Little Weed?

This second coming of summer is all very well but alongside the joys of the KC sunbathing blissfully in 28 degrees and the flowers loving it (the roses are blooming again!) the darned weeds are also thoroughly enjoying themselves! I have yet to get on top of them post the back fiasco and now here we have a second wind (if you will) meaning that the bits I did manage to clear are starting to go all green & grotty again whilst the bits I didn’t get ‘round to are redefining the word overgrown & and having lost my patio hook (world’s best garden tool) the weeds in the paving up by the FauxTemple are thriving & HUGE!

Oh lucky Bill & Ben, they lived in a blissful fantasy garden where Little Weee-ee-eed was a delightful friend to the flowerpot men, not a mortal enemy.

Smudging the issue

I have had an esoteric hour. As the house settles into its new shape & we have increasing daily enjoyment of our "gracious & spacious new home” - it now all flows far more fluently & makes so much more sense as a space - it occurred to both of us that we have brought to bear some pretty serious GBH on the bricks & mortar that surround us & keep us safe, warm & dry & that it might be an idea to make amends for the GBH & to do a bit of Smudging. Smudging basically involves burning certain herbs to dissipate negative energies – I paraphrase here Adrienne Borden and Steve Coyote, 2 Native American Indians who regularly perform smudging ceremonies.

 “Native people throughout the world use herbs to accomplish the cleansing of spaces of any bad feelings, negative thoughts, bad spirits or negative energy. One common ceremony is to burn certain herbs and let the smoke cleanse every bit of space .Today this is commonly called "smudging." In Western North America the three plants most frequently used in smudging are sage, cedar, and sweetgrass”

As someone who has had the Feng Shui lady in, burning a few herbs for purification & removal of any bad stuff made complete sense! So I lit my Sage & Copal stick & began to waft the ensuing smoke around the house. And as I wafted, the KC who had not been seen for hours suddenly appeared out of the bushes, hared down the garden & followed me about as I filled the new space with smoke. After visiting each room in turn, I opened every single door, window & roof vent & watched as all the smoke & “bad stuff” dissipated into the ether. The KC was suitably enthralled by my little ceremony – so much so she  stayed indoors, despite it being a lovely afternoon & is now sleeping soundly in a cleansed bedroom! Bless!

Oh what a beautiful day!

It’s a bit of a Disney day out there in FauxSurrey land. Whilst it was only 9 degrees when I took hubby to the station at 6.30 AM (brrrr!) the sky was clear blue & now we have 17 degrees and a gentle breeze & utter silence apart from the sound of birdsong. The KC is slumbering in the gentle sunshine, the last of the summer flowers are blooming beautifully & I feel as if the squirrels will scamper & the bluebirds will fly in to help to me clean up the kitchen at any moment.

However the best is yet to come - this afternoon my task at hand is to go out to take pictures of kittens. Yes I’m completely serious. Kittens. Better go change into something pink ...

Strictly Disappointing

One of the many things I love about the arrival of autumn is the launch of Strictly Come Dancing. Yes I am an old fogey for loving it but the line up has finally been announced (in a very peculiar way) and I confess to feeling let down & disappointed.  I think they may have lost me this year. I guess there there are a few 'proper' celebs - Lulu, Jason Donovan & Rory Bremner & at a push Anita Dobson & Holly Valance - but we have the token controversial politician in Edwina Currie (am I the only one who post her John Major revelations always feels slighty nauseous when I see her?), Audley Harrison & someone called Robbie Savage (???) as the sportspeople, an ITV presenter called Dan something (OK he's v good looking but ... sorry WHO is he?) the Welsh woman with no skills or sense of humour off the One Show (whose publicity shot is just bizarre, all squished boobs) and a couple of odd ones for comedy value no doubt - Russell Grant & Nancy Dell'Olio.

However there are 2 who have completely lost me - a spotty 16 year old (well he looks 16) called Harry Judd (no idea - he looks like a pizza delivery boy) and last & worst is some 'pram faced' girl with pneumatic boobs & hair that is pulled back so tight she looks permanently surprised called (and I have checked the spelling I am not slipping on the keyboard) "Chelsee Healey" Seriously. Her publicity shot is her in a huge wig with a big nylon bow  & what looks like an embroidered support bra. If the lovely Brendan got her he'd walk off before the first dance! Nuff said.

Am sure the last 2 "who the hell are they?" types are in some dreadful teen soap like Hollyoaks so will go far. Will watch the pairing up show this Saturday to see who gets who but it'd better perk up or I will be re-running last years ....

Things to love about the rain

I know most people will have their heads in their hands on waking up today - Surrey is awash. The rain is hosing down & the mercury has dropped right down, but hang on. There's plenty to love about this weather:

1. Having 2 cups of coffee & homemade scones with strawberry jam for breakfast suddenly seems so right!

2. I can light a log fire & hunker down with the KC (who of course is indoors -- good lord, get her paws wet? Are you mad?) & a good black & white movie          

3. Can't do laundry!

4. Can't do back breaking weeding

5. Don't need to get out & water the garden, especially my newly planted bits

6. I can wear my pink Hunter wellies  to the shops & not look like a fool (honest!)

7. Summer hols are officially over - you may as well be back at work / school in this

8. Loads of building dust (!) is being washed, naturally, off my conservatory roof

9. Colder weather = autumn is here which = Christmas is on its way! Hurrah!

10. For some reason, watching daytime TV / a DVD in the rain feels OK ... (see point 2) 

There we are! Happy days.

Free Food!

As we come right from what has to be the worst cold ever (definitely not flu we didn't have temperatures just a truly brutal cold that laid both of us so low it wasn't funny) we were fiinally able to take stock of what our beautiful garden has offered us. As I said, no gardening for 3 weeks also = 3 weeks of ignoring weeds = not good (cue offer of money to hard up teenagers, a huge chunk has been done already!) but it would seem the courgettes (zucchini) loved being ignored as I found myself faced wiith a huge pile. If I hadn't picked them when I did, I would've had marrows!

But whilst beans & spuds etc are easy to use up (no massive amount of imagination required..) what to do with over a kilo of courgettes? A quick search on recipes on line & we got a free lunch. Truly delicious Courgette & Tomato soup. Well free in that I had all other ingredients in the cupboard plus a couple of our own home grown spuds! And I can't tell you the staisfaction knowing almost no airmiles (not sure where the Waitrose tinned toms hailed from) and all good as we used nothing nasty on our veg.

There, you see, another thing to add to the Pigs' list of things to be so happy about!

The Pig Of Happiness

An email from a long lost friend made me realise that if I pointed him to this blog to catch up with my life he would think that the last 6 months have been simply awful. Which is not true - I have simply put the awful bits in as they make for more interesting reading! Poetic license or something ... However I will now act on advice from Edward Monktons’ Pig of Happiness - "May his joyful smile remind us how much there is to be happy about" so here are my top of mind things to be happy about!

1 Whilst we have not been in rude health it has been truly lovely to spend completely uninterrupted days (well apart from coughing fits) with the Practically Perfect Hubby. We have looked after each other & laughed & talked & just hung out. He really is the best company. He really was worth the wait.

2 The house is looking truly stunning and being sick here has been no trial to be honest. It's a joy to sit in the evening watching the sunset from the new sitting area.

3 My back problem is mechanical & won't kill me. It just annoys me!

4 The garden has delivered a bumper harvest of Desiree spuds, huge courgettes, onions, carrots & French beans - yum!

5 The flowers are also doing their best to put on a show; the ostoespermum, gladioli, jasmine & lavatera and even my roses are all still flowering beautifully!

6 No gardening for 3 weeks = a family of shrews has taken up residence in the long grass! The KC is of course thrilled but (nerd alert) “Mammalian predators rarely take them as shrews have scent glands on their flanks, which mammals find distasteful (most birds have no sense of smell). Domestic cats will kill shrews, but not eat them for this reason” As a result she is chasing & alerting me to their presence so I can grab “The KC victim rescue system™” and hi them off to safety. They are SO cute too!

7 I’ve just had an invoice paid!

More to follow no doubt!