A Sausage Apology

 No doubt I’m in store of some sort of internet backlash but I admit I locked the dogs inside the cottage by mistake this morning.

I only knew my mistake when I ventured a quick glance at my phone messages on my break at 11.30 am .

It was a earlier message from Trendy Carol I noticed first

“ I can’t get in ! “ it said plaintively 

I had double locked the back door 

The dogs are never left home alone more than four hours when I’m at work. Today they were left nearly fourteen.

I felt like a right heel 

Now if my mistake had occurred when Winnifred was alive, I would have faced a sulk worthy of Mariah Carey who had not been presented with her usual dressing room full of puppies and kittens but after being released from the cottage , Mary & Dorothy bounced forward like a pair of Bonnie Langfords on acid.

Ive just taken them for a long walk, then cleaned the kitchen of bodily fluids before treating both girls with the  nectar of the terriers 

Cheap, plastic looking hot dog sausages 

They adore them with a passion .

Even Winnie would have been won over if I had waved one Gayly in her direction ….

It’s been a busy day at work …but a productive one

I will be cutting my hours from 150 a month to 96 on the First of July

Cockerel On Time

 

Where has the day gone? 

It’s 6.30 and the bantam rooster has just tapped on the window for his supper.

I’m not going to choir

It’s been cancelled again 

More covid.

Sigh.

Greg, my little bathroom man came this morning and has arranged to start work, the week after next .

His quote is well under what I expected 

His electrician will repair the faulty cooker extractor fan too.

We talked a lot about dogs.

He also suggested that I book a skip.

I went to see our work counsellor this afternoon. 

She will support my counselling course and will supervise me in practice 

Everything seems to be slipping into place

Pottery Results

The “ landscape” letter rack turned out a bit lurid 

 

But my fat camel looked pretty sweet

As did the octopus 

My salt spoon looked as though a five year old had made it lol

Gongs and Bhajis

 It’s 14 degrees, warmish, slightly overcast with a breeze from the south East. The cattle in the fields West of the village are all sat with their faces to the weak sun . Their backs to the wind.

The cottage smells of turmeric and mild curry powder.

I’m making low fat vegetable bhajis.

I’ve decided that the tulips I bought will last another week if I’m lucky, a Walker in the lane commented only last week that he always like the fact I have flowers in a vase in the lane window.

He mentioned that my wisteria had started to sprout on the garden arch.

I hadn’t noticed.

Last night I watched the Olivier Awards. 

The compare Jason Manford set the tone straight away by joking with the audience that “ This is an evening of back-slapping, not face-slapping!”

I think everyone seemed to appreciate the comment. 

Lovely to see Sheffield’s own Life Of Pi do so well and I was made up to see the four leading actors in Cabaret winning a gong too….especially Elliot Levy and Lisa Sadovy the old German couple who find love in the twilight of their lives.

The bhajis have turned out exceptionally well.

So much so that I will post the recipe 

One large onion, thinly sliced

One large sweet potato grated

One large carrot, grated

2 cm fresh ginger grated

2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp turmeric

50 g of chick pea flour

Zest and juice of a lime

1 red chilli chopped

Mix ingredients into patties

Cook in hot oven 200 for half an hour

Serve with soya yogurt flavoured with mango chutney

It’s the half season finale for The Walking Dead later

Mindfullness

 I remembered a nurse called Olga today .

I’m sure she has died by now.

She was an older woman when I worked with her many moons ago 

I didn’t like Olga. 

She was brusque and prickly and she never really liked the patients she cared for.

Having said that, 

She never really liked her co workers either.

However Olga liked flowers.

She would bring bunches in from her garden at home, or would send the more biddable patients out when  the daffodils filled the hospital flower beds and would cram a myriad of glass vases with blooms , placing  displays on window ledges and on tables and anywhere they could be seen . 

Weekly she would empty each vase and would hand wash them with hot soapy water in the ward sluice 

It was a ritual she always completed on her own 

Hot soapy water

Cleaning the glass inside and out

Then rinsing each vase before leaving them to air dry 

“ It’s my restful time “she explained once “my time” 

A woman who didn’t really like people enjoying a mindless , repetitive job 

I thought of Olga today as I cleaned my collection of Burleigh Ware  Art Deco crockery. 

I had placed it all on top of my kitchen cabinets five years ago where it has become greasy and dirty with cooking and dust and soot from the fire and slowly and deliberately I have soaked each piece and cleaned away the dirt until my fingers wrinkled from the soaking and the bleach.

It’s been a mindful afternoon with the ticking of the kitchen clock and the sound of bird sound from the garden my only company.

Freya & Mary

 The problem with always being busy is that sometimes when you stop, you can come down, just a little,  with a bump. 

I was feeling like that this evening, feeling I wanted to do something but at the same time feeling tired and sore 

Then the above photo was sent to me .

It was from Hattie .

Of her daughter Freya with the toy of  Mary I had given her when she was born  

It’s made my day.

Effin Knackered

 This morning I helped with a new Community project.

On a small plot of land on the east boundary of the village a small orchard of fruit trees have been planted.

Apple, cherry, pear and plum trees, ten of them all told have been planted and staked this morning, the fruit from which can be utilised by any of the village population .

It’s a lovely idea.

But I must admit Laurie ( from Well street) and I were effing knackered by the end of it.

Kate Bush - And A Night Without Kate

Sometimes a little gem of a show comes along and grabs you by the balls.

A Night Without Kate is one of those shows. Part tribute act, part stand up, and part cabaret it is a tour de force one woman show by actress singer Sarah Louise Young who fell in love with Kate Bush as a school girl and who has never wanted to forget her idol.

Using costume, humour and stage effects Young performs some lovely versions of Bush’s most famous songs and in one memorable moment of pure theatre she asked a older couple in the audience who was “interviewed “ in the warm up to dance together on the stage as she sang Don’t Give Up

It was a beautiful and incredibly moving moment in a warm, engaging and nostalgic show

I loved it.

I’m glad Gorgeous Dave liked it too, although being in his thirties, he was unaware of most of the songs