What A Wonderful Wet Weekend

It's been so wet over the last few days, that I just wanted to start this post with a little brightness. One of the small but growing collection of orchids now giving a second flowering. This Phalaenopsis has a cluster of twelve blooms this year, quite the show off!

The week has been somewhat tricky because of the adverse weather. Some work has had to be cancelled, some postponed, and some particular jobs adjusted a little due to the backlog. It's always a difficult decision to have to cancel or postpone work. Although pretty much all of our customers are rather amazing, kind, understanding and tolerant, I hate having to phone with the news that they will now have to wait up to another week for their visit. We are going into next week five properties down, and so must slot them in somewhere, and not sure where yet.

Yesterday, Saturday, and I did have a large conifer hedge to be trimmed, scheduled in for the morning. We woke to heavy rain, which didn't really clear enough to make it safe to do. A wet ladder, wet conifers, pond on the hedge line and greenhouse at one end were all a recipe for disaster. Couple that with rain on the spark plug of the trimmer, which occasionally transfers the spark shock to oneself, and the HSE would close me down if they got news of any attempt on the hedge, and so a phone call to the lady concerned, and the job is now moved to Wednesday evening. As a result of all of this, we headed over to Christchurch, and a little toy shop, so that we could get a gift for grand daughter Ellas birthday on Monday. By the time we left the shop, it was mid afternoon, and so after a quick drink in the Porterhouse, we made our way home, whereupon I had the exciting task of making a new set of COSHH safety assessment sheets for the various chemicals and pesticides that I have to store or carry, in readiness for any random government inspection.

The forecast for the night is that it's going to be incredibly windy and wet, and so a quick securing of anything loose in the garden is done before dark falls. And yes, it's still raining!

Today, Sunday, and after an horrendous and stormy night, we awake to howling winds and lashing rain. The morning was lovely, as we took Ellas present over, and chatted with Claire for a while over a cup of tea, and the rest of the day was going to be long and very, very lazy. A vegetarian roast dinner was on the menu, and we shared the duties of preparing the vegetables. Both firm believers in recycling everything we can, all vegetable peelings and waste go into our little worktop bin, and when that's full, it all gets transferred to a large container outside, ready for the allotment compost heap.

As well as roast parsnips, potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes and fennel, we were having kale, peas, yorkshire pudding, bread sauce, cauliflower and mashed swede & carrot...oh, and the nut roast, all topped off with lashings of gravy and a good Chianti.

 

We very rarely have such a feast nowadays, but when we do, we do it big time and make it count.

What with the cold, wet and windy weather outside, and the heat of the kitchen, things started to steam up.

 

And steam up.....but the allotment seedlings loved it.

 

We had also decided to get the television out and have an old movie double bill after dinner, and first on was 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof', with Paul Newman & Elizabeth Taylor. Quite a dark film, with Ms Taylor giving an amazing performance.

 

Afterwards we needed a coffee break, and got the Scrabble out, to play a game whilst we sipped. Usually Amanda beats me at this, and I enter each new 'tournament' with a defeatist attitude. This time however, the victory cup was mine, but I took the win with quiet dignity.

As you can see!

 

By now it was well into the evening, and so with wine glasses refreshed, we settled into the second classic of the day, 'To Catch A Thief', with Cary Grant & Grace Kelly. We don't watch television as such, but do have a large collection of these brilliant old time greats. Proper movies with story lines, acting, men and women, and no gratuitous sex and violence. Don't get me wrong, some of them do have both, but the film is made in such a way that ones imagination is the key, as opposed to todays films where it is the norm to have graphic scenes of bodies being mutilated thrust into your face while popcorn is munched.

Now it's late, tomorrow promises to be dry at least, and so maybe we can get some more work done. For now, it's off to bed.....nighty night fellow bloggers.