The Builder has now made up four boxes and dug three. I shall put successive sowings of peas and broad beans in them over the next few weeks/months. I think he's intending to dig the last box and then turn his attention back to the allotment. We need a time turner so we can dash back and forth to and from the dry days!
Victoria Harbour, Docklands, Spring 2026
Friday, March 09, 2007
The Builder has now made up four boxes and dug three. I shall put successive sowings of peas and broad beans in them over the next few weeks/months. I think he's intending to dig the last box and then turn his attention back to the allotment. We need a time turner so we can dash back and forth to and from the dry days!
Monday, March 05, 2007
Weekend report
I’ve been at work, mostly, this weekend :-( Thinking hard about the money. Grin. Oh, but I do like Sundays off! I think I might not make myself available for quite so many Sundays in the future; I do seem to get put down for every session I say I can do, as opposed to a selection of them. Still. We aren’t open on Sundays over the summer. And the word on the street says that the weekend work will dry up next academic year as they are about to recruit to the new weekend structure. That will be nice, from a staying at home and pottering point of view. Less nice from a money in the bank one! However, they have been saying that the weekend rota will be sorted out very soon now for years and year and years. I am not holding my breath!
We were out last evening. We went to visit Bea ad Steve, who were having a small party to celebrate Steve’s birthday (which I think is actually today). Bea had cooked lots of lovely food, including a roast vegetable medley with white sweet potato. I lerv white sweet potato. It has the texture and almost the taste of roasted chestnuts. You never see it in the supermarkets. I wonder where she got it. Must remember to ask. I wonder if the sell it in the market in Chesterfield – must investigate one day. It was a good evening, but I was very tired. I have had a low grade cold all week which has rendered me very lethargic. Plus, of course, I had been working all day. And, of course, I had to be up and ready for work this morning. So we didn’t stay late.
I guess we left just before half ten, which meant I got to watch the eclipse of the moon as it happened while The Builder was driving us home. It was nearly totality when we got back so we sat on the south facing front wall, glass of wine in hand, rugged up snugly in our jackets and watched for 15 minutes or so. It really was very beautiful. The moon was a lovely rusty colour, the sky was absolutely clear and the stars were all twinkling. I’m really glad we were able to see it. For some reason I had thought it was at around 8, when we would have been having dinner with Bea and Steve and their other guests. Bit rude to abandon dinner and dash outside for astronomical events!
Great excitement this morning. The builders have had a great big crane delivered to the building site and spent a merry few hours this morning assembling it. In the rain, so perhaps they were not so merry. We had a merry time watching it being assembled. Matt and I have been out in the rain taking photos of it, for the online archive we are hoping to assemble. We were merry, even in the rain!
My new pedometer is very swish. Positively space age. Does all sorts of complicated things, most of which I can’t work out. It came from Hong Kong (I bought it on eBay) and the instructions are in a strange, Chinese form of English which doesn’t read terribly fluently. Still, I don’t suppose I really want to do complicated things. I want it to count 10k+ steps each day. Which it is resolutely refusing to do. 8 or 9k is as much as it will condescend to count :-(
We were out last evening. We went to visit Bea ad Steve, who were having a small party to celebrate Steve’s birthday (which I think is actually today). Bea had cooked lots of lovely food, including a roast vegetable medley with white sweet potato. I lerv white sweet potato. It has the texture and almost the taste of roasted chestnuts. You never see it in the supermarkets. I wonder where she got it. Must remember to ask. I wonder if the sell it in the market in Chesterfield – must investigate one day. It was a good evening, but I was very tired. I have had a low grade cold all week which has rendered me very lethargic. Plus, of course, I had been working all day. And, of course, I had to be up and ready for work this morning. So we didn’t stay late.
I guess we left just before half ten, which meant I got to watch the eclipse of the moon as it happened while The Builder was driving us home. It was nearly totality when we got back so we sat on the south facing front wall, glass of wine in hand, rugged up snugly in our jackets and watched for 15 minutes or so. It really was very beautiful. The moon was a lovely rusty colour, the sky was absolutely clear and the stars were all twinkling. I’m really glad we were able to see it. For some reason I had thought it was at around 8, when we would have been having dinner with Bea and Steve and their other guests. Bit rude to abandon dinner and dash outside for astronomical events!
Great excitement this morning. The builders have had a great big crane delivered to the building site and spent a merry few hours this morning assembling it. In the rain, so perhaps they were not so merry. We had a merry time watching it being assembled. Matt and I have been out in the rain taking photos of it, for the online archive we are hoping to assemble. We were merry, even in the rain!
My new pedometer is very swish. Positively space age. Does all sorts of complicated things, most of which I can’t work out. It came from Hong Kong (I bought it on eBay) and the instructions are in a strange, Chinese form of English which doesn’t read terribly fluently. Still, I don’t suppose I really want to do complicated things. I want it to count 10k+ steps each day. Which it is resolutely refusing to do. 8 or 9k is as much as it will condescend to count :-(
Spoke to Austin yesterday. He's getting ready for his 18 months in Japan. He's planning to fly on March 25th. (I think that Julia is preparing for her six months in North Carolina too, but I'm not sure exactly when she is going.) I've seen Tabitha too. She just called in to the Adsetts Centre to say hello. Hmm. There appears to be someone missing ...
Today I’ve a nedake :-( Initially I put it down to over exuberant birthday celebrations last evening. But now it’s nearly 4pm and I still have it. Don’t think it can still be the excesses of yesterday. Think it might be a real nedake. Odd. Don’t normally suffer much from them
Sunday, March 04, 2007
February report
Allotment beds. Top one has shallots already planted. Next one is for onions and leeks
Looking up, towards Ward Street. Not as pretty as the Hangingwater Allotment, but much easier to dig. Soil nice and friable. Weeds not quite so high. Plus The Builder has a magnificent brush cutter!
The Builder has marked out the proposed new beds with string . We can more or less see what we are doing
First raised bed, in place and ready for digging. (Update - it is now dug and ready for planting!)
Soft fruit beds.PLAN (as at March 4th)
The Builder has been busy. He's built a first raised bed and now dug it so that it is ready to receive the broad bean seeds, I hope later this week. He's also pegged out the next few beds and shifted the fridge out the way. Then he found even more rubble than we had expected and has moved most of that. The second plot is now ready for preparation. He was hoping to start the frame for it today, depending on the weather. He's extended the raspberry bed up towards the fence line and has planted some extra canes that Martin on the Sheffield Allotments gave us.
Last weekend he also started digging the little bed for the grapevines, which I bought at Dunston Hall on Sunday (one red, one white). This was complicated when we found what looks like a concrete sacrificial altar stone buried under the soil! Despite his best efforts he has so far been unable to get it out. We may need to work around it if all else fails!
The Builder now reports that he has three more frames ready to go
Saturday, March 03, 2007
RIP Audrey Hallam
You may remember, when we first came to look at The Sidings at the end of March last year, that our concentration on the house was somewhat offset by our concern that the lady showing us around should keep breathing until after we had left or until her son had arrived, preferably both! Fortunately, she did keep breathing, accepted our offer on the house, signed it over to us, moved into a bungalow around the corner and began recreating her “fairy” garden in the little courtyard at the front of her unit. I saw her from time to time over the summer, lying on a sun lounger being attended to by elderly ladies from around the village. More latterly, she hasn’t been outside so much, it being a tad on the chilly side for frail, sickly people to be lounging outside. But I did catch glances of her and there was clearly life happening inside the unit.
Over the past week or so, there was no sign of life. Not that I was stalking her, you understand, but her unit is virtually opposite the gate onto the allotment site. It seemed unlikely that she had gone on holiday. I’m not sure what was wrong with her but guessed at lung cancer or emphysema or perhaps both. Whatever it was, it required the presence of large oxygen machines. I assumed she had gone into hospital.
And so she had. Debbie Next Door called by last evening to tell us that she had gone into hospital Friday last, had been subsequently stricken with pneumonia and had died on Wednesday evening. Pity. She didn’t even make it to a twelve month in the new unit. And it seems a real shame, given the effort she had put into her courtyard, not to have seen it through a full run of seasons.
Still. Given that I was convinced she was likely to drop off her perch the very first time we met her, I guess she didn’t do too badly.
Over the past week or so, there was no sign of life. Not that I was stalking her, you understand, but her unit is virtually opposite the gate onto the allotment site. It seemed unlikely that she had gone on holiday. I’m not sure what was wrong with her but guessed at lung cancer or emphysema or perhaps both. Whatever it was, it required the presence of large oxygen machines. I assumed she had gone into hospital.
And so she had. Debbie Next Door called by last evening to tell us that she had gone into hospital Friday last, had been subsequently stricken with pneumonia and had died on Wednesday evening. Pity. She didn’t even make it to a twelve month in the new unit. And it seems a real shame, given the effort she had put into her courtyard, not to have seen it through a full run of seasons.
Still. Given that I was convinced she was likely to drop off her perch the very first time we met her, I guess she didn’t do too badly.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
A Pleasant Sunday Off
And I did enjoy it a great deal. It was a good Sunday. A really good Sunday. Nice and restful but lots of activity. A splendid springboard into so many days at work in a row.
We’ve got the builders in next door. You may remember that the owner of the house when we moved in had done a bunk several months before we arrived. One consequence of this was that he left loads of debts, including many pounds owing for the electricity and gas and phone. This means that it is not proving easy for the new developer (Is it us, do you think, that has caused the poor house to have so many owners since we moved in?!?!?!?) to get the electricity connected. It will be done, of course, but will take time. In the meantime, the bods next door are running an extension cable through our letter box and using our supply. We are assured we will be paid for it! This wouldn’t have been a problem, apart from the day when the not entirely satisfactory extension cord burnt itself out and, mercifully, tripped our trip switch. Except that the builders appear at odd times of the day. And they sound as though they are trying to chisel a tunnel through our walls!!!! (We assume they are removing plaster.) Fortunately on Sunday they didn’t come until close to lunchtime so did not disturb the morning peace.
It was a lovely morning. Sunny, mild for February, not raining. I decided to make the most of the opportunity to go outside and start tidying up the garden. Moved the water butts, which were lying lazily about, down to the back fence. I had thought to do something useful like digging or sorting or planting, but decided instead to shift the pile of grass turfs The Builder had left in a heap when he dug the fruit beds. Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Getting tired! Backwards and forwards, backwards and forw …… Aha! The wheelbarrow is free. Fill the wheelbarrow two or three times. Much easier on the back! I now have a lovely pile of properly stacked turfs, covered with manure and grass clippings, sat where the chook run will one day be. By the time the chook run eventually arrives, it should be lovely soil!!!!!!!
Time for a quick shower and a change out of the very muddy gardening kit. And off we headed to Chatsworth in search of provisions. As we went, we discussed where to have lunch. And thought as we approached the little village of Beeley that we had oft times thought we should stop and inspect the pub. So we did. It’s an old building, with a modern annex with large glass windows which overlook the stream. I had a lovely glass of merlot and a nice plate of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, although the vegetables tasted curiously of nothing. It was really quite odd. They were properly cooked and everything. Tasted as if they were in dire need of salt, though I never cook with salt and have never yet managed to render vegetables quite so bland. Still. Perhaps it was just a bad vegetable day. The starters which were being brought out looked fantastic and the other diners seemed chirpy enough. We’ll go back and check it out again. They have a lunch and a dinner menu and we pass through quite often.
And that’s what we always do. Pass through. So today we lingered and went for a wander about. It’s a little village on a loop road, more or less. It’s part of the Chatsworth Estate and is really lovely. Fantastic houses, lovely gardens. There was a small field with two little goats in it, and another with a much bigger goat. There were ducks and chickens and horses. It felt like a nice place to live. Certainly the people who were in their gardens and pottering about were friendly. The stream has pictures dotted along the bank of the wildlife you might expect to find. Enjoyed poking about there. Must come back when I am reunited with my walking boots. There were paths and things to explore a-plenty, but it was all a bit muddy for someone who was in her office shoes!
So to Chatsworth for the provisions. The car park was chockers; people were queuing for the restaurant rather than cluttering up the shop (thank goodness we didn’t decide to eat there!) so we were provisioned quite quickly. Then we went back by another route, passing by the Wingerworth Garden Centre in search of some lavender (a week too early). We ambled off to Dunston Hall Garden Centre where we found other things but no proper lavender, only a dwarf one. I bought it anyway. Will go hunting for lavender another day. And so home and back out into the garden, labouring away until the light failed and we went inside for a pleasant evening lazing about.
Bacon, eggs, tomato and mushrooms on toast for tea. A last hoorah for red meat for me now, until Easter Sunday.
Has been quite a pleasant day today too. A nice morning taken slowly. More time out in the garden. A supervisory visit to the allotment. General pottering about, and so into work. Been busy since. An unusually busy desk shift this evening. Normally this is something of a graveyard shift.
The Builder has been and closed down the Hangingwater allotment. He’s cleared the shed of everything we want and picked the last of the kale. No reason now to go back, unless to do a quick tidy of the stuff we’ve left in the shed and a quick hoe of the beds before we formally hand it back on the 31st March. But he tells me someone has been clearing trees out of the allotments and has taken down the oak tree that was growing on mine. Was there when I got there and wasn’t doing any harm. Poor oak tree. I shall grow another one from an acorn in the autumn. And I shall plant it somewhere in our garden. No allotment official will be able to reach it there!
We’ve got the builders in next door. You may remember that the owner of the house when we moved in had done a bunk several months before we arrived. One consequence of this was that he left loads of debts, including many pounds owing for the electricity and gas and phone. This means that it is not proving easy for the new developer (Is it us, do you think, that has caused the poor house to have so many owners since we moved in?!?!?!?) to get the electricity connected. It will be done, of course, but will take time. In the meantime, the bods next door are running an extension cable through our letter box and using our supply. We are assured we will be paid for it! This wouldn’t have been a problem, apart from the day when the not entirely satisfactory extension cord burnt itself out and, mercifully, tripped our trip switch. Except that the builders appear at odd times of the day. And they sound as though they are trying to chisel a tunnel through our walls!!!! (We assume they are removing plaster.) Fortunately on Sunday they didn’t come until close to lunchtime so did not disturb the morning peace.
It was a lovely morning. Sunny, mild for February, not raining. I decided to make the most of the opportunity to go outside and start tidying up the garden. Moved the water butts, which were lying lazily about, down to the back fence. I had thought to do something useful like digging or sorting or planting, but decided instead to shift the pile of grass turfs The Builder had left in a heap when he dug the fruit beds. Backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Getting tired! Backwards and forwards, backwards and forw …… Aha! The wheelbarrow is free. Fill the wheelbarrow two or three times. Much easier on the back! I now have a lovely pile of properly stacked turfs, covered with manure and grass clippings, sat where the chook run will one day be. By the time the chook run eventually arrives, it should be lovely soil!!!!!!!
Time for a quick shower and a change out of the very muddy gardening kit. And off we headed to Chatsworth in search of provisions. As we went, we discussed where to have lunch. And thought as we approached the little village of Beeley that we had oft times thought we should stop and inspect the pub. So we did. It’s an old building, with a modern annex with large glass windows which overlook the stream. I had a lovely glass of merlot and a nice plate of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, although the vegetables tasted curiously of nothing. It was really quite odd. They were properly cooked and everything. Tasted as if they were in dire need of salt, though I never cook with salt and have never yet managed to render vegetables quite so bland. Still. Perhaps it was just a bad vegetable day. The starters which were being brought out looked fantastic and the other diners seemed chirpy enough. We’ll go back and check it out again. They have a lunch and a dinner menu and we pass through quite often.
And that’s what we always do. Pass through. So today we lingered and went for a wander about. It’s a little village on a loop road, more or less. It’s part of the Chatsworth Estate and is really lovely. Fantastic houses, lovely gardens. There was a small field with two little goats in it, and another with a much bigger goat. There were ducks and chickens and horses. It felt like a nice place to live. Certainly the people who were in their gardens and pottering about were friendly. The stream has pictures dotted along the bank of the wildlife you might expect to find. Enjoyed poking about there. Must come back when I am reunited with my walking boots. There were paths and things to explore a-plenty, but it was all a bit muddy for someone who was in her office shoes!
So to Chatsworth for the provisions. The car park was chockers; people were queuing for the restaurant rather than cluttering up the shop (thank goodness we didn’t decide to eat there!) so we were provisioned quite quickly. Then we went back by another route, passing by the Wingerworth Garden Centre in search of some lavender (a week too early). We ambled off to Dunston Hall Garden Centre where we found other things but no proper lavender, only a dwarf one. I bought it anyway. Will go hunting for lavender another day. And so home and back out into the garden, labouring away until the light failed and we went inside for a pleasant evening lazing about.
Bacon, eggs, tomato and mushrooms on toast for tea. A last hoorah for red meat for me now, until Easter Sunday.
Has been quite a pleasant day today too. A nice morning taken slowly. More time out in the garden. A supervisory visit to the allotment. General pottering about, and so into work. Been busy since. An unusually busy desk shift this evening. Normally this is something of a graveyard shift.
The Builder has been and closed down the Hangingwater allotment. He’s cleared the shed of everything we want and picked the last of the kale. No reason now to go back, unless to do a quick tidy of the stuff we’ve left in the shed and a quick hoe of the beds before we formally hand it back on the 31st March. But he tells me someone has been clearing trees out of the allotments and has taken down the oak tree that was growing on mine. Was there when I got there and wasn’t doing any harm. Poor oak tree. I shall grow another one from an acorn in the autumn. And I shall plant it somewhere in our garden. No allotment official will be able to reach it there!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
The Allotment and Kitchen Garden/Orchard
The Builder has put in two beds and laid one path on the allotment. I have planted shallots in the first bed. A bit early to plan the onions yet.
This is more or less how the kitchen garden and orchard look at the moment. I haven't put in the rubbish! I've put the chook shed (putative)!!) in for reference
A lazy Saturday at Psalter Lane
I’m back at Psalter Lane today, one year and one week since the Saturday I started the Blog. Once again it is a lovely, almost spring-like day. One again there is a dearth of students. I’ve had 2 queries since 10:00, and one of those was an in-passing-on-the-stairs question. You do wonder why they keep this place open at weekends. It must cost an absolute fortune for not much return. I have done the bit of “real” work I brought with me to do. I have drawn a plan of the allotment and the kitchen garden and orchard. I am resisting the temptation to read my guide book to Morocco. But I fear it’s going to be a long 2 and a bit hours before I can go home!
The Internet went down at our place during the week :-( Got home one evening to find that I had no IP address :-( Though I’m sure I do, really. Didn’t fret very much. Assumed it was a problem at their end and it would come back by the following day. Didn’t :-( Reset absolutely everything. No help. It was a Wednesday so I rang Tony and Stella instead of chatting on the messenger, then decided I simply didn’t have the strength to ring Orange that evening and rang Lindsey instead. Not that the Orange people are anything other than very pleasant. They’re lovely. Their call centre is in Scotland somewhere. But whenever I ring with a problem they get half way through doing something then get cut off. So I ring back, get someone else, explain it all over again, they start doing whatever it was again – and get cut off :-( And so it goes on until eventually I manage to stay on the line long enough for them to fix it, or I figure out what the end process was likely to have been and do it myself.
I got up on Thursday morning and decided that I simply had to do something about this. Turned the laptop on to remind myself what the error message was. Waited patiently for it to appear. No error message. Looked more closely and saw that the laptop and the ISP were communicating perfectly happily. Go figure; I dunno. It was a problem at our end. Orange were reporting no problems and other people I know who live nearby were having no trouble. A mystery!
Otherwise, there is nothing much to report. There is a nasty back, arm, shoulder, chest and throat pain virus doing the rounds which has pole axed many people but which I’ve only had in a mild form. The Builder has buggered his back but is slowly recovering (I think it’s a cunning ploy to avoid the digging project and the hoovering while I am slaving over a hot, empty library!). It’s been a quiet, uneventful week.
It’s The Builder’s 65th birthday on Easter Monday. This renders him eligible to draw his old aged pension and put his feet up. He is, of course, not allowed to do any such thing, but he could as far as the government is concerned. If anyone wishes to join us for party food and cake after 2pm on April 9th, you’d be very welcome. Just let me know you’re coming so I can bake a party pie for you!
I have been plotting a possible train and ferry holiday for summer 2008, taking in Paris, Madrid, Tangier and Marrakech. Tabitha rang to see when we were thinking of going. May, probably. Why? She wanted me to go to Italy for a couple of days or so in July, 2008. I like Italy. Any particular couple of days, or can I pick them at random? No, said she. She didn’t yet know which couple of days but she and Gaz were planning to get married there in July 2008 and thought The Builder and I might like to join a small, select group of people who would be attending. Wedding, camping (Caravanning for me? Please?) and then a couple of days mooching around ruins and museums. Sounds good to me. We’ll be there. Will there be pizza?
I've got tomorrow off. Hooray. It's my last day off until we leave for the Broads on March 19th. I shall have to enjoy it a great deal!
The Internet went down at our place during the week :-( Got home one evening to find that I had no IP address :-( Though I’m sure I do, really. Didn’t fret very much. Assumed it was a problem at their end and it would come back by the following day. Didn’t :-( Reset absolutely everything. No help. It was a Wednesday so I rang Tony and Stella instead of chatting on the messenger, then decided I simply didn’t have the strength to ring Orange that evening and rang Lindsey instead. Not that the Orange people are anything other than very pleasant. They’re lovely. Their call centre is in Scotland somewhere. But whenever I ring with a problem they get half way through doing something then get cut off. So I ring back, get someone else, explain it all over again, they start doing whatever it was again – and get cut off :-( And so it goes on until eventually I manage to stay on the line long enough for them to fix it, or I figure out what the end process was likely to have been and do it myself.
I got up on Thursday morning and decided that I simply had to do something about this. Turned the laptop on to remind myself what the error message was. Waited patiently for it to appear. No error message. Looked more closely and saw that the laptop and the ISP were communicating perfectly happily. Go figure; I dunno. It was a problem at our end. Orange were reporting no problems and other people I know who live nearby were having no trouble. A mystery!
Otherwise, there is nothing much to report. There is a nasty back, arm, shoulder, chest and throat pain virus doing the rounds which has pole axed many people but which I’ve only had in a mild form. The Builder has buggered his back but is slowly recovering (I think it’s a cunning ploy to avoid the digging project and the hoovering while I am slaving over a hot, empty library!). It’s been a quiet, uneventful week.
It’s The Builder’s 65th birthday on Easter Monday. This renders him eligible to draw his old aged pension and put his feet up. He is, of course, not allowed to do any such thing, but he could as far as the government is concerned. If anyone wishes to join us for party food and cake after 2pm on April 9th, you’d be very welcome. Just let me know you’re coming so I can bake a party pie for you!
I have been plotting a possible train and ferry holiday for summer 2008, taking in Paris, Madrid, Tangier and Marrakech. Tabitha rang to see when we were thinking of going. May, probably. Why? She wanted me to go to Italy for a couple of days or so in July, 2008. I like Italy. Any particular couple of days, or can I pick them at random? No, said she. She didn’t yet know which couple of days but she and Gaz were planning to get married there in July 2008 and thought The Builder and I might like to join a small, select group of people who would be attending. Wedding, camping (Caravanning for me? Please?) and then a couple of days mooching around ruins and museums. Sounds good to me. We’ll be there. Will there be pizza?
I've got tomorrow off. Hooray. It's my last day off until we leave for the Broads on March 19th. I shall have to enjoy it a great deal!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The story of a country mouse
So. This here mouse wot Marlo introduced into the household. It had vanished. Which is hardly surprising, when you think of it. One poor little wood mouse up against a playful cat and a stomping Builder. You can see its point of view.
Anyway. The Builder spent the early part of the evening looking for it. He shifted the freezer. No mouse. He looked in the gubbingses at the back of the freezer. No mouse. He searched in the shopping bags which are living in the dining room at the moment. No mouse. Nor was there a mouse down the back of the radiator, or in the cat's cardboard box, nor in the magazine rack. Nowhere was there a mouse.
I forgot about it and ambled off to make a truly magnificent shepherd's pie for dinner. But we kept the doors shut, just in case.
Some time later, Marlo leapt abruptly off The Builder's lap and shot towards the laptop cover, which I had put down beside my chair, next to the wall. Aha! a tail. Oops. The tail has gone. Marlo shot after it and baled the mouse up against the door into the lounge room. Good. He's got it. But no! Bugger. The door wasn't properly closed and the mouse has s q u e e z e d through and is now at large in the lounge room, and thus the rest of the house.
In we all dashed. There it is - behind the drinks cabinet. Marlo leapt upon it. Grabbed it - and started playing with it. Sigh! The mouse escaped. Naturally! It ran to the "porch" by the front door which I have filled with plants. Marlo, in the meantime, is hunting for it around the drinks cabinet and simply could not be persuaded that it had moved to the door. The Builder began moving plants backwards and forwards, the mouse kept running up and down by the door. jumped into a plant basket. The Builder grabbed the basket to take it out, but the mouse jumped out again. Marlo espied it (largely because I had practically thrust his nose on it!). Grabbed it. Threw it up in the air and began to throw it about. It ran for cover - oh no; up the stairs!!!!!!!!! Very profoundly do not want it loose up in the bedrooms. The Builder leapt up the stairs, followed by Marlo who baled it up against a step and patted at it with his paws. The Builder prepared to grab it with his bare hand. I tossed a pair of knickers, fortuitously drying on the radiator (Shh! Don't tell anyone!) towards The Builder who grabbed the poor little mouse with them and took it outside and threw it into the herb bed.
So that was that. Such excitement on a Monday evening! Quite wore Marlo out. After he got fed up of looking for it in the lounge room he rejoined us in the dining room (doors now ajar again) and fell into a deep and profound sleep!!
The Vixen is really poorly sick. At one point yesterday the mechanics were considering whether it was worth repairing her. Poor Vixen. You can't write her off. She's only 18 months old. We haven't even paid for her yet. Fortunately, they decided that there was nothing wrong with the suspension or the chassis. She merely needs (are you ready?): 1 driver side wing; 1 driver side headlight; 1 front bumper; 1 underskirt; 1 radiator; 1 radiator feeder bottle; 1 windscreen bottle. Quite how you can do that much damage skidding into a parked car is a complete mystery to me. He must have been going at quite a lick when he came around that corner. Should have known better. He's not a boy, after all! Around a fortnight before we can have her back. All going to plan!
Anyway. The Builder spent the early part of the evening looking for it. He shifted the freezer. No mouse. He looked in the gubbingses at the back of the freezer. No mouse. He searched in the shopping bags which are living in the dining room at the moment. No mouse. Nor was there a mouse down the back of the radiator, or in the cat's cardboard box, nor in the magazine rack. Nowhere was there a mouse.
I forgot about it and ambled off to make a truly magnificent shepherd's pie for dinner. But we kept the doors shut, just in case.
Some time later, Marlo leapt abruptly off The Builder's lap and shot towards the laptop cover, which I had put down beside my chair, next to the wall. Aha! a tail. Oops. The tail has gone. Marlo shot after it and baled the mouse up against the door into the lounge room. Good. He's got it. But no! Bugger. The door wasn't properly closed and the mouse has s q u e e z e d through and is now at large in the lounge room, and thus the rest of the house.
In we all dashed. There it is - behind the drinks cabinet. Marlo leapt upon it. Grabbed it - and started playing with it. Sigh! The mouse escaped. Naturally! It ran to the "porch" by the front door which I have filled with plants. Marlo, in the meantime, is hunting for it around the drinks cabinet and simply could not be persuaded that it had moved to the door. The Builder began moving plants backwards and forwards, the mouse kept running up and down by the door. jumped into a plant basket. The Builder grabbed the basket to take it out, but the mouse jumped out again. Marlo espied it (largely because I had practically thrust his nose on it!). Grabbed it. Threw it up in the air and began to throw it about. It ran for cover - oh no; up the stairs!!!!!!!!! Very profoundly do not want it loose up in the bedrooms. The Builder leapt up the stairs, followed by Marlo who baled it up against a step and patted at it with his paws. The Builder prepared to grab it with his bare hand. I tossed a pair of knickers, fortuitously drying on the radiator (Shh! Don't tell anyone!) towards The Builder who grabbed the poor little mouse with them and took it outside and threw it into the herb bed.
So that was that. Such excitement on a Monday evening! Quite wore Marlo out. After he got fed up of looking for it in the lounge room he rejoined us in the dining room (doors now ajar again) and fell into a deep and profound sleep!!
The Vixen is really poorly sick. At one point yesterday the mechanics were considering whether it was worth repairing her. Poor Vixen. You can't write her off. She's only 18 months old. We haven't even paid for her yet. Fortunately, they decided that there was nothing wrong with the suspension or the chassis. She merely needs (are you ready?): 1 driver side wing; 1 driver side headlight; 1 front bumper; 1 underskirt; 1 radiator; 1 radiator feeder bottle; 1 windscreen bottle. Quite how you can do that much damage skidding into a parked car is a complete mystery to me. He must have been going at quite a lick when he came around that corner. Should have known better. He's not a boy, after all! Around a fortnight before we can have her back. All going to plan!
Monday, February 19, 2007
Happy First Birthday
The Blog is one! Who'd have thought it. It's a whole year since I started it on a whimsy, one long, dreary, deathly Saturday afternoon at Psalter Lane. I didn't really expect to maintain it much beyond a week. I didn't at all expect it to gain a readership. But there you go. And here it still is! Hapoy birthday to The Blog
I forgot to tell you in the Salisbury blog. We were walking back along the canal to the supermarket car park from the Salisbury city centre on Saturday morning. We had just passed under the railway bridge when we heard a distinctive train whistle. We both stopped and turned to see where it was coming from. And across the bridge there trundled a really pretty steam train with about 12 carriages behind it. Was lovely to see. And nobody else on the path paid any attention at all!
Marlo has caught a mouse. He was playing with it in the dining room when The Builder got back from taking me to the station this morning. Then he let it go and it has run under the freezer! Sigh. A humane trap is now required. Unless, of course, it has slunk sneakily away and gone back outside. Or died of fright. I suppose this means we will now have to move the freezer to see. I have no wish for there to be dead mouse carcasses under the freezer!!
I forgot to tell you in the Salisbury blog. We were walking back along the canal to the supermarket car park from the Salisbury city centre on Saturday morning. We had just passed under the railway bridge when we heard a distinctive train whistle. We both stopped and turned to see where it was coming from. And across the bridge there trundled a really pretty steam train with about 12 carriages behind it. Was lovely to see. And nobody else on the path paid any attention at all!
Marlo has caught a mouse. He was playing with it in the dining room when The Builder got back from taking me to the station this morning. Then he let it go and it has run under the freezer! Sigh. A humane trap is now required. Unless, of course, it has slunk sneakily away and gone back outside. Or died of fright. I suppose this means we will now have to move the freezer to see. I have no wish for there to be dead mouse carcasses under the freezer!!
Update
So this hire car. It’s like driving a fighter jet or a star ship. All you have to do is press buttons! There’s no key – you use a card and then press a button to start it. The handbrake comes off automatically when you start to move. The windscreen wipers are automatic if you have got them turned on Even the headlights come on automatically if you are driving at night. Even so, fun gadgets notwithstanding, I’m not sure I like it. It handles oddly. The Builder has done most of the driving since we got it! I am waiting patiently for the Vixen to come back from the hospital!
The laptop has also come back from the hospital, but unrepaired. It, the cat and the fruit bowl all cascaded off the dining table a couple of weeks ago and the laptop lost its space bar, the x key, the alt key and the windows key. I took it to the computer repair shop on Ecclesall Road and they charged me £30 (and took 5 days) to tell me it would need a new keyboard at £120 plus VAT plus labour. I declined to play. Bea’s partner Steve fixes things. I’m sure he can do it more cheaply. And if not, I’d rather give him the money. In the meantime, it’s very odd hitting a little button instead of the space bar. For some reason it means I keep missing the n key!!
Clarissa’s husband Mike has had a hearty tack :(. He woke up all poorly sick on Monday morning and had to go to the hospital in an ambo, lights flashing, siren blaring. They managed to disperse the clot using drugs and he is now well on the way to recovery. They were hopeful he might be able to some home this weekend. He was fortunate in that there was a paramedic passing when Clarissa phoned for help so they got to him very quickly. She says how amazingly calm and quiet the whole thing was, given that it was such a dramatic event.
And now The Builder and I have come down to Salisbury for the weekend. We came down yesterday, Friday. I took the afternoon off and was intending to leave work at around 2. The Builder came to collect me but got held up in dreadful traffic and was nearly half an hour late. Took nearly for ever to get back home. Dashed about and got ready. Found Tammy Next Door, who has been away for half term, and got her to look after the cat for the weekend. Took off for the M1. To find it at a complete standstill when we got there. Kept going around the roundabout and back to the A61. Was quite a pleasant trip down the A61 and the A38 to Brum, then we had much fun trying to find the A42, not wishing to find ourselves in London! On we went, until we found ourselves in a huge, huge queue. Time was ticking on. Began to get worried about the B&B. And I didn’t have their number. Rang Freyja who looked it up on the net and rang them to say we were on our way. Useful things, adult children!
We arrived at around half 8. Announced our arrival to Norma (at the Bridge Farm) and then disappeared into Salisbury to see if we could find something to eat. We got to the Market Inn on the market square 15 minutes before they stopped serving!! Had a rather nice plaice “kiev”, filled with a shrimp and mushroom sauce. Not sure I would have put quite such a heavy breadcrumb batter around it, though. Plaice is quite a delicate fish. I think I’d have put a lighter covering on.
Have just had a fantastic breakfast. Fruit and yoghurt followed by a deliciously cooked full English. Lovely crispy bacon and fantastically cooked mushies. Won’t need to eat again for ages and ages. Which is a pity for we are supposed to be taking The Builder’s parents out to lunch!
A quick visit to the farm shop, for Norma tells me they now have the seedy granola back in stock. Granted the stuff I made was rather lovely, but so is the one they stock in the shop and they taste different. Found some lovely local veg in the shop as well. No real need to go to the market now! But we’ll go anyway :). First to Waitrose, because Bea has found in the one in Sheffield a supply of food storage boxes where the lids clip on and which retain liquid. Then to Lakeland for a proper potato masher, preferably one which does not bend when you try to mash potatoes. Found one. And a storage jug which will fit in the fridge. And some foil on discount. And – oh lots of things we didn’t realise we needed. Plus a wicker basket to put it all in. Ah well, I’ve been looking for just such a basket to take things to work in! Then we ambled off to the market and found ourselves outside Nuggs, a new shop in a beautiful old building filled with loads of different oils and herbs and spices and lovely things. Avoided all the oils but did succumb to a pepper grinder. And some chicken stock bones in the market itself. There will be lovely stock at our place tomorrow. And I have many, many kitchen things to play with!
A cup of tea in the cathedral refectory (very, very nice) then off to pick up The Builder’s parents, who are in fine fettle, given that Gwen fell on Thursday night and cracked her head on the door. We took them out to the Red Shoot in the heart of the New Forest. It’s a nice pub. It lets dogs in. And there were three or four ponies ambling about in the driveway who were not going to move for anybody. Was amusing watching vehicles and walkers navigating around them.
Good, thought I. There’s soup. Gwen and Mick are having soup. I shall have it too. Nice light lunch after that huge breakfast. Then I realised they were going to have a main course as well. Sigh. I shall have mussels. A huge pot of mussels with a cream sauce at the bottom. Couldn’t eat all of it :S It was all rather nice, even so. This was somewhere Gwen and Mick hadn’t been before! Then we took them home, had a nice cup of tea and a chat and left just before 4. I think they were missing their afternoon nap!
We, however, were not in need of an afternoon nap. We went for a walk instead. Down through Lower Britford, up past the rookery onto the main road then back down to the farm. Nice round walk, about two miles. Lots of lovely old houses with large gardens dotted about on the river meadows.
And so to a completely unnecessary dinner. We found ourselves outside the Red Lion in Salisbury and went in. It’s in the Places to Eat booklet in the B&B. Beautiful old rambling building with an ancient wisteria growing in the courtyard. You can eat restaurant food or bar food. We didn’t actually feel the need for restaurant food for some reason so had bar food. Which turned out to be restaurant quality in the end. Just not as much of it, fortunately! But next time we might well try the restaurant. It looks lovely.
I walked a shade under 20000 steps on Saturday. Alas, I probably ingested about 120000 steps worth of food and wine :(
Oh dear. Another day of eating. We had yet another fantastic breakfast, courtesy of Norma at Bridge Farm. Then, it being a bit early for the farm shop on a Sunday, we went for a stroll, down the dead end road along the river to the church, this time. It was a lovely walk. The river is quite high and the moat around Moat House (which I think might once have been the Manor House) is also very full. We had a lovely amble in the church graveyard, admiring the old graves and generally enjoying the damp grass underfoot on a lovely winter’s day. The church, St Peter’s, is clearly very old and made with knapped flint. And, wonder of wonders, it was open. It’s lovely inside. Very plain but beautifully made. The nave is Saxon, the chancel 14th century.
Back to the farm shop for some chicken, milk and yoghurt, then we took ourselves off to Romsey. I’ve driven through Romsey before but never actually stopped. It’s very lovely. Mediaeval. Beautiful abbey that we couldn’t go into because the morning service was not quite finished. Not a great deal is open in Romsey on a Sunday. King John’s House was closed, so was the Heritage Centre. We wandered around the streets for a time, found a tea shop, had tea, pottered around, went back to the car. There’s a restaurant with a few bedrooms in Romsey called Bertie’s. It has very good reviews. Must go there one day. Preferably a Saturday!
We arrived in Winchester, which has just been declared by a Channel 4 viewer poll to be the best place to live in England, to meet Ian, Donna and Sophie for lunch. Jeanette, Matt and Rebecca came too and we went for a wander through the main street to an Italian restaurant for lunch. Wasn’t all that impressed with my pizza which was certainly large. But the base was unimpressive indeed. No real Italian restaurant would have served it. On the other hand, my tiramisu was lovely. Everyone else enjoyed their meals, I think and everyone seemed pleased to see each other. Even Donna, who for some reason seems not to like The Builder and me much, thawed towards the end. It was a nice, leisurely Sunday lunch. I do like Sunday lunches! We wandered off to the park after lunch for a post-prandial walk and so Rebecca and Sophie could play on the swings. There were lots of people out enjoying the pleasant afternoon.
Then we came home. We left at about ten to four, had a couple of roadwork hold ups, but got home in just after three hours. A much better trip than the one down. I have chicken stock simmering. The cat is on The Builder’s lap. All is well. Except that we have left The Builder’s dressing gown at Bridge Farm!
12000 steps today. Still under the steps worth of food ingested.
Clarissa rang at lunchtime. Mike is now nice and pink again and has gone home. He’s off work for at least six weeks but things are looking quite good at the moment.
The laptop has also come back from the hospital, but unrepaired. It, the cat and the fruit bowl all cascaded off the dining table a couple of weeks ago and the laptop lost its space bar, the x key, the alt key and the windows key. I took it to the computer repair shop on Ecclesall Road and they charged me £30 (and took 5 days) to tell me it would need a new keyboard at £120 plus VAT plus labour. I declined to play. Bea’s partner Steve fixes things. I’m sure he can do it more cheaply. And if not, I’d rather give him the money. In the meantime, it’s very odd hitting a little button instead of the space bar. For some reason it means I keep missing the n key!!
Clarissa’s husband Mike has had a hearty tack :(. He woke up all poorly sick on Monday morning and had to go to the hospital in an ambo, lights flashing, siren blaring. They managed to disperse the clot using drugs and he is now well on the way to recovery. They were hopeful he might be able to some home this weekend. He was fortunate in that there was a paramedic passing when Clarissa phoned for help so they got to him very quickly. She says how amazingly calm and quiet the whole thing was, given that it was such a dramatic event.
And now The Builder and I have come down to Salisbury for the weekend. We came down yesterday, Friday. I took the afternoon off and was intending to leave work at around 2. The Builder came to collect me but got held up in dreadful traffic and was nearly half an hour late. Took nearly for ever to get back home. Dashed about and got ready. Found Tammy Next Door, who has been away for half term, and got her to look after the cat for the weekend. Took off for the M1. To find it at a complete standstill when we got there. Kept going around the roundabout and back to the A61. Was quite a pleasant trip down the A61 and the A38 to Brum, then we had much fun trying to find the A42, not wishing to find ourselves in London! On we went, until we found ourselves in a huge, huge queue. Time was ticking on. Began to get worried about the B&B. And I didn’t have their number. Rang Freyja who looked it up on the net and rang them to say we were on our way. Useful things, adult children!
We arrived at around half 8. Announced our arrival to Norma (at the Bridge Farm) and then disappeared into Salisbury to see if we could find something to eat. We got to the Market Inn on the market square 15 minutes before they stopped serving!! Had a rather nice plaice “kiev”, filled with a shrimp and mushroom sauce. Not sure I would have put quite such a heavy breadcrumb batter around it, though. Plaice is quite a delicate fish. I think I’d have put a lighter covering on.
Have just had a fantastic breakfast. Fruit and yoghurt followed by a deliciously cooked full English. Lovely crispy bacon and fantastically cooked mushies. Won’t need to eat again for ages and ages. Which is a pity for we are supposed to be taking The Builder’s parents out to lunch!
A quick visit to the farm shop, for Norma tells me they now have the seedy granola back in stock. Granted the stuff I made was rather lovely, but so is the one they stock in the shop and they taste different. Found some lovely local veg in the shop as well. No real need to go to the market now! But we’ll go anyway :). First to Waitrose, because Bea has found in the one in Sheffield a supply of food storage boxes where the lids clip on and which retain liquid. Then to Lakeland for a proper potato masher, preferably one which does not bend when you try to mash potatoes. Found one. And a storage jug which will fit in the fridge. And some foil on discount. And – oh lots of things we didn’t realise we needed. Plus a wicker basket to put it all in. Ah well, I’ve been looking for just such a basket to take things to work in! Then we ambled off to the market and found ourselves outside Nuggs, a new shop in a beautiful old building filled with loads of different oils and herbs and spices and lovely things. Avoided all the oils but did succumb to a pepper grinder. And some chicken stock bones in the market itself. There will be lovely stock at our place tomorrow. And I have many, many kitchen things to play with!
A cup of tea in the cathedral refectory (very, very nice) then off to pick up The Builder’s parents, who are in fine fettle, given that Gwen fell on Thursday night and cracked her head on the door. We took them out to the Red Shoot in the heart of the New Forest. It’s a nice pub. It lets dogs in. And there were three or four ponies ambling about in the driveway who were not going to move for anybody. Was amusing watching vehicles and walkers navigating around them.
Good, thought I. There’s soup. Gwen and Mick are having soup. I shall have it too. Nice light lunch after that huge breakfast. Then I realised they were going to have a main course as well. Sigh. I shall have mussels. A huge pot of mussels with a cream sauce at the bottom. Couldn’t eat all of it :S It was all rather nice, even so. This was somewhere Gwen and Mick hadn’t been before! Then we took them home, had a nice cup of tea and a chat and left just before 4. I think they were missing their afternoon nap!
We, however, were not in need of an afternoon nap. We went for a walk instead. Down through Lower Britford, up past the rookery onto the main road then back down to the farm. Nice round walk, about two miles. Lots of lovely old houses with large gardens dotted about on the river meadows.
And so to a completely unnecessary dinner. We found ourselves outside the Red Lion in Salisbury and went in. It’s in the Places to Eat booklet in the B&B. Beautiful old rambling building with an ancient wisteria growing in the courtyard. You can eat restaurant food or bar food. We didn’t actually feel the need for restaurant food for some reason so had bar food. Which turned out to be restaurant quality in the end. Just not as much of it, fortunately! But next time we might well try the restaurant. It looks lovely.
I walked a shade under 20000 steps on Saturday. Alas, I probably ingested about 120000 steps worth of food and wine :(
Oh dear. Another day of eating. We had yet another fantastic breakfast, courtesy of Norma at Bridge Farm. Then, it being a bit early for the farm shop on a Sunday, we went for a stroll, down the dead end road along the river to the church, this time. It was a lovely walk. The river is quite high and the moat around Moat House (which I think might once have been the Manor House) is also very full. We had a lovely amble in the church graveyard, admiring the old graves and generally enjoying the damp grass underfoot on a lovely winter’s day. The church, St Peter’s, is clearly very old and made with knapped flint. And, wonder of wonders, it was open. It’s lovely inside. Very plain but beautifully made. The nave is Saxon, the chancel 14th century.
Back to the farm shop for some chicken, milk and yoghurt, then we took ourselves off to Romsey. I’ve driven through Romsey before but never actually stopped. It’s very lovely. Mediaeval. Beautiful abbey that we couldn’t go into because the morning service was not quite finished. Not a great deal is open in Romsey on a Sunday. King John’s House was closed, so was the Heritage Centre. We wandered around the streets for a time, found a tea shop, had tea, pottered around, went back to the car. There’s a restaurant with a few bedrooms in Romsey called Bertie’s. It has very good reviews. Must go there one day. Preferably a Saturday!
We arrived in Winchester, which has just been declared by a Channel 4 viewer poll to be the best place to live in England, to meet Ian, Donna and Sophie for lunch. Jeanette, Matt and Rebecca came too and we went for a wander through the main street to an Italian restaurant for lunch. Wasn’t all that impressed with my pizza which was certainly large. But the base was unimpressive indeed. No real Italian restaurant would have served it. On the other hand, my tiramisu was lovely. Everyone else enjoyed their meals, I think and everyone seemed pleased to see each other. Even Donna, who for some reason seems not to like The Builder and me much, thawed towards the end. It was a nice, leisurely Sunday lunch. I do like Sunday lunches! We wandered off to the park after lunch for a post-prandial walk and so Rebecca and Sophie could play on the swings. There were lots of people out enjoying the pleasant afternoon.
Then we came home. We left at about ten to four, had a couple of roadwork hold ups, but got home in just after three hours. A much better trip than the one down. I have chicken stock simmering. The cat is on The Builder’s lap. All is well. Except that we have left The Builder’s dressing gown at Bridge Farm!
12000 steps today. Still under the steps worth of food ingested.
Clarissa rang at lunchtime. Mike is now nice and pink again and has gone home. He’s off work for at least six weeks but things are looking quite good at the moment.
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