Manic Saturday

I am on a three day weekend and started it with a very hectic morning. I was expecting guests for lunch today. That was okay but I also had to take my car to the garage in the village for service (I needed new brake discs and pads). I was fine about it, even took Sam with me for a bit of a walk on the way back home (and that was all uphill by the way)! When we got home I noticed an abundance of dandelions on the front lawn. I just couldn’t let my guests see that! No way! I went in the garage and retrieved my hand weeder. I then proceeded to extract the dandelions (roots and all) from the ground. It was not an easy job. In fact it was very hard because the ground was almost concrete! We hadn’t had rain for quite sometime. I must have been mad to do it. I tied Sam outside the front door so he could watch me dig out the weeds. Come to think of it I may be able to teach him to do something as useful as weeding. Perhaps not! Sam was quite perplexed at all the activity around him.
Anyway that took me over half an hour and I still had to make the potato salad from scratch. Then there was the window cleaning, put the roast chicken in the oven, then the quiche… and then prepare the green leaf salad as well. I was told that my car would be ready in an hour but it was almost 12 noon when I received a call from the garage…my car was ready and could I please pick it up? I was expecting my guests to arrive soon. I decided to make a dash for it. I left a post it note outside the front door just in case my friend arrived and no-one was home. Besides I could probably intercept them on the road. There's only one major road to the top of the village. I half walked, half ran to the garage. I paid the bill—and I tried to be so patient as the man in front of me at the till took his time paying. In no time I was back in the house…only just! Five minutes later my guests were at the front door. What a manic morning.
After they left I decided to take some photos of the garden and my favourite spot…the swing/hammock. I am still reeling from the exercise and activity from this morning. I feel absolutely knackered but I did it! I couldn’t believe that I cleared the front lawn of dandelions. I was meaning to do that for the longest time. I guess I am quite good at deadlines. Whew what a day. Now I must now join Sam and do some serious unwinding. Sam's completely wiped out. He hasn't had his morning snooze and he's looking quite fed up.

English landscapes

This must be one of my favourite photo in my collection. I took this over 10 years ago using my old SLR. I thought it was a photo I had to take because it exemplified England to me. I visited England in 1995 for the first time and in my eyes it was the most magical place that I have ever seen and it remained so until this very day. I love the way the weather challenges your instinct to survive. It is so like life--not every day that the sun shines. I learned a lot living here. I never get depressed about the weather. I grew up in a land where the sun shines most of the time but in exchange for its brilliance came the stifling heat. I do not like heat! Anyway, more about this photo...I love the "stillness" and the muted colours. I never got to meet the fisherman though. Also in the same visit I was fascinated by the green pastures and the "contented cows" so there I was just like a tourist taking photos of the cows! I loved every moment of it that I vowed to live here!
The next photo was taken in 1999. I was in Salisbury covering a story. I had lunch in this pub overlooking the river with the cathedral for a backdrop. I thought it was quintessential English as well. I thought of posting these photos one by one because scanning them take a long time!
Now I am busy taking photos of my backyard, house and garden. I just wish we had digital cameras when I was growing up because there were a lot of photo opportunities that are now just locked in my memory. I envy these young people now because they can commit their collective memories into electronic diaries like this blog for instance. Anyway, at least I can record moments of my life.
It's really quite amusing that some people make fun of bloggers like me. I mean who really cares what I think right? Who cares what happens to my life? It is not exciting as I am not a jetsetter and certainly it is not dramatic like some soap opera BUT I think there is something to be said about life quite ordinary. I think so anyway.

Chocolate and garden

I finally managed to bake my chocolate and orange marmalade cake today. I meant to bake one for a long time now but never had any time. I mean between the gardening and spring cleaning I just didn't have enough time to do any baking.
Yesterday Hubby, Sam and I went to Bridport to check out the markets (they were excellent by the way) and then headed for West Bay. I have to say that West Bay has improved 100% since we were last there. They have added to the promenade and there are new developments too--some high end apartments facing the seafront. It was a glorious day! We had some fish and chips by the pier (yummy). The downside was we didn't have the camera with us so no photos! Ughs!

We also tried to finish most of the replanting in the back garden. The hanging baskets are out as well. I took a photo of the back garden...spring is definitely in the air because the plants are growing fast!The field behind us has been turned over and soon the farmer will plant something, what I don't know but it'll be nice to see some green soon.
Tomorrow will be the start of the summer term. Another 10 weeks of hard slog and then summer time is here!!!! I really shouldn't wish my life away like this but I just want to enjoy my house and garden.

Tractors and bird calls

Our hard work in the garden is paying dividends. Yesterday afternoon I managed to enjoy half an hour outside with Sam on the swing just listening to bird calls and watching a farmer in a tractor efficiently till the field right outside our back fence. I am slowly getting familiar about country ways and village life. The other day we needed some eggs but the shops were closed. I noticed a wooden box outside one of the farms and I told Hubby it could be a “store box” where you just leave money in a carton. Well it was more than that. The box contained very large fresh farm eggs, home made cakes and jams! Half a dozen eggs cost 70p. We bought a dozen. We have village fetes and flower festivals. One thing I like about living out here in the sticks is I really experience English life.
Sam and I like watching the farmer toil his land. I haven’t had the opportunity to ask him what he was going to plant. Last year it was corn and I was told the other year he planted flowers. I’d like that. Spring is late this year—I reckon a whole month late. My annual plants are just beginning to flower. However I will have a better garden this year because it has matured a bit. I am obsessive about plants. I check them everyday. Hubby says I am like a sergeant major inspecting the troops. I am rather worried about two plants I transplanted. One is an expensive clematis that is looking a bit sorry for itself and I cannot understand why and the other is a wallflower that is looking quite “stressed”. It is not the watering or the fertilising because both are in pots. I am keeping my fingers crossed! Maybe they just didn’t like being repotted. My orchids are doing especially well. One of them has been in bloom since November and because I have been feeding it with orchid fertiliser it started to bud again and the same with the others. I am so pleased. I told Hubby he should get me more since I have been successful with them. But I think they like the position (on my kitchen window facing east—morning sun). It’ll be nice to have an assortment of them in my kitchen though.

Easter fun

My old friend Chicoy and his family arrived at Musbury on Wednesday. It was a fraught time for me before their arrival because I was busy planting, cleaning the house and cooking in preparation for their visit.
Nothing could be more fraught than that morning before their arrival. We've been having problems with the sink in the kitchen. It wasn't draining very well and inspite of using a liquid de-clogger water wasn't draining as efficiently as possible. Anyway, we bought this industrial strength drain de-clogger on Tuesday but hubby forgot to do it overnight. When I woke up the following morning I found that the dishwasher hasn't drained properly as well. Disaster I thought! No amount of using the rubber plunger seem to shift the blockage! It was awful. Anyway, after half an our of absolute panic I went outside to check the drain and lo and behold it was overflowing! Aaaarrrggghhhsss! I donned my rubber gloves and braved the stink and goo from the drain. I had to physically remove dead leaves and some organic matter from the drain but I knew we had to pour the industrial strength de-clogger directly on to the drain! But that was no job for a woman. I draw the line on that! I checked the dishwasher but it was still filled with water. I thought that if the drain was cleared, I could turn on the machine and it would automatically drain itself. I asked hubby to do the man thing and pour the sulphuric acid down the drain. Suffice to say it worked like a charm! All that time the problem was outside and not inside the pipes. The dishwasher was fine after that.
A few minutes later I noticed a farmer in a tractor spreading liquid fertiliser on the field outside our backyard. Of all days! Then the dog decided to play with some of the muck I was clearing and I couldn't help thinking I still had to cook three main dishes tonight. Good thing hubby offered to go to the supermarket to get the food supplies while I get the house ready.

Finally, our guests arrived I was sooooo excited to see them. It was great to hear the familiar sound of the Manilena accent and pinoy jokes. For once we had a full house. Tata and Nana shared the king size water bed in the third room, Chicoy and Tere were in the Blue Room and Pepe slept in the single bed in the attic. Sam was ecstatic because the kids fussed and played with him.
I served adobo, pinakbet and embutido on our first night. It was such fun!!!!! The following day we all went to Dartmoor (famous Dartmoor Prison) then had a barbecue for dinner--steaks and sausages with potato salad, coleslaw and green leaf salad. Hubby, Chicoy and Pepe of course drank beer, then shared a bottle of red wine and graduating to whisky at midnight while watching DVDs of the Eagles, Bee Gees and Pink Floyd!


Yesterday we went for a walk to our local woodlands at the top of the hill. Then we had brunch of eggs and bacon, leftover adobo, pinakbet, embutido and rice. This was also accompanied with a lot of oatmeal bread and jam. Yummy!
What fun we all had!

Easter holidays

I am now on holidays for a week and two days. I didn’t waste any time lounging around. Yesterday I fertilised the back garden. That’s back breaking work because the chicken manure was on the clay-dough side if you know what I mean. It stuck on my gardening gloves, on the bucket and on the trowel. If it was dry as it should be then I could have easily spread it around but no, I had to do it the hard way. Anyway I am glad I did it. I also pruned dead bits off the now growing shrubs and did more weeding. Then when I went indoors I started on my spring cleaning. I was working non stop until I felt my shoulder muscles ache and only then I stopped.

Today I fertilised and weeded the front lawn. I was using a liquid lawn fertiliser/weeder. The downside is I had to apply it using the watering can. I just couldn’t avoid lifting weights but the chore had to be done. After that I watered the back garden. It has been very sunny lately and the soil looked very dry after the winter. The potted plants needed watering after fertilising. Sam and I sat down on the swing for about half an hour just relishing the views and tranquillity. Back indoors I did more spring cleaning.

I have guests coming next week. My good friend Chicoy is coming over with this family for to spend a couple of days with us. We plan to go to Bath on Thursday and then they will head to Cornwall after that. It will be a nice change for hubby and me. Tomorrow hubby and I will go to the garden centre to buy some plants (climbers and bedding plants) for the garden. I really want a more whimsical and lush garden. It is too Spartan for me at the moment although the honeysuckle looks like it will do well this year.

As I said there is no rest for me. There’s so much to do at home. It makes me wonder how other people cope! The sun is shinning outside, Sam is curled up like a ball on the chair and I feel really sleepy. I just had a pasta lunch and I just want to get some 40 winks! Zzzzzzz.

All work and no play

Today provided some sort of relief for me. After agonising over my Excel spreadsheet with all the cross-referencing malarkey I managed to make the figures tally. It wasn’t easy at all because I had to forecast 3% increase from this year’s budget. It was so involved and somewhat complicated because I was using several documents as reference and I had to use the proper formulas. And I am not a finance person to begin with anyway! Excel is not the programme I use everyday but in the end I put together an excellent report if I say so myself.

What made my agonising even harder was we’ve been having brilliant sunshine recently…and I mean brilliant--clear blue skies and beautiful temperature. Absolutely smashing. And I am here at work toiling it out. Can you blame me for feeling a bit envious of the people on their holidays at the moment? I’d like to go out in my garden and do some planting. It is great to feel the sunshine against my skin. I am even wearing my sunnies again. I should start wearing my spring/summer clothes. A few more days and I’ll be on my Easter break. Wahey!!! No waking up at the crack of dawn. Spend time on my garden. I have new plans that I’d like to do in the garden like planting more climbers and hanging various potted annuals on the back fence. I can just see it now, the hanging gardens at Musbury!

So that is it as far as my work is concerned…I’ve finished my budget forecast, my business plan and the insurance budget for the whole organisation. I am finding it hard to concentrate now. I just want to go home.

Weed and reap it

I had a rather active weekend. I spent a lot of time in my garden weeding, clearing and pruning. Well I couldn’t help it because the temperature has gone milder and glory be, there was a ray of sunshine! Sam ran around the top garden while I was on my hands and knees weeding and pruning. Next week I have to feed the plants. It is the start of full on gardening season. We need to sort out the garage—a good job for our spring cleaning, go the Garden Centre to buy climbing plants for the back fence. I am looking for jasmine, clematis and honeysuckle. However, I think morning glory would look great as well. The back garden needs “softening” up with whimsical plants like climbers. It looks a bit “hard” at the moment. Hubby plans to install a water feature/fountain as well. It promises to be a sanctuary of sorts. I’ve always wanted a garden that I could enjoy in solitude. I am happiest when I am sitting outside on my swing with the sun shining and only the sound of nature to keep me company—and perhaps Sam and hubby. The birds are getting noisier by the day. I guess they’re busy nesting. I watch the sunset from our sitting room and I have such a hard time imagining that there are places in this world full of hate, evil and human misery. I count myself lucky and privileged to live this life. In its simplicity and routine it gives me a sense of stability and reassurance. Is that wrong? I have no idea but I wouldn’t have it any other way.