Wednesday 30 June 2010

twas on a Friday morning, the roof man came to call......

My beautiful courtyard looks like a bomb site! Builder bloke Gordon arrives to do a job for the neighbour`s window which overlooks my yard and while up aloft he takes grisly pictures of my roof with tiles missing and rotten timber. I am just leaving to go to stay with old friend B in Cornwall and he assures me he will sort the whole thing out while I am  away, `don`t worry Vicky Darling` he says `I`ll water your hanging baskets  as well, leave it all to me` I feel dubious but I leave to tackle the traffic jams on the M27.   I have just returned to a scene of utter desolation, even the cat is covered in dust.    I have no idea what is happening up on the roof, but I have always been afraid of climbing ladders even when I was young and nimble.  I just hope that Capability Jordan does not pop round, it would break his heart.  Gordon says it will be done by the weekend.  I do not believe him.
My bad back is miraculously cured. Was it the acupuncture administered by daughter J or was it sitting in a boiling hot car immobile in traffic for hours on  the M27, the A 303, or the A 30? Or the hard mattress on the bed in Cornwall?  Who knows, but I am now walking upright with a spring in my step.

Wednesday 23 June 2010

We enjoyed the Ditchling Fair (Tiger came to stay again) especially the three groups of Morris dancers, whirling and stamping, bosoms a-wobbling (there were lady Morris dancers as well as men) up and down the High Street, also there was a Jack and Jill race with buckets of water, and cake stalls and raffles. I won two inappropriate prizes, a bottle of whiskey and an electric razor, serve me right as an upright Quaker for gambling. There was a band and a parade with a Ditchling Queen and we could watch it all from my front room.  The next day it was the London to Brighton bike race and that also went past my house, it was like a swarm of angry wasps buzzing by, hundreds of them.  I was asked to a birthday party in the Brighton Pavillion and did not realise that all the roads around Brighton were hopelessly blocked so was very late, but enjoyed eating delicious food in oriental splendour.
I am getting interested in the football and felt very decadent watching in a darkened room all afternoon. But I have Bad Back so it was good to have an excuse for resting. Everyone gets bad backs from time to time but it is very annoying as I am walking around like the road signs that say Beware Elderly People though I have not yet resorted to a stick. J needles it regularly which helps.

Sunday 13 June 2010

Scarecrow surprises

All over Ditchling, the villagers are making scarecrows for the competition for Ditchling Fair which is next Saturday, Rapunzels, footballers,politicians rear up behind hedges in a most surprising way.  My back yard is still in the process of being transformed with great care by Jordan, so there is no space or time for scarecrows for me.  We drove all over Sussex buying exotic plants on Thursday and went to nurseries where it was a bit like walking through the Borneo jungle, none of the usual garden centres with smelly gift shops for us.  
On Friday night J, D and I  went to a play(?) in the old Co op building in Brighton (a huge empty department store reminiscent of Are You Being Served)   It was loosely linked to The Cherry Orchard by Checkov. I stumbled around, mostly in semi darkness up and down stairs, in dungeon like cellars with strange smells and visual images which were often disturbing even frightening and the short moment when you saw the cherry tree in blossom amongst all the desolation was so sad, I am still procesing the whole experience in my mind.
Yesterday I went to an all day writing workshop in the Unitarian Meeting House, it was lovely and inspirational, also yet another brilliant Bring and Share lunch.This group run a monthly poetry group called The Rattle Bag, sounds promising.

Monday 7 June 2010

Today I was invited to go to the Monday Club at the Unitarian Meeting House. Usually they have a speaker, sometimes an outing, but today it was either Scrabble or cards. Competition was keen at our table, and Reg, the ex village postman, was brilliant at adding up the score.  I felt quite decadent, playing scrabble in the middle of a Monday afternoon, and then eating delicious home made cakes and drinking copious cups of tea. I think I am going to enjoy being a retired OAP without responsibilities.   I have a very busy week ahead: a reading and book signing  from Jackie Kay,  who is launching her autobiography The Red Road, in a Brighton bookshop, a play in the old Co op building  also in Brighton called "Before I Sleep"  on Friday, and a writing workshop all day Saturday in the Quaker Meeting House.  And Jordan is still sawing away in my few square feet outside,creating a place for me to sit about in the sun, more decadence, I fear. 

Friday 4 June 2010

Capability Jordan

Jordan is landscaping my garden, or rather the few square yards of backyard behind my cottage. He has wonderful energy and is very neat and organised.  There is a skip outside which is causing even more congestion in the road than usual.  Today we have a miini cement mixer churning away.  I am just about to make a list of plants, and Jordan is doing the same, we will see what we come up with. It is very exciting. As he is working so hard I cannot just sit about reading the Guardian, and doing the crossword, or even working away on my computer as it makes me feel like the idle rich, so I am trying to look busy too.
Grand daughter M is staying, who is studying for her A levels, which start next week. She is doing mathematical squiggle at the table.  I am so impressed by the cleverness of my grand children.
We both went to see an Italian film last night in the Village Hall, (the monthly Ditchling Film Society)  :The Golden Gate, about Italian illiterate peasants sailing off as immigrants to America at the turn of the century, enduring terrible hardships,.  M and I are sort of still living in it today as it was such a powerful film. Baby Arthur and F are back here tonight so I am very family orientated at present. .