Monday 28 June 2010

That Berry's Busty!




Recently I introduced myself over the fence to the neighbour who borders the rear of my garden and he invited me to go round and see his wooden figures. Today a friend and I took him up on the offer, and were delighted by his collection. He makes them all out of Lime wood. The Polar bear is bleached Lime. The key and chain is carved out of a single piece of wood. Also delightful was the collection of stories with which he regaled us. Besides the wood-carving, his other hobbies include radio-controlled boats and making dolls houses, then at Christmas as if all that wasn't enough, he dresses up as Father Christmas. A natural born raconteur!






I took him a little dish of freshly picked strawberries from the allotment - excluding this odd shaped one. Don't you think it looks like it has breasts? I think if 'That's Life!' was still on TV, it would have had a starring role.

Friday 25 June 2010

Labouring in the summer sun


Knowing the day was going to be sweltering, I went down the allotment early whilst it was still reasonably cool. I was there from 7.30 am to around 9.45 am then went on to the dump to dispose of all the weeds, and from there to Dave's house. He's had the week off working on the construction of his garden room, and he was quick to rope me in as general labourer for the day. We went to Wickes and bought some more ballast, then on to a woodyard - Covers in Aldershot. The guy there was extremely helpful discussing the selection of timber and construction methods. Dave bought 10 hefty beams (see photo for an example) and they helped him load it onto the roof-rack. We took 6 the first trip and came back for the other 4. Between us we managed to get them unloaded and through to the construction area. Then I got on with digging out the holes for the last three footings whilst he mixed the concrete. Some careful measuring, and finally the last three padstones were in place. It was hot, thirsty work. We stopped several times to cool off, drink some water and munch our way through a large bunch of cherries from his neighbour's tree (with his neighbour's permission, of course).


Afterwards he treated me to a KFC for dinner - ahhh, we know how to live! Odd though it sounds, I enjoyed the day. I haven't done so much manual labour recently, and it feels good when your body proves it's still capable.


The photo is a post-script, taken a week later and showing one of the padstones I helped lay, with some of the building's timber framework in place.

Friday 18 June 2010

Concert, favours, synchronicity

Last night I went to see Suzanne Vega in concert at The Anvil in Basingstoke. It was my friend's choice - my knowledge of the music scene isn't as extensive as his and I didn't recognise any of her work. Very talented lyricist with a pretty voice. Suzanne told the story behind many of the songs, which made it more interesting. One about New York being a woman led to a conversation with the audience, explaining that at the previous gig in London, she had asked the audience if London was male or female, and been told 'female' ... then asked how that female would be characterised. Someone retorted that if New York was a woman, London was a whore! She put the same question to Basingstoke - would people of Basingstoke characterise the town as male or female. It seemed the majority agreed 'male' and one lady in the front stalls suggested Basingstoke is a 'conservative pig', which had the audience laughing. Suzanne pretended to find inspiration for a whole new song in this.

Today was a nice day. It began with my accustomed reading/meditation on a lesson from 'A Course in Miracles' on the theme of being led by the Voice for Truth: "I will step back and let Him lead the way". I had an early morning phone call from a friend asking if I could do her a favour, and happily I was already planning to visit the place where she was asking me to go as I had an appointment there, so that was an easy favour to grant.

After the phone call, I took some stuff down the municipal dump and went from there to (son) Dave's house. He wasn't at home, but whilst I was parked outside his house a delivery van arrived with something he'd ordered. I unlocked the garage and the delivery man carefully unloaded the large item, delighted that he wouldn't have to come back again some other time. The timing couldn't have been better. I sent Dave a text letting him know and he phoned back equally delighted.

Later still I went to the allotment and picked a handful of ripe strawberries, then back home I had a super text from (daughter) Vicky letting me know she has been offered the job she interviewed for on Monday and asking if I could help her out with something which again was very easy to grant. We arranged that as she's coming up this way at the weekend to attend an old school friend's party, she'll come to visit on Sunday.

Friday 11 June 2010

Tooth Fairy & Letters to Juliet

Monday night's treat was a trip to Woking to see The Tooth Fairy which had me laughing out loud. It was an early screening and we had a tasty meal at the Auberge afterwards. Then Thursday night my gallant escort suggested another trip to the cinema, this time for the romantic Letters to Juliet. Given the later start I had time to get home from work and prepare us a simple meal before we went. It was an enjoyable end to a good day - earlier in the day I'd visited a couple of community activities (in my role as a Community Development Worker) and felt a sense of things going ok. I notice I'm dialling back my positivity a notch - I want to say things went well - not sure what that's about unless perhaps a fear that being overly positive could adversely affect outcomes.

The message of The Tooth Fairy is the value of dreams, and interestingly enough, synchronistically enough, the Word For Today has also been exploring the value of dreams and dreamers. As it's now 10 pm, perhaps it's time for me to sign off here and go and dream a little ...

Thursday 3 June 2010

Brighton Beach & George Benson

A friend wanted to go and see George Benson in concert. We checked out the tour dates and settled on Brighton, as I'd previously expressed a desire to go and see the Brighton Pavilion. I drove us down there, leaving around 9.45 am and taking the 'A' roads rather than the motorway. We stopped for coffee en route and arrived in Brighton in time for lunch.

On our list of places to visit were the delightful St Anne's Well Gardens where we had a lovely lunch in the busy little cafe. A combination of the beautiful summer weather and half-term school holidays had drawn out lots of families.

Here's the Royal Pavilion. The exotic architecture looks fantastic against a clear summer-blue sky.


I love the way this photo captures the very essence of a British seaside town, with a gull flying past a sign for fish and chips in the lower right-hand corner, and the fairground at the end of the pier in the upper left corner (not to mention the pebble beach and the merry-go-round).


I'll confess I didn't enjoy the concert as much as some of the others we've been to and I was glad to get home and climb wearily into my bed after a delightful yet tiring day at the seaside.