A pity it's a hamster in the picture. Visualise a chipmunk getting ready to face Edward Scissorhands, Buffy's puss who is making sterling attempts to beat the hunting record of Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter. Full story here.

I haven't been around much. I spent the bank holiday weekend and the days following feeling uncomfortable and brain dead. I went to the dentist yesterday who told me that it wasn't an abscess, as I had feared, but s...., the infection you get in the tubes in your head. My brain isn't working at the moment and I've forgotten the word. Still I'm on antibiotics and I hope that soon everything will be back to normal and I'll be able to think straight.

I'm very fond of Nigella, otherwise called "Love-in-the-mist". The plants in our garden originated with a packet of seeds some 6 or 7 years ago. And they've come back every year by seeding themselves. They not only look very pretty they survive in the most problematic flower bed in the garden which has clay soil that is baked hard by the sun every summer.

A busy week in many ways. This is the week of the 24th Chelmsford Cathedral Festival and there have been events on all week. The Husband went to a concert of Purcell with the King’s Consort at the Cathedral on Wednesday evening and came home praising the music and the skills of the musicians. Together he and I went to two concerts at lunchtimes at local churches. On Monday there was an organ recital with the organist Edward Wellman who played mainly English music from composers such as Byrd, Whitlock and Hollins but also included JS Bach’s Fugue in D major and Widor’s most famous piece, the Toccata. Friday lunchtime, at another of the local churches we heard a duo called Flute Magic. The guitarist, Roger Montgomery, we’ve known for years as he taught the Stepson classical guitar. Roger is a very talented guitarist in his own right and am always glad to hear his wonderful guitar playing. At the concert he played with his daughter Ruth, a wonderful young flautist who plays professionally and teaches the instrument. She is profoundly deaf but it doesn’t stop her being a wonderful musician. She and her father played a number of Latin pieces by such composers as Piazzolla and Machado, a piece writyten by Roger as well as a wonderful flute solo by Reade. It was well worth going, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

As we shall be going to the wedding of the Husband’s niece on 9th June, I also went out to buy an outfit for the wedding. I found something I like, a skirt and top in a flowered fabric and a jacket in a pink self-brocade, and a wonderful pink hat covered with flowers and feathers. The photo the Husband took of me wearing the outfit really made me wince, I am not photogenic at all and I’m sure that the face in the photo looks nothing like the face I see in the mirror everyday but here’s a photo of me in the new outfit.


















I’m not best pleased at the moment. Yesterday morning there was a huge racket in our back garden and opening the back door I was in time to see a big black cat wearing a collar disappearing down the side of the house. It wasn’t Nimrod, who doesn’t wear a collar (he doesn’t like them) and was sitting on the grass looking quite disgruntled for a cat who is usually so easy going. It was in the afternoon when I went out to do some gardening I discovered that the olearia and a nice iceland poppy that had just started to flower were both lying flat on the ground, obviously casualties of the fight. I suspect neither plant is going to look its best for the rest of this year, although I am hoping that with judicious pruning of the olearia both plants will be OK next year. Obviously one of the downsides of having cats.

Tonight we are off to another concert, nothing to do with the festival but of the Mugyenko Taiko Drummers. We went last year too and I’m sure I wrote about them then. We are both certainly looking forward to seeing them again this year.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm a very contrary person at times. For months I have been complaining about the weather and its affect on the garden: it's too dry, the soil is baked hard, plants are wilting and so-on and so forth, on and on. Then we got news rain was coming and I spent a happy afternoon spreading handfuls of pelletted chicken manure on the garden so that the rain could wash the nutrients into the ground. And then it rained and I was happy.... Now, over a week later and I'm getting frustrated that it's still raining and I can't get outside. I think part of it is that I can see just how the plants have benefittedfrom the rain and how much greener they are and how much better they look. Also, I can see that the poppies are out but it's so dark and overcast and wet that I've not been able to get outside to take pictures of them. Oh well, why is England known as the green and pleasant land? Because the rain we receive makes the plants so green and fresh looking. It will soon become dry again and then I'll have the opportunity to get outside. I can hardly wait, I've already lists in my mind of what has to be done next - prune back the ceanothus, weed the aquilegia bed and find some nice plants to put alongside them (has anyone any ideas of good companions for aquilegias? I'd be very grateful).

A question for ornithologists. Over the last few days we've observed a collared dove making a nest in the laburnum tree in a flower bed only about 10 feet from our sitting room. Just now looking out the window I saw a bird fly into the tree, obviously to it's nest. But is this too late in the year for any young to grow up?

The Husband doesn't like gardening and doesn't do the great proportion of the work outside - he leaves that to me. One exception is pruning the roses, almost all of which were drastically cut back and are only about two feet high at the moment. The one rose he didn't prune was a climber on the wall that flanks part of one side of the garden. Here are the flowers already blossoming there or about to come out.

One of my aquilegias is out. Another is well on the way. I'm so glad - they are some of my favourite flowers.

Free Knitting Pattern: My Second Red Hat Scarf

After making my first red hat scarf I started on my second. And here it is, complete with the pattern. The good thing is that the pattern I used isn't difficult at all and you can do so many different things with it. I am considering, some time in the future, using the same pattern but no Contrast yarn, instead adding perhaps beads at each of the bottom edges.

I've started thinking about my third scarf. I've bought the yarn and have found an interesting pattern. Today I shall do the tension square so I can see how what I've imagined actually looks like in real life.

Yarn
1 100g ball Sirdar Country Style 4 ply yarn - roughly US fingering weight (M)
1 50g ball Wendy Cosmic yarn (C)
pair of 4 mm knitting needles

Tension
2 repeats of pattern = 3.5 ins (9 cm)
8 rows of M + one repeat of C = 2 5 ins/4cm

The Pattern

C.O. 40 sts (multiple of 13 sts + 1)
Knit in pattern as follows:

Using M and Pattern 1:
Row 1: (RS) *K1, YO, K4, K2tog, sl 1, K1, psso, K4, YO; rep from * to last st, K1
Row 2: K1, P to last st, K1.

Repeat Pattern 1 four times (8 rows). Then put colour M to one side (don’t break the yarn, just thread it up the side of the knitting)

Using C and Pattern 2
Row 1: (RS) *K1, YO, K4, K2tog, sl 1, K1, psso, K4, YO; rep from * to last st, K1
Row 2: K to end
Row 3: as Row 1 of Pattern 2
Row 4: as Row 2 of Pattern 2

Repeat these 12 rows FOUR more times. Then using M and following only Pattern 1 continue to work until the piece is 22 ins long. Break the yarn and place the stitches on a stitch holder.
Make a second piece the same. Graft the two pieces together.

One of our rhododendrons has come out in flower. I've always loved the acid-loving plants like the rhodies, azaleas and magnolias and fortunately they like one of the beds in our garden.

I've had an interesting few days lately. It started on Sunday when our chapter of Red Hat ladies was one of many who went to London. We arrived at London by train after an "interesting" journey due to engineering works and, waiting for one of our party on the concourse of Liverpool St Station it was fascinating to see just how many people recognised us as members of the Red Hat Society. We were approached by two young Australian girls who recognised us and who said that they were well aware that the Red Hattters were active over there too, another lady approached us and took photos of us. Also we happened to meet the Queen of the Lake District Chapter, down in London with her mother and sisters to celebrate their mother's 85th birthday with a visit the previous evening to the London Palladium to see "The Sound of Music". They were going to same place as we were and so joined our party.

We were off to see "Menopause - the Musical" at the Shaw Theatre and arriving there it was fascinating to see just how many red hats were around. I would estimate that there were about 60-80 red hatters in the audience, which was predominantly female and "of a certain age". The musical itself had four female performers, was set in the Marble Arch Marks and Sparks and comprised many well-known popular songs with new words, all about the problems faced by those going through the menopause.

I have to admit that before I went I had had some doubts about the whole thing. I love good musicals and good music and knew that this one had received many very bad reviews, for example both The Times and the Daily Telegraph newspapers had said very unpleasant things about it, so I approached the performance with a few reservations. However, I enjoyed it a lot. OK, it's not likely to go down in history as a groundbreaking new musical but it spoke to its audience of the things that women of a certain age are going through, the way they become "invisible" to much of society, hot flushes, the inability to remember things, difficulty in sleeping, feeling that they have lost the boat in many things...... I reached the conclusion that the reviewers were young males who had absolutely no idea of what women actually went through. I have to admit that only those women who were either going through the change or have done so would really identify with the musical, but those who had were appreciative of the only thing around that actually covered what they were going through. However, I enjoyed myself and had a good time.

Monday was spent catching up with everything I should have done on Sunday and then came Tuesday: the Husband and myself's 14th wedding anniversary. We went up to London for the day and started off at John Lewis to buy my present. John Lewis has a wonderful selection of contemporary classic costume jewellery. In the past the Husband has bought me jewellery (usually earrings) himself, as he has an excellent eye for such things but for my birthday the earrings he bought me bore more than a close resemblance to a pair he gave me a couple of years ago. As it was he took one look at the silver earrings and said "these look nice" and I was obliged to say (tactfully) that I like them a lot, especially the identical pair he bought me about 5 years ago (and I wear frequently). Anyway, I found a really nice silver pendant that will go with many of my pairs of silver earrings, so that was nice. Then we walked though to Soho and found a good restaurant where we had a meal. Then we walked through to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. There they had a wonderful exhibition titled "Renoir Landscapes 1865-1883"

It was wonderful. Apparently it was the first exhibition specifically to concentrate on Renoir's landscapes rather then his better-known works which usually involve portraits or pictures of, say, cafe society. The paintings were wonderful and I was transfixed by many of them.

Yesterday I caught up with some things and an (almost forgotten) hairdressers appointment. Today I must get back to the garden. Yes, I'm still working at that, at times I feel I always will be. Gardening just never stops.

The Lily-in-the-Valley is out. It takes a while to get the clump properly established but it's worth it at this time of year. However, now I'm finding that they are beginning to encroach into a neighbouring patch of Crocosmia "Spitfire" and now I'm not sure whether to separate them or to see if they can both thrive in peaceful co-existence.

I've also learnt today not to take pictures of white flowers in bright sunshine. The first lot I look didn't really come out properly as the white bells of the L-o-t-V just shone too much. But after lunch it became cloudy and so I took some more pictures and this time they worked.

January 2005 I bought a plant I had never heard of from eBay. It was an Olearia, a Daisy bush and I think I paid about £1.50. When it came it was a tiny cutting about 2 inches tall and I potted it up and nursed it. By the summer it was big enough to plant out, althouhg I will admit that I moved it at least twice before it found its current home.

I researched it and found out that it reaches 4-5 feet fully grown and is evergreen. I've subsequently discovered that the foliage in winter isn't the most exciting I've ever seen but I'm willing to put up with that for the flowers at this time of year.

This week the Husband and I went up to London and to Tate Britain to an exhibition of the works of William Hogarth. It's interesting, Hogarth died in 1764 but despite all those years the subjects of his real paintings remain true to life and the characters of many look like someone who you might meet today. Of his portraits the most interesting are of the sitters who came from what we would nowadays call "middle rank" or else working class - one of my favourites was of Hogarth's servants and I've managed to find a tiny picture of it.

Of course Hogarth isw best remembered for his series such as "the Rakes Progress" and "The Harlot's Progress" and these works were fascinating too. But the trouble is that none of these were huge works and the amount of detail in each required very close inspection which I was unable to do in the crowded galleries. Despite this I enjoyed them too.

I love trees with red leaves but of our trees we have only the one - a malus. This is the tiome of year when it looks at its best.

Laying in bed this morning I suddenly remembered that I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. Good job I remembered as at the moment I'm not taking any photos and neither am I on the computer much. Instead I'm taking advantage of the very warm and dry weather to get the garden sorted out, or at least parts of it. My garden is South facing and the soil is clay and the more I can do before the soil bakes hard for the summer the better.

Today it is forecast to be hot, dry and sunny. The forecasters say that the weather will be 10 degrees warmer than usual for this time of the year. So much for the nay-sayers who refuse to believe in global warming.

The Amelanchier Lamarkii is, I think, my favourite in the garden. Although usually grown as a tree I train it as a large shrub so that all the blossom in spring and the green leaves afterwards are at eye level. Also the red berries later in the year are sufficiently low that I can see them and enough off the ground that the cats can't get at the birds while they are feasting.

I took this picture four days ago. Now the patio is covered with blossom as it is going over. At least I'm not having a repeat of the spring when strong winds stripped off all the blossom immediately it appeared so we had virtually no berries later.

Cold Poached Salmon

This is what I made on Good Friday. The Stepson stayed with the Husband and I last week until Sunday and so for the Friday we had this. I originally found this recipe in a magazine years ago and it rapidly became a real favourite with the family (except for the Stepdaughter who doesn't like fish). It's easy to make and always moist and delicious.

Ingredients:

salmon steaks or fillets - 1 per person
1 bay leaf
half a lemon, sliced
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar (or half to a whole glassof white wine if you have any left over)
salt

Method:

1. Put the salmon in a pan. Pour over just enough cold water to cover the fish. Add the bay leaf, lemon slices vinegar or wine and the salt. Bring to the boil and simmer for one minute.
2. Cover the pan with a lid and leave fish until it is cold without taking the lid off (this can take an hour or more).
3. Serve with herby mayonnaise (2 tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs like parsley, chives, dill and mint stirred into half a pint of good mayonnaise) and salad.

Yes, Spring is certainly here

I saw a clump of three trees in full blossom while I was out on a walk this afternoon and couldn't resist taking a photo of them.

Back after a nasty dose of gastric flu all weekend and part of yesterday and while I was making a quick trip to buy a birthday card for my brother which was late because I was ill in bed - I discovered that the young Magnolia in the front garden, a Magnolia "Susan" had come out into flower. Luckily I carry my camera in my handbag all the time so here it is.

The past few days

I have a confession to make, neither of us had any idea that on Sunday the clocks were going forward by an hour. I only realised the fact when I turned on the television in the evening and realised it was an hour later than my watch said. It's frustrating though, I'd vaguely thought to myself during the week that the clocks must be changing soon and immediatley forgot all about it and never checked. Very embarrassing but no damage was done to man or beast (grin).

I had an osteoporosis test at the hospital the other week and on Friday I received a letter for my doctor asking me to come in to discuss the results. My imagination immediately went into overload as if everything is fine they would have said so. However when I saw my GP yesterday it turned out that the results weren't too bad. My spine and hip are fine although my femoral neck is osteopenic. The doctor wasn't going to give me any medication although he advised thast I continued to take the calcium and vitamin D tablets I take anyway. I also mentioned that both my thumbs get a bit painful at times but my GP wasn't exacly interested. he said that the real lifespan for a human is 35 years, so anything extra is a bonus. Oh well, nice to know I'm over the hill.

Good news. Originally we were told that only two parents could come to the Stepson's graduation ceremony this summer, something that rather disappointed me because obviously he would want his father and mother there. However, the Stepson has managed to get me a place too so I will be able to go as well. .