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?