Four slices of bacon and a maulifuff

Bacon butties are the tradition when Jack comes.  I use very nice bacon.  Dry cured.  From my butcher.  It's rather expensive but I buy a kilo at a time and wrap packs of two rashers which makes a very generous filling for a bread roll.

Last time he came I took two packs from the freezer the day before so they could defrost overnight.  And could I find it next morning?  No way.  I searched in all likely (and quite a few unlikely) places but it had disappeared.  I thought it might have got caught up in rubbish for the bin.  I took two more packs from the freezer and we had those.  

I said a few weeks ago that my plan was to sort the dining room before Easter.  Well there are are still two weeks to go but I have to report that I have been an excellent maulifuff.  (Maulifuff is an old Scottish word for a woman devoid of energy, who would happily do nothing for hours on end.)  Very little has changed in the dining room.  I hope this is no surprise to my fellow maulifuffs.  

However, a somewhat drastic situation meant that I decided to collect all stray paperwork from all over the house.  I'm sure you will have guessed what comes next.  I'd put the four slices of bacon, carefully wrapped in greaseproof paper, among a heap of papers.

I think that makes me a gold star maulifuff !

This is definitely not a holiday!

 

I'm staying with Holly again and this time it is definitely not a holiday! G (Holly's regular human) has gone to visit her family in South Africa so I am here for eighteen nights.

Holly lives about seven miles from my own home, so, when I am here I go home every couple of days to use my wet room and sort whatever needs sorting.  Just after I stepped out of the shower this morning G rang from South Africa (a Mermaid had rung her) to tell me that the header tank in her house had leaked and the house was flooded.  I dashed back and found water running down the walls and stairs and all the electrics had failed.  Oops.

But the response was amazing.  The other two Monday Mermaids were there in minutes with buckets mops and towels.  We got a plumber within the hour and an electrician within two.  Soon the plumbing was repaired and the electricity supply restored for most of the house.  We had even sorted emergency accommodation for Holly Dog if needed!   (If the electricity hadn''t been restored I would not have been able to stay here.)

But I can stay.  The hallway is still soaking wet but I can bypass that.  The central heating won't come on but I have a couple of electric heaters.  People have lent a dehumidifier and a carper shampooer to suck up the water.

But no way could this be called a holiday.

Crafty Cows

 

One of the groups of churches I help with has a social group for widows called COWs - Companions On the Wolds and although I am not a widow, I tag along as a chaplain.  Not much pastoring is needed from me as these lovely ladies take the newly bereaved under their wings and do mutual caring, but still, I am useful to have around.  They meet for coffee or light lunches, they have days out (the visit to the International Bomber Command Centre was their idea, and sometimes they have crafty times.  Yesterday they were being crafty.  So was I!  But not altogether successfully.  To put it mildly!

I didn't get the sequencing of the strips quite right.

And I made the whole thing wrong way around.

Oops!

(I have ideas how to rescue it, don't worry. It will become a basket of flowers.)

So what did happen?

I said in my last post An Allotment Year that things didn't go as planned but that doesn't mean that I did nothing. I just didn't do what I had planned to do.  And thank you to the people who commented and encouraged me to think again.

Thank you to the kind ladies who commented on the contacts I have had with them this year.  I think one thing which has been good about 2017 is my friendships.  I value friendship and am prepared to put a fair bit of effort into letter writing, e mailing etc.  I have met two bloggy friends "in real life" and my face to face friendships have been good too. 

For family life I rely on my cousins but I organised a family picnic and I have kept very good contact with such cousins as I still have.  I have deepened my friendship with some of my cousins.

I finished  my "informal" vicaring of five parishes which was sad but I soon found other places which needed me!

  

I published my Kindle book, "Teabreak in the archangels' restroom".

I've been cardmaking, been to Trefoil Guild, Women's Institute, U3A.  I have had lunch with friends several times and have entertained people here too,

The year wasn't as planned but maybe it's been good.  I feel happy with my life and maybe I don't need to achieve.  I am reminded of an old meditation.

I asked for strength that I might achieve;

I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;

I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men

I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;

I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for,

but everything that I hoped for.

Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered;

I am among all men, most richly blessed.

Oh dear!

This time the "oh dear" doesn't concern Jack's digestive system, rather it is an "oh dear" because my pooter is having a hissy fit.  This means I can't upload photographs and writing new posts is difficult so I shall save the details of Jack's latest visit until I can include piccies.  I am waiting for the computer doctor to call me.  

I Am In Disgrace!

Jack came yesterday.

He sorted my vegetable garden and tutted because I hadn't eaten all the leeks.  But that's not why I am in disgrace.

He planted some bedding plants and tutted because I had let one or two die.But that's not why I am in disgrace.

He checked on my car and tutted because I hadn't noticed that the glass had broken on one of the fog lamps. But that's not why I am in disgrace.

He wasn't very keen on the lemonade which I gave him which was far too "tangy" for his taste.  But that's not why I am in disgrace.

So what I have done?

I made some leek and potato soup for lunch and didn't notice that one of the hooks had fallen off my utensil rack into the saucepan and I had served it to him.

That's why I am in disgrace.

But he's promised to come back next week so maybe I have been forgiven.