bank holiday blues

Bank Holiday weekend and I have nothing planned, but I suppose I will do a bit of writing, a bit of gardening and a bit of gazing into space, as well as all the usual: dealing with droppers in, and` gentlemen of the road` who fancy a cheese and pickle sandwich just as I`m thinking of going to bed, (always more of them about at weekends). This evening I went next door to feed the Rectory cats and saw two people getting out of their car who had come for B and B, from Southern Ireland. I had completely forgotten about them, luckily I had an empty bed! I could not remember their names though they had been before, so I had to spend an hour going through old emails trying to track them down.
I had just been to Ikea and had wandered about there in a haze of consumerism lust, seduced by fluffy white bath towels, shiny big frying pans and plump pillows. So cheap, I say to myself but end up spending huge sums.

Back from another tribal gathering in the Isle of Wight, but they have all drifted back home now. We get together every year for Julia`s birthday, this is the fifth since she died in 2004.
I had to get back earlier on Saturday, as I cooked supper for our dear Russian ex residents and their Auntie Maya from Moscow, plus her Russian professor friend Alexi, also Latvian Y who used to live here, and M, her chap, so we were eleven including the children. Baby Alexander who was christened here a few months ago by the Orthodox priest, is now crawling round the table legs. We had a bit of a sing song after supper.
Now I have an Australian woman staying who is a devotee of Krishnamurti so she has been out to Brockwood Park nearby to the Krishnamurti School. Otherwise everything is very quiet here. I shall be glad when it all gets buzzing again.

August is a funny month, everything seems suspended, and the house is dead quiet today, even the cats have hardly bothered to wake up for their tea. (It is plural at the moment as Shirley has come to stay from Brighton)
I have just been away in the Isle of Wight to join the annual migration of Darlings etc and a dozen or so of us have been sitting in rows on beaches, occasionally plunging into the sea. There is a sort of mud pool and the others (not me) like rolling around in it and emerge looking grotesque. I find it quite distressing, but I suppose it is what posh people do in spas and health farms. Anyway, I certainly feel the benefit of the sea air and my hacking cough has disappeared, though I have a red peeling nose.
I have been making some damson jam which has set well, but everything is very sticky, taps, doorhandles, it seems to have got everywhere. I am looking forward to blackberry picking, not long now.

my family and other animals

Busy here this morning, the plumber repairing two leaking taps, the grandly named Pest Control Officer dealing with a wasp nest under the roof, handyman J doing a bit of grouting by the sink. splendid T the cleaner wielding the Hoover, and cups of tea all round with three sugars.
The garden is full of mums and toddlers, It is Friends of the Family today, and there are also two B and B`s with a fout month old baby who is adorable but fairly voluble How strange it will be when I retire next year and I will not have all this activity all round me every day.
Last weekend I was away for sister in laws 80th Birthday party. I find that my social life these days consists mainly of 80th, 90th even 100th birthday celebrations, also golden weddings, interspersed with funerals. I stayed with brother P having picked up sister J in Islington (bravely driving right across central London) and it was nice sleeping in the same room as my sister as we did all through our childhoods I enjoyed seeing all my brothers children and grandchildren and spotting the family likenesses. My sister and I realise that we are the two old aunties that you always get in families.

no crumbs on the aga

I am just back from holiday and the Meeting House was pristine, there had been no floods or disasters, in fact `nowt to laugh at at all` Apparently it rained all the time I was away when I was basking in sunshine and swimming in the Lake Constance so the garden is looking green, and the vegetables are growing madly.
I read two novels and half of Julian Barnes book about death, called `Nothing to be Afraid Of`also I had just finished a book by David Lodge called Deaf Sentence (which wasn`t abouut death but about a deaf professor) the night before I left, so my head is still filled with the happenings and characters in those four books. So I feel as if I had an eventful holiday whereas in fact I lolled about, having delicious meals cooked for me by my beloved sister ( who does everything beautifully, even grinding up the coffee beans each morning for breakfast) and swimming in the lake with my lovely niece K, and living a very decadent hedonistic life.
Anyway its all go here today. It is the Garden Party for the Sight Impaired this afternoon and it looks like rain. This morning, T my brilliant cleaner helper has brought a carpet shampooer and we are doing all the carpets. It is so satisfying tipping out the filthy gungy water. That is the sort of thing I enjoy.

I won`t write in detail about the Cream Tea last Sunday as it is a bit repetitive. As usual my fears were groundless, hordes turned up, we ran out of scones, large quantities of strawberries and cream were trodden into the carpets, there was the usual chaos in the kitchen as we grabbed teapots and milk jugs from each other, but there was a lot of good will around, and we all enjoyed ourselves in spite of gales and rain, and a surprising amount of money was raised for the Asylum Seekers in Southampton.
I have just been checking in on line for my flight to Lindau next Sunday. I always
worry that I am doing something illegal or criminal, so when I turn up at the airport, there will be two armed uniformed men waiting to arrest me. I am only going away for a week but there is a lot to do before I go: lists for dear H and N who are nobly standing in for me, the inevitable quiches to make and freeze for the Quaker lunch the day after I get back, the usual huge supplies of loo rolls to stash away, but even so I will probably get at least one call on my mobile asking for the phone number of the plumber.

I went to Bristol last weekend to spend a night with eldest son, over from USA to do some research at the university. There is a strange Karma in Bristol which I think goes back to the fact that all its prosperity and fine buildings were funded by the slave trade. It rained relentlessly, but it was nice to sit around in a comfortable flat and read the Sunday papers and chat. Also to watch my 55 yearold mathematician son do his dancing practice. He becomes more and more addicted to dancing and he was trying to copy Michael Jackson steps. We went to see West Side Story at the Hippodrome which had some nifty dancing too.
I have been cooking and gardening like mad as we have yet another Cream Tea this Sunday, this time in aid of destitute Asylum Seekers in Southampton. I pray it won`t rain as there are all these mountains of scones in the freezer again, and the kitchen table loaded with calorie loaded cakes. As usual I am tormented by the thought that no one will turn up.
I suspect that I had swine flu last week. It was quite mild. Now my friend J has got it, a week later. Neither of us told any doctors so it just shows that the statistics are all wrong.
Have just seen two fat rats run across the garden, so I am waiting for Eddie the rat man with his lethal blue crystals. I always feel awful about the thought that the poor baby rats will be orphaned and starve.