Day of Gardening and Family

Written by a Retired female from Whetstone.

Written on August 12th 2010.

FOR 12TH AUGUST It all began with glorious sunshine, around 6am, yippee solar panels will be doing their thing. My thing is going downstairs in my nightdress at 7 to put the porridge on. It was made the previous day and left to stand overnight in the microwave oven. I then do my yoga exercises and get dressed in my old gardening clothes. Breakfast on porridge with added banana and fresh picked garden blueberries. Read more of Saturday's Times, while listening to radio London.

Into the garden to water the tomatoes and blueberries and pick more blueberries, gooseberries, blackberries, courgettes, runner beans and windfall apples and plums. Also dead head roses and do a little weeding which goes on one of the 5 compost heaps. Then a vigorous attack on unwanted blackberry ramblers, elder trees and ivy all of which go into the green bin at the front of the house. Clean the greenhouse windows inside and out.

Open front door to special delivery royal mail man and open letter containing my 10% reduced price John Lewis vouchers which I file upstairs and put £20 in my purse. While in the bedroom I make the bed and have the day's quota of tablets. Back outside it has clouded over. I get out the step ladder and tools and start cleaning the canopy roof. I then get another ladder and with my mobile phone in my pocket venture up on to the shed roof so I can step onto the canopy to remove debris from the solar panel and guttering work including sweeping all the little bits of tile.

Nearly 11, feel like a break so go to kitchen, listen to radio 4 make tea and toast - one slice with marmite the other with honey. Read paper, check emails, get and read post, have 2nd mug of tea this time with custard tart. Switch to radio 3 and write up day so far. Clean my brown leather shoes using the magic leather balm I bought at the Ideal Home Exhibition, they look great.

Then I'm back to climbing up on to the shed roof finshing cleaning it and the canopy which has been gathering dirt for well over a year. Then put all the tools away and it is time for lunch. Cook baked potato in microwave and steam parsnips, carrots and broccoli. Had them with chicken and gravy followed by the last of the reduced price egg custard tarts. Did the washing up then upstairs to take off my old clothes, have a shower and dressed in smarter clothes.

Packed an overnight case and gathered things for my sister including a prebaked loaf left over from the party I had on Saturday to celebrate both my new solar panels and bathroom. Also put a home grown marrow and plums in the cool bag for my family. Put everything in the car and drove to Chiswell Green to fill up with diesel. Continued to Milton Keynes via the Dunstable avoiding route and the A5 as there had been an accident on the M1 in the area where it is being widened from 3 lanes to 4.

At my sisters, did a quick car shuffle so her husband, Keith could leave first next morning and unloaded all the goodies including the large trays and dishes I had borrowed and the gazebo. Drank fizzy fruit juice while watching Sue cook the meal. The rain stopped and the sun shone so Keith set up the barbecue. No sign of my parents, so we put radio 4 on with the hope of hearing the Archers, but of course they arrive just before it starts so I switch it off. I help my dad put the gazebo into his car for onward transmission to the person who keeps it.

Keith is out fighting the barbecue, flames flaring and some rather blackened meats refusing to turn over. Wine flows and we settle down to a table full of delicious prawn salad, mackerel pate and fresh baked bread. More wine flows and baked potatoes, asparagus and broad beans accompany the smouldering products from the burning barbecue. Much of it remains to be eaten another day as we pause to gather our appetites for desert. Sue brings in the deliberately fallen chocolate soufflé and prune sauce which are mouth watering. I add some light ice cream which Keith who has rejected the main desert complain is not his favourite. The rest, apart from me, add Madagascan vanilla cream to their desert and my mother reveals herself to be the only one who knows the capital of Madagascar.

Sue and Keith clear away the dishes most of them going into the dishwasher while mum and dad advise on their coffee requirements and I fill the coffee table with Russian information. We settle down in the lounge with coffee and mints and liqueurs. At long last the time is right for me to get Sue to insert the DVD into the machine and Keith on remote control gets the show on the road. We all start watching the video of my Russian holiday in May. Before long Keith is sound asleep but the rest are reasonably attentive and enjoy it. Paul, my youngest nephew comes down a few times to interrupt the proceedings and is definitely not interested in Russia.

After the show is finished he is interested to see the meteors. Tonight is the best night to see Perseid activity. We go into the garden, Sue turns off the fountain light and the person activated light but although the sky is beautifully clear the most important area is obscured by the garage. Paul gives up with trying to focus the telescope. Paul my sister Sue and I walk round to the gate leading to the allotments where there is an open view of sky. We all see a meteor - in my case only the one but it is getting near midnight and we are getting tired. Tramp back to Sue's and so to bed.