What We Did During Half Term, By The Phantom, Aged 47 and 1/3

The Spring weather led us to a picnic at Kew. Foodwise, the highlight was the homemade bread rolls stuffed with char siu pork and piccalilli, all home produced. (Photo's promised next time I make the char siu (barbecued) pork).

We lost ourselves in the green jungles of the Temperate House


























And enjoyed the Green Fugue of the Hemorocallis




















Later in the week we went to the RHS spring show in Vincent Square.

This English Elm bonsai is less than six inches tall, pot included.

























And back home Tigger did his impersonation of Ming the Merciless, quietly plotting world domination from the safety of our sofa...

Kew and A

Shadowy People: The Phantom and his Lady, plus crocuses. Kew Gardens. Monday.



Feeling Griddy: Low spring sunshine turns a bench into an op-art abstract.



Irridescence: Who needs a partridge up a tree, when you can have a Peacock.



Why Were They Here? Answer tomorrow...

Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3...

The good Mrs P and myself went round to see my Mother today. I hadn't seen her for a few weeks (I really didn't want to pass on my bugs to an eighty-year-old with a bad chest already). She looked and sounded much better than when I saw her last.

The weather was perfect; cool, and clear, blue skies with unbroken sunshine. We had come prepared with loppers, secateurs and gardening gloves, and gave my Mum's garden a thorough spring cleaning.

Getting home this evening our Visiting Cats arrived and joined us in the sitting room. We thought we would have a well-deserved treat and ordered a chinese take-away.

The meal was better than ever. We tried a few new dishes and they did not dissapoint.

They had popped a couple of fortune cookies in with our bag. After our meal I opened mine.

What cheerful thought did my cookie bring to round off a perfect day? I quote

"We are born crying, live complaining, and die disappointed."

Thanks for that...

Once again I must thank everyone who has been in touch and sent their best wishes. I think Monday just gone must have been rock bottom. I went to the Doctor in the morning, and nearly fainted on the way home. After all the stress my heart rhythmn started misbehaving. Nothing too serious, it settled back by the evening, but scary nonetheless…

I have the rest of this week to get my strength back. In a minute I am going to sit out in the spring sunshine; Tigger, our visiting cat, is patiently waiting for me to finish making my coffee and bring out the paper for him to sit on. (Only the Guardian will do.)

Hopefully normal service will now be resumed.

I can’t send a bunch of flowers to all my readers, but I can send you this, taken just now in our garden.





“To feel keenly the poetry of a morning's roses, one has to have just escaped from the claws of this vulture which we call sickness.” ~Henri Frederic Amiel

(And before you all leap in, I know, they're Pansies. Too early for roses!)

Spring is Springing

In our part of London last week was half-term, a chance for students and staff alike to gather their wits and strength for the exam season to come. I spent many (too many?) years as a student, and it is only recently that the thought of June has ceased to give my stomach a sick lurch. (Now working in the education world I can enjoy watching the discomfiture of others without the sleepless nights that always accompanied my exam build-up).

Last week passed too quickly, and today's back-to-work feeling is only just wearing off. It isn't that I dislike my work; just that being away from it for a week reminded me that I rather like not working. This is different from being unemployed. (Being unemployed is miserable. I should know. I had an enforced career change that left me jobless for a year and a half.) Not working means being able to play with the visiting cats rather than pushing them out through the door in the morning. It means being able to make bread for the next day's sandwiches, to be consumed with a flask of tea at Kew Gardens in the spring sunshine. It means having the time to print and frame some of the digital photographs you have taken.

Mind you, it also means tidying the bedroom and cleaning the oven out, but you cant win 'em all.

Tonight, after a week not a work, I really noticed that I was arriving home in daylight. Spring is definitely here now.