Here We Go Again

It was not from lack of trying, or any kind of laziness - as my faithful readers know (and thank you for being faithful) I had a bad year, last year.  I kind of let the garden go.  I had some tomatoes in bags to harvest in September, and they were nice, but after July, I lost heart.  I had a hole in my heart so big, it took me a while to get back to normal.

Normal.  Normal will never be the same again, and on this day in the USA, I wish every mother a very Happy Mother's Day.

There, that's done. Back to the garden.

Yikes!

This winter was the hardest I have ever known in the UK since I've lived here.  I worry very much about Global Warming.  I worry that we are losing the Gulf Stream due to rising seas from the polar ice caps melting.  There was not so much snow, as compared to previous years, but it was a long, cold time. And it's not over.  We should have had, by now, some better weather, not just a day here and there, but it doesn't seem to be forthcoming.

But thankfully, the Bank Holiday weekend last weekend was, surprisingly wonderful.

Time to cut the grass!

You may remember how bad it was last year, the first time, when it had gotten so long - and I left it and left it.  This year, I really didn't mean to - I was hoping in March that I would have a window of opportunity to do it, but no.  Not with this crazy winter.  And then, I left for Chicago to visit my Dad for two weeks.

On the 4th of April, I left the UK and it was snowing.  Yes, snowing.  I arrived in Chicago and it was nice - nicer, which was to last only two or three days.  When I left Chicago to return home, on the 19th of April, it was snowing.  Something wrong here.

So, at last, just last weekend, I had the opportunity to cut the grass.  The long, long grass.  Ouch.  Thankfully, my trusty mower did it again - something I don't want to put it through often!

I am left with the need to weed the left and the right.  I'm not sure about the left - it is looking okay.  I thought I might cut back the Ceanothus on the right, which has gone crazy, but perhaps not.  I'm excited for it to flower (it's very late).  The Choisya on the left, again, going mental but that has been there for many years now, and I don't feel the need to cut that back either.  I'm not sure what I can do for the left border apart from some heavy weeding.

And it seems like a long time ago now, that Bank Holiday weekend, but someone else was enjoying that sunshine as well.

May the sun come back again, in abundance and warmth, very soon.

Buy this book

Buy it now.  I have just finished - it's an easy read, but it is very eye-opening, and very enjoyable, and really, it's a must read.  I love this man, James Bowen.  I love this cat, Bob.  It is one of the best books I've read in a long time.

 A Street Cat Named Bob

As my ginger cat goes a little bit nuts on the windowsill.  Why?  Because they are cats.  And our particular cats happen to be (have been) ginger (orange tabby, I guess you would say in the States). 

Ginger Cats Rule OK.

Slightly crazy?  Oh yes.  Unbelievably loving?  Oh yes. 

Go Ginger cats, go.

Back soon with an update on the actual garden!  Finally!

Gingerella

Says "hi"

Meeeooowwww.

Kitties Leave, Kitties Arrive

As you know, our Ginger is gone.

Our beautiful, special, white-whiskered boy who loved us so much.

You may remember the neighbours who moved in with their Mitzi.  They've just moved to the West Indies!  Nice for some, bit of a change of weather, hey?

Mitzi is happily ensconced, I believe, with her "grandmother" who always looked after her when they were away.  And is queen of the garden, so I understand.

We had some new neigbours move in upstairs recently.  They found a mouse in their flat.  And promptly acquired a cat.

Now, this cat can't go out into the garden at will - there is no direct access from upstairs.  So this kitty will need to be an indoor cat, unless they actually bring her downstairs, round the back, and let her have a little run around.

I don't think cat owners usually do that.  I mean, you don't take your cat for a walk, do you?

No, it looks like the garden belongs to .... hello.

You all remember that there was a second ginger cat, right?  The sister/friend/compatriot of Ginger.  A female (yes, I checked).

You know that she came by often, to hang out with her bro.  And us, too.

After our boy left this earthly plane, the other one, and let's just start as we mean to go on and call her Gingerella, started coming on by again.  An evening here and there maybe, for a scratch of the cheek more than for a bite.  Checking on in to say "hi".

But one evening, after about two weeks, I walked into the house after a long day's work.  Husband was working away, and so it was just me - I was taking off my jacket in the sitting room and I heard, "meow".

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

What I had been longing to hear every night when I got home, there it was.

Hello?

Gingerella had, for the first time ever, decided to come in the cat flap.

Since then, Gingerella has moved in.

We also have a new cat.  She has not left our side, much, since that moment she decided to make this house, her home too.

I could over-analyse too much and say does she miss him, and therefore stay with us?  Or did she always want to be with us, but couldn't because of him?  Because she sure as heck does love the socks off us.

Oh my goodness, she has a purr like a drill hammer. I have never, ever met a cat with such a purr.  She's gotten much more vocal, too - what started as a very polite "meow" is now "uh, hello, I have something to say".  I still haven't worked out what the meow's mean.  But we sure as heck love this girl.  And I feel bad that yet again, we have taken someone else's cat - well.  We didn't make her.  Or him.  I don't know.  This cat loves us top to bottom and we love her back.  And that's really what matters.

Ginger, the cat

It is with a heavy heart that I have to report, that our beautiful boy, Ginger, Mr. Wiskers, little scoodgums, is no more. 

It turns out he was much older than we thought.  Given the fact that he adopted us, we didn't know. Double the years, actually.  Wow, looking at him, who would know he was already 12 years old.  And he had a kidney problem, that would kill him in a very short space of time.  We did everything we could.


From the moment we met, it was love at first sight.  He looked at me from the top of the fence, and he had me at "meow".

I didn't know who he was.  I wasn't expecting, nor frankly did I want a cat, when I moved into this flat with large garden.  I was still missing my gorgeous dog, Beardsley.  The garden just happened to be awash with cats, and I found it fascinating.  I didn't think one of them, a very very special, ginger one, would pick me out, shake me up, and make me his own.

I forgot that I used to be a cat person, a long time ago.

I forgot that I could give cat love.  Cats seem to appreciate where I am able to scratch.  And this little tiny guy, who was full of cat warmth and love, taught me how to love again, cat wise.

He was a sunworshipper.

A fighter.

A lover.

 A catnip lover.

A brother.  This is key.  They loved each other.

And for some reason, this cat and I, well, we were it.  We were the Top Cats together.

He was my crazy white-whiskered pretty boy with a passion for life and a love that cannot be matched.

He was my soulmate.

Stay tuned.  There has been a development on the cat situation.


But long live Ginger, in our hearts, forever.

Belatedly

I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Unfortunately, I have lost one of my most faithful readers.  A keen gardener, and a highly talented artist.  Tim, you will be missed.

Here's to some good gardening in 2013.  And the music will resume soon, when I can find another user-friendly playlist.

Weather Report

Apparently, there was snow somewhere in London yesterday.  North of town, and those airports up there (Stanstead and Luton) had some problems.  As I heard on the news in the morning, getting ready for work.  I saw it was cold out there - and I'm not one to say "cold" easily, coming from Chicago, as I do.

But 20 degrees F is pretty darned cold to me, and that's what my thermometer outside the kitchen window said.  Okay, it's in the shade (not that I get any sun at all in the garden at this time of year), and it was early on in the day, about 8:00 am.  BTW, I don't really do Celsius.  Metrics never really stuck with us Americans.  I have to convert all the time.

Well, even if I didn't see snow in South East London, my train company had a problem.  I get it.  Out of London, our little warmer micro-climate, it is cold enough to snow, and it does.  So my trains were messed up coming up from Kent.  Not that this should have been a revelation to Southeastern Trains, as it was forecast.  *sigh*

Tonight, walking home from the train (which wasn't too messed up) there was some strange precipitation in the air.  Not quite snow.  Ugh, is that ... sleet?  Yuck!

At least, if it continues, I am off work tomorrow so won't have to deal with any possible travel chaos.  I have racked up too much time working weekends during fairs, or just weekends.  I wish I could have added this on to (1) my trip back to Chicagoland in August/September or (2) my upcoming trip to Chicagoland for Christmas.  But no, I had an idea to go back for Thanksgiving, which didn't happen.  I am stuck with a bunch of days to take off - use it or lose it.  It's fabulous, how much time we get off compared to the States, for example.

Oh, in fact, that's the only example.  The rest of the civilised world gives enough time off to it's employees for a well-rounded life, by law.

Tomorrow?  We shall see what I get done, but I don't think there will be much outdoors.

Next week?  Hmmm, depends on the weather ...

What a Mess

It looks awful, doesn't it.

So is my life.

A dear friend won't answer my calls. Makes me very sad.

My husband, bless him, is working all hours and is away every night - has been for the last three weeks, and will be for the next to come.

Oh, and my mother died on the 2nd of July 2012.

Life is just a bit difficult at the moment.

And the garden looks like ...

Shit.

I Can Feel It Coming In The Air Tonight

There is a certain smell, this time of year, that I rather love, even if I don't like winter.  Or coldness. Or snow.  Or all that is associated with a winter.

It smells like snow.  When I say that to my English husband, he laughs.  "How can you smell snow?"  he says.  You can.

It's not that it's going to snow here.  Anytime soon, anyway.  Or even where I come from, just now.  It's just a smell of ... cold.  It's going to get cold eventually, seriously cold in Chicago, and cold-ish here.

I smelt it the other day and the next day, was a cold, crisp one.  Not autumnal cold, but winter cold.  Enough that you'd better get that scarf out, and maybe the gloves.

It makes me nostalgic, somehow.  For what?  Other days, I guess.  Not necessarily my childhood, which was nice and all, but no.  My salad days, I guess you could call them (how appropriate for a gardener).  When I was young and carefree and the day before Thanksgiving meant a night out with two days off, plus the weekend, after.  A night out with friends.  A night "on the tiles", as you might say.

And then the lead up to Christmas.  Parties, kissing under the mistletoe, friends, fun, family.

This time of year always gets me.  In a nice way, of course.  Perhaps this year, just a bit more so than any other year.

For my USA friends, a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Don't shop at Walmart on Black Friday.  But have a great weekend!

Found this nugget of gold.

Oh, okay then

Here's some more art.  But I promise, after this, it's back to the horror of the garden.

In all "Fair"ness

I should share with you what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks - back to back, Affordable Art Fair Battersea and Hampstead once again. For the last time.  But it's all so beautiful!  However, if you want to keep the dates in your diary, Battersea is early March next year,  Hampstead is June, and Battersea again in October.

For the time being, I can only share with you what I want.  I WANT. I badly want this exquisite piece of work, just because of the look on the dog's face.

But really, (1) I LOVE dogs (and cats, of course, but I really love dogs).  (2) There is a suitcase involved.  (3) there are seagulls, and a lighthouse.

I love this. I love this piece of perfection.

And ............ not going to happen.  £3000. :-(  Hey ho.  Not even a print of it.  I asked.  Much respect to the artist, however, Jimmy Lawlor, at least he responded to my begging email.  Hey ho.  It lives in my memory.

Sandy

Yes, I'm talking about the superstorm, and my love and positive thoughts go out to everyone who was affected by it.

I've been thinking, for the last few weeks, of making a suggestion, and in the aftermath of Sandy it just seems all the more relevant.  It started when I watched this video.

TED talk: David Roberts on Climate Change

Science, climate change in particular, made understandable for the non-scientist.

So I got to thinking, if you have children that you love, this is not a world you want to leave them to deal with.  If you happen to have too much time on your hands, that weighs heavily on you, it seems to me that time could be well spent on trying to make a change and save our planet, for future generations.  After all, we don't want to see a world like Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing, do we?  Perhaps it's not as inconceivable as it first seemed; hydraulic fracturing wrecking safe drinking water making it one of the rarest commodities on the planet; a wealthy, coporate elite controlling the general populace with a standing army on their side.

So I saw this on Facebook today -

With supporting material on how to get involved.

Fundamentally the point is this:

"These fossil fuel corporations are driving the climate crisis and spending millions to block solutions. Instead of buying climate silence, the fossil fuel industry should be funding climate relief.

We’ve set up a page where you can donate to relief efforts, as well as call on Big Oil, Coal and Gas to take the money they’re spending on political campaigning this election and put it towards disaster relief instead.

The fossil fuel industry has spent more than $150 million to influence this year’s election. Last week, Chevron made the single biggest corporate political donation since the Citizens United decision. This industry warps our democracy just as it pollutes our atmosphere. And we’ve had enough."

So he's started the Do The Math Tour, a fantastic way to get involved on one of the most pressing issues facing our future generations' life on this precious planet.

Forget gardening in the future, if the temperature continues to scarily rise.

Get involved, get reading, get organised and get out there.

I wish you luck.  This could be life-changing.

Chop Chop

Or perhaps, buzz buzz.

I had an assignment a few weekends ago - to deal with front, as we were going to get a gate and some trellising installed.  Given that my husband was working on Saturday, and I was working on Sunday, the best day (in bright sunshine, mind) to do the necessary was the Saturday.

As I left the flat at the same time as my neighbour, he commented "Wow, chainsaw and sunglasses.  Nice."

The target, you see, was this.

It's a buddleia (no kidding). And rather an obtrusive, grow-like-a-weed kind.  Believe it or not it was cut back in the Spring.  Yes there are some flowers on it, which smell nice, but as an attractive piece of foliage it's - not.  Besides, on the wall to the right it where we are going to have some trellising installed so, something had to give.

If you remember, when we moved in, I transplanted a palm tree from a pot into the front area here.  Thanks to said buddleia, it has never had a chance to really do it's thing.  So firing up the electric saw (it's not really a chainsaw, not quite) I went to work.

Hmm.  Round One to me, I think.

Sadly I had to lose most of the palm tree, which was leaning on the wall.

But look!  Still some left.  And the wall to the right, free for the necessary.

Here is where we will have a gate.  Nothing fancy, but stops people walking in to our front yard (remember the stolen window box?).

I'll have you know that all of the debris created, is now in the back, but that's another story ...