Balls
It was my mum's birthday this week, her 83rd. She is doing well in spite of viewing the world through half an eye which is covered with a cataract and progressively degenerating, and living on rat poison to prevent the blood clots doing their damndest to her. So we do things gently when we get together, but we love to shop and garden, or garden and shop. Whichever! This week-end we shopped and I gardened whilst she did the gaffer's bit, snoozing gently in her chair whilst I worked, then coming outside to tell me what to do next! Always the perogative of the boss - and she can grow parsley!


She also has balls,


large balls,


purple ones - growing in her garden... see?






Me?


I have huge green ones.....

Sleepless night!
Does this happen to you too - a determination to do something - and finish it, leaves you going to bed very late; then after a short snooze you wake up having remembered something else that has to be done?
Last night was the night of the 'virgin blog' - well for me anyway! Very exciting, yes, and also in the end fulfilling. However, after some tossing around and the said snooze, I woke with a start a 2.30 realising that I had arranged to meet a friend when I was already organised to do some cricket coaching. No real problem there, that's easy to sort. Sort? yes, but when... Should I get up at that unearthly hour and send an email, no don't be silly - not sensible. But I could check to see if anyone had gone into my blog by mistake? No, that's addiction and at an early stage of blogging. I am not going down that road. (How do you show typing with clenched teeth?)
Then I realised that it was the witching hour for snails, aha! Do I get up and go out with the bucket and see how many snails are slithering across my lawn? (You might laugh, one night whilst saying goodnight to my neighbour at about this time, there were hundreds of snail shells to be seen sticking up on my lawn. It was gross. ) Did I, or didn't I do it? Answers please in my own little bloggit box....

Well, this is it - real Blogging for the first time! For my very good firend in Saudi, these are for you, I hope you can smell the strong scent wafting over the garden, they really are wonderful!




And of course, this has taken hours to sort out - so off to bed said Zebedee!

This is not easy! I am going to try to post just these few words, believe me, it is a case of: One large step for Liz is usually much smaller for the rest of mankind!

Before you jump to conclusions, this is not me, just a fair picture of how I feel!!

As a follow on to that last comment, the slugs really appreciated all that care, the little (sorry fat) varmints! However, I have had my revenge and won't go into any details here... suffice to say they did not like the sensation.
America was truly another world, I didn't expect it to be rather like the layout of towns in Oman, but it was. They also have the same attitude to their districts which seems quite strange to me. But the swamps were something else. The sound of the insects, birds and 'gators, the heat, the smell, it was wonderful. I could do a lot of walking in those areas - always providing the bears and 'gators keep off the duckboards of course, I would not like to have an argument with either of them. The flowers were lovely and quite indiscriminate about where they grew - a stinky part of the swamp, ok lets grow here.... the sight of two huge 'gators wallowing in the swamp, with a clump of lilies in front of them and a lovely bird nesting above them was quite humorous! I suppose it is the equivalent to our own decorating urges?

Well, this is it - almost ready. Only thing left to do is put the gravel under the seedlings and I can go, oh and I must arrange the last job application! Sunshine here I come...

I'm almost there - at that stage where I am ready to go on holiday. The seedlings have been transplanted into larger trays, the peas and beans for the last tripod have been planted today so they should be up by the time I get back, and I have planted out enough lettuce plants for both the slugs and me. It just leaves the hoeing of the main borders to do and then I can go. Oh yes, I suppose I had better pack the clothes, sun cream and passport. Don't laugh, I have been known to go abroad without my passport, an empty handbag which I had decluttered and no form of identity except my two chilren. Little dears, they had their passports and tickets - bless. I convinced the lady in the passport office to accept them as my form of identity and she issued me with a temporary passport. Decluttering? Why? I have a card on my desk which says, Tidy people do not have the exciting life that I lead. Too true!

You will know that I am applying for jobs at the moment. This is a daily routine, search the internet, read the papers if they are the right day and then contact people for forms. What I haven't admitted is the fact that my daughter goes through all my applications as well. So today, she asked her line manager to help too... they are wonderful. He has totally revamped it apparently, I am getting 'the call' later on this evening. I can't wait, it will be wonderful to have some professional help on this, you never know, I might even get a job! I will post the results when I hear.

At this moment I must get on with cleaning the kitchen and then packing some clothes. Sun, here I come.

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I have just tried my tracker on the page - great excitement! It says I have had a visitor from France, gosh I wonder who that is and what they make of these inane ramblings. I can't think that it adds to anyone's life experience and somehow did not expect anyone to look. How strange.

It is so easy to duck the real issues in life - things like (cleaning the house - ugh!!) earning a living.... I am finding that my resolutions to fill in lots of application forms waver as soon as the sun shines! There is also an incredible difference in levels of successful communications. Let me explain.
I have a friend who has a friend..yes, I know - silly! However, he assured me that he would contact this friend and ask him if he had any openings in his training scheme for me. Oooh good I thought and awaited the outcome with eagerness. The e-mail arrived which I duly read, re-read and then digested. This friend of my friend was asking if I had any openings for his training scheme in my area of work. Now this was not what I was expecting, so the question is, how do I react to that one! I need to be positive and friendly, I cannot scream down the ether, NO! I want a job, I am not giving you one - there aren't any in my life at this moment in time. Helpful suggestions please on a postcard to this idiot's home address!

Pub signs are an interesting feature of the English countryside, so why would there be one called 'The Bear and Ragged Staff' in the middle of nowhere in Worcestershire? The bear ties in with Warwickshire but again I don't know why, except for the fact that Warwickshire CCC have a bear on their motto. Something else to be curious about! However, the pub served excellent food and I can recommend it, just outside Worcester, but perhaps I won't get too accurate about the geography otherwise they might be overun with customers...
My elderly mother astounds me with her perception. On telling her that I was going off to Florida next week, she pointed out that I have the opportunity to do these things at this moment in time and would be very silly if I didn't. Made me feel as if I am well and truly sinking in to the mud. Point taken mother!
The asparagus is in season again, so visiting Worcester is a true pleasure. We buy it at the local farm shops, cook and eat it fresh and I even bring some home. Shropshire also grows it so we have a cross fertilisation when I take her some to compare the flavours. Well, sometimes you need an excuse to buy the stuff for the third time in a week! I just wish I lived by the seaside and could buy lobsters like this - what bliss that would be! Perhaps they live in the seas on the Florida coast?
I am looking forward to the sunshine and warmth, ours seems to have gone walkabout at the moment.

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
--A. A. Milne
This could well be my motto, as family and friends will attest. Today was meant to be an organising day, yet again I ducked out of it and played around. However, I have found some old friends amongst my clothes in the wardrobe, made a decision about throwing out more of my 'junk' - decluttering is the favoured term, and definitely decided to upgrade my bloggit when I return from Florida. So - a domestic scene, but one which has engendered good resolutions in a very subcutaeneous way. (I wonder about that spelling!)

I awoke to the sound of rainfall and the heavy raindrops falling from the trees outside my bedroom window, so today is going to be an indoors day.
Yesterday I achieved a lot in the garden, it was bliss! The window baskets are planted, the snails that were waiting for a new meal were thrown to the thrushes - I hope they enjoyed them! The beans and peas planted, the supports put up, some protection put around the plants to prevent the frosts from causing too much damage. I cut the lawn, pruned the fruit trees again, sorted out the half empty flower pots and looked for another job. However, the window frames need painting so I must try to do all of that when I get back from Florida. The sander will have to come out and the special stuff that I paint them with, now I wonder where that is in my tidy life?!

But today is another day - one to spend indoors clearing up the chaos left by just gardening and not tidying as I go along. Ugh...

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The bean frame is up, with sweet peas at the base of one side, the beans are going to be cosseted for slightly longer - there are forecasts of ground frosts.... I am vowing to be a wise gardener this year, not a hasty one!
Signing on was rather interesting, the lady was far more interested in looking at freebie training sessions that are available in bitesize. We thought DIY and Spanish might be good. I also thought I would go for the car maintenance and assertiveness. Mmmm, could be good.
I am beginning to wonder why I say I cannot move house for a job - most of my friends don't live around here, so I ask myself why I am staying and of course it is my little house that keeps me. I just love it, its quirky, pretty and has a walled garden. Soon it will have a pond.....
Its an idea worth thinking about though, I am not sure I could afford Kensington prices, but elsewhere, probably. We shall see. However, back to the bean frames, I am onto the third one now, then they need painting and putting in the ground. Exciting!

It's that day today. I go to 'sign on', just hope I can park the car! That is proving to be the most awkward part of the bargain, now that Telford have decided to charge for their parking, places like council offices have their parking spaces pinched by all and sundry, there are cars parked on the verges all around the car parks and I can see why! The charges are tremendous. The shopping mall is going to lose so much custom from people who would otherwise just go and window shop then be tempted. Shrewsbury is cheeper - yes even cheaper!!
Back to the business in hand, I have filled in my form, written applications for jobs and now just wait. Well, not 'just', I made a bean frame yesterday, I must finish my mothers trousers and send them to her today, paint the frame and then put it up tomorrow. Why the rush? The beans are getting too tall for the cold frame!!. But perhaps the taller and stronger they get, the more difficulty my slugs will have in eating them. The peas definitely need to be tougher. That's a point, the slugs are so big and juicy, perhaps I should threaten to eat them!!!?
Back to work!

I have just had a quintessentially 'British' experience! It was wonderful and restores belief in people. Let me explain.

I was driving home on the main A41 which bypasses Newport, a fairly fast stretch of road where lorries and motorbikes take no prisoners. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something white on the verge of the opposite side of the road. Luckily there was a break in the traffic on that side because Mrs Swan, babies and Mr Swan, stepped onto the road and waddled over. Not a hint of 'Look Left' let alone 'Look Right'! Green Cross Code stuff? Obviously never heard of it in the swan world. However, with wild flashing of head lights I warned the oncoming lorries and looking through the rear mirror, I saw they stopped, as did the following traffic behind me and patiently waited for the family to cross the main road. Lovely!
It might not seem much to anyone else, but I am a driver who is easily intimidated by lorries and the thought that their drivers would stop for this little family was most reassuring!

All this after a wonderful day spent at Malvern at the Three Counties Show - or its gardening equivalent, and really there is a lot to smile about and enjoy. Even if it is the sight of my daughter sorting out a lady off for moaning at her without warrant, and in fact telling her to not be so silly! And then there were the clematis and other plants that we bought. Not over spending Livvy said, just spending!

(It is May, we have had wonderful temperatures in the 70s and now there is a hail storm out side... another British experience?!)

Hmm, lots of talk about clothes, so tomorrow I shall hit Shrewsbury to buy enough clothes to get my through the trip to Florida without bankruptcy staring me in the face.

My little car started beautifully this evening which was a good thing really as I had to attend the seasonal photo shoot of the county cricket squads. 'My girls' stole the show as I knew they would, they looked the thing and very lovely too.
Now we have to see how they cope with a real cricket match as a team. I am sure they will shine. Tomorrow I have to take my first aid update course, so I shall be doing my own inimitable ER impression od some poor plastic dummy. Thank goodness it is plastic, but even so the taste is fairly revolting. Never mind, I shall pucker up me lips and breath out... all for the sake of cricket!

Do any of you remember that hand with a pointing finger and the phrase "It could be you!"?

Whilst going through the depths of despond a few years ago, I felt that finger was pointing at me for all the negative reasons. I begin to feel it has moved back into my life again.
My job ending was not a surprise, but the new one that is being held open for me is dependent on the Bank of Scotland getting its finger out and financing the scheme. OK, it hasn't decided yet, this has been going on since last year. Yes, last year! Ok, I took the chance and it didn't work out. Fine!

As soon as the job ended my computer broke, so I have a new sexy black one - all singing and dancing and so fast, I no longer make dozens of cups of tea whilst wating for the program to load etc. etc. I am so in love with this new machine, it even wishes me a "Good Morning!" How sweet! (That was sorted thanks to my daughter's boyfriend.)

Now my television has broken - yes I know I watch too much. So I shall have no excuse for not reading for the module.

The latest spat of the hand relates to my car. I lovingly washed it yesterday - sorry 'her', she is a lovely blue Puma. Driving her is the most luxurious experience, you will realise why I say that when I say that the other love of my life has been my two Citroen CVs. Just don't say anything within my hearing that is not totally adoring of them!!
I chickened out of walking the four miles to the shop to get the TES, and thank goodness I did! She whinged, that's all, just a whinge. That hand is pointing at me again I thought! So I rang the AA to find out if I had cover from home, no I don't! However, they took pity and came out to me because I have not used them much! I love you AA!
I had flooded the engine.... I didn't know you could do that anymore, but apparently with an automatic choke, if you just turn the engine on, then off quite quickly, then repeat the excercise, the memory (yes computers again!) doesn't remember that the choke has been on, and hence the engine floods. What a learning experience that was! At least I shouldbe able to get to the photoshoot tonight without too much trauma. I apologised to her and am going to be more careful when I wash my car in the coolness of the British climate!
Now I can get back to looking for a job...

Great news! There are SIX little asparagus spears poking their little heads out of the soil. SIX! I am so excited, that is almost a meal for me. Me only, cos now I lock the gates and refuse to receive visitors until the season is over, no family, friends, certainly no men - NOBODY!!
What else has happened today? There are some interesting jobs in the paper which I may well apply for, one which looks rather good - its part time and working with people but not in education. Hah! Will this be the time that I finally leave school? I am also going to look around a firm in Telford tomorrow - they are having an open day. Interactive whiteboards here I come again! they are fun though, a lovely toy to have in the classroom. Will have to look the job though, not a time to wear the old jeans and t shirt.

Well this week did not happen for the pond, it rained and poured and generally was too unpleasant to go out and do things. So I actually did some housework - that thing called sweeping floors and things. Yuk!
Work has finished which is a very strange sensation. I have a feeling that I should be applying for everything under the sun, and so I will get onto it. I don't feel that 'my job' is going to come my way, so must pick myself up and get going again.
Meanwhile the peas, beans and basil have germinated - all very exciting. Summer meals could have some quality to them, always providing the slugs don't get there first. I must spread the egg shells to dissuade them from eating my supper. I visit my small asparagus bed daily to search for spears, one tiny one so far only. the bed is in a shaded position so they don't have the best growing situation, but they can try!
I have become quite addicted to blogging - visiting sites that are connected to that of my friend and comments are beginning to flow. This is fun, it feels like there are people out there who are of like mind. Questions are being asked in the house about this blog, so soon I must be brave and go public. First I must take some pickies and try to add them to the site.
All this and a degree too...