We have had...

      .....nearly a whole week without a telephone connection.  It feels like the longest week ever, it made for a very miserable husband, who has nearly worn out his mobile, the carpets, Me,  and the dog with his moaning. 

     The dog has had to have a bath in this photo,  it is not the result of dad's sorrow making the poor dog look so miserable...When you escape from the bathroom, leaving a carpet that looks like this....

    

 

      .....and fly down the stairs like something out of  "The great Escape"...it's only when you get downstairs that you realise you have forgotten your towel....then you have to dry yourself off quick...and on the nearest thing that comes to hand paw....a sheepskin of course(and be quick about it or she'll drag me back upstairs for a final rinse.)
      He looked, and smelt, far better after his bath, but I was very careful to stop him from rolling in the park AGAIN yesterday  That soggy carpet took 2 days before it dried out properly.

     Sara and John spent last weekend here, Sara had a job interview and John went driving with Darsh.   Sara had another hospital appt. John and I finally got round to buying me an I-Pad....and then our phone line went down, but only after a couple of days of poor connections where the internet was floating in and out so much so that I was beginning to think I had got a faulty I-Pad...then it went off completely....then it moved into next door, they had our phone line and we had nothing....and at this point I really thought the frustration was going to drive dad hysterical.  Today a different Telecom man has been to study the connections and so far all seems to be well.  Darsh is so exhausted he has had to go for a little afternoon nap....
 
     Yesterday rained and thundered like nothing you have ever seen before.....and for just so long.   Joe was a total wreck hiding, shivering and shaking all day.  Even our TV receiver went off with the force of the rain at one point..  We are just hoping Charlotte's little flat is OK as Newcastle was really badly hit, but both Charlotte and Matt are out in Shanghai at the moment.

At last....

....the lawnmowers out and the dog can find his way to the bottom of the garden, without a compass!

It took 2 days to cut all the grass and Darsh was absolutely shattered, but it is now 2 days since it last rained, although it has come pretty close to it a few times. 

     Taken Joe into the park this morning for a stroll.  I said I didn't want to walk on the golf course, I don't think it's fair on the players having folk strolling round when they are trying to play golf, and I also think it's pretty dangerous, they are playing with golf balls not pom-poms.  So we spent the whole walk...on the golf course...got lost...and it's still pretty muddy underfoot.  There are cows about, as Joe knows only too well, and now sitting at the computer at home I can still smell cows....Joe is laid by my feet, smells like a bath could be needed again. 

     Drinking my morning coffee in my seat at the bottom of the garden, listening to the bees and counting ladybirds, when I noticed a little mouse by my foot.  Sat so still and watched him as he climbed up a poppy stalk and sat a few inches from my shoulder, trying to take the seeds out of the poppy-head.  He had beautiful big brown eyes and a long tail he was using to balance himself.  I think I was just so big to him that he didn't see me as a danger.  I knew we had mice, Joe tells me so, long and loud, and I often see them in the garden when I am in the greenhouse, but I have never got this close to one.  I need to refill all my bird feeders again the wet spell has turned some of them mouldy and there is so many little birds looking for food, and maybe a few acrobatic little mice as well?

     Sara is coming into London tonight ready to go for her interview in Brighton on Thursday.  She is coming up to us tomorrow night and John is joining her on Friday morning.  He has got his driving test sometime this month, so Darsh has insured the car for him so that he can have a bit of practice over the weekend here.
I'm sure Sara and I can entertain ourselves round the shops, whilst the men go driving together.
      Darsh and I went to the umbrella man's old shop yesterday for our lunch.  It is still a food place very similar to how he was serving and the food wasn't bad at all...(but their chappatis weren't half as good) so at least we still have a possible favourite place to pop in for a cheap curry when the fancy takes us...  

Quick, it's stopped....

...raining at last.  Ventured into the greenhouse yesterday to pot on a few plants that have got too big for their pots, but it is just too wet to them plant outside, and I haven't got all my borders ready anyway.  There are so many weeds and snails and the grass is so long that Joe can't see the birds on the lawn, it's like a jungle.

  But I am not cutting the grass this year, Darsh says "I'll do it for you darling" as dragging that heavy lawnmower hurts my shoulder...so it's all over to him....but I might just go and buy a lightweight mower if the neighbours start to complain.  What with our scruffy garden,  a scrap car, 2 campa-vans, 2 cars in use, a trailer full of rubbish, a double glazed door unit (pinched out of a neighbours skip), an old car bumper and a bag full of sprouting potatoes rotting on the drive, I think the neighbours have got good cause to complain...I do, frequently and he is so conveniently deaf....maybe due to spending hours a day with a phone stuck to his ear...

     Why do they always make me jump?  I was watching this bee, camera poised, ready for take off, but I couldn't catch it.  That buzzing always makes me jump, every time.  It's like when Joe growls at me, I know he won't bite me, even if he thinks he might, (and I probably need biting cos I'm teasing him)  He growls..I  jump.  The bee buzzes...I jump.  Every darn time, at least I don't run off and hide from buzzing insects, like my canine companion...hilarious...every time...makes up for him threatening to bite me -  NOT.

This white foxglove is flowering in my wild patch, so I can't get any closer to it.  I always leave a bit of garden untouched for the wildlife and this year it is full of foxgloves (and frogs) but this is the only white one, I try and catch the seed every year and scatter it in a different spot and every 2nd year up pops more PINK foxgloves.  I would love to buy an apricot version, but I bet it would still turn pink...

     ...a stray poppy that planted itself in a bucket in my greenhouse, he obviously knew how wet this summer was going to be as he has flowered way in advance of his relatives dripping in the flower beds.  He is also so much taller than the outdoors poppies, I am sure the wind would have snapped him straight off in the garden.   I think he is beautiful standing tall and towering way over me as I sit in my greenhouse chair to admire him, drink my tea and laugh at the dog's antics as he flounders through the wet grass trying to catch the pigeons 

A soggy week round-up....

....although we did manage to stay dry Monday night to sit on the steps outside the Council house in Birmingham and watch the concert in London, there was quite a crowd of us in front of the big screen and lots of flags, cheering and shouting.  It was dark when I took this shot and we had just nipped into the new "M" shop and bought hot pastries and hot soup to warm us up.  When we came to eat it, my "hot soup" was actually a tub of Chilli-con-carne, so I didn't have to share...it was beef...yippee...the best Chilli ever....

Tuesday...it rained...so I sat and watched the Royal procession,  Wednesday...rain....stayed in and ironed, Thursday...rain...so I made bunting and sewed.  But on Thursday night.... Sara arrived from Dublin for her hospital appt.  I drove to the airport to collect her...in the rain.   Friday...it rained....but we had to attend said appt, racing between the drops....

Friday night.....it rained...so we took ourselves along to "The Boathouse" for our supper....we can do these things when Ebenezer Singh is away, we had all 3 course...and it was delicous.  Did we drink water to keep the costs down?...

.....NO....I had a J20 all to myself, and Sara had a glass of wine.....A LARGE ONE....she had been worried all day that she was going to turn into the Incredible Hulk after her hospital scan....
     Saturday...we managed to gallop round a morning car boot sale and bought lots of books (her) and plants (me).   Then it rained, so we went home and ate bacon sandwiches.
     Sunday....the highlight of the week, it was sunny and warm, I ate breakfast in the garden and then we went over to Bristol to Selina and Pete's.  It stayed nice all day in Brum....in Bristol it rained.

     Went out for an Indian meal in Totterdown, the food was good, but the place was so cold.  At least the stained glass windows were pretty.
      Today...it's raining.....the dog wants to go for a walk and is giving me the evil eye cos it's all my fault.... as usual.  Now Sukpal has turned up..... and I had to go to the dentist this morning....

Finally...

     .....a chance to see some Jubilee magic without getting soaked.  I thought I had a good chance when I managed to walk Joe round the field this morning, without coming home dripping (both of us) 
So it was into the city centre... as planned.....so many people.....obviously I wasn't the only one worried about missing out....

      Some of those clouds looked a bit ominous, and everyone had coats handy...

       ...the band was tuning up, looking very appropriate in their bright scarlet tunics...
I had a look round the Vintage fair in the Waterhall, that was a new one on me, I had never heard of the place, but it was such a lovely old building tucked round the back of the art gallery.  Charlotte would have loved it, good job she's still in China she could have restocked her wardrobe....Then I walked through town to the Bullring and Selfridges....

     ....I had to smile at these two walking along in front of me, hiding her flags behind her back, as she was secretly whacking the head of the little girl walking in front of her and  the poor child didn't know what to do about her!
     Someone had a new outfit for the occasion.... he always looks so cross about been dressed up for special occasions, but there was so many people waiting to take his picture and there was no way he was going to smile....ever.

       His costume was covered in sequins, maybe thats what he was so unimpressed about.

           Selfridges was all decorated up of course, but my favourite was these ribbons hanging all the way from top to bottom of the staircase....all 3 floors of it, I don't want to even think about how they got them up there, that could give me nightmares tonight.

Where were you....

....when we celebrated the Silver Jubilee?

Paul rang tonight, and he said he couldn't remember, strangely he did, just as soon as I said about what I remember, and he had a vague recollection of the photographs too, so I said I would put them on the blog to jog his memory...

We had a sports day down on the camp, and he joined in the 3-legged race with Graham Parkinson on his back....

I can certainly remember Grandad and Joan going to the fancy dress party-let's face it -no-one is going to forget those outfits, and where on earth did he get RED bin-bags from?

    I remember Nana, Aunty Phyl and Uncle Charlie been at the sports day, but when I looked at the back of the photographs I realised it was actually the year before....

        I couldn't remember Aunty Joan been there, so I gave her a call and spent rather a sad, nostalgic, half hour or so talking about years gone past and people no longer here....
     As I said to her on the phone, at the time these photographs were taken in St. Albans in 1975, dad and her seemed so old to me, at the age of 16/17 but looking back now, she was only in her early 30's, and I have got children approaching that age now.   "It's all right for you" she wailed, "My babies are about to hit 50!"

So here is that "baby" messing with his camera, and my Dad, trying to get them both to look up for the camera.  Even my photos have got wrinkles on them...serves me right I should have waited for a better light and at least taken them out of the plastic book.

Well, today has been very wet, just as I feared it would be.  Lots of things in Birmingham have been washed out, but tomorrow is maybe lookig a bit better, so I hope to get into the city for the day and have a look round.  And I still want a picture of that statue...

Ready?.......

......we are in this house....

         .....even if the dog is looking somewhat vacant.  We are ready to celebrate this special weekend out and about in the city....and in front of the telly....please, please, please don't rain.
   
        Looking at this snap, it looks as if a bath, or at least a wash-cloth round his face would be a big improvement....must have been that cottage cheese pot he tea-leafed out the bin!

     Went to London yesterday to collect Darsh's sister from the airport.  Was great to see all the flags and bunting out.  You should see the statue on Chester Road....must get a picture...on the way there it was too wet, and on the way back it was too dark.  That one little roundabout points to all that it takes to make Britain Great....