Key Crises

Today is not the 13th for no reason. I know that it is not a Friday, but it might very well have been.

It all started off well – unless you ignore the fact that it was drizzling, so the house rendering came to a halt. Still, that aside, I went out this morning to walk some dogs and feed a cat, did a little shopping and took Bracken to the park. Despite the weather, it was a lovely relaxing morning. The dog roses in the park are blooming, casting their beautiful fragrance like a cloak, their gorgeous white and pink flowers dancing above the foliage.

Early afternoon, I decided to go and post a letter, and it was this seemingly simple decision which proved to be my undoing. You know when you realise you have done something stupid at the exact moment you do that stupid thing but you just can’t stop yourself? Well, the second I closed the front door I realised that I was not holding my keys. not only that, but I did not have my mobile phone. Clever or what!

After walking to the post box, well that had been the intention, I knocked on my neighbours door for help. We tried to find my brothers’ work telephone number and I left a message explaining that I had locked myself out and that I would walk to my Mum’s and wait there. Mum is on holiday so was no help at all. Two hours later, my brother got home from work to find me bedraggled, cold and fed up, desperate for a coffee and the loo (but not in that order) with a confused Bracken who could not work out why we were not going in to the house, standing on the doorstep. Not my finest hour!

To add to my key related woes, a client popped her keys through the wrong door, so I had to wait until early evening until I was able to retrieve them and go and feed her cat. Ah well, in the words of Scarlett O’Hara, tomorrow is another day.

 

 

 

Some Holiday

I have a week off from the day job so I am relaxing, chilling, doing nothing. I wish! No, what I am doing is trying to sort out the house, and thinking quite a bit about how I can give my soap business a boost and the two go hand in hand.

If you came to visit, you would see boxes in every room in the house. There is not a free corner, shelf or empty space anywhere and it is driving me to distraction. I think that the clutter is having a negative emotional effect by making it hard to think. The house is cluttered and my brain is cluttered as a result. I find it hard to think straight and to make a sensible decision. Having to step over and around boxes to walk from one side of the room to the other is annoying in the extreme, and it makes the detestable housework, not my forte,  harder and even more un-likeable.

So, a week or so ago, I made a decision (and why I have not thought of this before is beyond me). I decided that I would get rid of the bed in the spare room and install shelves instead. This should give me plenty of space to store everything, and allow room for my soap to cure. Shelves will be labelled and I may even be able to find things. You would not believe how much time I have wasted ferreting through boxes looking for things I know I have, but can’t find. Earlier today, I telephoned a local animal rescue shelter who also have a furniture shop to see if they would take it. I will have to make arrangements for the mattress to be removed separately, but with luck they will be gone soon and I can really set to work and oddly I can’t wait.

I am half way through my week off and, as usual, it is flying by. The weather is not playing ball, although the rain forecast for today has not yet appeared. My house is being re-rendered so I would be happy if the rain stayed away so the men could finish the job. Once the internal walls have dried out, I will be able to decorate. You never know at some point soon I may just manage to not only reclaim the house, but have it nicely decorated. Watch this space.

Two Months In.

I took Bracken to the park this morning.  The edges of the paths were awash with bluebells, cowslips, ferns and nettles, the boughs of the Hawthorne trees drooping under the weight of the May blossom.  It was beautiful. It has been such a long, long winter but what a joy to see the trees finally springing in to life.

We have had a few of days of sunshine, and temperatures are improving and none too soon for my liking. I have a week off soon, and I am hoping that the weather stays good for it.

It has been two months since I collected Bracken, and she has settled in remarkably well. The cats are still not terribly impressed but are tolerating her, and she is not chasing them so an uneasy peace reigns. She does try to get them to play with her, which she has failed miserably to do, and it is funny to watch her try to goad them into some kind of reaction.

When I go out, I stick Bracken in the car and she is as happy as a pig in clover, watching the world race past or curling up on the seat and going to sleep. She has been to the pet shop and the post office, loves to meet people as long as they don’t come too close too quickly. She is an absolute angel at the fairs I have gone to, settling down to sleep once she has checked to see if everyong is behaving themselves.

The one thing she does which I wish she would stop, is raid the cat litter trays and eat the contents.  Not her most endearing habit.

Bracken

Bracken

There is a new family member. Last Saturday, I went to a rescue centre in Wales and collected a dog.

Bracken is a year-old female Border Collie who has decided that she does not want to work with sheep. As a result, she was taken with her sister to the vet to be put to sleep. Thankfully the vet had more sense, and contacted the rescue centre where they were taken to be re-homed.

Although I had seen a photograph of her, I did not have much of an idea what to expect. The shelter staff disappeared and came back with a small, shy, pretty tri-coloured collie called Lady. At that point, I had not made up my mind about whether or not I was going to get a dog, but as soon as I looked at her, I knew, she was mine. We popped her in the car and drove the 2 1/2 hours home.

She was such a good girl in the car, only getting restless about 20 minutes from home, and sat watching the world go by, her ears flopping up and down when she saw something interesting. Boy, did she stink though and when we got home, after a short walk, I popped her in the bath. This is a little dog who has been through who knows what, and she let me pick her up and bath her such is her trusting nature. Over the last few days, she has been introduced to other family dogs, and the dogs who make sure everyone at work is pulling their weight, she has been happy to sit in the car while I duck into the supermarket, or go and visit a pet sitting client and she has had another bath today (still a little on the stinky side). She is a happy little thing who takes everything in her stride, is phased by nothing and just happy to spend time with me, or indeed anyone who is babysitting.

What I found “funny” was the emotional connection I felt when I saw her. Granted, I am an animal lover but I do not get attached to every one I meet. Yet, as soon as I saw this little girl, I felt my heartstrings yanked and I was not walking away without her. It felt so right, and so far so good.

I am waiting for the warm weather – assuming it arrives at some point – so that we can go out and about and enjoy the great outdoors.

Almost Spring Cleaning.

It is funny how if I have not blogged for a little while I miss it. The trouble is that I don’t always have anything to say, or perhaps I never do depending on your outlook. It is not like I lead the most exciting life where things happen on a regular basis. Mostly, I get up, go to work and come home again.

Last weekend, and I know this will be a shock to most who know me, I started to Spring clean. When I say that, I mean that I dusted off the vacuum cleaner and moved a few things about. I now have a tonne of cardboard in the boot of the car to take to the tip.

I am not the tidiest person in the universe, but even I get to the point when the house drives me to distraction and I don’t think that there is anything that can be done with it so why bother. A self-perpetuating problem. I think that it affects my mental capacity, my ability to function properly and I feel overwhelmed by my environment. A house should be a sanctuary, and mine is not. There is so much that needs to be done to it, that I have got to the point where I no longer like it much. There is “stuff” everywhere and I think it clutters my brain. Trouble is that I run a business from home and everything that is in it, is used. Practically every room in the house has business related boxes in, a necessity as there is very little storage in the house.

If I am going to grow my business, and perhaps have it pay me, I really do have to get a little more organised. I must waste a huge amount of time ferreting around looking for things and not finding them until two days later by which time I have forgotten what I wanted them for. I have a cupboard which used to house the hot water tank, and which became free when I had a new central heating boiler installed. It is quite capacious and crying out to house all my business related bits and pieces, but needs quite a lot of work. I need to try to save up my pennies to get someone to come and sort it out for me. Then, with luck, I can reclaim a large portion of my house.

In the meantime, I will continue to almost Spring clean and see where that get me.

My Friend Flicker and other things.

There has, over the last few weeks, been much talk about meat. Beef appears to have morphed into horse meat, and horse DNA has been found in products it has no right to be in.  Although the problem first appeared in Ireland, this is now a Europe-wide issue with various companies, in various countries all pointing the finger at each other, denying all knowledge and using the ignorance defense.

As a vegetarian for the last 20 years or so, this would appear to have nothing to do with me, and I have seen quotes from other veggies on Twitter saying in effect “I’m ok Jack, I don’t eat meat”. I think though, that they are missing the point. This has the potential to affect everyone whether they eat meat or not, and to be incredibly damaging both to the food industry and to farming, not just in the UK but throughout Europe.

The big issue here is whether we can, in fact, believe the labels on the foods we buy, and I am not just talking about meat products. Can we trust that the organic, free range eggs we buy are not in fact non-organic battery eggs, or that the vegetarian cheese is really made with vegetarian rennet? Is the coffee or tea we buy really Fair Trade, and is that bottled water truly from a sparkling, virgin spring or has it come out of a tap? Eau de Thames anyone?

The short answer is that we have no idea, and that we need to start thinking more about what we eat and where it comes from. Perhaps, this will be the turning point and more people will start to cook from scratch. Baking in this country has, thanks to Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, had a bit of a renaissance and making bread, cakes and biscuits is not difficult, so perhaps making rather than buying is a better option; fruit and vegetables can be grown in fairly small spaces or bought from a greengrocers; and there are still butchers, fishmongers and delicatessens to be had if you look hard enough.

Back to basics, is not a phrase I particularly like, but I think that it is apt at the moment. Supermarkets are a great resource if you have no time and want one-stop shopping. You can get everything under one roof, parking is generally easy and they are open long hours, but do they need all our business?

Whatever happened to shopping at and supporting your local highstreet? Is it any wonder that they are dying, and independent shops are struggling to survive when we don’t use them?  Shopping local does not necessarily mean paying more. Have you compared the fruit and vegetable prices in your local greengrocer, or asked them if they can get a particular vegetable for you? They can offer a service that the supermarket cannot and will source rare fruit and vegetables if asked. Your butcher or fish monger will prepare your meat or fish for you, which most supermarkets cannot or will not do. There will also be traceability when it comes to where your meat and fish is sourced, particularly if you find a butcher who sells local produce.

It is time to stop and think, and make decisions about what we eat and where the food comes from.

Looking Forward

The days are finally getting longer and with that, we have had snow. Last weekend and this, there has been a serious sprinkling of the white stuff that causes the country to grind to a halt, schools to shut and transport to stop running. How is it that other countries manage to keep things moving? I don’t remember schools closing because of snow when I was a child. Have we become such a wrapped-in-cotton-wool nation that we can’t walk to school in case we happen to slip? The “Safety Elf” has a great deal to answer for. If anyone had the notion to invade, now would be the time to do it. We would be completely helpless. We really do not seem able to cope with the simplest things – a leaf on the line, too much rain or not enough, nothing seems to be right and nothing, absolutely nothing can be done without deferring to ‘Elf and Safety!

With days getting longer, hopefully warmer weather will not be far behind. We can shed the layers which make us look like the Michelin Man and opt for lighter fabrics, windows can be opened without the risk of hypothermia, and walking dogs becomes less of a chore and more of a joy, although of course the dogs don’t really care what the weather is like, and the muddier the better.

Summer holiday plans are being made, although not for me. My busiest pet sitting period is during the summer. If I do go anywhere it tends to be off-season. What I look forward to in the summer, is dining al-fresco. Lots of lovely salads and fruits filled with the essence of the season. I became particularly keen on the salads I ate in Jordan a couple of years ago. They grow the most gorgeous tomatoes in the Wadi Rum region, along with other salad stuff all of which is fabulous and fresh. A typical lunch: Hummus, Baba Ganoush, Mutabel, Fattoush, Tabouleh and often a deep fried cheese pastry and plenty of fresh fruit and that is just for starters. Why does a simple salad taste so much better in the sunshine?