The Spixworth Sentinel. Third Edition
Since my second edition I’ve been busy trying to work, sort out my garden and get the odd article up and running.
As far as the work is concerned, it’s certainly taken an upturn which basically means that I don’t have as much time as I’d like to do my gardening or my writing! My gardening has been further hindered by the cold wet weather which seems never ending. However, I did finally find time to shove a few tubers and bulbs into pots over the Bank Holiday weekend (5 to 7 May) as well as some plants, cut the lawn and even plant up some veg! So far all I can see amongst my pottings are one dahlia, three lilies and a gladioli, not really very inspiring considering I planted up a total of 20 bulbs. And upon inspection of the nine pinks/carnations I placed in pots rather than in the ground to ensure that the cats didn’t dig them up, they still had a go at them by digging in the pots! I’ve now planted up a few more and covered the pots over with a bit of gardening netting. The cats also dug up every one of my five dwarf (French) bean plants so I’ve now had to order some seeds as garden ready plants, it seems, have sold out. I’m just hoping that I have time to get them big enough to produce some beans later in the summer.
This last weekend Saturday (12 May) wasn’t brilliant – it was dry but overcast and cold, but from having a quick squint at the Met Office website, I found that our local weather was due to turn up the heat a bit on the Sunday by about 3O and it was going to be sunny so decided it would probably be a good idea to spend Saturday doing things around the house and buy a few bits and bobs online. First of all I decided to place an order with Boots the nationwide chemist (drugstore). I was fast running out of cleanser and moisturiser (essential for a woman of my age!) and investing in some other lovely treats. Over here in the UK Boots have a “rewards card” so every time I spend money with them, they give me points which I can then redeem on line towards the purchase of future goods. I always seem to forget this fact but as I’d spent a fair bit (around £40!) on my beautification goodies I thought I’d just check and see how much I’d got on my card. I was delighted to see that I had almost £30 on there, so my bill only came to £10 or so. Unfortunately I also had to pay postage but, thanks to my monthly Triond payments which I’d accrued, I had enough to cover the postage – so success there!
I then decided to look at my usual clothing/home catalogue as I needed a lightweight waterproof jacket with a hood for when I go out into the wilds with my camera. The cheapest one I could find was £45 which seemed ludicrous considering I was just going to screw it up into a ball and leave it in the boot of the car so Adam suggested I try Amazon. And Amazon was Amazing! I managed to get a pac-a-mac with hood for under a fiver and then found two summer tops at £3 each and a pair of decent looking trousers for under £10. Unfortunately, I was also drawn to the garden section and discovered a pair of long handled lawn shears which cost me £14. I didn’t really need them but the angel sitting on one shoulder was kicked into touch by the devil on the other – I considered I’d been particularly frugal with my clothing purchases and had a bit of luck with my chemist order that I deserved a little treat!!
Adam has recently started the beta of a new online game – Secret World – and he wanted to spend time playing with his European and US friends which left me free to watch loads of TV which I’d recorded as I’d been too busy to watch them during the week. Being a child of the 60s I’m currently hooked on an old 1960s series which starred Roger Moore (latterly of James Bond fame) in The Saint and was surprised to find that one of the episodes I watched co-starred Lois Maxwell – Moneypenny in James Bond! Here’s a link for those of you who are interested to see them together pre Roger’s James Bond days!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2jpLZ02KQo I can remember as a kid that I was always allowed to stay up half an hour later during the week to watch Bewitched, The Man From UNCLE and The Saint!
On Sunday the weather did indeed warm up and even stayed relatively sunny for me! I swiftly cut the lawn before I’d even had breakfast – just in case the weather took a turn for the worse – and then planted up my veg. I’d ordered a pack of six mixed plants. These consisted of a red pepper and chilli pepper which I planted at the front of the house as it’s a bit of a sun trap … but I made sure there was enough garden netting over them so hopefully the cats won’t dig them up and while I was out there with my bum in the air, our new community police lady walked by and said hello. Funny how the police lady seems more inclined to wander round the new district making herself known but, in the past, the community policemen haven’t bothered!! Or maybe they had passed by when I had my bum in the air and decided it was wisest to give me a wide berth.
I then decided to plant up an aubergine (egg plant) and courgette (zucchini) in a trough filled with coir compost. In trying to be eco friendly I’d opted for the coir rather than peat based compost but, by jingo, it’s hard to use!! It’s fine once you can break into it, but let’s just say I think I now have an inkling of how soul destroying and back breaking it must be for prisoners who are sent out to break rocks all day!!!
Having spent most of the morning having to walk out across the lawn to reach the staging where I did all my potting up, I thought it would be sensible to cut back the honeysuckle so I could use the path in future – have no idea why I hadn’t thought of it earlier in the day; probably could have saved me several minutes but there you are … we can’t all be Einsteins. While I was placing my pots and troughs around the garden I was pleased to say that one of my five lavender plants had managed to survive the cats and equally pleased to see that three out of five raspberry plants in the garden were now coming out towards the daylight!! But the highlights of the day were spotting some newly hatched damsel flies enjoying the sunshine on the edge of our pond and the smell of the lilac blossom. Couldn’t have been a more perfect day.
As the weather was beginning to turn a bit windy I decided to leave the two tomato plants and the remainder of my pinks but all in all it had been a hectic but rewarding day and I was surprised to see that when I got back into the house it was about 3.30! I’d missed both breakfast and lunch! So I then set to and made up a pheasant casserole – it was nice and quick and easy; just chuck it in a casserole dish with some chopped onions, carrots, potatoes, frozen peas and green beans and a can of new potatoes, add a bit of gravy and stick it in the oven. The pheasant had already been cooked so it was just a matter of sticking what was left into the gravy – easy, peasy but delicious!!
As Adam was keen to “eat and run” due to his beta, I took a shower, chucked on my jim-jams and a housecoat, settled in my reclining chair in my sofa snug with a lovely hot cuppa and a bar of choccie by my side and watched the final of Britain’s Got Talent. I was amazed that a dog actually won it! Pudsey and his owner Ashleigh definitely deserved it – and Simon Cowell went well up in my estimations having said at the end of the performance that he loved dogs and couldn’t abide animal cruelty in any way, shape or form.
Here are Ashleigh and Pudsey in action!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IaWHhHAMJk
Now down to the articles I’ve managed to turn out two over the last couple of weeks.
As you probably know, I just LOVE history, but not necessarily the school book stuff but the slightly more obscure. I’d spent ages researching the life and times of Aphra Behn – a 17th century writer but getting the correct information had presented quite a challenge. There was all sorts of conflicting information around so I gathered together about half a dozen versions and finally came up with what appeared to be the majority verdict! Having got together all the documentation I needed, I then had to try and whittle it down for my readers so that they didn’t become bored halfway through. I think I eventually managed it successfully but I’ll let you be the judge of that!
And today (Monday 14 May), work has been a bit scant so I’ve managed to finish of a long outstanding article. It was one of those that needed considerable research and Googling left right and centre but I eventually got there in the end!!
I found out some fantastic info about the war on drugs! I was amazed what I learned about the history of the UK opium trade. I’d always been led to believe that the east end of London had been a maze of opium dens but this myth has now been dispelled as far as I’m concerned. Hope you find it as enlightening reading it as I did researching it!
http://socyberty.com/history/the-war-against-drugs-is-not-a-new-phenomenon
