Tuesday 24 March 2015

Things I Haven't Done This Week


Well , obviously I can't list everything I've neglected to do this week ... we'd be here all night . But , leaving aside my failure to dust the top of the wardrobe or take enough exercise , there have been a couple of omissions that I do regret .

In common with nearly everyone south of Inverness , for instance , I didn't see the eclipse . The cloud cover was complete ... it just got a bit gloomier mid-morning . The ducks , much too busy eyeing each other up to care ,  ignored the hype and quacked raucously through the whole thing . It's a bit like Grease here , at the moment ...
Meanwhile , it was the Provincial elections on Wednesday and while , as a foreigner , I didn't have a vote , like every resident , foreign or home-grown , I was allowed to vote for those responsible for water management . Considering how important the dykes and land drainage are to Holland , it's astonishing that we're all allowed to have any say in the matter at all . It was a pity though that I had to cast my vote in the old dears'  home round the corner and couldn't cast my vote in this rather cool  'vote-boat'  . It went round a  constituency in the south , whose inhabitants are too scattered to reach the election stations by road.



 And what I definitely didn't do this week was go to the local Intratuin garden centre with my kitchen garden-ette . These children did , having taken up its offer of free advice and the chance to repot their burgeoning Moestuin  veg. crops



Given that mine , having been planted a little late , are barely visible yet , I felt the comparison might  crush my Lamb's Lettuce's self esteem altogether, not to mention mine . 






About the only thing I did achieve all week was learn a new way to describe my unKondoed clutter . A young , highly popular interior decorator , interviewed in the paper this weekend , described his collection of robots as 'a cluster' , which does sound quite contained and attractive ... almost gives me a spark of joy .
Perhaps , I could cluster my 'clusters' ...

Sunday 15 March 2015

A Bit Of Peace

It's been rather busy , lately . I seem to be running a drop-in centre for ergo therapists , case workers and community nurses at the moment and lovely though they all are , it's left me with a temporary reluctance to drink any more coffee or the mental agility to string more than three words together .

In an attempt to escape any more conversations about Track'n'Trace insoles , I jumped on a train the other day and went to a museum .
 


The Secret Of Dresden isn't a huge exhibition , more a sort of family collection had one's ancestors done the Grand Tour and brought back a Canaletto and the odd Watteau


 
 
 
 




 I was particularly interested in the boats since , now it's warmer , our river is getting busier again , though not usually with quite such pretty craft .

As usual , The Groninger Museum had mounted it beautifully and there was peace and space to admire the details .

I want a velvet pelisse now , though not fur trimmed



and a fountain like this would be nice ...


It wasn't busy so I sat and relaxed in borrowed comfort for a moment or two .

   Afterwards I went into town for lunch and , given that I'm busily reading my way through all the Kate Ellis detective stories I can get my hands on at the moment , it was serendipitious to look up  and see this






 Oh good , a reason , were one needed , to go back ...

Monday 2 March 2015

A Garden Is A Lovesome Thing ... However Small

Now it seems possible that Spring might on the way , one of the supermarket chains has a new promotion . For every 15 Euros you spend , you get one of these tiny grow kits


( it's potluck and there are twenty different kinds , so one would have to spend rather a lot to become Capability Brown but how my heart yearns for the aubergine one  ... )
It's aimed at children and their mums but everyone , including great-grannies with perms and rainhats , has a glint in their eyes as they queue at the cash tills .
I , too , have invested lavishly , stockpiling rice , potscourers and jam and now have 3 sets AND , having thrown caution to the winds ,  the instruction booklet for an extra .49 cents .



The scarecrow was free , I had a loo roll middle already and all I need now is a lolly stick to prop him up .
My Own Vegetable Garden should will have chives , some salad leaves and spring onions so far . Perhaps I can even  make the Light Spring Onion Soup from the recipe cards from  WWW.WITSHOP.CO.UK I got at Christmas .
It does call for three bunches of spring onions though so , just to be sure , I should go shopping again .....