Jet Stream

Forced inside by more inclement weather I am renovating two old garden benches that the previous owner left behind. My tool shed hasn't got a big enough bench so my potting table in the summer-house is ideal.

New Hens

The new hens have settled in really well. They are only 20 or maybe 22 weeks old, which is really young for egg-layers. It's a sure sign that they are happy and content and well fed and watered. The eggs are small now but the more they lay the bigger they'll get. The shells are quite hard...which I'm told is a good sign. It means the diet is good. Plenty of vitamins and nutririon. The yolks are orange rather than yellow.

Cloud

I love sitting on my new patio in the early mornings with my coffee and Kathleen Jaimie, my new girl-friend. This morning I have been watching the most stunningly back-lit cloud. I wish I had taken a photo. There has been a heavy overnight dew and on my grass sparkling in the morning sunshine has thousands of tiny spiders webs. Each the size of a rich-tea biscuit. All spaced out. Out of speaking distance from one another.

Secret Garden

I can't remember if I blogged about these pavers before. The builders who built my piggery always seem to be in touch somehow. Whenever they drive past they either wave or pop in for tea; or I see them in Caldicot, Tesco or wherever. Anyway I jokingly asked them if they would like to lay some pavers for me, I couldn't afford it, but they were looking at what I'd done in my garden; but when they found out that it was the big 90's x 60's they said No Way!!! Back-Breakers we don't go near them. Ta Ta!! They new that I like chunky and big stuff....Fred Flinstone meets Freddie Flintoff!!  So next day they arrive with a truck with a hoist and off-load two pallets of 90 x 60's. I never found out which job they came from but they said "There's no way we're laying these buggers, you can have them". No idea why they couldn't be returned for credit note. Asked no questions, told no lies.

So this week I started laying them for my new Tranquil Garden east of the summerhouse. There are no drawn plans. It's all in my head.

Hong Kong Cough

One man's fresh air can be another man's hay fever but I reckon that Moo-Moo should be here in Leechpool now; harvesting the crops, feeding the chookies and breathing this fabulous fresh air. Just look at the Cotswold Edge across the river there.The field's had it's hay cut, I got new potatoes, runner beans, lettuce cabbage and all sorts.....in fact I don't really know what to do with the millions of courgettes that I have this year. Nuch was going to do ratatouille.But she's had to go off to Thailand.

So two photos here from the end of my garden this evening. Boy am I lucky to live here!!!

ericsgarden

Click on image to enlarge.
You can't see from this angle the different flower beds in my front garden.

Selling Flowers

I know its ridiculous to quit now. Because it's bound to be a perfect sunny summer next year. After the shambles and shit of this summer it is highly improbable that it can be repeated next year. But I'm not taking the risk. I worked so hard this year. Potting up plant after plant for days on end. Protecting them from frost in my greenhouse and summerhouse for as long as I could. Taking them out, bringing them in. Putting them out, bringing them in. But then once put outside they were greeted by hail and wind and wet and cold. All the geranium leaves just went red with no sun and warmth to sustain them. The pansies went rotten with water saturation and the petunias just got beaten ragged by the wind. I will not put myself through the trauma of this year again.
I am trashing all the wooden benches I made.
I wouldn't have lasted five minutes in the wild west would I?
If at first you don't succeed.
Then sky-diving is probably not for you.

Nuch's Dad

Nuch's Dad died this morning in Chiang Sehn Hospital where he was admitted yesterday suffering from tuberculosis. He had lost a lot of weight over the last few years and was only 63. Nuch received the news on the phone here in Leechpool and to see her usually smiley happy face crumple with grief was truly heart rending. It's obviously come as quite a shock and she is devastated.She's booked flights here and she'll fly out tonight with her daughter Natasha. She's beating herself up for not phoning him more regularly and not realising just how ill he had become. It's just awful to live so far away from your family and she is distraught that she will never see her lovely Dad ever again. These dark days that you know must inevitably come and you try not to think about them. As she drove out of my gate she lowered her passenger window and said to me "Friday the 13th".

My New Mate at the Gym

I have blogged about my new mucker at the gym. His name is Ian, ex RAF and he re-trained as a maths teacher in Bristol after his service years. Every morning we are in the gym any time between 7 and 8pm. We go into the Easy=Line Gym and basically we are in there on our own. All the other psychos are on the cross-trainers or pumping iron while Ian and I work the Easy=line machines. He does the step therapy holding weights in his hands and I do ab-crunching stuff on the mats or spin-bike or leg work. I might have mentioned before that we both crack jokes; but I treat him as my therapist and ask his advice on all sorts of issues. The moustache, by the way, isn't real. He did a murder/mystery evening where he was the murderer and the photo was from that evening. We really enjoy one another's company. We have discussed, analysed and cross-analysed the culture of the Western/ Cowboy TV and Cinema at considerable length.I never imagined that I could do that. Both of us can recite passages, episodes, jokes, quotes from the Goons, Hancock, Les Dawson, Abbot and Costello, Dave Allen, Woody Allen, Tommy Cooper, Fawlty Towers, etc etc etc and it's amazing how he will say something which triggers a comic memory of mine and then vice versa. Most of the jokes are pretty rude. So I will spare you from them here.

Gym every morning

A strange thing happened today.
Every day I go to the gym here at Chepstow Leisure Centre.
Me and this other guy are there every morning.
His name is Ian.
He's 69
ex RAF
Other guys come and go
But we're there every morning

he has become my new soul-mate.
We are both Total Atheists!!
We talk about everything.
No subject taboo!!

Other guys enter the gym
and join in our discussions.
We're all working out
but Ian and I
just can't help introducing
all kinds of crazy shit
to pass the time
and make people think!!!

Mainly it's one-line-gags.
OK
Stupid I know
But crazy as it seems
........................
it's become a little like
doing crossword puzzles.

When you get to my age
you have a back catalogue
of stupid jokes collected over
the 60 years or so

Lucky for me I can still
remember jokes told to me
over 50 years ago!!

and Boy it's great now
to have this wonderful new naive
audience that haven't heard any
of it.

Anyway
There has been this guy called Andrew

He's ex-army
electrical engineer with British Rail
Couple of times a week

Extremely fit
Comes in and pumps iron
does the Easy-Lines machines
and Spin-Bikes

Chats to me and Ian

and today he came up to us
and said he's leaving.
We knew he was moving house
We had heard about all the stress
about exchanging contracts etc

Ian knew him better than I did
but as he drove away from the gym
for the last time
that morning
he saw me in my car
driving in

So he turned around and drove back in.
He said to Ian and me
that he would really miss our morning chats