(no subject)
Frogspawn, early March 2006
The BBC's 'Springwatch' item that they're featuring on the weather show a couple of times a week is interesting - suddenly there's big patches of red over most of the British Isles confirming frogspawn. It's late this year, understandably so given the cold dry weather. Ours cames when we had a mild day and damp/fog/rain. They're also using colour coding for bumble bees and butterfly sightings, but there's not much activity from the latter yet. We had a red admiral in the garden for a few days recently and I watched a couple of big bumble bees on the viburnum this morning. That's the only plant that's flowering at the moment. The daffodils are trying though.
This week went quickly, and I finally made a decision to sign up for a herbalism course. The first three lessons came as pdf files via e-mail on Friday and they each have an assignment attached to them. There's nothing too scary so far - the first lesson goes into plant classification, photosynthesis, and introduces two herbs - Chamomile and Comfrey - we've grown both of those in the garden in the past. Coincidentally, I also bought both of them to include in a salve I'm in the process of making. My skin has suffered so much this winter and the salve sounds good - I got the recipe from the apothecarium community - it involves extracting the herbal oils by soaking them in another oil (I used almond, which I got cheap on e-bay) - then mixing it with other ingredients and letting it set. I'm still at the 'extraction' stage and the herbs are soaking in the oil at the bottom of the oven. I had to wait until I'd finished cooking my apple pie, which smells so good :) One day I'll make just the right amount of pastry so that I don't have to make jam tarts with the rest of it?
Anyway, I'm hoping the course will motivate me and make me feel enthusiastic about something for a while - because of the lack of spring, life feels flat at the moment and I have that 'anticipation' of wanting to get going with things, but not being able to. I'd like to get going in the garden now - we are hoping to dismantle the greenhouse this year, because it is used for little more than storage, and open up the concrete area it stands on. Ideally, we'd like to get rid of the concrete base, but I don't think that's possible because most of the houses in this road have an air-raid shelter in the garden and most of them were concreted over. A sunken herb garden might be interesting?! We'd also like more space down the drive. At present, there's a shed which houses our bikes and a few tools and it's not the best use of space. So, bring on the warm weather.
I picked up Alan Garner's 'Weirdstone of Brisingamen' paperback for 20p in one of the charity shops this morning! Strictly speaking, I think it's a childrens book, but I would like to finish it. I first read part of it when I was in my first year of grammar school but the girl who I borrowed it from got impatient and demanded it back. Most of the local charity shops seem to be having 'half price sales' like the main high street stores do, which is strange. Also found a book called 'Give me my Father's Body' about an Inuit taken from his Greenland home - sounds really sad, but something I'd like to read. I tried to buy some Simon Brett books on Amazon last night for Fred's mum, but the whole lot got rejected for some reason and I need to re-order - I'm just worried because I can't work out why that happened - her card was in date, correct etc. She seems to be doing OK - Fred took her for a bone density scan first thing yesterday morning, prior to which he dropped me off at work. We both agreed that she is deteriorating mentally, but how on earth do you tell someone that. Her hearing seems to be shot away now too and you have to shout at the top of your voice when you arrive at her flat - if she doesn't hear you, and she's standing up, there's a risk you'll startle her and she'll fall over. Bit of a nightmare sometimes!
Last night, the pizza tasted so good - the busier the week at work, the better the pizza is :) I realised last night that I'd become predictable, at last, with my order, when the man at the take-away finished off my topping list for me. I got A History of Violence out from Blockbusters on the way home - that's got to be the best film I've seen for some time - Viggo was amazing :) We finished up with an apple danish each and felt very full up. Our diet is so plain and relatively healthy normally that all that dough is so filling. I couldn't even face breakfast this morning.
Time to go and stir the herbs and ready a bit more of my course before getting going with a salad for dinner. I've recorded Hustle to watch tonight, but we need to go out and have a walk before we get settled down for the evening. It's just starting to get really cold now too, even with the heating on, so I guess I'd better put another layer of clothes on. I also need to reactivate ruby_stone, at least for a while, because I keep wanting to look back on things from last year and I can't access it! Maybe I could change the name? ruby_dormant perhaps...