Here Comes The Sun ... yet again!

Last evening, when the temperature had dropped a tad, I ventured out to mow a goodly portion of the lawn. After twenty minutes of this exertion, I felt like the mad dog who stepped out with the Englishman into the noonday sun! This exercise served in lieu of a walk but, unfortunately the return to the living room felt as if I was passing from Turkish Bath to Sauna. In the last few minutes of the mowing exercise, it seemed as if I’d lost more fluid than I’d partaken of in the course of the past week.

You may have already gathered that I’m far from being a sun-worshipper as, on top of my resident low energy levels, it certainly doesn’t do a lot for me. Once again, today, the sun also shone, so apart from the odd couple of minutes spent by the garden pond, I’ve been housebound once more and, for the sake of my health failed to take a walk once again.

It doesn’t seem long since I was bemoaning the persistent rain but, at least I could venture out for a little stroll and, return home far less of a wet blanket than seems possible under current conditions. Tomorrow we’re promised another warm day; sounds more like a threat to me.

A Day In The Life

Woke up, got of bed and … after a shower … dragged a comb down the hair at the back of my head … The duvet escape manoeuvre left me feeling not too bright but, it was reasonably early. By way of contrast, the day was definitely bright but also too warm (23C by 10.00am BST) for me! Bundled myself into the car with my beloved chauffeuse and, I was on the way to have my bits frozen off!

No, it’s not what you’re thinking, just a couple of warts on chest and back. I seem to be quite proficient at breeding these things, perhaps it goes back to my student days, that glorious era when, in my vacation as a gardener, I managed to get sunstroke and the beginnings of a tan on my fair skin (a potentially lethal combination). These days, my sole desire is to steer clear of really warm sunshiny days, although I do appreciate the occasional stroll in the cool of the evening.

On return home, I rested and supped a few cups of Earl Grey before preparing a fresh salmon, peppers, tomato and mushroom topping for some jacket potatoes,  all griddled on an olive oil (infused with turmeric, ginger, coriander, paprika and garlic) lubricated pan. The heat, whilst slaving over a hot stove, proved almost unbearable, to the point that it was difficult to fully appreciate the coolness of the dining room. Despite a perspiration laden exterior, the palate remained sufficiently alert to appreciate each morsel of lunch.

And now, I idly switch the radio from Jeremy Vine (BBC Radio 2), the Afternoon Play (BBC Radio 4), to a little music on BBC Radio 3. How I love the wonderful world of the Wireless and how grateful I am to the BBC.

From Computer Watch to Spring Watch

After a mid-morning visit to the garden pond, to clear out some blanket weed and apply a further treatment of ‘BlanketOut’, much of the afternoon found me housebound. Firstly I re-installed XP Pro (Upgrade rather than Clean Install) on my beloved’s machine and, activated the same. I updated Windows Installer and Anti-Spyware and then awaited the download and installation of 42 updates.

It seemed a good idea to make an image backup of the freshly installed system, having done a back-up of everything before the re-install, so that there would be no corrupt or modified system files in the image. Clicked on Acronis True Image and, received the strange message that it couldn’t find a hard drive to back-up! Duly removed, then reinstalled Acronis and, the back-up was then plain sailing.

Shortly after 5.00pm, it was time to add a little stock to a casserole dish of the curry prepared on Saturday evening and popped it into the oven in readiness for ma belle’s return home. Yesterday lunchtime, we both enjoyed the extra spicy Jalfrezi – Dopiaza hybrid curry, served straightforwardly with my lovingly prepared savoury rice. Today, the slightly diluted variant was served with new potatoes, sprouts, carrots, broccoli and cabbage. My beloved enjoys her vegetables but, the copious quantities she is able to devour would have a disastrous effect on my constitution!

After our meal we enjoyed a brief walk around the neighbourhood before returning, in time to catch some of the Mario Lanza documentary on BBC2 which preceded the currently showing ‘Springwatch’ which we find quite compulsive viewing.

Garden Daze

It really is quite wonderful to observe the bobbing trajectory of the blue tits from food source to nest box! As well as the bobbing flight path, it sometimes presents a diversionary route; seemingly endless variants on a well-flown flight path, presumably to befuddle any potential predators.

We are indeed privileged in having clear views of their flight path from both living-room and kitchen windows. Even when I was stood at the top end of the garden, within a couple of feet of the nest box, I was quizzically eyed by the bird sat on a twig adjacent to the box before he popped in to feed the brood!

Despite the bobbing, and sometimes circuitous flight path, it’s remarkable how swiftly and accurately they pass through the small diameter entrance hole. I suspect these avians know very little about pacing and, thankfully accept they have little need for it!

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At least a couple of the goldfish, in the pond, were demonstrating a little frenetic activity today. The first giveaway sign was the twitching of lily pads, prior to the Pentecostal flames dancing close to the water’s surface. Thankfully, I’d already taken a twenty-five minute walk with ma belle before lunch, so I was able to just sit with my beloved on the garden bench and, enjoy the spring like activity around us, without any pangs of guilt.

BBC NEWS | Business | Britain's streets of debt: Whistleblower

Surprise, surprise; big business preys on the vulnerable! And I'd never expected less of our banking institutions! Who would ever have suspected that they put profits before their customers? Surprise, surprise; banks are capitalists ... whoever would have thought it?

Interesting to get an insider view though.

BBC NEWS | Business | Britain's streets of debt: Whistleblower

What's Cooking?

After a leisurely start to the morning, arising gently from the duvet realm after ten and a half hours bed-rest, within an hour I felt sufficiently energized to face the shower routine. In the remnant of the morning I applied a further blanket weed treatment to the pond and, quickly returned to the house to grab some headgear as the baldpate quickly felt the full force of the sun’s rays.

During the afternoon, we called around to Helen’s chapel, to drop off some flowers and the weekly notices that my beloved had prepared but, decided it was too warm to endeavour a walk. In any case, I was getting a bit hungry by this time, having only had a bowl of breakfast cereal at lunchtime.

Having eaten a delicious ciabatta based sweet chilli chicken pizza, it was nearing the time for me to prepare tomorrow’s lunch. First, I prepared the griddle pan with liberal sprinklings of ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin, a little chilli and paprika. After preheating the spices to release the aromas, I added a generous amount of olive oil to sautée a couple of sliced onions before adding the lean minced beef. A generous sprinkling of garam masala intensified the already wonderful aromas. Next, I threw in a liberal amount of chopped peppers, a few sliced mushrooms and, after a while, added a tin of plum tomatoes. To finalize the preparation, added a little crushed garlic and some chopped chilli, before pouring in a jar of spicy Jalfrezi sauce for good measure.

All that remains, tomorrow lunchtime, is to pop a casserole dish full of this wonderful concoction into the oven and prepare the saffron rice. Et voila!

Cooking complete, ma belle et moi settled down to watch the latest episode of ‘Doctor Who’ (BBC1) and, a behind the scenes programme on BBC3, before venturing out to do a little more clearing up in the garden. By this time, around 8.30pm, the temperature seemed ideal for such pursuits.

Apart from the occasional bout of hollowness, a non-specific sense of despondency and frustration, it has still proved possible to rejoice in this day the Lord has made.

Verbal Trespassers will be Blacklisted

It’s happening again, the invasion of the disembodied vampires. Yesterday, mid-afternoon, the telephone rings and the hypnotic voice asks to speak to my beloved. I’m quite happy to inform him that she’s not here, in response to which he enquires, “when would it be convenient?” Now comes the moment of testing, as I cautiously enquire as to the identity of the caller.

My suspicion aroused that they may be out to suck money from us, for a service which we have neither requested nor require; the voice intones “Yorkshire Water – Home Services”, to which I reply that no time would be convenient, don’t they realize how ignorant it is to intrude on our time, our home and, utilizing the phone line for which we pay rental, for their commercial purposes.

The disembodied one explains that they have previously contacted my wife and, at this point, I’m struggling to prevent my language from becoming too colourful. I tell them that if my wife wished to contact them she would but, we are not in the habit of doing business over the ‘phone, or perhaps they’d be willing to permanently pay our line rental for the inconvenience they’re putting us through. I reminded him, in no uncertain terms, that they had indeed spoken to me and, that I told them then, that no time was convenient for them to phone. On that occasion, someone else from the same company ‘phoned at just the moment my wife had come through the door from work. My beloved tried to get rid of the nagging female vampire at the time but, out of frustration said that they could send us a quote!

We have no intention of changing our direct debits for the particular service (?) they were trying to coerce us into subscribing to, as we are quite happy with the current provider.

I’m afraid that their persistent telephonic irritations ensure that the quote they provided will never be viewed and, as far as I’m concerned, the less we have to do with Yorkshire Water – Home Services, the happier my life will be!

What had been a reasonable, though marginally de-energised, day was transformed by these trespassers into an evening of despondent irritability. Today, whilst Helen is out, the telephone has been left to switch to answering machine mode after a minimal ring. I’d like to be able to follow the maxim “Don’t let the buggers grind you down” but, unfortunately they do just that!

Bush and Blair - Endless Love

Leaping Into Action

A bright sunshiny morning greeted me on my emergence into the world of the day people. My beloved was already out in the garden, doing her best to disentangle ground elder roots from those of desirable plants. I loyally sat and observed her exertions from the pond-side garden bench, with only the slightest modicum of guilt!

That disturbing guilt potential proved sufficient for me to access the lawnmower in the top shed and, lop the tops off the ground elder that had begun encroaching on the lawn. Ten minutes effort was sufficient at this early hour as my body issued a muted scream at the prospect of further exertion. At least that ensured that I was sufficiently energised to prepare, and consume, lunch before venturing down to the Chronic Fatigue Unit for my appointment with Julie.

The hospital was ten minutes walk from where we parked the car providing me with a little more exercise. As we arrived at the hospital we met Helen, my physio / acupuncturist and Patrick, a physio who had worked on the ‘Food For Thought’ course that ma belle attended a couple of years back. The meeting with Julie was productive, as always, allowing some scope for modifying my pacing activity.

On our return home, I made a start on splitting and re-potting some Aloe Vera plants, before accidentally coercing my beloved into re-organizing the greenhouse (from its sad state of chaotic desuetude). In the course of this ‘spring cleaning’, a startled Helen recoiled from an unexpected resident, a rather large yellow frog who startled by her presence leapt towards the corner. Another similar, in size and colouring, creature joined the first to cower in the corner before hiding amongst sundry plant pots and seed trays. The speed, with which they manoeuvred around the cluttered space, was quite astonishing; much too fast to catch in one’s hands. They chose to leap any direction other than towards the door. Eventually, a large pond-net provided a solution; unfortunately it was difficult to explain to the amphibians that I was trying to help!

No sooner had the yellow two been despatched to the undergrowth near the pond, when a smaller olive green amphibian made its presence felt in the greenhouse. This little critter seemed quite determined not to be rescued but, the (by now) experienced netter was able to release him into the big wild garden, after a brief battle of wills.

It really is quite wonderful to have this wildlife right on our doorstep.  

The Weariness of the Short Distance Walker

Energy levels have not yet restored themselves to what I assumed was becoming my new norm; a sense of weary frustration hung over my day although, I delighted in watching young birds (primarily blackbirds, starlings and sparrows) being fed in different parts of the garden. My suspicion is that my pathetic power of concentration is at the root of the frustration, alongside my restricted activity.

On the work front, I managed to rinse out the filters from the pond filtration unit, and topped up the water level after previous overenthusiastic baling out activity. Later in the day, I managed to take a twenty plus minute walk.

At present, limiting myself to ten hours bed rest per night / morning is proving rather difficult and, I’m really nervous about allowing myself “forty winks” during the day, even when I need it, because of my propensity for going into overtime!