Leechpool News

The top photo here is not as good as I imagined it would be. it shows the cut grass and sharp shadows and also I have included my recent prize for winning a crossword competition. A 12th edition Chambers Dictionary worth about £40. It must weigh about 5 Kgs!! I buy the Big Issue every week from a Romanian looking woman outside Waitrose. It was pouring with rain the other day so I had nothing else to do but the Soduku and the crossword. I've no idea what prompted me to post off my completed effort but I did. "Gob-Smacked" I was when the dictionary arrived. No mention about who it was from. No Congratulations. Just an invoice for £40 saying that I had nothing to pay.
I feel a bit guilty because for some of the answers I used the Internet Crossword Solver. You type in the number of letters then do blank A blank blank blank E blank C and it gives you a number of possible words. So it was still raining when I finished. The dictionary is huge and heavy. I don't really need it......because I have the internet. But it smells and feels lovely.
Anyway .....main reason for these photos......Moo-Moo should be here.....with her granddad! Playing in my garden. Smelling the flowers. Checking out the new chicks. Picking beans and lettuce.....and helping her granddad dig new potatoes and helping her granddad water the giant tomato plants.

Oh I wish I'd looked after my teeth!

The title here of this blog is taken from a poem by Pam Ayers.
"Oh I wish I'd looked after my teeth."
I'm not sure if I could have taken better care of them anyway.
Your teeth and eyes and everything else are inherited genetically.
So my poem would be titled "I wish I'd inherited better teeth!"
If you are of a squeemish disposition regarding this kind of subject
I would advise you to "look away now"
My top-right teeth are no longer with me. Receding gums and endless
infections saw the ultimate end of them.
I have a set of replacements aligned on a quite big plastic palate.
Which I cope with really well.
But to dispense with the plastic palate we need something else.
I'm going to have titanium bolts put into my upper gum.
They will have a kind of press-stud arrangement on them so that I can press on
a half horse-shoe attachment of artificial teeth (the same as I have now) but without

all the over-palate structure for support  and suction.
I joked with Simon my dentist, that he'd need a 6mm masonry drill with hammer action. I also laughed and recommended that he should  use a few pilot holes first, using gradually larger drills.
To my amazement he said that ( "hammer-action" to one side), that is exactly what he will be doing.
Once he's drilled the holes, he will then use a self-tapping screw to drive the bolt into my skull.

Paradise

This photo was taken 5 minutes ago in my front garden. If you live in Hong-Kong or some equally weather-abused place you would have no idea of the wind and the rain and the cold that we have suffered in what is supposed to be a tempreate climate area of maritime Western Europe, here in the last month or so. But just look at this picture!!! Things do survive!! Well maybe not the old oak down the road in Mathern. The storms did for that terminally.
But considering the bashing and bashing and bashing of the wind and the rain over the last three weeks I am quite amazed at how little I've lost. Things are resilient. I'll blog the veg plot soon. The Maris Peer new potatoes are just wonderful. Mint and a nip of butter......luckily I set loads.
Early broad beans are sweet and tender.

Human Kindness

I said recently that I might not Blog any more. It's just the disperate (not desperate) ramblings of someone maybe a little unhinged and incoherent but hey.............When I heard on Youtube recently a manifesto for kindness ....it set my mind scrambling as well as rambling. It's so obvious. It's so easy. Why not? What's the alternative? Yet any act of kindness can be immediately unravelled. You can put money into a charity bucket. You can send a donation to an earthquake disaster fund. You can Big-Up a total stranger. ...............but then...........what might you do?? Criticize a tax-dodger, condemn an expenses form presented by an MP, ..............Consider the Auschwitz supervisers, going home after a shift, popping some coins into a charity box. Or indeed doing something more positive like helping an old lady across the street. So what of this act of kindness??? It seems to me that kindness should be our only objective once we step out of bed in the morning.
Anything other ......need not be done. OK someone didn't let me into the line of traffic,  OK someone wanted to be negative, OK someone wanted to Bitch, someone wanted to complain, yeah!!!! Is that the norm?? Is that the best we can do??.....
We are here for a Good Time!!!
Not a long time!!!!!

My Kinda Girl

Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for a long time. The following extract is from her acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize.She gave it in Norway recently.
............................the lesson I have learnt on the value of kindness.........Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough kindness in our world. To be kind is to respond with sensitivity to human warmth........to the hope and needs of others. Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can change the lives of people..................
Her husband died of cancer in 1992. She has two sons.
She's my kinda girl....................and then some......................

From Drought to Deluge. Thank You God!!

This was the scene two weeks ago.

This is the scene this afternoon, with another weather front moving in and bashing all my plants both in flower beds and for sale. I might not do plants for sale next year. The agony of watering and watering as the water butts run empty, followed by days of seeing them drenched by torrents of rain which turn their leaves yellow and useless and the wind battering them senseless makes it a pretty futile task.

Anyway. Here is a pic of my Shirley F1 Hybrid tomato plants set to run in my little greenhouse.At the end there you can see two female cucumber plants. I have more set in my other greenhouse. Things under cover looking fine. Always click on images to enlarge.

Dewstow Gardens and Grottoes

The other day Nuch and I went for a drive round the local countryside. South Monmouthshire is just magical and wonderful. In fact all Monmouthshire is wonderful.......the Wye Valley being only one of it's many attractions. But we drove past the gateway to Dewstow Gardens and Grottoes. Nuch was recovering from an operation so we had to be careful. But we both agreed that we've got to check this out. We've just got to come back here. It's 10 minutes from Leechpool!!!!! So last week on a sunny day we went back.

We were totally knocked out. It was so lovely. It is not good for people remotely disabled because of the unsure footing around the underground grottoes, the flag-stones across water features and general difficulty underfoot. So no good for Dave for instance.

Which is a shame because the whole garden is a wonderland of surprise and beauty.

click on the images to enlarge.Yet it's 10 minutes from Leechpool. How amazing is that???

Foxy Chicks

Sharon at No 11 told me that they had Alpacas. Miniature Llamas that frightened off the foxes. Problem for me is that alpacas need so much space. So I have been researching what else might fight off foxes. Especially when you consider that my cockerell survived. He being quite big and aggressive. Research has led me to guinea fowl. Evidently they are quite feisty and create a huge rumpass when challenged which foxes don't like. Nuch and I go down to visit John Maltby next week and a guinea fowl breeder is just up the road from him.. So stand by folks. We might have a new flock any time soon which might include a couple of guinea fowl.

Chinese Tulip Tree

I am really nervous of losing my Chinese Tulip Tree tonight. Evolution is really the most Wonderful Show on Earth. Things evolve and evolve and evolve.....the slight mutations that occur receive beneficial or negative reception to the elements into which they are born. So trees that shed their leaves in winter, when the gales, storms and low temperatures prevail are more likely to survive than many who might not. A tree in full leaf, like my Tulip Tree is less likely to survive the full onslaught of 70 mph winds in June. Those winds usually occur in winter. Not June 7th. So I am standing by here tonight. The forecast is 60mph. That should just about do for it. We shall see.

More Happiness

I really can't speak for you. But what makes you Happy? I can't even begin to tell you the happiness my garden gives me every day!! When I wake up I am just buzzing with excitement at what I might find in the borders or in the green-houses.The colours, the shapes, the textures, the contrasts, the architecture.....just everything.....then of course each plant needs it's own environment, nutrition, habitat, etc so Boy is it a challenge!!! And Boy do I like the challenge!!! Come visit Eric's Piggery Garden!! Why don't yer? It's more lovely every year!!

The Pursuit of Happiness

I think it extraordinary and pretty amazing that something like the "pursuit of happiness" is built into a country's constitution. Of course we all find happiness in our own separate ways. Ted Bundy, the serial rapist and murderer found his happiness in raping and murdering young girls.The Dalai Lama by contrast finds his happiness in other ways. How do you go about your own pursuit of happiness on a daily basis? Life for many of us ain't exactly great and something a bit transient and ephemeral, like happiness, might not end up being high on one's agenda. I collect and crack jokes. I love to make someone laugh out loud. It gives me a real buzz when someone throws their head back and laughs at something I've said. A silly reason of course is that I think I am making someone Happy. Someone who is unhappy, for whatever reason, cannot be made happy by one of my silly jokes.
I would like to think it a positive thing in life to make someone else Happy. By a gesture of kindness. Or by telling them a joke. Net result. The same.
Today Keith and Celia came over in the pouring rain. I took them for pub-grub down the road and it was really lovely on many levels. They loved my garden even though it was soaking wet and they seemed to love some of my latest jokes......BUT....what I found very interesting was when I allowed Celia to go before me through a door that I held open for her. I was just doing my gentlemanly thing and I did it as we entered the pub and again when we left. Celia commented on it as we left and asked Keith why he was not so considerate. He just pushed open the door and walked through. What I found re-assuring here was the way this whole dialogue was handled. Celia being a little miffed at why such a minor courtesy could not be extended towards her
and Keith giving a little post-feminist sermon which was rather amusing. The whole episode ending up being just that! Rather amusing.
This could have gone bad. This could have pointed out to Celia just what an inconsiderate basterd Keith was. Keith could equally have been miffed at Celia calling him an inconsiderate bastard. But what was genuinely lovely was the way the whole episode was handled. The big point I want to make here is that Keith and Celia Love One Another!!! So episodes like this are explored in a loving environment where everyone keeps on seeking the Pursuit of Happiness. 

The First Time Ever

The first time

ever I saw your face

I thought the sun rose in your eyes.
And the moon and stars were the gifts you gave
To the dark and the empty skies, my love.
To the dark and the empty skies.

The first time ever I kissed your mouth
And felt your heart beat close to mine
Like the trembling heart of a captive bird
That was there at my command.......my love

That was there at my command
My Love

My Love

My Love

You Gotta Reap Just What You Sow

I've blogged "Reap What You Sow" before.
My total scepticism of the supernatural is probably well accepted now, by those who know and maybe care about me. But I just love Clapton's guitar playing on "Further on up the Road". It's kinda feral stuff. Intuitive, compulsive original and originating from some primordial soup that is just there, there to be taken, there to be given. I always thought that it was written by some old Blues legend. Sonny-Boy whats his name, or Leadbelly-jelly-roll-Morton or whoever. So I was quite surprised to find out that it's a Clapton composition. He doesn't write much stuff. He mainly interprets!

Further on up the road someone's gonna hurt you like you hurt me
Further on up the road someone's gonna hurt you like you hurt me
Further on up the road baby, just you wait and see.

You gotta reap just what you sow, that old saying is true
You gotta reap just what you sow, that old saying is true
Just like you mistreat someone, someone's gonna mistreat you.

Youv'e been laughing pretty baby, someday you're gonna be crying
You've been laughing pretty baby, someday you're gonna be crying
Further on up the road you'll find out I wasn't lying.

Check out Johnny Cash version of same title.
But written by Bruce Springsteen!! V Good and worth a listen.

Swimming Costume

Hey Blog-Fans!!!
Big cheer for Eric here.
My fitness centre here in Chepstow has kiddies swim-ware for sale in the entrance lobby. Every day I walked past and thought that would be great for Moo-Moo!! But how could I buy a child's swim-suit?
They would obviously think me a paedophile. So I asked Nuch to come with me and buy this cute stripey swim costume for Elodie. And we did. Moo-Moo is lucky to have so much stuff donated by friends and family. She has more clothes than you can shake a stick at. But here is the Moo!! Wearing the cossie that her granddad bought for her.
Hooray!!!!!
Love You
Moo-Moo!!
XXXXXXX