One for the heart... One for the feet...

I'm just about over Leonard Cohens passing, and now George Michael.  Just as well 2016 is nearly over.

Here's one for the heart:

https://youtu.be/SqWCCgvLLWE

I'm too sad to play one for the feet...

#shouldertoshoulder

This was my view for the afternoon:

And what a view! And what a game!

It was quite chilly up there, but I had my woolly hat and a fleecy blanket, provided by my very thoughtful rugby going buddy, to keep me warm! We also had a pint and some good friendly banter with the two Australian supporters who had the misfortune to sit beside us.

Then we had two very tense, watching through gloved covered fingers, last minutes to endure when the game could have gone either way, before the final whistle was blown and we could celebrate.

And celebrate we did, in fine style, in a greasy spoon, with fish and chips.

Sure what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Love itself has gone...

A terrible ending to a terrible week.

2016 has done it again.

I'm crying again today, not with despair this time, but with genuine sadness at hearing of the death of Mr LC.

I'm sure there will be millions of tributes from all over the world today from people with better words than I could every write, and I'm sure they will include a quote or two of many of his poetic lines and verses.

Well the first one that came to mind for me this morning, when I brought the dog around the park and walked through all the leaves, was:

"your life is a leaf that the season tear off and condemn"

And another one that comes to mind for the week that's in it is:

"there is a crack, a crack in everything, that's how the light get's in"

So lets hope that between the cracks that are, not just in the USA as we've seen this week, but all over the world, that a little light can get in for everybody.,,,



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhXtM7Js_X8

Flower Power!

Despite the fact that it's August but the weather thinks it's November, myself and a friend decided to take a trip to the annual flower/plant/shrub sale at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park. 

After a wander round and a purchase or two (of course we bought something, it would have been rude not to!) Marian spotted a flower arranging demonstration.  A skill that's way out of my league and comfort zone.  Well at least that's what I thought...

We sat down and were treated to an hour of amusing tales of flower shows gone by, up coming flower shows and pieces to be created for exams while at the same time, the very clever gentleman was putting together amazing creations with flowers and foliage before our very 'dazzled with colour' eyes!

Of course I've forgotten all the names and species that he described as he was going along, with the exception of the carnations.  I knew those.  And I was surprised to see him using these humble ordinary run of the mill flowers in his remarkable creations.  But while I was surprised, Marian was outraged!!  Imagine!  Carnations??  Seriously!!

When he was finished his demonstration, he very kindly raffled all the arrangements he had made.  I, of course, won nothing.  Marian had better luck.  She won the one with the carnations!!

And here it is in all its glory:

OK, I know  there's no carnations in that arrangement.  That's because Marian came home promptly removed them and replaced them with those beautiful red Dahlias from an abundance of them she has growing in her garden.  I didn't really understand why she didn't like the carnations, until she replaced them.  Then I got it!  That's art for ya! 

And being the artist that she is, our lesson in flower arranging inspired her to make something of her own.  And here she is being creative, surrounded by clippings from her very well established garden and a few we brought home with us from the flower sellers.  

I thought I would be able to stand back and watch the artist at work.  But oh no, there was no way I was escaping.  Despite my cries of not being in any way artistic, not having any idea what to do or even a clue where to start, I was given all the tools, some basic instruction, (as in here's the clippers if you need it), and told to get on with it.

So, here's one I prepared earlier!!

Not bad for a first attempt.  I even managed to use my favourite colour flowers. Obviously a basic attempt compared to the expert's, and best of all, no carnations.  That's because there wasn't one to be found anywhere in Marian's garden!!

Here's her finished product.  A bit of a 'wow factor' going on there.

Imagine having all those different varieties of flowers and foliage in your garden.  Amazing.

Anyway, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to go out now and dig up all the carnations that are growing in my garden...

Pretty in Purple?

We haven't been having a very good summer here in little ole Ireland, have we?  In fact, it was so cold during the week that one of my friends thought about putting up her Christmas Tree!

Anyway....

Even tho' I haven't been getting much use out of my garden furniture, and even tho' it's nearly the end of the summer, I though I should do something about the state that my poor table and chairs are in.

Despite the fact that I have oiled them regularly as described in the very detailed instructions that they came with, they really are looking a bit sorry and rather the 'worse for wear':

What to do with them is the question?  Throw them out and get new one's?  That seems like a waste, but I'm not going to try oiling them again, that too is just a waste, of my time.  So, the decision is made, it's going to be a paint job.

After endless hours in Woodies wandering round the paint section and mulling over what colour to use, I finally decided on Purple Berry, which won't blend in with anything in my garden, but that colour paint was on sale, and it really is quite a nice colour, I think...

To get the best finish possible, I thought I better sand the table and chairs before I did any painting. And of course, as I never have any proper tools to do any jobs around the house, I had to pay a visit to the man who has them all.  Dad!  I only went looking for a sheet of sand paper, but I came home armed with enough sand paper to make a beach, and this fantastic gadget which would save me endless hours of scrubbing and scraping, and best of all not leave me ending up with an aching elbow!  I do love a good gadget.

After brushing away the cobwebs and evicting all the spiders that were living underneath the table, I was dying to get going with my new toy.  But, not being happy just to do one job at a time, I decided, (having being sent a new recipe which included lentils) to cook the dinner at the same time.

So I put some lentils on to boil.  Then I went outside to sand the table.

Yes, you've guessed it, I got so carried away with the sander, which by the way did exactly as it says on the tin and left a lovely finish for me to paint, that I forgot all about the lentils.  So all the time and elbow grease I saved with the sander, was spent trying to clean the pot after the lentils boiled over.  I never learn, and ended up with the aching elbow that I was trying to avoid in the first place, from scrubbing the burnt pot.

And of course, the minute, no, the second I put the brush in the paint tin, it started to rain!!  Is nothing going to go right for me??

Luckily the rain didn't last long and I got to work and spent the next few hours painting and singing along to the radio.

I'm sure you're dying to see the finished result?  Well here it is, looking just like a photo I saw in the Woodies catalogue:

Good enough to eat your dinner off I'd say!  That's if you hadn't burnt the dinner earlier!

I am loving the finished result.  And even tho' I have, not literally but actually, painted over the cracks, I think it will do me now for another couple of years.  But I'm no so sure that Kevin likes it.  He came home from work, looked out the kitchen window and exclaimed in a highly indignant voice "For God's sake, why is the garden furniture purple!?"

I don't know where I went wrong...

PS.  Trisha, if you're reading this, it was Ronseal paint that I used! Ha!!

The great compost mystery.

As you know, I love pottering around in my garden. 

Although the very small patches that I own front and back are not really grand or big enough to be given the title 'garden', but nevertheless I still enjoy planting things and watching them grow.

I don't enjoy the weeding tho.

With the annoying weeds that seem to grow everywhere in mind, I decided to get my flower beds covered with stones to keep the weeds down.  So before the gardener came to sort out my unruly beds, I thought I should put some compost down to feed the ground.  And where better to get that from then my compost bin.

The compost bin is always a bit of a mystery to me.  No matter how much 'stuff' you put into it, it never seems to be full.  The worms in my garden must be very hungry, and/or very efficient!  Anyway, my compost bin hasn't been emptied since 2010, so I was a bit wary about opening the little hatch at the bottom and seeing what was behind it.  

When I opened it first all I could see were egg shells!  I was a bit bemused by this and had to Google it to see why after six years they were still relatively intact when everything else is mush.  Apparently, they take hundreds of years to decompose, so in future I have to crush them before I put them into the compost.  But either way, they are brilliant for the ground.  So happy days, I'll have well fertilized soil.  

Eventually, after much digging and scrapping, I got a big bucket of very healthy looking compost out of the bin.

But that wasn't all I got out of the bin.  Also hidden among the lovely fresh fertilizer, I found several items of interest.

A vegetable peeler, a wristband from a Bon Jovi concert and a bracket from a garden light.

I can understand how the vegetable peeler got in, no mystery there, as no doubt it got thrown in with the peelings.  But I have no idea how the Bon Jovi wristband got in to the bin.  Kevin thought it was very funny when he saw it, and he said it was from a concert we went to in 2006.  2006?  Well how come it wasn't discovered when the bin was opened in 2010.  Unless of course it went in after that, but it's still a mystery as to why it's in there.  And as for the bracket from the garden light?  It's a hundred years since those lights were on the wall in the garden, and even more worrying, how did it get into the bin?  Those worms must be more efficient than I originally thought. They must also be good with a screwdriver, as I'm sure the last time I saw that bracket it was screwed to a wall.

I also found, at the very bottom of the bin, this:

A perfectly formed (but rather dirty) grape!  

Seriously, what on earth?  How long has that been in there?  And why is it not wine at this stage??  I put grapes into the fridge and after two days they go off, so how come this one lasted six years at the bottom of the compost??  And, why was an obviously good and not rotten grape put into the bin in the first place?  

So many unanswered questions....

Anyway, I couldn't spend too much time pondering these mysteries as I had to get the compost spread on the flower beds before the gardener could get to work.  And what a nice job he did too.  I'm very pleased with the results.

But I've learned a lesson, I'll have to be more careful in future what goes into my compost bin.  But for now I'll just have to wait and see what lovely flowers grows from this batch of compost. I'm also secretly hoping that I'll come out some morning and find a grape vine, or maybe even Jon Bon Jovi, has grown in my garden.  

Although, knowing my luck, there will probably be several chickens...

Decadence!

Don't you just love...

'Afternoon Tea', with Champagne... (And mocktails for the young lady with us)

At the Balthazar Boulangerie (very French!!), Covent Garden, London, on a Sunday afternoon...

And anything left over (we did our best to avoid this!) they put in a bag for you to bring home!

Far too decadent for me!

Seeing stars!

Well I haven't been here for a while!  Did you miss me?  Sorry about that but I've been busy making some new friends.

And here I am, hanging round with them, my new celebrity friends. (OK I'm pushing it a bit using the word 'celebrity')

So, there I am getting a big hug from Dermot Bannon. (You know Dermot, that guy from the telly who's always wearing a very fetching yellow hi-vis jacket)

And there I am again getting a squeeze (oh my word!!) from Francis Brennan - no relation!  (You know Francis, that other guy from the telly, who wouldn't be seen near a hi-vis jacket, yellow or any other colour if his life depended on it.)

It was nice to meet both of them.

But I'm not sure which of my new friends I'd like to invite over to my house.  Either way it would be a disaster.

I mean if I invited Dermot over, I might end up with my house so redesigned that I have to drop down a chute to get to my bedroom.  Which would probably be a glass pod surrounded by a waterfall, or some other wacky design that he would come up with.  And everything would be white and bright with clean lines and matching surfaces.  And glass everywhere.  Which would be great, until Rusty comes in from the park and shakes mud over everything, and then somebody would have to clean all that glass....

So my other option would be Francis.  Well, that would also be a disaster, as I would have to have all my pillowcases matching and turned with the seams facing away from the door. (seriously!) And I'd have to have colour coded toilet paper in all the bathrooms. And he'd probably notice that I've never polished the brass surround on my fireplace!  Yes that's never!  And horror or horrors, there couldn't be any dust lurking in any corners.  God forbid!!  There would be no sweeping it under the carpet!  (I don't have any carpet, that's why the dust is lurking in the corners...)  And I don't know where I would hide Rusty.  He would have to be banished. or at least hidden somewhere until Francis has left the Parish.

I think they are both too busy to be dropping in to my house so I won't have to be sending out invites any time soon.  I did have a good chat with both of them, Dermot spoke at length about his new Volvo, and Francis told me all about the new venture he has in the pipeline.

I can't tell you any of the details of this new venture as it's top secret and I have been sworn to secrecy.  But I can tell you that I will be first in the queue in September outside Dunnes Stores in Stephens Green to buy some floral patterned cups and saucers that will look lovely in the new all white kitchen, with glass, that Dermot is designing for me.

Bet you're all jealous now!  But don't worry, when I get my new posh cups I'll invite all my old friends over for tea.  (I'm not polishing the brass tho').

Knowing your audience.

As you know, I'm recuperating from surgery on my shoulder, and have been doing nothing but lying on the couch, watching daytime TV, eating cake and chocolates (supplied by my very nice friends) and when I'm able to stay awake, reading.

I've read my way through three books already, so my 'to be read pile' is dwindling a bit now.

It was also my birthday last week and to help me celebrate my 10 year old niece sent me over a present.  Here it is in all its Minion wrapping paper glory.

I knew before I opened it, that it was a book, and I thought to myself, ah my niece knows me very well and how thoughtful of her to spend her (easily earned!) money replenishing my dwindling supply of books.  But I was wrong, it wasn't a book.  It was two books!

And here they are in all their glory...

Talk about knowing your audience!?

Anyway, having just finished a book, I was ready to start another.  But dilemma!  Which one should I read first.

I won't give you a full blown review of either as I'm sure you will all be queuing up to borrow them, so I'll just give you a synopsis.  The first one contains short stories about how to deal with hangovers, and the different types of hangovers.  And the second one is about how to deal with dates, and the different types of dating.  After reading both, I can't tell one story from the other as the subjects seem so similar.

They are also full of interesting facts, such as: (a) Every unit of alcohol kills the equivalent of two inches of bacon, which must be replaced the next morning.  (b) Winston Churchill who was Prime Minister of GB during the second world war, had a constant hangover, and he never surrendered! (The Hangover).  (a) It is surprising how often that a soul-mate turns out to not be on the other side of the world, but fairly nearby and reasonably drunk.  (b) Men's brains and women's brains are different, even as children. (Dating).

So, just to keep you interested, here's an extract from The Ladybird book of Dating:

"Rebecca* is meeting Ian* for their fifth date.  But Ian has not come.  Rebecca is sad.  Ian sends a test message instead.  He says he is under too much pressure from Rebecca, who is calling him everyday.  Rebecca thinks this is a lucky escape.  'Every day' is two words."

And, not to be left out, here's one from The Ladybird book of the Hangover.
.
"Susan* (they probably couldn't spell Siobhan!) woke up next to a full glass of wine.  She left it beside the bed in case she became thirsty in the night.  Now Susan does not know whose flat it was or where the nearest station might be.  At least she is dressed properly in case there is another party on the walk home."

I've read and re-read both books now and I have picked up some very useful tips:  Such as, always check where the nearest station is for getting home, and, more importantly, always check the grammar in your text messages.  And I've come to the conclusion that the stories in each book are definitely interchangeable....

I've also learned that Ladybird books have come a long way since my time.  And so have 10 year olds!!


* Names have been changed to protect the innocent.  Although after reading both of these books, I am coming to the conclusion that innocence has long since been lost...

Not a good day?

What a horrible day it is today!  Lashing rain and hail and windy and cold...

I'm so glad that all I have to do today is eat:

Watch:

And occasionally move the dog with my foot as he is taking up more room on the couch than I am!

This recuperation thing is not really all that bad after all...

A helping paw!

Isn't it lovely when you're confined to bed, or the sofa, after a small op (on your shoulder that was very successful), that you have somebody who will not only keep you company all day, but will also hold your book up for you because you're not able to hold it yourself...

What Spring brings.

What a lovely day!

And look what I found hiding in between the daffodils:

I didn't plant them, but a big thank you to whoever did.  They are very pretty.

And when your coming back to plant some more surprises for me, could you also dig up the bamboo that needs to be split, and fix the fence that has broken and clean the decking, and...., and...., and....

Thank you Kevin.

Don't you just love when your child gives you a beautiful bunch of flowers like these for Mothers Day!

And you think to yourself, well I must have done a good job bringing him up as he obviously has great taste and can see the inner beauty in his mother through these flowers.

And then you see the card...

The opposite of a buzz wrecker.

Joan Murphy, I'll just leave this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iAYhQsQhSY

Fairly Vegan.

I know it's January, the month of abstinence after December the month of gorging, so I shouldn't really be be talking about food.  However...

Well, we all have our likes and dislikes when it comes to food.  I, for example, don't like meat.  I'm not strictly vegetarian, I just don't like the taste of meat so I don't eat it.  When I tell people this, they always seem to think I am a bit odd or a 'save the planet and the animals' person (not that there is anything wrong with a 'save the planet and the animals person', as I do try very hard to be kind to both!).  Nobody bats an eyelid when I say I don't like mushrooms, but it always seems to be an item for discussion when I say I don't like meat.  But, everybody has something that they dislike when it comes to food, it's all about choice.

So...

Kevin got an invitation to dinner this evening.  A dinner party being hosted by a Vegan, and I can't remember if I volunteered or was requested to make a cake, but I did exactly what I give out about everybody doing when I say I don't like meat.  I said "OMG, what do you feed a Vegan for dessert!"

Of course, thanks to Google, there are hundreds of things you can make to satisfy the 'rules' that apply to Vegans.  It's just hard when your store cupboard is full of non-vegan stuff.  For my part, I think it must be a really hard diet to keep too, and I spent ages in Tesco reading labels and searching aisles to ensure I had all the right ingredients for my cake.  Although I'm sue if you made this your lifestyle choice you would know what to buy and not have to read the tiny print that all manufacturers seem to use when they are putting the ingredients on their products.

After a lot of too-ing and fro-ing between Google and my cupboard, I eventually settled on a dairy and egg free chocolate cake.  Strangely enough, this recipe had both baking soda and vinegar in it. (Vinegar in a chocolate cake!  Blasphemy!!).  As I was mixing the ingredients together a friend (also a competent baker) called for coffee and we had a good discussion re the merits and drawbacks of being a Vegan and of baking without eggs and butter.  She came to the conclusion that the baking soda and vinegar mix were what would make the cake rise as they would produce some acid-alkaline chemical reaction.  I have some very clever friends.  Curiosity got the better of me, so this theory I also looked up...

She was right, baking soda and vinegar mixed together make the ultimate fizz bomb, and also a very good drain cleaner.  In fact, you can use this solution to clean everything, yes everything (!!) in your house.

Jeez....

Anyway, after sifting and mixing and not being entirely happy at how the mix looked, this is how my Vegan chocolate cake turned out:

The strawberries are Vegan too, I checked that with the man in Tesco.  He had a very strange look on his face when he answered.   You see, he had the same reaction as I had!!  :-)

Let's hope it tastes as good as it looks and smells.  I will have to wait until tomorrow for the verdict.  And if it's doesn't taste nice, they can always use it to clean the drains.

Also, while I had the oven on, and in the interest of 'equality and fairness' to butter, I made a batch of shortbread.

Cup of organic green tea anybody?