A Bit Of A Squash?

Four plants appeared in the raised bed. This is the largest. They looked like "real" plants, not weeds. I asked two visiting friends who both declared them to be squash or similar. No sign of any 'fruit' [yet]

I have just dug up the last of the lettuces. They'd bolted and the leaves were tasting a little bitter. So Row 1 of the raised bed is now home to the 'volunteer squash' which I have carefully transplanted. You never know...
Talking to my 'London' SIL last night, I mentioned my beans - and the fact that despite lots of leaves and scarlet flowers, I've only had a couple of handfuls of beans. She said hers are just the same, as are "everyone else's". It is the hot weather, and I do not need to worry. Not just me then.
Here are the last few leaves and some more tasty toms.

Bon said I must take a picture of the apple tree, it has produced the best crop in years. "We may not see it like this again for a while" He declared. So here it is, many fruit, ripening fast!

I was not planning on more mugs, but I saw one in a bin outside a CS on Monday...Here's my National Trust Head Gardener's Mug

and now, a 'companion piece' for Bob

Well for 50p, I just had to, didn't I?

The recent rain has certainly revived the grass, and refilled the butts, for which I am grateful. And there is the promise of more fruit and veg in coming months.
How does your garden grow, this week?

Benchmark

benchmark - a point of reference against which other things may be compared - a "gold standard". The best it can be

• The Men's Shed Movement seeks to provide the best. 
• Connection, conversation and creation – that’s what joining a Men’s Shed is all about. 
• Men’s Sheds encourage people to come together to make, repair and repurpose, supporting projects in their local communities. Improving wellbeing, reducing loneliness and combatting social isolation.

On Monday, I helped Bob to deliver the latest project that our Shed Men have been working on, And it was to an organisation which is totally in support of the Shed's aims. We went to Easton College near Norwich, to the HQ of Active Norfolk.

This group works to enable everybody, men, women and children, believes that movement improves lives - activity and sport promote health and well-being for individuals and communities.

Here's Sam Watts, Senior Partnerships Office, explaining about their football programme

 

Sam contacted Bob recently to ask for help. Like many such organisations, Active Norfolk is funded by the County Council, with help from Sport England and ActivePartnerships, and therefore runs on a very tight budget. Their HQ is really small - and usually the team eat their lunch 'al desko' as they say, because they have no staff area. But at the back of the building is an area of grass, adjacent to the College rugby pitch. Sam wondered if the Shed could help by building a picnic bench, so that people could sit outside to eat lunch, or even work outside in the sunshine - and generally improve their working day. 

The Shed got to work - eight seater benches usually cost in excess of £200, but the men worked to produce one for around a quarter of that price. Then it was dismantled and loaded into the Kodiaq and Bob and I delivered it to AN's HQ. The three of us carried the parts round to the grass, and Bob quickly assembled it.

And here's the official handover

I really hope Sam and his friends really enjoy sitting out here in the sunshine - their work, like that of The Shed, serves as a benchmark for "good work which benefits both the individual and the community"

A Short Spell Of Rain

As a child [OK, I admit, even as an adult to] I was fascinated by words which had more than one meaning. Stable not rocky, or a place for horses. Rocky not stable, or like a rock. Rock a sort of music, or a big stone...
Spell is particularly wonderful. Is a short spell of rain defined as "R A I N" said very quickly, or is it "Abracadabra, pitter patter" said by a wizard? Neither, it means a brief period of rain🌧 
I love those little mnemonics which help with spelling

because Big Elephants 🐘Can Always Use Small Envelopes ✉️
ices can be found in the middle of LeICESter 🍦

deSiCCated CoConutS  all have one S and two Cs

rhythm Really Helps Your Two Hips Move [Steph taught me that when she learned it in primary school]

Spelling matters - I am afraid I get mildly irritated when British people use color, favor, fetus and other Americanisms. [except in Technicolor which is a brand name so definitely has no U]

I'm proud of my grandchildren's efforts to learn, and their good end-of-term school reports.

But I think it is possibly a lost cause. Texting has given us such conversations as "CU L8R?" "Gr8, B4 2moro!"  And ugly sentences like Hi m8, R U out 2nite? Are we surprised people cannot put a coherent message together? Julian recently sent me this picture, with the caption " Prfoof redader wnated" 

But U probably do not have time to db8 this, as U have 2 walk your K9. By the way, these words are called Numeronyms

I do not use these in my messaging, although I admit to some shortcuts [imho, btw, and wfh]

What do you think about these textspeak abbreviations?

Here is the verdict of Jess on Saturday's short [but heavy] spell of rain which soaked us right through. Once we got back to the car, she burst into song!

Wonderful, Wet, Workhouse Weekend

Term has finished, the family were in Norfolk for the weekend. A cheap pack of chalks and stencils provided amusement outside on the patio, in the late afternoon whilst Dad and Grandad went to Beck's to get fish'n'chips. Friday night's sleepover was followed by Grandad's Legendary Pancake Breakfast. 

Jess takes these Very Seriously. We used Great Grandma's Cherry Stoner to prepare a bowl of fresh cherries to eat with our pancakes.

Then Mum and Dad arrived and we went over to Gressenhall to the Museum. The girls loved discussing Workhouse life and dressing up as poor Victorian children.

We enjoyed a good lunch in the café [great discount for cardholders] then walked over to the farm to look at the animals and go for a ride behind the tractor. Then the heavens opened - just as we were outside, in the farmyard. Running to the cars we were soaked to the skin! Back to Cornerstones, where Grandad made hot chocolate, with marshmallows, and we changed into dry clothes and dressing gowns, and did some cardmaking...

I am very sad that Norfolk Museums Service has cancelled their "Guest Tickets" Scheme. Last year when we renewed our subscription, we were offered 15 Guest Tickets for £5 each. We used four on Saturday - saving £40 over the regular price of £60 for the family. We have used 13 of the tickets at various museums. They run out in September, and that £75 has already bought us £145 worth of tickets. NMS make money on their visitors in the gift shop and the café, but I cannot see families wanting to pay £60 for a day out...
Are there good museums near you? and are they expensive to visit?

Lord, Hear Us As We Pray For Peace.

We pray that this crisis will end now, without further loss of life.
We pray for the injured, the suffering, the starving
and for those who mourn their loved ones.
We pray for all people who have been displaced,
those who have lost their homes and have nowhere safe to go.
We pray for all those in danger at this moment.
Lord, hear us as we pray for peace.

We pray for the powerful, the decision-makers,
who can choose to act for peace.
May they follow the paths of justice, mercy and compassion.
We pray for recognition of the value of human life
We remember that we are all made in the image of God.
Lord, hear us as we pray for peace.

We pray for those who are most vulnerable.
We remember your call, Lord,
to help the bereaved, the stranger, the orphan.
We pray for medical staff and humanitarian workers
who continue to serve others,
even when they are themselves deeply affected by this conflict.
We pray especially for children caught up in the violence,
that they may know safety.
God of peace and justice, hear our prayers.

Pray not for Arab or Jew, for Palestinian or Israeli,
but pray rather for ourselves,
that we might not divide them in our prayers
but keep them both together in our hearts.

When races fight - Peace be amongst us
When neighbours argue - Peace be amongst us
When nations disagree - Peace be amongst us
Where people struggle for justice - Let justice prevail
Where Christ’s disciples follow - Let peace be our way 
Now may the Lord of peace himself
give you peace, at all times in all ways.

Prayers from Embrace and Christian Aid

 

A Blast From The Past

Last week I met up with an old blogging friend. When we first met [online] about 17 years ago her girls were still at school. Now one is a teacher, the other an artisanal baker. She said that being lactose and gluten intolerant she's very careful about what she eats. However there was one recipeone recipe from my blog, posted nearly 14 years ago*, which she still makes! And her daughter has tweaked the recipe and made it her own, to sell in the bakery. When I told Bob,  he said he thought a fruitcake was a good idea. So here is the post with recipe from 2011 - I plan to make it this week!

No eggs, no gluten, no added sugar…The Yes!Yes!Yes! cake is a brilliant birthday or Christmas cake – it suits almost everybody [except those with nut allergies] and cuts into a dozen slices or more. It is incredibly rich – after our first slices, we went in for much smaller pieces.

You need a 9” ‘springform’ cake tin like this

m

• 200ml oil [almond or sunflower]
• 500ml apple juice
• 300g chopped dates
• 500g mixed raisins and sultanas
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 300g ground almonds
• 1tsp grated nutmeg
• grated zest of 1 orange
• 100g chopped walnuts
• icing sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 140°C. Pour oil and juice in medium sized saucepan, stir in dates, raisins and sultanas. Bring to boil then simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Transfer mixture to large mixing bowl, stir in bicarb - it will sizzle furiously! Leave to cool for 10 minutes. Line the tin with baking parchment or a non-stick liner. Fold almonds, nutmeg, zest and walnuts into dried fruit mixture. Pour into the tin.
3. Take a large piece of baking parchment which will cover surface of cake and go at least halfway down sides of tin. Cut a circle 1”in diameter from centre of paper, then tie paper firmly in place.
4. Bake the cake for 3 hours, testing after 2½ hours with a skewer [through the hole!] When skewer comes out clean, cake is done. Run knife round the edge, and remove collar, leaving cake to cool on the base.
5. The following day, the cake will be ready to eat. Dust with icing sugar. It will keep well in a tin for several weeks.

Enjoy!! * back then I made the cake because a vegan friend was coming to stay for the weekend

Lightbulbs Or Teatrays?

I know the phrase a lightbulb moment, when you suddenly understand something, it all comes together, you are inspired.

In the world of crossword-speak [like the comments published underneath the Guardian cryptic every morning] people talk of a tea-tray moment. This is when you suddenly realise how a clue works, and why the answer is what it is.

Until recently I thought this referred to the sudden shock when the chambermaid brings in the tray and finds Sir Roderick murdered in his bed, and drops the tea-tray and screams. 

But I find I am quite wrong, it is the D'oh! gesture, beloved of Homer Simpson, when you slap your head, because you realise you got it completely wrong - and it is meant to symbolise bashing yourself on the head with a tea-tray, thinking
"How stupid am I?"

I have had not one but two tea-tray moments this week. On Wednesday I went to check on the tomatoes in the mini greenhouse, and I was really worried because one pot just did not seem to want to ripen - they had gone from a pale green to a honey colour - but no signs of the beautiful scarlet I was expecting. 

I bent down and checked the label on the pot [I got it from Toftwood Nurseries, when I bought my 'mini cucumber'] And realised they would never go red - because they were heritage tomatoes, intended to stay golden, named "Honey Delight"

I did have plenty of other scarlet beauties though, ranging from sweet little ones to sprinkle into salads, through to larger ones.

My second revelation was on Wednesday. I was due to meet a friend in Fakenham for coffee. I quickly stripped off, left my glasses in the bedroom and jumped in the shower

I scuttled back to the bedroom, and caught sight of myself in the mirror. I had a huge red zit on my nose. I am not particularly vain, but this did look ugly. Only when I put my glasses on to check it more carefully did I realise it was not a spot - just a bit of the price label from the new shower mat, which had somehow got stuck on my nose.

I guess we all misinterpret things wrongly sometimes, and feel a bit daft for doing so!

The Elephant In The Room

Tuesday was a free day, so we popped into Norwich for the morning. The 2025 GoGo Safari Trail has appeared for the summer. First we met an elephant. We did not go very far, but encountered three giraffes on our way from the car park to lunch

I bought a new non-slip mat for the shower - our current one is 16 years old and showing its age. I have been hunting for the right square mat since before Christmas. Without a mat it gets very slippery. I succumbed to a picture in a charity shop, to go in the kitchen.

You can't read the details, but the poster lists many places offering railway excursions up to the 1921 Poultry Show at Crystal Palace! These trains run from all those places in Kent which we had hoped to visit the other week as well as Gillingham where we lived in 1981, and Chatham where Liz was born.

We had an inexpensive lunch in Soupear, which is a delightful tiny café in Opie Street, near the Castle. It is run by a young couple from HongKong. We both had potato and chive soup, plus sourdough toast. It was presented beautifully, with a drizzle of fresh green olive oil and garnished with peashoots and dried rosepetals.

Then we walked back to the carpark at the end of St Benedict's Street, stopping to look at an art exhibition.

St Margaret's Church has been taken over by the Norwich Makers and Artists Collective, and there are free exhibitions running all year.

My favourite was a charcoal drawing on white cotton [about 7 yards long!] depicting the Bagot Goats which were a feature of Cromer Cliff for many years.  These creatures kept the vegetation down, and and were employed by the council as "natural maintenance operatives". Sadly they were removed last year

Bob liked some of the very modern bright pieces. We both felt we could have enjoyed the exhibition better if the 4 people at the entrance desk had not been talking and laughing so loudly. 
I hope to get into Norwich again soon - there are 51 creatures on the safari, and I have only seen 4 of them so far. Perhaps I will be able to do the trail with the grandchildren.  Here is the cheerful gogo-logo

Four Decades Later...

When Liz was 3, Bob was at College and money was tight. There weren't Charity Shops on every other street corner then - so I made lots of her clothes from remnants and scraps. Laura Ashley sold lots of gorgeous cord dresses and skirts which I could not afford. But they also sold bags of the odd shaped leftover pieces from the factory. For a couple of pounds I got loads of small cord patches. I made Liz a little blue jacket,  and appliquéd houses, and Big Ben, and on the front, a cloud and the sun. On the back, above the houses, I put stars and the moon. The cloud and moon were scraps of my wedding dress fabric. Liz called it her sun, moon, stars jacket. I gave it to her for Rosie, but it was just before lockdown, and Rosie never wore it. But this weekend, Liz showed it to Jess, and she adores it...

I just wanted to get a couple of pictures, front and back. Jess was busy dancing about, waving the bathroom duck, explaining it all to me! That's  Big Ben, Grandma. In London..." 

It is so lovely to see the little jacket being worn again

Sad To See It Go...

 

About 12 miles up the road, less than half an hour in the car, is Taverham. A small village, for many centuries, its great claim was that St Wulstan lived here. He was venerated as a saint before the Norman Conquest, and of noble birth [his mother closely related to Ethelred the Unready] But he renounced all that to become a farm worker. Now Taverham has all the usual facilities [schools, library churches, a big Lidl ...] including a large Garden Centre. 
The 'Nursery Centre' offers a lot more than just the regular stuff. On site there are other businesses - a windows company, shoe shop, art studio, Hospice Charity Shop and more.

For years there has been an excellent haberdashers/sewing shop called Sew Simple. the range of products on sale is phenomenal - quilting, dressmaking, knitting, embroidery, art and painting,

 cake decorating, children's crafts, craft books and patterns. I don't think there is anywhere else in Norfolk with such an extensive range.
I really enjoy going - just to wander around, and maybe buy a skein of DMC thread.

So I was quite upset when someone announced at our Craft Group yesterday that the store is closing down in August, as the owner has decided to retire. And everything is half price.

I get the impression this was quite sudden. When I got home from the group, Bob suggested we went over and had a look [We needed to get a few bits from Lidl, and he is researching Firepits] 

Here's my hoard:

• 2 packs tissue paper
• 10 skeins of DMC floss
• A reel of Guterman machine embroidery thread
• A pack of bobbins for the floss
• 23 adjustable slide buckles.

Original price in excess of £27.50 - I paid £12.63

I will explain the buckles later. It was fun to get some bargains  - but I am sad the shop is closing [especially for the staff who were completely unprepared and are now trying to find alternative jobs] Losing independent shops like this is inevitable I guess, when more and more people buy online, very cheaply from Temu etc, and are happy for great container ships from China to bring goods to the UK. 
But these ladies had excellent specialist knowledge and were always willing to help and advise. I know people who travel across the country to buy specific craft products from them - and pop into the Hospice shop and the other businesses too. A real loss!

Here's the Craft Group Summer Social - Jane taught us to make balls on sticks using leftover wool and bits of bamboo. Mine's the dull dark purple one at the front [all the fancy wools had already been grabbed] Jane suggested we should each make a load more to fill a vase to stand 'on the mantelpiece or in the fireplace' As Cornerstones possesses neither of these fixtures, I have decided not to bother!

But it was good to end our session chatting and sharing a buffet lunch. 

Do you have a good haberdashery nearby?

And whatever shall I do with my Ball On A Stick? [no, perhaps you should not answer that!]

CoverStory update : Kirsten's piece ie now also completed , pictures here

Another Bryan Bilston Poem

This is a reprint of a post from July 2018 - after I had gone to London to protest with Liz about President Trump's first State visit to the UK. Afterwards she sent me a BB poem. So my post about that march was entitled Liz Sent Me A Poem - here's a shortened version of that post...
Friday's march was a joyous carnival event -[many people] united in their anger and sadness over the activities of one narcissistic man. Liz and I were marching with Jenna, originally from Michigan - I was proud of these two young women beside me who shared my feelings about the arrival of this man on our shores.

We commented on the diversity of issues represented [racism, misogyny, nuclear weapons, global warming, mistreatment of refugees, Islamophobia, imprisonment of asylum seekers, homophobia, separation of children from parents...and more]We sang, 

 cheered, clapped, blew whistles Afterwards Liz sent me Brian Bilston's poem. I shall endeavour to live up to it as I grow older!

AS I GROW OLD I WILL MARCH NOT SHUFFLE

As I grow old
I will not shuffle to the beat
of self-interest
and make that slow retreat
​​​to the right.

I will be a septuagenarian insurrectionist
marching with the kids.

I shall sing ‘La Marseillaise’,
whilst brandishing homemade placards that proclaim 
‘DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING’.
I will be an octogenarian obstructionist,

and build unscalable barricades
from bottles of flat lemonade,
tartan blankets and chicken wire.
I will hurl prejudice upon the brazier’s fire.

I will be a nonagenarian nonconformist,

armed with a ballpoint pen
and a hand that shakes with rage not age
at politicians’ latest crimes,
in strongly-worded letters to The Times.

I will be a centenarian centurion
and allow injustice no admittance.

I will stage longstanding sit-ins.

My mobility scooter and I
will move for no-one.

And when I die

I will be the scattered ashes
that attach themselves to the lashes
and blind the eyes
of racists and fascists.

Thank you Bryan! I was in my 60s when I protested then, I am in my 70s now. I hope I never lose the fire in my belly that makes me want to speak out against evil and injustice. 

Trump is due here for another State Visit in September. According to CNN last week  "More specifics about the state visit will be released in the future, the palace statement said. As with every state visit, it will include a full ceremonial welcome and state banquet. All senior members of the Royal Family are expected to take part."

Of course, the King's brother Andrew will not attend the banquet, as he is no longer able to take part in State Events, because of his unfortunate close friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein...

Struggles, Stillness, And Strength

I know that quite a few of my friends are going through difficult times right now, and it is hard sometimes to keep going. Some of you send me 'offblog' private messages and emails. Be assured, you are remembered in prayer. One person referred to the comfort she had found in the words of Joshua 1: 9.
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Sometimes it is so important to just be still, to stop, and reflect.
To leave the stress and strivings for a moment and find a moment of peace.
It has been so hot for many of us recently - and I do not cope at all well with extreme heat. Another quote about stillness came to mind when I looked at this month's Painted BearCalendar. It is from George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement. Be still and cool!