 Richard made my Hummus recipe for a video, and I made the salad 9 June 2025 (Monday) Awake at 6am and up soon after, though a tea in bed from Richard first. At my desk by 6.30am doing the usual Monday work work routine, and also the usual work routine which is adding the upload of A Week at the Plot that will be live at noonish today to my own website (the Richard & Paul website links to it), and also various other housekeeping tasks, like scanning in any documents that arrived over the past half week, as I keep 99% of anything important we receive by post as scanned documents. Vanessa’s off for a check-up on the eye procedure she had about a month ago, so before she does we’re chatting over WhatsApp and doing the ordering that we need to do. There’s also a get-in today as Man in the Moon is performing this week with the show Winnie-the-Pooh, adapted from AA Milne’s books by Vanessa’s husband Glynn Robbins who sadly died a decade or so ago. Once Vanessa and I are done, I do more work work at my desk, and then take a break - though not from work, as I just shift to our other computer, the Richard & Paul one (ie not my work work computer), and look at what segments of this week’s upload of A Week at the Plot I can use for a short, and decide I’ll do the planting of tomatoes, including the preparation of the bed prior to the planting; I do one version as landscape and the other as a portrait, specifically how they are wanted as Shorts. It’s all more work, though hopefully worthwhile! Richard’s took my recipe for hummus - which is unbelievably simple, and does that as a video, so not surprisingly that’s one meal sorted today! Yay!! After lunch - which was a delicious concoction of leftovers - it’s back to my desk, and then off to the plot for an hour or so… just pottering…though I do end up having our first indoor cucumber and outdoor courgette as a harvest, which go into supper!  A lunch of leftovers - curry sauce, cooked rice, and a tin of drained butter beans Supper’s hummus and salad and pitta - rather simple and rather nice. This evening Richard Cumming’s travelling up through the Grand Union Canal with his Canal Boat Diaries and passing our stretch, going through Hanwell Locks… so of course, we watch, as we watch each episode. It’s somewhat strange watching someone experience for the first time an area that you know so well… maybe Vivi felt this when we went on our walks of Swanage a few weeks back. Weather: Bright start, though seemed to have rained overnight. Grey through the day then bright with sun late afternoon - though still feeling chilly. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, and sultanas (banana’s still too green…) Lunch: Soup made from leftover Curry Sauce, two portions of rice, a drained tin of butter beans and some added water - a lovely risotto-style dish Supper: Hummus, pitta, mixed salad of red onion, tomato, cucumber, olives and basil
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 21 May 2025 (Wednesday)
Up early as we were off to Vivi… off to Swanage! Yay!! Tea, breakfast, tea, snack making, packing cold items, packing, tea and then we’re on our way out west and south, down the M3 and onwards. As we got near the end of the M27 I suggested we stop and swap driving, Richard was fine to carry on… truth be known I needed a wee and had no idea once you left the motorway service stations with loos would be few, far between or in our case seemingly non-existent… note to self, next time no extra half cup of tea before we leave! So, by the time we were going through Corfe Castle I was busting, then we hit roadworks and traffic lights… by the time we got to Vivi and bumped up outside it was a quick “Hello… Loo!”, me rushing yet shimmying through the tiled entrance hallway, blinkering myself as I wanted to see the new home fresh when I was, well, fresh!! After the longest wee in a long, long time, with extra time allowed for those last few dribbles, I flushed, washed hands and blinkering myself again, went back to the front door, where by now all the bags were in the hallway and the two of them were chattering away… then leaving Vivi it was off to find a parking space where Fenella would be quiet and safe. Twenty minutes later, after a mini tour of some roads above Vivi’s, we parked up, locked up and walked around the corner and… the view!! Wow!!! Swanage is really hilly, in some places a bit like an old amphitheatre with houses perched on the edge of their seats looking down on the bay, beach, boats and bathers, with a backdrop of the cliffs acting as scenery. Anyway, understandably the next hour was a step by step walkthrough of Vivi’’s new abode… “Oh, this room’s bigger than I’d thought”, “Lovely, lovely” and “What a fab garden, view and borrowed foreground landscape of rooves and shrubs and roses.” A cuppa, or two, unpacking of gifted plants - a Verbena bonariensis gifted to me by an allotment neighbour of mine, one of our two-year old rambling rose cuttings that's just about to flower, a yellow courgette, Uchiki Kuri squash and, of course, a Vivi cucumber, and a little self-seeded marjoram for good measure. A change into slack pants, then comfy on Vivi’s fabulous new sofa, chat, more chat… and more chat. Then, back on with jeans and off for a little wander down to the seaside… but, before that… I’d left my sunglasses in Fenella’s safe keeping, so I pottered up the remainder of Cardiac Hill, across and then up an even steeper hill I named Cardio Hill. My heart was beating fast as my hand clasped the driver's door handle to open Fenella, and grabbing my glasses I did have a momentary thought of sitting in and with her for a while, though it wasn’t necessary, as my heartbeat was soon back to normal and I tottered back down to meet Vivi and Richard who were seated on Viovi’s wall waiting for me. We walked down to the seafront via a shop or two, and also an ice-cream stand… and it would have been so rude not to have offered Vivi an ice cream, and to keep her company the two of us had one too. Happy Vivi Days!! Weather: Raining to start, and through much of the morning. Sunny in Swanage later, around 16°. Breakfast: Bran Sticks, yogurt, sultanas and banana Journey Snack: Rice Cakes, Flora ProActiv spread, yeast extract and very thin slices of cheese Lunch: Vivi’s Warm Bean, Spinach and Tomato Salad Supper: Vivi’s Fassolada with thick slices of Richard's bread machine wholemeal loaf |
Paul SavidentFollowing on from A Guernsey Gardener in London, I've decided to try and write a regular blog, and we'll see how it AND 2025 go! Archives
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