Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Where on Earth Has the Time Gone!?

I can't believe it's now almost September. The last couple of months seem to have been spent working, working and ... um, working!! Why is it that bosses have a nasty habit of waiting until they're practically boarding the plane for their holidays and then decide to send in loads of work? And, of course, being self-employed and working from home, they know I'm on tap 24/7 so they're perfectly happy to hop over to the South of France with their families and pick up their work via their mobile phones or laptops. In the meanwhile there's little ole me sitting here at home at 7.00 on a Sunday morning in my PJs and carpet slippers; curlers in me hair and mug of coffee in my little handies trying to decipher their holiday notes for 'onwards transmission' to La Belle France.

Still, at least we seem to have had a bit of a summer this year; almost reminiscent of summers from my childhood (during which time I was probably wearing rose tinted glasses!). It's just a shame that I've been stuck indoors through most of the good weather working like a demon. The only thing that's keeping me going is the thought that what money I'm getting now should help see me through the winter months so I may be able to afford a Christmas pudding this year instead of eating gruel!!!!

Since I last posted, Adam and I have new neighbours. We did have a divorced guy living there on his own. Have to admit we weren't particularly surprised he was on his own - he wasn't happy with anything. He wasn't content with the size of his garden; every plant I offered him he wouldn't take as he 'wasn't into sweet peas, fuchsias, petunias, alyssum ...'; he didn't like being an employee but then he didn't like being self-employed either when he tried it. In fact he didn't seem to like anything in life. Whenever we spoke to him about anything his usual response was 'bleedin' bastards'! Anyway, cutting a long story short, he seems to have met a lady who's obviously willing to overlook his faults, they each sold their houses and have bought a biggish bungalow between them.

We now have a very young couple living there. It's their first home together and at the moment they're very much in the 'go getting' and 'honeymoon' phase. They're getting stuck into the garden with great gusto but this hard work is interspersed with swift fag breaks and lots of kisses and cuddles. But they're a really friendly couple and they've got two cats - Turnip and Fizz - who unfortunately, at the moment, don't always see eye to eye with Cleo (Cleo seemingly has the upper hand despite her age compared to these two young whipper-snappers!)

The garden seems to be going great guns even without my usual ministrations due to pressure of work. The runner beans were doing so well they actually broke my little cane wigwam!! The cucumber plants are taking over the greenhouse and the cape gooseberries and peppers are looking strong and healthy. I even managed to get a couple of self seeded tomato plants out of the garden which seem to be coming along nicely. My flowers are doing well too - I decided last year that as I had loads of gladioli, dahlias and various perennials in the garden I'd try to fill the gaps with some hardy annuals which did quite well. Being a frugal Norfolk girl I collected some of the seeds (marigolds, antirrhinums, petunias, foxgloves and some rather nice pink 'opium type' poppies which had seeded from my neighbour's garden) and this year I literally slung 'em onto the ground, watered them so they didn't blow away in the gale force winds from earlier in the year and they've all come up beautifully so I have a really nice colourful garden.

Our native English hedge that Adam planted up the winter before last is bearing fruit - literally! - and this in turn is encouraging a load of bullfinches and dunnocks into the garden. And this year we've also got a good variety of butterflies. So far I've spotted two or three species of fritillaries, some peacocks, tortoiseshells and I've even seen a red admiral (which I haven't seen for years). We're having an excellent year for ladybirds this year. My mum can bear witness to this - she went to a small local seaside resort called Walcot with my sister and there were so many along the sea front they couldn't avoid standing on them.

I think this year must be particularly good for sloes too. We have a bush out in the meadow and it's completely blue with the berries. We would go out and harvest them but typically it's in one of the wettest parts and, as I'm only 5 ft 3 in, Adam's afraid I might disappear under the gloopy mud!! Our hazel tree seems to have a load of nuts but it's always a battle who'll get to them first - Adam or the squirrels. My money's on the squirrels but I daren't tell him!!

I've now rediscovered the Wii having put it to one side when I was working long into the evenings and weekends and found that jogging on Wii Fit can be a lot more fun if you mute the telly while you're doing it and listen to some 'get up and go' music on CD. I watched the film Mamma Mia and had forgotten just how much I loved some of Abba's more upbeat songs so I decided to dig out my Cher CD as well as a 'Hot Summer Nights' one (which includes Caribbean Queen by Billy Ocean; Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves; Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams; and various others of the same ilk) and I was so content jogging along and singing (of sorts!) that, on my first real jogging trip since I was about 21, I managed to clock up 35 minutes non stop. So there's my solution to all you couch potatoes, get a Wii, mute Wii Fit jogging and just jog along to your own happy tunes!!!

Well, it's now coming up to 5.00 so think I'll go down, dig out some old Beatles, Freddie & the Dreamers, Dave Clark Five, Rolling Stones, etc and do a bit of jogging and warbling before preparing my chicken salad!!

Glad to get back to my blog I have to say - let's hope I can keep it going in my hectic lifestyle!!

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