Meandering around on a Wednesday

Another assortment of odd thoughts as I ramble in my chair.  It began life as Toddling on Tuesday twenty four hours ago but I git side-tracked by real life...

Hugo

Welcome to the world Hugo – nephew to Son-in-law-and-friend-who-loves-otters. He arrived on Saturday to the delight of parents Dewi and Gary.  It remains to be seen how delighted his big sister Leona will be.  In my experience siblings often don’t fully appreciate each other until they are about twenty (if then). I hope Leona and Hugo prove to be the exception and are firm friends from day one.

Home

I’m just about settled in again at home and celebrated the fact by having a massive migraine on Monday.  Fortunately it only lasted twelve hours but it was fun awful while it lasted.

When I emerged from bed feeling like a washed out flannel it was to find that the drains were blocked.  The drains in England are the responsibility of the householder where they only serve his property but the responsibility of United Utilities where they serve more than one property.  Fortunately my tracing the route of the blockage eventually led to where the drain is joined by one from the doctor’s surgery next door. Hooray – not my problem.  At least once they’ve fixed it and we can flush the loo again it’s not my problem.  (Twenty four hours later they had cleared the blockage and all was back to normal.  It was wet-wipes from the surgery that had blocked it.  Wet wipes are allegedly bio-degradable but the water board folk said they don't - it's a fallacy.  They just block the drains.)  

Witches Beware !

I have mentioned Rougemont Castle Gatehouse, Exeter, before.

But I didn’t mention that it was here that the last women to be convicted of witchcraft were tried in the 1680s and hanged at nearby Heavitree.

Mailcrossing

The idea behind mailcrossing is that you create an envelope and send it to four (or nine) other people who in turn send you one that they have created. Inside the envelope you can put whatever you like but it is meant to be original and not expensive.  This was one I received from Traci in Texas (addresses deleted).

I like the way she’s told me so much about herself. 

Inside there was a lovely notecard and a hair clip / brooch she had made.  

Because I was a man (the only one in the group) and she knew from my website that I enjoyed cooking she also enclosed a pan scraper for stoneware pans etc.  It will be ideal for cleaning the cooker top which is always a bind to scrape clean.

I shall show the other envelope I have received so far when I have time to scan it in.

The postcards still keep arriving, of course.  This is a wonderful one from Russdia.

And just look at its stamps.

And it's great to see that somewhere still hand-franks its post.  I know the volume of post in most places makes it prohobitive but it is such a prettier result when a human can see that the sender has made an effort with the stamps.

The Garden

It has been was a glorious day (yesterday) and I have spent nearly all of it in the garden.  Gardening - not just lazing about. Though Partner-who-loves-tea and I did take time off for a crossword on the patio at lunchtime. I'll show some of the flowers in a future post -perhaps tomorrow.

I’ve been planting more pots and weeding and generally tidying up.  Some Nasturtium seedlings have gone in and the Sweet Peas are now in their final location, among the canes next to the conservatory window.  More petunias are potted up and the first of the hanging bags is now in position. 

I have had a bracket on this corner for a few years but every time I hung a basket on it I walked into it and hurt myself.  Hanging baskets are heavy when you collide with them at face height.  But a hanging bag is ideal.  It stays closer in to the wall and I haven’t come anywhere near hitting it.  This first one is full of Petunias. The next one will be by the kitchen window and will have a mixture of trailing plants.

Misty

Misty has by now settled back in to her routine of being fed by Daughter-who-takes-photos but this was the night before I left Exeter – she obviously slept in my suitcase because she wanted to come home with me.