Re.Wishful thinking

What disappointing weather we have had since I started to look after the chickens.
 On Wednesday evening when I went to shut them in there was a howling gale, blowing the refuse bins all over the place, to add to this was driving sleet more or less horizontal and by the time I got back in I was soaked to the skin. Later we had snow, not that much but enough to cover the ground.
 Thursday morning I went to let the chickens out just before 8.00am. The overnight snow had at first started to thaw but froze so that it was treacherous walking. I went back around 11.00am to feed the chickens with my bird seed which they look forward to. I went to check and saw that there were 2 eggs, very nice.
 I again went to feed them in the afternoon   around 2.30pm.  and around 4.15pm. it suddenly got dark and the heavens opened up with heavy snow for about 15 minutes. With the swirling wind the snow tended to stick. Thank goodness it stopped well before I went to shut them up. In fact they were all inside so I just shut them in.
 This morning I went as ususal to let them out, it was very cold indeed and I looked at my outside reading and it showed -3c. When I tried to slide open one of the coops it was tightly stuck, obviously the snow had froze so that it was stuck solid.
  I went back about 90 minutes later and although the temperature had only risen to zero I did manage to force it open so that the chickens could get out, mind you it was still bitter cold and I was frozen stiff when I got back indoors.
 Around Noon I had a postal delivery and with some circulars I went to put them in the recycle bin. I heard a car next door so I went to investigate. It was the guy who has a loft together with the couple who live there. He told me he was going home as it was too cold. I informed him that I would not be looking after the chickens again during the months of November, December, January and February as the weather was inconsistent and to be honest I would never have ventured outside if it hadn't been for me looking after the chickens.
 I went again this afternoon and fed the birds, I also checked to see if there were any eggs, I didn't expect any as it has been bitterly cold but surprisingly there was 1. I don't expect any tomorrow. More soon.

Pleasant surprise

This morning I checked my inbox with e-mails and I had one from my mate.
 Unfortunately for him progress is slow but he is attending Night school once again so he is slowly improving.
 I had sent him mail asking how he had got on with organising transport to Q.M. Nottingham but he had no joy. I asked him about a service for the vehicle I had because he knew somebody who made a good job and was reasonable with charges. Well he gave me his telephone number and suggested that I gave him all the details and perhaps I could call on him and he would show me the way to where he was. Then perhaps we could go to my home for a while. It would be a break for him and I thought it was a good idea but the best laid plans don't always happen.
 After reading the mail I decided to telephone the guy. I told him that my mate had given me his contact number and that I had a car ready for MOT and service next month and  mate would show me where he was so if possible I would need a courtesy car. He immediately informed me that this was not necessary as he would come and pick my vehicle up, give it a full service and take it for the annual MOT and bring it back to me. I then told him I didn't live in Skegness and when I told him where I lived he assured me that this was no problem as he lived on the North of Skegness and I guess around 10 miles from me. This surprised me and he then told me that if it was convenient he would come next Tuesday morning and pick my car up. He told me he couldn't do it this week as he was busy. I thought what service!! I have never had that sort of service before. True it is a little more expensive than last year when I took it to Mablethorpe, unfortunately he didn't provide a courtesy car and I was fortunate because my Italian friend picked me up and together with his Wife bought me to my home where we stayed for a couple of hours or so then took me back to the Garage. So as you can imagine I was very happy at the outcome.
 I have mailed my mate though suggesting that once the car is finished the following week, weather permitting I would go over and pick him up, do a little shopping then return here for a meal, taking him back later. At least it would be a break for him.
 Now to other things, this morning was very windy and soon started to rain the bins were being blown all over still it was not that white stuff that they have been experiencing in the USA. Not so far anyway although the forecast is for colder weather with the prospect of snow in many areas but mainly as snow showers.
 I went to let the chickens out soon after 8.00am. Around 11.00am. I went to check on them also to give them a treat with my bird seed, they love it and eagerly wait for me to arrive with the goodies, I took a few bird seeds treats yesterday afternoon. I did look today to see if there were any eggs. 2 to be exact. I came back and made a bread and butter pudding, half of which I ate and the remainder will be devoured tomorrow.
 By the way, the guy next door told me when I got the garage key to allow me to get to the chicken seed, they would be back home on Sunday afternoon, weather permitting. Let us hope it allows them back home. More soon.

Work again

My neighbour called earlier to say that they were going away for a few days and would I look after the chickens. I, of course told her I would.
 I knew that they were having a break from looking after the two with learning difficulties, one is a lot worse than the young man.
 I told her how helpful he had been to me on Saturday. I had a Hazel Nut tree that I wished to dig up and had asked him to help me which he told me he would do so as he would not be here next week at all.
 Anyway he came round, fully prepared with his overalls but to be honest I didn't think we could get it dug up. I had been there several times digging round the roots but the trunk was stable with no movement at all.
 Not to disappoint him I said that we would fill a strawberry bag with slits on the side with plants. This took a lot less than I expected so I told him to get the shovel(bulldog builders) from the polytunnel which he did. I showed him what I was doing so he took the shovel and of course he is a lot stronger than I am and in no time the trunk began to move. He was thrilled to see the movement so I took the shovel off him and he started to rock the trunk and with me doing not a lot really he began to snap off some roots. Within 10 minutes the trunk was free. I was absolutely buggered and the trunk was so heavy that it took all of his strength with me helping to lift it out of the hole.
 What makes me so sad is that I took several photos of the operation to show just how large the trunk was and the hole left behind but when I took the card out of the camera and tried to download pictures nothing happened. I then checked the camera and there were no pictures stored at all. It was just blank. So you must take my word for it for the last couple of days I have tidied up a little and almost filled the hole up.
 With technology there always seem to be things that go wrong. I have a T.V that is not working properly yet. I also have an Epson Printer/Scanner/Copier that is of no use. Such is life.
 Mind you I am sad about the camera as I have no idea as to what went wrong. What I will do is ask the young man when he comes back, he has a good camera and he is good at taking photos, far better than I can ever take them. I know he will enjoy taking them for me. More soon.

Thinking

It was seeing someone swatting a fly away that bought this to mind.
 As all who read this blog knew I was in the Catering Business. It would be soon after I had started and as most folks are who start their own Business was desperately poor.
 To be honest I wouldn't get away with the conditions I had in the Café these days but this was around 1970.
 I had the ceilings covered with polystyrene tiles and emulsioned because of the fire risks. The reason for sticking the tiles up was that the ceiling was very uneven. I mention this because first I had no extra fans and as most people smoked the ceiling went a bright yellow due to the smoke.
 The Café faced west so that in the Summer the doors were open but still the place got very hot. Now I have explained just what the place was like.
 This particular day in the Summer it was hot and 4 people came in and my Father was behind the counter and the 2 men came and asked for 4 teas.  This would be in the afternoon. He duly made them the teas and both men took them to where their partners were sitting. Almost immediately one of the men came back with his tea. He was apologetic asking if he could have another cup of tea because 2 flies had dived into the tea. My Father gave the man another tea making some comment about the flies. Soon after the man had sat down, all 4 got up giggling and left the Café. Of course my Father didn't know what had happened so went to the table where they had been sitting. He then saw 3 dead flies in one cup of tea. The other 3 teas had not been touched.
 I was in the kitchen cleaning up and he came in laughing as he told me the story. At the time I was not happy at all but after about 45 years I will laugh at the thought of the odds of that happening.
 It did make me decide that the first thing I was going to have were extractor fans fitted with controls behind the counter. I chose Xpelair as they were the best on the market at that time. I had the 12" size one each side of the café. I had a central door so it was perfect.
 I knew this guy who I went to school with in my early days, when I went to the Secondary Modern School he went to another although I found him intelligent and was a nice guy. In fact he had a shop in Grantham and he came to see me at the seaside. I mentioned to him that the sun was causing a problem. He told me not to worry, he measured my windows up and ordered the venetian blinds. When they were ready he came and fitted them and as he knew I hadn't much money told me to pay him when I could. I managed to pay him about a fortnight later but was grateful for the offer.
 The difference was immense, never again did the tiles discolour and the café was a lot cooler.
 Gradually over the coming few years I turned the Café into more of a Restaurant, spending all what I had on equipment and giving the customers more of a selection of foods. I also had professional signs made so that they could be sited in the window to advertise what we did and the prices we charged.
 This used to bring out what we called snoopers from other eating places. One would see a person with a pen or pencil with a piece of paper jotting down the prices I advertised, this happened each year during my stay there. It used to occur early on in the year before the main Season started. More soon.

Haircut

Yesterday with the weather although being frosty was not too slippery so I decided to go and have my haircut.
 The Barber is very talkative and yesterday was no different. What made it somewhat different was that a young man walked in, obviously the Barber knew him because they passed pleasantries and the young man had no intention of having his hair cut. He told the hairdresser that he was up in court at 10.30am. and was going to lose his driving licence. He went on to explain what had happened. He said his wife was at work and when it came for her to leave she couldn't get a taxi so she rung him. He told her he would go to pick her up. He had been drinking at home but said he had only a couple of cans. Anyway he went and parked in the car park and waited for his partner to arrive. As soon as she did he left the car park only to be stopped by the Police. He gave a sample and tested positive. 66 milligrams he was taken to the Police Station and again tested, this time it was 65 milligrams. He said he had his driving licence on him and accepted that he would be banned. His partner then came in and suggested that they got a move on so they left.
 It was then my turn in the chair, the hairdresser than told me that as a youngster he had been a tearaway but had settled down. He then suggested that he had more than 2 cans of beer, I told him I was certain he had drunk more than 2 cans as it was nearer double the limit of 35 milligrams.
 By the time I had left, done my shopping in just one shop it was well after 11.00am. when I arrived back home. I found that the Postman had left a packet of 2nd. early potatoes in a safe place.
 Not that we will be thinking of planting new potatoes yet. Although it has been a bitter cold morning 2c. there was a little rain but not enough to bother one. We did miss the snow though, many areas had some. Let us hope that this is as bad as it gets this Winter, wishful thinking I suppose. More soon.

Poor weather

Over the week end the weather has been cold, on Saturday morning we had a little snow and it was generally dull and very cold. Sunday dawned frosty and generally sunny but this morning when I looked out it was cloudy and we had black ice.  When I went out to feed the birds I took extra care not to fall. My eldest Sister had a fall about 3 weeks ago and broke her hand, her Husband moaned because he had to do the washing up, typical of him.
 On Friday I ordered more LPG, to be honest with the weather being kind to me the bottles lasted about a week longer than expected. Anyway the delivery man called this morning. I remarked how dangerous it was earlier and he surprised me somewhat by informing me that it was just the coastal strip that had the black ice and within 5 miles of the coast all was well. Where he lived was similar to where I live but where he works, about 15 miles inland it was frosty but good.
 Anyway I expect to use more LPG this time as the weather has been  a lot colder, the good thing is that we are well into January and the winter will not last as long as if it had been cold since the turn of the year.
 I set the geranium seeds and so far I have had a dozen germinate, even if I don't get anymore to germinate I will be satisfied. The onions I set are beginning to germinate, so far about 8 which is a bonus as I half expected the odd one to germinate as the seeds were almost 10 years old.
 Still with the weather as it is there is no hurry as it will be several weeks before anything can be planted out in the open ground. More soon.

Fair weather

With the weather being rather mild for the time of year it has made me start to get ready for Spring. I do of course realise that much bad weather can befall us before the Winter is over.
 I have set 3 dozen broad bean seeds in pots, also set a few potatoes in the polytunnel.
 A few days ago I went to the local Garden Centre which is about 8 miles away. I do pass a Filling Station on the way and I noticed the price of fuel. Petrol was £1.08p. a litre but diesel, the fuel I use was 8 pence a litre more expensive. This surprised me somewhat but there is nothing one can do about that.
 I went to the Garden Centre to buy some John Innes No.3 compost which is best for my needs because it is soil based.
  This morning I decided to set 3 new potatoes in a tub which will, hopefully be filled with the said compost.  I start with about 4" of compost then put the seed potatoes on the top and cover them up with compost. When they start to show through I will keep topping up until the tub is nearly full also set a few shallots in the greenhouse direct into the ground.
 I was checking my seed bank, obviously I do have a few old seed packets and noticed that I had an onion called Beacon, which does grow to exhibition size. This packet had not been opened and the seeds were foil packed. Anyway I have set some seeds hoping that some will germinate. The recommended date for last sowing was 2006. I will let one know if any germinate also if they do how they perform.
 I did buy a few geranium seeds online and set them, so far I have about 9 of the 16 seeds germinate. Incidentally while I was at the Garden Centre I priced up the geranium seeds up. Costly to say the least. The cheapest I saw was £2.35p for 6 seeds. Let us hope all mine perform better than the plants I bought over the last 2 years as they have been disappointing. More soon.

Quickie

First of all I must apologise to all who read my blog for forgetting to say this. A Happy New Year and many of them.
 The other day I had a reminder informing me that although I have a vehicle that is zero rated for VED(vehicle excise duty)I still had to register it each year but I could do this at the Post Office but would have to take my MOT. certificate. I could also register online but I have a dreadful Epson printer/photo copier and scanner but it has been a waste of money as I have never been able to print on it and I was worried that I would have to scan some documents then print them off.
 Anyway I went to get my Pension and at the same time took this renewal letter with the MOT. certificate and also for good measure my Motor Insurance. I was surprised when I gave the teller all the relevant forms only to be informed that all that was required was the renewal form. She touched her computer a few times printed the relevant details stapled them to the document stamped the said paper then told me that it was all done and that was it for another year. It was quicker than getting my weekly State pension.
 Later today I had mail, among a lot of circulars was my debit card replacement as my old one runs out this month. With this new one there is an added feature, it is called Contactless payments. I didn't read all but it seems that those Companies participating with this system one can pay for small sums up to £20 without bothering to swipe the card. I don't suppose for one minute I shall ever use it as I NEVER go to the hole in the wall and collect money. I only use my debit card either through PayPal, online or over the telephone when I am ordering a refill of LPG. I let them store my card number in a secure unit so I don't have the bother of reading the 9 digit number each time.
 That was the total sum of my excitement today, I did also get a few seeds that I had ordered, so soon I will be setting some geranium seeds that I ordered  together with some vegetable seeds. The reason being that whenever I have ordered geranium plants they have been disappointing and have not really done much good. By the way the seeds cost me less than £2.00 a packet. I will let you know how successful I have been. More soon.

A New Year is upon us.

I was surprised that anyone bothered to read my blog but I was pleasantly surprised that a certain person whose initials are K.E. wish me seasonal greetings. I am touched by this and thank him so much for his kind remarks.
 Now that the festivities are over and to be honest I am mainly because I put on a little weight, no good for me at all. I am now watching once more what and how much I devour.
 I am also starting to think about this coming year regarding the garden. The other day I went out and dug up a gooseberry bush. It had been frosty earlier but the ground had thawed sufficiently for me to dig it up. The main reason for doing this was the thorns on the bush were dreadful. I do have a couple of other bushes and although the thorns are nowhere as prolific they are not a dessert fruit and are very sharp unless you let them on the bush for quite some time. If I don't protect the one outside the fruit cage the blackbirds eat them.
 I have ordered some more seeds and seed potatoes. Also on New Year's Day I set 3 dozen broad bean seeds in pots and put them in my greenhouse. I also set s few seed potatoes in my polytunnel, not that I had many to set. I think I set 9 in all. I also tried something I have never done before. I have set 6 shallot s in pots and left them in the greenhouse and at the same time set 4 in the ground in the greenhouse. I will use them as spring onions in the late spring taking them well before they swell up to start to make the shallots.
 I suppose we get much worse weather this winter but at least the darkest days are behind us, thank goodness. I must say that the mornings don't get any lighter until after the first two weeks in January.
 More soon.