A Wet Summer

 It’s raining.  Again. July was a very wet month and coolish after the brief heatwave on June. And August is not looking promising. The garden is very lush. I have lots of tomatoes.  Green ones. Think I’ll need  to dig out the Green Tomato Chutney recipe. The wisteria seems confused by the weather and appears to be flowering now instead of in springtime. 

So what have I been up to since the last post at the end of June?   Well for the first two weeks of July,  I was busy with the Chester Mystery plays.  It really was a memorable experience being part of this community project which only happens every five years.  The  reviews were very good and I am proud to have played a small part in the success of the plays. Here are a few photographs taken at the dress rehearsal.  I appear in a few of them somewhere.

The rest of July was pretty quiet. I spent most of my time catching up on neglected housework and gardening tasks. Both Paul and I have July birthdays and this year his fell on a Saturday - a two performance day for me.  Kate came over for the weekend to help him celebrate though I did find time to make him a cake - a Cherry Bakewell which tasted good but looked terrible with slightly singed edges so didn’t take photo.  My birthday was midweek and a wet day so we didn’t do much - a walk in Delamere Forest, a visit to the market for a a couple mojitos and dinner at home cooked by Paul.  And I got nice presents. Here is the flower press Kate gave me and my first attempt at using it. 

We’ve seen quite a lot of Kate recently since she has finished her first year of teaching for the summer.  Instead of the Mediterranean holiday she and Calum had planned, she spent last week here. They had to cancel as they were due to go to Rhodes the week it was on fire.  Poor Kate - she’d been so looking forward to her holiday.  But they got their money back and have rebooked for Tenerife later on August,  and this weekend they’ve gone to Edinburgh for the fringe festival.  Certainly won’t be 40+ degrees there. I love having her around at home for shopping trips etc.  We also went to see the Barbie film last week - very funny, very clever. 

Some bad news in July which kind of spoiled the birthday celebrations. Our lovely doggie Alfie has been diagnosed with epilepsy.  He’s had four seizures in total, the last two separated only by a few weeks, and has now started medication which we hope will keep it under control.  He’s as lively as ever and it doesn’t take him too long to recover each time but still it is worrying.  We still haven’t got over losing our last dog so this has been upsetting. 

No holidays for us in August though we have booked a weekend away in Wales early September.  Let’s hope the weather improves by then. But I have booked another short writing course, also in Wales, to get me back on track with my writing project which has been rather neglected recently. It’s at the Ty Newydd Creative Writing Centre.  The house is the former home of David Lloyd George. Should be an interesting experience.

That’s it for now. Rain has actually stopped now so may venture out into the garden. 

June

So writing this in Chester Cathedral where I am backstage waiting to go on for my next appearance as Weeping Woman in the Chester Mystery Plays.  This is my view:

Rehearsals for the play have taken up a lot of time this month even though I only speak four lines in total.  It’s been good fun - I’ve met lots of interesting people and I like feeling part of the community. We even made Granada News.  You can find me in Noah’s Ark in this clip. Or actually as a piece of Noah’s Ark to be precise.

Otherwise life has been proceeding in the usual routine of dog walks and gardening, though at times it has been too hot for either.  I really don’t cope well with heat and bright sunshine and now I appear to have developed hay fever. I have never really had this problem before -  it’s a total nuisance especially when I want to be out in the garden. I take the antihistamine tablets but even ‘non-drowsy’ ones turn me into a zombie. And my fair skin reacts badly to sunshine so I’ve spent a fortune on specialist factor 50 creams to prevent the red blotches which appear on my face if I’m not careful. I’m quite happy that rain and cooler temperatures have returned. 

This imprssive seeded itself in this spot

We’ve had several rooms in the house repainted this month. There have been decisions to be made about paint colours. I’m not that adventurous choosing generally muted neutrals.  We made one mistake in Kate’s room, or her old room since she doesn’t really live here anymore.  I wanted to replace her blue and silver decor and chose a paint named ‘ivory’. It turned out to be more yellow than cream. Oh dear. Decided we couldn’t live with it so it’s now ‘natural calico’.  Someone must be employed somewhere to invent names for paint colours I suppose. The decorating is all finished now - just some light fittings to be installed. 

I had to miss some play rehearsals earlier the month as I’ve been on a couple of trips.  The first was right at the beginning of June when I persuaded Kate to come with me to the Hay on Wye Literature festival. I’ve always wanted to go to the Hay festival, a kind of Glastonbury for book lovers.  We didn’t camp though, thankfully, as it was pretty chilly when we were there with a brisk breeze blowing through the marquee complex.  The main reason we went was because I wanted to see Margaret Atwood speak.  She didn’t disappoint. Now in her eighties and a tiny figure on the stage, she was as witty and entertaining as ever. She didn’t do the book signing business though. Not surprising as she’s have been exhausted - the queues for other writers were long enough.  To keep Kate happy, I also booked tickets to see the comedian Tom Allen who was there because he has a book out about dealing with his father’s death.  Was worried he’d do a serious talk about the book and Kate would be disappointed- in fact it was a standard stand up routine. Very funny. 

Paul and I also eventually went on our trip to Paris which was postponed from January. We travelled by Eurostar as he hates flying and all was going well until we got to France. Then  the train stopped for two hours in rural Picardy because of a problem in the Gare du Nord. We had to cancel the restaurant we’d booked and didn’t get to our apartment until after 10pm.  Things improved after that and we had an enjoyable weekend with lots of nice food and wine, a bit of sightseeing though we had to look for shade as it was hot.  We went to the Musee D’Orsay, a very impressive building which was a former railway station with huge clocks at either end.  Paul was not terribly happy in there as it was fairly crowded.so I left him behind in main hall an explored by myself. 

That’s it for now. Still in the cathedral ‘Backstage though it’s now a whole day later. And we still have 18 performances to go. 

I chose these flowers for the garden because they are named Dianthus ‘Doris’

My rambling rose has a few flowers this year.  

May Blossom

 I’ve probably said it before, suspect if I checked,  I say it every year: May is my favourite month.  And in the last few days May has been at its peak of perfection. The wet spring has left everything so lush and green.  I quite like this kind of weather - it reminds me of home in Ireland.  We got absolutely drenched twice this week while out with the dog but still have had some lovely walks between the showers.  The Countess of Chester Park behind the local hospital is our nearest dog walking spot. There the fields are a sea of cow parsley bordered by hawthorn bushes with blossom so thick it is weighing down the branches.  And the cow parsley is taller than me.

Paul has just returned from a weekend in Scotland completing the Etape Caledonia, a bike event in Pitlochry,  so Kate has been here keep me company and assisting with dog walking. On Saturday morning we went to Loggerheads Country Park, thirty minutes drive away in North Wales.  There is a riverside walk through ancient woodland with rare wildflowers.  Apparently the one below is Herb Paris.  Loads of wild garlic too. There’s also a very good cafe there which serves generous slices of homemade cakes.  We shared a piece of coffee and walnut.

My garden too is green and about to explode into bloom.  The peony has eight promising looking buds, the oriental poppy many more and there are lots of self seeded foxgloves around.  I’m feeling quite proud of my garden. All the hard work of the last few years is eventually starting to pay off as things I planted are now established.  My new veg plot is also going well - we’ve eaten home grown rocket, spinach and Little Gem lettuce this week.

Since my last post we’ve had a holiday in Ireland - a week at the end of April touring Galway and Mayo and then up North to catch up with family.  I meant to blog about it when we returned but never got round to it.  So this is a kind of double post.  We stayed two nights in the Twelve Hotel just outside Galway which claims to be Ireland’s most ‘dog friendly’ hotel.  It certainly was - Alfie was treated like a prince with a special doggy welcome pack.  They also let us leave him in the room so we could go to the restaurant where we had the ‘tasting menu’, seven tiny courses which were delicious.  We explored the nearby Barna Woods, the Silver Strand beach and Salthill but never did make it into the city itself, deterred by traffic, roadworks etc. 

Paul’s photo of the beach in Barna at dusk. 

G

Alfie enjoyed Dog Beach. Another of Paul’s shots. As you can see he has superior skills…

and a better phone.

We moved on following the Wild Atlantic Way and then stopped at Dog Beach with its pure white sand. Not easy to find since it’s a conservation zone and in a Gaeltacht, an Irish speaking area,  which means all the signs are exclusively in Irish. Then we drove through the spectacular Connemara countryside. We had a lunch stop in Clifden and then on to Westport where we spent another couple of nights in a distinctly less luxurious B&B. It did have a glorious view over the harbour and a pub opposite serving good seafood. I noticed that several of the people running the expensive clothes shops in Westport harbour were English.  According to my sister, the West Coast is the new Cornwall with lots of holiday homes.  I’m not sure I like that idea at all. We didn’t climb Croagh Patrick, admiring it from a distance, and instead drove around the rugged landscape of Achill Island. We also visited Westport House and learned a bit about Grace O’Malley, the Irish Pirate Queen.  Not much though as we didn’t bother with the guided tour.  Did buy a book about her in the friendly independent bookshop later. I think the owner was also English.

Westport Town. My photograph this time.

Westport House. The clouds look ominous but we stayed dry for most of the week.

After that we drove north via Lough Erne back to Ballyronan, staying in a holiday home and catching up with cousins.  Lunches at  The Scullery cafe in my childhood home. Still feels very strange. I was happy to see the photograph of my parents on display in there. Then a final night with my  sister in Dromore before catching the ferry back from Dublin to Holyhead.  Travelling by ferry is much more relaxing than flying and, if you include the two hour recommended check-in to negotiate security and the inevitable delays,  doesn’t take much longer either. Not cheap though especially when we had to fork out for an ‘animal health certificate’ thanks to Brexit.  No one asked to see it.

Just sharing one final photograph.  We are not huge fans of royalty in our house but did go to a local street party on coronation day. This was mainly because wanted to enter Alfie in the Royal Pets Parade. He won  the award for the dog with the ‘waggiest’ tail.

Spring Break

During the Easter school holidays Kate and I spent a few days in Florence.  I’ve never been and recently have read several novels set there (‘Still Life’ by Sarah Winman, ‘The Marriage Portrait’ by Maggie O’Farrell and a reread of ‘A Room with a View’).  I was looking forward to seeing all the places described in the books. Florence is a beautiful city and we had glorious sunny weather even though it was a bit chilly. Here we are on the Ponte Vecchio. 

Of course it was very, very busy.  After I retired from teaching, I hoped to avoid travelling in school holidays.  I didn’t reckon on my most willing travelling companion becoming a teacher. I tried to avoid queues by booking in advance for some things but still there was a lot of standing around and dodging groups on guided tours. 

Kate is not especially keen on spending too much time in art galleries. So we didn’t linger too long in the Uffizi. The Birth of Venus was surrounded by hordes of people taking photos.  I was more interested in the portraits.  I liked the one of the surly looking teenager. And both of us responded strongly to one showing a man being beheaded by two very determined looking women.  It was ‘Judith slaying Holofernes’, by Artemisia Gentileschi.  The notes told us that he was a rapist and the artist was female. Not too many works by women in the gallery.  I read afterwards that this is likely to be a self portrait and that the artist had been assaulted as a young woman.

Reminds me of a rather reluctant student I used to teach

Kate not terribly impressed by Botticelli

She did, however, enjoy her bruschetta

To be honest, I’d rather be outside than in an art gallery.  The wisteria was out in Italy and the scent of this huge specimen was delicious. The one I planted last year is making slow progress up the pergola and has a few promising looking flower buds. 

On our second day in Florence, Kate and I visited the Pitti Palace.  Eleanor of Toledo, wife of Cosimo 1, di  Medici featured as a character in ‘The Marriage Portrait’ and I wanted to see the royal apartments and also an exhibition about her.  It seems she was quite a strong woman who had helped design the palace and gardens though she died before it was completed. The display included portraits of her, her husband and her many children by the artist Bronzino.  There was a one of a toddler of about 18 months holding a goldfinch, apparently a Christian symbol for this baby was destined to be a Cardinal at the age of 17. I couldn’t help wondering if the child posed for the picture with the goldfinch and what he would do with the poor creature if it were still alive. After the exhibition we explored the Boboli Gardens behind the palace.  Very impressive in a formal way, all clipped hedges and fountains - rather like Versailles, but sadly lacking in flowers. 

Another day we decided to get away from the crowds, travel to Fiesole like Lucy Honeychurch in ‘A Room with a View’ and find fields of violets.  The film was apparently shot in the gardens of Fattoria di Maiano so we booked tickets.  We never did get there, getting into a muddle with buses and then ending up, thanks to a dodgy online map, at the back wall of the huge estate - at least half an hour’s walk from the entrance. We gave up, travelled back on the bus and consoled ourselves with an ice cream. We did, however, climb up to Piazza Michelangelo at sunset one evening and enjoyed the view over the city.  Some grumpiness on that trip too as I dithered crossing the busy road and nearly got run over.  Italians seem to have a rather lax attitude to road safety. 

Back home now and pleased that spring has arrived in my own garden.  The first photo as taken on 10th March.  The others just over a month later.