R's rue

Tower Bridge Okay, let me backtrack to last weekend. If you remember, Shirley and I went down to London to see our beloved son Ian and his delightful girlfriend Sarah. They have just bought a house together in Fulham. Please don't ask me how much it cost. An eye watering amount. On the first night, Ian rustled up a fine vegan meal with meaty jackfruit and roasted chick peas as well as lollo rosso lettuce and couscous with red peppers. Then we had water melon and mango pieces for dessert. All very nice and so for those few hours I was vegan. I still wonder why some people get hot under the collar about veganism - making ill-informed judgements and sweeping generalisations. On Saturday we hoped to visit The Chelsea Physic Garden near The Royal Hospital. It is a very old garden in which a wide range of medicinal plants are displayed for the public's pleasure. Annoyingly it is closed on Saturdays so we could not venture in. One of us should have checked. The Walkie Talkie ...

  I’m a bit breathless  Prima Facie , the filmed play by Suzie Miller has left me thoughtful and somewhat shaken .  A one woman show, it has Jodie Comer playing, Tessa an incredibly successful criminal barrister in London. Tessa has made good from her working class Liverpudlian roots and by using every trick in her considerable arsenal she has proved herself to be especially adept in defending men in sexual assault cases. Now Tessa clearly proclaims that she always works to prove the  legal truth in her cases and this is a game to point out the holes in the prosecutions case and this game is a game she is good at. However, when she is assaulted herself, by a potential boyfriend who is also a successful barrister, she is left to fight a paternalistic legal system weighted against her as a woman.  Comer is truly remarkable as Tessa. With real Liverpudlian timing she hits her delivery with true machine gun zeal and that pace is maintained full speed ...

 The thunderstorms which have been promised haven’t materialised. Subsequently the ground is dry as a bone and the grass on the field is like straw, yellow and burnt. I climbed up the field gate and over the church wall.  It wasn’t a pretty sight.  All arse and groaning!!! I refilled the shallow enamelled dish with water, the one I’d placed out a week ago to water the rabbits, then watered my laburnum which is looking healthy and happy.  It took the rabbits a few days to feel safe with the dish and it’s satisfying watch them, a whole gaggle of birds and the stray white cat drinking from it, especially at dusk. The dish, laburnum ( top right) and the historic thirteenth century church prayer cross on the top left I’ve done a pile of paperwork today. Bought a new washing machine on line and measured the outside of the cottage for the CBM who will be designing a roof for the patio before autumn .  I’m about the embark on downsizing the spare room whic...

Amongst Simon's things, in a dump of cardboard boxes, I found a figure that I had not seen for fifty years or more. I had completely forgotten about it. I guess that I made it when I was eleven or twelve years old. It represents the pinnacle of my exceedingly short career in fabric craft. Our mother Doreen was a brilliant craftswoman. She could turn her hand to just about anything - from embroidery to lampshade making and from gloving to basket weaving. I remember her guiding me through the process of creating my little "Gonk" figure - with me insisting that I do it all by myself. In the end I was as pleased as punch with what I had done.I think it was a year or two later that I sewed "Hull City" on the back of my unique "Gonk" and the number 8 which was Ken Wagstaff's shirt number. I have no idea what Waggy would have thought of my Gonk tribute. It is possible that he might have been offended. It's just past 1.30pm on Thursday. Yesterday ...

 Like the mountain Whistling the treetops The lightning snapping The branches I’m seeing That time Is a truth teller No matter What humans  Believe from R's rue https://ift.tt/Ootl53e