Lodgers

Bank Holiday Monday, and No rain!

2 years ago we had a wood burning stove fitted in our lounge. The first year we purchased a load of logs. That lasted us through the winter. Last year disaster struck and our water boiler broke down and after waiting over a month for the parts, we had to purchase a new water boiler so there goes the money for the wood. The water boiler also supplied the main source of our heating so we were burning pallets for Hubby's work place. We seamed to be asking anyone if they had wood to help us heat the house.

This year we have been inundated with offers of wood. So much so that we actually accepted at least 2 trees worth. This was being stored under plastic covering in what should be my vegetable patch.
Well today we had fine weather. So I went and pulled up some weeds while Hubby chopped some of the wood. As he was getting further down the pile, he spotted a Slow Worm.

It is a legless lizard and is endangered!

We knew we had them but thought that we had scared it off when we moved the compost heap last year. So I helped Hubby move the last of the wood carefully as not to squash the 1 that he sow. I found 1 and hubby says "the one I sow was darker than that one." Moved another bit of wood. found another 1. In total we have 5. 4 adults and one juvenile. One of the adults looks pregnant too.

So we have donated some of our logs to the slow worms. they now have a corner of the vegetable patch. We like Slow Worms as they eat spiders and slugs.

The Joys of a Farmers Market

On the last Saturday of the month there is a farmers market in our town. I have been there before but later in the day when most of the produce was gone, Before owning a dog that gets you out early.

Well today Lilly and I went there on the way back from our walk. There was so much nice stuff there. Various cuts of Pork Beef farmer a small vegetable stall and a cake and jam stall. yum!

I brought Lamb and Rosemary sausages, two small steak pies (one of the ladies at work buys them every month and has been raving about them. So I thought i would give them ago.) At the next stall there were the cakes so I got a Cider and sultana cake and some Lemon curd.

The best lemon curd i have tasted always comes from a market stall. It is best on fresh soft bread. So that is my breakfast sorted out for today. For Dinner i think sausages and mash with gravy and mint sauce.

Lilly

Everyday week day I get woken by the alarm clock, I pull myself out of bed and put on my dressing gown and go down stairs.

In the last 4 months I have be greeted by this:



It is so nice to be greeted with such excitement every morning. After I let her out to run up and down the garden a few times. I sit on the sofa trying to drink a cup of tea to wake me up properly, all the time having the use my free hand to stroke her. Can be a little tiresome but I don't mind as her coat is so soft. If I stop I get licked! yuk!

After a quick shower, I have to put some casual clothes on, because my friend is waiting for me to take her down the park.

My arm gets pulled out of the socket a few times on the way there but she stops and sits at the road side waiting for the command to cross. When we get to the park she sits and looks at me. "What?" I ask. She sniffs my pocket. You can not hide a tennis ball from her, even if you have forgotten where you have hidden it she will find it.

After a few throws of the ball she looks like this:

The tail never stops wagging. Even if I do not feel like walking her once I am out there I feel a lot better for it.


Thanks Lilly for always having a smile and a tennis ball ready for me.

Work Day

Like every other work day, it went really fast. I am lucky cos I enjoy my work. I am not sure I am all that good at it but I try my best. It is appraisal time of the year, when we all think about what we are going to be told, we could improve at. I have a list of how I could get better but I just wish that I had the time to do. I am also lucky that I work in a converted barn with view over fields with horses in. That was one of the reason I took the job.

One day i will learn how to put Photos on here and show you.

Different Lands

I have found out that a friend, she is going back home to America. I feel a little sad about this as all though we are not very close, I always thought that if we had lived in the same town we could have been. But her lack of transport and a combined lack of time, on both our parts, have meant that we have not spent a lot of time together. When ever we have spent time together has always been a good experience for me. I have always respected her as she moved over here to be with her husband (who is British), not knowing anybody and has tried very hard to settle here. But I think being away from her family as got to her. Good Luck M & S.

I have wondered for many years what it would be like to go and live in a foreign land, To live with their culture. So what has stopped me? Is it all the worries of being able to survive? Would I cope so well? Would I manage to learn the language? The feeling of be adrift, and not to ultimately, having your family to fall back on. I have also wondered if I had lived on mainland Europe would that have changed my view on travel and not made it so scary?

Mama Mia!

Last night I watched Mama Mia. Wow back to the good old days of musicals. It is not a patch on 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. The dancing was not so good and you did not get the feeling to jump out of your chair and dance round the room like a loony, but still enjoyable never the less.

Europes little Squables

Every day I sit and read the news from a a Greek website (I have Greek friends and want to keep up todate with what is happening there). Well today something really vexed me.

For those of you that don't know there are issues between Greece and FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia). The problem is the name "Macedonia", FYROM want to call themselve this but they boader on to an area of Greece that is also called Macedonia. So you can see Greece's problem with it. If they let FYROM call themselve this will they want the area in Greece to?

Will today I read that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice commented "The hope is that the name issue can be resolved very quickly now" and then said that the dispute between the two countries "should not get in the way of the admission of Macedonia to NATO"

Does she not know that Macedonia is already a part of NATO as it is an state in Greece!