Rattling On...

Sod's Law...

It has been fine, glorious even, for about ten days...

As soon as the paeonies bloom and the school Jubilee picnic is due to take place the wind gets up and it rains.

The paeony thing happens every year, it's like a markable day. Paeony Day. When the flowers burst forth and the wind whips away the petals.

I'm just hoping it's fine for the rest of today or it really will be a terribly British picnic. You know the ones, huddled inside the nearest shelter, sweaty butties and a lukewarm drink attracting wasps.

Please tell me these aren't just a feature of my own childhood. But then, I remember a particularly exciting picnic from when I was twelve. I know which summer it was because it was just before my friend left. She was a refugee from Beirut and very sophisticated. She did the cheek kissing thing when she met up with you, had pancakes for breakfast and once bought me a bendy Sindy for my birthday.

Anyway, we took her to Alton Towers for the day. This was when it was a house and gardens with attractions rather than just one big attraction. It was a lovely day, no rain. My Mother had packed a cloth and proper plates. We set it all up under a tree and it was like something from a photo shoot. I still have a photo in fact from just before...

Just before a hoarde of wasps descended on all the food. Before my Dad went completely nuts and, enraged, trampled all over everything. It was a grand day.

My Dad isn't a big fan of insects.  A moth once went down the back of his shirt. It was a nice blue shirt. Was. Once again he went beserk and tore at the shirt in his haste to rid himself of the beast within. He was left with a collar round his neck and the sleeves hanging at his sides, the body of the poor blue shirt in one hand, swatting away at the long gone moth.

Which has reminded me of once, long ago, sitting in my Dad's maroon car. The one I loved and which had springs in the seats and straps inside the doors. I had an itchy foot but was wearing brown lace-up shoes (I think we were going out somewhere Special) and couldn't get to it. I remember being told to sit still as I was distracting the driver, my Dad. I wriggled and fidgeted one foot against the side of the other to try to scratch the now unbearable tickling itch.

I managed to loosen the lace and ease my foot out of the shoe a bit. A massive black beetle then crawled out of the shoe and up my ankle. Guess what happened next...

Blackbird diaries...

Can you see him?

What about now?

Any clearer?

There's a definite pattern to blackbird daily life, focused around food I suspect. I'm not sure whether this is natural or influenced a little bit by me.

I feed them twice a day, early morning and when I get home from work. They are quite bare-faced when it comes to asking for food by sitting on the fence or in the tree and making a soft noise until I oblige. I can recognise the babies' calls now, and can sneakily imitate them, which means they don't tend to scarper when I'm around.

I usually feed them under the laurel and, like here, under the fruit bushes. It's the type of place they'd choose naturally and it gives good cover. I always check the coast is clear of jackdaws and moggies. Crow wasn't far away when I was taking these pictures- there seems to be a truce at the moment. Maybe now the babies can fly quite well (better than him) he's less of a threat.

The parents still feed the chicks, but they also feed off the floor by themselves. Dried mealworms and the odd bit of cheese. The sparrows also appear and they all seem to get on. I change the little bowl of water every day, it's very popular and the sparrows grab a crafty bath which gets mud in it.

From what I can tell, all four fledglings are still around. This is great compared to other years, when sometimes none have survived. The only thing suffering for now is the front garden...

The hedge needs attention and the grass is wild. But, but... I don't want to upset the blackbird applecart and potentially scare the babies into danger. It won't be long before they won't give a whatsit about what I do in there. For now, I'm making them a priority. Maybe a quick trim at the weekend with some low-tech implements...

Pre Jubilee spree...

Yesterday I made the first of my Jubilee cakes, yes the first. Bring it on...

I did it yesterday as it involved the use of industrial amounts of food colouring and a little planning. I will leave it to you to decide, on Saturday, whether it was worth spending the whole morning beggaaring about.

Obviously, more icing sugar was flying round the kitchen and I found myself wondering if I should be wearing a face mask and goggles, if there were such a thing as baker's lung. You know, something nasty caused by breathing in all that flour and icing. If there is don't tell me.

The Flickr group pool is now set up. Please get joining so you can post your pics on Saturday. I'm planning my suitably themed blog post for that day and suspect no patriotically coloured item in the house will remain unconsidered. I've given up trying to think of clever and subtle ideas, I'm now just going for the bleeding obvious in all its glory. Red, white and blue. How difficult can that be? (Diamonds proved a little harder...)

We are having a Jubilee picnic for the whole school on Thursday and I have to organise an outfit as well. My requests for the department to dress in 50s inspired gear met with incredulous gazes. Sod them, I'm going in 50s with as much diamante as I can muster.

And as a last thought... when it says on a bottle of blue food colouring 'Washes off hands easily'... don't believe it.

A conversation piece for the home...

I took myself off to Leek flea market yesterday, but when I got there I found there was all sorts of extra stuff going on. Food market, craft market, a marching band, sunshine, a stuffed deer...

If on some off chance you've been reading this drivel for more than two years you may be reminded of this post. Same stallholder. Maybe it's a little sideline she has going. I am no zoologist but if I had to take a punt I'd say this was a roe deer doe. Which also sounds like a move in line dancing.

I was quite restrained and, though sorely tempted, didn't buy the deer; but did purchase an old clothes horse. And it isn't stuffed. I am contemplating whether to leave it looking tres shabby chic or tart it up. In as much as you can tart up a few bits of wood cobbled together to make an airer.

Where I spend my days...

Another glorious day yesterday, with a pleasant breeze to make it even more lovely. I thought I'd show you a little bit of the place where I spend my working days, the outside at least.

A lot of care is taken to keep it looking nice and also to be quite wildlife friendly as well. On a day like today it was looking its best...

The school has grown around the original college which was built in 1881, though was founded in the sixteenth century. When I was at school there were five secondary sites in the town. A girls' Upper and Lower, a boys' Upper and Lower and the Catholic school. Now the four boys' and girls' sites are all merged into one super-school (this one) and three former grounds turned into housing estates, with one now being the library and area education offices. The Catholic school remains the same, but larger. Though still a lot smaller than 'my' school. If you see what I mean! We have around 1300 students from quite a large catchment area.

The gym in the last picture is currently doing sterling service as the exam hall. When I took my exams none of the schools had anywhere big enough and we all went to the local Drill Hall, next to the Police Station (and mortuary...), to toil over the papers. Those were the days...

When I was taking these photos, after school when all the students had gone home, I was gratified to find that one of the site staff came to challenge me. I had sunglasses on and he hadn't recognised me. One day this camera will get me arrested...

Summer!

Yesterday the sun shone. It was a beautiful day and hot, in the afternoon it hit 28^oC. Of course most people at school were moaning and groaning because of this. And it is a shock to go from 8^o to 28^o virtually overnight, I'll grant them that. But the feel of the sun on the back of my neck as it streamed through the window was just lovely.

The woman next door (you remember...the Minimalist) has been painting her garden furniture in celebration. The most unusual shade of pale green. Last night she sat out sipping her ice cold white wine while I made my own favourite summer tipple...

...Rose's lime juice cordial, love it, and get through gallons when it's warm.

The garden is very blue at the moment, following on from the yellow period in spring. Bluebells and forget-me-nots are everywhere, are the latter classed as weeds? I think they are by some people but I adore the way they fill up all the space in the borders. I like the traditional country garden look, a sort of organised chaos. Having said that I like things like lawns and hedges to be cut to military standards. Split gardening personality.

No doubt all talk at work today will be how little sleep there has been due to The Heat. Not a problem for me, I have been tucked under the 15 tog duvet as I always am. I'm like a corpse at night and it would have to be a lot hotter than this to keep me awake.

On a different subject altogether, a long time ago I registered to receive a copy of the programme for the classes at the County Show. It came and I eagerly riffled through for the craft class... the knitting part is for... drum roll... a tea cosy. Blah. How inspiring, I don't think so.

My knee jerk reaction was Jubilee, but no doubt that will be done to death. So if I want to enter I shall have to get my thinking cap on. It's all cutting edge stuff round here...

Death by chocolate...

...following slow and excruciating torture, also by chocolate.

I promised one of the boys I work with a chocolate fudge cake, his favourite. He'd better be in the chocolatey groove today!

In other news: as far as I can tell all the blackbird chicks are fine and the parents are refurbing the nest ready for the next brood.

Crow is also fine, poor little man. As two of the fledglings are currently in his laurel tree, he gets nagged until he loeaves each morning. Only returning to roost in the evening. When the adult blackbirds leave him alone. I wish they'd let him be during daylight hours but I suppose it's Nature and they're just protecting their young. At night the truce is odd but a relief from the cacking noise they bombard him with if he tries to come 'home'.

I am pondering Jubilee cake ideas. Chocolate will not feature, I'm sick of the smell of it...

What's cooking?

On Saturday I went out of town on the hunt for something in particular. A piece of furniture that used to be everywhere, going for a song. When I didn't want one. Now...

Anyway, in the window of a charity shop was a poster for a little local antiques and collectors fair, on in the church hall at that very minute. And it wasn't half bad. I got this casserole dish which I will probably use more as a serving dish. Nice.

Nicer was the sandwich, brownie and mug of tea I had with some older ladies who were visiting from Liverpool. I never got round to asking them how they found their way to a little village in Derbyshire.

Nicest was on the way out, a book stall manned by a laconic chap (all sold in aid of church funds on this stall) who just couldn't understand why I fell over myself to get into a box at the back.

Five for a pound. And even then he thought he was robbing me and wouldn't take any more. I'd paid to get in and bought lunch so I didn't feel too bad about it. You can bet someone else wouldn't have had qualms if I hadn't taken him off at the elbow.

I am now checking what to expect when summer arrives, as surely it must? The sun was out yesterday...

Save the date...

How about Saturday the 2nd of June for the Jubilee Cakes Day? That gives us two weeks to plan and bake (like much planning ever goes into mine!) our cakes, photo them and get the post ready.

The 2nd is also the actual anniversary of the Coronation, confusingly the celebrations are planned for the 5th when an extra Bank Holiday has been bestowed upon us.  

I've already opened a Flickr group and should you have a glut of Jubilee themed food then please feel free to join and post your pictures at any time.

Prior to the 2nd please confirm to me that you have a blog post ready and I'll do all the links. If you don't have a blog (and/or a Flickr account) then you can send me your pictures and I'll publish them with full credits to you. Unless they put mine to shame. Just kidding. Maybe...

Today's the day...

Turns out there were four in there and a little while ago I saw one of them bobbing past the back door. The others seem a little undecided.

Poor old Crow in the front garden is getting an ear bashing from the male as the baby must have gone in that direction. He hasn't bothered them up until now so hopefully they'll leave him in peace later on.

I've put some music on quite loud as I have to be honest and say that the birds are driving me bonkers at the monent. The noise from them all is incredible. A magpie was around yesterday and six blackbirds and assorted sparrows came to scare it off and they all flew after it over the road. I admire them so much.

I'm going to try not to pay too much attention to the babies. I can't take the stress. That's all the nests fledged now... and another is being built in the climbing hydrangea under the bathroom window.

There's definitely been success. A few days ago there was a lot of rustling in the laurel and a very funny noise coming from it. It was a baby blackbird trying to get fed by a different set of parents (the ones of these fledglings), it was just following them around and sort of cackling at them. It's a female and has new feathers coming through so fully able to care for herself!

Le Croissant...

I mentioned The Crescent yesterday, or at least the back of it. It's such a beautiful old building. Was... could be again if funding ever gets nailed down. Current talk is of it becoming some sort of spa hotel.

Quite frankly I don't think people would care if it became a bordello as long as just wasn't let to rot. Okay, maybe a few old fuddy duddies might...

The place is currently occupied only by birds and the occasional squatter. Nice...

I'm reminded here of a friend of my daughter's who in a French exam asked 'What's croissant in French?'

Rear view...

If I had a blog banner this would be it. This is the view of the post-war housing estate you get when driving past the station in town, I love it.

Right along the bottom of the picture are the roofs of the Victorian houses behind the viaduct. I don't like looking at the viaduct any more as a large halls of residence has been built behind it. It's an eyesore, necessary I'm sure, but so aesthetically unpleasing.

Further along are the Victorian terraces, one of which on this photo was my first home with my first mortgage. We sold it to move down south, where we had to pay twice as much for about a third of the space. I don't think there's such a big disparity these day as a lot of people live here who work in the connurbations of Manchester and Sheffield and the prices rose accordingly.

Having said that you can still buy a decent sized house here for what some lunatics pay for a car.

And peeping out on the left, behind the church, is the roof of the house we had before we moved to Russia. It looks like it's close to the Church but it isn't really. It's at the top of an incredibly steep hill, one that people avoid walking up if at all possible, and one you don't drive on in winter. Getting to school and work used to be interesting when the girls were small if there was even a hint of frost!

I think the backs of houses are more interesting than the fronts. Mostly. Some people have those enviable houses with well-tended gardens and neat driveways. Mine aspires to be one of those from the front, but I spend much more time attending to the back. I suppose because we sit out there. Or we would if... you know.

I leave you with one more back shot...

the Georgian Crescent, which I've blogged about before (and again and probably more over the years). Now boarded up and still waiting to be rescued. Reading the post in the first link I realise that a tiny bit of progress has however been made and I shall have to go out and do a recce to prove it...

Blossom...at last!

 

At last there is apple blossom in the garden, how many weeks behind the rest of the country? Never mind, better late and all that.

We have four trees, the Bramley in the front garden is always even further behind, but will get there eventually. The damson blossom was the best so far, at least something is enjoying the weather. (3^oC on arrival at work yesterday and massive hailstones almost all day)

Thanks for the interest shown in making Jubilee cakes. I'll put together a post about where and when to dispaly said confections. Please don't think you have to be a master baker to join in, and the decorations don't have to be icing. It's more for fun and giving vent to imagination. (You've seen my icing, right?)

Oh, and Crow is still in the front garden, in the laurel tree. He has breakfast and afternoon tea now. Yesterday he came down to feed almost as soon as the food touched the floor, so he's braver and I hope healthier. It takes around six weeks for feathers to regrow so he has a long time to sit in my tree.

I mentioned at work that Crow's feathers looked like they'd been singed, and M pondered whether it was the result of sitting on a chimney. Have to admit I hadn't thought of that.

An Elizabeth Sponge cake...

Last week I made an enormous cake for a work colleague's birthday. It was a chocolate sponge with raspberry and cream filling. Much like the one above, but then again different.

I got the cake out at break time and was amazed at how blatantly greedy some people can be. How they cut the biggest slice imagineable and scoff it down without a nod to how it came to be there on the table.

Arriving home the same evening I put the, now empty, cake carrier on the side to be washed. No2 lifted the lid and couldn't hide her disappointment at the emptiness within. She'd thought, quite rightly, that a cake of that size would have yielded at least a miniscule leftover piece.

So, I made a tiny cake for us. The one in the picture. Sometimes I think I should go into business making sponge cakes. It seems to be what I spend a lot of time doing, usually for other people and often for something school-related. There's another cake sale on today and I decided I wouldn't bake for it but I will make a donation. I need a sponge-break.

But not for long as I've had an idea. Always dangerous. All you cake makers/decorators out there- does anyone fancy joining in wth a themed cake-event? Just for fun and details to be finalised... the theme will be something current, something you can't escape this year. The Jubilee... we might as well go with the flow, no? It's not just for Brits, either. It's positively international in its potential. 

If you're up for it please leave a comment and we'll co-ordinate a date to publish our efforts, cunningly timed to co-incide with the big event. And if you don't have a blog but would like to join in then I'll be happy to post your photos right here. What about a Flickr group as well? You know you want to...

There seem to be two...

As this is the female who is very used to me I don't feel too worried about poking the camera into the bushes to get a look at what's going on. This is at least the third year she's appeared on the blog.

I thought the nest opposite the back door had been abandoned, but at the weekend I noticed a male going in there with food! That makes four nests in the garden and two are only about twenty feet apart.

The other one that's easy to get to I shan't try to look in as I don't 'know' the birds, though the female is fine with me peering at her every day.

I don't like this time of year, very stressful altogether. Though logically I don't see how four nests' worth of chicks in one garden could really be sustainable if I didn't feed them all year round.

But there's the dilemma... if I stopped the blackbirds possibly wouldn't survive, and if I keep doing it I'll be over-run one day! At least they all seem to get on. For the moment...

Back after lunch to say...Whoops...

...and then there were three!!