Procrastinations

Just on way to St Oswalds to water the Christmas Flower Arrangements

For the past 4 weeks I have had the starting points for some posts for this blog. Thats how it works with me. I have a starting point but never any consequence or ending . My starting point is often a visual stimulation , when I have to stop in my tracks and find my mobile with its excellent camera and record the moment . I chose a Sony Experia Z1 just because it has such a good camera . The contract on this phone was up in September but I have not had the inclination to update, just because the pics are so good. Spouse uses my equally good Digital Camera. We don't see the need to update that either as it does the business. On this blog you may tell which device has been used, as we have not removed the date function from his pics.

Spouse has a better eye for picture taking than I have. I rarely have to send his to trash . I manage well enough as I am a mistress of GIMP or the Photo Edit function. I only work on a Mac these days , and miss the Microsoft Picture Editor . 

I here give you a couple of my starting points and a couple of ideas that have been bouncing around my head , usually in the small hours, for blog posts. They will not emerge and fully flower, but I just don't want to look at Google Photos in a year or so and realise I missed the moment. 

Filey Allotments

I love this upcycled fence on the way to my plot at Filey Allotments. It dates from at least the 60s I'm sure. I have a corrugated , galvanised fence around one of the boundaries on my shared plot too. Until the very efficient Terry arrived on the adjacent plot it rattled and sang during the frequent winds , and I loved that cacophony. 

Sometimes as all my family know , I just sit on the allotment , especially in winter. I sit with a hot cup of Instant Tea, or my new favourite, Triple Ginger  tea and I just listen to the sounds around me , watch the Crows and Jackdaws and smell distant incinerators burning up the dried weed herbage . On Christmas Eve I only saw one other person on the plots, way across the road, Perfect then ! My excuse for leaving home that day, was that I was going to water my sweet peas, and pick some Broccoli for Christmas Day Lunch and check for broken glass in the Greenhouse after Hurricane Barbara had taunted me. But actually I was savouring the thought that in bed on Christmas Eve I would be leafing through my just arrived Catalogues from Chiltern Seeds and planning the future.

This is my second Christmas without Mother. This is the Christmas it has sunk in that something the awful has happened. I am turning into her.

We had a lovely kitchen floor at Newlands , tiled with red  Ruabon Quarry tiles. Except we never saw them as they were always covered with the Yorkshire Post, as Mother was ALWAYS cleaning the kitchen floor, even though I could never see the dirt. 

I cleaned the floor myself last week with a scrubbing brush and bleach , it came up beautifully . I even impressed Tanya my treasure. 

I had to put paper down of course so as not to spoil the pristine cleanliness.  Spouse was not amused. He doesn't want me to become my mother who we always called the DETTOL QUEEN .

I have only just forgiven our Post Master after he implied I had shop lifted the plastic posting bags I had bought in our local Stationers WRAYs and still bearing their price ticket , and also sold by him for a greater price. Its true I often write my cards and pack my parcels in a corner of the Post Office to save me going home when I've just been to Wrays. I was so upset , especially as I had already been in the PO twice that day with similar parcels and he said not a word. But when I finally realised of what he was accusing me, after his meaningful looks and questions asking if I was buying the bags, I was nothing short of incensed . I realised I could not of written this 3 weeks ago when I took the photo as I would have been VERY RUDE. Ive calmed down now, and appreciate that perhaps some people might shop lift 24p bags costing 38p In FileyPost Office. 

Pomodoro and other Red Tomatoes at the seaside

I was over 6 months pregnant when I last went to Rome. I was viewed as an oddity as 44 years ago I never saw any pregnant Italian women . We were staying with Colin's Aunt and uncle who lived just off the Via Cristoforo Colombo. Aunty Kay said that it wasn't usual for Italian women to be out and about the way I was, travelling on the buses and trains and eating out every night in the local restaurants  . I was watching the very pregnant Victoria Coren on Only Connect last night . It reminded me of the near purdah of the Italian women and of the Laura Ashley tents I used to wear when I was enceinte . 
Now ,what I will always remember from La Roma 1974 beside learning to say due Birri for then we still did have the occasional uno, was the wonderful food .  Aunty Kay and Uncle Edgar took us round ruin after ruin, and spouse and I trailed round fountain after fountain ourselves, we did Villa Julia and got blessed by Il Papa on Easter Day in the square before San Pietro. BUT we ate out nearly every day at all the places where the locals and their bambini ate .
For all the years since 1974 I have grown tomatoes , grown them in all the greenhouses of my life, grown them on all the allotments of my life and in all the kitchen window sills of my life .
Except for this year.
The lovely food in all the Roman cafes , trattoria, pizzeria and restaurants , AND in all the Italian cafes , trattoria , pizzeria and restaurants in my UK food journey have all depended heavily on Tomatoes , garlic and herbs. In my much used Italian Vegetarian Cookery book I have made Spinach and Rice pies, Onion Pies, and all sorts of Frittatas , but try as I can , they are never interesting enough without some dish of tomatoes, homemade sauce , salsa, salad or just ketchup from Mr Heinz. My store cupboard groans with tins of Chopped tomatoes, Whole Plum tomatoes and tomato Puree. As hard as I try, I can never grow tomatoes as well as anyone else on the allotments. A friend is always calling by with bags of his , my allotment partner grows them well enough without even trying. Mine were a disaster last year so Ive not grown any at all this year. Two have seeded down by the Asparagus, and are doing really well all on their own .
Now we are not able to do much at the moment and I'm really ready for a break . I know you say well you have been up the Rhine this year,  spouse was not well all the time and I had to act as a Cooks Tour guide to get us to Amsterdam and from Basel on Public transport  so Im ready for just a change of scenery . I'm not grumbling ,  I'm ready for a little break after our busy August of visitors and the increasing emotional strain of visiting my aged parent whose mind is leaving her.
So yesterday we had the small boys for the day as parents were both working and we had to take them with us to Scarborough so that we could go the Building Society .
Five years ago I wrote about another day at the seaside,  This year was so much easier. Small boys still loved the ride on the 120 bus to Scarborough . They never stopped talking all the time, just as 5 years ago, such a novelty for them , to be on a bus!
Lunch was at our favourite Italian in Scarborough Pomodoro . The boys had been rehearsing their orders to Barbara since we left Filey . They did have good practice at our very own Filey Italian we call Bella a few weeks ago when their cousins were staying, but this was sans parents and lunchtime. They were hungry ,not tired after a days romping on the beach , and rather more grown up than they had been a fortnight ago, as they'd just returned from a week in Andalucia .
 I have been waiting for  a Melanzane parmigiana for 2 years.  In fact I've not eaten any Olive Oil for 2 years, but now that my system can take fat again I had been waiting for this Pomodoro Moment . I make this dish frequently , and have perfected the oil free version , but really it is nothing like the real thing when the aubergines have been fried not grilled as in my fat free version .And made by a good Italian chef it bears no resemblance to what is served in the  Italian Chain eateries . Lunch took ages , we were enjoying everything . The cafe was full of locals , tables were chatting across to tables, and everyone was happy. Nothing was left on plates, huge icecreams and meringues and dolce were eaten  by Colin and the boys , and I had my usual Double Expresso . If you are reading this at Filey Surgery my spouse assures me it was a one off and we have Diabetic Icecream in the freezer for his Sunday Birthday  .

Our day out just went on and on . We took the advice of an Artist and Gallery owner at the next table during lunch and went down a few dozen yards to Blands Cliff to see the Murals . I have lived near Scarborough for 25 years and did not realise that these wonderful Murals started in 2001 were even there . The boys loved them , of an age to appreciate , and well used to Galleries and paintings they were fascinated. I thought I was the only person to have dreamt up the idea painting of Hokusai waves with a local landmark in my Teaching days in Bridlington , when Liz Smith  and I were Island hopping to Japan with Year 6 (Flamborough Light being our Fuji), but no -Nothing new under the sun .

Kingston upon Hull is to be the next City of Culture. I hope they get lots of Artists to do murals round Whitefriargate, it could sure do with livening up . I loved the Hackney ones, and the Brighton Ones.

Blands Cliff is very steep, so we planned to go up to the top another way , and walked along past the sands to the Cliff lift , in itself a good 80p worth for small boys working out how it worked. Reuben had not finished with Culture however and said he would take us to a gallery of great paintings near a statue of Queen Victoria. We couldn't work out where he meant, we'd taken him to the Scarborough Art Gallery many times and the Rotunda but no! he said ,it was just at the top of the hill. He meant the Tracy Savage shop, whose prints on Birthday Cards are sold in Filey at the Red Box. Children accompanied only by Adults it said, but it was only to stop touching the pictures , no rudey nudies.

Home now and thinking about a simple day out with small boys on the bus with Pizza for them from a Real Italian , pictures to enjoy and discuss , and the whole day rounded off  watching Episode 11 of  our only purchase, with assurances that they were allowed. The Pick- a- sweet option in Choice News was offered and refused, they just Dr Who'ed in happy silence.

John Muir - my perspective

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...” 
― John Muir

He said:
Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.

- The Yosemite (1912)

I have just been into the wild places ,I have travelled through the forests, crossed the seas , seen 

the lochs and the glens , and sat facing the Atlantic Ocean in the windy rain, with my back to shelter and my front covered. I have smelled the seaweed, heard the Oystercatchers and Corncrakes and watched the breakers for hours with no one else in sight , though my companion husband beside me, so not alone. Reading John Muirs writings of the wilderness, he was mostly alone, sometimes with nothing but bread and stick. I've seen Ray Mears (on TV)in the wilderness too, and have a lot of respect for wild campers and those learning and honing survival skills . 

John Muir and his fellow stargazers and foodplanthunters all chose to seek the wilderness-thats the first BUT.

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.
John Muir

Take your smartphone with you and you might never need to follow a map. The Rescue services are constantly warning those going off for a wild adventure to tell where you are going, use or at least take a map , wear bright clothing etc. Harm can befall you. Second BUT .

“In drying plants, botanists often dry themselves. Dry words and dry facts will not fire hearts.” 
― John Muir

I agree with you here John Muir. BUT On my plantlife Course I have to compare plants and investigate flower structures with a hand lens. Comparing the Scurvy Grasses has been difficult. I still cannot say that the one I found on Iona is the Danish one Cochlearia danica or the Sea one , and nothing compares with the living specimens except as to suffice for taxonomic classification. I have to wait until Im home to follow the Flora through .That itself could be seen as a fruitless investigation  . Yet whilst the Scurvy grass used to be salted down to stave off Scurvy on long voyages , nowadays botanists are being employed big time, as always in the pharmaceutical trade to find drugs to cure diseases, no longer Alchemy and Herbalism. So it does matter that classification is exact. 

Did John Muir ever have a headache and chew on willow as the native americans did?

So John Muir. I enjoyed visiting your birthplace in Dunbar, and finding out all about you, the father of the National Parks of USA. A famous Scot now that you've been recognised properly in  Scotland.

I'm back in the land time forgot now OKA Filey North Yorkshire. We got back from the wild places last night. I went straight off to the allotment as decency allowed to take stock and see if my seeds were up , to pick some Chard and to sit awhile. It is not a wild place, but has a remoteness about it . Even when Eddie and John and Mr  H and Bob are digging on adjacent plots we can keep to oneselves. The otherness comes from the sounds of birds and thats all. Sure, the train goes past every 2 hours, and mowers and strimmers sometimes resonate across the plots , nevertheless I can be occupied enjoying watching the Horsetails grow and wishing they were Asparagus  for hours on end in my very own wilderness. 

Fileygardener becomes a real one again

This is me a few weeks ago with Bernard my allotment partner .A year ago we were talking gardening after church and I said I would love an allotment again (22 yrs since my Surrey one). So we agreed that we would share one  as neither of us could manage a full one. A year later and we have it. 

Colin and I went to see it and I was overwhelmed! It is fantastic. It had been maintained up until back end, the soil is good loam, and it has a shed, two baths for rainwater, an incinerator ,an apple tree, gooseberries, raspberries, and 6 crowns rhubarb. Bernard is already negotiating the transfer of a greenhouse. He is going to be a great mentor for me, as I am a gardener of the slapdash sort , and he is neat rows and level ground, and everything in its place.

My mind is reeling with plans. 

On Friday I went for another look with all the grandchildren. (4 ,aged 6-9). They already know lots and were asking for their own bit for sunflowers, and doing the I Spy Garden book. I had forgotten just how enthusiastic small children could actually be, spotting wheelbarrows, chickens, cabbages,lawnmowers and compost heaps. I nearly forgot ; we have 2 compost heaps.  Today after lunch Colin and I , 2 small boys, Daughter and her Husband, the Filey domiciles, came for  a look. I and N have offered to dig my portion over for me.(!!) So I showed Nick how to do Double Digging. We will all go on Saturday next. I will have to give further instruction on removing all couch grass rhizomes. I saw that Bernard had already started a heap of not allowed on compost heap. We'll have a burn up in the incinerator when its dry. Daughter has asked for pumpkins. I am planning Asparagus bed and  a Lavender hedge. 

I am nestling up now with my Chiltern Seeds catalogue. I wonder if I'll get done if I try a few Echiums.