TWELVE TODAY

Well, LG's age is beginning to catch up with her behaviour.

TWELVE today. A teenager next year, as she keeps gleefully informing us.

Twelve years of transformation from this:


















through this, for a while









Milly Molly Mandy?






First day at infant school:



















to this: in brand new twelfth-birthday gear:



Sorry for the not-quite-up-to-standard quality of the pic. - taken on a mobile phone.

The fact that she is just about taller than me in the buffalo boots greatly enhances their attraction for her.

Obviously.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE GEM (I'm under instruction here) DEMON CHILD

Bizarro world

No - its not RW and the girls (in London, at the end of the summer holiday in August) who are/were bizarre (on the other hand ..... )



Nor even the pigeons eating left over lunch



It was after lunch that we entered Bizarro World - AKA the London Aquarium.

Lots of pictures follow - I'm so pleased with my great new camera (not only new, but free).
So if you're not interested in bizarre pictures, or if fish leave you cold - feel free to depart now. Please come back another day.




We saw:

1. the predictable






(but still quite impressive)











2. The pretty:


(Nemo fish to most of us)








3. The surreal and alienesque:
























4. The closest I'm ever likely to get to a coral reef:












5. The bizarrely-named :
Peter's Elephant-Nose


















Fox-face rabbit (???):











"Tom-pot Blenny" wouldn't even come out to be photographed at all. And who can blame him/her?

6. The whiskery. (personal chin hair comment deleted)
















7. The almost-invisible.
There are 3 fish in this picture.














8. Those that probably wish they were invisible












and 9. Those which really should be invisible:



















10. The vaguely disturbing















11. The definately disturbing.
















12. The beautiful. My favourite. What fabulous colours. Inspiration for a tassel maybe....










13. The beastly. aka "butters" (butt-ugly according to current south London slang.)


















14. The extraordinary and not-at-all-fish-like


















15. Robotic. Bizarre on quite a different level.



























16. Touchy-feely.
Also bizarre and unexpected, in that they felt unbelievably soft and velvety.
















17. And finally - the cute and very appealing.
At least, to me. Does that make me bizarre?


















So which of these would you most like to eat/be/be eaten by?

Morning Glory

My beautiful Morning Glory (Ipomoia, to the gardener's gardener).














These plants all seeded themselves from last year's plants which, in turn, seeded themselves from the previous year's plants. Which might have been some I grew from seed... I don't think I can remember that far back.

Whenever I've grown this plant - which really is glorious - from seed, it has been precious - fragile - tender - in need of protection from drought, snails and other hazards of the English garden. These plants which seed themselves are tough and lairy - laughing in the face of drought, scoffing at the thought of slugs.

Some seeded themselves between the cracks in the patio brickwork, and showed not the slightest awareness of the drought conditions killing off other plants.



















Called Morning Glory because they only flower in the morning, these plants (which grow like weeds in the hedgerows in Perpignan, take note Tat!) have exquisitely elegant long furled buds and wonderful deep rich colours.



































Cause for reflection, as I'm doing lots of pre-Autumn work work in the garden (I wont admit its Autumn for a while yet) that whatever I plan, Nature may well have other - and probably better - ideas.

Autumnmnmnmnmnmnmn

Go on, just do it!

I''m just catching up with the fact that elderberries now ripen late August/September, rather than September/October, as I'm sure they used to. In the good old days. Once again this year, I nearly missed them. Just in time, phew, to make this wonderful syrup.

(if there are still some berries around in our micro-climate of London, there will probably be plenty where you are).

This is delicious diluted with water, with/without lemon added - also good with sparkling water. LG loves it. Also v. good with hot water as an alternative to mulled wine. Will substitute quite nicely for cassis, to make kir.

And additionally - a traditional medieval remedy for chest problems, this is excellent for coughs, colds and sore throats with hot water, with/without added honey, lemon, booze. Its very very high in vitamin C.

What more could you ask? Its dead easy to make, and you can make any amount - just do at least a little, before its too late and I'm sure you'll want to make more.


Elderberry syrup

from Roger Phillips Wild Food book, Pan 1983.


Pick ripe elderberries (recipe says on a dry day - I've picked them in the rain, and not suffered obviously bad consequences).

Any quantity. (see - you can just try a very very little bit, and see if you like it)
Wash and drain.

Strip fruit from stems (a fork is useful for this - and I don't usually worry about all the tiny little bits of stems. Otherwise it would take all day.) (well... hours anyway)

Put into a pan and add just enough water to cover the fruit. Simmer for about half an hour. (or boil rather too rapidly, if like me you are a bit neglectful).

Strain through a jelly bag or muslin. (or a tea-towel, so long as you don't mind the new colour it will gain) (or even a seive, which I've used this year.)

Measure the juice, and for each pint of juice add 1 lb/450g of sugar and 10 cloves.
Heat gently, stirring till all the sugar is dissolved. Boil/simmer for 10 mins, leave to cool - and then bottle.

As easy as that.

This will freeze in plastic bottles, but I usually use bottles with good stoppers (french cider bottles, Grolsch bottles, port bottles) or screw-tops (some olive oil bottles are quite nice) and it keeps perfectly well in a cool dark cupboard - we are just finishing the last bottle from last year.

I had a pic. of my satisfying shining dark bottles, but Blogger says NO. This year I had about 2 pints of juice, and after adding sugar etc. this ended up giving me about 3 litres of syrup.

Off today to see if there are still some berries left, more would be even better.

buzz buzz buzz

Busy busy buzz buzz buzz

Not with work though.
Nor blogging.
Nor buying school uniform. (Its okay, it is bought though).

Excursus:
M went to buy school uniform etc. today, with LG. Despite (actually rather brief) list and ample shopping opportunity, some items were mysteriously not bought. I always thought the function of a list was for reminding one what needs to be bought/done; for checking (?before leaving the shop??) to make sure nothing is omitted. I fail to understand how this happens. Is it "I couldn't be arsed & wanted to get home to my computer" disguised as "Oh dear! how did I forget that?"
Nothing crucial though, all will be ready for the start of school on Weds.
Including the round protractor thingy.

2 visits to TKMaxx within 3 days. Some great goth / skull-embellished clothes and trainers for LG's birthday. OMG she will be 12 soon.

Great visit from RW and her girls & visit to the London Aquarium (picture blog to follow, I'm loving my new(-ish) camera).
Lovely evening with RW and Molly - which involved rifling through some of my button collection - recently added to with some lovely lovely buttons from (lovely) Donna, via a swap.

Guests from Jersey - Dizzy and GOM (not so grumpy at all actually).
Watching and celebration of M's (excellent, interesting, engaging, articulate.....) appearance on BBC TV on Sunday morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're waiting for further offers. (Lets hope they pay him, next time.)

Dizzy and I spent the rest of Sunday making tassels.





























More pictures will follow on my textiles blog.

Work MUST ensue this week, I have marking to do.
Not before I do my tassel blog though - so much more compelling.

UPDATE - for more tassels, click here. (did do work first though :o( )

Tats Tips

CONGRATULATIONS TAT!



You look fabulous in print, 3 (THREE) pages in (new just off the press) Tonic magazine (Oct. edition).

















































Includes Tat's top travel tips.

I hope you can't read the print - because you need to go and buy your own copy.

Jiggity Jig

Home again home again….

… from a good week with my parents.

The first couple of days were hard as my mother was not so good, and slept most of the time. Which makes it seem as though she really is slipping away – and makes you feel as if you should somehow be preparing yourself (how?) for the worst.

But after that, she was much much better – to the extent that we even went to Eastbourne for lunch one day.

We revisited the Hydro – a very genteel hotel previously mentioned in this blog as the kind where one constantly expects Miss Marple or Poirot to appear around the corner. It was M’s first visit. He found it rather disconcerting, feeling that we were contravening some minimum age requirement, and that too long a visit would hasten the onset of arthritis.

Lovely lunch though!

We then cavorted on the beach.
Watched by lots of beady black eyes


Stones... of course, you have to. And yes, I did bring some home with me. Including one perfect tiny speckled birds-egg stone.


The creature from the Black Lagoon.

LG swam, even though it meant swimming in her T-shirt and undies, and changing furtively on the beach!!!!!


My family all arrived on Saturday (brother and sister, with respective families) – completely surprising and delighting my mum – for a wonderful birthday party. Possibly the first ever surprise birthday party in my family. (!) (Yes, really!) Certainly the most precious birthday.

My father had bought a card for her with the following words, by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke:

I am so glad that you are here.

It helps me to realise how beautiful my world is.


I can find no words to describe how that felt/feels.

Mum said she woke the following morning “brimful of happiness”.


The rest of our visit was spent visiting charity shops, taking afternoon naps, getting early nights (lots of sleep, in fact), sitting chatting/reading/making tassels. (will blog about these, I promise, need to get around to taking pictures….) Relaxing and feeling so very very tired.

So we left my parents both in pretty good form, which makes the leaving bearable. A scan in a week or so will tell us whether or not the chemo is having any beneficial results on the secondaries. In the meantime most days are far better than we might have hoped – and each one is a day we might not have expected to have at all.

And home again home again jiggity jig.

Back to reality – LG begins secondary school in a weeks time.
Must remember to buy school uniform

Must remember to buy school uniform

Must remember to buy school uniform

Must remember to buy school uniform

And a circular protractor thingy.

Our term doesn’t begin for another 3/4 weeks.

I have so far been unable to coax my mind into facing the fact that I WILL, before long, HAVE to do some work. Not that I’ve done much coaxing, to be honest.

RW and her girls are here for a couple of days, which is wonderful, and the best possible excuse not to face up to work for just a little bit longer.

We went to the cinema last night (A Scanner Darkly – v. much enjoyed it) (dozed off just a little at one point – problem with me, not with the film) and it felt just a little chilly in the evening air. PTB – end of summer also approaches.

G&T will be drunk, sheds will be complimented, TK Maxx will be visited.

I will report back later.

Summer time/s ...

... and the living ain't easy.


Well, isn't it quiet in Blogland? - people being on holiday/ in the garden / on the beach / preoccupied / doing other, better, different things..... summer time, different kinds of time ...

Plenty going on though, in other lives, countries, times, realities.
Time can go at such different rates, in different areas of one's life.


This week I have been mostly:

sorting recent vintage button acquisitions

sorting some of the above for a button swap with Donna (little things, great pleasures)

failing to spend time in the garden due to persistent rain
(at least, at the times when I've been up and feeling like gardening)
(but my repairs on leaky water butt seem to have worked, hurrah)
(but of course persistent rain means I don't need it now, doh!)

spending too much time on the computer (games, mostly .... )

bickering with LG DC (most definately DC not LG) - 11 - going on (permanently - pre-menstrual -) 14 years old
(and no she wouldn't like it if I talked to her in that tone of voice and I wasn't shouting actually yet)
WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO SHOUT?

finishing painting of hall/stairs/landing - started last June - could be worse....

not thinking about work
(who? what? students? marking? essays? timetables? means nothing to me ..... )

not doing housework (hardly any, anyway ... )

making tassels (details will follow, on my other, crafty blog) (yes, its as weird and gratuitous as it sounds)

visiting parents

managing not to drink too much wine
(when there is wine in the house, that is. Not much shopping being done these days).


Easy times, at times.

Not always easy.

I'm doing extremely well in my resolve to work less and live and enjoy life more. To the extent that the house is getting a bit squalid, tbh, and there isn't much food around. In the fridge/freezer that is..... theres always enough in our famously capacious cupboards to keep us gong for at least 2 weeks. A result of being brought up with a well-stocked walk-in larder.

I'm spending time playing games on the computer, leaving the washing up, letting M. do almost all the cooking, ceasing to see dust and dirty windows, becoming hardened the sight of "needs to be done" and almost completely innured to the pig-sty which is LG's bedroom.

(almost)

So life is easy in some respects.

(M cooked a roast tonight. Yummy. But could I throw out the carcass etc.? - as we are going away tomorrow? could I b******. The stock pot is hissing and steaming even now, to make tasty, nutritious, cheap chicken stock to go in the freezer for a meal on our return. A result of being brought up by someone who grew up during the war. Dig for Britain and all that. Sigh. Though I can now sometimes leave food on my plate. If I'm seriously too full. Sometimes. It is an achievement, titter ye not.)

My grandfather fought in WW1. In the trenches at Ypres. Blimus. And there are values which I do value, imbred into me, as a result of all that. But its a dodgy business, inbred values.


Things "at home" are also getting much easier.
No more counselling till Sept., but some corners have been turned, I think, and the view ahead is now brighter. (I think) (mostly)
( :o} )

My mother is also fairly stable and comfortable at the moment. She's having chemo - purely palliative, but seems to be working for now, slowing down the secondaries. She's got v. good pain control, a wonderful Macmillan nurse who visits at home. And its her birthday on Saturday.

I've been buying dresses for her - always small, and recently shrinking because of osteoperosis, most of her is now about size 8. But she can only wear dresses now, not trousers/skirts, loose around her waist because of the main tumour and needs size 18. Maternity dresses are the perfect solution, so I've been shopping on eBay.

I'm also buying headscarves, and looking in my craft books at little crotcheted hats, as the side-effects of the chemo set in.

Not easy. And leaving is not easy, at the end of each visit. And thinking about the future is not easy.

But in the meantime - we have another birthday with her, which we'd anticipated we might have to face without her.

Keep your fingers crossed for her wedding anniversary, which is Sept. 1st.

We're off again tomorrow, myself, LG and M, to spend up to a week with her and prepare (secretly and furtively) for the arrival of the rest of the family for her birthday.
Looking forward to early nights, tassel-making - and just being there.

Moi - according to Pink

I forgot, in my last post (about my vacance francais(e?)) to show you this.




This is me, according to Pink (Tat's 3rd and very artistic daughter).

Can you guess what I was doing?

Only one clue - I wasn't AT ALL as miserable as I might look here!

What a brilliant picture!

Back to reality

Remember this?

Nearly didn't bother posting it, after I eventually found it - not one of The Greatest Songs Ever - but firstly, the words are rather apt actually for my situation (though I've never listened to the words before) and secondly, now you'll be humming it all day. hahaha.

(btw I tried to embed this, but blogger kept telling me the tag wasn't closed... though it looked closed to me... any help from anyone out there?)

Back from Perpignan.

PTB

Grey, rainy and a little on the chilly side in the UK at the moment.

PTB

I gather the weather turned just in time for our return yesterday. I had to open my suitcase on the train and find more clothing to wear. With sleeves.

PTB

Work emails to deal with.

PTB

Missing Tat.

PTB


Enough of that.
Some photos:


Fantastic clouds on the plane over.



Did you know there are cloud-spotters?

Like train-spotters, but devoted to unusual cloud formations.

The second of these pics. reminded me of a Roger Dean album cover, very 70's. Though not nearly psychadelic enough of course.

There was lots of this going on in Tat's pool:
















A bit of this on the beach
















This is LG's purchase from a Perpignan flea market.
I blame the parents myself ...













And my gift to myself.








The only flip-flop to be seen in in Perpignan.



Back to reality now.

Realities.

Another Blogger commented a while back that when someone close to you is dying, it is rather like living in a parallel universe. And it strangely is.

It was hard to come back from France - from a week when I relaxed, switched off (mostly), lounged around, spent lovely time with lovely Tat and less - but still lovely - with Trac (also lovely) (skinny dipping incident to be related hopefully by Trac (?) later ?) - to my various situations at home.

But my mum seems to be as well as we can expect - mostly comfortable, a recent blood transfusion and more chemo seems to have had some beneficial results - and I'll be back down there to see her soon.

So.... my blogging will probably go on being intermittent.

Please don't stop visiting.
(another help request - if my sidebar has slipped to the bottom, please let me know - and tell me which browser you use. Thanx!)

I'll try and find time to visit you too.