JANUARY 8th AND OFF TO GARDEN IN SUNSHINE !!

What an afternoon! The day started off with a weak sky but come midday, the sun was shining and the sky was blue, so she threw cold weather garden clothes on, picked up several buckets of food waste and headed out to the allotments.

Food waste.. no food waste ever gets put into our rubbish bins, it goes into buckets that she is given by Bartek - suppliers of IshPol - and is taken out to the allotments and dug into the raised beds in large, very deep holes.

Mr.Worm and his family munch it all up. She has been doing this for several months and the difference between beds where the waste has been bug in and where it hasn't been is truly staggering!

Where it has been added, the soil is full of worms, it is light and almost fluffy!

Everyone has food waste to some degree, ours is mostly orange peel, egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds, end of vegetable stalks, avocado, banana and onion skins. 

She adds shredded paper and torn up newspapers and everything disappears in a very short space of time, she also adds fallen leaves, she rakes every time she goes there and although all of our leaves are off our trees, there are always some that have blown on to the plot.

By putting all of the plots to bed last Autumn and going out occasionally to check on them and to rake up leaves, the whole area is tidy and will be ready to work as soon as some decent weather arrives in Spring.

She was pleased to see the garlic has sprouted and are growing happily, there are one or two shoots whose lives have been disturbed, most probably by Mr.Rat, he likes to dig occasionally in the soft earth of a raised bed but she allowed for the odd mishap and there will be an excellent, large crop next August.

And she was thrilled to see her anti-rat barrier had done the trick! For he truly is a dirty, messy person and come Spring time, she always had to turn out the Shack in order to wash and disinfect the floor and work surfaces but there isn't a sign of him in the Shack or any of the other sheds.

She dug in the food waste, raked up some leaves, picked a bag of Winter leaves and a bag of Purple Sprouting Broccoli and saw something that made her very happy indeed!

She has a couple of Sweet Pea plants that late into last year were still flowering, all the others had died and she noticed today that these two are still alive and growing happily. 

If they flower again it will be amazing, for who knew that Sweet Peas could turn into perennials! 

What a happy day she had and I got 2 fat steamed broccoli stalks to chew. I hope you had an equally pleasant day?

GeeGee Parrot.
January 8th, 2019.

SEATTLE RENTS IN 2010 USED TO BE IN LINE WITH OTHER CITIES..

Woe betide the people who rent their homes in the New York neighbourhood of Long Island City, Queens for the company Amazon is being given subsidies to come and build a major hub here and their rents are going to rocket.

There is already a high percentage of people who are homeless in this neighbourhood but it now will get progressively worse.

Yes, we are aware of the Mayor of New York City starting a new Medical Insurance system for people who don't qualify for elderly insurance or who are unable to afford medical bills but what about his city's HOUSING problem? 

The city Seattle knows only all about this, as it is the city with the nations 3rd highest rate of homeless people as rental prices have increased by 40% since 2010, it is, also, Amazons headquarters.  

We noticed recently that if you pay Amazon for anything here in the UK, that the company is now based in Ireland.

Do Amazon pay the correct amount of taxation?

We don't know but we do know that the folks of Long Island City are going to find their cost of living is going to be going up, that's for sure.


But they won't be given any subsidies, that's also for sure.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 8th, 2019

WINTER FOOD.. POACHED PEARS WITH MACKIE'S ICECREAM.. SO DELICIOUS!

We have been invited to supper by some friends, she said that she'll bring the pudding, so what is she going to make? 

Well she asked our hostess what she is serving and she is going to do a chicken and chick pea curry so something needs to be tasty to compliment the curry.

Now, pears at this time of year are brilliant, we eat a lot of them together with those easy peelers aka satsumas and clementines.

So she's going to poach pears in spiced wine but she's not going to poach them in red wine, she's going to use a white desert wine with lots of spices!

Ingredients:

400g golden caster sugar.

300ml of white desert wine.

250ml of water.

1 cinnamon stick.

2 star anise.

1 vanilla pod, split and opened.

2 long strips of orange zest.

A pear per person.

She does not peel or core the pears.

Method:

Put the sugar, wine, all the spices and the orange zest into a saucepan, bring the liquid to a gentle boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Trim a fraction off the base of the pears so that they will stand up straight and place them into the saucepan with the liquid.

Poach them with a lid on the pan for 25 - 30 minutes.

Lift them out of the pan with a slotted spoon.

Put them upright into a bowl, pour over the liquid and serve with a good icecream, we would use Mackie's* of Scotland vanilla! 

If you do them the day before they can chill.

Yum.. I love a good curry, what a good thing I was invited as well!

GeeGee Parrot.

January 7th, 2019.

Postscript* We have to thank Ossie for introducing us to Mackie's of Scotland delicious icecream.

FUTURE HOPE IN CALCUTTA.

She has cleared a lot of junk paper today, last year it wasn't but it is now! 

We have to keep financial and tax papers for 6 years here in the UK but now they're 7 years old, Mister Shredder has just eaten them.

It was whilst she was sorting out the last box of motley papers that she came across the very old article, it is dated November 2002 and it was one of charities chosen by the Telegraph Christmas Charity Appeal for that year.

The article is about an organisation called FUTURE HOPE, based in Kolkata - Calcutta India. Started in 1987 by Tim Grandage who said "'I founded Future Hope not out of pity for the street children, but in admiration". 

The charity is still, very much, in existence, they have touched over 3,000 lives and it prides itself on its alumni who have become self-reliant, hard working and trustworthy members of society with steady work and happy families. 

                    www.futurehope.net

Go on-line and read about what they do and you'll be able to read the original Telegraph article that she found today.

Thank God for people like Tim Grandage is what we say.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 7th, 2019.

COLCHESTER ZOO AND RECYCLED CHRISTMAS TREES WHICH ARE FULL OF ANIMAL TREATS!

      
     QUICK QUICK.. go to Home - BBC News!

Colchester Zoo has posted a charming short video about Christmas trees that have been donated to the zoo for the animals.

The zoo staff have hidden all manner of yummy treats amongst the trees and the animals clearly love foraging about to find these treats.

Elephants, meerkats, chimpanzees have a happy time.. it is a short but very sweet video to watch.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 7th, 2019.

HE WALKS 48 MILES ONCE A WEEK TO SIGN ON FOR WORK. READ THE GUARDIAN TODAY.

She's reading the newspapers on line and came across an article in the Guardian which literally stopped her in her tracks and say "What?"

Ray Taylor spends an entire day walking to and from his local Job Centre to sign on. He cannot afford the £7.00 bus fare and the bus route is going to be cut.

The bus, when it runs, is always full and yet the service is going to be stopped. What is going on in this country? 

Country bus routes are being decimated which leaves people isolated, especially those who are elderly and either no longer run a car or who do not drive.

Post offices are closing left right and centre. You are lucky if they open a sub branch within a store like the Co-op, as they have done on the North End Road in Fulham. 

Banks are closing both country and city branches. We are not allowed to pay cash into someone else's bank account, it has to be done as a faster payment or by cheque.

She doesn't want to live in the country for although she enjoyed her life as a child, she would miss her museums and libraries far too much.

Yes, she is a very keen gardener and grows most of what she eats in the way of fruit and vegetables but the amount of space she has at the allotment is all that she needs and it is a great deal cheaper than the rent of a country cottage. 

Nowadays if you live in the depths of the countryside you have to run a car or a scooter as bus services don't run like they used to.

She thinks of the ease of living in London, we have these bus routes nearby: C1, 14, 19, 22, 28, 49, 52, 74, 190, 319, 391, 345, 360, 414. We have the Piccadilly, Circle and District Underground lines all within a few minutes walk.

And, she is old enough and fortunate enough to qualify for a free travel pass within the 6 zones of Greater London.

She shudders to think of the loneliness that some people who live in the depths of the countryside must experience on a day to day basis.

And now she has to go and start sorting out the sitting room.  

GeeGee Parrot.
January 7th, 2019.

REALLY FRESH FOOD NOT WRAPPED IN PLASTIC + PAULINE BONAPARTE BORGHESE AND HER HOUSE

YubbaDubbaDoo.. Oh, we are having a lovely day. Whilst we were watching the programme on BBC iPlayer, two pots were hubble-bubbling away on the stove.

One pot was full of a glorious mix of sweet potato, squash, onion, carrot, parsnip and swede together with fresh turmeric and ginger roots with several cloves of garlic.

The other had pulses and beans which had soaked overnight and were cooking with herbs from the allotment.

In January the winter vegetables are so delicious that our meals are sometimes just that, vegetables with pulses. 

Yesterday she took a large thermos of vegetables and went off to the Balham Farmer's Market to meet up with Debbie of Ellie's Dairy.

Rather her than me I thought, for oh, my ears and whiskers it was chilly, but she looked very stout when she left here for she is not stupid and she was wearing multiple layers of clothing, plus a hat and gloves.

The market was quiet but the vegetable man from Dorset was there and she came away with a bag of very fresh purple sprouting brocolli.

Debbie dropped her in the King's Road and she scuttled into the library. 

Time for some serious serious reading she thought and came away with two biographys. One on Pauline Bonaparte*, Napoleon's sister and John Jacob Astor, aka America's first multimillionaire.

Upon Emperor Bonapartes abdication in April 1814, his sister Pauline sold her home, the Palais Borghese, together with most of her assets to improve her brothers living conditions on Elba, she was the only one of his family to go into exile with him.

It was bought by the Duke of Wellington as an embassy for the British Government. He bought it with all of its contents, the artwork, clocks (some of which are priceless and came from Versailles), furniture and stables. 

He moved into the house - known formally as the hotel de Charost and then as the Palais Borghese - on Monday the 29th of August, 1814.

Wellington was transferred in 1815 to Vienna and  that year Napoleon escaped from Elba and rallied his troops, the duke was given overall command of the allied forces and after the Battle of Waterloo, he became the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Army of Occupation in France.

Some years later, another building next door was purchased for embassy offices and the Palais Borghese is now the official residence of the British Ambassador to France but it is still used a the location for many official occasions.

HISTORY.. isn't all dry and dusty, that's for sure, and Pauline Bonaparte certainly wasn't!

GeeGee Parrot.
January 6th, 2019.
PostScript: *Pauline Bonaparte was married twice. Her first husband was General Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc. Her second was Prince Camillo Borghese. She died on 9th June, 1825 aged 44 of pulmonary tuberculosis. 

BBC iPLAYER WATCHING 'BACK IN TIME FOR SCHOOL' EPISODE 1.

She remembered her BBC iPlayer sign in details and whoosh.. we went back in time to school life in the Victorian era.

First of all, the desks were exactly the same as she had at her schools! Her schools were certainly as strict in the 50's and 60's as they were portrayed in the programme with only one difference.

At one of her schools.. woe betide you if you were caught running downstairs or in any corridor..

There were surprising things that she learnt. 

The programme started in 1895 and at that point in time, boys and girls were both together in mixed classrooms and they were taught Latin, Maths and Science. 

But in 1902 school inspectors separated the pupils and deemed that girls would no longer learn maths or science and should learn needlework.

Domestic science was added to the girls curriclum in 1908, the boys were taught how to shoot with a rifle and joined the Schools Rifle Association which had been formed in 1906.

There were surprising details too, the fact that the drinking age used to be 12 and that in 1902 it was raised to 14! Yes, before then it was quite legal for children to go into inns or public houses and order alcohol as long as they were twelve or older..

BLIMEY!!

Most children, and remember that they were used as a work force on farms, in factories and in mines, left elementary school aged 12. 

They showed about the Temperance Movement going into schools to get pupils to take the oath and pledge not to drink. 

About how Jujitsu was introduced and taught to protect the girls and women Suffragettes from assaults.

This first episode of the programme ended in 1914 and we all know what happened that year.. yes, WW1 and the call up to fight. 

The next episode - episode 2 - will be shown on January 10th at 8pm in BBC2. This time she'll set herself a reminder and turn off her telephone!

GeeGee Parrot.
January 6th, 2019.

WALL CIRCUS PROMOTES THE ART OF WRITING "THANK YOU" NOTES

You go out to find a gift, you buy the wrapping paper, you write the birthday or christmas card which you enclose in the parcel, you go to the post office and pay for the package to be delivered and or / you paid money into their savings account.

Only to hear.. nothing.. nada.. zilch.. none of them had the manners to say "thank you".

So when she received properly hand written thank you cards for Christmas gifts she gave to another family's children last Christmas, the silence from the family, to whom she gave gifts last year, was made very noticeable.

"That's their lot GeeGee, if they cannot be bothered to write a thank you note or to pick up the telephone, why should I bother to send them anything ever again" was what she said this morning.

So let me tell you about these very smart cards she received.. they are personalised with the child's name and are very snappy!

                    www.wallcircus.co.uk

But you don't have to be a child to have or use personalised stationery, at £12.00 per pack for 15 cards and envelopes, with free postage if you live in the UK, we think they are a great deal and that you'll agree when you see the website. 

Children have to be taught to say or write thank you and what better way is there than to give them something that is very cool and which will delight the recipient of any age and so they are perfect gift for young and old.

According to their website they take:
American Express, MasterCard, PayPal & Visa.

She used to have very plain incredibly chic cards made for her by Henningham & Hollis of Mount Street but they closed forty years ago and she moved her business to Smythsons.

However, she'll certainly be placing an order for cards at Wall Circus.. I wonder if they do pictures of garden equipment or sheds? They might, for there are lots of other things to look at, all designed by an graphic designer and illustrator who spent 16 years designing posters and advertising campaigns for the entertainment industry.  

So there you are.. that's sorted out what you can give as gifts to friends, of all ages, this year.

It's a cold dreary day, she's off to do some work.. then we'll have a late hot lunch of delicious vegetables.. Pip Pip.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 6th, 2019.   

OH.. WHAT A SILLY MAMA...

Well, we hope you watched the programme last night on BBC2, because we didn't!

She spent the afternoon and early evening sorting out stuff.. you know what I mean by stuff, it lives in cupboards and drawers or on shelves and you completely forget you have it and that.. is when it needs to go to another home.

But just before 8pm she received a telephone call from overseas and after it ended, she forgot to switch on the television, so we missed the programme we told you to look out for.

Well thank goodness for BBC iPlayer is all I am going to say. How amazing.. I must be growing up to exercise such diplomacy! Or I am fearful that she'll take umbrage and refuse to share her supper with me. You see, I know what supper will be.. and oh, slurp.

We have friends who had twins at the end of November, very premature twins, and friends have been dropping off boxes of cooked so that busy new mother Andreea doesn't have to cook.

But it got to the point over the New Year that there was, literally, no more space in their chilly white or frosty larders = fridge or freezer to those of you who aren't old Dear Readers of my blog! 

And when my mama called round with something a couple of days ago for Andreea, she was given a few boxes of cooked food.

We're having chilli con carne for supper tonight and will watch last night's programme.

That's your lot for now.. she has to get out and about.. Pip Pip.

GeeGee Parrot.
January 4th, 2019.