LITTLE SHACK IS IMMACULATE & BEASTLY BRIAR IS GETTING THE CHOP!

Greetings to you all. We haven't posted for ages and so there is much to tell. Where to start? At the allotments because that is the most important place I reckon.

As you know, the blackberry briars are a troublesome member of our community out there, they think they have the right to gobble up every inch but they got a nasty shock about ten days ago. For the big red rubber trug came out with the secaturs and she began the assault in two places on plot number 35.

Why did she do it in two places? Well, it's an evil and very large briar growth and to just do it in one place you can only go forwards but if you do it in two places, before long you meet your work coming from the other direction and it is easier to get the trug into the space (and out again to empty it) and hey presto! You suddenly see that it is 'do-able', instead of it being just a big fat mess!

This work was done on the days when it was quite hot, to put it mildly, and the cuttings dried quickly and the pile of them shrank.

Then we had a dramatic drop in temperature and that was ok too because she needed to work in Little Shack. Mister Rat thinks it's his home in the winter and so it has to be washed out and sterilised each Spring. She uses washing soda and bleach to do this, she had put everything away or hung it in its' proper place in the late Autumn, the glasses had all been washed and were all upside down, so it didn't take long to wash the work surfaces and the floor.

But one thing that is a big fat mess are the hand tools, not the actual tools themselves but the screws, nails, metal pegs etc. She needs to go to go to Poundland and buy a couple of those black plastic tool boxes, then they can be sorted out and separated.

But if the truth were told, which it always should be, these tools are in the wrong place! They should all be in Little Shed. But beastly Briar has gobbled up Little Shed and she will have to cut her way through it in order to get at the door. That's a job for next week as well as killing the briar who has sneaked his way onto the terrace.

She hacked out the path beside the Shack to the wood store at the back, nettles had invaded the path and a briar had come through the fence and grown along the path and up onto the roof of shack, it had grown along the roof, thankfully not between the wooden roof and the water-proof felting!

This weed store is where pots and spare rolls of roofing felt are kept and it needs a new roof, a tornado tore it off which also weakened the structure and knocked off the water tank that supplies the Shacks' kitchen which has to be reinstated.

And to help us greatly, we have been given a wonderful gift! Dean, the man who drove for her all those years ago, has given her his old decking! Wow, just as she was thinking of costing up the price of wood with which to make a whole new section of raised beds. How fortuitous was that?

For where the big patch of briars is used to be vegetable beds and she wants them back! The ground is fertile, we know this as nettles are growing there, a sure sign of good earth. And now we have the wooden planks with which to make the beds AND they're already drilled, all she has to do is put little square blocks of wood into each corner to connect the planks and go vroom.. with the powerful Bosch drill which is charging as she taps.

The Asparagus has given us more than she thought it would and it was early too. She cuts it all and then close trims it with the grass trimmer. This way she keeps the weeds down and the Asparagus stands a chance but she thinks it's probably its' last year. She'll make a new but not so large bed and ask Mrs. Ayling or her son William for three year old crowns.

Then that bed needs to be dug over and weeded properly. It will free up thirteen square feet, that is a good space and will be useful for several smaller raised beds.

In the meantime we have several trays of things growing here at home. Different varieties of Beans and Courgettes / Zucchini plus our much beloved Sweet Peas. Yes, you can start them off in the Autumn but slugs lurve Sweet Pea shoots and there is nothing sadder than the sight of slug munched Sweet Peas.

So she starts hers off at home and then puts then into a bed with sand, finely ground egg shells and slug pellets and they race away in mid May. They don't like frosts and we have had a couple of really strong frosts in the last two weeks, a couple of the new allotment plot holders were moaning about it having caused damage and one of them asked her on Thursday "When is our last frost date" and was shocked to hear it is the ninth of June!

But at the risk of being hated.. she is crying out for rain! As are all the farmers as well, the April showers? We didn't / haven't have any so far, what we did have was a hot spell that reached 74 F, which was FAR too hot for this time of the year and unless we get significant rain, the fruit that is already forming on all of her bushes and trees will dry up and drop off.

Then the June Drop won't be just of the smaller fruit, it will be all of the fruit, we have another five weeks before we reach June, which is the first month of Summer and this season, Spring, is the season for gentle but consistent rain in order for fruit, vegetable, wheat, hops, barley and grass for cattle, horses, sheep and goats to grow.

Goodness me.. it is nearly eight pm! Time to eat.. yumyum calls, it has been a strange day here today, for there was a plan to go to the allotment with a friend but yesterday she knew she wouldn't be able to make it, she has a Spring cold which has gone up into her sinuses.. very painful.. and yes, she has done lots of her usual treatment of mashed garlic, ginger and cloves in a tea and put drops organic sesame oil up her nostrils at night which has cleared the left side but the right side is proving to be a right ........ and it will take longer to clear up and clean out.

But she has a pleasant day planned tomorrow with gardening on Tuesday. Hopefully we will post again soon with good news of briar killing and the rescuing of poor Little Shed from its' evil grasp!

Until then.. PipPip to you all.

GeeGee Parrot.
April 23rd, 2017.

THE SUDANESE WAR. 2 FILMS ARE ON THE UK TV CHANNEL 4 APRIL 5 & 6 @ 7.00pm.

How much do you know about the war in Sudan, the current war that has claimed thousands of lives and caused millions of people to be displaced? There's an article in The Guardian today that is worth reading.. to put it gently!

The article is written by a journalist, Phil Cox, who, together with a Sudanese colleague, was captured, tortured and held for 70 days.

Read it on-line and then go to Channel 4 on the UK tv network to see his two films. Be informed about why the people of the Sudan and other African countries are fleeing their country in their thousands.

Be informed about what is going on in African, the corruption, the land grabbing, this is not just happening in Zimbabwe but throughout Africa, the Mineral rights being sold to China.. all roads, in this case do not lead to Rome but to corruption, the scale of which is beyond immense.

She's off to a lecture at the V&A, to balance the horror of what will, undoubtedly, be shown in the first of these two films tonight.

GeeGee Parrot.
April 5th, 2017.

NOW IT'S SPRING AGAIN.. THEY'VE SPRUNG AGAIN.. HER TULIPS FROM AMSTERDAM!

Now which day was it? Hmm, oh yes, it was last Thursday. The sky was clear with a few of those white fluffy clouds which didn't look too threatening and it was, eureka, quite warm. So she picked up her allotment keys, kissed Beaky and set off to do some physical damage to Mr and Mrs Weed.

She had been to'ing and fro'ing all morning so I was quite glad to see her go, it meant I could stop flying backwards and forwards up the hall and settle down for a doze, I like a good doze now and then, especially if I know she'll be gone for at least four hours or more.

The bus connections worked quite fast and she was there by 2pm. Only Antonio, her Sicilian friend, was in sight. There was lots of evidence of hard work by a few of her neighbours, she is guilty of not having done any hard work on her plots for a long time and it shows! But at least the garlic crop is looking wonderful and it's going to be a great one this year.

She hand forked those beds over, they're like onions, the ground surrounding the bulbs has to be loose otherwise they won't grow on or fatten up properly. Then she walked over the old asparagus bed, we may not have any spears this year, the crowns usually only last for about fifteen years and our crowns are at least eighteen years old, she bought them as three year olds.

She had the old grass trimmer out and strimmed any grass down just in case we get some. However, if she only get a few, she's going to dig the whole area over, for a small amount is not worth keeping such a huge bed for and she needs more beds as she's planted more fruit bushes.

Then she crossed over to another plot and smiled.. there is a row of trees, two Stella cherry trees, a Golden gage and a Conference pear and at their base are four beds, as you don't want to dig where their roots are, she has sectioned off a portion of each of these beds and they are all planted with chives, sage and mint except the first one where there's a wonderful bronze fennel that comes back every year.

A few years ago she was given an Easter gift of some fat Tulip bulbs which had been brought in from Holland, these were planted around the base of the fennel and they were in full bloom, the colour? You would know it if I said Elizabeth Arden Lipstick Red!

And behind them, the other side of a skinny grass walk, she was delighted to see fresh strong growth all along a section of the Peony walk.. ah, so despite that naughty stormy Stella stealing our Spring, it has sprung afterall and our fruit trees are just about to come into blossom. 

A lot of tidying up went on here today, luckily all in the same room so I wasn't worn to a complete frazzle flying back and forth, a lot of stuff is being donated to Age UK, our local charity which runs New Horizons in Cadogan Street. Yes, it was a lovely day but she'd rather set to and get this place but into shape than live in minor chaos.. do you know what chaos stands for?

Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome.. for those four wretched trunks are still lolling about in our sitting room! Enough said, I am as bored with it as she is but the difference is that she now has the energy to do something about it.. we'll tell you why in another post.  

Chirp, I feel the need for a slurp of LapySang, I wonder how I can get the same need through to her? 

GeeGee Parrot.

April 2nd, 2017.

MICHAEL M. THOMAS'S BOOKS.. ARE GREAT READS!

She has had these three books for over thirty years, she bought them when they were first published so that dates them to the early '80s. Not light reading, the plots are complicated and with a lot of detail but oh, so well worth reading! The three books that she has are Black Money, Green Monday and Other People's Money.

They were in the bookshelf in her bedroom and it was last week when she had 'run' out of new books and was too idle to go to the library one chilly afternoon that she pulled them out and remembered a. how long she had had them and b. how good Mr. Thomas's writing was!

Having read them the first time over thirty years ago, non of the plots were exactly 'fresh' in her mind and so to read them again was good, her favourite is Other People's Money, which combined shenanigans in the world of finance and the art market.

She won't be alive in another thirty years to read them again, so they are now going to be given to John, a friend who worked in exactly the same area of finance as the book in New York City - where the book is based - and who loves good art. She is planing on going through all her books and to read and give them away.

She will get on the hunt to see if Mr. Thomas has written any other books but tomorrow is scheduled to be 21 degrees and sunny, she is planning a trip to the allotments.

I apologise for our lack of posts, it has been a bit 'squirrelly' around here recently. However, we are gradually getting back up to speed and she is forming a post about the poisonous chemical that is added to flour to whiten it which is used in all American Fast Food compamies, with the exception of Subway, it is banned almost everywhere else in the world. We will post on this as soon as it is ready.

Our clocks went forward an hour last Sunday, it always discombobulates us both a bit for a week or so but hey ho.. it's now time to go to sleep.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 29th, 2017.

ALMOND MILK. HEAD'S UP FOLKS PROPER ALMOND 'MILK' DOES NOT COME IN BOXES

Ugh, how disgusting can something be? The quick and short answer to that question is, Dear Readers, very. What are we talking about? So-called Almond 'milk' in boxes, that's what we are talking about folks.. read on.

As you are all aware, she is highly allergic to all forms of dairy and as it kicks off her arthritis, she is very diligent about not imbibing milk, boohoo, no more kefir or yoghurt let alone cheese and as she doesn't fancy black coffee all the time, she bought a box of Blue Diamond Almond Breeze last Saturday and had some in a coffee.

The taste was pretty weird, to say the least, so when she got home she looked at the ingredients which listed "Spring Water, 2%, there's only 2% of almonds in it, what are the rest of the ingredients then? Ugh.. Spring Water, Almonds 2%, Calcium Carbonate - which in layman's terms is a 'white insoluble solid found in various forms of rock, just what you what to drink, I think not! Sea Salt, Emulsifier, Sunflower Lecithin, Stabiliser, Gellan Gum, Natural flavourings, vitamins D2, E, B12". Grim.

She got on line and looked for a recipe to make almond milk and sure enough, there it was.. 200g of raw almonds, soaked overnight, rinsed, de-skinned, then blended with 4 cups of water. Now to find and buy a blender powerful enough to decimate nuts!

She took John, whom she had met doing charity work, up to Ainsworths yesterday and as by magic, he started a Gallbladder attack as they were entering the store, the staff were marvellous and gave him something that, by the time the remedy had dissolved, it had aborted the  attack and the pain had gone!

Nothing like a good demonstration of homeopathy to convert you! He made an appointment to see a homeopath this coming week.

On their way home, they stopped to have a mint tea in a charming Turkish cafe - restaurant. She told John about the disgusting things in the so-called Almond milk and realised that her old Magimix wouldn't be up to pulverising nuts or making smoothies so at South Kensington, she kissed him goodbye and hopped off the 74 bus onto a 70 bus which would take her to High Street Kensington where there is a branch of Argos.

And upon entering, she was aided and greatly helped by a charming assistant who had asked the all-important question "what do you want it to do", so she told her. The girl laughed and said "We've got just the thing, I make all my nut milks with it AND it's on sale with £20.00 off the usual price" and she went off to get it.

IT is a Nutri-Ninja. With a powerful 900 watt engine and two different sized cups with two tops and a separate blade which is built into a screw-in top. £39.99 was paid with no hestitation so she was pleased that she hadn't gone to John Lewis or Selfridges where it would have been significantly more expensive! And, of course, it will make smoothies AND hummus.

Having said "goodbye and thank you" to the helpful assistant in Argos, she crossed the road and disappeared down into the bowels of WholeFoods to hunt for Almonds. At £16.99 a kilo, she took 100g for £1.69 which would do to start off with and a small amount of fresh loose Darjeeling tea also plopped into the basket. Having paid not much money, she crossed the road and caught a bus which brought her down Sloane Street.

After rustling up a pot of steamed vegetables and making a big pot of hummus for supper and putting the almonds in a bowl to soak with filtered water, we settled down snug as bugs whilst the weather did its' worst outside with bitterly cold winds and icy rain. Poor Spring, it has been blown far far away, the forecast is dire with frost warnings and single digit temperatures.

The weeds and messy allotments are getting worse by the minute.. she greatly envies the people who either live close by or who have cars, for it is a very long journey (an hour) to get there only to be rained upon or frozen off after a short while.

But as our Frost Date, last known date of recorded frost, is June 9th, there is nothing that she can start at home for at least six weeks as they would all be too leggy and weak. And even then she would have to put a Sun Tunnel over them to protect them from the weather.

Proper Almond milk was made this morning.. yum! Tasty, she added a minute amount of our own home made vanilla essence and oh boy! That was just delicious by itself, now she has to get some fresh coffee and dig out a cafetiere.

It's an extremely dull day out there.. blah, grey sky, wet under foot, cold, hopefully it will cheer up a bit later on and she'll go to the gym and do the library at the same time.

BUB called her early this morning, the hospital kept him in for the night but he's ok and home and the naughty hernia is no more. Tom also called from NYC last night, they talked for an hour, she wishes she could make life 'easier' for him but no one can, because losing a close buddy is grim, all you can do as a friend is to be a listener and in her case, hopefully put a few of the right words together for his memorial lunch to be held in April.

She misses him too.. a lot of people do.. he was a nice, kind, clever, intelligent with a dry sense of humour, man whom she had known for over thirty years. Oi vey.. sigh.

We wish it was sunny or at least, not so grey.. things don't seem so bad or sad if it's not cold or windy. I know that sounds very superficial but it's true. I'm off for a doze on a pole and she's going to read for a bit. Neither of us feel very full of chirp today.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 21st, 2017.

STORMY STELLA STOLE OUR SPRING!

For a few glorious days we had Spring here in London, the birds sang, the sun shone, it was warm and wonderful. Then a storm called Stella blew herself across the Atlantic bringing along with her winter's icy cold winds and rain and doom and gloom.

And the temperature, which had reached the dizzy height of 18 degrees Centigrade, plumeted to below 10! Ouch, what a difference, back to woolly hats and gloves with hoods up and boots with socks.. boring to say the least. And a pale dirty grey sheet covered up the sun, she thinks that's the most depressing thing, you can wrap up in warm clothes but you can't fake a true blue sky.

There was one day early last week when the sky was cobalt blue and the sight of the two young Star Magnolia trees on Pont Street with their white blossoms was perfection. People were just standing and smiling at the sight of them.. sigh.. now that wicked west wind has decimated the blossom and they look a bit battered.

She's feeling a bit bashed around the head as well.. very sad about our dearest Bob and a bit glum because of an medical appointment on Friday. When she went to A&E two weeks two weeks ago, they did a blood test to rule out Septic Arthritis, which it did but they made her an appointment to see a knee surgeon.

He had the xrays from February and explained the problem, she has OsteoArthritis in both knees and he was mighty surprised that she hasn't had huge amounts of pain before. She explained she had had some but controlled it with Ginger. That raised his eyebrows more than a little, to say the least!

He asked her what was different now and why had she come to A&E, she explained what she now knew the cause to be, a reaction to drinking milk as she had not thought such a little dairy produce would affect her.

He looked very quizzically at her so she explained that she now knew herself to be highly allergic to wheat, corn and dairy and also all of the Nightshade family, that they trigger severe pain in either her knees or her hands and swelling in the knuckles of her fingers on her right hand.

"Your cartiledge is in pretty good shape and having started at the gym on low impact exercises is very good, I want you to go to psyhio-therapy and to get your doctor to prescribe either of these two Anti-inflammatory drugs for you, they will bring down the swelling and reduce the Baker's Cyst behind the left knee".

She thanked him, got dressed and left, handed in her release form at reception and hot-footed it straight up to Ainsworths, the homeopathic chemists in New Cavendish Street, London W1.

'Anti-inflammatory drugs aka NSAID indeed! No thank you.. she has had a stomach ulcer, many years of horrendous problems with bleeding internally and although she drinks a vast amount of water, she is prone, if the wind blows in a different direction or the sky goes pink.. ie at the slightest thing.. to constipation and he wants her to take a drug whose side effects can cause all of the above! No sirree.. not for me, she thought.

Luckily they weren't busy at Ainsworths, she described what was going on, how she had managed to identify the culprits which cause bad pain and had eliminated them from her food, how she had realised what had caused the sudden pain which resulted in the A&A visit and how the x-rays showed OsteoArthritis in her knees.

They are all lovely in this place, so kind, detailed and thorough, hot or cold suits you best, they asked questions which pointed to different remedies. They gave her an anti-inflammatory remedy in pill form, a cream for night and morning, a remedy for the OsteoArthritis and a new bottle of Vitamin D3 in liquid form.

Having paid not much money, she then made an appointment to see Maggie Dixon, a well known Homeopath who sees patients at Ainsworths on a Monday and left to come home. She got on the 137 bus in Oxford Street and took two of the anti-inflammatory pills.

The bus trundled its' way down Park Lane, the traffic was gruesome and the trip was long, she wanted to go to the Post Office in Launcelot Place, so rang the bell for the first stop in Sloane Street and got off the bus.

It was only after she had walked two paces that she realised that there had been no griping pain in her knees when she stood up, nor had either of her knees complained when she stepped down off the bus! She was pain free which was amazing after having been in pain two weeks every time she stood up or stepped down.

The real test would be coming down our flight of steps down to the flat.. but not one twinge did they give her. She cooked us lunch and we both hopped onto the bed to share a large bowl of steamed greens, turmeric root, ginger root, onions, sweet potatoes, rice vermicelli, garlic with lots of black pepper and pure flax seed oil - which is rich in Omega 3 - with a small side dish of fresh hummus.

Well, that knocked us both out for the count! She had put three cloves of garlic into the chickpeas and I don't know about you lot but we find a lot of garlic makes us reallyreally sleepy, so that's what we did, after she had rubbed both knees with the anti-inflammatory cream, she got into bed, I dozed on the pillow beside her head amd she fell into a deep sleep.

Probably the release from pain, the bliss of being able to turn over easily in bed without a jolt of pain waking her up every time she moved a leg, was the main reason she slept so deeply. When we woke up, it was to find that it was dark and cold and windy.. she thought about about going to the gym and decided against pushing her luck and decided she'd leave the gym for a couple of days.

Yesterday, being Saturday, she woke up really early, took her homeopathic remedy which has to be taken in a clean mouth, plucked me out of night cage and we went back into her bed for an hours' cuddle.

Then we got up, ate yumyum and she drank her morning tipple.. aka a mug of hot ginger, she got dressed and made a telephone call to Ainsworths. She spoke with the same man with whom she had made her appointment with Maggie and asked him to pass on her thanks to the two pharmacists who had helped her on Friday.

"I haven't had one jolt of pain and the anti-inflammatory worked so quickly, please tell them that I am very grateful for their kindness and the care and attention they extended to me yesterday and I'll see you on the 27th".

She whistled up WW and having blown me a kiss and turned on my SAD lamp and the radio, she set off out the North End Road market, she wanted cabbage, leeks, spinach, onions, beetroots, apples and clementines, no one can ever say we don't eat enough veg or fruit in this house!

'Ears and whiskers.. Brass Monkey weather..' blimey, it was bitterly cold and so grey! It was a hat and glove day again. She came back via the 74 bus and scurried home.. top clothes off, the vegetables and fruit were sorted out and washed and put in chilly white larder if necessary. I spied a couple of lamb chops for Sunday lunch. Big treat!

And today is Sunday. We are being lazy, doing this post and then she's off to see Debbie at Parson's Green, afterwards she'll go to the library and to the gym on the way home. All is well in our world. As we hope it is in yours.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 19th, 2017.
PostScript: Do NOT take Omega 6 & 9 if you have OsteoArthritis.. ONLY take Omega 3.

POOR TOM, FANCY HAVING TO WRITE THIS TEXT.

All was well in our little world. We had eaten, written a post on my blog, we had had a cuddle, she had left a message on Darling Beril's ansa-phone and then realised her mobile was still asleep. Yes, she switches everything off at night. She switched it on and found there was a text message from Tom in New York.

Upon reading it, our world became a greyer and duller place. For the message said "Hi ... our Bob has gone".

When you're a small unit like ours, with little to no family to speak of and only a few veryvery dear friends, the loss of one of them, whom she has known and loved for over thirty years, makes us feel as if there is a hole in our life.

God only knows how his sister and Tom must feel, for 'Dearest Bob' was such a kind man, besides being super bright, with a wicked sense of dry humour, he was a 'nice' man in the true old fashioned meaning of the word.

She doesn't have 'friends' for the sake of it, neither does she consider having 756 'Friends' on FaceBook - some people do - necessary, yes, she used to be social, gadded about and was more gregarious but has she ever met anyone of the calibre to take the place of people she lost? No.

He hadn't been feeling very well and hadn't taken care of himself, became sick and had to be admitted into ICU in a NYC hospital, then he went onto a normal ward and was, after a while, sent to rehab but his breathing worsened couple of days ago and he was re-admitted back into ICU.

He died very early this morning and we are glad he is free from pain and at peace but we are sad, for his sister, for Tom and we will miss him.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 6th, 2017.
PostScript: The 'little' family we have is our BUB, there are other members but we haven't seen since Constance's funeral or spoken with them for over six years. We don't call them 'family' relations yes, but 'family', no.

FIR, SPRUCE & PINE TREES. DO YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE? WELL READ ON & SUSAN ISAACS'S NOVEL 'RED, WHITE & BLUE' WILL TELL YOU HOW.. AND SPENDING A QUIET AFTERNOON IN A&E!

For a Spruce isn't a Fir or a Pine, which means neither of them are a Spruce.. but there's a really easy way to tell which is which and for this information we thank Susan Isaacs, who wrote 'Red, White & Blue' back in 1998.

It's a story about two individuals and an anti-semitic bombing in Wyoming. The pace is slow but the book is worth reading, she has had the book for a long time. Why didn't it get given away when she culled all her novels and gave them to the Octavia Charity shop? Well, for just this..

'Hold your horses! You've got to know this about fir trees. He gave her the old demonic device: fir, flat, needles, friendly; spruce, sharp, needles square; pine, needles in packages!'

There you go, now you know how to identify them!

Well, she very nearly got 'conned' yesterday! She did a bit of housework, got bored and it was sunny, so she thought 'the weather guys were wrong, I'll go to the allotment', she looked for and found the gate and Little Shed keys but then gasped in astonishment as a bolt of pain ricocheted through her left knee!

Oh ...... (put in a rude word), that's it, I've had enough of this, I'm going to A&E at Chelsea & Westminster, so she took off her gardening clothes, got dressed in street clothes, grabbed her bag and opened the door.. to see a wall of water deluging down in front of her!

An umbrella joined her hand, she put her book into her bag and she left to catch a bus down the Fulham Road. Whoa, a completely new A&E department! With very few people in it, she was seen by a Triage nurse very quickly who felt her knees and said "One is much hotter than the other, how is the pain?" and handed her a couple of pain killers, "take a seat, a doctor will see you shortly as we are very quiet today", she opened her book and started reading but sure enough, someone called her within ten minutes.

"Tell me what has happened and what your gp thought about it and how it all started" he said, so she told him about having flu and the pain in both knees starting in late January and seeing her gp and coming for xrays on February 7th and the Burstitis and the Baker's Cyst behind her left knee and Valerie saying a ligament was too tight and her polio.

"I'm going to do blood tests to make sure you've not got an infection, I'll get hold of your xrays, your left knee is swollen and yes, there is a swelling behind your knee, I am going to send you to the Soft Tissue Clinic in Orthopaedic department to see why you developed this pain and stiffness so suddenly and try to get to what it is", she asked him if it could be Septic Arthritis and he responded "that's why I'm doing the blood tests, to rule that out".

Forty five minutes later the results were ready and he called her back in, she remarked on how quickly it was done and he smiled and "yes, thank goodness for a quiet day, your blood is clear, there is no infection showing, so that rules out Septic Arthritis, here is a prescription for the pain, do not drink any alcohol today or when taking them and don't drive, this is your discharge form and this is for the Soft Tissue Clinic, take them both to reception and make an appointment".

She stood up and thanked him for his thoroughness and kindness, he smiled and said "Thank you, no broken bones, no vomiting and no blood, it was a pleasure" and they both laughed.

She walked out into reception and gave the forms to the receptionist, who looked at the notes and made an appointment, in only ten days time! She thanked her and walked out into driving rain. Dear Old Rabbit and its' hood and an umbrella meant she was dry but oh boy, it was cold and very windy. She thought about what food was at home and smiled.

For when she had been in Bartek she had picked up a mesh bag which contained the ingredients for vegetable soup: Leeks, carrots, hamburg parsley, celeriac, garlic she had at home plus onions and she had a chicken fillet in the frosty white larder.. aka freezer.

No traffic meant a quick journey home and she scurried off the bus, into Boots to get the pain killers and then up the streets and down our stairs.. what bliss not to be in pain.. zoom in through the front door, off came Old Rabbit and her boots and she whistled for me as she walked up the hall.

"YumYum GeeGee, hot yumyum quickly, it's chilly-billy and wet out there", and she got everything out to make a large pot of tasty, thick soup. Vegetables, frozen stock cubes, the frozen chicken fillet, spices, garlic, filtered water, a big pan, herbs, she chopped the vegetables, put the lid on, set a timer and left the frozen fillet out on the work surface to de-frost.

Half an hour later, she sliced the almost de-frosted fillet into thin slices, pureed the vegetables in the pan with a hand held mixer and added the chicken. Set the timer for another ten minutes and made herself a large mug of ginger tea, this is powdered ginger with a slug of incredibly strong ginger juice and four slices of fresh ginger.

And she settled read more of 'Red, White & Blue' and then came across the paragraph where the male character, Charlie Bryant Blair tells Lauren Miller, the female character about the trees.. on page 472.

The thick souP chased away any hint of coldness and she became sleepy and realised why he had said "Don't drive or drink". We went to bed early at 8.30pm and she slept all the  way through until 09.15am this morning.

"No pain BunBum", she said as she opened my night house, "it's really nice not to be in pain, I do so hope they find out what it is, I wonder what they'll find, for my left knee IS squidgy and sore on one side, who knows" and with that we went off to start our day.

And, today at the library, she'll see if she can find anymore of Susan Isaacs's books. It says at the back of this book that she's written seven novels which have all been published by HarperCollins. Thank goodness for the written word, it certainly made yesterdays visit to A&E go even quicker!

GeeGee Parrot.
March 6th, 2017.

DRINKING TASTY MASALA CHAI AT BOROUGH, THEN COMING OUT IN LUMPS & BUMPS!

Oh, a pox on her allergic sensitivities to foods! For what could have been nicer than chatting to friends on Friday afternoon, cosy and warm in Old Rabbit with a hot mug of tasty tea in her hands? But later that evening, she started to feel 'unwell' and my goodness me, the skin on her inner thighs was ichy and then from itches, they suddenly developed into hives!

She swore "Damn and blast" and lots of other words far too impolite to write on my blog or anywhere else come to think about it! "Wretched Cinnamon.. of course, it is a major ingredient of masala chai". Oh dear, another lovely thing that she can't have unless she brews it herself at home using Darjeeling tea with green cardamon, fennel seeds, ginger and black pepper.

She thought it was just her that had this reaction to this spice but apparently Cinnamon can have very severe repercussions for those who are allergic to it, who knew, she certainly didn't as she had never shown signs of being allergic to it before. Baked apples with saltanas won't ever be the same without a sprinkling of powdered cinnamon, that's for sure!

We woke up to brilliant sunlight! But grey clouds have come scudding across the sky and it has gone dull and gloomy, the odd skinny ray of light comes through now and again but she isn't getting too excited about it, there is work to be done at home and as the forecast is for heavy rain, why take a chance when she has to travel for an hour only to get drenched.

No, house work will be done plus a trip to the library and we'll have a late lunch. Then I'll post on Alex Howard, the author of two books she has recently read and enjoyed.. even if they were seriously scary!

Enjoy your Sunday wherever you are.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 5th, 2017.

WELL! IT'S CERTAINLY BEEN A FUNNY WEEK.

The landline rang this morning and it was John, a friend whom she visited in hospital on Wednesday. He had been released yesterday and would she join him for tea today to thank her for the fruit, books and hotties that she had taken in to him? They agreed to meet at 3.00pm at the Jaffa Teahouse on the North End Road.

She finished getting dressed and went out to catch an overland train from Victoria Station to Streatham Hill, for the bottom of her industrial sized pot of IshPol is visible and we cannot live without this slurpy stuff.

Only to get there to find that the IshPol makers in Poland have not sent any to Bartek for TWO weeks! Ugh, she chatted to her friend, the butcher, and he was also moaning about it being out of stock, oh dear, we only have about two mouthfuls left and there is nowhere else that she knows in London that stocks this most glorious of foods.

She helped herself to some fresh Sauerkraut but it ain't the same.. no sirree. She raided Lidl for some nuts and caught a bus back to the King's Road and checked three books back into the library.. more about an author in another post.

Then hopped a bus to Fulham Broadway and walked down the North End Road pillaging as she went. Her favourite vegetable seller was there with Grapefruits and Pomegranates! She was amazed at seeing fruit on his stall and told him so, his response was that they had been such a bargain price in the wholesale market that he could afford to get a few crates, he was selling them at five to a £1.00!

Ten grapefruit plopped into dear trusty WW and he gave her the rest of the pomegranates, how sweet of him, she'll make him some beetroot pickle, they are both crazy-daisy about roasted beetroot but she knows he won't ever have had her recipe, that's for sure!

Then into Jaffa to find John. Oh, who was looking so much better! "Tell me all" she said but he responded "only over a tea or coffee, which would you prefer." and to be daring, she had coffee for a huge treat. Chat chat.. why they hardly drew breath the two of them.

Then it got suspiciously dark and as it was by now a quarter to five, they slipped out into the street, her having given him a couple of pomegranates, he refused any grapefruit. They arranged to meet next week for a visit to the British Library and a Chinese meal in Soho.

After a quick hug, he walked one way and she walked the other up to the Broadway to catch a 211 bus up to the library to get books for the weekend. Grr, the traffic was so slow and she got there too late, it closes at 5.00pm and it was after then by the time she pulled a very heavy WW up the steps.

'Drat, never mind, it'll open tomorrow at noon' she thought and crossed the King's Road, walked through St.Luke's Garden and into Cale Street, across Sloane Avenue and into Cadogan Street and came to screeching halt! For whom should she see coming towards her? Why, it was none other than  'Darling Beril', Miss Betty's much beloved housekeeper of twenty five years ago!

Beril wasn't looking up and so nearly walked into her, mama said quietly "and where have you been for the past couple of years, there hasn't been a sight or sound of you!" That made her look up! And squeak with joy and exclaim "How amazing, I was just thinking about calling you just this morning, how are you, my darling girl?"

Darling Beril, she is truly an extraordinry person! Her beloved husband Patrick, sadly no longer with us, was a professor of 17th century French literature and she is one of the world's foremost experts on African Tribal Art, how she ended up being Miss Betty's housekeeper is a tale in itself, but not for this tale! 

They have arranged to have lunch next week at New Horizons in Cadogan Street and catch up on all their news (and gossip) then. Well, coincidence or meant to be? Who knows? The bus was late, the library was shut, she walked down Cadogan Street at the precise time that Beril walked up it, three minutes either way in time and they would missed each other.

How very nice next week will be. Now, if old Mr. Sun would put his torch onto full beam, it would be  more 'Spring like' and she could go to the allotments to prune her fruit trees, that won't be happening tomorrow.. for we are due heavy rain which has already started. But, we have delicious food to eat and tomorrow, she'll have a new stash of books! 

Chirps to you all.. 

GeeGee Parrot.

March 4th, 2017.