Some stuff what I didn’t blog about this last month.

Wed 1	Why are there days like today, when everything conspires to be at least an irritant, if not downright obstructive. Neither of us slept well, or enough; I was awoken at 06:30 by Queen Cat trampling on my stomach, a 10lb weight in each of her hobnail boots. It was all downhill from there; nothing was straightforward; everything fought back. And to top it all it was bloody cold. Anyone would have thought it was Monday 13th!
Thu 2	The gardener cometh. Ah, no, the gardener cometh not. Silly bugger has a stomach upset. When shall we see him again? Well the next two weeks look cold and wet, maybe even snow, so little prospect of sensible gardening for a while.
Fri 3	It’s Saturday again. Oh, no! It’s only Friday. Why does my brain always do this? Every week! Yesterday it was Friday; today is Saturday; tomorrow will probably be Sunday; and oh God, then we get Sunday again! Why? It does my head in.
Sat 4	Yes, as predicted today was Sunday – at least according to my addled brain. It’s all very confusing and disorientating. Worse when you have a sinus infection and would rather be hiding under the duvet than having to attack a weekend of work which has to be done.
Sun 5	This one should be N’s really as she saw it. In the bucket for the compost heap which lives outside the back door, there was some discarded damaged avocados. Early this morning N saw the squirrel sitting on the fence panels, by the house, munching away at one, and dropping the pieces of skin everywhere. Apparently when a cat appeared the squirrel was quite unable to carry away its booty. Luckily N got a photo.
Mon 6	So now we know how things get moved around the garden. Last night N put out some bits for the fox on a lightweight orange plastic plate on the upper lawn. Lunchtime today along come our pair of magpies, prospecting. Swiftly followed by one of the local crows – the one with a few white feathers. Said crow went prospecting around the plate, poked its beak underneath, lifted it up at a 30deg angle, and then picked it up in its beak. I thought it was going to make off with the plate, but in the event it moved the plate only a few inches. By this time crow #2 had arrived and the magpies left. Two crows proceeded to spend 15-20 minutes ferreting around, obviously finding tasty morsels, and drinking from the birdbath.
Tue 7	Oh how the critters amuse one. We’ve a new, young, ginger cat on the block. At lunchtime he was in our garden and was seen dashing full speed across the garden in pursuit of a squirrel. Needless to say the squirrel was too fast and was 8 feet and more up the oak tree in a trice. But cat was going so fast and couldn’t stop before he too ended up 4 feet up the truck of the tree, clinging on for dear life with all four feet splayed, but still wondering how to get up the tree after said squirrel. Real life cartoon stuff!
Wed 8	Snow. It must have snowed gently somewhere between about 04:00 and 08:00, and it was still trying when I woke up. Mind, there wasn’t much, not really even a proper covering. However the cats were not impressed and more than one declined to go out. It tried more snow on and off all morning before giving in to light but steady rain; by the lunchtime all the snow had disappeared. I can’ find the records online (they must be there) but snow in London in March must be fairly unusual.
Thu 9	Most of the afternoon spent reading the papers for the CRP meeting next week. And how refreshing to look at something which isn’t a collection of massive high-rise blocks. Almost anything which is residential in London, let alone this borough, is predicated on building as high as you can get away with. The problem is that if the borough doesn’t approve the plans, an appeal to the Mayor of London will just overturn the decision. It’s madness: high rise is an environmental disaster; the higher you build the proportionally more environmentally damaging materials you have to use and the more energy you use pumping water etc. to the top of the building. And that’s before you even think about safety, the fact that people don’t like tower blocks, and that many are scared to live in them. But we can’t get developers to see that.
Fri 10	So the UK economy grew 0.3% in January. Well guys I hate to tell you this but 0.3% of naff all is still naff all.
Sat 11	The weather for most of the day was not inclement. So after lunch I actually got to sow (indoors) all the seeds I’d been putting off: hot lemon chillies, endive, coleus and some mystery mix of flowering cacti. I also cut back (fairly hard) the existing chilli plants – I can’t remember if this will be their third or fourth year but it’ll be interesting to see what they produce.
Sun 12	Americans drive me up the wall at times. Yesterday I sent out subscription reminders for the literary society. Within hours I had payments, via our online shop, from 8 American members; all paying for “5 years for the price of 4”. 50% of them got it wrong and paid the UK rate rather than the Overseas subscription rate – and that’s a significant difference. Gah!
Mon 13	Following up on yesterday’s Americans, and to be fair to them, once I pointed out the error of their ways they all paid up like lambs within 12 hours. After which it was time for a haircut. Oh the excitement!
Tue 14	Why is it that developers presenting to a meeting have to waste half their presenting time with a sales pitch, so they then don’t have time to explain properly what they’re trying to do. And why can they not explain things simply: A,B, C; and not waffle for 5 minutes and confuse people. It’s bad presenting and unprofessional. Tailor your presentation to your audience! They could have got a lot more out of that meeting.
Wed 15	A five star night. Awake at 03:30 and looking out of the bedroom window I can see five stars. That’s unusual because of the disgusting light pollution from the urbanopolis. The normal is two.
Thu 16	Hospital trip again today. Now if all senior consultants were like this one, the world would be a much better place. Head man of the area specialist vascular centre: an urbane, considerate and thoughtful Swede. I was treated to a very polite and measured version of “I don’t know what they’re all worrying about; there’s no real problem, but do come back if it recurs”. The NHS needs more such.
Fri 17	Yes! Early English asparagus is in the shops. I spotted that the supermarket were offering it. So of course I put three bunches on this week’s order, and much to my surprise it appeared. It is very early; it must be polytunnel grown as the season doesn’t really start until St George’s Day and then lasts only 6-8 weeks. Anyway I cooked the first bunch with tonight’s prawns & pasta. What a delight! We shall make the most of English asparagus while it’s available as I won’t buy the imported stuff year round. (You can’t totally avoid buying stuff that’s shipped round the globe, but we do try to avoid it where possible; hence not buying non-European wine.)
Sat 18	I’m getting into my stride now with Postcrossing. It’s quite interesting. In the last 6 weeks I’ve sent 7 cards, of which 4 have arrived. And the one to Vladivostok has arrived faster than the one to the US mid-west (which is still somewhere in the postal system). So 7 sent (Germany twice, USA, Russia, Czech Republic, Spain, Finland) of which 3 are still travelling; and 3 received (from USA, Germany, France). It’s random, but I’m still slightly surprised not to have been allocated one to SE Asia or South America yet — but who knows what’s up next.
Sun 19	You take a trip round the garden after lunch and take a handful of photos of the small daffodils near the pond. Not one is in focus as they’re waving about so much in the breeze. But the sturdy hellebore is rock solid, and rather pretty.
Mon 20	We used to have a lot of feral pigeons, but they seem to have disappeared over the winter. Instead we now seem to have more woodpigeons. There is a pair who always nest in one of the Christmas trees at the bottom of the garden. And this year there’s another pair at the front. The latter came along this morning prospecting our pittosporum tree for a nest (predecessors have nested there before); but they were quickly followed by a third. There then ensued a squabble about who was going to have it off with who. Exeunt omnes.
Tue 21	Bastards! Had to ditch my diabetic eye screening appointment at the last minute – because I couldn’t get here. Why? Because the taxi company were being inept and untruthful; and the car was over 25 minutes late, leaving me right up the Khyber. Luckily the screening appointments people are efficient and understanding and we’ve rearranged for 3 weeks time. As a result I got a free afternoon in which to do bugger all; so I started on the weekly supermarket order.
Wed 22	So inflation went up to an annual 10.4% in February after falling for 3 months. How do I not find this surprising? Everything is getting more expensive by the month. And food inflation is said to be 18.2%. From my perspective this is very conservative; I’d say food inflation is more like 30-40% judging by the way our weekly supermarket shop has jumped in price – and that’s when the commodities you want (eg. salad) are available. Two examples: in under two years Vinegar has gone up from £1 to £1.45; and Ginger Nut biscuits from £1 to £1.50.
Thu 23	Despite the rain, Spring is here. We’re past the equinox. The forsythia is in flower; as is the delicate small cherry in the front garden. Next door’s ash tree is just beginning to open its flower buds. And the apple trees are just beginning to move. There’s lots to be done in the garden, but it is so wet and we’re promised rain every day until at least the end of the month. Mind you we need the rain for the water supply.
Fri 24	It’s been raining most of the afternoon, but with little bits of sun. Towards sundown we had a decent rainbow – actually a double, but the second was very faint – followed by some strange peachy coloured light. Rainbows are so hard to photograph well.
Sat 25	Another really good lunchtime literary society social call with almost 20 of us from New England (where it was 8AM), through us here in London (at 12 noon) to Japan (where it was 9PM). We talked for about 90 minutes covering a range of topics from biographies to society events and conferences. These calls are always good because it gives members from across the globe a chance to meet and chat which they would otherwise not have, and for new members to get to know us and find that we really aren’t a scary bunch who know it all and shoot newbies down in flames.
Sun 26	Tilly, aka. Queen Cat, has been walking back and forth across my desk most of the day, as if on elastic. She jumps up to my left walks straight across – albeit taking care to avoid my keyboard. She sits, or stands, to my right wanting a small amount of attention. She’ll then walk back across to my left and just lie down, regardless of what’s there.It’s lovely to have her presence, but it does get a bit wearing: the continual back and forth; lying on what you’re trying to work on; generally hampering; and not to mention the occasional wet muddy paws. But if you stop her, or remove her, she mutters plaintively at you.
Mon 27	Spent the day tearing my hair out over literary society stuff. Trying to reconcile my part of the accounts and get our money out of PayPal took almost all morning, instead of the 5 minutes it should take. Why? Because of PayPal’s Byzantine and thieving system. Then mailing out a new publication: the Chairman has just given away (literally) almost 20% of the print run, which he didn’t allow for when he set the RRP. Every time I looked at my email he wanted another sent out. Oh, and he managed to give me at least one non-existent address. God save me from bankers and lawyers!
Tue 28	We finally bit the bullet and changed the cats’ insurance. I looked at it last year and N didn’t want to change, but this year we both agree. PetPlan have been good over the years, but they are ever more expensive. Tilly is now almost 10, so one expects her cover to be going up steeply. But Boy Cat is even more expensive to insure, as although only five he’s male; even (though neutered) male cats still carry this expectation of being reckless thugs and wanderers. Moving the insurance to John Lewis has literally halved our monthly premium for what looks to be essentially the same cover. And yes, we wouldn’t be without the insurance; it doesn’t get used a lot (touch wood, our cats have always been pretty healthy) but veterinary care is so expensive – on a par with private human healthcare.
Wed 29	So what happened today? Not a lot really. I seem to have spent the day fiddling about to no great effect. Despite sleeping well for the last couple of nights – and having some odd dreams – I blame the depression which seems worse this week.
Thu 30	Arrggghhhh! What day is it? What week is it? Does it even exist? Or is it all a really tedious dream?
Fri 31	So a pretty dismal end to a pretty dismal month. According to the Weather People (they’re a slightly saner version of Village People, aren’t they?) we (in London) have had the wettest March since 1981, with around twice the average March rainfall. Consequently we’ve had half the average March sunshine, although it seems temperatures have been around average. There are still a few hours of the month left and as I write this it’s still raining, so we’ll have to see what the final figures are when they’re released next week. Don’t hold your breath, but it looks as if we might get a few nice days next week – and we could do with some warm sunshine! As they say in these parts: “Onward and buggeration!”