Wednesday Fun

Cat + Art.

He doesn't look very amused, does he.

Step One

I told you, it's an awful mess out there.

At last, a beautiful day, and I took the time to get out there. Where to begin?

The left border, of course. It didn't take as long as I thought, and although it was sunny, it wasn't exactly hot. But it was warm enough for the earth to smell delightful, and I was amazed at what is coming up, once the weeds and leaves were clear. Even the Crocosmia seems to be coming up; at least that's the place it was, so it must be that. Which is great because I have plenty more bulbs to put in to join them this year. Last year I missed out and they were all gone from the garden shops - Phoebe's, online, everywhere. Maybe there was a dearth. I am well prepared and there is a box marked in the shed, ordered from Crocus(.co.uk). When in the shed, though, I found another Crocus box - I have no idea what else I ordered. Can't wait to check that out!

Tidy! It is surprisingly bare - ooooo, lots of planting space ... I think a trip to Phoebe's Garden Centre is in order soon.

However, when plant shopping, I tend to see a plant, think "that's pretty", and then plonk it in. No forethought, no planning. If I want a proper English Border I'm going to have to think carefully. Also, I believe I planted a lot of annuals last year in a desperate attempt to get something resembling what I desire. No, this year, I must find more flowering perennials, and consider height, spread, when it blooms, etc. Perhaps at long last I can have that English Border, and leave my "border envy" at others' gardens behind.

I would just like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who regularly read my page (even if there's nothing new to read - all two of you!). I shall try to keep you more often entertained and hopefully enlightened. Eleven post in 2010? Shocking!

Next week, weather permitting, it's me, the vegetable patch, some bark chips, and a bag of manure.

Happy Spring!

Off Topic: The World of Contemporary Art

Another weekend come and gone, and I'm not out there getting my hands in the soil, preparing the garden for Spring.


Yesterday was very mild, sometimes sunny, a perfect day for gardening in this almost-Spring season. However, I have had to work all weekend, because The Affordable Art Fair was on. It's my job to cover our gallery when everyone else is busy selling art at the show.


So, for your delectation, some images from the always popular AAF.

I actually have 5 of these chaps below. Set of 2 last year, joined by a set of 3 purchased this year.

So there you have it, a little insight into my job in the world of Contemporary Art.

Hopefully, finally, gardening next weekend!

Windows of Opportunity

Speaking of those windows of opportunity, in my own garden, I have missed several since November.


After the disappearance of the arachnid population (where do they go? Do they die? Go underground?) I should have taken the opportunity to put the garden to bed for winter. Take down the tomatoes and clear the other vegetables, clear out as many weeds as possible, lay some newspaper down and cover with bark chips to keep the weeds suppressed until the spring.


That was the idea. But come November 30, this happened.

Not just a little flurry, or a light dusting.

I could count on two hands the number of times it has snowed in London at all during the winter, since the time I've lived here (20+ years). I could count on one hand the number of times it has snowed heavily at any time during the winter. And this is November, mind. That requires no hands to count on, in my memory.

This particular snowfall didn't fall just one day. The week was so bad, I couldn't actually make it to work on the Thursday. Train companies, you see, just cannot deal with this amount of snow here (perhaps a foot). Thankfully, Friday was a day I had booked off.

So the best laid plans for garden tidying were scuppered, and December never really improved, in terms of gardening.

January?

Went too fast. Suddenly I was packing to visit my parents in the Midwest.

So here we are again, it's March, and time for a clean-up. Spring cleaning, ugh. I could have made my life so much easier with just a little work in late Autumn.

The good news is Ginger has forgiven me for abandoning him for a full two weeks.
In fact he's just been making himself busy getting ginger hairs all over my black trousers. Again.

Somehow he seems to have managed just fine; in fact when I saw him, I thought, "hey Mr. Whiskers, you're looking rather chunky."

I wonder what they fed him?

Visitors

I am one of them. Visiting my parents home in the Midwest in February, just for a change.

For the first week of my visit, at least, I seemed to bring the weather with me. I even thought I might have a window of opportunity to sort out this mess.

However, this being Chicago, the temperatures dropped and there was more snow. So much for clearing the garden and getting it ready for Spring.

I did, however, have the chance to build a snowman with my brother, niece and nephew.

I saw an amazing full moon.

I celebrated a birthday (mine).

And made a friend - another visitor this morning.

He even stepped inside for a minute.

What is it with me and ginger cats?

Ginger Says

A Very Happy New Year.

Well actually, he's sound asleep here. In fact he is very deep in REM sleep, and his little feet were twitching like nobody's business. He was also vocalising. My husband managed to get this shot, and perhaps 30 seconds later he woke up.

To wish us all Very Happy New Year!

A Very Happy Christmas

from all of us, including the cat crew ...!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Finickiness

I often think back fondly to a time when I visited my husband on one of his trips to LA, where occasionally he stays with an acquaintance of his.

A beautiful place in one of the LA canyons, with pool, and beautiful garden.

Didn't get to swim that time, as it was just a bit too early in the year and I wasn't up for a freezing dip.

This couple, a lovely English couple who have lived out in LA for quite a while now (didn't stop them requesting that I bring them a jar or two of Bovril, though), also have five cats.

What I remember best, is the evening I arrived, I watched as the woman lovingly prepared five separate bowls of cat food. She mixed some dry in with some wet, seemed to spend an awfully long time getting it just right, and I thought to myself, "is that how it is done, then?".

But what I found most gratifying, the recollection that pleases me most as I have been in the same situation almost nightly, is that once all the bowls had been carefully placed in the places that obviously each cat expected their food ... not one of them touched it. Turned their noses up, turned tail, and walked away.

Food that I gave Ginger the night before, that he scarfed down, is not to his taste the next day. The amount of cat food I scrape into the bin is shocking. After a bit you just have to give up on it, as it becomes inedible (even to a cat!).

The LA cats all seemed to like to drink from the pool, though ...

This Piece of Music

In honour of the fact that I've been trying to switch the music around, or at least ensure that more than one song plays for the duration of your visit, I am sharing here the lyrics of this beautiful piece of music, which until I can figure out, might be the only piece of music you hear every time you visit. Until I work this out and actually have what they call a "playlist".

For the record, IMHO Leonard Bernstein was a true musical genius. Apart from everything else, this shows it, above all.

CANDIDE

You've been a fool, and so have I,
But come and be my wife.
And let us try,
Before we die,
To make some sense of life.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
And make our garden grow.

CUNEGONDE

I thought the world
Was sugar cake
For so our master said.
But, now I'll teach
My hands to bake
Our loaf of daily bread.

CANDIDE AND CUNEGONDE

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
And make our garden grow.

(ensemble enters in gardening gear and a cow walks on)
CANDIDE, CUNEGONDE, MAXIMILLIAN, PAQUETTE, OLD LADY, DR. PANGLOSS

Let dreamers dream
What worlds they please
Those Edens can't be found.
The sweetest flowers,
The fairest trees
Are grown in solid ground.

ENSEMBLE (a cappella)
[which means the music stops, and normally here I catch my breath ... and get a bit choked up]

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow.
And make our garden grow!
(The cow dies)

That's life, hey?

Double Cat Fun

This is my cat. Ginger. Aka Mr Whiskers. Aka Scoodgems. Still not sure how to spell that.

This is his brother, the occasional visitor. Big Brother, I call him. Or, Bro.

Can you tell the difference? Bro has a pointier tail, and is more upright, whereas Ginger is rounder, a little bit fluffier, and cuddly.

The big difference is, when you're outside and it's dark, if you pick up Ginger you get cuddles - he moulds himself into your arms, top feet on top arm, back feet on lower arm, and a purr to accompany that - a cuddly, scoodgy little boy.

Pick up Bro by mistake, and you get FLAIL. Arms and legs everywhere, nuh huh, what do you think you are doing??

Funny thing is, apart from the fact that sure, they come in for food (I'm feeding two cats here on a regular basis, chuh)

I know that Ginger missed me when I was away in France. He was all over me, and in my face, and wouldn't leave me alone when I got back. He was like velcro.

But Big Brother? Every time I open the door, there he is. Don't you have a home to go to, kitty, I ask? Don't they give you scratches like I do? Heck, he almost did that thing recently - the kneading thing. I thought he might crawl into my lap. And he's got a purr like a drill hammer. You could hear that purr two blocks away.

Hello? You're not my cat. I love you pussums, but you're not my cat ...

Can you tell the difference?

Clinging on to Summer

It's that changeable time here. Early September, you don't expect much weather-wise. But we had a rare glimpse of summer again last week, and it was meant to last into the weekend. It almost did. Being a complete weather junkie (in terms of weather reports), I'm watching every day now.



Still wearing sandals. Summer tops, with a cardigan on top, and a light mac (both, instead of one or the other. Or neither, in the heat of things). Topping up my French tan from a bottle. Rainy and grey threatened every day now, in fact we've had both today. But I'm hanging on. Just for another week or so. I see women dressed in autumnal jackets, boots, tights, on the train every morning. But for me, not yet.



Don't ever let me forget, Summer 2010 was awesome. July, uh, perfect. Hot, sunny, hot, sunny. August, well, okay. Not too bad. Even now, it's not cold, just not ... hot. That's okay.



But the nights seem to be drawing in. Maybe because it was so grey today, culminating in the promised rain. By the time I was coming home from work, it seemed so ... dreary. Dark. And Autumnal. Perhaps it's time ...



But there is still much to ripen, and to harvest!

Whatever I'm wearing, whatever the weather, I'll keep you posted!

The other good news is - and this is seriously good news ... the arachnid situation seems to be much, much better this year over last year, or even the previous. The good summer? Who knows. I'm touching wood here, but really it hasn't been a problem for me. Just as I geared myself up to deal with it ... (I know. I know. We need them. Ick). But phew ...

Harvest Number One

Well, this time, to explain my further absence, I have been on holiday in the South of France with my sister and her family. Cannes, to be exact, and I got tan (for the first time in perhaps 4 years?).




It was beautiful, it was hot (I love the heat), it was bliss. Six days on a beach.

This beach, to be exact, the "Bijou Plage" directly across the street from the apartment. Huh. Was that only five days ago?

But to return to the subject at hand, I will start with the vegetable garden.

This year I am attempting courgette (zuchini for those Stateside), cucumber, tomatoes (of course!), beans, peas, and the usual lettuce, spinach, rocket. Potatoes in a bag (more on that later), beetroot, and radishes.

Nice buch of radishes, expecting to harvest another lot tomorrow (you can sow seeds every three weeks to get a succession of crops). Two lovely cucumber on the right, one nice and rather large courgette on the left. All well and good.


Ah, those courgettes. First of all, lesson one, the plant gets rather huge.






Secondly, you really have to look out for the vegetable appearing. I caught two in time. Next time, I was taken by surprise

Jamie Oliver says that when they get too big, they are rather wooly inside and not very edible. At this point, after I had put this on Facebook, an American friend kindly gave me a recipe for Zuchini Bread, which is just about all I could do with it. Which I intend to try.

And then today? Well, I thought I had checked before I left on the 18th August - but today ...

Oh Mama. How much Zuchini Bread am I going to end up with?

What's a girl to do?

When you have film premieres, theatre visits, after theatre drinks, red carpet events ...

Nah, there was just the one film premiere last night. A surreal experience. Thanks to the job that my lovely husband does, I went to a red carpet event. And managed not to trip up the carpet, or make a fool of myself - as they say here, I "scrub up" pretty well (that means, I can dress up without my wellies and jeans, my normal gardening attire).




I aqpologise for being absent, but believe me, I have been gardening. And I have lots to show you! Left border, vegetables, cleaning and clearing projects, all sorts. And I will be sharing with you soon! Not to mention the cats - oh the cats ...



Summer kitty. He loves the outdoors. Cats are wild.

So in the end ...

I couldn't move it. By the time I came round to try and dig it out, the ground was very dry from the intense days of sunshine that graciously shone during my visit. I couldn't even get the fork in the ground, nor the spade.

So we trimmed it.

I mean, it's a little better, right? Not quite so monstrous. Okay, it's still pretty big

But it's not taking up a full third of the garden (and right in the middle, too). Sure, I'm a fan of hostas, always have been, but I've still never encountered one that grew quite this big.

And time always runs out. On this visit we acquired a Rhododenron, Clematis, Hydrangea (Endless Summer, allegedly hardy in Zone 5), Lantana, Pentas 'Grafitti Bright Red', Verbena (very pretty, pink and white), some Nicotiana. I managed to plant the first three, with help from the boys, during our Memorial Day barbeque (boy, that was good food).

I do hope the rest got in the ground safely. But you know what? To my mind, there is still more space to fill. But then a garden's never really "done", is it?