Gardening Weekend

What a fantastic day, the weather was fabulous all day. In the morning we made a rare visit to town as I needed to get my dad a birthday present. We had a very nice walk around the market and picked up some book and talking book bargains on a charity stall. I spent a W H Smith voucher I had received for my birthday back in April; Anne I purchased 'Engleby by Sebastian Faulks', 'Friend of the Devil' by Peter Robinson, 'Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult' and 'Dead Heat' by Dick Francis (W H Smith have 'buy one get one free' on their top 50 best sellers at the moment so I got loads of books - thanks again Anne!

We headed home and after lunch spent the afternoon gardening, I did mainly weeding and trimming of one of our sections of hedge and Peter was digging, weeding and planting out new seeds. Once we came inside in the evening we were pretty tired and both had sore backs. We watched the results of 'Britain's Got Talent' on the box which was fabulous - there were five acts that were good enough to win so it was a real nail bitting finale. George, the young boy dancer who won, just couldn't believe it - he is destined for big things I think.

Back from Hols

We came back yesterday from Derbyshire. Here's what we got up to:-

We pulled into the driveway of our cottage which is attached to the owners house and discovered the owners were out. I remembered that a key was being left in the greenhouse so we found that and then tried to find the way in - the front of the house had two front doors and a conservatory door and we tried our keys in everything before phoning the owner on her mobile who stated that we were actually trying to get into her house and our cottage was tucked away behind the back of the house - whoops! She was fine about it as she said it had happened before. Anyway, the cottage was great - we had our own little bit of private garden and it was very clean and cosy. We were visited, and made a fuss of the owner's cat, 'mustard' and were given some tomato plants by the owner as she found out we were keen on growing our own veg.

We took in two National Trust properties, Sudbury House and Kedleston Hall. Kedleston Hall was a little disappointing as they were decorating all the rooms so most of the items were under dust sheets - if we'd been paying I think we would have felt cheated but as we were using NT cards............... At Sudbury Hall there is quite a long walk from the car park up to the house which also involves crossing a busy road - both times we were passed by a buggy (for disabled and the old) and offered lifts (not sure if we look old or just darn unfit but it was good fun having a free ride).

During the week we visited a village that was displaying well dressing at Ashford-in-the-water. They had six wells beautifully dressed wells and we had a lovely walk around the village. As we drove out we saw a man waving his arms about near a well -as it was a religious theme I thought he must be praying to it or something but as we got closer we saw he was shouting and waving at some pigeons who were trying to eat the seed used in the well picture - an occupational hazard of well dressing I guess!!!

We visited Bakewell on a lovely sunny day mid-week and, of course, had to sample a traditional bakewell pudding. Bakewell pudding is a totally different taste to what us southerners know as Bakewell Tart - it has no coconut in for a start and I thought it was delicious. We sat by the river in Bakewell watching the numerous waterfowl for ages.

On another day we went to Casington Water which is a reservoir which has been adapted by the water company to a wildlife sanctuary. The place had the poshest hide we had ever been in - huge windows and a 'BBC style' camera that you could operate to zoom in on the birds and watch on a TV screen. We spent most of the day here but did cheat by not doing the whole 8 mile walk the whole way round and driving around a bit of it. The final hide we went to was 'interesting' as a family of four rats were happily feeding at the bird feeders (not every one's cup of tea I suspect). I usually hate rats but these looked more like pet rats - I suspect someone had released a couple of pet rates and they had bread. We also saw an interesting fight between the rats and a squirrel (the rats won!) but thankfully the squirrel escaped unharmed.

One of the hi-lights of the week for Peter was a visit to the Tram Museum - where old trams have been restored and you can ride up and down them through old fashioned streets and up into the countryside. I has a couple of rides on different trams but Peter really went for it and was hopping on and off all day whilst I settled myself outside the tea rooms with a coffee and a good book - waving to him as he passed :-). After the Tram Museum we climbed the memorial tower close by - an awful lot of steps but a great view. The sign at the bottom said 'only four persons permitted at one time at the top' - however, you couldn't tell how many people were up there when you started climbing! We crammed in six I think.

Having recently bought the National Garden Scheme's yellow book - we decided to visit our first garden. We chose one called 'Cascades' at Bonsall and it was fabulous. Set over 4-acres it had woodland, high cliffs, stream, ponds, a ruined corn mill and an old lead mine. We found 'the gardener' who told us that he is employed two days a week in the summer and one in the winter to keep the garden in check. He was very interesting and we pumped him for info. on what plants we should grow at home. We came away with a couple of plants from the plant stall there.

One of the most interesting places we went (for me anyway) was a wonderful world renown bookshop in Cromford called Scarthin Books http://www.scarthinserver.co.uk/index.html - the bookshop is set over three rickety floors and has lots of different little rooms stuffed full of every subject under the sun. Each room has a chair so you can linger at your leisure. It sells new books alongside second hand and in the middle of one of the floors is a cafe (tucked behind a secret curved door) with quirky posters and photo's lining the walls and book shelves all around; coffee AND books - two of my favourite things. The imaginative vegetarian cuisine and cakes they served there also looked wonderful. We didn't buy anything there although I was sorely tempted by a wonderful book on Portmerion in Wales.

We had a great week and were blessed with lovely sunny weather all week apart from on the Friday afternoon so we certainly couldn't complain. We arrived home on Saturday afternoon and almost immediately got stuck into some gardening - how things grow in a week! The forecast is rubbish for Sun/Mon so we thought we ought to get stuck in. The works start on our driveway shorlty so Peter had to do a bit of hedge and tree branch clearance in readiness for that. It's going to be a couple of weeks of upheavel but it should be lovely when it's done.

A Week's Blogging

Well, I haven't blogged since 6th May - how did that happen? Time just seems to be flying at the moment. During the past week I've been out with friends (well going out as into driving to friend number one's house and then both of us driving to friend number two's house to sit and chat on her sofa really - which was fine as we are all short of money at the moment).

On Saturday my parents came over for a bar-b-que, expertly cooked by Peter, and stayed for most of the day. In the evening we went to a wedding Reception in Poole where I met some of Peter's work colleagues who I haven't met before. Usually at these do's I do have a bit of a bop but at this one I just didn't feel in the mood - maybe it was because I witnessed the dreaded 'dance floor circle'. You know the one -everyone is happily dancing away doing their own random thing and then suddenly someone decides that everyone should form a circle and, one by one, people are pushed in the middle to do 'a turn' whilst everyone else claps. Peter to his credit, once confronted with this situation, really went for it big time and did some never seen before dance moves - well never in the history of the Olding clan anyway I suspect! Some of the, shall we say more hardened nightclubbers, were in awe and kept high fiving him and saying 'respect' - wow! I do have some photograph evidence if Peter hasn't deleted the shots! We left at about 11.30pm - perhaps just in time as we later heard there we missed a knee sliding contest and a bit of a scuffle.

On Sunday it was off to Popham Airfield to set up our stall - another very hot day and we made a little money which was cool. As often happens, as soon as Peter left the stall to go and spot some aircraft I started selling - my thoughts on the matter are that if people see one person there not paying much attention and reading their book (ie me) then they feel more relaxed to approach the stall and browse a bit - well that's my theory anyway. I could also say that I am a born tycoon but maybe not ............... On Sunday night we were pooped so sat our tired little sunburnt bodies in front of the TV and watched the wonderful new beeb 2 programme on China - facinating. The equally facinating programme on Russia that followed much later was taped for another night - why does the BBC stick two similar programmes on in one night and one of them so late?

Monday at work was pretty crap as my colleague was away and so I had to minute the Senior Management Team Meeting, all three and a quarter hours of it - numb bum and numb brain throughout - nuff said.

As the weather has been so absolutely fantastic this week, it has been a joy to come home and, after doing a few chores, to sit in the garden and read. I'm currently reading 'Blood River' by Tim Butcher - Tim is a Daily Telegraph journalist who decided to travel the whole of the Congo River (one of the most inhospitible and dangerous places in the world) - it's facinating stuff. I'm also reading 'This Sweet Sickness' by Patricia Highsmith - I've never read any Highsmith before and having heard that she is the master of the genre I'm giving her a go - so far so good.

Well, The Apprentice calls, so must dash..................

Sunshine on a Work Day

Well, what an absolutely fabulous day today - why couldn't it have been like this all of yesterday?

Today I have been getting back into my 'normal' work, post-ofsted, and gazing longingly out of the window and dreaming of sitting in the garden this evening.

We had intended to visit a couple of local private gardens yesterday that were part of the National Garden Scheme http://www.ngs.org.uk/GFQuickSearch.asp, but it had been so rainy in the morning that we decided against it. Nevermind, I'm determined we will get to use our Yellow Book soon and get to see some whilst we are on holiday.

My boss has worked out a way of 'getting round' the boring screensaver that we are supposed to use at work to put our own pictures on - so now I have a rather pleasing one of a squirel (pictured) which Peter took ages ago - much more cheery than a plain blue Microsoft background; I'm all for the workers being able to express their individuality!

Today is the first day of the year when I haven't worn tights to work - oh the freedom of it! I may have legs the colour of sticks of celery but who cares.......

Good Things Today:-
Receiving some Amazon parcels at work (spending some of my birthday vouchers)
Not wearing tights
Managing to just eat fruit and yoghurt during the day (trying to lose a few pounds before holidays)
The glorious weather
No more boring screen saver
Evening meal in the garden to come tonight I hope

Daisy Crazy

After the extremely busy week at work last week being 'Ofsted-ed', I was feeling more than a little weary this morning but the sun was shining and we'd agreed to go food shopping. So off we trotted to our new 'favourite' discount shop 'Farm Foods' at Portswood to get a fortnight's grub in. As usual, we piled the trolley high but amazingly only spent £61 once the £12.50 worth of vouchers I had in my possession were deducted. I'm still marvelling at the prices - for example I'd normally pay about a £1 for a very small jar of mint sauce - in there you get about half a litre of the stuff for 79p - we won't need to buy any more for about a year I don't think.

Once we'd dumped our shopping in the car we had a wander around the local charity shops, I bought a bargain T-Shirt for £3 and Peter got a few books. There are quite a few green groucers in the high-street which also sell young plants so we also got some strawberry and bean plants. I've been looking for a secondhand copy of Sebastion Faulk's book 'Engleby' but no one seems to be passing that one through to the charity shops yet - loads of copies of 'Human Traces'; ah well I will spot one, one day.

By the time we got home the weather was baking so we sat in the conservatory and had a late breakfast before starting on some gardening. Peter put the beans in and I mowed the back lawn - oh, how I detest mowing (it's one of my pet hates) and in the summer you have to do it so frequently - if someone could event a pigmy grass that only grew a certain length, and stayed there, I'd pay them good money to lay some for us. We are also absolutely overun with daisies on the lawn - they are such cunning weeds too - you can mow as close to the earth as you like and chop their little heads off but they will be up again within 48 hours.

Whilst Peter mowed the front lawn I had a fight with our duvets (yes, duvets plural). We had so many battles of the duvet at night we now have one each on the same bed, it works very well but when the bed needs changing it turns into a bit of a chore. On the occasion I found I had the cover inside out so had to take the duvet out again and then the whole thing got twisted inside so I ended up virtually inside the cover stuggling to get the corners in and for it to lay flat. A few choice words were flying around the room I'm afraid as it's not something I really wanted to be doing on a hot day.

This afternoon we nipped into the local Lidls as Peter wanted to buy another compost bin for the garden and they had them on offer. We also got some fruit and yoghurts which are things that Farm Food don't sell much of a variety of. Once home we had a very late lunch and Peter tuned into the Bournemoth match on the radio - this is the last match of the season and everything hangs on this one game.

As I type this at 5.00pm, the weather has suddenly got colder and the sun has gone in. Oh well, it's a good excuse to hole up for the evening with a good book and Saturday night TV. Oh, what bliss it is to know that there are another two whole days ahead with no work.

Another Stealth Tax

I make no apologies for having yet another rant about this Government. I am sick and tired of how much they are grinding the average hard working person into the ground. Their latest tax ploy is, yet again, aimed at the motorist. The article below, extracted from The Times sums it up.

"Tens of thousands of cars will become almost worthless as a result of the decision to raise road tax on older models with higher carbon dioxide emissions by up to £245 a year.

Many families will find that they cannot sell their cars even though they are in good working order and no more than seven years old.

The Times revealed yesterday that the Treasury had quietly abolished the exemption from higher road-tax rates for cars that emit more than 225g of CO2 per km and were registered between March 2001 and March 2006.

CAP, which supplies the used car industry with data on residual values, said that many larger cars would be reduced to their scrap value because they would fall into one of the higher tax brackets being introduced for high-emission cars next April."

So basically anyone unfortunate car own who runs an average sized family car may be faced with not being able to afford a new one or indeed to pay the road tax on the one they've got. We are fortunate in the fact that our car was registered in March 2000 but any thoughts of changing it to a second hand newer model are now out of the window and we certainly couldn't afford a new one.

These responses to the Times online article pretty much sum up my opinion on this issue.

"After the loss of the 10p tax band, this is another tax on the poor who are unable to afford a more modern, lower tax car, but will be expected to pay ever more tax on their older family runaround. I never thought that Labour would be anti-poor, but they are now the NASTY Party"

"My wife and I are shift workers who live in the countryside and have four children. We are thoroughly sick of being taxed to death by this grasping 'Labour' government who have avidly exploited the new religion of global warming to help feed their insatiable appetite for our money."

"This is not about saving the planet.How many other countries EU/worldwide are going to introduce such levels of taxation to protect it?.In many countries there would be revolt but here we just seem to put up with it.Labour no longer represent the working class."

"Its impossible to understand how any tax linked to CO2 emissions can not be based on mileage driven. I have a high CO2 emitting car only drive about 3k miles a yr. my partner and I could buy 2 cars subject to no tax under the new rules, follow each other emitting way more co2 yet pay zero! madness"

"Why is it that a lot of people do not seem to be able to understand that a vast number of this country's motorists NEED a car. They do not grasp that in the rural areas with very limited bus services a car is not a luxury it is a necessity."

"Another wizard Labour wheeze. I have an "L" reg Cavalier which predates the emissions tax hike. So rather than buy a newer, more fuel-efficient second-hand car I now have an economic incentive to keep my old banger on the road as long as possible. How will that help the environment?"

I predict even more people will risk driving on Britain's roads without tax, MOT and insurance.

I sincerly hope that the motoring organisations such as the AA will stand up for their millions of members and fight this totally ill thought out tax.