace in Europe for nearly one hundred years until the outbreak of WW1 in 1914. She's been reading a lot of history ~ modern ~ recently. Few people realise, unless you are Italian or know your history, that in both the UK and the USA Italians not born in that country were considered to be, like the Japanese and Germans, undesireable aliens.

There were families who had come to the UK after WW1, during which war Italy was an ally, only to be classied as aliens at the start of WW2. They were rounded up and shipped off and out. It is NOT a pretty story. Likewise in the USA.

So you had the situation of compulsory active service duty for all UK and USA men of Italian origin born in those countries but whose own Italian born parents were imprisoned.. OI VEY.

Years ago, she used to get beautiful plants from Rochfords at Crew's Hill. This is a truly wondrous place. There are acres upon acres of glasshouses! At Rochfords, in charge of the greenhouse was an elderly Italian who had been a prisoner of war on the Isle of Man.

He was asked what did he do before the war, he told the camp authorities that his family grew plants, primarily orchids but also salads and grapes for the family. The next thing he knew, he was on a bicycle with a map with instructions of how to get to ...

And there, he found a sad sight! Going around the large house to the back door, he saw a huge old greenhouse with nobody taking care of an enormous vine and lots of half dead orchids. He had been told to knock on the back door and to give them the note explaining them who he was.

He knocked, a very elderly gentleman came to the door to whom he handed over the note, upon reading it the elderly man greeted him but you can imagine his surprise when he was greeted in Italian and not just Italian but fluent Turinese. The owner of the greenhouse with the sad orchids and vine had studied for years in Turin.

Out of a sad situation there came great joy for these two men. The elderly man had arthritis and could no longer tend his vine, the orchids had been his wife's and she was no longer alive but here, like a gift from God, there was this lovely man who, through no fault of his own, was considered to be undesirable!

He spent the rest of the war years working at the greenhouse, he supplied the local store with salads and vegetables, the grapes were bartered with the Officers' Mess in exchange for vegetable seeds. He revitalised the orchid collection and after the war, he married a Manx girl and stayed on the island.

They moved to Crews' Hill when his Italian family moved to England in the early seventies. He was a charming man whose knowledge of plants was stupendous! The elderly man had taught him English and he had read voraciously everything in the extensive library.

It was an extremely sad day when one of the hothouse 'girls', who knew she adored him, called to say that he had died.. he'd done his Friday walk-about, sat down to take off his gloves and gone.. it was a hell of a shock for his team, his family and friends of which there were legions but for him, it was the best way to go.

"If I should fail to rise
no more, as many
comrades did before, then
ask the fife and drums
to play, o'er the
hills and far away".

GeeGee Parrot.
June 21st, 2015.

HER TUM IS GLUM.. BREAD IS THE CULPRIT.. NO MORE CRUSTS.. SIGH.

Oh dear.. oh dearie, dearie me. She had a sneaky suspicion for a couple of years that bread was not the best thing for her, think slow digestion, bloating and other unpleasant things and so, although she loved the Lithuanian bread we ate, a sourdough mix of rye and wheat with caraway seeds, she stopped eating any bread at the end of February.

On Tuesday she bought a loaf of this to take on the girl's outing to Rackspace. On Wednesday she ate one slice with the picnic and had two slices toasted on Thursday morning when we broke our fast, I am crazy-daisy about those crusts.

Yesterday morning we ate another two slices. Then we went off to Streatham Hill to the Streatham Dementia Support Group. By four of the afternoon clock, she was feeling uncomfortable, by bedtime which was just after ten o'clock, her lower stomach was extremely painful, to put it mildly and guess what!

There was no Swedish Bitters in the cupboard! She'd slurped the last drop last weekend and forgotten to call our beloved herbalist Christine @ Granary Herbs to order two more bottles! Grrrr.

So her plans have changed, for she has now to do an emergency dash to shop at Baldwins, an equally beloved Herbalists on the Walworth Road, who stock Christine's Swedish Bitters. Thank goodness.

The shy is pale beige-grey, not a colour she is very fond of but it was like this yesterday morning at about the same time but however, it turned into a crackin' day to be sure.

So she's got to get going off down to the Elephant & Castle, there is a single decker bus that will take her all the way, she just has to catch it. A book will be taken and she'll resist the urge to get off at the Imperial War Museum, for this wonderful museum must have an exhibition on to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the battle that got rid of Napoleon Bonaparte once and for all.

She'll go next week and she'll go to the National Portrait Gallery as well to look at the new exhibition of photographs of Audrey Hepburn. The article she read in todays' Guardian is fair, she thinks.

But now, clutching her sore and bloated tumtum, she's off to catch the bus to the Elephant. I'm going to doze and perhaps slurp a morsel of cheesy omelette that might be found on Beaky, if I'm lucky.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 20th, 2015.

DANCING A JIG.. ON MY MUM'S HEAD!

I know Dear Readers, she's extremely tolerant. How many mothers do you know who would let their children prance about all over them like I do? Not many normal ones is the correct answer but who said my mum was normal? Not me, that's for sure!

We've been Singing With Dementia up at Woodlawns on Leigham Court Road at Streatham Hill and very jolly it was too! No boiled fruit cake for tea but she had taken a pot of hummus and I had a nibble at an extremely tootie-fruity strawberry, I wanted a slurp of her tea but she had drunk it all so I had water instead.. not the same.

There's a plot a'foot, it has been dreamt up by Rosalina, one of my special friends, she's busting a gut to teach me some Italian. which she is, it might work, you never know with us Greys. Back to the plot, it is a fund raiser for the church and it will be for kids, the human variety. They pay 50p a go to guess my name and the winner gets a baby (toy) parrot!

Whatever next, I ask you? Anyway, my mum volunteered me for this and so we'll be travelling slightly further afield in July on a Sunday. First we'll go to Mass, I've never been into a church, so this will be a new experience, that's for sure! Then we'll play the game whilst parents have coffee and cake.

Rosalina and she have to come up with about a hundred girls' names, each child will try to guess my name and once a name has been chosen, the child's name and telephone number will be put against that name and it will be taken 'out of the pot' as it were. At the end of the morning, which ever child has guessed my name, if anyone does, then they get the prize.

I'll travel in my smaller cage but she'll take the bigger one for me to be in for the duration of the game, it is a good thing that the big one can be carried by old WW as it is quite heavy! My dears, the things she gets up to and is now involving me in as well!

But I must say that this afternoon was a very jolly affair indeed, I flew about a lot, I landed on several unsuspecting peoples' heads, I did a dudu on Susan's, I am ashamed to admit but what can you expect with all this excitement?

We sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes the whole way through, that always gets me going as she has to bend all the way down lots of times to touch her knees and toes, then we bounced about a bit more with head waggling, shoulder rolling, toe and heel touching and then we all danced about doing the 'Lambeth Walk' in a line.

Such laughing was laughed as I held on tight and flapped-the-flap with my wings and today.. I caused them to stop singing when I joined in whistling! It was a tune I knew so I could prance about and whistle.. it was chaos, my dears.. chaos.. they laughed so much.

What a great sight it is to see these people laughing, that's why we started the group, to give these folk a happy time and if all it takes is me being silly and enjoying myself, well, I'll keep on doing my very best at being foolish.

I did NOT want it to end.. no sirree! I bit her smartly at half past four, which was pack up time and made it very obvious that I did not want to leave but she explained that the party was over and it was time to go home and that next Friday will be along before I know it! I hope so.

So she kissed several folk and said our goodbyes, Janice had had a splendid time with her family in Jamaica and Mary had had an equally splendid time at the World Conference of Rotary International in Brazil, she says she only drank one bottle of rum a day! Joke! They looked so happy both of them.

Off we trotted down the road, turned left on to the High Street and along came our 319 bus which was empty, we took ourselves a comfy seat and trundled all the way home to Sloane Square.

Now she'll cook us something light and tasty, she's dug out a pure cotton house dress, it is too hot to be wearing much else! And she's promised me a cool bath with a session with my favourite machine, her hair dryer, which blows cool air through my feathers, it will a MAJOR treat after today's hot day.

It's Friday, so there you have our week folks, we both hope thay you all have had a happy time. We are aware that there have been some terrible things that have happened this week, the slaying of those nine completely defenseless people at a Bible Study Group in a church in Charleston, SC, USA is, without doubt, one of the saddest things.

And there have been other things too, some too gruesome to mention, which is why I bang on about keeping your side of the 'street' and life clean, happy and healthy and about being kind to people who are not just your immediate family.

Gettit..

GeeGee Parrot.
June 19th, 2015.

BY GEORGE.. I THINK SHE GOT IT!

Yes, she has, she's found the top to the petrol tank of the grass trimmer! So off she went, why, she could have been at a fair! For she went round and around, up and down and backwards and forwards, just like you do when you're young and having fun.

And even though it wasn't a fair and she didn't get to eat candy floss, she surely had just as much fun. And ring dem bells.. for old weed and grass are dead! They most surely are, they're now in a big heap and will go snap, crackle and pop in the incinerator! What a difference tidy paths and no weeds waving at you makes!

The bean support was dismantled and will relocate to another plot, likewise with the pea-frame, they put nitrogen back into the soil and next year, their bed will be where corn will grow, for corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder and will just love growing where those beans grew so happily.

It was a hot and very sunny day! She thought of the racing folk in hats and suits etc, with heels and make-up.. and was thankful not to to be there. And it was Ladies Day at the allotments, for several of the other women plot holders were working there too.

But it WAS a work day, so they just shouted and waved at each other but she did give Ros a mug of water as she trundled past with a barrow load of manure.. as you do when it's a hot day with work to be done!

As for their clothing, well, Rose ~ yes, we have Ros, Rose and Rosalina ~ was in shorts and a t.shirt but the rest of them were in thick jeans as they were all cutting back and pulling out briars and nettles. My mum was wearing elbow length gauntlets on as she was pulling out nettles, man, they're really very fierce now, hard to believe we eat them steamed when they are young in the early Spring!

When she was young, and had Bluey (pony) and Victoria (goat), her parents insisted that she worked in the summer holidays to pay for Bluey's shoes and the animals feed. Apples, berries, cherries, hops grew on the farm and by picking these, she earned winter credits for the blacksmith, hay and straw.

But picking cherries is a great deal easier on her 'farm' in 2015 than in the summers of 1963 and 1964. For she lopped six feet off of all the cherry trees last summer! They are now much easier to pick from, not like when she was a teenager and was picking them high up off the ground.

You may have seen old ladders and wondered at their shape, if they're very long and skinnier at one end, you're looking at a cherry tree ladder! For cherry trees can grow to immense heights. Rather like a certain young plum tree who thought that by bearing no fruit mum would forget about her!

Silly tree.. it didn't know that she has 'eagle' eyes where her own fruit is concerned and she had seen the heavy crop forming on this five year old tree. She had also noticed the amount of growth that it has put on this year, so after picking time, it is for the chop.. yes.. chop-choppie. You hard prune stone fruit trees in the summer and pip (apple and pear) fruit in the winter and she's taking at least four feet off the height of this young plum.

But today, no leather boots, thick jeans and leather gauntlets for her, she'll have clean hair and pretty clothes, I'll wear my new feather on my tumtum, for we are off to Sing With Dementia and we'll be hugging and welcoming back Mary, our outgoing President, who has just been in Brazil for two weeks at the Rotary International Convention.

But before then, we have to break our fast, yes, for it is slurpyslurp time with egg-the-peg and goaty curd! Yippee and other such expressive words of happiness.. Tootle toot to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.
June 19th, 2015.

GIRLS JUST WANT & GET TO HAVE FUN!

The six girls all had such a fun day out.. no, they didn't have to wear hats and heels but they did eat yummy yumyum and slurp fizzy drinks! And they were SO fussed over and the paparazzi were crazy about them.. lots of photos were taken.

Yes, it was the Annual Staff Fair at Rockspace at Hayes! The staff were so pleased to see the girls.. four goaty kids ~  two British Sanaan and two Nubian cross Sanaan ~ and Debbie and my mum. Debbie answered the Goaty questions and my mum helped by 'girling' the cheeses counter, well, she isn't a man, so how would she 'man' it?

In a little lull they scoffed their picnic, mum had taken a pot of her garlicky mayo.. it is a veryvery scrummydumptious thing into which you dip a radish into and then into a tub of Maldon salt and likewise with a baby pea or a spring onion ~ scallion.

Lots of the customer remembered them from last year and came whizzing over to buy their favourites again. One big guy grinned when he saw the round one, whose name escapes me but it is famous for it won the GOLD award at the Nantwich International Cheese Fair last year, and said "this is my very favourite cheese in all the world", HOW nice was that!

The baby goaty folk thought the whole thing was very pleasant, for nice people held bottles for them and it was warm so they could zizz in the trailer, it was, all in all, a pleasant jaunt and as the three youngest kids had also been to Balham last Saturday and are going up to be part of a new goaty herd in Herefordshire next Tuesday, you can just imagine the tales of adventure that they will be able to tell!

She left poor Debbie to do the packing up, it is a very detailed job as everything goes in its' special place, and walked up to the station, two stops later she was at Paddington and lifting old WW onto a number 36 bus to Park Lane. A swift 74 brought her home, whereupon, I had to give her a good checking over to make sure those naughty kids had not stolen anything.

Like her heart, we all know she has a secret small place in her heart for a pure white kidney-diddley because of Victoria but she knows that she'll never have her own again, so she just loves from afar.

Funny weather, it was pretty humid, to say the least but hopefully it will be a pleasant day tomorrow when she goes to the allotment, for on Friday we are Singing With Dementia.. yum, I hope they have that boiled fruity cake again, I am extremely partial to that.

Goodness me, it is past five of the afternoon clock and we have not had a cup of LapySang. I must fly away to the YumYum HQ and supervise Mr. Kettle. FlapFlap Dear Readers FlapFlap.. I hope you're having an equally nice life?

GeeGee Parrot.

June 17th, 2015.