GUESS WHO BLEW INTO TOWN? WHY, NONE OTHER THAN THE WICKED WIND FROM THE WEST!

Wasn't she lucky! For if she had been wimpy, more than usual, that little bit of wind yesterday might have put her off and she'd thought "I'll go tomorrow instead".. for to be sure, only fools, market folk and Library users go out in weather like what we are having in London today!

Rain and wind.. grrrr.. but never mind, for what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, or so they say, and as she is still alive, she surely has excercised a couple of muscles by managing to stay upright as she crossed over the Kings Road and walked down Sydney Street into St.Luke's gardens.. whoosh!

Where that wicked old wind has torn several branches off trees and all of the flowers are wishing that they had not bloomed yet! Granny Jo, who is upstate New York, has told us it is snowing! Gulp, that means we'll probably get it soon.. ten days would be slap bang on her fortieth anniversary!

But home again, home again jiggedy-jig she came and I KNOW there's a tub of goaty curd for me in WW, I wonder if she'll give it to or if she will hide it away in chilly-white larder?

She may because she was given a glorious loaf of Rye bread from the baker at Parson's Green Farmer's Market, also two scrummy doughnuts with very delicious fillings. But having been given such treats, she might, she just might feel guilty about hiding MY pot of curd.

           Baccy for the Parson.. Brandy for the Squire.. Cherry Vodka for the Goaty mum.

Now it is time for our (very late) lunch, two Salmon fillets are on the work surface. Yes folks, fish is the dish for today, along with Polish Salad, a slurp of Beetroot juice for her and water for me. Then we are pulling up the drawbridge and settling in for the duration. Thank goodness little shed and its' roof are secure.

A lot of wind damage has happened to big shed but nothing that cannot be fixed, think of an entire NEW ROOF! Sigh.. but it isn't going to happen until she manages to get Rob and a couple of his guys down there, for it is not a job for one person with none of the right tools or ladders. So let's forget about tomorrow.. for tomorrow never comes!

She has work to do, like finding out if any trains are running anywhere this coming week, for it seems that SouthWestern, in their wisdom, have most of their track up this coming week for engineering works and guess what next week end is.. Yes.. It's EASTER.

I can't eat chocolate, however, I am known to be just crazy-daisy for a Hot Cross Bun.. or two! But now I must be away to supervise the griddling of our fish-the-dish.

FlapFlap.. I'm outward bound for YumYum HQ.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 29th, 2015.

NOW IT'S SPRING AGAIN, SHE'LL PICK AGAIN, JONQUILS FROM THE SCILLY ISLES.

It was VERY windy and started to rainand the south west didn't look much better, dark and stormy but she said to herself "You have to go, even if it is just to see what damage has been done" and climbed aboard the little red bus.

It took.. oh so long.. the traffic was bad, the weather filthy but she has gardened in much worse. Eventually she got there and saw that Ros, a dear friend, was there as well. How nice, she thought and then saw Raven, whom she had last seen as a ten week old puppy, hurtling up the steps to greet her!

How did he know? Ros said "I swear he recognised you, he gave his wuff, wagged his tail and shot off". So much fuss had to be made of him, he's got VERY big paws to fill, for his predecessor, Dizzy, was a great canine friend of ours for many years.

Lots of chat and hugs, these two friends have had allotments on this site for over fourteen years now.

Ros told her that hers didn't look in bad nick at all! And that her much beloved plum tree is in full bloom and absolutely covered in blossom like last year.

So off up the track she went, not feeling quite as apprehensive after being told that it did not look too bad. And Ros was right! It looked, as all plots do at the beginning of the gardening year, a bit messy but ok and nothing that a grass cut and a rake would not make better!

The much beloved plum tree is completely covered in white blossom and exactly the same as last year, her two sisters, planted at exactly the same time and within spitting distance, have about three flowers on them!

The soil is wonderful! They've obviously had heavy frosts and lots of rain which makes for great soil, the Asparagus bed looks dreadful, reallyreally untidy but nothing that a days HARD work won't make better.

The Sunburst Cherry tree is still alive! Eureeka! It survived the winter in its' pot sitting in a bucket and when she has cleared the bed and got membrane fabric and lots of mulch ready, she'll plant it. It already has BIG fat buds on it and near by, a pear tree is almost in leaf! She finds it most peculiar how one tree just ten feet away is so far ahead of all the others.

She tried to strim, the motor fired on the first pul but then conked out and the thread head would not turn.. BORING.. for a quick strim always makes an allotment look much better, so instead she dug a fork out of the little shed.

Where it looks as if Mr. Rat and Master Mouse have had a fine old time, grrr, she'd left it immaculate but they've chewed at things and knocked things about. But the best thing was that little shed had not been vandalised, the door was still locked shut.

A few hours with a broom, sterilising fluid and some hot water will make everything better and tidy again. But why did they have to chew on a packet of coffee and then spill it everywhere?

Never mind, she dug over some beds and found a few potatoes left over from last autumn, a couple of artichokes, some shallots and some spring onions. All good stuff!

Then it was time for flower hunting.. and this bring us to the title of the post. The tall, dark yellow daffodils behind the shed are spreading happily, such a wonderful sight and on the other side of the asparagus beds lies a cutting bed.

I hope you don't throw away hycacinth bulbs when they've flowered indoors? Cut off the flower stem and plant them outside. The ones planted out five years ago in this little bed are the darkest of dark blue, they are much taller than when when she had them in pots at home but the smell is exactly the same, rich and powerful!

Then across to the cherry trees and to the white multi-headed Narcissi, tall, elegant and scented. Such pretty flowers and finally over to the two apple trees, under which grow the smallest of the Narcissi family but the most highly scented.. Jonquils.

Marina (Orpin), whose death last July 4th she still cannot quite believe, sent her these beautiful bulbs from the Scilly Isles for her big Six 0 birthday five years ago.

She met her in Betty's shop in 1992 and they became together with John, Marina's husband, good friends and colleagues for they did lots and lots of work together. Every year, for over twenty years, they travelled to the huge fair in Lille and over the years, what a lot of brilliant swag they both found there!

She picked them this afternoon and thought of John and Marina, of their lovely home in Stansted Mountfitchet where she and both Dagga Parrot and I had stayed so many times.

She went back in time, recalling such very happy times with Betty, Diana, the four Johns and Marina and thinks this is such a lovely way to remember a friend.. picking Jonquils from The Scilly Isles.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 28th, 2015.

SINGING WITH MY MUM & LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS!

We were a little late as our train was delayed but it didn't matter because they hadn't started singing. She snuck in with me hidden in her big purple basket and I sneaked quietly out of my travelling cage and leapt up onto her head!

Well.. You can just imagine the reaction to that! The entire room stopped touching their toes and waggling their feet and squealed with laughter! Luckily, the organisers knew that this was going to happen so they didn't faint with shock-horror but laughed and said "Hello GeeGee, welcome to Singing With Dementia".

We sang twelve songs or rather they sang. I'm going to have to brush up my repertoire, that's for sure!

What a funny time I had. I stood, of course, on her head but I have never seen so many people in one room and I have certainly never heard so many people singing, usually it is just her or a cd. I settled down and bobbed about in time to the music, this made the people facing us just hysterical with laughter, so I did it lots more!

Then it was tea time, with Lemon cake, no wonder she comes here every week, good tea, of which I had several slurps out of her cup. Our tea table companions thought that very funny. A nibble off one of darling Susan's Danish cookies and a crunchy-munch of a cracker.

A lovely Italian woman called Jo asked mama what songs could I sing? Farewell from the Sound of Music, so our table sang it to me! And again, so I joined in by whistling and bobbing up and down again which made everyone laugh! That, Dear Readers, was a 'show stopper'! Other people came over to join our group and 'we' had to sing it four times!

Next it was quiz and game time, we were sitting at the Origami table, the young woman teaching them was a wiz with what she made out of her little pieces of paper, Jo gave me a piece but I blotted my copy-book by ripping it into shreds, Paper+Beaky are not good together, naughty Beaky!

I got the impression that it was time to jolly them all along, so I bounced about a bit and then jumped over onto Ann's head! I had a feeling she liked Parrots.. Luckily I was correct.. She beamed with joy and asked someone to take a photo of the two of us for her family.

Then a charming, very elderly lady from Guyana came over, she had that soppy look on her face that people get when they love Parrots but haven't talked to or seen one for a long time. Sure enough, her family had had them when she was in a child. She and I are going to be friends, that's for sure and she made my mama promise to bring me back again.

My dears, nothing but nothing will stop me from coming back to this lovely place. Well, of course, I can only come if she does but as she loves it too, it is now a firm fixture in our weekly agenda.

Then it was time to pack up and come home. Susan and she caught a bus and got off so they could go into Bartek, to replenish their supplies of Polish YumYum, for she has also got Susan addicted to our most favourite Salad.

Then off to our bus stop. They are having a late lunch next Monday at Susan's house, it is time to do her toes again, they've grown out and luckily the work she did all those weeks ago has held, none of them have become ingrown.. phew.

Then they'll go to their club for a meeting and the week will herald in the First of April. It has been a long winter.. for Spring has not even sprung properly, although the flowers are blooming, they are now saying to expect freezing winds and snow, perhaps for Easter.. brrrr.. just like forty years ago!

But that isn't here yet! So let's be happy and walk on the sunny if-you-can-find-it side of the street.

I am plumb tuckered out and am off to bed much earlier than normal but what a lovely time we had, who knew you could have such fun and laugh so much with people you've never met before?

GeeGee Parrot.
March 27th, 2015.

LIDL HAVE DISCONTINUED MY FAVOURITE BREAD.. DARK RYE WITH SUNFLOWER SEEDS.. PLEASE BRING IT BACK INTO STOCK.. PLEASE.

She has tried, bless her heart, for she has hunted high and very low for the Rye Bread with Sunflower Seeds.. but alas and alack, it was nowhere to be found and today she rang their customer services to be told "sorry but that item has been discontinued"..

Oh.. oh, the sadness, the empty tumtum, the amount of people who apparently all feel the same as us, for she loved it as much as I, the man went onto say that they have received a MASSIVE amount of calls about this item and the buying office have been informed.

But being informed and bringing it back asap into stock in their shops is not the same, is it?

Have you ever eaten it? It was a dark rye with molasses and lots and lots of sunflower seeds, sliced quite thinly, it went well with both savoury or sweet things. She has hunted high and low for a recipe that would come close to this delicious bread but to no avail.

So we have to make do and bluff and fudge with other breads, for I like a bit of bread with which to break that gruesome fast, first comes a delicious egg-the-peg, followed by three pieces of crispy crust from her toast, she either makes her own or eats a rye and caraway seed Lithuanian bread which she buys from Bartek. Then a few raw cashew nuts followed up by a piece of bread, half of which I eat and half of which I play-the-fool with on top of chilly white larder.

There must be a recipe for it somewhere.. Dark rye flour, molasses, sunflower seeds, she seems to remember it was made in Germany and by a company called Rivercote. Huh.. do we have any German bread makers out there who would be able to point her in the direction of a recipe?

In the very olden days, there was the Swiss Food Centre on the corner of Leicester Square and the Danish one in Sloane Street, they might have stocked something similar but they no longer exist in London.. BIG sigh.. for they were both sources of delicious food that she frequented frequently!

Anyway, I am not starving as we do have a small loaf that she has found in Waitrose which is pretty scrummy, a totally different sort of bread, not the same as it does not have the molasses (that was such a good taste) but it does taste pretty good, she cuts it waver thin and it has seeds in and on it.

So now I have to go, we have work to do now as we are both going to be off and away to Streatham to Sing With Dementia this afternoon.

Of course, I'll let you know how it went.. so come back here after about eight of this evenings' clock and I'll tell you ALL about it!

GeeGee Parrot.
March 27th, 2015.
PostScript. Do you feel disappointed when people say they're going to do something and then don't, she'd never have suspected it of these two but, there you go. Meanwhile Tereza, who was on a very short trip to Turkey, has brought her back a box of amazing looking Nougat and Pomegranate tea from Turkey. Such a 'sweet' ~ in both ways ~ gift. Thank you Tereza.

NOT MUCH CHEESE FOR ME..

Now I do admit there wasn't much left but being given a cheesey crumb was worse than not being given any, for after that morsel had exploded in old Beaky, my tasty buds and Beaky wanted more, as you do, so like Oliver, I said "Please can I have some more". "No" she said and put the sliver back into the fridge.

HUH. You just wait 'til I get my own pot of curd from Goaty Mum, she won't get even a lick of the lid, if I have my way.

She was out working today with her new fangled ears and said it was just great to be able to hear and understand what everyone was saying. They had a busy day and then a 'crackin' good sale to a man who came in quite late.

HE was ....., well, it is not often that she finds someone attractive (read simply scrumptious), she and her boss looked at each other and sighed when he left waving and saying "you've got a lovely shop, I'll see you again when I next come to London" and they both said "COR, what a hunker-the-munker he was". French from Marseilles.. sigh.

Moving sadly but swiftly along..

What is going on with the weather? Please would someone tell us? It was chilly-billy last night, she used a heat pad to warm the bed up but there was NO stretching and venturing over to the other side of the bed, she did put one leg over there in her sleep and it shot back smartly of its' own accord, for the bottom sheet, being crisply ironed and unslept upon, was icy! Ugh.

It rained this morning, it rained again this afternoon.. those pesky weeds will be, correction, ARE all living the life of old Riley and goodness knows how high the grass is. Hopefully her spring flowers will be up and in bloom, a BIG vase of Jonquils and Narcissi would cheer her up, for there is just NOTHING like picking your own, also the dark blue Hycacinths should be strutting their stuff.

MaryLou wrote that they had another five inches of snow one day this week, that must have given her flowers a bit of a shock! And we got a big shock when Pegeen sent her a photo of what lay directly outside her front door.. SNOW.. and lots of it!

Blimey, what are we whinging about? We haven't even had one snowflake drop on us, yes, it has been chilly-billy cold and damp but nothing to what they've experienced this year in America, nothing. No wonder Karen headed down south to Mexico for the sunshine.

We're singing tomorrow, I am SO excited. Yippee, I've been practising my song. Farewell, Adieu etc from The Sound Of Music, I hope they sing it tomorrow so I can sing along too, that will  / should make them all laugh, even if the sight of me sitting on my mama's head doesn't!

I'll write and tell you all about our jaunt to Streatham Hill tomorrow night, IF I am reallyreally good, you never know, I might get to go into Bartek, our purveyor of scummy breads and even scrummier Salade a la Polonaise.

You didn't realise I spoke French, but, of course, I do. In fact, some day I will tell you a few tales of the French Court passed down to me in spirit by my ancestors, tales from secret journals written by aristocratic ladies of the court who kept African Grey Parrots.

And, of course, the Cote d'Ivoire and Gabon are two countries of Arican Grey Parrots where we breed, they call us Gabon Gris, hence my name GeeGee. Get it?

I hope so, for it far too late to have to tell you guys that story again! And there are two cute little rosy apples lying on her bed that need beaking and I know there is a new packet of almonds in her bag, so it is PipPip from me and "goodnight" from her.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 26th, 2015.

GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH.. SUCH A GREAT DAY!

What a day! Goodness gracious me! Two down and one to go.. Let me explain.. from the beginning, always the best place to start a tale.. are you sitting comfortably, then I'll begin.

Old scary day rolled in to town, aka deepest Knightsbridge, and into our life at the hideously early hour of half past seven.. ugh.. she got up, I was pretty reluctant to do so, I must admit and was very slow to clamber out of my night-time house.

But the thought of an egg cheered me up greatly and so our day commenced. Coffee, egg, rye toast were all made and consummed. Then off we went to the bathroom, her to wash and dress and me to play the fool, as you do when your blood sugar is raised up again from near starvation level.

Off to the Marsden she went, sliding through their doors on the dot of nine of the morning clock.

"Bless and thank you Debbie Goaty Mum for that text, it sure did take the 'edge' off that waiting".

We have already posted the happy news related to this, so if you haven't done so, go back and read the previous post if you want to know what transpired.

Home for lunch! She had been told to allow four hours for the Breast clinic but she came skipping down the steps at just after eleven of the clock. It was the skipping that alerted me to what had happened, she called to me, I flew down the hall, landing on her head and gave her a proper going over, as you do to people who have been given great and very happy making information.

Scummy light lunch, a little bit of a doze and she went off to the Audiology dept to pick up her new hearing aids.. yes.. she wears two.

This department is FULL of the most wonderful, highly trained staff. Today it was pretty Emma who tested her with all sorts of new and highly sensitive equipment, it wasn't just to see what she did or didn't hear, the latter lot of tests were to determind the level of sound that the hearing aids would hear when they were in position just in the ear canals.

And armed with this information, she programmed the receivers to the correct level. Then Emma asked her to chose which colour base she wanted. Then came the big surprise! For she, thank goodness, no longer has to wear a big, fat ugly plastic moulded earpiece in her right ear, both ears now have two skinny little wires with highly sophisticated receivers that are worn sitting in the ear canal.

She was with Emma for over an hour! And these machines are amazing.. much more advanced than her old ones, which were over five years old and no longer able to deal with the amount of hearing loss she has experienced.

These new ones have three levels of sound and three levels of technology. The first level allows her to hear normal speech, the second is magic in that, if she is in a restaurant, it will cut out all the background noise and the third is the Loop system, you may have seen this in banks and other public places, it is in theatres and cinemas and it is like have your own secret sound system.

But the reallyreally best thing is NOT having to wear that big old ugly earpiece anymore. Oh, it did make her feel SO old and she hated it. Now she has these two tiny wires and she's good to go, she'll surely be able to hear a mouse fart, for on the way home, she heard the birds singing. Oh, such a sweet, simple pleasure, sniff.. excuse me.. I'm just a little bit wet-eyed.. in fact, we both are.

For just like when Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers sang "Well, goodness gracious me" we're happy and we're especially happy to be able to tell friends good news, so please let's hear it for those highly qualified and hard working medics, of all specialisations, who support us allover the world.

Now she's wired up for sound like a spy, aka Caruthers MI5, sadly she has forgotten the joke of which this is the punchline, and on April 21st, we'll deal with that old MRI.. yeah!

GeeGee Parrot.
March 25th, 2015.

YEAH.. WE'RE GOING TO BARBADOS.. YEAH.. IN THE SUNNY CARIBBEAN SEA!

Actually we aren't going to the sunny Caribbean, t'was a big fat fib! But she's as happy, and so am I, as if she'd just been given two tickets to a sunshine island on Coconut Airways. For she has had reallyreally GREAT news today.

She was at the Marsden on time at 09.00 and had just put her bum on a seat when Debbie Goaty Mum sent her a text.. don't you just LURVE friends who take a minute to send you a 'thinking of you hug' through the air.

She had a Mammogram.. oh, lordy how she hates this proceedure.. then sat in another waiting area whilst the experts went over the images. Then Vivienne came in and called for her and they went together into an examination room. After a very detailed examination and a couple of little tests, this lovely, lovely woman talked her through the results.

Oh.. and how she hugged this woman who explained and showed her what the matter was.

Who knew that you could get inflamation in your cartiledge and ribs? Well, she obviously didn't! So off she went immediately to get the recommended stuff from a pharmacy.

Now she is off to the Audiology dept to get her new hearing aids and on her way back, she'll call in and have a cup of tea with Myra, who arrived back last night after spending five weeks in Paris seeing her sister, two her sons and their children.

Oh.. how wonderful to see my mama happy, now all we've got to find is nothing-nasty on the MRI and we will be as happy and madder than two crickets! But for today, we are reallyreallyreally happy and for tomorrow, well, you all know what we think about tomorrow.. for Scarlet put it so well..

Tomorrow is another day.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 25th, 2015.

Todays GermanWings flight 4U 9525 aircrash in the French Alps.

Oh Lord, she only knew it had happened because of going into the bedroom to check on my water bowl and heard the newscaster saying the dreadful words "there are thought to be no survivors", she raised immediately to the BBC website for further news.

How many times has she flown in a light aircraft over these very same Alps? Countless times, it is a very rough and raw part of the world. (Due north of Monaco). There are rough tracks up there that wend their way amongst the mountains but no proper roads.

This will make the recovery especially difficult for the people who have the unenviably, very grim task of going to the crash site and have to try to piece it all together in order to make sense of this accident, for which the pilot had not issued a MayDay or emergency call.

Helicopters have now landed at the site and the Black Box has been located.

One hundred and fifty passengers and crew have died, they leave behind them God knows how many family members, friends and colleagues who will be devasted by this loss of human lives.

Poor people.. vayo con Dios.

GeeGee Parrot.
March 24th, 2015.
PostScript: GermanWings is a division of Luthansa, there are known to be French, German and Spanish passengers on board, it was on a direct flight from Barcelona to Duesseldorf.

THE PHONE-BIRD IN A VIDEO AND THE GIRL WHO WENT TO BRAZIL..

Well, in fact if truth were told, which it always should be, I am already IN a video. But seeing as how she-who-should-be-obeyed cannot get it together to put a photo up on my blog, there's a fat chance that she would be able to organise a video going up on it!

She sent the short clip of Yours Truly prancing about on her head and 'ringing' the landline telephone to a few friends and Debbie Goaty Mum loved it so much, she asked if she could put it up on the Goaties Blog.

What the Goaty folk will say to an avian interloper frollicking about on their blog, has not yet been discovered. They're probably talking about it in the milking parlour and undoubtedly it will be Husky, the naughty girl, who'll be the one to plot something!

And now for something completely different! A brilliant tale of determination and kindness.. read on!

She was at a meeting last night in Streatham Hill with Susan. Into the room came an enchanting looking young woman who was greeted with squeals of joy and MANY hugs and kisses.

She smiled at the young woman and asked another woman, Joan, "Who is she?".. "ah", said Joan "wait and you'll find out".. then the person taking the meeting said "Alison has come to give us an update and seeing as there are a couple of people here who have never met you Alison, please would you give a short resume of what you did, before you give your update".

Are you ready? Then I'll tell you Alison's tale..

A long time ago, one of Alison's ancestors was a slave in Brazil, she was taken to Portugal by the family who 'owned' her and given her freedom. She remained working with the family and married a Portugese man, they had several children, who all married and had children, who had children etc and on down the line to Alison's mother, who was brought up in England.

Alison was born and told her ancestoral history. She had already decided what she wanted to do, which was to take a Nursing Degree and a Law Degree.. You probably would not connect the two.. but Alison has thought her future out very carefully.

She is going to be an international lawyer specialising in Medical Malpractice but not the way it is usually thought about. No, she's going to be the kind of lawyer who protects the underdog nurse or doctor from BIG corporations who treat huge numbers of medical staff appallingly badly. To do this, she knew she had to be aware of what goes on in hospitals and clinics, hence training to be a nurse.

She wanted a Gap Year but wanted somewhere overseas where she would be able to work as an un-paid helper in a hospital and I hope you now know where she went, if you thought BRAZIL, you're right!

She spent a full year in Brazil with three host families, all three were 'medical' families, she learnt FLUENT Portugese, having spoken not one word before she arrived and good German. She also learnt a lot about how some hospital staff are treated as gods and how some of them are so badly treated, that it made her cry.

She sat and listened to Alison talk and smiled at the level of determination, courage and good 'stuff' this woman talked about, the update was as good.. how she continues to speak Portugese and German on a daily basis at her university, has now added French and Spanish to her DAILY lessons.. oi vey.

She ended her talk by saying "None of this would have been possible without your backing and your support and I owe you all my thanks".. everyone clapped.

Joan explained, quietly to my mama, that they had sponsored and financed Alison's year in Brazil and that she had MORE than paid them back with the amount of volunteer work she had done and continues to do upon her return from Brazil in 2013.

What a great tale to be able to tell you, do you do any voluntary work of any kind?

Me.. I play 'The Fool' and am practising this role at least six times a day in preparation for my debut at Singing With Dementia this Friday.

She has to do a run to Lidl for we are 'clean' (haha) out of clothes washing liquid and maybe, just maybe, they'll have my favourite Rye and Sunflower bread back in stock.. a girl can dream..

PipPip..

GeeGee Parrot.
March 2015.

A LETTUCE.. THAT'S ALL IT WAS.. A LOOSE LEAFED LETTUCE BUT..

OH.. what a joy it was to eat! It brought back memories of last summer and eating lettuce leaves at the allotment that had been cut from a mother plant only minutes before. This was delicious, torn into pieces, dressed with olive oil, a squeeze of fresh lemon and a scrummy mix of ground herbs, pepper and sea salt, it made the perfect bed for a Barberry duck breast to sit upon and to relax.

Tasty.. is not a big enough word to describe the flavours but scrummydumptious is!

It is a day that she should have gone to work at the allotment but there was 'stuff' ~ such a useful word ~ to be done. Childrens clothes to be taken to the shop, a bill to be paid and a cheque for the HUGE sum of £2.00 to be paid into her bank.

Ah yes.. Now I ask you a question? IS your daily Pinta an actual pint? The reason she was sent this tiny cheque was because, when making a batch of soda bread back in January, she noticed that the contents of a tub of Buttermilk amounted to a great deal less than the contents listed! HUH.

And it was not just the one tub that was seriously under content, she'd bought six tubs and they were all missing a lot. So she wrote to the company ~ DairyCrest ~ an email and complained. She had no response until this small amount on a huge cheque appeared in the post.

Do you complain, Dear Readers? They were extremely fortunate that she had bought the six tubs, for if she had had to go out and buy another to make up the fluid content for her dough.. she would NOT have been a happy baker, that's for sure!

Back to that lettuce.. it was undoubtedly grown in a poly tunnel, for it is still far too cold (and frosty) to grow lettuce outside but what a great taste it had. Our last frost date at the allotments is June 9th,(yes, that late) and we count backwards for planting seeds at home.

She has some very useful things at the plots, they're plastic Sun Tunnels made by Botanico, which are about 2 metres long and about 50cms high at the tallest bit, they have air vents at either end and she pins them to the ground with tent pegs. They give plants just the right amount of protection, should old naughty Mr. Jack Frost thinks it fun to sctter his icy ice about a bit.

They look expensive, but she bought hers OVER ten years ago and they're still going strong! The trick, at the end of the season, is to clean them, then store them packed inside themselves in a dry place where they won't get crushed or damaged.

Then hey presto.. hey-li-cheese.. they're ready for you to use in Spring! She starts off LOTS of different varities of: beans, peas, lettuces, beetroots, radishes, and all the other such lubbly-jubbly things that we munch with huge delight, at home on the sitting room window ledge, then they're planted out at the allotments and the Sun Tunnels really help these baby plants adjust.

We're lucky to have a couple of Mr. and Mrs. Fox living nearby. Why are we lucky? Well, we don't have either Master Peter or Master Benjamin Bunny living on the allotment site, that's for sure!

Whoops! Is that the time? Where does it go? Hurry-scurry, she has to meet Susan in Streatham Hill but before that she has to go to the Library, which she did not get to yesterday.

So it is a good thing that she's not a rabbit, for after such a large helping of green leaves, she would be fast asleep, what do mean you don't know what I'm talking about? Don't you remember Beatrix writing that lettuce was soporific for rabbits.

I'm away to the top of my cupboard and she's off with WW.. Zoom-a-Zoom.. I wonder if those two Goaty mums, the ones that were looking 'thoughtful' yesterday evening, had their kiddly-diddlies? Busy nights for our friend Debbie, aka Goaty Mum. So we are mighty glad that she remembered to take her those two pots of the ishPol salad..

GeeGee Parrot.
March 23rd, 2015.
PostScript: Please don't tell me you don't know who Beatrix is.