Summertime and the living is ….. busy

Well many weeks since my last post and been busy ………
garden is now full bloom and all weeds hidden.
Had  six out of our eight Summer parties so far for family & friends to celebrate Robert’s 60th (March 30th last) & our Silver wedding (Oct 25th next)
The parties have been hectic, hard work but masses of fun and definately worth doing.
Every one is different and so good to relax and see folks we may not have seen for such a long time. Some have flown long distances to be with us and others  wandered up the road.

 Lots of  wine,  water and Schloer  combined with my cooking and the new patio and marquee.

Six down and another two to go. Fingers crossed the weather continues to stay fine & dry.

Gardening

How To Plant Your Garden

First, you come to the garden alone,
while the dew is still on the roses.

FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING ,

PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS :

1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of soul

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:

1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:

1. Lettuce be faithful
2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:

1. Turnip for meetings
2. Turnip for service
3. Turnip to help one another

TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:

1. Thyme for each other
2. Thyme for family
3. Thyme for friends

Water  freely   with patience and cultivate with love
There is much fruit in this garden because you reap what you sow.

Parties & the sixties …….

What a hectic week.  Garden still being sorted. Summer House almost finished & ready to serve afternoon tea  once the electricians have reconnected the electric supply  ….
No I don’t do rub two sticks, make fire, boil water… make tea.  Life’s too short once you get a bus pass.

More invitations & parties to celebrate.  Love the ones with a theme & everyone dresses up.
Saturday went to a Musical themed party. Great time and I was designated photographer.
Sorted out my costume months ago (Mod 60s outfit)  but Robert decided Saturday lunchtime, so mad dash into town and trawled through shops. He picked his gear (Glam Rock) and looked the part ….

 We had a wonderful time and even caught up with friends hadn't seen for 40 years:)
 Shattered on Sunday tho  and  back  to tackling the weeds and paperwork this week.
 
 Oh the memories of the fun we had in the real swinging sixties not the arthritic  60s of today.

Wet wet wet weekend

Well we are supposedly in a drought…
but the weekend has been full of rain filling up the water butts.

Exhausted on Saturday after the party but managed to get on some glad rags and four layers to keep warm to attend a friend’s garden party Sunday lunchtime.

There was such heavy rain but everyone had a wonderful time in a very large dry marquee with some great jazz playing in the background. Good to relax and chat with our village friends. Such a shame our lovely hostess had been rushed into hospital so she missed it. Hope she is soon back home 100% well again.

Monday back to the grindstone … hitting the shops first.

Party Time with Wantage AV friends

Held first Celebration party in marquee,   lots of time spent titivating the garden, planting weeding  and R  was cutting back hedges overgrowth and cleaning all the outside furniture.
I worked late on Thursday evening, grabbed some winter heathers and took the shears to cut off the dead flowers and sheared the side of my left hand along with the heather !

OooooooH  it did hurt and lots of blood but  washed it out and was able to carry on Friday with all the cleaning,  cooking  and  preparations.
SooooooooH  disappointing  first the chocolate cake I cooked as R’s birthday cake  didn’t do as it was told and half fell to bits coming out of cake tin …. I know I never usually have this problem with my Waitrose cakes!
Was gonna say Tesco but thought Waitrose sounded grander  for any posh readers.
This Blog is more wittering than twittering really.

Then of course the heavens opened and poured down the heavy rain  to help our UK drought and my freshly planted flowers to grow.
Once they arrived,   everyone had to dash into the garden & dive into the  marquee which thankfully stayed lovely and dry.
We all had a wonderful time and even my disaster chocolate cake was complimented on and eaten
May have  been my  comments about not unlocking the garden gate to let anyone go home  til all the food was eaten.

I enjoyed the champagne   & the  good company.

Anthony has spent several days working hard to revamp the new Summer house patio too & that’s soon going to be redone, finished & looking good…
but should we tempt fate by making comments like that ?

Home, home to the rain …….

Back from sunny Gower with glorious sunshine to wet Wiltshire.

Bought lots more bedding plants to brighten up the garden ready for the party season and the rain just descended…..
least I won’t have to water any now. The water butts are full.

Meanwhile the Summer house floor showed signs of age and decay … sounds like me really .. sagging bottom

Further investigation showed it needed replacing & not an easy task so today got our “Butler” to take it to bits & get it sorted.
Good ol’ Ant strikes again
It’ll be good as new on a spanking new base very soon.

       Don’t suppose all these heavy showers will be good for photography tonight tho
Was looking forward to getting out the camera.

Still I found  a   Snow White to go with my 7 dwarves   ….only now  Dopey has vanished ………….

fell off the wall and did a Humpty Dumpty   so have to find a new one
or poor S-W  will start the water works going
and there have been enough of those around here recently !

Clean start to the day !

Wow!
Thank goodness for good friends.

First thing this morning I heard the shower running, as Robert was up and dressed called him to tell him he hadn’t turned it off ……..
unfortunately it wasn’t the shower but water running through the ceiling!
Turned off mains water & up to loft to check   ……nothing to see there.

SOS to plumber but he was off out for weekend so called our good friend John.
He promptly came over & discovered it wasn’t a leak but a wrongly installed vent giving condensation drips – lots !
So we were able to get water back on & mop up very much relieved.
Another job to get fixed properly very soon.
Robert is a wonderful husband with millions of good points but DIYer he ain’t.

He’s now learning to BBQ and we had our first Robert cooked BBQ yesterday – lovely steak too  ………….   10 out of 10.
Of course woke up to light showers today      -  inside & outside the house so guess I’ll have to cook indoors today.

Good friends are such a special gift.
We are blessed with   all ours

Royal Wedding Neighbourhood party.

Deep in the dark

Well outside the sun is shining, the weeds are growing and I’ve been stuck in front of my computer screen for hours updating several of my web sites before I send out the publicity for the next RPS DI Group meetings
Guess I’ll call it a day and go grab some weed………

Miss those lovely warm Spanish barbeques.
Wonder if Robert’s switched the gas burners on and wants to cook for us tonight ?

Back on Terra Firma again

Well after a wonderful week in sunny Spain we were delayed 24 hours at Murcia airport when the plane developed faults. Never seen so many emergency drills in my life before.

Flying out from Bristol we were on schedule, boarded Easyjet plane, taxied down runway, given emergency drill when the plane stopped at the end and we were told there was a “problem”.
Later it transpired there was a brake fault so luckily a spare plane was available so we trouped off, onto coaches ferried across the runway to another empty plane along with our luggage.
Flew off a few hours late to blue skies and warm days relaxing and sightseeing with good friends.

After a  super week chilling out in the heat, with lots of delicious barbeques and wine, all too soon,    it was back to Murcia airport  to fly home.

Again no hold up embarking into the plane, we  taxied .. emergency drill with stewardesses,  and yet again halt at end of runway!
This time lots of yellow waistcoats huddled with the Captain in the cockpit and phone calls to LA = Luton airport.
Two faults this time & yes a brake was mentioned.
No spare plane and the nearest engineer was miles away so we had to go back to the terminal building, then report to staff and several hours later coaches arrived to take us to the hotels.

Three coaches in fact & by the time we went to get on there was no room at the inn … Ok in the coach! So another 45 minutes waiting for coach number 4 to take us to hotel, which was of course the furthest away.
By 2 am we were well and trully ready for bed. Collected in morning by coach and back to airport to wait for the afternoon flight.

Yes we had the fourth emergency drill and the plane did lift off and flew home, while I had a few niggling thoughts about “brakes” and landing again.
So home a day late appointments cancelled but safe and sound again.

Now to tackle all the weeds which have dared to grow  in the wet weather UK had  while we were  away .
Oh we went to Los Lobos
Very highly recommended & we will return … maybe by train tho ?

Skipping along nicely – clearing a little clutter

Busy, busy,   Doing lots of the domestic chores……
Not really  a green godesss more a red  demon .

Working my usual late hours cooking for the freezer,  sewing … OK  I  put  a needle through material  to shorten many “Summer”    jeans & trousers which have been on the “to do ” list  as long as I can remember  … which isn’t very long these days with the old senility and the occasional cooking sherry !   All my family can sew – except me
I’m more of a copydex  and safety pin designer-type.

We’ve had a skip for days and filled it with old pots, garden rubbish, patio rubble,  and all those boxes empty  from the loft – kept in case we had to send “it” back.  ”It”    of course has long gone to the great  electronic showroom in the sky,   but  the box still remains-    until today.
If only I could shed the lbs and  put them in the skip so easily. But the ozs are slowly leaving, so I’m on the right track.

Back to pack now  - two of us with one suitcase  =  domestic dis-harmony.