no fairies at the bottom of our garden

No fairies but horrid looking chafer grubs. The lawn man came and said that drastic action will have to be taken. Such a pity as the grass was really lovely last summer with all the rain. The two big black crows are still enjoying themselves so it is not all bad.
I came back from Brighton very early today, and when I arrived home at 8.30am, there was a jolly breakfast going on with nearly all the residents up and cheerful. Amazing on a Saturday morning.
I have been watching a good programme on TV for the last few weeks called Around the World in Eighty Faiths. It is incredible to see the weird antics that people get up to in the name of religion, especially in last night`s episode which was in the bible belt of America with some of the Charismatic churches. Still I suppose that many would find a Quaker Meeting strange with us all sitting round in silence for an hour.

Two frightening big black birds

My Japanese friend came round to have a marmalade making lesson. One of the good things about marmalade is that you can only do it in late January or early February when the Sevilles arrive in the market. You need to pick a cold wet afternoon and really enjoy the warm kitchen and the lovely orangey smell. We both got sticky and so did the table, the cooker, the door handles, the taps. Luckily it set well and it was a joy to see the filled golden jars.

We are having a party on Sunday to say goodbye to dear T who is leaving the Meeting House as her three years are up. She used to work for a circus in Latvia and Russia so we are going to dress up in circus related outfits though she does not know of this yet. I cannot make up my mind about my outfit as I do not want to be cooking a roast dinner in anything tight or hot or uncomfortable.

Two big black crows have just torn up another large expanse of lawn. I do not know whether to encourage them as they must be eating some sort of grub, or to run outside and shout at them to go away. I have asked some lawn experts to come tomorrow.

sleepy saturday

I came back late last night after my day off in Brighton. It is a surreal experience doing that journey along the deserted sea front as far as Worthing then along empty motorways. I like driving at night with the radio on and the heater at full blast. When I got home, D had just arrived back from his Christmas month visiting relatives in U.S A. and so we sat up chatting, and I did not go to bed until after one am and then I got engrossed in my book, so I was sleepy all day. The house was busy with lettings which was the reason I had to come back on Friday, sad as my lovely grand daughter F had just arrived from up north. Anyway today I had time for a good read of the Saturday Guardian which I always enjoy, especially the Review and the Family section and the magazine. I usually do the crossword too but it is impossible today, so I will save it up to do tomorrow with my son T who is an expert.
I went to the cinema twice last week to see Slumdog Millionaire and The Reader, both remarkable films and I did not fall asleep once in either which is the Acid Test.

Poached with no Reproach.

The day started with the B and B`s asking for poached eggs, my most dreaded breakfast, but they ate them cheerfully in spite of soggy toast, and ragged edges, and even said they would like to come again.
Then someone came to book a room for a meditation meeting and wanted to see the guest room so I grabbed my chance and got them to help with the double duvet cover, as I had been struggling and flailing my arms helplessly trying to do it on my own.

Today the Reading Group for the Sight Impaired came, with N the bloke from the Library who organises it. All are elderly (even older than I am) with walking frames and sticks, swollen ankles and other infirmities, but they have minds like razors! N kindly asked me to join them and I have rarely been in such a lively and challenging discussion on any book. This was The Road Home`by Rose Tremain which won the Orange Prize recently and I had loved it. They saw a darker side and were very critical, and compared it ver unfavourably with her other novels.

Tonight I have the House Committee and I have to report on the past month in the Meeting House. We have to discuss things like Fire Risk Assessments and putting up the rents. Then it is my writing group tomorrow and I have written not one but two poems. I am not satisfied with either, but I have tried.

Busy Sunday

Sundays are always busy as I like to get up early to make the Meeting House shining and clean with a good strong smell of polish before Meeting. It has been very wild and windy so I had to tidy up the garden as well, as it was scattered with branches of trees blown down in the night. The Quaker teenager group stayed for lunch and once that was cleared away and the kitchen tidied up, and I had sorted out a couple of bed and breakfast who arrived for the night, I went to an ecumenical tea party. It is the Week of Christian Unity and I was asked as the Quaker representative. It was daunting to enter a room full of black suited dog collared clergy all talking away ten to the dozen. It was held in a sort of bar restaurant near the cathedral. On offer was: ice cream and exotic fruit salad, pate, french cheeses , wine, tea or coffee. There was not a cucumber sandwich or victoria sponge to be seen. Quite tasty though. Then we all went to the Cathedral and I was ushered with the other clergy to sit up at the front near the altar. I sang all the hymns with gusto, and a lovely Catholic priest who used to be in Winchester and is now a bishop somewhere else preached the sermon. (Another Catholic priest at the tea party told me that if he ever changed his religion he would either be a Buddhist or a Quaker) but all in all I did feel a bit of a fish out of water. Still, it was kind of them to ask me, and I had some good chats.

One of our residents teaches first aid and I have just been up to the bathroom to find several frightening dummies for practising resucitation laid out to dry after a bath. I asked her to move them as I thought they would frighten the two elderly bed and breakfasts. There is more to this job than you might think.

Nn such thing as a free breakfast

The Indulgent Breakfast was a success. About a hundred people came and we raised £1100. Two residents dressed up, J in a cap and frilly apron, G in a morning suit which looked splendid with his recently grown and newly waxed moustache. We had six tables going full pelt but there were lots of punters eating off their laps in the sitting room. We did the Full Monty:eggs, bacon, mushroom sausage etc and every sort of egg, also kippers and kedgeree. D sat at the kitchen table and made toast for two hours, C and G fried steadily, it was a real team effort. We all decided that we would not give up the day job and do it full time as it is a bit of a worry, always the odd person waiting disconsolately for a bowl of porridge for over an hour, or anxiety over runny boiled eggs, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and will proudly hand over the big pile of cash tomorrow to the Emmaus project.
Very coooold still and frost on the trees looks pretty, but I have stayed mainly indoors this weekend, reading the newspapers, playing Scrabble and planning holidays. Rather going off the idea of cycling in the Outer Hebrides as I have been told that it is extremely windy.

I have been huddling up against the Aga this evening trying to get warm. Even this cosy house is chilly. I worry about the people sleeping out, there are usually one or two in doorways up the High Street and in the Park. It is Twelfth Night and we have just taken the decorations down and put the Christmas tree ready to be chopped up and burnt on the bonfire. I took the cards for recycling to WH Smiths and it felt awful to drop all those lovely pictures and loving messages into the bin.

My grandson, M is twenty today. I made him a cake with candles on it but he said he did not want all that palaver so I took the candles off and he took it away to share with his friends with 20 holes in the top. I remember his birth so well 20 years ago. in icy weather just like it is now. It was in The Hague in Holland and I gave him his first bath after we brought him home from hospital. I took him out in a big pram past Dutch people skating on frozen ponds like in a Breughel painting. He has grown into a kind warm hearted young man.

On Saturday, I am organising an Indulgent Breakfast at the Meeting House a fund raising event for Emmaus, a charity for homeless people which is just about to open a centre in Winchester. I have just read a very upsetting article in the Guardian about the way that pigs are reared so now I am anxious about the bacon. I have ordered five dozen eggs from very happy free range hens, so now must try to track down some kindly pig farmers. I suppose the kippers will be OK.

These are my New Year resulutions:
1.Have regular `treatments` eg acupuncture, shiatsu, aromatherapy, thai massage, vitamin pills, rosehips, I am up for anything that might help. I am very stiff and creaky, it is a worry.
2.Lose a stone to help the knees and ankles. No potatoes, sugar, cakes, chocolate, white bread, crumpets, or croissants.
3. Do a new poetry collection.
4. Go for a cycling holiday in the Scottish islands in May.

I think that is enough. All those things are possible.
I did not stay up to see the New Year in last night , but I was woken at midnight by an almighty racket going on with fireworks exploding all over the place. What a ghastly waste of money.
We played some nice music by the fire yesterday afternoon, three violins, cello and piano, Boismortier, Corelli, Tellemann. Did not lose our places very often, and we all enjoyed it. Fortunately no one else was in at the time.
Today K and C plus family came and we saw the New Year in with a glass of bubbly with our lunch and nice chats. The girls sang Its a Wonderful World and The Rhythm of Lfe. What a treat.