New football manager?

I had an interesting chat on the phone with my grandson, Harley, this evening and he was telling me about the football match that England lost against Germany on Sunday in the World Cup. He complained bitterly about the referee not allowing the goal for England 'when the ball was about a foot over the line'.
Not being football fan myself I didn't see the match, but I did see the goal that was disallowed on the news programme and I agree it was over the line. However, I said to Harley that even if it had been allowed we would still have been knocked out of the competition. "Yes" he replied "but not by as much".
Then I mentioned that I didn't think we would ever win the World Cup anyway and the team needed me as their manager because if I was in charge of them they wouldn't dare lose! Then I went on to tell him that I thought they were all seriously overpaid and if I was their manager and they lost a game, they wouldn't be paid anything!
He was most indignant and said that I couldn't be the team manager because I didn't understand football!
There was no point in arguing but he is wrong because I do understand football and I don't think that the players today can hold a candle to the teams we used to have. As far as I'm concerned, a lot of them aren't English and they are overpaid and over-indulged. Just a lot of spoilt, grown up brats!

I'm just a big softy!

Well, it's something I just can't help, but really I'm a great big softy. Especially when it comes to the birds and squirrels that visit my garden. And don't they just know it!
I think they all communicate with each other too but I'm blessed if I know how. A few days ago I noticed that there were a few male sparrows with broods of about three youngsters each, all clamouring to be fed even though they were the same size as Dad! Realising how hard the Dads were working to put bits of seed or the odd spider into the gapes, I felt somewhat sorry for them and crumbled up a slice of my homemade wholemeal bread and put it on the bird table.
At first only one Dad came down and soon brought his family of three to the bird table and filled them up and off they went. Within ten minutes or so another two Dads came along so I think the first one had told him where to get supper that was easily accessible.
The youngsters were lined up on the fence and the Dads began to stuff the breadcrumbs into the beaks of them one by one and it was soon gone! The youngsters were then taken to the waterlily tub to get a drink and a bath and the next afternoon they were all back again looking for the crumbs on the bird table.
So now every day, I'm crumbling a slice of bread on the bird table and the youngsters are 'parked' there to feed themselves while the Dads get seed from the feeder. The youngsters can also get a drink or bath on their own too.

That's just typical!

For Mother's Day last year Sarah bought me a lovely purple moth orchid. Now I have had orchids just like this in the past but I haven't been able to keep them. I don't think the problem has always been down to me but more likely the fact that in the winter there is not any single room that has a steady temperature.
The temperature can fluctuate across a wide range, depending on how cold it is outside because I have those awful storage heaters which make it too hot in the morning but freezing by teatime.
Anyway, try as I might I have 'lost' any orchid in the past except for this one. I did exactly what the books say and did get a few second flowers but since last June, despite feeding, there has been no growth at all. The thing looked for all the world as though it was artificial.
Off I went to the garden centre thinking that perhaps if I re-potted the thing it might be tempted to do something. So I bought a bag of special orchid compost and three pots (you can't buy just one for some unknown reason).
Because it's been so hot over the last week or so I left the pots and compost in the bag and when I looked at the orchid today to put some water on the pebbles, I noticed that it has another leaf growing!
Perhaps I'll leave it for a while to see what happens because the books say to re-pot after flowering.
Fingers crossed!

A proper look and a hurricane!

When we had some cloud the other day, I took some pictures of the garden so that the colours are not washed out as they are in the bright sunshine that we are currently having.


The pink flowers below are alstromeria and the bees just love them. They also like the lavender in front of the bird bath above and the foxgloves which are just going over.

The garden is small but perfectly formed and very interesting. I find something new to look at every day.

And now I would like you to meet.................Harley (my grandson and miniature hurricane!)

Oh yes! He looks quite harmless and I was very lucky to get a half reasonable picture of him because he doesn't stay still for a fraction of a second and also takes up ridiculous 'poses' if you try to get a photo of him. The only good ones have been the ones taken at school.
He came for lunch today when Sarah came to pick up Eden. They were then going home to watch the World Cup and I hope they are not too disappointed tonight because England lost.

Just a quick one!

It's been too hot to think today and my garden has been like a brightly lit oven so after a very early and quick trip to town to get Eden's birthday present (she was 13 on Wednesday), we came home and I made some bread. While it was rising we went to the garage where I get the car washed for free and when we got home 40 minutes later the bread was ready for baking.
Then we had lunch and while Eden spent the afternoon reading one of her favourite books. I experimented in the kitchen.
We sat outside for a short while earlier this evening and I helped her with a homework project. The sparrows have been 'pinging' about the garden so I crumbled up one of the last slices of the bread I made a few days ago and put some on the path and some on the birdtable.
It is idyllic out there (especially because the 'neighbours from hell' are out). The flowers are beautiful and it's so peaceful just listening to the birds, watching them feed their young and bathe in the water lily tub.
Now I am going to cook the chicken fajitas that I prepared earlier, have a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio and we shall eat 'al fresco'.
Have a great evening!

OK Tesco. I'm on the warpath!

I sent an e-mail to Tesco the other day about the lack of trolleys in their Metro store and the problems caused to more senior shoppers who are unable to bend or lift. I did not expect a reply anytime soon and when I went in there today, again there were no trolleys.
Well, they are not exactly trolleys, more like large plastic baskets on wheels with a 'pull up' handle and most of them are usually filthy with all sorts of sticky unmentionable stuff in them. Because I can't carry anything due to arthritis and I can't bend or lift because I have a few prolapsed discs, I have to take my own shopping trolley and to manage this together with a Tesco trolley basket is quite a feat!
With the small metal trolleys that they used to have at least I could hang my shopping trolley on the handle and push their trolley around but they don't have these anymore.
So today, I went to the customer service desk and asked to see the manager. "Which one?" the woman enquired. "The one responsible for trolleys, or lack of them" I replied. So she dutifully put a message over the tannoy and within 15 seconds the phone on the desk rang. "He won't come down" she said as she picked up the phone. "Please tell him I'm waiting here and will do so until he comes". She relayed the message to the person on the phone and within two minutes this young man who must have been all of twenty something swaggered up to me.
I told him my complaint and told him I wasn't the only senior shopper with difficulty in carrying or lifting. "Just look around you now" I said, "There are at least six that we can see from here and what's more, three of them have walking sticks and are struggling with heavy baskets. So what are you going to do to improve our shopping experience with you because after all, we pay your wages by shopping here?".
I also suggested that they invest in the equipment that some supermarkets use in the USA where some electronic equipment at the door of the store would stop trolley wheels turning if someone tried to take a trolley out. "After all" I said, "Tesco would save money eventually because they wouldn't have to keep on buying more trolleys because people had pinched them. And what's more, there would be fewer dumped in rivers and streams or cluttering up the town and countryside".
All the time he continued to scribble down what I was saying and asked me how they could contact me because he would pass this on and someone would contact me to update me. (I'm not holding my breath on that one!).
Anyway, I think he realised I wasn't going to be fobbed off and he asked one young lady if she could find me a trolley basket. She eventually came back with one and said she would keep mine behind the customer service desk. She told me that she would lift the basket up for me when I had finished my shopping which she did.
Today at least, I did get some good customer service BUT I WILL BE BACK!!!!!!!

Bright garden - cloudy day!

I've taken some more pictures today because the weather was bright with a light cloud cover which means that the colours are not 'washed out'. The first picture is of my favourite rose Gertrude Jekyll which I have had for many years and no matter how hard I prune her she comes back just as beautiful and flowers well. She smells gorgeous too.


Below is a pelargonium but is most commonly called a geranium. I can't remember it's name because I threw the label away! I put it in a pot so that I can use it and a few others to fill up spaces when other plants have gone over.

This petunia is one of the surfina varieties and is called 'blue vein'. It is also scented and flowers profusely.

The last time I bought nemesia the slugs scoffed the lot but these are doing very well thanks to a sprinkling of slug pellets.

And finally this is a campanula and I have no idea what it is called. It's supposed to be planted in a sunny position but this one is in full shade under the wall but it's little starry flowers come back in profusion year after year. This proves that the label isn't always right!

I never tire of the wonders that flowers bring. Soon the sunflowers and the rudbekia will be flowering. The sunflowers are ones that I have grown from seed and I find it incredible that they are already about 6 inches high and they grew out of tiny seeds planted about five weeks ago. When fully grown, these will only be about three feet high.

Nice to be appreciated!

Today is Farmer's Market day so I got up early (mainly down to neighbours banging car doors etc.) and decided I would go over there at 9am so that I would be back home before it got too hot.
Because all the new season's vegetables and salads are ready I took the big shopping trolley so that I could get it all in and so that I could put my handbag in there too which would make it easier to get home.
The walk across Castle Park was very pleasant with the goldfinches and blackbirds singing and feeding their young. There was a squirrel over there too digging under a sweet chestnut tree and he actually found a nut that he must have buried there some time ago!
At the market, all the stallholders are very pleasant and at one stall where I get a lot of fruit and salads I usually get half a dozen eggs too. Helen, the stallholder, leaned across with a box of eggs and opened them up and asked if I would like some 'a little bit bigger' this week. She explained that they had all been laid on different days and she had put a little sticker on each one with the day that they were laid. They were HUGE! She told me that she couldn't put them in with the normal eggs because of the difference in size and so saved them for 'special' customers. I felt really pleased. You never get that sort of treatment at Tesco.

Flower power!

I thought I would show some more photos from my little garden. The white campanula is about 18 inches high and is called campanula persicifolia and it lights up a mostly shady part of the garden.

Below are some of the petunias I have in containers. There is also a fuschia in the middle somewhere! Oh, and the little fella by the tub is called 'Gobby Goblin'. His friend is the other side of the patio and is called 'Happy Goblin'.

This is the shadiest side of the garden and the picture was taken in the middle of the day. I will have to take some more when it's cloudy too but you can see how everything has grown.

The garden really has filled out now and in a few days I will take some pictures of the nemesias and other plants that have just settled in where the wallflowers were.

All of the pink flowers that you can see in these two pictures are Peruvian Lillies or alstroemeria and they are a dwarf variety. The plant was expensive when I bought it but it spreads like mad. It has these strange long fleshy tubers rather like thin, rounded white carrots that go down about ten inches into the soil. The bees love it (and so do the slugs and snails)!

I will have to get some more close-ups but I needed to water everything as it's been so dry.

Cool tips!

Well, the weather has been glorious today but as I don't do heat I have spent the day mostly in the shade.
Of course, I do go in the sun for my vitamin D but only for short bursts as I potter about in the garden. In this weather I am always looking for ways to keep really cool and thought I would share some of the things I do. You may even do them anyway, but if you find an idea you haven't come across yet, it's worth a try.
In the top of my fridge I have a few things not normally found in fridges! I keep a couple of packets of those moist wipes which I can use to freshen up behind my ears, across the forehead, hands and most of all, feet! They are great for a quick cool down and freshen up especially on my feet when I get home from shopping.
Then I have a couple of foot refreshers, a herbal foot spray and a cooling foot gel. That is also where I put my hand cream and if it is really hot, my bottle of body lotion.
The cucumber in the salad drawer is great as an eye refresher and if you don't have cucumber, try putting used teabags in there for eye bags!
For a quick cool down, I also hold my wrists under the cold tap with the water running for a few minutes and when I had a hot water bottle, I used to fill it with cold water to put my feet on in bed in the summer!
Perhaps some of these little tips might be useful to you too.

Apologies!

I know Squidge and his friend Squish like to bury peanuts and dig them up the following day so they became the main suspects when I noticed soil and bark chip all over the gravel path yesterday.
The trouble is, the path is pea gravel which means I have to pick up each piece of bark chip separately and as I realised that the squirrels were scattering the bark chip on it last year, I put some plastic lawn edging inside the stone wall as the bed is raised from the path. This stopped the problem until yesterday, so they were in the frame for the mess.
However, several weeks ago I had watched the blackbirds digging in one part of the garden which is always moist and they were really making sizeable holes in an effort to find worms for their young. This activity in the search for food meant that they had to put in considerable effort to find the intended prey and they were tossing the bark chip and any dead leaves around for several feet.
It wasn't until early this morning when I came downstairs to make a cup of tea that I saw who the real culprits were! As I pulled back the curtains there were the two blackbirds busily tossing the bark everywhere, so they must have another hungry brood to feed.
So Squidge and Squish, I apologise most sincerely for blaming you for the mess!

A GREAT BIG chocolate drop!

Yes, That's exactly how I smell at the moment and the way I will do for some time. No, I haven't been eating it either and I haven't painted myself with it.
I bought some body lotion in Wilkinson's because I'm a penny pinching pensioner! In fact, science has proved that you don't need to spend a fortune on moisturising products, if you do, you're just paying for the posh name and putting money in somebody else's already fat pocket. The cheaper products are just as good and if you really wanted to, you could rub butter or lard all over yourself when you get out of the shower, but I prefer to smell of chocolate.
The smell is down to the cocoa butter in the lotion and my goodness, doesn't it go a long way! After I got out of the shower today I used it for the first time and not realising just how far it went, I put a dollop (about 5 mls) into my palm and started to smooth it into my arm. It took absolutely ages to massage in and I was beginning to think I would be doing that arm for the rest of the day! Eventually I finished that arm and I must say, I was very impressed with how soft it felt and I am also surprised at how long the smell has lasted. At least it's not too strong, unless you stick your nose onto my skin, but I can't see anyone wanting to do that!
So ladies, forget about the expensive designer names when buying moisturiser and get the cheap stuff! Then you'll have a few extra pounds to spoil yourself with REAL chocolate!

Aaaaaarrgh!

I know that there are a lot of people like me who have had enough! It isn't finished yet either because there are still a good few weeks to go.
Balls! I've had enough of them, footballs, golf balls and next week it will be tennis balls! Will someone explain to me why all the sport has to be condensed into four weeks and what's the attraction of it anyway?
I used to love sport, as a participant and I cannot for the life of me understand people who want to sit for hour after hour watching it on television, especially in the summer when the weather is fine and sunny. Not only is it the football World Cup, but we've just had Ascot (yeah, yeah! I know that's horse racing and I don't follow that either) then there's some golfing tournament (yawn, yawn, boring!) to be followed next week by two weeks of Wimbledon. I can't stand the grunting, we never used to do that, and it's always the same people every year.
I'm really glad the weather has been good because the darned sport takes over the television channels (at least Gardener's World is on tonight) so I have spent quite a bit of time watching the birds and pottering in the garden. If it turns wet, I might even dabble in the kitchen but I usually end up baking a cake which I shouldn't really eat! Oh heck! It's just started to rain too!
Funnily enough, it's usually men who spend their time glued to the box watching most of the sport. The only thing I don't mind is watching a little of the Olympic Games because they only come round every four years and yes, I know the World Cup football does too but we have it from August to May along with the rugby (with the funny shaped ball).
Oh! I forgot to mention the cricket!
Now I'm off to the kitchen.

My window on the world

The window cleaner came today, as he does every fortnight and I get my front windows cleaned by him because the house is directly onto the pavement and the windows are too high for me to reach, even with one of those extending window sponges.
The back ones I usually do myself about three or four times a year. The bathroom and back bedroom are sash windows and I can climb out of the bathroom onto the flat kitchen roof where I can manage the back bedroom and bathroom windows.The kitchen and dining room ones are fairly easily accessible with a step ladder.
These days though, it seems that the many of the younger generation don't bother to clean their windows and I only have to look at the older houses and new flats around here to see where they don't clean.
This is surprising too because we live in a very dusty area where there is still construction work going on, as it has been for the last six years. The dirt that has accumulated on the windows since the new properties were built is very thick and although they all have windows that can be opened inwards or outwards so that they can be cleaned, nobody bothers.
If my windows were that mucky I think my electricity bill would be a lot higher because I would have to have the light on more.
I know that perhaps a lot of people would say that it's a waste of time to spend it cleaning windows but it's the way I was brought up. I have always taken a pride in my home even if it is grotty and doesn't belong to me and finally, I like to be able to see what's going on in the street and I love to watch the birds and squirrels in my back garden so I'll carry on cleaning mine.

Food labelling fiasco

I wonder how many people realise that today the European Parliament will be voting on food labelling and come to that, how many people actually care!
At the moment some of the food producers put the 'traffic light' system on their packaging so that the shopper can see at a glance whether it's high in fat, sugar or salt.
Well firstly, I do not think that the European Parliament should be making laws that most of it's members such as France, Germany, Italy etc. will not keep while expecting us to keep them and secondly, I don't think food labelling is comprehensive enough.
So many people today have some form of food allergy or sensitivity that they need to know exactly what is in it, especially the processed stuff because they put in chemicals and additives that weren't even invented in my younger days. I am sure this is why some people have these allergies too. If they had been reared on good wholesome food that had been prepared in the home without all the unnecessary extras then they probably would not have problems now. Years ago we never heard of all these allergies.
I like to know exactly what is going into my mouth and that's why I prefer to make everything from scratch. If food is well prepared it doesn't need extra chemicals. I like to know where and how it was grown/reared, I prefer it to be as local as possible, I don't want oranges from Peru or South America when Spain is much closer and almost sinking into the sea with them. After all, they have to be picked a long time before they're eaten when they have to travel so far which means they can't be called fresh.
Oh! One more thing, there should be a dictionary in every aisle of the supermarket so that when I am reading the labels I will be able to look up what they have really put in it because some of the additives I have never heard of!

Town or country?

This morning on the news I heard a report about the problems faced by Britain's Hill farmers and also about lack of affordable housing in the countryside. If it were not for sheep, cows and pigs etc. our countryside would not be as beautiful as it is at present and so someone thinks that the farmers should be given more help in order to preserve 'our green and pleasant land'. I couldn't agree more.
However, there are fewer people working in agriculture because there is a shortage of decent affordable homes in country areas for farm workers who are not exactly well paid. I wonder why!
The answer is quite simple and it's because any half decent looking property has been bought up as a second home for the super rich city dwellers. These people want to 'get away from it all' a couple of times a year, even after their two or three expensive holidays abroad, and because they have so much disposable income they have pushed the property prices out of reach of normal hard working people. These are the farm workers who are trying to support their families and make a decent living by working on the farms which help to keep the countryside as it is today.
Not only do these city and town dwellers want to own the most desirable properties but they also have the gall to complain about cockerels crowing, cows moo-ing, church bells ringing and horses in the roads so that they can't get their wretched Chelsea tractors past. Oh, and the smell caused by that good old fashioned farming practice called 'muck spreading'!
They don't use village shops, they prefer to bring their goodies from Waitrose or Fortnum and Mason so why the hell don't they stay in their cities and towns where they can get everything on their own doorstep and leave the countryside to the people who work and live there?
Perhaps this new government should seriously consider putting a stop to the 'townies' buying up village and country properties for a 'second home' because after all, many people can't afford one home to call their own, let alone having a second one.

Very green fingers!

This morning I thought I would get into the garden and do some dead heading and pruning as the weather was cloudy with a stiff, cool breeze which suits me just fine if I'm working. As you know. I don't do heat so I have to either do things in the garden early in the morning before the sun gets round or wait until it is very cloudy.
After having breakfast, I was just about to go out when I noticed Sqidge having his late breakfast and Squish (his friend) was also out there digging up nuts that they had buried yesterday. I thought I would leave them undisturbed and do something else until they had finished even though they knew I was waiting (yes, sad person that I am I do talk to them)!
Anyway, several jobs and an hour later the two squirrels left so out I went and started dead heading the roses and pruning back some of the new growth. I only did this last week but I was amazed at just how much everything has grown in the garden in just one week! It is very rare that anything I plant refuses to grow so I know I've got 'green fingers'.
Now I had said to the old gentleman round the corner, whose garden I also do, that I would pop round this afternoon to dead head his roses too (luckily his garden is much smaller than mine).
I only put the roses and other plants in for him a year ago and all of them have grown but to twice the size they were supposed to. In fact there were a couple that didn't winter at all well but in April I pulled off the dead growth and told him that if they didn't recover by June we would have to replace them. Well, I must have the magic touch because these too are now more than twice the size they were last year and look very healthy indeed.
From tomorrow the weather is supposed to be fine and dry without the wind so perhaps I will be able to sit outside in the afternoon to watch everything grow!

A weekend with Eden

Well peace and quiet has descended on my home once more as Eden left with Sarah (her mum)about an hour ago because Sarah is revising for some accountancy exams she is taking this week. We had a delicious meat loaf for our dinner before they went (thanks to Robin for the recipe) and I have cleared everything away.
We have had a great weekend, apart from my little incident yesterday which is still a source of great hilarity, and we also did quite a lot of cooking. Yesterday I showed Eden how to make a cous-cous salad and in the afternoon we made a wholemeal loaf and then a delicious cheese and onion quiche which we had for dinner last night with some salad.
Today it was the meat loaf so Eden will be able to make this at home and I have also told Sarah how to make it too because it is so easy and very tasty.
Eden's domestic skills are very good for her age and below is a picture of a cushion that she recently made for me.



She did the tie-dye on the fabric and then designed and made the robin from felt which she sewed on herself. I think it is excellent and I have promised her that I will show her how to use my sewing machine properly when she stays with me for a week in August. Perhaps we will start by making a simple top for her.

Covered in glory?

On my way home this morning from a spot of shopping with Eden we had got to the car park of the homeware store and garden centre and there we were, walking along side by side when I felt something wet hit my nose and heard it 'splat' across the ground.
A seagull had once again scored a direct hit and I was the one that got it yet again. Eden was missed completely but not me. I had on a brand new white T shirt which wasn't so white any more and I stank to high heaven. Eden of course was laughing fit to burst, although she was trying hard not to and straight away she was texting her Mum and all her friends!
It's not the first time this has happened when I have been with her and each time , I'm the one that gets it and she escapes, whether it be stinking pigeon, seagull or whatever. She tells me it's 'lucky' but I have not had any good luck when this has happened, despite buying a lottery ticket. I think it's unlucky (especially for me), although I must admit that I'm really glad that elephants don't fly!!
In the past these wretched birds have scored a direct hit on my head, all over a black business suit when I was on my way back to work after lunch and going to a very important meeting and another time I had to got into work with the mess dripping from my ear which made it look as if I was wearing some new fahioned 'dangly' earring.
Why Eden never gets hit is beyond me and if I had my way, I would have every seagull and pigeon shot. We aren't even near the sea, we're about thirty miles or more away but we have more seagulls than they do at the most popular resorts!

We've got babies!

Yesterday evening I went out into the kitchen and thought I could hear fledgling sparrows chirping to be fed and I was right. There they were on the bird table, two of them with their dad and he was busily feeding each one in turn. These are the first ones I have had in the garden this year so hopefully there will be more soon.
The magpie brought his youngster down a few weeks ago and it now comes down on it's own but the sparrows headed for the hills in December when the landlady had the side garden destroyed. Gradually over the last couple of months they have been coming back into the garden and the numbers now are back up to normal. I always feel honoured when they bring their young into the garden to feed and sometimes they tend to leave them there hiding under the plants while the parents are off doing their own thing for a while. In fact, I am an unpaid baby bird sitter!
For the last few years in the summer especially, I have also had a sparrow hawk from time to time. The sparrow hawk knows where the sparrows come to feed and sometimes would sit on the fence (once it even sat on the roof of the bird table) but although I love to see all birds and it is the law of nature, I just didn't want him to eat the little birds that I had just fed. So I would open the door so that the sparrow hawk would fly off. Then I would walk up the garden and all the sparrows would be hiding very quietly in the honeysuckle looking at me and the babies would be hiding under the plants on the ground. Once they knew it was safe because I had been out, they would return to what they had been doing.
It is always easy to tell when there is a hawk around because all the birds stop chirping and you can't see one anywhere. What is even more incredible is that sparrow hawks don't make a sound when they fly so the sparrows must have amazing eyesight to be able to spot them and go into hiding.

Blowing the whistle

I am unfortunate enough to live next door to 'neighbours from hell' who moved in last October. During the last twenty five years that I have lived in this house, I have only had ONE really nice neighbour who lived there about five years ago. Unfortunately the family moved to another part of the city to a bigger house and again the property next door was rented out.
Living here for such a long time I thought I had seen and heard it all but I hadn't. This lot have a habit of playing what can only be described as 'head banging' music very loudly, usually at the weekends and sometimes it goes on all night. Actually, to call it 'music' is a misrepresenation because there is nothing musical about it, it's just loud rhythmic thumping.
The last few weekends. it has been so loud the even people living some way up the streets around the corner have remarked on it but they weren't sure where it was coming from. The migraines I have suffered have been proof but hopefully this will now stop.
For some time I have kept a 'noise diary' of the date and times, type of noise and duration. The man who lives there was quite aggressive when I mentioned it back in January so I have not approached him since. Instead I e-mailed the diary to someone who works in the department at the council that deals with anti-social behaviour. He in turn has passed it on to the Environmental Health department and I spoke to a nice man yesterday who is going to write to the people next door about the disturbances. He has also given me a telephone number to call if I have problems out of hours so that their on-call inspectors can deal with it straight away.
I feel so relieved because I dread the weekends coming accompanied by yet another migraine. Perhaps now, I will be able to sit outside in my garden if it's warm and not have to come inside and shut all the windows, and I particularly look forward to a peaceful night's sleep.
No-one should feel intimidated or scared in their own homes and if the neighbours don't keep the peace, the council will take action against them. So, if you have similar problems with your neighbours, there is help out there.

Use by 'Best before' date

I was rummaging in the cupboard yesterday and discovered a few things that were approaching their 'best before' date so decided to use them all up in one recipe. I have pleasure in sharing my recipe for:

'Grandma's sticky fruity flapjacks'

All measurements are approximate after the marge or butter!

6 ounces of marge or butter

4 ounces demerera sugar

4 ounces of golden syrup

10 ounces rolled oats

3 ounces coarse oatmeal

2 ounces each of sultanas, raisins, chopped glace cherries and dessicated coconut

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a large saucepan over a low heat and stir occasionally until the butter has melted and all the sugar is disolved.

While this is melting, line a 9 inch square tin with baking parchment and heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Mix in all the other ingredients then tip into the tin and smooth over the top. Bake towards the top of the oven for about 35 minutes until golden on the top.

Leave to cool in the tin but after about three minutes use a sharp knife to cut through carefully and make either squares or fingers (whichever you prefer). When cold, remove from tin on parchment and cut through original lines again.

These can be stored in an airtight tin for up to a week but I find they have usually disappeared after a couple of days!

Enjoy!

Race for life

On Sunday just gone my youngest daughter Sarah did something which I thought was impossible for her, very foolish (for her) but at the same time very brave! She and Eden ran the Tesco Race for Life in Bath.
This is a race that is organised by Tesco every year in many cities and towns up and down the country and all the participants raise money for the Breast Cancer charity. The distance is 3 kilometres and you can get around by walking, jogging or running, whichever suits you.
Sarah is not what I would call an 'active' person unlike her older sister Emma who never stops! Sarah prefers to drive rather than walk anywhere, but sometimes being a busy single Mum of three who works full time I can understand why she is like this and although Eden gets a lot of physical exercise, I don't think running is her thing!
Anyway, I jokingly said to Eden on Saturday evening that I would hear about them coming in holding hands about three hours after everyone else had finished, because although they had both said they would do some 'training', they never did.
Imagine my surprise on Sunday afternoon when Eden rang me to say they had both finished and they did the race in forty five minutes. They ran until they couldn't run any more, then walked and finally jogged to the finish. I think Eden raised twenty two pounds and Sarah raised double that.
I am very proud of both of them especially because I could not have done it in this warm weather. If it had been on a freezing day in the middle of winter I would have been able to walk the course.
Now I'll have to cough up the cash because they finished the course (I would have done so anyway!).
WELL DONE SARAH AND EDEN!

Dawn chorus.....I don't think so

As we are approaching the longest day of the year in a couple of weeks, the first faint glimmer of light appears at about 4 o'clock in the morning. How do I know? Well, I have to get out of bed at that time due to age and also because I am sure I should have been a bird. Whatever the time of year, I wake up when it starts to get light and my eyes are programmed to close when it gets dark. Having a catnap doesn't even stop this!
Anyway, I usually have a look out of the windows and then get back into bed and lie there listening to the birds as they start breaking into song. It all starts with the blackbirds and soon spreads with all the smaller birds joining in. I'm lucky that I can still distinguish the different songs of a lot of the birds despite living in the centre of a city for a quarter of a century. The real dawn chorus is beautiful to hear and eventually I drop back off to sleep.
My alarm is set for 6:45am and sometimes I wake up before this but around this time I come downstairs to make a cup of tea and go back up to listen to the news and drink my tea in bed.
That's when the second 'dawn chorus' starts and it's not pleasant at all. It's the time the commuters arrive in their cars to find a free parking space for the day and they are not fussy about how they park or who they disturb. It seems that they are all deaf because as they start to arrive my ears are assaulted with a variety of thumping, tuneless music and rap which makes the cars 'bounce' off the road. Then it takes them (usually the male of the species) at least twenty manoeuvres to get the smallest of cars (with the loudest exhausts) into a space big enough to park a double decker bus or chieftan tank ....or both!
These cars all have about six doors and although they are occupied by a single 'driver' , this person then proceeds to open every door one by one then closes them with a loud 'slam'.
That's not the end of it though because they check and double check that they have 'beeped' it and off they go, only to return thirty seconds later to go through the whole process of opening, slamming and beeping again before finally disappearing.
Give me birds rather than men any day!!!!!!!

And the winner is.............The magpie!

For a few weeks now the magpies have been showing their youngsters around the area and showing them where to get food and water and also where the dangers are and what they look like.
Although I have been woken up ridiculously early almost every morning while the flying lessons and aerobatics are taught, I don't really mind because I find something amusing and comforting about their 'clacking' call.
The magpies usually gets a bad press because they steal eggs and chicks from nests (and nestboxes - sorry, Emma) but you have to hand it to them as they are amongst the most fiesty and dedicated parents of the wild bird population in Britain.
Around here, the neighbourhood cats have all been marked out by these parents and if one is spotted, the alarm call goes up and both parents rush to try to get the cat as far away as possible from the youngster. They will use every ruse imaginable to distract the cats, acting as if their wing is broken, taunting and mocking, dive bombing, you name and they'll do it. I watched a pair this morning chase a cat up the road for over a hundred yards until the cat disappeared under a car. They only left it alone when another moggy crossed the road outside of my house which brought them back down the road in hot pursuit of their quarry.
While all this is going on, the parents are egged noisily on by the youngster who is sitting well out of harm's way on the roof!
I'm hoping that they will continue to come into the garden from time to time because I would really like to get a picture of one but they seem to be a bit shy when they see me.

Lazy day!

Today is supposed to be the last very hot day of this spell so I spent a lazy day sitting outside in the shade watching the birds, the bees and flowers. I can't cope with excessive heat so I decided to relax and read the paper and just 'chill out'. However, every time I came inside to get a drink or the paper, something happened outside so I got my camera and kept it nearby. I'm glad I did!

Now you see it (and just look at the size of his 'saddle bags'!)

Now you don't!

Meet Whizzy the woodmouse........two inches long and moves at the speed of light!

Lucky to catch him again!

Who's that stealing the bird's nuts? Stop Thief! You've got your own.

I just love my garden and who cares if I do talk to the wildlife that shares it, I feel honoured that they like it too and they don't mind me being a little eccentric as long as I keep the food coming.

More garden pictures!

It's a lovely afternoon and I was sitting outside in the shade listening to the radio. However, I have had to come in because Squidge was hanging over the top of the fence looking for his tea, the birds were lined up along the fence for theirs too and the magpie was sitting on the roof gaping so I knew he wanted a good drink. Isn't it wonderful how these wild animals and birds know exactly where to come for good food, drink and the occasional bath!
They also know that I will come in and leave them to it if they look at me long enough!

Ena Harkness with Geranium Himalayense 'Gravetye' just coming into bloom.

And Mrs Sparrow said 'Who's that pointing a camera at me?'

Up the garden path (in the morning sun)

Self sown Campanula Portenschlagiana (I just call it campanula)

The old sink with Rose Danse du Feu leaning over a lemon marguerite and apricot arctotis (the lobelia in front is a trailing one which is a royal blue colour and just beginning to flower.

These were all taken yesterday morning but everything looks totally different in the afternoon sun and in the evening when it is in complete shade it has another look again.

A day in my garden

It was such a beautiful morning that I took a few pictures of the garden just so that you could have a peep. No-one can see it as it is completely enclosed. It's my little bit of heaven.

Osteospermum

Waiting for the dianthus to flower

Two for the price of one..........

Two colours on one plant

Time for a snack!

Hopefully I will be able to show you some more tomorrow.

The start of a feast!

For the last couple of weeks I have been able to buy strawberries grown at Cheddar at the farmer's market. They are supposed to be the best in the country and I think they are. The colour, smell and taste let me know that summer is really on it's way.
Today at the farmer's market the stalls had some of the new season's salads and vegetables for sale so I came back with my shopping trolley filled to the top! As all these crops were growing within a thirty mile radius of the city only yesterday (they still had yesterday's rain on them), they are the freshest that can be bought.
A couple of weeks ago I bought some asparagus for Eden and myself because we both love it. The season is so short and I knew there would be about three weeks when she wouldn't be over so I didn't want her to miss out. Today I got a lot of salad vegetables including lettuce, spring onions, beetroot and local greenhouse tomatoes. I also bought new potatoes, small sweet carrots and spring cabbage.
This is just the start because in a week or so the broad beans and peas will be ready followed later on by courgettes, runner beans and everything else you can think of. I just love the summer when I can buy such a fantastic selection of salads and vegetables all grown on the doorstep and much fresher than the supermarket.
Everything has now been washed and prepared and is stored in the fridge ready to be used. If you need a tip to ensure your lettuce stays crisp and fresh just wash it as soon as you get it home then dry in a salad spinner. Take it out and lay on a couple of layers of kitchen towel then blot off as much water as you can without bruising the leaves. Store in a large plastic container that has a fitted lid and place inside the salad drawer in the bottom of the fridge.

Football free area!

It's easy to tell that the Football World Cup is imminent because already the fans are driving around with flags of St George stuck up on both sides of their cars. There are also large flags draped from several windows around here too.
None of these pathetic people ever fly the flag of St George on St George's day, although he was the patron saint of England and I doubt that many of them would know when this is anyway, so for that reason, I refuse to take part in this ridiculous display of false patriotism. Not only that, I do not like football or footballers and I will certainly NOT be watching any of the World Cup on television.
I can remember watching England win the World Cup in 1966 but then it was a totally different game. The players were real gentlemen and they earned a pittance compared to today's players. In those days football was a proper sport, not only for the players but the fans were sporting too. There was certainly no thuggery at matches and they were enjoyed by whole families, but alas, not any more.
Most of today's footballers are grossly overpaid and I don't think they are as skilled as those that played when we did win the World Cup. Nowadays, if they get a tap on the ankle they fall to the floor in agony, grasping the affected leg but if another member of their team score a goal, they soon forget about the pain and are leaping about with all the rest.
As for the WAGS, don't get me started on them!