February view

1st February 2012

My new camera zooms in a little closer than the old one so you can see I have been working down there last month (in between brawling with pavements). For those of you out there who know about vegetable gardening - on the right (the bed that was covered with fleece in January) you can see my garlic pushing through and those green things in rows are my broad beans - now a decent height, on 1st January they were barely poking through. I am amazed by how much they have grown this month.

Big excitement for me - all my seed potatoes have arrived and this weekend I will lay them all out for chitting. Tomato seeds which I planted have sprouted up and will be transferred to pots this weekend and chilli seeds and aubergines will be sown and then placed in the a warm light spot in my home-made propogator (photos on Sunday) ...

Although it is only the beginning of February there is so much to do.


1st January 2012

Have A Go Hero Wrestles With The Pavement.

Yesterday I fell ... I don't remember falling - just finding myself sprawled out on the pavement. At first I thought I was being mugged but I was quite alone, as I lay there I ran my tongue over my teeth, they were all there, phew! I touched my nose tentatively, it hurt but I knew it wasn't broken. I slowly pushed myself back up onto my knees and then stood up and wobbled home.


When I woke up this morning this is what I looked like. During the course of the day the bruising has spread so that by tomorrow I will look like a panda.
"Ouch - you look terrible." my friend said when I sent him the photo "Does it hurt much?"
"Only when I smile ..."

Serves me right for being so smug about smiling the other day.

Count down to Liverpool?

I have just been organising my accomodation for the Livepool Marathon - I know its not until October but I wanted to make sure that my favourite Aunt, who lives about a two hour drive from Liverpool, would be around that weekend.

And then because I was thinking about it I checked into the website and watched the route video. I'm sure you will guess that I will be running at much slower pace but check this out!

I've another busy weekend; a long steady run in the morning, a 12 course Chinese banquet (with all my old Hong Kong friends) tomorrow lunchtime (celebrating Chinese New Year) ... then a Book Reading event in the evening. Another long run on Sunday morning followed by a couple hours of garden maintenance. And somewhere inbetween washing, ironing, house-work and a trip to the supermarket.

Where ever you are, enjoy yours too.

Go on Smile ... or at least just give it a try

Once upon a time, in that far away place where we are forever young, I had a boyfriend. Actually a field full but, for the sake of this tale, we are focusing on one in particular.

He was what my mother described as 'Sturdy' which I took to mean not skinny, a year or so older than me, he had left school and was on his gap year when I first started going out with him. I thought he was so sophisticated ... he could blow smoke rings, he had political opinions, he scorned marriage and breeding, he was going to University to study Accountancy. I was young enough and impressionable enough to be smitten - we became inseparable, spending a lot of time in each others homes - so we got to know each others parents quite well.

We were at a function at his parents home once, we had sneaked away to steal a kiss and a cuddle when we heard his mother and a friend coming towards us. We pressed ourselves behind a pillar willing them to move on,
"Is that your sons girlfriend?" The friend asked, before adding "She's a pretty little thing isn't she?" I blushed demurely as he lovingly held me close. I strained to hear how my friends mother would respond.
"Yes." She said disapprovingly "She's quite the prettiest girlfriend he has ever had." I blushed again, lowering my eyes shyly, "But" she continued "You know looks aren't everything." My friend pressed my head against his shoulder trying, in vain, to block my ears. "Between you and me she is one of those girls that giggles a lot - always laughing at something or other. It drives me mad."
I was puzzled. What was wrong with laughing? I struggled out of my boyfriends embrace as she continued to confide in the other woman.
"My son is quite smitten with her, which is very worrying. I mean I don't want him to do anything foolish and end up having to marry her. Of course it would be brilliant for her - he's so obviously going places. I just don't want him to throw away a brilliant future, tied to such an intellectual lightweight ..."

I had heard enough, I rushed away blinking back tears. Afterwards I tried to analyse everything she had said, marriage to her darling boy had never entered my head and when I took a long hard look at him, through the fug of impressive smoke rings, I saw a young man being groomed to live a life his mother had mapped out for him. Everyone in his family deferred to her before making any decision - every detail of their lives were micro-managed by her; they were totally devoid of spontaneity. Oh and the intellectual light weight bit? I concede that I am no genius but that was harsh! I stopped seeing her son shortly after that party.

We did start seeing each other again a couple of months later but the heat of the romance had died, I had moved on, I was no longer impressed by smoke rings. We parted friends - I'm sure his mother disapproved but by then I realised that I didn't care.

The point of this story is that the other day through a mutual friend we stumbled across each other again. We exchanged details and photos of the last 30 years. He didn't become an Accountant but he did end up working in a Bank. He hasn't set the world on fire but he has led a very comfortable life, living in a nice middle-class house, in a nice middle-class area, with 3 nice middle-class kids. He showed me lots of photographs of things that are important to him, his house, his car, he and his wife on nice middle-class holidays. His mother must be so proud, because I really scrutinised the photographs and I didn't spot a single smile in any of them.

I wanted to say "Oh very nice, but have you just had a blazing row in this photograph? And this one? Oh and this one here?" My life has hardly been a bed of roses - far from it, but heck I think I know how to enjoy myself. I hope that I never appear smug or self satisfied but I decided a long time ago that there were enough mardy-faced buggers out there - laughter and smiles are contagious, honestly they never go unanswered. Go on smile ... or at least give it a try it ...



Which reminds me - I have been most remiss by not publicly thanking my blogger friend Colleen for awarding me with this:


Colleen is a talented young Canadian lady living in Norway with her Norwegian husband and gorgeous little boy William. Her posts are always very thought provoking.

I admit that I always marvel that anyone reads my blog - finds what I burble about remotely interesting but I am grateful. I am not good at passing awards on because I enjoy everyone I follow so please feel free to take it for yourselves.

Tallest to Smallest

Yesterday my first-born child turned twenty-seven. Twenty-seven (!) can you believe it? This means that I have now been a mother for over half of my life. OMG.

I wish I had great pearls of wisdom to pass on to all those about to embark upon parenthood. I wish I could say what a brilliant mother I must have been, because look how well they turned out. That is a fluke because my style of parenting leans more towards the 'Survival Of The Fittest' theory.

My kids went to a playgroup where they played - neither could read or write when they started school, but they knew how tadpoles became frogs because we caught frog spawn and watched them develop.

Once they started school I was hopeless at enforcing a good homework regime; I believed it was far more important for them to be outside playing with their chums than sitting indoors studying or playing computer games (actually it was just easier - and they got tired out so they slept well), "Why insist on them studying more?" I asked - that's what the classrooms are for.

Teens were difficult, but no better or worse than any other family (I'm guessing) as they flexed their imaginery muscles, seeing how far they could push ever-changing boundaries. It seemed as if I was always fending off telephone calls from school teachers threatening to fail them if they didn't have projects in on time. "We work better under pressure" they claimed when I challenged their inability to manage their time better.

They both went to university and they both graduated but that was entirely their own doing. They both cause me less pain now than they did 10 years ago but that doesn't mean that it is always plain sailing.

Anyway heres to Birthday Boy (a day late) - may the next 27 years be as wonderful as the first !?!

Which reminds me, how did he go from being so small to this?


And how did I go from being the tallest ...


... to the smallest?

Magpie #101: Nightmares

I dreamed I was floating on a fluffy cloud, looking down on a quilt of mismatched fields, all differing shades of green. I leaned further forward, trying to catch a glimpse of my grandmothers house and then with a sudden shock realised I had stretched too far. I tried to scramble back onto the cloud but there was nothing for my hands to clutch onto ... I began to fall ...

... waking with a sudden start, I saw immediately that I was alone, the passage light was still glowing. He wasn't home yet. Then I heard the lift shuddering to a stop on our floor, I guessed that the sound of it operating must have been what had woken me.

In that moment of wakefulness a playful jape suddenly occurred. I slipped silently and quickly from the bed to a position behind the front door. Suppressing a childish giggle I pictured how surprised he would be, when tiptoeing into the flat in an attempt not to waken me, I would jump from my hidy hole.

The key turned in the lock and as the door inched open I prepared to leap ... and then I heard another voice. He was bringing someone home with him and I, in my eagerness and not anticipating a guest, had failed to cover up ...


Click here for more enchanting tales prompted by Tess Kincaids Magpie.

The New Look

Thank you all for your comments on the new layout of my blog ... I just needed a change!

A few of you have asked about the new banner - a couple of years ago I ran the Brighton Marathon and a friend of mine placed this banner on a fence near the twenty mile marker. As I rounded the corner, and saw this, I almost burst into tears. It was just the uplift that I needed at that point, as others around me started hitting that invisible "Wall" I just kept on going; for those who have heard of Fat Boy Slim it was as I saw this sign that I overtook him for the last time (we had been swapping places for about 5 miles); he couldn't see me for dust after this (poetic license of course). Anyway the photograph is there to remind me that almost everything is possible.


And for those of you who want to see the new haircut here it is - in all it's glory ... the slightly deranged look on my face is not normal ... I was just waiting such a long, long time for my little sister to press the button on my new camera, that I think she caught me just as I was about to sit down (or stand up, can't remember which).