Topic Generator: Disturbed Session

It all began when we had our end year visit from the gardener. Mr. Swiss and I have now reached the golden oldie age where we no longer climb ladders or bend to weed the garden beds when not necessary. I did succeed in planting some bulbs for the Spring show, but my back complained and so did my legs. The gardener, a young man, naturally did all the work in the flick of a hand with help from his apprentice. My lawn had a few bare patches resulting from the tropical drought days we had in Summer and he suggested to sew some grass seeds in a rejuvenation process.

“But the birds might eat them all before they start growing.”

“No problem, I will mix them with the top earth layer and birds do not like digging for their food. I will also scatter some seeds over the surface to make sure.”

I believed this wise statement, although I did remember my birds proudly walking around with worms in their beaks, and I do not remember that the worms squirmed on the surface, but usually lived underground, but the gardener knows it better. He finished his job, sewed his seeds and departed with “see you next Spring” parting words.

The gardener had also scattered lawn fertiliser everywhere and told us to religiously spray the garden at least once a day, if not more, to ensure that the grass did not burn from the fertiliser. It was then you could see Mrs. Angloswiss before breakfast in her dressing gown watering the garden with the hose. Sometimes Mr. Swiss did it, we took turns.

A few days later I saw this in the garden.

“What do you think you are doing?” I asked the sparrows.

“Don’t ask silly questions” they chirped. “The boss said that there was a banquet at the Angloswiss estate and we should take what we could before it starts growing.”

“But I want my grass seeds to grow, I have some bare patches in the lawn.”

“Not our problem. We have to tank up with food before the cold days arrive. I am sure you don’t want hungry birds in your garden.”

“But I will then put up the bird feeding station.”

“Of course you will, but we cannot wait. By the way tell the gardener they are good seeds, very tasty.”

Something was wrong somewhere. I decided to put my green metal frog on the place where the seeds were sewn to disturb this session of grass seed pecking,  but to no avail. They just pecked around the frog. I could see my lawn rejuvenation disappearing. Then Mr. Swiss had a good idea.

“The lady opposite has covered her plants with a white special cover. That would be a good idea.”

“No problem” I answered “I have two bags full of those garden covers for the cold weather in the garden cupboard.

“Why didn’t you say so?

“Because you didn’t ask.”

Some time later I saw movement in the garden. Mrs. Swiss was collecting large stones and carrying them to the lawn. He had spread out my special plant insulating covers and weighted them down with the stones.

I now have a collection of angry birds looking down from the neighbouring trees, but the bare patches in my lawn are rescued. We will have to remove the cover temporarily tomorrow when mowey, our automatic lawn mower, goes on his journey to cut the grass, but afterwards it will be replaced again.

WordPress Daily Prompt: Think Again

Tell us about a time you made a false assumption about a person or a place — how did they prove you wrong?

I paid the hit man and planned the assassination in every detail. It all began as a harmless idea. I wanted a pampas grass in my new garden about 15 years ago. I was young and naïve and was sure it would be the crowning glory of my lawn. I visited the supermarket garden department. Supermarkets are always the cheapest. I found it in a corner, nothing special, a few grass stalks, but what was not could easily be. I took it home and placed it in the garden.

“What is that” said Mr. Swiss

“A pampas” I answered proudly.

He shook his head and found it looked a bit stupid.

Fast forward just five years: Mr. Swiss was becoming worried. He found the pampas was growing, spreading taking over. I did not agree. I was proud of my pampas, and in the second winter after he moved in he had produced five long spears of fluff. Over time I discovered that in Australia they reproduce and cast their seeds everywhere. They are even regarded as a weed to be ripped out as soon as their fresh shoots appear. Mine never spread its seeds, but over the years we had a layer of pampas fluff over the garden through winter. To be quite honest, I was a little worried. The earth was not so deep and I imagined pampas roots destroying the roof of the garage which was underneath the garden. “No worry” said a gardener I knew. “They do not grow deep, they just spread.” Yes, it did spread and after fifteen years it was wide. In the middle it was empty and our Tabby cat would often sleep in the middle. Our other cat used one side of it as a marking place which eventually caused the grass leaves to disappear and on a hot day it was not a pleasant smell.

I was of course proud that it was now producing regularly about 20-30 feather ears annually. Of course a certain amount of work was involved in spring to cut it down with the electric cutter, sweep the remains away and tend to my cut fingers from the sharp edges of the grass.

One day we decided to have the garden renewed and to take revenge on the pampas. In the meanwhile I was convinced it was possessed and was planning to take over my garden, my apartment and the village. It was the only pampas in the village.

In the meanwhile I had discovered there were two mounds beneath the pampas which suspiciously resembled ant hills. Unfortunately I forgot this when the gardener arrived to remove the pampas, but no problem for the gardener: he cleared the pampas in thirty minutes. When it was gone you would not have known that it was once there. We were all happy and the gardeners continued with their work, flattening everything, removing our old lawn, which resembled more a field of dandelions and daisies, and preparing for the new replanted grown roll lawn.

Mr. Swiss looked at me as if to say “I told you so” and I must admit he did have the gift of prediction on the day the pampas was planted. However, 15 years later it was gone, killed forever.

We were pleased with our new look garden. Two days later Mr. Swiss and I were sitting on the patio enjoying our evening meal and the view on the new green weedless lawn when I saw something move in the opposite flower bed. No, it was not something; the whole edge of the flowerbed was alive, teaming with insects. I took a step nearer, yes; it was the revenge of the ants. They seemed too small to be the normal average black ant, but there were millions, fast moving ants, some with wings and flying (OK, perhaps not milliions but it looked like it). Would we be eaten alive by an invasion of red ants, injecting their poison and our bodies covered with red lumps? I decided to take action. I had no time to consult Internet. I boiled water, at least two litres and poured it on the active ants. Then there was silence, no movement, all was still and then….. Yes I saw at least ten ants still alive. I poured another jug of boiling water on them and all was still. Afterwards I read in Internet that baking powder was quite good. They eat it and explode. I decided against this method as I did not want exploding ants in my garden.

The next day Mr. Swiss visited the supermarket and brought home ant killing tins. They are filled with attractive ant poison. The ants take a walk in the tins through the doorway and cover their little feet in the poison. They return to the nest and hopefully say “Hello Queen Ant” spreading the poison all over the nest. Within a day or two the ants are dead.I distributed four tins in the ant infested area. In the meanwhile a Facebook friend told me that a bottle or two of acidulated water (you know the fizzy mineral water) poured into the nest kills the queen because it removes the oxygen. A day later I tipped three liter of fizzy mineral water over the place where the ants were. This was a week ago and since I have not seen one single ant, just a few firebugs, but they are OK. They bring some colour into the garden.

So there we have it – my false assumption was that a pampas grass is really something to make the neighbours envious, but they were probably laughing when they saw it. She will be sorry one day, and we were. However, we killed the pampas (and the ants) and now have a normal average garden. Of course you want to see the finished product, so here it is.

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WordPress Daily Prompt: 190 Days Later

Back on January 21st, we asked you to predict what day #211 would be like. Well, July 30th is that day — how have your predictions held up so far? If you didn’t reply to the prompt at the time, is this year turning out to be as you’d expected?

Predictions - so if you follow this link you will see what I wrote 190 days ago. I found it a stupid prompt then and still do and find this prompt the superlative of the original prompt. Since last writing I am still alive, but not all. My chief feline Nera decided to go to the eternal corn chambers and accompany Bastet on rooting out the mice in the feline happy hunting grounds.. I did not want that to happen, but it did.

As you can see from my blogs I am still here annoying all with my deadpan humour and trying to make the most of life and daily prompts. I am still waiting for an opportunity to order an XXL WordPress t-shirt, but forgot to mention this in my original prompt on 21^st January. Can someone supply the link please?

The blackberries shown in my first blog really did disappear from the garden forever. They do not even try to reappear on the surface in the lawn. “What lawn?” you are asking. Yes, even the lawn has disappeared but this is a pure coincidence. Yesterday two gardeners arrived and scraped the remains of the lawn away, together with some slimy patches of dead slugs that were disintegrating from the salt I had spread on their munching bodies. The new lawn will probably arrive beginning next week. We have had a lot of rain and it was not possible to deliver at the moment. I am having a ready-made lawn delivered as it it not certain that if I grow a new lawn it will not be devoured by the eternal hungry slugs. I have even planned on Fred, a lawn mowing robot. As soon as the new lawn roots itself into the surface and begins to grow, it will have a daily cut by Fred who will even recharge himself when the power runs out, but more to this exciting novelty later when the new lawn arrives and has happy roots in the garden.

Although when re-reading the last paragraph of my original blog it seemed I had a morbid future in view.

“The computer was shedding light on the surroundings, it was breathing, its fans cooling the inside coils and circuits. There was a half empty glass of water on the desk and a half eaten doughnut lying next to the mouse pad. The blogger was slumped in the chair, a hand stretched towards the keyboard, and a finger resting on the letter “z”. A glance at the screen did not show a “z”, it was a blank black screen, a screen of death, until a white sign began to creep across the terminal as if guided by an invisible hand. Yes, the death of a blogger left many open questions." TO BE CONTINUED ON 31^ST JULY 2015 (perhaps).”

It was not so tragic. There was a temporary power cut and thus no power. At the same time I had knocked over my half-filled glass of water and dropped some doughnut crumbs. I had to slump on the chair to wipe it all up with a paper handkerchief I found. This was a difficult job. “Z” on the screen was just a coincidence, it could have been @ or §, or even ¢, according to where my fingers had roamed. If your fingers remain on a key because with the other hand you are mopping up wet doughnut crumbs, the letter will repeat itself until you have collected whatever you are gathering with the other hand.

Anyhow here I am, living my usual golden oldie life, which is currently quite stressful. I have had quite a bit of logistic work to do, but together with Mr. Swiss we have mastered most of it. On Friday of all days, it is 1^st August. If I say it is a Swiss 4^th July I think you get the hang of it, but we are not celebrating independence. We only had a couple of disagreements about religion in Switzerland, otherwise it is a country with the bits and pieces of of Europe that were left over after everyone else took their chunk (Geography according to Mrs. Angloswiss). Now and again Switzerland acquires a new member. The last was the Kanton of Jura, which decided to split from the Kanton of Bern. The country did not grow larger, it just became more complicated.

Anyhow this 1^st August stuff does not suit me on Friday. All the shops are closed, everyone walking around with a Swiss flag and kids with patriotic paper lanterns, lighting fires on the mountain tops and listening to a few speeches from the local mayor in town. As I do not shop every day, due to other womanly chores, I had to plan it all very carefully. Now we have barricaded ourselves with food to last until Monday. Mr. Swiss volunteered to fetch the remainders tomorrow morning. If this special commerative day had been on Sunday, it would have been more convenient, as the shops are then closed in any case and I would not have had to plan meals in advance.

So if the bloke/guy in the WordPress t-shirt has no further ideas about predicting what will happen in the future (and my future grows smaller day by day) I will now come to a close. See you all tomorrow on the flip side – I hope.

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WordPress Weekly Writing Challenge: The Ray Bradbury Noun Twist List

For today’s challenge, try a twist on a technique Ray Bradbury used to beat writer’s block. 

Your Mission is to write a new piece that includes at least five nouns: Garden, grass, slugs, cat, salt

Today was the day. I am having my back garden revamped. Everything is planned for an early morning start, Mr. Swiss confirming that he would be up and ready to go at the crack of dawn. I was glad. If I told you that my prize winning collection of photos have many showing the golden sun sinking slowly in the West, but none showing the rising sun in the East, you will understand what I mean. No sunrises in the collection but plenty of sunsets.

We had decided to have the grass removed from the garden as it was no longer grass but a superb botanic mixture of all plants generally qualified as weeds, although I always found daisies and clover to have a mystical meaning. The reason why fairies would definitely be at the bottom of my garden, but unfortunately due to the damp summer the slugs ate the fairies. Every evening when I entered the garden to take breathes of the scent of the flowers; I heard a fairy scream somewhere. She was being attacked again by the brute of a slug. She had no defence and his slimy body held the fairy in a tight embrace. I decided to take action.

Armed with a kilo box of salt, iodine and fluor free, I began my search for a long brown, or perhaps black, shiny body. I carefully approached the fairy killer on tip toe, not wanting to alert the slug into a quick getaway. I am no longer the youngest and was not sure that I would be fast enough to surround this killer. It had double strength being both male and female. Probably this was the reason for slugs to be so unsatisfied with their life. They did not feel that Spring was in the air, they had no reason. Their sexual needs were combined in one body. They could not even get a divorce if they were unhappy with their partner, their partner being themselves. How boring the life of a slug must be.

Suddenly another high pitched scream filled the air at the bottom of the garden. I now knew no mercy and I lifted the leaf from where it came. There it was. A long slimy slug that was about to entwine a poor defenceless fairy and cover it in slime. This could not be, fairies also have a right to live. I shook some salt in my hand and sprinkled it on the slug. The slug twitched and was then still. A pattern of white spots formed on its skin where it had been hit by the salt grains. The fairy escaped to be met by my cat Tabby who decided they tasted even better than butterflies. Yes, so is the life of a fairy, out of the slug into the cat as the old saying goes. Actually it would be out of the frying pan into the fire, but I adapted the sense of the words.

I have now used all my words, so now to tell the rest of this story full of suspense, murder and shock.

The fairies now hid from the stealthy steps of my pet cat and the slugs were slowly disintegrating in a sea of slime caused by a salt attack when the gardener arrived. As a new lawn was planned, he scooped away the old grass surface and the pools of dying slug slime disappeared as well. I again heard a few fairies scream, I think he scooped some of them up as well, but as he did not believe in fairies, he never noticed it.

To make the job worthwhile and to ensure that I paid enough, the gardener also fitted a nice stone border around the vanquished lawn and made some stone paths. I organised the stone paths for the fairies to make it easier for them to escape from the slugs and my cat, but I did not tell the gardener. He may not have believed me.

To put the icing on the garden cake, the hedge was also trimmed. Then the head chief gardener, capo di tutti gardeners arrived to tell me the bad news. It seemed due to unexpected amounts of rain our new lawn could not be delivered tomorrow. It was too wet to be transported. I must explain. We were not having seeds of grass planted for a new lawn. That would have taken two months and the fairies did not have so much time. The complete tribe would have died for lack of grass. We organised a lawn that was already grown and would be delivered in meters. Unfortunately this prefabricated lawn was now delayed and we would have to wait one to two days. I asked the fairies and they said it would be OK. I did not ask the slugs, as most of them were now liquid slime and the remainders were all standing at the edge of a barren garden where there was nothing specific to eat for slugs in any case. I had placed a line of salt around the fairy settlement to protect them from a slug invasion.

Now we have a nice border with bushes and flowers, edged with tiles and an empty barren space where the lawn will be planted. One of the disappointments in life: the gardener told me to spread anti slug pellets around the edge to keep them out. I checked the packet of pellets and it said fairy and cat friendly, meaning that the two species would have to live with the problem until the new lawn arrived.

Now I am sure Ray Bradbury never had the success I had with the fairies and I do not remember reading a book where he told us how he wiped out the slug population of a planet with one kilo of salt. He always did it so complicated with firemen and books and thermometers. I am sure a packet of salt would have done the trick. He forgot to put salt on his list. 

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WordPress Daily Prompt: Futures Past

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? How close or far are you from that vision?

I made this little bird happy when I adopted him the day before yesterday. He was sitting, forgotten and lonely in the corner of the flower department in the supermarket. He did not even have a price ticket on his sweet little claws, like his brothers and sisters. He was a blue bird and all the others were green, so he felt more left out, excluded from a happy life guarding his own territory and then I came along.

They had a special offer going for orchids. I collect orchids and I had one spare orchid container for another orchid. I now have the non-flowering collection outside on the porch hoping they will go forth and flower, but the flowering orchids are inside in the living room. Mr. Swiss was in a generous mood, which he always is really I suppose, coming to think of it. He pressed a twenty franc note in my hand and said buy one. They were half price (otherwise I would not have bothered) and I selected my orchid. In the meanwhile Mr. Swiss had disappeared outside the supermarket. He needed to breathe the fresh air of escape from the relentless traffic of trolleys filled with hunting trophies. It was the day before Ascension day when Switzerland has a national holiday, and everyone was buying food to cover the day of famine.

He did not actually say keep the change, although the orchids were only about eleven Swiss Francs. It was then love at first sight. The little blue bird looked at me with metal tears in his eyes and I pounced. A week ago my lawn in the garden had been transformed into a stone desert and he was the dot on the “i”. He had his price, nineteen Swiss francs. You see I was not being greedy. Mr. Swiss gave me twenty, I spent eleven on an orchid and nineteen on a metal bird, so I even donated about ten swiss francs myself, it was all in a good cause.

Another advantage was I spent more time than programmed in the flower department, so Mr. Swiss was impatient to go home. No questions asked “that’s a nice orchid” he said after a quick glance through the plastic bag, and then “What’s that?” followed noticing a mysterious clank when I settled the metal bird into the car boot. “Just something for the garden” and we drove off. He did ask “how much was the bird?” and I gave him a truthful answer “nineteen Swiss francs”, but no further questions were asked. The only problem was that my artistic arranging gift was questioned. He replaced the bird in the garden as I had it too near to the apartment window, but we are now all happy. The bird is happy, my orchid is happy amongst its brothers and sisters, and I turned twenty swiss francs into thirty, but only paid ten. Oh, we women are so clever.

Today was the day after the Swiss National holiday in the supermarket. The shoppers were ripping the food from the shelves, I even had to queue at the butchers counter for my meat and we forgot the milk and grit for the cat tray. Tomorrow is another day and Mr. Swiss will go on a quest tomorrow morning for the missing items. We still have two litres of milk and the felines can use the garden in the meanwhile.

And now to the prompt. I am sure you are all waiting to hear what I wanted to be when I was younger, the problem being I cannot really remember. I did not want to collect orchids or have a big metal bird in a garden. There was something about being rich I think, but we just made do Then I really wanted to be a cowboy like the Lone Ranger, but without the mask. Of course I wanted a dog, something like Rin Tin Tin, but mum said no and when mum said no, dad usually agreed and living in a house built in 1884 with an outside toilet and no bathroom would not be the ideal place for a fully grown Alsatian. I wanted a cat, and I got one, but I was then eleven years old already. The only reason we had a cat, known as Whisky because he was black and white, the same name as the whisky brand, was because we had many lonely mice in the neighbourhood looking for a place to live. Mum did not like mice for some strange reason; she was actually terrified of them, so the cat moved in. I do not remember him ever killing a mouse, but she felt safe, so a childhood dream was half fulfilled, we had no dog, but a cat.

As I did not have visions, I cannot be close, but I succeeded in achieving a few that I never had. I think we have all been there and done that on my blog journey before so I will not bore you how I left the safe shores of England for foreign parts, known as Switzerland, met my rich Swiss banker, who was not a banker or rich, and ground the Swiss Family Robinson Angloswiss. My dream of becoming a well-known blogger is yet to be fulfilled. I once ordered a WordPress t-shirt, yes really – no joke. It arrived. I ordered the largest size possible, but discovered it was too tight to fit my contours. I have it. I complained and had the option to return it, but sending goods with TNT/UPS/DHL would have cost more than the original t-shirt, so if anyone would like a WordPress t-shirt in dark blue with white lettering, you can come and pick it up.

My dad is arriving home again in his apartment today. A week ago he was delivered into hospital, had a pacemaker fitted to his heart, terrorised us the main part of the week saying someone had stolen his telephone (he forgot he was in hospital) and someone stole his Swiss army knife (a present from Mr. Swiss, which he had not taken with him to hospital). Eventually he decided he could not walk any more. Two days ago this miserable state of golden oldie terrorism changed. He was moved from a single room to a ward with three other platinum oldies. Things started happening, and he no longer had time to worry. Thanks to my good friend in England, I had contact with him through my iPhone. He is 98 years old and of course he is always right. I am always right, I am in training. I will be 68 years old this year, so just imagine the nuisance I will be if I reach 98, but one thing I know, I will still be blogging. I might start my own blogging group, “Blogging with the Golden/Platinum Oldies”.

Have a nice week-end – see you all on the flip side.

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Garden Redesigned

This was the front garden. Not exactly an english lawn, more moss than anything else. We had a wonderful collection of daisies and weeds and clover, just perfect for a herd of cows, but we were people with a herd of cats. Now and again a toad would hop around, feeling comfortable in the damp undergrowth. We live in an apartment on the ground floor, so have a garden at the front and back with porch instead of a balcony. This suits us, but as the years go by the Mr. Swiss and Mrs. Angloswiss are not as fit as they were and we decided to have a designer garden: no exactly but something without lawn, toads and weeds.

Yesterday the gardener arrived with his team and the work begun. I had a buddlea in a large pot and decided that would be the center piece of our new work of art. The removal of the grass was done in an hour. As most of it was moss, it was just a matter of scraping it away. Stones were laid to mark the borders and we had something like this when the workers took their lunch break.



The prize suspicious buddleia was already planted and was beginning to settle its roots in the new place. In the afternoon it received a dose of fresh water to ensure that it did not die with symptoms of shock. Our merry gardeners did a good job, and when they were finished they trimmed the hedges. They began at 7.30 in the morning and by 5.00 in the evening they were finished. We were happy and satisfied. Here is the final result – no more lawn, no toads and three happy felines and a happy Mr. Swiss and Mrs. Angloswiss.



And of course Tabby showing her appreciation of the work.

WordPress Daily Prompt: Let's Go Crazy

Sometimes, we act on impulse: it could be something as small as ordering that special dessert on the menu, maybe asking out that cute boy or girl, or as large quitting your job and selling everything you own to become a shepherd in New Zealand. What’s the most crazy, outrageously impulsive thing you’ve ever done? If you’ve never succumbed to temptation, dream a little. If you gave yourself permission to go a little crazy, what would you do? 

Photographers, artists, poets: show us IMPULSE.

I no longer do impulse, have no interest and prefer to either think about it or forget it. I am more guided by what happens around me. I decided to take a photographic tour of the garden. We had nice warm weather, a sign that spring was on the way and a few crocus in the garden were waving their hands leaves to attract attention for a photo. Then a bee flew past and settled on a crocus. He gave me a big smile, started doing a few bee tricks, like laying on his back and waving his legs in the air, or some acrobatics holding onto the long bit in the middle of the flower. It was then that he told me to shoot, as he could not hold the position any longer. He gave me a big bee smile when I told him there was a possibility that his photo would feature on my famous, well-known daily blog.

It was definitely not an impulse that I moved to Switzerland. I would have gone anywhere in Europe, just to get out of London and see something else in the world. It just so happened that the job opportunity was in Switzerland. Mr. Swiss was also not an impulse (it just happened). We met, married and established the Swiss Family Angloswiss.

It was not an impulse to write this daily blog. I discovered it by chance and realised I now had a purpose in my blogging life. At last an opportunity to become well known, put my mark on the world of blog, perhaps even be awarded a prize for my ideas. This has not yet happened. In a way I am glad, if I had been given my Pulitzer/Nobel prize then I would have nothing more to hope for and there would be no goal in my blogging life. I might even stop blogging every day.

Today I have a writer’s block. I was working this afternoon in the garden, the sun was beating down and I asked myself why am I doing this? After an hour I was finished, collapsed sat in a chair and took five. I then decided to see what challenge was awaiting me for the daily prompt.

It was then that I realised that the most crazy, outrageously impulsive thing I have ever done was to have a garden. Actually when we bought the place it was just two lawns but Mrs. Angloswiss decided that her dream had come true, she now had a garden and trees, bushes and flowers could be planted. The first attempt was looking good until the two fir trees I planted decided to grow taller than the apartment house and the reed I planted began to spread its feet out in all directions. There was also a problem with a glycinia which lost its leaves in Autumn, meaning hours of sweeping them together. It also attacked the wall of the house and caused the rooms to have less light on that side of the appartment. I am sure it was possessed by some plant demon, so. the gardener removed it for us. There are still isolated attempts in the lawn from the exorcised glycinia to appear, but I remove them. Do I hear a scream when I cut them out?

At the moment we have a lawn problem, if you could call it a lawn. A lawn is a collection of grass, but our lawn is a mixture of grass and moss, with the moss slowly taking over. We are now thinking it over, but it might be death to the lawn and something completely different. I am thinking of a piazza, or a Japanese stone garden thing, although I believe the Japanese have to rake them through every day, so I will probably remain with the piazza idea. The problem with removing the moss from the lawn, is that there is no grass remaining afterwards.

So I have now bored you all enough with my thought wanderings. See you on the flip side tomorrow with another day in the life of a blogger.

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WordPress Daily Prompt: Against All Odds

Tell us about a situation where you’d hoped against all hope, where the odds were completely stacked against you, yet you triumphed. Be sure to describe your situation in full detail. Tell us all about your triumph in all its glory. 

Photographers, artists, poets: show us LONGSHOT.

Here we have the ex Manchester United goalkeeper, Edwin van der Saar who always won against all odds, one of the best. I had a bit of a soft spot for him that was why I took the photo from the television at the UEFA Cup final a few years ago. Quality is not so good, but TV pictures never are.

Basically I always triumph; otherwise I probably would not be here to talk about it. Of course, there is a little problem with my Pulitzer/Nobel prize for literature, but you cannot get them all. With a little patience I am sure those stacked odds will crumble and fall and I will win. There is just one thing that bothers me, I am not growing younger. I know I am now in the prime of life, the interesting age, but if this prize thing does not arrive soon, I will not look so good when I have to climb onto the stage to receive it in ten years. On the other hand you can do so much with photos, and I am sure with a little retouching, the prize winning photo will show me in my youthful glory. Just a little clowning with the wrinkles and hair colour and I will fool them all.

Otherwise to put a serious angle on this blog (although I am always serious), I cannot recall that the odds were ever stacked against me. I cannot be bothered to let it happen. I have been blogging for some years now. There was a blogging place called Multiply where they had a weekly photo thing. Someone would suggest a theme and we would all post our photos and visit each other and comment. Of course we all made nice comments, no-one would trust themselves to say what a load of old rubbish, or that was bad quality. The photos were all OK and we got to know each other. Then one day the leader of the group decided let’s have a competition once a month and choose the best photo. That was when I left the group, but not without telling the lady in charge that I no longer had any interest. I do not do competitions, whether it be writing or photos.

I do not need a confirmation that mine is the best. It does not interest me. I am here for fun. I made my way long enough in the rat race we called work and now I am retired and do what I want when I want in that connection. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why I have an award free blog. If WordPress like to give me one of their official things, that is OK. I do not seek it and it is a reward. I do not have to fulfil ten or more various duties to qualify.

I am not a misery guts by no means and I read and appreciate quite a lot of the blogs written on the daily prompt theme, and others, but I do not do triumphs or victories, not my thing.

I did have a feeling this afternoon, however, that the odds were very much stacked. It was time to refresh the garden, get it ready for the summer. This was a mistake. I had everything ready. Three large bags of fresh earth, each being so heavy I could not lift it. I dragged each bag across the lawn to the flower bed. Now that was a triumph against the odds of getting a slipped disk by lifting the bag. After an hour I had succeeded and the garden beds had a good sprinkling of fresh earth, mixed with poultry manure pellets to make sure the plants had a good growing future. Afterwards I raked the lawn to dethatch it. Now I did not know the word for that in English, but it is removing the moss from the lawn. That was backbreaking work and I discovered that I now longer have a lawn, but a thatch patch. I finally refilled the birdhouse and collapsed at my computer to see what exciting and fulfilling work of daily prompt I had to complete today against all odds.

The main thing is, I survived.

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WordPress Daily Prompt: Your Days Are Numbered

It’s January 26. Write a post in which the number 26 plays a role. 

Photographers, artists, poets: show us NUMBERS.




At the first look at the title I thought I must write (again) what I will do on the 26th, knowing that this day might be my eternal departure in this world. Yesterday my attention was drawn to a headline (by a fellow blogger who is definitely a serious blogger) Enormous Craft Detected on Moon meaning that the end is nye, so get ready we will be invaded by an unknown species from outer space. I was surprised, as usually the nation over the big pond keep such things secret, or use them as a subject for the newest Bruce Willis “save the world” film. Instead the vaults of the CIA/FBI and NASA similar organisations were opened. Of course, I did not close an eye all night, waiting for strange creatures to walk through the walls of my bedroom with almond shaped eyes, and glistening white skin. It did not happen, so here I am writing a daily prompt about what is actually the meaning of the 26th for me.

My birthday is on the 6th (December – in case you want to mark this important date in your calendar) and the only connection I have with the 26th is that it is a day after the 25th. The 25th was always pay day when I was a working woman, although if it was on Sunday, it would mean that the money was only ready to be picked up on 26th. Today I am a senior citizen and both the Swiss and the British government choose to send my money at the beginning of the month, so the 26th has lost all its important meaning.

This morning began as any Sunday morning, although it was the 26th. Mr. Swiss and I arose and took a normal breakfast. I did my normal tour de computer to see if the Martians had landed during the night and afterwards planned my day. As I was cooking roast pork and chose the low temperature cooking way (niedergaren in German, but the English language does not yet seem to have the word for this) I had to plan very carefully and by nine o’clock my meat with the veg (carrot, celeriac, leek, garlic) was all underway in the oven, garnished with large leafed parsley, rosemary, sage. thyme and bay leaf. The rosemary, sage and thyme came from the garden. We had a mild Winter this year and it is still fresh and growing.

You are still wondering what the photo above has to do with all this? I am coming to that part. Oh, isn’t this 26th day of the month exciting! Whilst the apartment was filling with appetising smells from the kitchen I did my normal wip through with the vacuum cleaner and other housewife hobby machines. In the meanwhile Mr. Swiss was finished in the shower and ironed a few items. He was ready for a walk in the country and I was still in my nightdress. I moved onto the shower and afterwards discovered I still had time until final dinner preparations (there were only noodles to cook). What to do with my spare time? It was 26th day of the month and this must be celebrated according to today’s blogging law. My first thought was a daily Tai Chi practice, but it was too early in the morning.

I then took a glace through the window. My bushes and trees no longer resembled the growth in the photo but were now bare, no leaves, but the branches and twigs were still there and my buddeia had decided to slowly strangle the remainders of my rose bush. Then the sun shone through the clouds. I took my courage into my hands and stepped out into the wilderness, commonly known as garden. Armed with my secateurs (that’s a word for my garden scissors) I attacked the buddleia. Before it knew what was happening it had a short back and sides and the rose bush waved its head it appreciation, although its pleasure was short lived as the rose bush was the next in the row. I moved on to a deteriorating overlarge sedum which I quickly trimmed to the ground. The next in the row was the spiraea and one large branch of the eurasien smoketree. I had planned half an hour until 11.30 a.m. and my time was up. The other branches of the smoketree will be cut on another day. I am sure that for some plants in my garden the 26th will remain a memorable day. In the meanwhile Mr. Swiss returned from his hike in the Swiss countryside and the noodles were cooking.

So there we have it, the 26th remains in my memory as the day the garden was cut halfcut. What this day will hold for us, I do not know. I hope the moon is still there this evening and the mysterious object on the dark side remains where it is.

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Autumn is coming, the Pampas is showing

"Hello Pampas, I see you are back again in my garden, showing your feathery head."

"Yes, it was time to start sprouting - have to do something to preserve the species, although in your country it is too cold to have a family. Too much frost and snow in the Winter. Now my relations down in Australia, they spread out all over the place. They even class us as weeds down under. I would emphasise, I am not a weed, but a stately plant, ready to take over when the space allows. Trouble is I am getting a bit hollow in the middle. Even your cats sit on my bare patch there sometimes. But we grow at the edges. Just keep my stalks nice and long during the Autumn and Winter, you will be rewarded with a nice show of something living in the garden. And don't forget to cut me down in Spring, so that I can rejuvinate and start growing for another show next year."

"So that was an interview with my pampas grass who has decided to put his annual appearance in in the garden."

Canna

Although Autumn is just around the corner and we have a cold weather spell at the moment, the canna in a pot in the garden is still flowering. Probably making the most of the remains of the Summer before disappearing into my cellar, where it will stay potted and sleeping until next year when it will again take its place in a sunny spot.

"What did you say Canna?"

"I am not ready to got yet, still have a few flowers to show. Plenty of time, no rush. Just a drink of rainwater now and again and a few sun rays to keep my feet nice and warm and damp. You won't get rid of me so fast."

And that was a report from a small plot of garden somewhere in Switzerland where the foxes and the hares say good night to each other.

Another Week Gone Bye

As you can see I was busy a bit in the garden this week. We had some nice weather and things started to sprout and grow. Unfortunately this also included the weeds, so I was pottering around on my hands and knees pulling them out. Why do I have to be so tall and the ground so far away? In this photo you can see my Japanese Maple Tree which I bought about four years ago in a sale (most of my garden is bought in a sale). I have moved it around at least three times, but now I think it has found its firm place. Next to it is a special offer from the supermarket. Cannot remember what they are called but they were 50% cheaper than the normal price. On the extreme left some seedlings which I hope will develop into fully grown French Marigolds all being well. The problem with the French Marigolds is that when the slug population notice that they have arrived they organised their knives and forks and come in groups for a feast. Luckily there is something known as snail pellets (don't know the proper english name and neither did Wikipedia). They are small blue corns which you can throw amongst the plants. Unfortunately they are the last meal that a slug has in his life. I am animal friendly but after sowing seeds and watching them germinate, I do not like the idea of them being a banquet for the slugs. I told my cats not to touch the blue pellets and they nodded in accordance.

Otherwise the rains came some time on Monday and it is still a bit gloomy . It has also got colder. On Monday morning I had a nice little job. My neighbour has a six month old baby boy, but she had a problem on Monday morning as she had to go to work early and her husband was on a business trip. She asked me if I would take her little boy to the day nursery in the morning. When she left she brought over the baby phone. This is really quite good. Her baby was sort of sleeping but I could hear everything that was going on in his room. Suddenly he made a few baby "I am now awake and ready to start crying" noises which I heard so I went over to the apartment next door to see how it was going. It was nearly time for us to go. Changed his nappy and got him ready and deposited him in the pram and we were off. I think the last time I pushed a baby in a pram was at least 32 years ago when my youngest was a toddler. I quite enjoyed our little walk to the nursery and he did as well. I don't think I would like to go through the process of bringing up babies again, but now and again it is quite fun.

Thanks to face book I noticed that my youngest son has been travelling again. I think it is one of the only reasons I look in regularly to see what he is getting up to. He is stationed in Brussels, but in the last month was twice in Prague and this week in Talinn. I had to look on the map for that one, but it seems to be the capital city of Estonia. I am not very happy about him being in so many airports at the moment, but as long as he does not have to wander off to Mexico I am glad, although pig flu seems to be getting nearer every day. We had a couple of cases in Switzerland in Aarau which is about 30 minutes on the motorway from where I live. It seems to be a 19 year old student that had just come back from Mexico.

I used to like travelling to other countries on holiday but have somehow lost the appetite for such journeys. I know a lot of people that look forward to their annual holidays in other countries, the further the better, but I am happy to be at home. In Mexico you get pig flu, in China the chicken flu and what lies in between also has its dangers. Switzerland is not so perfect, but at least you know what you have.

I had a pack of flaky pastry left in the fridge. They always come in two's and I used one pack for a cheese tart last week, so I decided to make a lemon tart with it. My grandmother used to make wonderful lemon tarts and the recipe died with her, so I am always experimenting. This evening it seemed to be a success when we ate it. So put the pastry in the tin and prod the bottom. I then grated the rind of the lemon over the pastry (my idea). Then I mixed 2,5 dl of cream with milk until I had 4 dl (dl = deciliter). Put two eggs in it and the squeezed juice of one lemon; added sugar to taste and a spoon of cornflour. Then mixed it all with the electric mixer and poured it into the pastry in the tin. It was then baked for about 30-40 minutes and now there is only half left. Mr. Swiss found I could make one of those again. While it was baking I cleaned a few windows (retirement hobby). So leaving you with my lemon tart, I will now depart.

The Wisteria

This is my wisteria - a photo taken some time last year in May when it was full in bloom. Our apartment is in a small estate on the ground floor and we have a garden each side instead of a balcony. There was an arrangement made in the plans for a creeping plant, the trellis work was already there, so we decided on a wisteria. Unfortunately we did not realise that a wisteria likes to climb, likes to stretch out and take over anything near bye. Over the years we have constantly trained the wisteria that he has not climbed up the wall of the building or built a thick curtain in front of our windows by pruning and cutting. The wisteria also decided to take the neighbours balcony in charge on the first floor. She was quite happy as she found it a nice plant to have growing through the holes in the metal, but we cut it back and informed that it would not just grow, but decide to weave its stalks into the metal and probably eventually would crush the complete framework. This is the basis of the problem.

This year Spring arrived after a long snowy Winter. The garden showed itself after the layer of snow and ice and my wisteria appeared again. However, I notice something rather strange. First of all I saw this.

A very thick white root can be seen on the right hand side and on the left a couple of similar shapes. This was at the base of our wisteria. Now our wisteria is planted in front of a wall and after having a quick check in Internet I was not very happy. There were horror stories of the roots being able to destroy foundations and lift paving. Visions of repair costs and rebuilding work came to me. To perhaps put you more in the picture here is a photo of the main stalk of the wisteria.

When it was first planted I was even worried that it would not survive. It had a thin stalk and the leaves started wilting. This is the result after nine years. A wooden trunk. well many wooden trunks, very thick and very strong. We decided that the gardener should pay us a visit to explain if this would be a danger to the wall and the surrounding tiles. We were worried. I even almost lost a night's sleep. Today the gardener arrived and gave up the verdict. After a close inspection of the roots, he said an immediate danger was not there. The roots were a soft material and somehow the root intelligence of the wisteria told it to grow in a direction where there was no danger.

I told the gardener it seems that the whole plant was lifting itself upwards and not going downwards. He took a close look at the immediate roots and saw the two holes in the earth right and left of the main stalk and asked if we had mice. I could say absolutely not, unless my cats brought them as a present from the fields. He said the two holes were probably mice holes as they extended quite a way down. He reassured us that the wall was not in danger and that we have nothing to fear. If we would want to get rid of the wisteria this would be no problem. The gardener would cut through the trunk and put some sort anti growing enzyme on the top of the root. This would stop any further growth, and the roots would just die a slow death in the ground.

After a discussion we decided to keep the wisteria where it is for the time being and have a rethink in Autumn when it makes its Winter sleep. Relations of ours also have a wisteria. They have a house and it has now taken over the complete wall of the house, growing and covering two floors. Another problem with this stupid climbing attacker is that it is not able to keep its leaves. They all fall off in Autumn, which means days of sweeping until they have all disappeared. The mess from the flowers is also an annoyance. I still am not sure whether to condemn my wisteria to death by poison and beheading or not.

Otherwise my garden seems to be behaving quite well. The normal ants, snails and slugs are moving in slowly and seem to be enjoying the fresh earth. I dug over a new flower bed this afternoon and found two baby June bugs, I think they are known as weevils.

His mother lays her eggs in the earth where he stays a couple of years feeding on the nice juicy roots of my plants. They one day in June he climbs up from the earth, but has in the meanwhile turned brown and is equipped with nice big wings, is a flying beetle. What does he do. Not very much they fly around and land on a bush somewhere. There is then a sort of mass sex orgy, and mother June bug flies to the ground and lays her eggs, after which she dies and the whole thing starts all over again. Any how I removed the weevils and threw them into the meadow. So that was life in my garden today.

The Vet, Politics and my Garden

Well I suppose the title tells all so let's start with the vet, although not so exciting.

"You can talk Mrs. Human, how would you feel if you was having a midday sleep and someone wakes you out of your tuna fish dreams and puts you in a cage" and Fluffy gave me an "if cats could kill" look.
"Fluffy I told you we had to go and see uncle doctor. It's all for the benefit of your good health. You know now and again you had some digestive problems and now he wants to check that everything is ok", although Fluffy was still glaring at me.
"That's not the point Mrs. Human, going to the vets is not in my calendar. I have my own routine and travelling in a lift down to the garage is not one of the appointments I had for today."
"But Fluffy, you seemed to be quite happy in the car and didn't make one disapproving miaow all the time. I was quite proud of you."
"I must admit a car ride is not so bad, but afterwards waiting in that vet's surgery until it was my turn was a bit degrading. There are all sorts of animals there, and they don't smell so nice either. I was glad to get into the vet's room for some peace and quiet. Although that was definitely not peaceful. First of all it stuck a needle in my back and ignored the fact that I had to jump when he did it. As if that was not enough he stuck another needle in me muttering something about more resistance and vitamins. Stupid doctor, a tin of tuna would have done the job just as well. As if not enough with degradations, he gave me an infusion and that is really not my sort of thing."
"But it is all for your own good, Fluffy" I told him.
"If you think having an infusion is fun, then I can tell you it isn't. It was only because of that infusion that I made the newspaper wet in my cage on the way home. And while we are talking, I do not like newspaper in the cage. It is so common. I prefer the cat litter, it is so much more discreet. In England you don't even wrap fish and chips up in newspaper anymore."
"OK, sorry Fluffy the next time I will put cat litter in your carry box ."
"Mrs. Human I saw you were taking some photos of the vet's parrot as well, so you should put that here just to show everyone what a nice parrot it is."
"OK, Fluffy, will do, but promise you will go to sleep afterwards."
"Am already nearly in Nirvana Mrs. Human."
And with that Fluffy made a circle, put his head down and slept. If only we humans could sleep as well as a cat.

Did I say something about politics. Well basically I try to avoid the subject of foreign politics. I like to go on about Swiss politics sometimes, but then I have to live with them and our politicians are not better than the others, although they seem to be fairly resistant. We have seven ministers, each with his own department and spread amongst the main political parties. One of them had a heart attack about a month ago, the finance minister. He had an operation for a bypass and other things and now a month later he is back at work. During his absence one of the other ministers looked after his department. We don't have a socialist, conservative, democrat or republican government, it is all mixed up. Of course what goes on in the houses of parliament is spread according to who got the most votes as in other countries (Kantonsrat). We even have a house of lords/senate or whatever you like to call it (Standerat here) and we do have a Federal system based on the American one. Anyhow America decided to go voting yesterday. Not wanting to get mixed up in who was the best and who won, let's just say they now have a president which can probably write his own speeches, which I don't think they had over the last few years, although John McCain was also probably capable of writing what he wanted to say. I decided to let America get on with it, after all it is not my government and they have to put up with it (but I am not unhappy).

And now to the garden. Yes, I have back ache, my shoulder was hurting yesterday and I felt very tired. I have just two small gardens, one at the front of the house and one at the back but they have to be put into hibernation for Winter. As we live in a rather cold climate in Winter, you can't just leave plants to get on with survival through the cold Winter months. They have to be covered up and wrapped in special warm insulating material. The Spring bulbs (daffodils and crocus this year) have to be planted and Mrs. Swiss has just taken a weeks holiday to get it all done. I am now almost finished with all, just have to get some fir tree branches tomorrow at the supermarket to cover up the remaining rose bush. I did buy some today, but they have already been used up on the two rose bushes in the front garden. I now have to protect the one in the back garden.

Mr. Swiss has made himself scarce during the garden work, although he was busy looking after the rooms indoors. Yesterday evening he was out for a rehearsal with one of his jazz groups and this evening again with another group. Yesterday I was left with a football match to watch on the television which I quite enjoyed, but this evening looks like a book evening. I am fighting my way through a book called "The Foucault Pendulum" by Umberto Eco. I don't like giving up on a book, but this one is really a bit on the difficult side (perhaps I should have bought the English version instead of the German one, but I don't think it would have made a lot of difference. Umberto Eco is a complicated author as I found in "The Name of the Rose" which I also read in German).

So that was a typical Mrs. Swiss holiday day and now I wish all my colleagues in England a happy 5th November with lots of Fireworks and bonfires and make sure you keep the cats indoors.
"Yes Mrs. Human tell the people that we cats do not like fireworks. We are frightened of the noise they make."
That was a little plea from all of my three cats.

Miserable Monday

Even the view from our front garden towards the Jura mountains looked very dismal today. It was not so warm and it had rained during the night so it was quite damp. This afternoon I noticed the sun poking through the clouds, but no big deal. We did eat outside on the porch this evening, but I left my laptop indoors as I knew I would retire inside afterwards.

The wet weather has been doing my new lawn good and I am quite satisfied with the result. Shame my neighbour on the top floor Mr. Black (also known as Mr. Misery) is away at the moment enjoying his villa somewhere in the Swiss countryside, otherwise I am sure he would appreciate the change from the nature paradise to the conservative official garden I now have.

Everyone to their own taste I suppose. One thing is certain this is the Swiss garden - everything neat and no grass stalk out of place - except for the bits where I put a little bit too much fertiliser on it, but according to the gardener everything will grow again with no problem.

And here is my pride and joy. Does not look like much, but I was determined to save my walnut tree from the new look in the garden. I planted the walnut about eight years ago in Autumn in the garden as I read they have to go through a Winter before they start growing, and sure enough there was a stalk coming through the earth in Spring. I put it in a pot, and last year I had my first harvest - two walnuts. I bought a new pot, the biggest they had in the supermarket and have now replanted it, hoping for a huge harvest of walnuts this year. On the other end of the patio I have my horse chestnut tree, although I will have to cut that one down this Winter. Planted from a chestnut it has grown quite well. These are the only two experiments I have saved from the old garden.

We also have a peony rose which are supposed to flower at Whitsun, the Germans even have a name translated called Whitsun rose. Ours were a week later this year, but the weather wasn't up to it up to now. I have a new photo programme on the computer called Piknik and you may notice I enjoy playing a bit with it.

So that was short trip around the garden this evening - I took the photos before the evening meal, it's a bit too cold to go out now. Where were the cats, well they disappeared in all directions. Nera was chasing some sort of flying insect and Tabby even caught one and made a meal out of it afterwards. What did you say Tabby?
"Well we didn't get any tuna fish this evening, so winged insect is just as tasty, although a short lived thing. Two bites and it's gone."
"Mine flew away" said Nera "so I had to make do with the dry stuff we all get because it is supposed to be full of vitamins."
Which goes to show that you can spoil the furry monsters how you want to but they are never satisfied.
"Mrs. Human"
"Yes Tabby"
"Show all them humans that look at the things you write that nice photo you took of me in the garden this evening. I am sure it is the best one of me yet - at least I am not sleeping. You never know Garfield might look in one evening and decide I might be the ideal partner in his next film."

How could I resist such a wish from Tabby.

A Walk around the garden

There is not much going on in the garden at the moment. We had a spell of cold weather which seems to have turned the brakes on the growth. These are so-called Christmas roses, although the proper Christmas ones are white. This is always the first plant that flowers in the garden.

I then found these flowering away. I don't know what they are called, but I planted them in a border a couple of years ago.

Even found some tulips that had started flowering. Funny the things I discover and don't even remember planting it. Then there was these two rare objects.

Roschti had decided to pay our Fluffy a visit in the garden. Actually he charged on into our place, but I soon managed to turn him in the other direction with a loud command. Fluffy felt quite secure outside as I was near bye. They just sat there looking at each other.

What was Tabby and Nera watching? They suddenly came out of their sleeping places and stared at the window. This time it was not Roschti, the red enemy, but Bobinette from next door. She was looking in through the window and this did not suit my two cats. It's funny how they notice something like that. Bobinette didn't even make any noise, but was just sitting there. I think cats do have a 6th sense somehow.

In the meanwhile Fluffy decided to have a lick to prepare for a long sleep and Nera amused herself in a place where she shouldn't be.

I told her to find somewhere else and with a hiss she went off in another direction. That was the day more or less in pictures. Oh I saw that the snails are also back in the garden.

It was Spring again today

As fast as the snow came, it disappeared and I was not sorry. At last I had time to do in the garden, what I wanted to do last week over the Easter holiday. I had already cut the pampas a couple of weeks ago, so now it was time to put some fresh earth in the garden and plant a few things I had ready. I used to enjoy gardening, I still do, but it seems that as the years go by I don't seem to be able to do the work as quickly as I used to. Am I getting older? I used to plant pots full of flowers and boxes with geraniums. I even had tomatoes growing in the garden. Today I am happy with a few dahlias. I havn't planted vegetable for the last couple of years and just have the apple tree and some blackberries/raspberries which are very independent and grow all on their own.

Deutsch: So schnell wie der Schnee kam, ist er verschwunden und es tut mich nicht Leid. Endlich hätte ich Zeit zu tun in der Garten was ich wollte über Ostern. Ich schnied der Pampas vor ein paar Wochen, so jetzt war es Zeit frische Erd in der Garten zu graben und ein paar Sachen pflanzen was schon lange bereit war. Ich machte Gartenarbeit gerne, und immer noch aber wie die Jahren vorbei gehen, kann ich nicht mehr so schnell arbeiten wie früher. Werde ich älter? Ich pflanzte Topf mit Blumen und hätte Geraniumkisten. Ich hätte sogar Tomaten in der Garten. Heute bin ich glücklich mit ein paar Dahlien. Ich hätte keine Gemüse seit ein paar Jahren und habe nur die Apfelbaum, Himbeere und Brombeere - sie wachsen von alleine.

The cats decided gardening was not very interesting and just sat their waiting for something to happen. I eventually was finished and still had an hour to spare. In the meanwhile Mr. Swiss was programming my computer to meet my new telephone thing which I described in a blog a couple of days ago. The programming ran very smoothly. As I have a new computer I was busy putting addresses and other information into it. I ignored the remark by Mr. Swiss about having so many addresses - where do they come from?

Deutsch: Die Katzen fand die Gartenarbeit nicht so interessant und haben einfach gewartet bis etwas passierte. Ich war endlich fertig und hätte noch eine Stunde. In der Zwischenzeit Herr Schweizer war am meinen neuen computer programmieren, dass es meine neue Telefon triff irgendwo in der Netzwerk (siehe frühere Blog). Die Programmierung lauft sehr gut. Weil es ein neue Computer war, musste ich mich beschäftigen mit meine Adressen und E-mails hineinpflanzen. Ich ignorierte die Bemerkung von Herr Schweizer dass ich so viel Adressen haben - wo kommen sie aller her?

My No. 2 son was also paying us a visit for a few days. He lives in Brussels but will be going back tomorrow. With permission here is a photo. He spends most of his free time in Switzerland in the billiard hall. Basically I only see him in between when he is here which is probably one of the reasons why we get on so well with him.

Deutsch: Meine No. 2 Sohn war auch auf Besuch für ein paar Tag. Er Wohnt in Brussels und geht züruck morgen. Mit seine Bewilligung hier ist ein Foto. Er verbringt die meisten Freizeit in der Schweiz in der Billiardhalle. Eigentlich sehe ich ihn nur dazwischen, deshalb haben wir wahrscheilich so ein gutes Verhältniss.

Apart from the disappointment that West Ham United again lost a match today by a goal in the last minute, it was a nice quiet day. Tonight is the worst night of the year - one hour less sleep. I will be looking for it until Autumn.

Deutsch: Abgesehen von der Enttäuschung das West Ham United wieder verloren hat beim Fussball - ein goal in letzter Minute, es war ein schöne ruhiger Tag. Heute Nacht ist das schlimmster in Jahr - eine Stunde weniger Schlaf. Ich werde diese Stunde suchen bis Herbst.

03.11.2007 - What did we do today

I decided I prefer mental work to physical work. Today it was a physical work day. This morning I was allowed out, in the company of Mr. Swiss, to do the rest of the week-end shopping. On the top of the list was a new toaster. Can't really complain. The last toaster we bought died yesterday at the age of 38 years. We bought it just after we got married and it had lived through many slices of toast in a family with four children and two adults.

Yesterday evening I had put smoked salmon on the menu with toast. These days smoked salmon is not the luxury it used to be and the fish seem to be multiplying without any problem. There was a special offer for atlantic salmon so there we were, Mr. Swiss, my No. 1 son and me, sitting down to toast and salmon. We were nearly finished when suddenly by the last piece of toast there was a sort of small explosive noise, we had a light show where the plug was and all items depending on electricity gave up. This also included Mr. Swiss computer, but luckily it was running ok afterwards. In this completely dark world Mr. Swiss went to the fuse cabinet, but before doing anything told me to pull the plug of the toaster. I was keen to oblige, but could not see a */-%&-- thing so just pulled the whole thing out. Mr. Swiss did the necessary with the fuses and there was light once again. He noticed with disappointment that when I pulled the plug out, I just pulled the whole unit out so he had to fix the time on the radio again. I mentioned to him that I couldn't see a bloody thing in the dark, and eventually things got back to normal. Needless to say the new toaster was No. 1 on the list today, especially as we still have a packet of toast bread to use up at home. We took the dead toaster back to the toaster happy hunting grounds at the shop. Very sad.

We also had a few other items to buy, but I just pushed my trolley in the supermarket (known as Migros in Switzerland - sort of Swiss Tesco) and Mr. Swiss filled it up with the necessaries. We then had to go to a second supermarket (Swiss Co-op) because it was the only place around here where they sell Kit-Bits for cats. My black cat Nera loves them. Sort of round bits cut off with a white pastry looking cover and filled with something brown. Big disappointment they had none. They did have 3 other sort of cat munchies, but our cats do not like them. Must make a complaint to the head of the co-op. They just seem to fill up the shelves with stuff that cats don't like.

That was the morning behind us, so when I got home I cooked some lunch (if you really want to know it was finely sliced veal in a cream sauce with mushrooms and rice).

In the afternoon it was time for physical training. The garden was slowly resembling the everglades so we decided to give everything a firm cut down and clear out the stuff, particularly as the gardener is coming on Monday to cut the privet down. I like a nice high privet, but the neighbours are not so keen on it (just one neighbour actually, but what you do for the neighbours). Although in Winter when the snow comes it tends to weigh down the branches and our poor neighbour cannot walk up the path without walking into a snowy branch.

I took the photo after the job was done. The white stuff on the ground is white stones that we started putting down where the lawn had disappeared at one time or another. We plan to do the rest, but unfortunately during the job Mr. Swiss got a problem with his back, so we had to postpone the rest. It all looks quite neat, but unforunately what looks now neat was up to two meters tall before I cut it down. Mr. Swiss sawed off the trunks.

This was just half of what we cut off. The rest is packed in the green container and the two green plastic bags. We will have to cut this into small pieces, but have reserved it for tomorrow afternoon. How I am looking forward to my Sunday afternoon.

We packed up around four o'clock in the afternoon, so I had a nice 30 minutes to finish off the ironing I had waiting for me. Then I got going with the evening meal and now I am relaxing with a cup of coffee at the computer. My back is aching and I will probably fall asleep in the armchair this evening in front of the tv, but as we say I am tired but happy.

Pampas Grass

I think it was about eight years ago when they had a special offer in the local supermarket (again) for pampas grass. My garden had started growing and I decided it would be a nice plant to put in the middle of the “lawn” (I am not a lawn type – so it is more daisies than grass). When it arrived it was quite compact with a few strands of leaves forming a circle. I had often admired the gardens with pampas grass being the main attraction in Autumn showing their flowers. My pampas grass was very reluctant to show any flowers for the first two years. Although it grew quite a lot of leaves, it just stayed a bundle of long grass.

I think it was the third year when at the end of August some sturdy stalks started stretching through the leafy mass. As they grew taller there was something strange poking out of the middle of the stalks. Imagine the pride I had when I realised they were the first flowering stalks that were appearing. The first year there were only about five of them but it was a beginning.

A year later I was visiting the family in London for a week and called in at the local Internet café (my dad doesn’t have a computer – he found that when he got to the age of 80 it wasn’t worth bothering about), I tuned into home and found that I had a mail in my mailbox from my other half with an attachment. The pampas had managed at least ten stalks that year and my husband had sent a photo to prove it. Since then we havn’t been disappointed any more.

We usually leave them until the following year in Spring, so they usually get a coating of snow during the Winter.

When Spring arrives we take the hedge cutter and give it a short back and sides. The leaves are razor sharp when cut and we do have a bit of excitement now and again if they happen to get wound around your fingers. That is when the colourful mixture of German and English negative remarks are to be heard in the garden. However, eventually after collecting the cut grass and fruit spears the plant looks tidier, although a bit naked. By the time June arrives it is already half way there in growth and in Autumn, as now, we have our show once again.

Did I mention that our cats like to relax under the pampas grass in Summer to get away from the sun’s rays.

Apples

It's slowly going towards Autumn, the Summer came early this year and brought plenty of rain, so the garden started growing fast and furious. This had advantages and disadvantages. The snails quite enjoyed theirselves this year. It is not one of the top meals that my cats enjoy - they actually avoid snails. It think it might be because they stick to their paws when they touch them. Nera, my big black fat cat, just squashes them when she lays on them. They dry up in her fur and that was one of the reasons she has a fur shave now and again under sedation at the vets.

Anyhow the weather seemed to do my apple tree good this year. Actually I have a soft spot for my apple tree. When we moved in ten years ago, we just had a lawn with a hedge round it. I then got to work on digging up the lawn, but the first plant I bought was my Apple Tree. Our local supermarket chain, called Migros in Switzerland, had a special offer going for apple trees. At thirty Swiss francs it was quite reasonable so I took it home. My other half was not so keen on the idea, having the vision of a five foot tall apple tree blocking the light from all the windows. I reassured him that it would grow taller than me (actually I am 1 m 75 cm, and the label said two meters, but 25 cms doesn't really make a big difference). I had to be patient - although the tree did flower from the first year I got my first two apples three years later. Over the last ten years it has had good years and not so good years. This year is quite good and looks like an over 100 apple year. The problem with having one apple tree is that it cannot make apples itself and you need a second one. I decided not to try to persuade my other half a second tree was necessary and just hoped that a neighbour had one that would flower at the same time.

I was lucky, just round the corner there is a small garden with an apple tree. I was doubly lucky as the bees and flying insects actually found their way to my garden, and the result was my first harves. I also have a smaller apple tree growing next to this one, which I have grown from a pip. That will probably be bearing the first apple in five years.

As it is now going towards end September, I decided that harvest time was getting near. I fought my way through blackberry/raspberry bushes that seem to have started taking over, and found that yes, there were apples looking ready to be eaten. Hubby found a few on the ground, some the victim of wild insect life, but a few looking quite healthy. I decided to try one and found it quite good. So it is now apple time again.