Jenny McIntyre's favorite articles

The fog which has been hanging around for 2 days is finally lifting,yesterday was a real pea souper and very damp and clingy. We may even see a little sun later. Today I was off to see mother and for a surprise I took Gemma,Arron and Mia with me which of course delighted the old girl. We just needed Stephen or Ellen there to complete the 5 generations,but a least we are the prettiest. Excuse the photo quality Arron is no David Bailey

It was a lovely sunny morning,the perfect weather for finishing off the killing of the gooseberry bushes. I donned my armour and after a careful check for signs of Hedgy started on the remaining two bushes.With a break in between I managed to clear them. I raked up all the debris and then checked around the side of the house for any signs of Hedgy's new abode. I think I have found it,there appears to be a tunnel leading along the big mound of soil to the corner of the house and very faint sig…

A busy day today. The morning was pleasant enoughy so needing to go to Wilko's as well as Morrison's and B&M I set off early and strolled over. Rapid service in the first two shops and also in B&M I noticed 50 fat balls for £3:99 which is £1:05 cheaper than morrison's so I picked them up and with the quid saved bought a two litre bag of bird seed,a good deal. Being early I decided to stroll home again. The fat balls weighed 4 kilo's and the back pack only weighted around twice that so I had no…

I had a little shopping to do and when I returned Zazzles had to stick his head in to check the contents. Milk was the last item out and in the time it took me to put it in the fridge just behind me Zazzles had vanished into the bag. I grabbed my camera to take a snap and of course Zazzles being the poser he is had sat up for his photo. I managed to get rid of some more of the garden rubbish today and the Wheelie bin is full again. I will start work on the remaining bushesin the next day or so…

ON tuesday night,a rare warm one Zazzles appeared and vanished at great speed into the kithen clutching a mouse in his mouth,I folled and caught up with him just as he dropped it.I grabbed him and locked him in the living room before he could pounce again. Then I was on a mouse hunt,I found him,a little field mouse cowering in a corner. I picked him up and on examining him found no injuries so checking the garden was a cat free zone I released him into the long grass behind the remaining Gooseb…

This is what happened when I left my recliner to make a brew . This is what happened when I pulled the dead flowers from this planter but left in the compost. This is what life is like in Cattown Weather report this morning,the forecasters got it right the rain is hammering down which is a bit of a bugger after the good weather I have enjoyed since returning from Jenny's. Still I do feel a little smug because I have the garden all trimmed and looking half tidy.

Dumping Fred © Fran C 2007 Recently I noticed that I was being followed, I’ll call him Fred. A few times I went out to my car and Fred was lurking there. My son was afraid of him, but he just irritated me. Some mornings he’d be there, waiting, other mornings he was nowhere in sight. I noticed that once or twice last week he followed me to my son’s school, and then to work. When I finished work, he was still there! He never seemed to get tired or bored of waiting for me. On Wednesday, my s…

On Saturday, on a whim, I decided to make some cherry jam. A couple of supermarkets are selling them at a reduced cost, and I (used to) love making jam, marmalade, chutney… Anyway, I got everything ready which took an age! You try stoning over a kg of cherries lol. The jam was bubbling away but showed no sign of reaching setting point. I used to have a jam thermometer, but I followed the instructions for it one time, followed them to the letter, and the damn thing went ping when it touched the j…

Is a question we get asked,well it's not earth shattering. Jenny kicked off with a report about the shopping she had delivered,shopping is always a good subject for us with bargains to discuss. This led on to cooking and a little of how I learned to make more varied meals than the standard fare. Recipes brought Ceefax to mind for Jenny and finding recipes on it. This then lead to copying recipes for friends which had to be done on a typewriter with carbon paper. Jenny said the girls used to pu…

On Wednesday I felt compelled to apologise most of the day for problems that were not of my making. I was on our other campus for candidate exams and apologised that the room we were in was in a state of being half painted. I kept the door open as long as I could to dispel the stink of paint. I then apologised that a server we needed was down. This wasn’t our server so it was completely out of my control but candidates had to complete a paper exam rather than a computer based one. I was given ‘d…

An absolutely glorious day today with the temps in my little sun trap of a garden reaching a dizzy 84f and believe me that is hot for hereabouts. The humidity was down to 35% so it was very pleasant and I spent a lot of time outside. If that wasn't good enough I got even better news Gemma and baby Mia Lilly are home. Ellen and my self high tailed it round there for a look see and a hold of the tiny mite. She slept throughout the visit of course. Mother and baby are both doing fine and Gemma is…

My granddaughter Gemma has given birth to a little girl weighing in at 5lb 10oz and both are healthy. Not a bad weight considering she is 5 or 6 weeks early. So now I really am an oldie being a great granddad

Tomorrow is Mothering Sunday despite the commercial trade trying to spice it up and call it Mother's Day as in the US. Tomorrow is a bad day to get to my mother's for me with hourly buses and a 30 minute wait between them which would make the trip around 2 hours. I went today instead and took her some roses. I caught the bus from here that gets me to within one mile of her place and walked the rest of the way. We had a good chat and caught up with the family news before I left to come home. F…

I am eating alone today so decided to make myself something that Ellen doesn't like. I settled on Tika Masala something I have never tried from scratch and I didn't know the ingredients of. There are a few versions of course and I chose the one I fancied and set to. There were a couple of spices I didn't have and one I have never even heard of. The opening line of the method of cooking had my attention,it read Sauté chicken pieces in 3 tablespoons of butter for 10 minutes,not a meal for the di…

After a most harsh winter, it is a joy to see the snow melting and hear birds chirping, busy preparing for mating season! Now for the flowers to arrive! At least I have a beautiful botanical garden to go to for early color; my last trip yielded a few good images. And then there are the very beautiful photographs of friends like you that I can enjoy so much! It's like drinking water after a severe drought! Keep those wonderful pictures coming, I love them so much! Happy Spring! :-))

After the good weather yesterday morning things got worse. The rain set in and continued overnight. When I looked out this morning the rain was still hammering down, one of the little clumps of dafodils was standing in water halfway up the stems and the large container had water lapping around the bottom even though I had it on a couple of battens. I moved the container to higher ground and forked all the patches that were flooded to give the water a chance of draining. The water table is high h…

I have read many books about early man from the signs of Neolithic man on this tiny island with the finds of flint tools displayed in our local museum to most of the known planet. There was one glaring gap in my search for knowledge and that is what we now call North America. Everything I have read before only goes back to the European settlers and their view of things so I set about to rectify this and found a book with the byline A 20,000 year history of the American Indian. This seems t…

A cold cloudy day here not the weather for strolling around.I had a decision to make, to go shopping today or tomorrow. As I was mulling over this I heard Ellen clattering around in the kitchen so peeped in to find she was preparing to have a clean up. That was enough for me I layered up and set off. Ellen attacked the floor with a mop and cleaned all the surfaces. Not only that she also cleaned down the stairs. When Ellen is on a cleaning spree she is like a whirlwind so I imagine the cats also…

Hooray Door fixed at last,see previous blog HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my dearest friend Jenny

Cabined up today with driving rain making life unpleasant. All quiet after the turn of the year but things will liven up soon I hope. here is the first photo from the Trees one per week album organised by Janet. This week the subject is one tree so here is a fallen giant laying beside lake Windermere