He came!

I hope you enjoyed reading Jack's post yesterday.  It's very unusual for him to be as polite as that about me so I've read it several times.

He had a very busy day as he started to get the garden ready for winter.  He cleared away quite a lot of summer stuff and planted the winter vegetables.  We've now got white and purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflowers, Brussels sprouts, leeks and broad beans in the raised bed.

The last of the runner beans have found their way to my freezer and the final tomatoes can ripen in the conservatory.  A few pink fir apples (potatoes) are in the bucket and I've put the remaining golden beetroot in the saucepan.  

These sweet peas are all that remain of my summer display.  If you are wondering about the bit of foil next to them I will tell you before Jack does.  It fell into the soup.  What he won't tell you is that I served it to me, not him.  He'll have to miss out on the sympathy vote this time

I'm blushing!

Jack writes.

Hi everyone, it's about time I did another post.  Time seems to fly past very quickly when you are over 70.  

A likely lad!

Most of you know I'm away at my caravan on the east coast for two weeks out of three.  When I'm at home I try to get around everyone who I help so I can keep them happy.  My good friend the vicar always likes to be first in the queue, which she should be as she's done so much and been so kind to me and all my family and if putting her first makes her happy then so be it.  Not only is she kind to me but she's kind to other people as well.  She's not only big in stature, she must have a big heart as well. Once again, Vicar, I must be going soft in the head.  I'm saying good things about you.  (She deserves it really.)

On my last  visit the whirlwind (which is me) turned into a hurricane and I did a lot of work for her and her Auntie Hettie.  At dinnertime I was rewarded with sausages, new spuds and string beans of which I got most of the string.  Her cooking is getting better - she only burnt the sausages on one side.

I'm keeping this post short but will do a longer one next time.

Chickpea, if you move to Lincolnshire I'll be your Jack: if you don't good luck and I hope you find a local Jack very soon.  Ask the Boss Upstairs for help on this one.  Same thing applies to Rambler as well.

I hope you are all enjoying the summer.  I look forward to your comments.  Be good and God bless.

Love, Jack

Guerrilla Gardening

Some people are truly lovely. 

St Helena's Church is a charming building in the middle of a quiet Lincolnshire village and that village is rightly proud of its church.  Somebody is more than proud.  Somebody decided to make it even better.  Somebody planted a row of sunflowers.

Whoever you are "somebody" - thank you!  You put a huge smile on my face!

A Hundred Sleeps

Art deco

That's how long it is to Christmas.  

But it's 28 sleeps since I last went to Mandy to make cards so today was the day.  Just three cards.  But a very lot of talking!

The art deco background of the first one is die cut so there is interesting texture there.  The photo doesn't show the lovely sparkly papers I used either.  Shame about that.

Using sparkly pastes

The second one uses sparkly paste which is spread through a stencil. It's not one of my favourite techniques but again it produces interesting textures.

Framed poinsettias

Mandy had a lovely die which formed the frame on the third one and I wanted to have a go with it.  The background paper within the frame has "Merry Christmas" in a small font.  I then used another die to create the poinsettias.  I'm rather pleased with that one.

Newark

I met up with Alice, an old school friend today.  Our friendship goes back fifty years and is still great.

We had a lovely chatty lunch and then a walk around Newark.  It's a delightful old town on the banks of the River Trent.  King John died there in 1216 but the castle where he died still stands overlooking the river.  The town now has the National Civil War Centre and I keep promising myself a trip there but today was too lovely to stay indoors.  The Civil War was fought 1642 to 1646 so a few more months before I get to visit can't make much difference.

Good to know that the dogs aren't ignored

There were still things to look at.  Alice and I had our giggles when we saw these notices.  

and even better to know that all those years ago the soldiers had their Brownies!

Something blue

A few weeks ago I baptised a lovely little baby called Freddie and today when I returned from a few days away this card was waiting on the door mat.  It was from Freddie's mum thanking me for the care I take in such things and also thanking me for their wedding which I conducted four years ago.  Things like that warm my heart and make me rejoice that I am a (retired) vicar.

Seventy six years ago as this week my parents were married.  I know I've shared this photo before but I love it.  Things like that make me rejoice that I come from a loving family and had a secure childhood.

Yesterday I went to the wedding of a cousin's son.  I had to drive six hours each way to get there and I am now shattered.  However I just had to share with you this view of the bride's blue socks worn with her sparkly trainers.  Things like that just make me rejoice!!!!

Willingly to school (1)

I loved school!  I started sixty years ago this week and can still remember how excited I was.

I went to Priory Lane Infants School which was about half a mile from where I lived.  I can't remember what I wore that first day but I can remember that I couldn't get there fast enough.  We had been to put my name down a few weeks earlier and I had had a tantalising glimpse of children doing wonderful things and now I was going to be one of those privileged children.

I was in Miss Higgins class.  As we walked through the door Miss Higgins was marking registers and giving out name badges with one hand and hanging on to a screaming child with the other.  I couldn't wait to get rid of Mummy's hand and start playing with all those wonderful toys and couldn't really work out why anyone didn't want to be there.

Then half way through the morning I was given a bottle of milk and a straw.  I'd never drunk milk from a bottle before so this was another wonder of my new life.

As twelve o'clock drew near Miss Higgins and her helpers divided the children into two groups, putting one group into coats ready to go home for lunch while the rest were shepherded to the dining room for school dinner.  I was assigned to the first group and off I went. 

Mummy was very surprised to see me.  She'd ordered and paid for school dinners for me.  So together we walked back to school.  There was a bit of a flap on when we got there as somebody had done a head count and realised that they were one head short.

Can you imagine the hullabaloo there would be today if a four year old child nipped off home unnoticed?

Hopes fulfilled

My hopes for August looked modest when I wrote them down.  Have a picnic at Normanby.  Sit on my swing and smell not just the roses but the lavender and the sweet peas.  Really only the picnic looked like any sort of activity: basically I was planning idleness!

And my hopes were richly fulfilled!  My swing is a wonderful place to sit.  I can hear the birds on nearby open land.  I can smell the flowers in my own lovely garden.  I can enjoy the tinkling water of my tiny fountain.  And as  I sit or swing I can knit or sew or prepare vegetables for the freezer.  Best of all I can just sit and think.  

By the end of this month periods sitting on the swing will be short as autumn takes hold.  My sweet peas are already a thing of the past and soon Jack will be pulling out the summer annuals and planting pansies and wallflowers ready for the winter.  

And I will be spending my time indoors, still knitting and sewing, still thinking but now enjoying audiobooks rather than birdsong.  I've ordered a new chair for myself and it will get well used.

My hopes for September?  Well, I'm off to South Wales for a family wedding and I may just meander back visiting a few friends on the way.  I need to crack on with making Christmas cards and also get a wriggle on as far as presents are concerned.  

No hurry though.  A woman who doesn't get around to thinking about a new month until the third day of that month can never be said to be in a hurry!

Three wheels on my wagon

Well, life is never dull.

Our local vicar is on his hols at the moment so yours truly volunteered to take the midweek communion last night.  I decided to go really early to give myself time to admire various gardens on the way.  It was a lovely warm evening and I was really enjoying the ride.

Until there was a thump.  And a grating noise.  And one of the front wheels of my trundle truck went off down the hill leaving me and the rest of the truck to watch it.

Don't worry, I was more surprised than hurt.  Someone was walking by and she helped me to get it out of everyone's way.  Someone else went to a nearby house and asked the very kind gentleman to help.  He took me home and I fetched my car which has a ramp so I could get the TT in without too much difficulty.

And I still got to church on time!

P S New scooter arriving Tuesday.