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The artichokes return
Last year I planted five artichokes. The yield was good but I decided not to grow them this year as I wasn't that keen on them, so I dug them all up. However, some must have escaped my attention because another crop grew this year. I've just made two batches of tasty soup with the ones I've dug up so far and, as I haven't been smitten with wind, think I shall let sleeping artichokes lie. I shall learn to live with them.
Thought for today
A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
Robert Frost
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All's well that ends well
My freezer is working normally (as it has been for the last nine years apart from eight months when it was in store). I learnt yesterday to avoid town on Sundays, to defrost the freezer more often, and to store less milk in it.
My next problem is to decide whether to buy another digital camera--the one I have is eight years old and I haven't used it for four years--and then, if I decide to buy one, what sort. The old camera still works but is larger than modern ones and uses smart media cards which, I think, are obsolete. My interest in digital cameras has been revived by my attending a U3A course in digital photography. The first session was this morning. There are about 32 in the group, and no one has the same camera.
I would like to take pictures on some of my walks. Leaves on trees are turning beautiful colours.
Thought for today
The messiness of experience, that may be what we mean by life.
Daniel J Boorstin, The Image, 1961
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Much ado about nothing
My freezer (nine years old) packed up today--or so I thought. I took out a cake to eat a slice for lunch and, thinking that the cake was not as cold as I expected, went to check the freezer. It was silent and its green light was out. I checked the socket and the fuse; both were OK. The contents were worth little more than £20 being milk, cheese, margarine, bread, broccoli and cake so wasting them was no great loss.
After lunch I drove to the nearest industrial estate to look in Comet and Currys for freezers. Fortunately the heavy rain had stopped. Unfortunately the car park was full. Cars queued on the slip road to the entrance; people waited to get in and people waited to get out. I drove straight past and returned home. Roads were full; pavements were full. Sundays are just as busy as Saturdays now.
I replaced the fuse in the plug and checked the freezer for the last time. To my surprise the motor came on. Perhaps it hadn't packed up after all. Maybe it just needed defrosting. So that's what I did--an emergency defrost. The contents I put in buckets and basins, covered them with newspaper and put them in the porch. The ice, there was a lot, I melted with an electric fan heater. Some of it, in spite of my precautions, went on the floor. I have yet to defrost a freezer without getting the floor wet.
The process took three hours from start to dry. I switched on the freezer; the motor started and the red light came on. Time will tell but so far it looks as if the defrosting has revived it; or else there was nothing wrong with it in the first place, and the full car park was a blessing. D'Oh.
Thought for today
He is always right who suspects that he is always making mistakes.
Spanish proverb
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A cold night
There was a frost last night, the first of the winter. My central heating is now turned on for the first time in about five months. What is there to look forward to? Next year, spring, summer, more vegetables. I have plans to do better than this year. I can look forward to doing better though might not necessarily be successful.
Watched the second episode of Wire in the Blood on telly last night. The hero, who is a bit of a pain, was drowned in his bath by the serial killer in the story. The female detective, investigating the murders, rushes to his rescue, drags his head out of the water and gives him a few cycles of CPR. This, miraculously, revives him. Both fall onto the floor; they lie there talking to each other and the episode ends.
Oh dear, another medical blunder. Someone drowned for at least five minutes would not recover as quickly as that, that is if they recovered at all.
Thought for today
It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty.
Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)
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Planting forever
I ordered 200 bulbs recently. They were a free offer; I had to pay only the postage. They arrived last week and I have yet to plant them; I have yet to decide where to plant them. There are ten different sorts including tulips, anemones, alliums. The others I've not come across before. They are all small bulbs so I could plant them in pots this year.
Today I planted forty-nine onion sets; there were fifty in the packet but one was mouldy. I hope the birds or the neighbours' cat don't dig them up. There will be daily onion inspection for the next two weeks.
Thought for today
Why would a Japanese package of coffee have the name Ease Your Bosoms? The answer, most certainly, is an inept rendering of the English phrase "Take a load off your chest."
Mark Abley, The Prodigal Tongue, 2008
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It's good to walk
Actually, it's good to be able to. I expect there'll come a time when I can't; the spirit might be willing but the body won't be.
I walked most of the morning and was glad to get home for my lunch. Next month I am to lead a RA walk so I recced the afternoon part. I went round my intended route without getting lost, something that would be an embarrassment on the day.
Another possible problem is that my route is more than my estimation of five miles. Some walkers have GPS systems and measure the route accurately. I measure it with a piece of string traced round a map. Some people complain if the walks are longer than advertised. I shall look for short cuts in case of slowness or bad weather.
Thought for today
Talking is the disease of age.
Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637) English playwright and poet
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Fresh air and exercise
Satisfaction is influenced by expectation. The walk today was better than expected because there was sun instead of rain. After half an hour we had to stop to shed our jackets. We walked only about nine miles stopping two thirds of the way round for lunch. Some ate in a pub, the rest ate by the bank of a river. It was peaceful. We forgot about the economic crisis and talked about vegetables, seeds, gardens and food. Walkers are keen on food.
Thought for today
Physically there is nothing to distinguish human society from the farmyard except that children are more troublesome and costly than chickens and women are not so completely enslaved as farm stock.
George Bernard Shaw, Getting Married, 1908
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