Some of the truths about unemployment

I would like to dispel some of the myths that surround the current unemployment situation. After working in a Jobcentre for seven years before retiring and dealing mainly with the long term unemployed of all ages it's about time that people heard the other side of the story, the unreported one.
It's true that unemployment is rising, but not as fast as we are being led to believe because for several years now, women with children are gradually being moved from Income Support to Jobseeker's Allowance as soon as the youngest child reaches a certain age and this age has been coming down. It used to be sixteen but when I retired a couple of years ago it was down to seven and I think it will continue to go down to five. A high proportion of these women are 'single' mothers, many have never worked and most also left school without any educational qualifications whatsoever. In fact a lot of them could barely write properly or complete a simple 'basic skills' questionnaire and many actually didn't possess any social skills either.
In fact there are so many young people who lack any of the necessary skills required to assist them in life it's frightening. I believe that much of this is because they 'bunk off' school whenever they feel like it yet no-one seems to challenge this and the parent is usually oblivious and probably not very well educated themselves anyway. Perhaps we need more inspirational teachers and a change of teaching methods to engage these young people in the important matter of preparing them for a successful and productive life in the outside world once they have left school. They also need better careers guidance as many of them have completely unrealstic ideas about what they want to do (if anything) once they leave school for the world of work and the words 'graft' and 'dedication' don't appear in their vocabulary.
Many of the older generation of long term unemployed also lack many of the basic skills but they have also become conditioned to a life without work and a lot are just downright lazy. There were ocassions when we had three generations of the same family who had never done a day's work between them, all attending the Jobcentre at the same time. They will all grumble that they don't get enough money to live on but their housing and council tax is all paid for them and many of them smoke heavily and drink too so they always have sufficient funds to accommodate those vices! You'd be surprised at how many of them also pull out the most up-to-date, all singing, all dancing mobile phones equipped with the latest ringtones, camera, video and internet as it is possible to cram into one gadget and they probably have the biggest flat screen televisions at home too! Yes, there are some on the fiddle, working on the side and not declaring their earnings but if staff have their suspicions it gets passed onto the fraud department for further investigation but sadly, not all are caught.
Despite every effort being made to prepare these people for work I used to feel that I was flogging a dead horse and I think many Jobcentre staff feel the same even now. The rewards came helping those who were desperate to get back into the workplace after being made redundant, sometimes after many years with the same firm or those with the right work ethic who would do anything and any job just to get off benefits.
Sadly, we don't have the numerous production industries that we once had because it's been cheaper for many British firms to move production overseas. That together with the use of robots in production has meant that there are just not the number of skilled and unskilled manual jobs that there once were and I wonder how long it will be before the country wakes up to the fact that service industries and hospitality just aren't enough.

Fed Up!

For the last couple of days I've had a lot on my mind and I have been extremely frustrated too. On top of everything I decided to write a blog today only to find that they are updating the interface. Well, I liked it the way it was even if I have been rather busy lately and not had the chance to blog as often as I would have liked.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to change but I just can't see the point of change for change sake. I found it quite hard to get my head round the new interface and there wasn't anything there to help much either. At least with this current set up I know what I'm doing and where to find things or change them to how I want them, but in all probablility I won't bother to do a blog in the future if they decide to bring in the updated interface.
This has completely put me off of the subject I was going to write about today so I'll have to go away, recoup my thoughts and do it another day!

A flock of my own!

For several years now there have been reports that some of our most popular garden birds are under threat due to loss of habitat and food sources. This includes our chirpy friend, the house sparrow whose numbers have taken a dive and nobody is sure why this is. Some of it may be due to loss of suitable places to nest, some is down to the loss of natural food sources and some is probably due to increasing numbers of predators such as sparrow hawks.
Well, I'm one of the lucky ones! I've been feeding birds in my garden for the past twenty six years or so and I think that successive generations of the house sparrow now have a built in 'instinct' to find their way to the bird table in my garden. I have always had a small flock of house sparrows as well as assorted other garden birds but this year the numbers have swelled tremendously. I think they have reared at least three lots of chicks so the numbers are now in the region of fifty or maybe more.
It's so relaxing and entertaining to watch them when they come to feed and as a flock they are extremely clever. There have been sparrow hawks in the area for several years and in fact I have even had them sitting on the top of the bird table in the past waiting for tea. The sparrows (I call them the 'Chip Chip' gang because of their chirpy call) always know when there is danger because they come over to the garden about a dozen at a time and conceal themselves in the honeysuckle then the next lot join them. They feed quickly and silently then all congregate in the honeysuckle before leaving in small gangs as they had arrived. I think they know where the sparrow hawk patrols and when he's about they all stay very quiet and hide themselves.
It's lovely on warm, sunny afternoons when there isn't any danger because they are far more relaxed as they come over to the garden to feed. Then they take it in turns to have a communal bath in the water lily tub and sit on the fence in the sun to preen themselves while drying off.
I feel honoured to have a flock of my own even if they do cost quite a bit in feed. Their favourites include some of Bill Oddie's mealworm crumble, mealworm suet treats and sunflower kernels as well as mixed seed in the feeders and their own peanut feeder.

My solution to the riots

I have made a list of suggestions that I think Parliament should seriously consider in response to the recent riots in our cities. We are currently far too soft and our police force have to pussyfoot around instead of getting in there and sorting out those who are hell bent on causing trouble. Some of the following could also be used as a deterrent for the drunken weekend revellers who puke, pee, brawl and fill our city centres with rubbish as well as for any future protest and demonstration that gets out of hand.

1. Anyone who has been arrested in connection with the aforesaid troubles should not expect the upstanding British public to cough up for them to have legal representation. Legal aid is a luxury they have waived their entitlement to because of their actions. Instead, the money should got towards the police wage bill.
2. If the perpetrators are under 16 they must stay at school until they can pass a minimum of 5 GCSE subjects at grade 'C' (even if it takes them the next twenty years). In order to finance this their parents will have to give up the fags and booze and get a job.
3. If they are under 16 and are able to read, write and speak properly, when they have passed the mandatory 5 GCSE's and leave school they will forfeit half their wages for the first twenty years to help re-finance the businesses and rebuild the homes they have destroyed by their actions.
4. Those above the age of 16 found guilty of any of the above crimes will automatically forego the right to any State benefits for life and will not receive a pension unless they have contributed to the pot in the way of taxes and National Insurance contributions for a minimum of forty years regardless of their current age. Those currently working will contribute half their wages for the next twenty years to the compensation kitty for the lives they have destroyed.
5. Anyone found guilty of the above crimes will automatically forfiet the right to social or council housing for life.
6. Those found guilty and given a prison sentence will be sent to 'no frills' prisons where they will be found hard, smelly work to do and not the current 5 star 'hotel' type prisons we have at the moment (these will all be changed to very basic prisons over the next 5 years).
7. Police will be given the powers to use as much force as is needed to arrest those involved in any civil disturbances in the future and any participants waive the right to to sue if they get a little bruise or bump in the process.
8. In the future, any rioter, protestor or demonstrator that injures an officer carrying out his duty to protect the public and their property, or in any way injures either a police dog or police horse will be detailed to scrub out the stables and kennels with a small nailbrush every weekend for the rest of their working lives.
9. Anyone arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour will have to spend every weekend for the next five years cleaning out public loos with a toothbrush.
10. Those caught discarding their fast food containers or cans in public places will spend every weekend litter picking in city centres for a minimum of ten years.

Summer frustration!

This year the weather has been somewhat upside down to say the least. We had a very warm spring which brought all the plants on in leaps and bounds so that they flowered well before the time they should have done but recently it has been rather cool, wet and windy so that other things such as the annual bedding plants and tomatoes have slowed right down.
One of the other problems that I've had with some of the annuals that I bought back in May is the compost. Being conscientious, I bought a bag of organic peat free compost but it is absolutely useless. There were great big lumps of unidentifiable stuff in it and all the plants grown in it have failed to thrive despite being given liquid feed regularly. The tomatoes do have fruits on them but they are very small compared to previous years so next year I will be going back to my usual compost.
So with the weather and the compost, it has been a rather disappointing summer so far. I had visions of being able to potter about and do dead heading then sit outside and relax in the shade on warm, sunny afternoons just watching the bees in the flowers, but that has only been possible on a few occasions. I'm hoping that September and October will be better where the weather is concerned because this year I have a lot of plants that need either digging out completely or dividing because they have got far too big. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

The fun of experimentation

I've been having problems with weight gain for a couple of years and no matter how hard I have tried to diet, nothing has shifted the extra pounds. Some of the gain is down to some of the medication that I have to take and having a metabolic disorder hasn't helped either.
Anyway, a couple of years ago my daughter Sarah gave me a book the she got when she attended Slimming World and she did lose a stone when she followed it so I had a read and thought I'd give it a go. I'm certainly not off to any weekly meetings because I don't want to be weighed in front of everyone and I can't afford it either so I'm going it alone at home.
I have found that this way of eating does actually work and I haven't felt hungry at all. It is called 'food optimising' and you have either 'red' or 'green' days. On a red day you can eat as much lean meat, chicken or fish as you want and you have to have what are called 'healthy extras'. On green days, you can eat as much pasta or rice as you want and as much fruit and vegetables or vegetarian dishes as you need to fill yourself up.
Eating this way, I have found that I eat less bread and fats but I can still have a varied and satisfying diet without the need to weigh or measure or count calories. As I love fruit and vegetables and enjoy vegetarian dishes anyway it really suits me. There are odd days when I mix things around but I have found that sticking to the main principles the diet is really working and I have already lost a stone. There's still a long way to go but browsing through cookery books I have come up with lots of inexpensive and tasty new dishes to try and I'm also experimenting with 'quorn' and TVP (textured vegetable protein made from de-fatted soya).
Of course summer is easy with a plentiful supply of vegetables and fruits but I will have to come up with some good alternatives for the winter. I'll let you know how it goes.

A good threat works wonders!

I'm usually a quiet, easy going person but there are a few things that really get me going and then I take the appropriate action.
However, there are some things that I can't really do much about apart from issuing a few stern warnings followed by a threat which is always seen through and it nearly always works.
I'm not talking about the actions of people here, nor animals or birds but plants. Yes, that's right, plants. There have been occasions when a plant hasn't done very well in the spot where I've put it so I move it to a more suitable part of the garden and nine times out of ten, the plant does very well.
But there's always one that does it's utmost to defy me. I have had plants that have flourished for a couple of years and then stopped flowering for no reason. I give them bucket loads of TLC coupled with some stern warnings and wait for the next flowering season, but still nothing happens. Then they get the threat. I tell them that if they don't flower next year then I will dig them up and plant something else and this has always worked for me. Last year Nellie Moser (a clematis plant that has large flowers with a dark pink stripe in the middle of the petals) only put out one flower that looked rather pathetic. I never had time to do much with it but as I was tidying it up in the autumn I did tell it that if it didn't flower this spring I would dig it up and put another one in it's place. This spring it was completely covered in flowers and was the most spectacular display it had ever given.
A few years ago Sarah and the grand-children gave me an orchid for Mother's Day and sadly, the last one they had given me did not survive despite me being very careful with it so I knew I would have to be extra careful with this one in order not to upset them. After the first lot of flowers finished I did what it said in the book and it did flower again but not very well. Since those flowers finished it has done nothing! I have fed it and cared for it as the book says and it has grown a couple of leaves in the last eighteen months but no flowers.
It was time for me to issue the threat and so I did. I told it that if I didn't see a flower very soon it would be banished to the coldest window sill this winter or even worse, I would put it outside. The threat of that has shocked it into producing three flower stems that are just beginning to poke out from the leaf base.
So next time you've got a plant not doing very well, threaten it with something horrible because it works for me!

New boys on the blog!

These two little chaps are the sons of Nutty Norah and are this season's youngsters. At the top is Jack in the Box getting his tea from the larder while his brother, Wee Willie is checking his pockets to see if he has left any nuts in there!

Jack is keeping his eye on his tea while Wee Willie demonstrates acrobatics as he tries to raid the bird's nut feeder.

Back bloggin' again!

After being 'off blog' for a while I am pleased to announce that I can now return to regular blogging. I'm not sure if the problems have been fixed completely but I have discovered a way around the main issue of not being able to sign in properly or comment on other blogs thanks to a friend of Emma's.
It seems that the problems don't arise if you disable the 'stay signed in' box so I'm going to give it a go.
Perhaps no-one has missed me (I am not sure how many people take a look) but from tomorrow 'normal service will be resumed' and the usual mixture of rantings and ramblings will be back!
See you soon!

A temporary break

As blogger is still not working properly I will not be posting until it is fixed. I have difficulty signing in and cannot comment on other blogs or even my own.

A fairly idle morning

Yesterday morning I had bought a couple of plants that I wanted to put in the garden especially as I knew the weather forecast was for heavy rain today but just as I was going to go out of the back door I noticed Nutty Norah, the mother squirrel was out there and she had her youngster, Jack in the Box, with her. But then I saw that there was another young one as well and I couldn't tell the two of them apart when they were chasing each other around.
It seems that all youngsters are much the same and Nutty Norah really had her hands full with these two mischievous little ones. They were having great fun playing and exploring while Nutty Norah was hanging upside down on the birds' wire peanut feeder. I had put the bird food on the table earlier and had included a handful of sunflower hearts which I know they also like. I thought the youngsters would like some peanuts because they were having problems finding out how to get them out of the peanut box so I went outside the back door and put a few on the path. As soon as I came in they came and helped themselves but to my surprise, Mum came down and started taking the others and then burying them around the garden!
I don't know how squirrels communicate but Nutty Norah got up on the fence and the two youngsters scurried up onto the bird table and started eating while Mum left the garden. After a good feed they were off chasing each other around again and Mum returned and sat on the fence watching them. When they had finished their game they too got up on the fence and all three had a good, long doze in the sun while I realised that I had in fact been enraptured by their antics for a full two and a half hours!

Time to stand and stare

For the last week or so I've been a bit stiff and unable to do as much as I would have liked but at least I was able to get out into the garden to do some dead heading even if it did mean that I had to take frequent long breaks. Anyway, one of the advantages of taking things slowly means that you have more time to observe the flowers and insects and everything else around the garden.
At the moment there are a lot of baby birds being brought to the garden to be fed and it's fascinating to watch the parents carefully making sure that each of their offspring get their turn and they appear to ignore the ones that chirp the loudest making them wait until it's their turn again. The young birds also watch what the parents do and where and how they get the food then it isn't very long before they have a go themselves.
When they have all been fed they are ushered to the tub on the patio and shown how to get a drink then stand on the water lily leaves to have a bath which is always a communal affair. Despite having a proper bird bath most of them prefer to bathe together in the water lily tub and then stand around the egde preening their feathers and drying off in the sunshine. A very social occasion!
Nutty Norah the squirrel has also been down with Jack in the Box and I must say he's got the hang of things now and doesn't fall off the ledge in the front of the nutbox and sits up on the lid instead of eating with his head in the box. I don't think I'll change his name though.
We have had some rain and are due more later this week and all the plants are growing like mad. We've already had a lot of strawberries from the few plants I have in the containers and the tomatoes are flowering so I can't wait for them to start showing fruits. My only regret is that I don't have the room to grow more plants and I wish I could have a vegetable plot too!

Jack in the Box

For the past three evenings I have had a new squirrel coming to the garden for his tea. I believe he may come very early in the morning with his mum but in the evening he arrives on his own and his behaviour is very amusing and well worth watching.
Last evening for instance, it took him ages to climb from the low roof at the end of the garden onto the fence and as I watched him from an upstairs window I thought he looked as if he was scared of heights! He dithered and went backwards and forwards several times as though he were looking for an easy way to get down onto the fence and once there he appeared to 'freeze' as if he was getting up courage to make the short jump over to the corner so that he could then climb down the trellis into the garden.
Eventually he makes it to the nut box but he obviously hasn't been paying attention to his mum because instead of sitting on the lid of the box once he's got his peanut, he sits on the narrow shelf in the front and so consequently loses his balance and falls off. After this had happened several times on Friday he tried to keep the lid open but it kept falling onto his head so he ended up sitting in the box. When he had finished his peanut he decided the only way to stop his head being bashed was to slide into the box and sit there but the problem came when he had finished. He twisted round and tried to climb onto the lid but got his back foot caught in the box!
Now he has his very own method of avoiding falling off or getting caught. He stands on the shelf in front facing the box, lifts the lid and sticks his head in and eats his peanuts with his head inside the box while balancing the lid of the box on his head so that it doesn't bash him.
He has repeated this last behaviour for the last three nights so I have decided to call him 'Jack in the Box'!

Another survivor rescued!

Late last year where my landlady had removed the garden at the side of the house, I found a rather strange plant squeezing up through the hardcore that she had had put down. I wasn't sure what it was because the leaves and their formation were not any that I recognised although it did resemble a bearded iris so I carefully extracted it and planted it in the back garden to see what would develop.
The plant settled in and survived the winter then started to grow when the spring came with some warm sunshine. It still looked like an iris but the leaves weren't quite thick enough so still I waited to see what it was. Two weeks ago it started to send up what appeared to be a flower spike so I waited eagerly for the flowers to appear and by now I knew it wasn't a bearded iris but it was something that I had never come across before.
Then on Friday, the first little flower began to open. It was a delicate yellow and rather small but still totally unfamiliar to me so I stuck my head in the books to see what it was. I went all the way through one of my wild flower books first, thinking it may be a wild flower that I hadn't encountered before even though I have a fairly extensive knowledge of our native species, but it wasn't there.
Eventually I found out what it was in the second of my horticultural books. It is a sisyrinchium striata and I have never seen one of these either in the local garden centre or any garden around here so I have no idea how it got to where I found it. Now it's thriving so I shall continue to nurture it because it deserves to be allowed to grow.

What's clever and too cute for it's own good?

The answer is a squirrel. We all know that the squirrel is a very intelligent creature and that it doesn't take long for it to work out how to get the peanuts even if they are at the end of an obstacle course!
The squirrels that visit my garden don't have to go through an obstacle course because I have been very kind and bought them their own peanut box which I screwed underneath the bird table so that they can eat in the dry if it's raining. They didn't take long to work out that they couldn't get the nuts through the perspex front but had to lift the lid and they've all done very well. That is until last spring when a young one was brought to the garden. This young squirrel was too busy exploring and did not watch his parents when they were feeding so when they had finished and were sitting on the fence in the sunshine, the youngster got up on the top of the box and he could see the nuts but couldn't get them. He started to vandalise the top of the little wooden box by tearing strips off it in his anger! Mum and Dad went off leaving him to it so I had to go outside to show him how it worked!
He scurried up the garden and peeped over the top of the fence watching me with interest. I showed him how to lift the lid then I put a peanut on the bird table. This was repeated several times and all the time he watched. When I came inside it wasn't long before he ventured down the path and climbed up onto the peanut box again. After looking all over it he gingerly put his head under the flap of the lid and found out that he could lift it up. Helping himself to a peanut, he sat on the little shallow shelf in the front but Mum and Dad usually sat on the top of the box because there is more room. Of course he fell off a couple of times and I tried not to laugh out loud from my vantage point in the kitchen but I thought he would soon learn and he did.
Yesterday morning however, I came downstairs at six thirty, put the kettle on to make a cup of tea and when I pulled open the curtains there was a squirrel hanging upside down on the metal bird feeder. They have done this before and as I watched this one it gripped the bottom of the feeder and started to twist it's body while gripping the top with it's back legs. After about ten seconds it gave one big twist and managed to unscrew the lid so that the metal basket fell to the floor scattering the peanuts. The squirrel jumped down with guilty look and surveyed the nuts on the ground.
I went outside in my pyjamas and picked up the basket and put most of the nuts back then hung the feeder back in it's place, all the while being watched by a very surprised squirrel peeping over the top of the fence!
Now it's found out how to do this I am keeping my fingers crossed that it won't make a habit of unscrewing the birds' peanut feeder.

Pretty birds but messy eaters!

I have found it so hard to get a good picture of my goldfinches because every time I pick the camera up when the kitchen door is open, the wind blows and the picture ends up out of focus. Also, I try hard not to move so as not to disturb them but that's quite hard to do when I'm trying to get the camera in the right position! Anyway, there is one above but hopefully I will be able to get more throught the summer.
One thing I must do is buy some more thistle seed tomorrow because it goes very fast indeed. Unfortunately, as much ends up on the ground as inside the birds and it's also starting to grow so I have to spend quite a bit of time pulling up the seedlings as I don't want a garden full of thistles!
The design of the feeder is not very good, I think it needs some sort of receptacle underneath because these little dears don't get down onto the ground to feed and the other birds don't seem to be very partial to thistle seed.

We've got babies!

For a week or so the squirrels, the local sparrows and the other birds have been almost been eating me out of house and home! This is probably because they are all rearing their young and have been busy with the new arrivals.
The first real sign that young had arrived was Mrs Squirrel who came over a couple of weeks ago looking very scrawny, with a sparse tail and coat. I noticed that she was coming over twice a day and she is now plumper and fluffier and it is very apparent that she is feeding young. Obviously the peanuts and other food she is enjoying have helped her back into condition. Mr squirrel usually comes a little while after she has been and sits on the fence digesting his dinner and occasionally the two of them arrive to dine together.
When I got back from the surgery this afternoon one of the sparrows had two of her young on the bird table. While she was busy stuffing food into the mouth of one of them the other was trying to feed itself but wasn't quite sure what to do with the seed. After five minutes or so she took them both to the bird bath where I thought she was going to show them how to drink but she chirped to them and to my surprise, they both got in and had a good bath! When they had finished, she took them up onto the fence to preen their feathers and dry out. So with the kids fed, bathed and preened she went off with them.
It won't be long before the magpies have their young out in the early morning giving them flying lessons. Last year as soon as the sun was up they would have them flying from one side of the road to the other encouraged by constant loud 'clacking' as encouragement which woke me up very early every morning well before my alarm was due to go off.
I love this time of year when there is so much going on in the garden and so many new 'families' visiting me.

Rain at last!

This year we have had very little rain and temperatures much higher than normal so spring has been over fairly quickly and summer has arrived about a month earlier than usual. This has meant that the roses have been flowering at the same time as the early clematis and wallflowers, the new tomato plants have shot up and the herbs are already filling their pots so I have been able to use them in the kitchen. I have also had to water the pots and garden so that the plants didn't die.
On Friday I picked up Amber, Eden's older sister, as she was going to spend the weekend with me because Eden was going to a party. We got home and as the evening went on the skies got very heavy with cloud but we didn't get any rain. Amber spoke to Sarah on the phone during the evening and they had had a thunderstorm where they live which is only about twenty five miles away.
When we went to bed it was still very warm so I left my bedroom window open and quite soon after I could hear the rain as it started. There is something good about the smell of warm rain after a long dry spell and the sound of water trickling down the drainpipe soon sent me off to sleep.
It rained steadily throughout the night and we had some prolonged showers on Saturday too. Not nearly enough really, but today I was surprised at how much some of the plants have grown after having a proper drink rather than the water from the tap!
We are supposed to have more showers this week but we have a long way to go to catch up and unless we get a lot more steady rain I think there could be shortages of some fruit and vegetables later in the year. The price of grains will also go up which has the knock on effect of increasing the prices of food. I'll have to start doing a few 'rain dances'!

Breaking out!

For some time I have had a rosemary growing in a large pot outside the back door and I know that it has been pot bound for a couple of years. As I have another smaller one in another pot that I want to plant in the garden, I thought I would move the larger one out the front.
I don't have a front garden but there is a triangular area beside the parking spaces in the home zone outside. At Christmas the workmen had to replace the kerb corners which were pointed and breaking and they put some rounded off corner slabs in their place. Of course, they destroyed the plants that were growing on the corner and there has been a bald patch there which looked unsightly so I thought the rosemary could have a new home there because it gets the sun all day and there is plenty of room for it to spread.
As the soil is so heavy I enlisted the help of a young neighbour who helped me by digging the hole. When it was large enough we tried to get the plant out of the pot but it was stuck fast and wouldn't even move a tiny bit. We tried everything and even used a large knife to cut down round the inside of the pot but the plant still refused to budge.
There was nothing for it but to break the pot and a couple of hefty whacks with the spade did the trick. The roots were packed so tightly around the pot that I was surprised it hadn't broken the pot and I think the only thing that stopped it was the thickness of the pot.
Eventuallt the rosemary was planted in it's new home and watered well in. Now it looks as if it has always been there and I hope that it will soon spread it's roots and grow bigger.

And then there were five!

I had quite a busy day today starting with a quick trip to the shops this morning. Because the royal wedding was on from 8:30am there weren't too many people around and a lot of the shops weren't opening until 1pm but at least Tesco and Wilkinson's were open so I managed to get the shopping I needed.
When I got home I made some coffee and sat down just in time to see the bride arrive at Westminster Abbey and she did look stunning. I got on with a few other odds and ends and after lunch I managed to give the car a good clean.
After I had finished I made a cup of tea and stood in the kitchen watching the birds from the window. There was the usual gang of sparrows pinging about and a goldfinch came over onto the thistle seed feeder. I watched him for a minute or so when another one appeared and then another. I rushed into the front room to get my camera and when I got back there were four of them.
Of course, when you want to do something quickly you suddenly find you have five unco-ordinated thumbs and cannot do the simple thing you were aiming to achieve. I carefully moved the net curtain to one side so that I did not frighten them and I was about to take the picture when another goldfinch appeared. I felt so honoured and pleased because I had only seen two at the same time before today and now there were five. I was so engrossed that I forgot to press the button on the camera!
Oh well, I will have to make sure the camera is in the kitchen and when I get a good picture I will put it on my blog.

Jolly good show!

My clematis 'Nelly Moser' didn't do very well last year and I had intended to prune and feed her but somehow, never got round to it. With the extremely cold weather we had in December I was sure she wouldn't do at all this year especially as the clematis next to her died off after coming out in leaf. I think lack of rain was the last straw.

But look at her now! This is the best display she has ever given me and there are still plenty of buds to open.

A bold rescue!

Today Eden and I started to make some hot cross buns so I decided that I would use a recipe from one of my cookery books. The mixture was made to the recipe but as soon as I turned out the dough to start kneading I could feel that it wasn't quite right.
The dough was quite dense and I had used some dried yeast that was fairly newly opened but the recipe had required the addition of an egg. Anyway, I carried on with the kneading and the dough still felt a bit too dense but it did spring back when pressed so I continued kneading for about eight minutes and then put it to rise in an oiled bowl.
The dough was supposed to double in size in two hours so we made some Easter biscuits while we waited but after the two hours the dough had remained very much unchanged. Not wanting to waste good ingredients I decided to divide the dough into two and put in a couple of small loaf tins while I mad some more mixture from my own recipe.
The dough still didn't rise so I cooked the loaves along with the hot cross buns and believe it or not, we tried some spread with butter when we had a cup of tea and it was really good so we now have some hot cross buns and some spicy fruit loaves too!

Pear and Almond cake

If you like pears, if you like almonds and you like cake.......then you'll like this!

6oz butter or margarine - 6oz caster sugar - 3 eggs - 6oz self raising flour - 2oz cornflour

2oz ground almonds - 2 teaspoons almond essence - 3 medium pears cored and chopped into chunks (conference are good for this) - flaked almonds for the top of the cake

1 Line a 7inch (18cm) deep cake tin and heat the oven to 160C (325F) Gas mark 4

2 Cream the butter and sugar until soft then add the eggs one at a time and mix well.

3 Add the sieved flour and cornflour, the ground almonds and the almond essence.

4 Peel and core the pears then cut into chunks and stir into the mixture until combined.

5 Pour mixture into the cake tin and make a small well in the centre.

6 Scatter the flaked almonds liberally over the top and bake in the centre of the oven for about one and a half hours (or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean).

7 Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack, remove the paper and leave until completely cold.

Rhubarb, rhubarb!

This week at the farmers' market there were a couple of stalls selling this season's fresh rhubarb. I love it when it first comes in and because the weather was so warm last weekend the sticks were a beautiful bright red colour so I bought enough to make myself a rhubarb crumble. Yesterday I stewed the fruit to make the crumble but it was such a pretty flourescent pink colour that I decided to let it cool and I had some last night with a large dollop of creme fraiche and it was absolutely delicious. A lot of people don't like it because it is a bit sharp if not selected and cooked properly and they don't realise how versatile it is either. I love it stewed, in a crumble or pie, as a fool or made into jam. The man from Cheddar was there too with the first fresh strawberries which he grows under polythene and because they were picked the day before they were full of flavour. He said the outdoor plants would be fruiting in about four weeks and I can't wait for them. Now that the weather is warming up we will soon be seeing fresh salads, carrots and beans etc. and the local asparagus will be harvested in a week or so. Then Eden and I will be able to have some with some salmon, hollandaise sauce and local baby new potatoes because it's one of her favourite meals.

What will they think of next!

Today on the main news there was a piece about some bright spark who has come up with the idea of doing something for someone else to spread happiness and also to make yourself feel better. Things such as buying the person in the queue behind you a cup of coffee especially if you don't know them. Well, I've been doing things for people for most of my life because that's the sort of person I am but it usually gets thrown back in your face or people start to take advantage of you and the people you do the acts of kindness for are never anywhere around if you need a little help. Sadly, this is the way a lot of people have become these days, they are only interested in themselves and don't care about anyone else. I've learned the hard way but I'm still unable to change so no doubt I will continue to do things for others but if I ever need anything done I know there will be no one around.

A real taste of summer

I managed to get this picture of the goldfinches on Friday and I know it isn't brilliant but it was done very hastily before they flew away. They're very skittish at the moment but I hope they will get used to me in the kitchen.

We have had some really warm weather this weekend and all the plants have started putting on loads of growth. In fact, I think if I were to stand and watch I am sure I would actually see them growing!

They just don't get it do they

Well the cuts to the public purse have begun and the world and his brother are already moaning about it but you can bet your sweet life that those moaning loudest are the ones that are better off than most. The biggest problem with a lot of people in tihis country is they feel they have an 'entitlement' to a good and comprehensive health service, good education for their children combined with tax credits and benefits and then a darned good pension when they retire whether they have worked or not. But what they forget is that these goodies have to be paid for and they don't grow on trees! There are a lot of people who will never be able to work because of disabilities or illness and yes, we have to support these people because they did not choose their life to be like this and in many cases a lot of them would work if they could. On the other hand there are those who have skived all of their lives and claim they are unable to work for various reasons such as a 'bad back' which doctors are unable to disprove. Hopefully, the new tests will weed a lot of these people off benefits and onto jobseeker's allowance. These people will probably pay very little into the pot during their lifetime, living on benefits and getting their housing paid for but they will still expect a pension just the same as the person who has got up early every day and worked for the whole of their life, some even doing more than one job at a time just to pay the bills. Wake up everyone! If you want to enjoy a health service, policing, rubbish collections, free education, a good pension etc. then you've got to pay for it.

A visit to the 'slow food market'

Every Wednesday I shop for fresh vegetables, meat and eggs etc. at the local farmer's market but on the first Sunday of every month there is a 'slow food market' in the same place. All of the producers at this market come from within a 50 mile radius and quite a few of them are at the farmers' market too. I haven't been to the slow food market for some time but I went today because one of the fishmongers at the farmers market used to sell different kinds of wet fish such as wolf fish, coley and ling but as he hadn't caught these fish or done any preparation to them the managers of the market stopped him from selling these on a Wednesday. The other week when we were talking he said that they often have these kinds of wet fish at the slow food market so I thought I would go over to buy some to put in the freezer rather than use the supermarket as they don't always sell fish that has been ethically caught. The smells that assailed my nostrils and made my mouth water when I got there were quite out of this world. A lot of the stalls were cooking and selling their own produce and there was everything on sale from paella to organic bacon rolls and burgers and even Italian style meatballs in ciabatta. It's a fantastic opportunity to speak to the producers of the foods to find out where and how it's produced, just the same as at the farmers' market. I got some fish and also some sausages and bacon and I will certainly be going again next time. If there's a market like this near you it's certainly worth avisit and I think we should all support our local farmers and food producers.

Making me smile

Spring is most definitely in the air as far as the birds are concerned. They are all in their very best and cleanest plumage and they come to the garden in pairs, except for the sparrows who come in their usual communal gang. I am now honoured by the regular visits of pairs of goldfinches, great tits, blue tits, blackbirds, hedge sparrows and magpies. There are also occasional visits by wrens and a robin (I haven't seen his 'wife' yet but I am sure she must be around somewhere). Because they all look so splendid I have cleaned the kitchen windows so that hopefully, I can get some photos of the goldfinches because they are really beautiful, particularly when the sun shines on them while they are on the feeder. My fingers are crossed for a few opportunities this week.

What a rip off!

A couple of months ago I bought Eden a pair of ankle boots that were half price in Primark's sale so I only paid about £7.99p for them. When she came over at the weekend she said that the heels were wearing down a bit so I looked at them and said that it was only in one place so I would get some metal segs fitted when we went into town. Although they were very cheap, she likes them a lot and they do look very smart. As we only have one shoe repairer, Timpson's, in the centre I went in there and told the man what I wanted. He took the boots and put a ticket on them but said that they needed full heels and it would be £12.95p and take an hour but they also needed the soles done too so that would be £20 altogether. I said I did not want the soles done as the boots had cost less than £8 and as I was not going to hang around for an hour he could give me the boots back and I would get them done in the week. I knew Eden would be disappointed so in the end I paid up the £12.95p and he said they would be ready in 40 minutes. We went off to do some shopping and came back and collected the boots. I will never use that shop again because he would not give me what I originally asked for, he was very rude and his main aim seemed to be to make as much money as possible from every customer. 'Customer service' and the customer always being right just did not mean anything to him.

Making the most of it

We have had some very warm weather the last couple of days and have been lucky enough to have had sunshine too, but the weathermen say the warmth won't last because the temperature will be back to normal at the weekend.
Some of the plants have grown really fast during this summery spell. I've got a couple of astilbes that had shoots just showing above the ground on Monday and they are now at least three inches high and one of my strawberry plants has flowers open on it and a couple of my climbing roses have buds too.
Even some of the flowering cherry trees across the road have broken into flower, probably because they have been sheltered by the buildings whereas those on Castle Green that are out in the open are still some way behind. Unusually, there are even cowslips open on one bank by the ambulance station and I can remember that we didn't see these in flower until May when I was young.
All this fine weather made my feet head into the garden centre this afternoon and I bought some marjoram and oregano because mine are well and truly pot bound so I decided to replace them this year.

Destroying beauty

It's very sad that there are a lot of people in our society today who have no idea how to behave and show respect for anyone or anything. This morning I decided to go out for a 'power walk' because I need to get more exercise in so I thought I would go around Castle Green.
I know the park keeper fairly well and the other workers who spend a lot of time keeping the park free of litter and tending the plants and trees so that it is a pleasant place to go. This morning however, I was shocked to see that someone had trashed a large area of beautiful daffodils and narcissi behind the children's playground. These mindless vandals just don't know what beauty is and neither do they appreciate the hours of work it took to plant the bulbs so that the display could be enjoyed by everyone. The cost also comes out of our council tax but then they probably don't pay any so it wouldn't bother them.
I'm not sure if there are any cctv cameras around that part, I will have a look next time, but there were three cycle mounted police riding around so maybe their presence will prevent the vandals from trashing any other areas of these spring flowers.

Ooooops!

Yesterday I decided to do some baking mainly because I needed some more bread so while it was rising, I decided that I would also make a quiche to have with some salad later.
Now I must admit that my pastry always turns out very short and crumbly and I have to take great care especially when rolling it out so that it doesn't break everywhere. Instead of using my usual recipe, I pulled out one of my oldest cookery books and used their recipe for shortcrust pastry which is mixed with water (I usually use an egg).
As I find it difficult to rub the fat into the flour because of arthritis, I make my pastry in the food processor. Once it had formed into a ball of dough I took it out, put it in some cling film and chilled it in the fridge for an hour while I made a sponge. I took the pastry from the fridge and carefully rolled it out and lined the flan tin but it was still breaking up so I patched it, pricked it all over with a fork and gave it a good brushing with some beaten egg then returned it to the fridge for about twenty minutes before putting in the oven.
When it had baked, I removed it but to my dismay the bottom had cracked. I knew the filling would leak through the cracks so I removed it from the tin and put it in a glass pie dish then put in the peppers, onions and cheese that I had prepared for the filling and poured in the beaten eggs and milk then baked it.
It cooked alright but when I took it out of the oven it looked nothing like a quiche as the filling had gone through the pastry so I ended up with the pastry case in the middle of the quiche filling instead of around it. Never mind, it tasted good but I'm just glad that no one was coming to dinner!

A spell of rain

We have had some lovely spring weather this week but and it has been dry for some time so today we had rain for a change. It was very wet this morning when I went out to do some shopping but luckily it hasn't been too cold. This afternoon everything has dried up and we've had some sunshine but we are supposed to get a frost tonight.
It's strange the way the weather affects the behaviour of our wildlife at this time of year too. The birds were singing their hearts out this morning, probably because the worms are coming closer to the surface because I saw Mrs Blackbird tossing the woodchip around in the garden and I think she may even be nesting in a small eunoymous bush by the side of the patio. It's a very dense bush up against the wall but it's only about four feet high. The wood pigeons and seagulls were busy on Castle Green where they have given the grass it's first cut and they were busily turning the cuttings over.
The squirrel came over this afternoon, had some peanuts and then stretched out upside down on the house wall at the end of the garden. He was getting some sunbathing in now that there's some warmth in the sun.

Trying something new

Yesterday I needed to bake some bread because I gave up buying it when I retired and decided to try something different for a change. I regularly bake wholemeal and basic white bread so now it was time to really go for it and as I had bought some granary flour, I made a granary loaf.
Although I used my own basic dough recipe I was totally unprepared for what happened when I began to knead the bread. Because it has whole toasted grains in the flour, when you initially start the kneading process the seeds pop out all over the kitchen, including the floor. The only way to deal with this was to change my kneading technique which meant swishing the dough round after the stretch to gather up the wayward seeds. The bread, once baked was absolutely delicious so I will definitely make that a regular addition to the larder.
Another bread that I had never made is pitta bread so I had a go at this too. In fact I cheated because I used my easy pizza recipe and divided the dough into six portions. Trust me, if you ever make your own pitta I can guarantee that you will never buy the pathetic, soggy white stuff from the supermarket again. My pittas puffed up beautifully and were still like that when I put four of them into the freezer for another day. The ones I had for supper were easy to fill with the salad, hummus and lamb koftas because they were so easy to split. I have never found it easy to split the ones from the supermarket. Definitely a couple for me to try when Eden comes over!

Worth waiting for

I went out into the garden today and took some pictures of the spring flowers. Although we always find winter drab and dull it does only last a few months but the signs of spring seem to compensate for the gloomy months.

If you've got really good eyesight you might just be able to make out a bee in the lower right hand corner of the picture of the camelia. He's snoozing on a leaf that's a bit shrivelled on the tip!

Disappointments and pleasures

Yesterday as I made my way into town to do some shopping I had to make a detour around the homestore car park because the tree surgeons were working on some of the trees. I thought they were pollarding some of them again as they have done in the past but I was gutted when I came back to find that they had sawn down the pussy willow (or pussy whistle as Eden called it one day). It is such a shame because the buds were just beginning to open so now I won't be able to enjoy the show anymore in the spring.
It was an eventful morning too because when I got to the checkout in Tesco one of the wheels came off my shopping trolley and rolled around the floor. I caught it and put it back on but it came off for a second time. The cashier waited patiently for me to fix it and asked me if I would like some bags 'in case'. I told her that hopefully the weight would keep the wheel on until I got home and if I had further problems I could always try the RAC especially as I had just paid my subscription! Anyway, I got home without any more problems and when I checked the wheels they were both fine and wouldn't come off so the kick I gave them in Tesco obviously worked.
Then last night I tried a couple of the aduki bean burgers that I made last weekend and put in the freezer. They can be cooked from frozen in the oven and although I enjoyed them with some salad there was a little something missing so I will tweak the recipe until I get it exactly how I want it.
Today I've spent a lot of time reading but as it was quite pleasant this afternoon I went out into the garden and watered my pots with the pansies in and also watered the herbs. I think I will have to get some new herbs this year because mine seem to be very pot bound. The hyacinths have opened their flowers this week and the wonderful perfume fills the air now that it is a bit warmer. There is also a bud showing on one of my climbing roses but I noticed there are a few greenfly on it too so I will have to give it a squirt with the washing up liquid.

Driven by greed

There has been a lot of discussion about changes to public sector pensions and once again, they're all complaining. They will have to pay more and work longer but a teacher interviewed on the news tonight was whining that he would have to consider whether or not he would remain a teacher because he wanted his pension to be based on his final salary. When they showed the amount he would get I was shocked because it will take me more than ten years to receive the equivalent of one year of his pension.
This person is also of an age that he would have received a free university education because women like me worked hard from the day we left school and paid a lot of tax so that he could enjoy his free education giving him the opportunity of a well paid career with a lot more holiday than most of us get.
I am sure I am not the only retired lady who has often worked more than one job at a time in order to pay the rent and bills because women have never been paid as much as men and right up to the day I retired I was still not receiving the same salary as male colleagues (some of whom did very little). After working all my life and paying taxes and National Insurance, I have never been in the privileged position of being able to buy my own house or take holidays, either here or abroad so I suggest these greedy people thank their lucky stars.

Patience pays off

Most people think I'm eccentric, which is true, although there were one or two people who thought I was completely mad last year about October because I bought a thistle seed feeder and some thistle seed because I had seen a goldfinch in the area.
My garden is a small enclosed backyard but I was confident that if I filled the feeder and hung it on the pole with the seed and nut feeders, the goldfinches would see it and come to feed. Someone pointed out to me that they would need very good eyesight to see the thistle seed because it's so small, but I kept faith and waited.
I'm not sure if the goldfinches migrated this winter with the very cold weather that we had in December because I didn't see any after I put the feeder out, but I do know that they always appear in the spring on the homestore car park and my patience was rewarded yesterday morning. There in the sunshine was a beautiful goldfinch on the feeder so I'm hoping that now he knows where his favourite food is he'll bring along his friends.

International Women's Day

Today is supposed to be International Women's Day and there are quite a few celebrities trying to improve the profile and worth of all women not just here, but in all countries.
We've been smothered for far too long by men, suffering in more ways than I can write about here and it hurts their ego so much if any woman is proven to be better than them at anything.
We all need to remember that men are the ones who have caused nearly all wars and all war crimes.
A few years ago on International Women's Day, I was awarded a certificate in this area for work I had done to help improve the community and there was a special reception for people to attend to receive their certificates which were to be presented by our local MP, a woman. Unfortunately I did not receive the invitation until the day before so I could not get time off work to attend. Eventually the certificate was pushed through the door a few weeks later and it was folded in a small envelope. The best part was that the MP had not even bothered to sign it so I tore it up and put it in the bin. This is a good example of just how much women are valued!

Do they need our help?

On Saturday afternoon I took the opportunity to tidy up the garden in anticipation of the slow arrival of spring. There was quite a bit of dead stuff which I disposed of and I got rid of the weeds too. I've never been able to work out why weeds grow quicker than the garden plants but anyway, they've been pulled up. The garden looked very tidy.
When I got up early yesterday morning I noticed that an intruder had been in the garden and left footprints on the newly smoothed soil and had also caused some other damage. I have had this problem a couple of times in the past when my garden was used as an 'escape route' by a teenager round the corner when he wanted to get out without his mother knowing. He had to get over several walls before jumping off a six foot high fence onto my garden and then he had to scale yet another six foot trellis (which he broke along the top) in an effort to get out onto the street. I thought he was up to his tricks again so I rang the police and reported it and asked them to get one of our local team of PCSO's to call in to see me either yesterday if they were working, or today.
This morning, I discovered one of my neighbours around the corner had been burgled on Saturday night while she was staying at her mother's and whoever was responsible had broken in through the back. I contacted the police again this afternoon to say that nobody had been in touch with me yet and that I also had some more information that may prove useful with regards to the burglary. I'm still waiting for someone to get in touch with me but I'm beginning to wonder why I bother.

Needs a bit of 'fine tuning'

For a long time I've been wanting to make some vegetarian aduki bean burgers because the illustration in the cookery book makes them look so nice. They do take quite a time to make so this morning I decided to try them as I had assembled all the ingredients required.
I cooked the rice and while it was draining and cooling I cooked the vegetables and the smell that filled the kitchen was wonderful. After the veggies were cooked, I added all the other ingredients and then put the mixture in the fridge because it has to chill thoroughly.
I left the mixture in the fridge for a couple of hours and then started to make the burgers. As I wasn't going to eat them today I needed to cook them and then once cold, freeze them. The mixture was quite wet and didn't hold together too well even though I had followed the recipe to the letter.
Eventually they were all cooked, cooled and frozen. I did try one when it was cooked and it was delicious but when I make them again I will probably adjust the quantities of some ingredients, add some breadcrumbs and also do a triple dip (flour, egg then polenta) before cooking so that they hold together better.
When I get it right I'll let you know!

Scaaaary!

I went into Tesco Metro this morning to get some shopping and I needed a green pepper because I have a recipe for aduki bean burgers that I want to try out this weekend and the recipe calls for a green pepper. They only had red peppers loose and the alternative was a pack of three peppers. They had several large trays of these stacked on the floor and the top two trays had only red and yellow peppers in them and the sell by date was for tomorrow. There was one green pepper in one of the bags but it was too pathetic and small for me, besides, I knew I wouldn't be using the two red peppers until Monday.
Looking through the gaps to the trays below I could see there were green peppers in most of the bags underneath but the trays were too heavy for me to lift to get to them. It's always the way when you need help, there's never anyone around so I thought I would get the rest of the shopping and then find someone who could lift the trays up for me.
Eventually I tracked down a young man who had just wheeled in a trolley to fill up the carrots so I politely asked him if he would move the trays because I wanted a green pepper. He pointed out that there was a green pepper in the top tray. I told him that it was too small and besides I wouldn't be using the red peppers until next week and as the sell by date was tomorrow I would really like one of the bags below. He stood there quietly looking at me and trying to stare me down but I gave him 'the look'. He soon changed his mind and swiftly moved the top trays so I could get my green pepper!
(If you want to know what 'the look' is, it's one I use when people don't want to co-operate so I instantly shrink them down to a half inch high and give them shivers down their spines and they soon do as requested!).

Rescue violets!

I used to have a beautiful garden at the side of the house which the wicked landlady had flattened by a digger some fifteen months ago because she obviously doesn't like beauty. It broke my heart and a great many people were very upset because a lot of visitors used to come just to take pictures of the flowers which I enjoyed planting and tending and now it looks like a desert.

As I was taking some shopping to the old man around the corner today, I spotted something sparkling in the sunshine despite the bitterly cold wind and there, under the wall was a patch of violets which had survived despite being scraped up by the digger and having rubble packed down hard over the top of them.

These little flowers looked so beautiful that I decided to 'rescue' them so that I can admire them in my front room. After all, it would be awful if the wicked landlady came along with a can of weedkiller, wouldn't it?

What will they tell us is bad for us next?

Now scientific or medical 'experts' are telling us that in order to avoid bowel cancer and many other forms of cancer we should reduce our consumption of red meat to 75 grammes a day. That means three rashers of bacon or two sausages. Perhaps someone should point out that our very early ancestors, the cavemen, had to run after and kill their meat and as they didn't farm vegetables or fruit, their diet consisted mainly of large quantities of raw red meat. They didn't own fridges or freezers so what was not eaten immediately probably went off but still got eaten if their hunting hadn't been successful. I know they didn't reach ages to match ours today but nevertheless I am sure that they didn't all die in huge numbers from bowel cancer either.
The problem with these experts is that they latch on to something and then tell us that it's bad for us but very often another lot of experts come up with other studies that have the opposite opinion so that we don't really know who to believe. Perhaps they haven't heard of the rules that the majority of us live by and that's: 'all things in moderation' and 'a little of what you fancy does you good'.
As for me, I don't have any plans to turn vegetarian even if I do have a couple of days each week when I don't eat meat and NOTHING will make me give up the occasional bacon sandwich or roast beef dinner!

A taste of spring

Today the weather was almost springlike although the wind was still a bit chilly and fresh. We did have a few sunny spells which is always enough to give the heart a lift. Now the birds are really pairing up in earnest and looking for places to nest especially the little house sparrows who are beginning to investigate possible new homes under the tiles of the houses around the corner. When they find something they think might be suitable they sit on the guttering chirping their hearts out.
The dunnocks, robins and blackbirds were also singing their best songs on Castle Green this morning when I walked around and the daffodils are starting to flower too. I think they are coming into flower because they are in a sheltered spot on a slope under the trees, yet only three weeks ago there was hardly a sign of them. There is a large mahonia bush in full flower there too and it's delicious smell always reminds me of lily-of-the-valley.
In the garden the crocuses were wide open and a few dwarf daffodils are coming into flower as well. The pansies have recovered from being frozen solid when we had the snow just before Christmas and the perennials are starting to show green shoots so I cant't wait to get out there to do some tidying up. I don't think it will be this weekend though because the weather is supposed to remain changeable.

Ready to work out

Getting a bit older does have it's downsides and one of them is the fact that things get a bit stiffer and although I'm shrinking, the floor seems to be a bit further away if I drop anything!
Well, I have decided to halt all this silly business and address the problems. I certainly cannot think of anything worse than not being able to get my feet up high enough to be able to give myself a pedicure and polish my toenails when the summer comes and I want to wear sandals. Perhaps this seems a bit decadent for someone of my age but I don't like feet, especially naked ones in sandals on me, so I like to wear a pretty shade of pearly pink on my toenails so they look like little shells on the end of my toes! (And before you say it, false ones are definitely OUT!).
So, I hear you ask, how is an arthriticky overgrown teenager going to address the stiffness issues especially as we aren't born with oil holes in every joint.
Simple, I'm going to start some bendng and stretching exercises which I can do in the privacy of my front room and in a very small space. The trouble is that if I let things get too stiff I won't be able to do the gardening and the arthritis will eventually take over, so in order to hang on to some degree of flexibility I have decided to make a start.
If you find yourself walking past my front window please don't stop and stare, or worse still, start laughing!

Woohoo! A judge has seen the light!

On the 11th February on my blog I wrote about the prisoners demanding the right to vote and also wanting to sue the government for thousands of pounds of compensation because this had been denied despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
On Saturday I read in the paper that the prisoners had appealed and the High Court judge turned down their appeal and ruled that those who had appealed should repay the costs which would amount to £78 each. This court case cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds and he has decided that they should now pay that money back and very right too. It's about time we stood up to the European bullies because that's exactly what they are. The British public has never given them a mandate to tell us what we should be doing.
Now we need to fight back against all the ridiculous rules that are made about our food, such as not being able to buy certain types of seeds for vegetables and fruits, not being able to buy bent cucumbers and mis-shapen strawberries etc. Then there are the rules around farming and fishing practices which we have to adhere to but other countries seem to be allowed to ignore.
I say, let's get out of Europe. We are an island race and we should shut the doors and stay that way.

Petitions do work

Recently I have signed a few petitions on line to help protect various things that I feel very strongly about and it seems that they have been quite successful.
The government has now decided to do a U turn on selling the woodlands and forests which is our heritage and should be kept intact for future generations. One of the others was to gain more funding and protection for the RSPB campaign to protect our future by the encouragment of wildlife friendly farming and this too has been successful so far but will be ongoing too.
Then there is the Big Fish Fight which is to address the scandal of our fishermen being compelled to throw back perfectly good fish that they have caught above their quota (the fish are dead) because of stupid rules and regulations laid down by the European Union.
As long as people keep fighting for these causes then we can make governments change their minds.

A special comedy performance

Following the bad weather that we've had lately I have been scrubbing out and cleaning the birds' seed feeders. This is something that I do regularly but I haven't been able to do them since about November.
We have had a couple of good early springlike days so I grabbed the opportunity and finished the last one today. All through the winter I have been putting extra food on the ground so that the blackbirds, hedge sparrows and wrens could feed and they have also had a very varied diet. This has of course, been enjoyedby the squirrels as well. With spring being in the air I get a pair of collared doves that come down and I really don't mind these as they have perfectly polite manners and don't make a mess but unfortunately, if the wood pigeons see them in the area they come down too.
The wood pigeons are almost as big as turkeys and not only do they scoff more than their fair share of food, they do alarmingly big poops which I get stuck on my shoes and then it gets trodden inside, yuk! So, I always rustle the net curtains or open the back door in order to shoo them off and this is something the squirrels and little birds have got used to so they soon return for their food. This morning after I had put out the rubbish for the bin men, I came through to the kitchen only to see about six of these pigeons in the garden so I started to rustle the net curtains but this time they didn't take a lot of notice so I opened the back door and started to wave my arms about and jumped up and down like a live scarecrow!
The squirrels couldn't believe their eyes and sat up on the top fence rolling about with laughter while the sparrows and blackbirds lined up along the roof watching the show and I feel sure they were also having a chuckle.
Anyway, it worked because the pigeons didn't return and I think the squirrels have nominated me for an oscar too!

Cooking for the rich

Although I enjoy watching some of the cooking programmes on television, because I get a few ideas and tips from them, I can't help wondering what planet some of these celebrity chefs actually live on. Not only do they primp and ponce their dishes, drizzling drops of sauce here and there, smearing pureed vegetables round the edge of the plate but they handle the food with their fingers and I would be surprised if it's still hot by the time it gets to the table! I am sure that people would be left feeling very hungry too especially when you see some of the portion sizes so it wouldn't be a satisfying meal for a lot of active people.
The other thing that often annoys me is the number of ingredients they use, the amount and the cost. I'm sure they think everyone can just walk into a butcher's and buy a lump of fillet of beef which would cost around twenty pounds, or a piece of monkfish which would cost the same. Then there's the Parmesan cheese that they all seem to have in an enormous chunk weighing around five pounds, so big that they've got a job to hold it.
Wine, marsala and other types of alcohol are thrown in in very large quantities and if they recommend wine to go with whatever they've cooked as they do on Saturday Kitchen, the bottles usually cost in the region of eight to ten pounds a bottle or more. They don't make do with the plonk ordinaire that most of us can afford.
It surprises me that the cookery programmes are as popular as they are, especially as most people seem to buy the ready made meals and families rarely sit down together to eat these days. I'm just waiting for the day they put on a series of cookery programmes for people who live alone and have to manage on a very tight budget. Perhaps I should volunteer!!!!

No punishment

There's been a lot of press coverage over the last few days about prisoners being given the right to vote by the European Court of Human Rights. The court was formed over sixty years ago and is very out of date.
Why should our government be told what to do by some over paid, obsolete fuddy duddies who haven't got a mandate from the British people and are seen by ordinary, honest folk as the interfering busy bodies that they are. What about our human rights then?
If someone is given a prison sentence in this country it's like putting them in a five star hotel. They have access to anything they want, their own televisions, gyms, libraries etc. all they have to do is ask. There have even been cases where prisoners have been granted legal aid to sue prison officers because they've spoken to them in the wrong way and these cases are very expensive to the taxpayer.
I don't think prisoners should be given the right to vote regardless of how long or short their sentence is. They have committed a crime and have been sent to prison as a punishment although this seems to be the soft option. Many of them are far better off than most pensioners in their late seventies and eighties who struggle to manage on a pittance. heat their homes in the winter or even eat a proper diet. These pensioners worked hard for their country, paying National Insurance and income taxes yet there are many prisoners who have never worked or contributed anything to this country but they are kept in luxury at our expense, receive free health care and will probably receive housing benefit and Jobseeker's Allowance when they are released.
Should they be given the right to vote? Definitely not.

e-mail to Tesco

Dear Tesco

I hope you didn't delete this e-mail when you saw who sent it especially as I am ususally complaining about the lack trolleys and poor customer service in your metro store.
This time I want to thank you because this morning when I went into your metro store there was a stack of nice new trolley baskets just waiting to be used. On many occasions in the past I have had cause to complain to you particularly because you haven't done very much to improve the shopping experience of the numerous 'little old dears' like me who visit your store every day to do our shopping. We are, after all, your real bread and butter customers because as I have pointed out to you and your customer service manager in the past, we don't just pop in at lunchtime for a sandwich and a bottle of pop, we do our main shopping there because it is the nearest supermarket.
So now we no longer have to struggle around juggling our shopping trolleys, baskets and walking sticks, hurting our poor old creaky backs and joints in order to do our shopping. It did cross my mind that perhaps you did realise I meant it when I said I would sue you for compensation if I injured myself in you store because you had failed to provide adequate and correct equipment for me to do my shopping. Or you might have overheard me discussing an alternative to some of your cashiers recently when I suggested that you might employ a team of very strong, handsome young men to stand at the door ready to accompany us around and carry our baskets for us. But perhaps you thought this would detract your checkout ladies from their duties, at least they wouldn't have been late for work. Besides, men get plenty of opportunities to look at attractive young ladies so why shouldn't little old ladies have the pleasure of looking at a few hunky blokes. Anyway, our arthritis would ensure their safety!
While you are reading this perhaps you would also consider stocking some shrimp paste in your store. It is a key ingredient in a lot of Eastern dishes and is used by Ken Hom and Rick Stein as well as several Michelin starred chefs on the telly. Other supermarkets use TV celebrity chefs in their advertising to encourage people to buy their products but I don't need them because I am a woman who knows what she wants and I like to cook everything from scratch. Sadly, I have a lot of recipes that I am unable to try because I haven't been able to get any shrimp paste but well done for stocking the low fat coconut milk, even if I can't use it until I find some shrimp paste.
I will be checking to see if you get the shrimp paste in stock in the future and if I find anything else I think you should know about, or improvements that could be made, I will certainly keep you informed.

Yours etc.

Getting impatient

The weather has been very mild for the last week or so, despite the strong winds, which has got everything on the move in the garden and me jumping up and down with sheer frustration. The early flowering clematis is showing fresh green shoots as are the honeysuckles, the crocuses are just beginning to flower but we need some sunshine to give them that last encouragement.
The birds and squirrels are pairing up while I'm stuck inside gazing longingly out of the window because I want to be out there pruning the roses and clearing out the dead stuff from last year. What's stopping me? I've not been feeling myself for a few days and the arthritis is giving me hell especially in my shoulders and hands. Not only that, every time I think I'll get out there for a half hour or so it starts raining!
Every February when there is a bit more light I start to feel restless because I want to get hands on in the garden even though it's only tiny. This wakes me up and I feel much better pottering about in the fresh air and I can't wait for spring and for everything to start growing. The weather forecasters are hinting that next week could be colder but if it's dry, I will definitely be out there, arthritis or not!

Why are men so useless at designing?

This morning I decided to clean the cooker including the large and small ovens. The top is done every time I use it but the ovens are only done about once a month. Because I have OCD it means I am very fussy about some things and a mucky oven is one of them, mucky being a few splashes of fat on the door and floor of the oven.
It's easy to tell this cooker was designed by a man, one who has never had to clean a cooker or oven, especially as extra long arms are required to reach the back of it. I only bought this one when I retired about eighteen months ago and as this was the only one that fitted in the space I have (the others were all too big), I had no choice. This one is made by Hotpoint and I would certainly never recommend anyone to buy one. It is impossible to clean properly in the grill/small oven compartment because there is no removable part above the element which means that if fat splashes above the element it burns on and sets off the fire alarm at very regular intervals. The enamel coating is black which also makes it difficult to see whether it's clean or not.
The large lower oven isn't any better either as it's so close to the floor that poor old dears like me not only have difficulty getting down to clean it, but again you require arms that are three inches longer than normal in order to reach the back of it and there are too many difficult little 'out of reach' places where grease builds up. How I long for the last cooker I had which was a Creda Hallmark and was a much better design altogether. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty close and I had owned it for twenty five years before I bought this new one. I wish I had been able to keep the other one but the insulation in the doors had worn out and it didn't retain heat very well. I must admit I was very sad to see it go and the man who took it off to dispose of it remarked that it 'looked brand new' and couldn't believe how long I had owned it. He said I had obviously looked after and loved it and he was right.
The other thing I have problems with, that was also designed by a man, is my car. I love it to bits but when it comes to cleaning the inside of the front windscreen I need arms at least six inches longer in order to reach all of it. When I try, the bumpy bits that ladies have sticking out in front get squashed on the steering wheel and honk the horn and I haven't yet found a way to avoid this! As it is, I have to stand on a little stool so that I can reach to clean the top of the car and the front outside windscreen but this isn't too much of a problem.
So you guys that are into designing domestic appliances and cars, just try giving the darned things a good clean by hand and do it without stretching before you finish the design so that short, arthriticky little old dears like me don't have so much of a problem when we clean things. Just remember, our standards are probably much higher than yours and we've been cleaning things all our lives because they last longer when they are looked after properly.

The biggest losses

The latest television reports and pictures from Egypt are very disturbing, not only for the violence and loss of life, but for the whole population and their history, both current and ancient. The problems caused in countries where there is a dictator, tyrannical ruler or despot in power have a detrimental affect on more than the people who live in these countries when war or violent protests break out.
Ancient history and historical sites can be lost forever not to mention the loss of wildlife. You only have to look at what Saddam Hussein did in Iraq when he dammed the rivers so that the marshes dried up when he tried to get rid of the Marsh Arabs that had lived there in peace for thousands of years. Fortunately people are trying to re-instate the marshes which it is thought, used to be The Garden of Eden and was also an important wildlife refuge, but the area is so large it will take a great many years and the co-operation of Iran and Turkey to stop damming the rivers in their countries too.
There are so many priceless sites of early Egyptian civilisations that could be lost, just as other ancient sites have been lost all around the middle eastern countries due to wars, civil unrest and rulers who were hell bent on power over their people, money and the destruction of their history. The loss of such treasures and ruins has a knock on effect for the people of these countries when they lose the tourists who bring money and employment to them.
It's very sad when the people of these countries don't stop to think about protecting their inheritance for future years and even worse when some of them think that looting and wanton destruction of priceless antiquities is alright.
While I can fully understand that they want to rid themselves of a tyrant, I also feel very sad about the very long term effect and cost that any civil unrest or war will have for them and future generations.

Ridiculous money

This week on the sports news they have been talking about transfer fees for footballers which are now so high that they're obscene. Nobody is worth the millions of pounds that clubs pay for them and the players obviously have no conscience either when they accept wages that would make any ordinary person's eyes water.
I'll bet they don't give a thought to the fans who could never expect to earn the money they receive for one year in the whole of a working lifetime. I worked for over forty years and didn't even earn half of the amounts that some of these footballers receive and I'm sure they're not better people than me or anyone else come to that.
Some of the television personalities are the same, demanding wages that sound more like telephone numbers than salaries and some of them don't work anywhere near the number of hours in a week that most ordinary people do.
As for the bankers that got us into the current financial mess, I don't think they should receive five or six figure bonuses this year especially as the British taxpayer now owns most of the banks and if we hadn't bailed them out, they wouldn't even have jobs.
The government should bring in a new law: Everyone will be paid only what they are worth....there will be an awful lot of people who will have to pay money back!

Who stole time?

I'm starting to wonder where the last few days have gone because it's already Tuesday and I feel sure that I've missed a day somewhere! Eden was with me for the weekend and as usual we found lots of things to fill the hours, but even she thought the time had gone particularly quickly by Sunday afternoon.
For the last two days I have been busy with shopping, paperwork and other chores and haven't had the time to switch on the computer let alone do my blog. I wonder how I ever found time to go to work and do all the other things that I do now! Something must have been missed but I know it wasn't.
This morning I had a strange experience because after I have had a shower, I come downstairs and go out to feed the birds and today was no exception. Yesterday I bought some more bird food and had to open the bags today so when I went out they got a bit extra as I emptied out what was left in the other bags too. I went back upstairs and put my 'face' on and did my hair, but when I came back down, there wasn't any sign of the bird food that I thought I had put out only a half hour before.
The blackbirds were sitting on the fence looking hungry and I was beginning to think I hadn't done it after all, but when I went to the bin that I keep the bird food in I knew I hadn't 'lost my marbles' because the new bags of food were there and opened. I went outside and put some more food out and then I spotted who I thought were the culprits. On a roof across the road there were three large wood pigeons the size of turkeys so I think they had scoffed the bird food and made me think I had 'lost' fifteen minutes or so this morning.

Fox with a purpose?

Even though I live practically in the centre of the city I have seen more foxes than I ever did when I lived in the country. Urban foxes are totally different to their country cousins, probably because their diet contains a lot of junk food from the endless fast food shops and I don't think that the high fat and salt content would be part of a normal diet for a fox!
Since a cycle path has been created on the old railway line near to where I live, the foxes have moved into the area and I have occasionally seen them going past my front room window, usually late at night as I am going to bed.
For the last couple of weeks though, I have seen one trotting along very early in the evening paying absolutely no attention to the occasional person on their way home from work, or to me as I am putting rubbish in the bin as happened the other evening. This fox took no notice of me as he trotted past just like someone's dog would do so he must have been on a mission.
I think his route brings him down the cycle path and along the road past my house, then he nips around the corner, across the road and through the back gardens of the houses opposite. From there he probably crosses over into the little park by the side of the railway line.
This fox is a rather splendid looking one, with no sign of mange or disease and I wouldn't be at all surprised if there is a mate somewhere near too. Maybe I might see some little foxes one day, but I doubt it.

Save our forests

Another ridiculous idea from the government! They want to sell off our forests either into private ownership or to charities. This may mean that we could lose access to the woodlands and forests that we all own and many of us enjoy.

Currently a lot are managed by the Forestry Commission but the sale could well mean that there could be insufficient funding to manage and protect them for the future as well as redundancies for current employees.

Please sign the petition here www.woodlandtrust.org.uk

Fishy feet

Now you probably won't believe this little gem but I can assure you that it's absolutely true. In the shopping centre here there is one unit that has a cash desk just inside the door and there is someone there who books appointments in a book too.
The main part of the floor is occupied by a rather large bath, about eighteen inches or so high and about four feet square. There is also a row of chairs along one side and some of these are occupied by customers who have their feet in the large bath. So what is going on I hear you say.
Well, the answer, believe it or not , is that the people who have their feet in the large bath are having the hard skin on their feet nibbled off by little fish!
Not only do I find the fact that people are sticking their feet into this bath thingy with total strangers, but why on earth anyone would want to pay money so that they can feed someone else's fish by letting them nibble their feet is beyond me. It isn't cheap either.
I just wonder what would happen if someone swapped the little fish for pirhanas!

Cleaning up behind the workmen

Since before Christmas we have had a couple of workmen replacing some of the kerb edges around the area and the mess they've made beggars belief. The work has meant that they have had to use a pneumatic drill and also circular saw to cut the kerb stones so the noise and dust have been prolonged and excessive.
Instead of starting in one place and working in a methodical fashion, they appear to have approached the job willy nilly, first doing a bit here and then doing some there so that when I've cleared up one lot of mess outside the front of my house, they return again to work on another piece of kerb. The dust has not only covered the car but has been trodden inside of the house too and I'm not the only one who has been complaining either.
The other day I was out cleaning my car in the hope that they've finished along here and one of my neighbours was doing the same. He too complained about the mess being trodden inside and said he would clean along the pavement outside of his house with his pressure washer. I told him that I had given my bit a good brush but it's the houses in between that need to get out now and sweep the mess away so that it doesn't get trodden back again, but we might as well wait for hell to freeze over first.
These two workmen have made a real meal out of this job which could have been done in half the time if they had been properly organised and supervised. When they put the home zone down about five years ago they didn't make anywhere near the mess these two have.