Spring at Last

Looks like spring has arrived at last. The daffodils are in flower, the collard doves are billing and cooing and we have frog spawn in the pond. As I was walking back from replenishing the bird feeders in the plum tree I noticed the frog spawn and went to take a closer look; at this point the whole of the surface of the pond seemed to move - it was the newts basking in the watery sunshine and looking forward, no doubt, to feasting on tiny tadpoles when they eventually emerge from their little bubbles.

Ginger-ish

Overheard earlier today as I walked to the local shop. Two small boys chatting on the pavement whilst playing football

1st Boy - she isn’t ginger

2nd Boy - she is, well ginger-ish

1st boy - she’s strawberry blond

2nd boy - she isn’t blond, she’s ginger-ish

1st boy - she isn’t ginger

2nd boy - not ginger, I said ginger-ish

The pretty tabby kitten sitting on the wall watching them play gave me a knowing look.

One Year On

Well, I started this Blog a year ago today and it seems I wrote about Dab Chicks at Cromford Canal. Perhaps we should go back and look at them again but given that the weather is much colder this year than last they probably aren’t up to their courting rituals and amusing antics yet; is everything later this year? I think the blackbirds are nesting in our front hedge and today, when we walked around the lake at Trentham the heronry was buzzing; with the birds landing and taking off like planes at Manchester airport. The deer were clustered together as well; all the hinds around one protectively dominant, antlered stag. I’ve just downloaded the Springwatch details from the BBC web site. I haven’t seen any frog spawn in our pond yet this year; just one poor dead frog on the lawn, its back legs sheared off. P said it looked like it had been dropped from a heron’s beak because if one of the cats had taken it its injuries wouldn’t have been so clean cut. Funnily enough I saw a heron land near our pond the other day, peer rather dismissively into it – why do I always see herons wearing a pince-nez? – register that there were no fish and then take off, rather awkwardly, legs dangling, up and away over the shed and the trees behind, wings flapping like mad – hope it had an easier landing at its next port of call..

A Bad Decision

I visited the Elan Valley twice last year. Once with friends on our annual ‘get-together’ and the second time with P on our way further into mid-wales and the coast. It is a strange and beautiful place, even though man made, and summons up those same feelings as when, for example, you visit Ladybower in Derbyshire, or Rutland Water in Rutland because you are always aware of what lies beneath. You can imagine the anguish felt by the people whose homes were destroyed and the sheer hard labour of those who built the dams. For over 100 years the Elan Valley has supplied Birmingham with water at great cost to themselves. Lives, livelihoods and treasured family homes were lost. That is why I think it was so short sighted of Birmingham Council to say no when Community Arts Rhayader And District asked for a donation towards the cost of the £550,000 museum. There is a huge link between the two areas and when I watched the local news yesterday many of the people spoken to in the streets of Birmingham felt that the Council should have made a donation. I think that they have underestimated how their citizens feel about this. I hope they change their minds.

Favourite Book

As it is World Book Day today I thought I would mention one of my all time favourite books J L Carr’s ‘A Month in the Country’. It is set a few years after WW1 and is a bitter-sweet story of love, loss and discovery. There are multiple layers to the meaning of the book and the stories of the wonderful characters interweave throughout its pages. It makes me laugh, it makes me smile, it makes me cry. A truly glorious book that you can read again and again.

Arousing Strong Feelings

I can’t be the only person that hasn’t read any Dan Brown novels and in particular 'The Da Vinci Code', in fact, I know I’m not because I’ve spoken to several people who haven’t read him either. Of the people I’ve spoken to who have read the book they seem to be split into two very distinct camps, those that loved it; and those that hated it. In fact, not just hated it but, indeed, the very mention of either the book or the author seems to make then spit out very colourful and venomous expletives, the like of which I rarely hear except when directed towards mass murderers, child molesters or football thugs. However, the book that has been mentioned in the alleged plagiarism case, I seem to think I have read, many years ago when it was considered 'cool' and the right book to be seen with on a train - or a plane. It was passed round my place of work at the time and we all read it in turn. Well, if it wasn’t that one is was certainly one about the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail. I can't remember anything about it now though. So, I have to make the decision to read or not to read? Perhaps I'll just go and see the film.

Did you all remember to say 'white rabbits' this morning? For once I did remember.

Not too much to ask, is it?

Well, the ongoing saga with Homebase is still – well – ongoing. We have had two more attempts at getting two cream drawer covers with no success. Beech was sent again – so that’s three lots of beech and last week an entirely different kitchen unit was sent. They still can’t order just the drawer fronts (the computer system won’t allow it) so each time they have to send the whole unit. Bizarre. We have chosen the tiles though and half of them are on the walls. Looking good so far.

Handles and History

Up early, out of the house and on our way to Ikea by 8.30a.m. to buy handles for the kitchen doors and drawers. We have a choice of three stores all around an hour’s drive from us but as two of them, Warrington and Wednesbury, involve the M6, we always go to the Nottingham one which is actually near Kimberley and Awsworth.* We managed to get some super handles and inserts for the cutlery drawers all for about £28. By this evening they had been fitted and it is now – except for the two lots of missing drawers - complete. Next job is choosing and fixing the tiles. Looking forward to having a day off tomorrow and going for a long walk.

* my maternal grandfather was born in Awsworth in 1884 and his grandparents were married in the church there in 1858 so I always feel I'm on 'familiar' ground - I wonder what they would have made of Ikea?

Going round in Circles

Whilst fitting together the final unit P found that the drawer runners didn’t fit the drawers. He rang Homebase yet again and of course, you know what’s next, he’d found another error in their system. It turns out that quite a few drawer units have gone out with the wrong runners because one of the packers at the factory packed a whole load of, and I quote, “wrong runners in the right boxes” – so we have now been given a ‘fast-track’ replacement order of a ‘conversion kit’ as well as the ‘buddy’ order for a cream oven housing unit. At least now we have a working sink and hob. As the housing for both beech and cream is the same this has now been assembled and the oven wired up. We really just need two cream drawer fronts, but these cannot be ordered on their own, because the computer will not deal with this, so we have to be sent a whole new unit, the third in a week, just to get two bl***y drawer fronts.

Three steps foreward and one back

The mini-skip arrived nice and early and we completely filled it with the sorry remains of the old kitchen. The gas man came to take out the old gas pipe, the water board man came to fix the leaking stop tap and the new cooker housing was delivered – except it was beech again, not cream. So now we have two beech units and no cream unit. Back to square one. Oh deep joy.

An Oath or Two

Up bright and early to drive over to Chesterfield to pick up my sister and make our appointment at the Sheffield probate office at 11.30a.m. on time. We drove through Ashbourne and Matlock in brilliant sunshine and guess who forgot to take her new sun-glasses with her. Still the old ones managed even though I couldn’t see very well in them. Luckily no hold ups in Matlock. It only takes one delivery van to park on the main road to hold the traffic up halfway back to Matlock Bath. When we arrived at the Law Courts (after trying three times to find the entrance to the car park) we had to have our bags searched and step through one of those detector things. The man in front of me had to empty his pockets into a box to be searched and still managed to set the detector off a couple of times. We only had to wait a little time and then we had to read through the application for probate and swear an oath clutching our new testaments. It should only take about 10 days to be granted and then we can proceed with the selling of Dad’s shares and acting upon his wishes in distributing what is left of his savings. My sister and I are the executors and the benefactors of his will so it is quite straight forward.

Problems, Problems

We’ve hit our first problem almost straight away. When we ordered the kitchen the oven housing came up on the computer as beech even though we had ordered cream. The assistant checked with the manager. “It’s the right code for cream” he assured “when it arrives it will be cream” Was it heck. We called the warehouse and they said not their problem, call the shop and slammed the phone down. We called the shop and luckily the asssitant remembered us and remembered checking with the manager. After much phoning around she found out that the order codes were wrong in the sale price leaflet and that their head office hadn’t told them. So a new order was put in for a replacement which should arrive within two days.Still there are plenty of other jobs we can get on with. It’s quite tiring having to do the washing up upstairs in the bathroom and trying to manage with just the microwave. We had thought about eating out this evening but then realized it was Valentine’s Day and that probably everywhere would be booked up – so we fetched pizza and salads from Tesco. Off to Sheffield tomorrow

Oh, Yuk

Well, I was right the old units were removed and behind them were absolute horrors of old tiles, woodworm in the skirting boards which were painted bright blue; lovely with the yellow flowered wallpaper and tiles. Behind one of the units were several pieces of pottery including 1970s egg cups in red and purple with little feet and cups and saucers with a green ivy pattern. Under the sink unit was a 1979 Sunday Mirror full damp, silverfish and five pages of Britt Ekland in various stages of undress. The stench pipe housing was rotten and just fell away with the tiles so this has had to be rebuilt. The stop tap had a small leak (thank goodness we have insurance for this with the water board) and there was an old gas oven pipe which we need to get taken out and capped by the by the gas board. New tiles have been laid and the walls painted so now we can begin assembling and installing the new kitchen. I was always worried about what was behind these units and my worst fears were realised. I'm just ashamed we've lived with them for so long. At least the front bits were clean.

New Kitchen

The kitchen we ordered from Homebase after Christmas is now sitting in bubble wrap in the garage waiting to be installed. Firstly we have to rip out the old kitchen and make good the floor and walls, because whoever installed the present one put it in and then laid the floor tiles up to the base units, and if their workmanship behind these units is the same as we found behind the wall units then we are in for a lot of hard work. We took down the wall units a couple of years after we moved in to make good the walls behind. The cupboards had been mounted on the old original 1970s tiles (yellow flowers) which in turn had been laid over the wallpaper (yellow flowers) and then packed with broken tiles behind. I’ve a feeling this weekend is going to be a dusty, dirty one.

Food & Antiques

Yesterday S&R came over from Nottingham and we drove over to Leek to find a shop they wanted to visit. Period Features is on Broad Street and is a treasure chest of lovely things, we had a rummage around and a chat to the owner and then wandered across the road to explore one or two of the antique shops that the town is famous for. We then had lunch in No 64, lovely food, a bit pricey but as it was S&R’s Wedding Anniversary the next day it seemed appropriate. The restaurant itself is light and airy and the staff courteous and attentive. We all had something different off the menu but my pudding of apple sorbet with crisp apple slices was wonderful. P’s wild mushroom risotto was also delicious. Later we wandered around the town and dipped in and out of more shops and then the antiques centre which we had parked near. We chattered, meandered and generally had a wonderful time. I love days like this.

Still Smiling

Reasons to be Cheerful

Part One

The BBC is having a Stephen Poliakoff season. I really enjoyed ‘Friends and Crocodiles’- shown a couple of weeks ago on BBC1 and also the repeat of ‘The Lost Prince’ on BBC2 over New Year. I’m loving the re-run of ‘Perfect Strangers’ on BBC4 and still to come on this channel are the wonderful ‘Shooting the Past’ and also ‘Close my Eyes’ with Alan Rickman – I just love him in this film. All of them so moving, stirring and stunningly beautiful. Thanks BBC. Can't wait for 'Gideon's Daughter'.

Part Two

I’ve just finished reading ‘The Lighthouse’ by P D James. It’s another Adam Dalgliesh novel and as usual so beautifully written that you just float through it as if the pages were made of silk and the words formed from honey.. I wonder if they will film it for TV. They filmed ‘The Murder Room’ almost as soon as the book was out as they did with ‘In Holy Orders.’ I have to admit that although I like Martin Shaw, I really prefer Roy Marsden's portrayal of Dalgliesh.

In complete contrast I’m now reading ‘Starter for Ten’ by David Nicholls. This is making me snort with laughter, rather unbecomingly, in public places – so I have decided I can only read this at home, alone.

Next on my pile of books is ‘Looking Backwards’ recollections by Colette. I picked this up for £2 in a book shop in Leek and remembering how much I used to love reading Collette I had to buy it.

Smiling on a grey day

The ‘Big Issue’ man who stands outside M&S in town always cheers me up. He offers to his customers ‘two free staples with every copy’ and when people pass by he queries ‘Big Issue, duck?’ and if you say ‘no thanks’ or shake your head with a smile he always says ‘s’all right, flower, take care now.’ He’s a real tonic and must make lots of people smile every day.

Picked up my new glasses from D&A and my new prescription sun glasses too - both on special offers. I hope I haven't jinxed the weather though by buying the sun glasses. I bought a new umbrella a couple of weeks ago and it hasn't rained since.

Admin Charges

I’m absolutely furious that a mail-order company with whom I’ve had dealings over several years now have penalized me for forgetting to sign a cheque I sent them. They have charged me a staggering £15* to cover the ‘administration’ of having to send the cheque back. Given that I have always been a good customer who never had any huge debts, who had never forgotten to pay or to sign a cheque before, and only owed them the sum of £16 anyway I find this unforgivable. I did send the cheque a couple of days after my step-father died and I was distracted by thinking about funerals and etc and I should have checked it but even so I find this kind of ‘customer care’ totally unacceptable. I will never use them again. Just beware of this company, a French one, based in Yorkshire. Bah.

* I had to put a stamp on the envelope they provided so this sum would be for their postage to me and the typing of the letter

Good night; God Bless

George Elliott 19/2/1914 – 9/1/2006

He wasn’t my real father, my blood father, that is, he was my step-father. I have called him Dad ever since he married my Mum when I was six years old and we moved from the city to a small village in Derbyshire to live at his home. My own father died of leukemia and I do have vague memories of him. I remember hiding under the table when he came home from work and then I would jump out shouting Boo. I remember he used to dance me round the room on his feet and play shops with me. I also remember the day of his funeral, the wreaths in the front room and mum crying. Later after I’d been taken to the Museum by a neighbour’s children I came back to the house and all my relatives were there and mum was sitting by the fire with a blanket round her shoulders. A few months later a man came to our door, I can see him now in his bike leathers and gauntlets, I knew then, even at that age, that somehow he was going to be important in our lives.

So there I was, just six, with a new home, in a new and different place with a new school to go to, a new older sister and a dog, a border collie, called Laddie and a new father. This man, who at first I resented for taking my Mum from me, cared for me, looked after me, and gave me holidays at the sea side. He loved my mum and she was happy again. They had been teenage sweethearts, split up, married other partners and lost them to illness and now they were back together. We argued a lot when I was a teenager. He was a sportsman from a sporting family. I loved music, drama and reading, he wanted me to be good at sport, I wasn’t, except for running. When my mother was nursing my grandmother through her last illness Dad was always waiting for me when I got home from school, with a meal on the table. So many little things I think of now, when I look back. He could be cantankerous, self opinionated and argumentative; although we didn’t always see eye to eye we always looked after each other. When my Mum died I sat on his bed and held his hand whilst he poured his heart out. I remember the day I telephoned and when he answered I could tell something was wrong. We alerted my sister and set out on the long journey to see him. He had had a fall and a slight stroke and was taken to hospital, then to a nursing home. Over the last couple of years he hasn’t known us or been aware of who he was but always greeted us with a welcoming smile. When we visited just before Christmas, there was no smile and I think I knew then that it was only a matter of time and so it proved. He died on Monday at 10.30p.m. just as the ambulance arrived at the hospital. I am relieved his suffering is over but I am going to miss him so much. Thank you, Dad.

Kicking and Screaming

I suppose I’d better bring this blog kicking and screaming into 2006. Well, actually it’s me doing the kicking and screaming – not literally you understand. I hate New Year at the best of times. Being one of those ‘cup half empty’ people (in my defense I try not to be but I can’t help it) coupled with a tendency towards the winter blues I find it a most depressing and maudlin time of year. Memories flash around in my brain and I find myself thinking of people who are long gone from this world. So I try to ignore the fact that it is a new year and just try to get on with those everyday kind of things that stop you thinking too much. Well, I would if I could but everything seems to be on the blink. The cooker fan works occasionally, when it feels like it. There is something wrong with the vacuum cleaner, the iron has packed up, we had to buy a new kettle and the key broke in the back door on New Years Eve and not a locksmith or key cutter open before Tuesday 2nd. We are also trying to design a new kitchen and it is driving us to distraction. Oh well, in the scheme of things this is nothing but it is all adding to the high blood pressure I now discover I have.

A belated Happy New Year by the way.