Usually growing on a bush
Daily Archives: 15/04/2020
FOWC with Fandango: Potpourri
This was a cat ladder. Tabby and his litter sister Nera would use it to mount to the top of the high cupboard where they each had a comfortable cushion for sleeping purposes. Nera left us for the eternal corn chambers some years ago to help rid it of mice and Tabby decided it was not worth using the energy to get to the top.
The ladder fell out of use, until I discovered it was a good place to keep my orchids that were no longer flowering, in the hope they would flower again. In the meanwhile summer is coming and my orchids are now outside waiting for the big day of a new flowers.
In the meanwhile I had a brilliant idea. I collect dolls. To be honest the dolls are free gifts from the local supermarket if I collected enough stickies. I have about eight Teddy bears, 20 Easter bunnies and a few other strange animals. I discovered that they had room on the cat ladder and there they are. The idea of the dolls was that my grandchildren could have them. However, their mother decided I should keep them as the grandchildren would have something to look forward to when visiting. I found that a good idea and have now found a place for them.
And the orchids in Winter? They will return to the ladder. In the meanwhile I am sure I will have yet another brilliant idea about where to put the dolls.
RDP Wednesday: Anniversary
An extra large tin of pomodori (cooked, chopped tomatoes). It is not that I am obsessed with tinned tomatoes, or want to compete with Andy Warhol with his graphics of Campbells Tinned Soup, I have a much better idea.
Since the attack of the hairy peas my way of life has changed. No-one expected a Sci-Fi attack to become reality and so you must adapt. As Dr. Spock or Han Solo have not yet arrived to save us all I have to take things in my own hands. Who knows how this lock down will develop? Perhaps I find that my weekly excursions to the store will stop and I must be sure that if the hairy peas do not get me first, I will not die of hunger. You can do a lot with a tin of tomatoes, and I mainly use them for my five star spaghetti sauce.
I had a brilliant idea. As I now have a deep freezer chest, cook double the amount you need and freeze half of it. I am sure I am not the first with this reasoning, but it took a long while to develop. Buying twice as much minced meat is not so expensive, and cooking twice as much does not take longer or make more work. You just need a bigger pan. When my delicious sauce is finished half of it will be frozen for the days of complete lock down. And if we do not have a complete lockdown, then no problem. I will have a spaghetti meal ready for an anniversary meal perhaps to celebrate the end of the attack from the invisible invasion.
April Photo a Day Challenge: 17. Pastel Colours
Good Morning
I was expecting the usual sunrise, a yellow ball against a blue sky, but today I found it more inspiring. Was it the clouds or the general atmosphere caused by the trees in between? It was an encouragement to move around, and do things. Actually I was a little unsure this morning. I had one of my giddy attacks in bed and every time I turned, my head refused to turn with me. Although I eventually managed to stop hugging the bed and began moving which did help. No. 1 son is now working again, so one of the first chores is to air his bedroom and make his bed.
Afterwards I moved to the garden. I had to cover up a few items yesterday evening. There was already a definite chill arriving in the evening and the weather prophets even forecast a possibility of ground frost in the early morning. We had no ground frost, luckily, but it was definitely a very cold night. Everything survived and no damage done. It would be a shame to lose a few plants due to frostbite in April.
Tomorrow is the day when our government has decided to let us know the future moves with this coronusvirus thing. Will they be relaxing the rules or not? There is talk of opening a few more stores and slowly getting back to normal. We now have few new cases of the dreaded and I am hoping there will not be a further increase. It never really got bad in our area and was mainly in the large towns of Zürich, Geneva and Basel, although the rest of Switzerland was not free of the problem. We have a map that is brought up to date every few hours and everything is pointing downwards in the illness. It seems like a different country when we could walk around in groups of people, meet up with friends and neighbours and talk about the price of vegetables instead of illness developments at a distance of 2 meters.
My favourite British soap series, East Enders, has been reduced to only twice a week as they are no longer filming further episodes. The British TV programme is full of the newest developments in the saga of the hairy peas. Every evening there is a long programme broadcast direct from 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s London residence, with various other government personnel. Over the years of my residence in Switzerland, I lost touch with who is who in Great Britain, but now I am fully in the picture.
I seem to have a new family member. It is Roschti, who actually owns the neighbour, but he has discovered that there is always a bowl of water and food at my place, actually for Tabby, my cat. I often find him sleeking out through the open kitchen window and licking his lips. I was talking to my next door neighbour and he asked me who that cat was. He said he visits him now and again and he always gives him some tit bits from the table. I have come to the conclusion that not only is Roschti getting enough food from the person he owns, but the whole neighbourhood is feeding him. Cats can be so sly.
I am off to a normal shopping expedition this afternoon. I have had an isolation holiday since Easter, but it is now back to the old routine.
There is not much more to report from the backwoods of Switzerland: you would only find our village by accident in any case. I wish you all a good day with my blossoming apple tree from the back yard.
Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss 