Another busy few days!

I've been offline for a few days this past week as things have been getting really busy again and at times, to be honest, I found it overwhelming (due to lack of sleep, I'm pretty sure). Once I've had a decent night's sleep I'm up and running again but I find I can't bounce back like I used to (old age?). Oddly enough I was heading out to yet another meeting at the old fogies' club on Friday when I bumped into my friend walking her dog and she started on about how overwhelming she was finding everything too. Ok she hasn't been feeling well and that doesn't help but her garden, in particular, seems to be just too much for her right now. Oh she has a new gardener who cuts the hedges and helps with the weeding but I think even just cutting the lawn is now too much for her. I suggested asking her new guy to do that too (money wouldn't be a problem) but we'll see if she goes ahead with that because obviously we're both getting older and if we want to stay in our homes it might just be easier to hire some help for the big stuff!

My own gardener came by today for the first time this year and now everything looks lovely again (he does my lawn and hedges). I don't regret hiring him one bit because while I could probably still, just about, push the lawnmower around my smallish garden, I can't take the heat at all and am more than happy to allow him and his assistant to knock the whole thing out in about 30 minutes. I did get around to putting together my third small cold frame today but screwed it up again when I realised those "weird parts" I seem to have left over from the first two are actually kinda like tent pegs and are meant to be inserted into the frame before you fill it with dirt. Maybe I'll get the hang of this assembly malarky by number six!

With it being Easter there will be no yoga for two weeks and I was looking forward to a little down time, so I was surprised when I looked at my diary on Monday and saw that I had written down "nosewing" and wracked my brain trying to think what the hell that was supposed to be. I was pretty sure I hadn't made plans to get a nose ring (even though I quite like them) but it took me a good few hours to realize that I had actually scrawled "no sewing" as for once our teacher couldn't make it that evening! I really should stop just scrawling things in my diary as I've had a few "nosewing" moments lately!

I finished listening to Cheere Denise read the Oprah book and all I can say is "uuggghhh". While you certainly can't take away from her achievements, she comes over as a horrible narcisst, particularly bearing in mind this book was published in 2010, if I remember correctly, and there have apparently been far worse things to come out about Oprah since then! I also finally finished listening to Mary's Mozaic on Audible. It took me ages as it was a very hard read, but was definitely worth finishing. It's about the apparently random murder of Mary Pinchot Meyer who was a long-time lover and confidante of John F. Kennedy. The book explores the "CIA conspiracy to murder John F. Kennedy, Mary Pinchot Meyer and their vision for world peace". The author, Peter Janney, makes a very convincing argument that the CIA were indeed behind the Mary Pinchot murder (which they tried to pin on some poor sod who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time - luckily he was exonerated) and given that her former, very bitter husband - Cord Meyer - had been pretty high up in the CIA, the book is all the more intriguing, if anyone cares to read it, although I would reiterate that it was hard going!

I went grocery shopping on Friday and just as I was hitting the motorway I noticed massive smoke plumes shooting up into the sky (again) not too far from my usual supermarket. This time it was the recycling plant that had gone up and I think I counted around 15 emergency vehicles, with police blocking off roads and rerouting traffic. The supermarket people must be wondering what the hell they signed up for with two major fires so close by in such a short period of time, but thankfully no-one was injured and again hats off to the emergency services for their sterling work!

Marignier on Friday!

On Wednesday I kept Charlie overnight for the first time and was a bit nervous in case he got upset for his mom in the middle of the night. I decided to have him sleep in my room just in case, but there was no problem at at all. I took him to the park in town for a few hours and then we came home and watched The Lion King and he was pretty tired by the time he went to bed at 9.30 pm. So was I because of being "on" all the time, which was actually made even worse by the fact that he grinds his teeth all bloody night so I didn't get a wink of sleep yet again! 

The park by the library. We never
made it to the library because
he was having so much fun!

I took him home around 4 pm the next day where we were just in time to meet his dad and go pick Elynn up from daycare and then allow both kids to play in the park for an hour. Well Elynn, as it turns out, is a little bruiser and seemingly unafraid of anything, but has also managed to hit the terrible twos at just 18 months (I always knew she was "advanced") because as soon as she gets told no for whatever reason she throws herself on the floor sobbing. She's such a convincing little actress Meryl Streep had better watch out but I had to keep looking away because it's pretty darn funny too (to me at least). I know they all do this and it didn't last long with Charlie, but oh the joys of being able to just hand them back!

We had Easter at my place on Sunday and I overcooked as usual even for eight of us, but then better that than not have enough. I had been thinking about throwing out my old wooden garden table for some time so bought two cheap plastic tables and quickly assembled them during the week to accommodate us all. Only thing is, I had yet again a couple of "spare parts" for each table, and when each table started to sag as we loaded them up with food André realized that I'd put the four reinforcement bars back in the boxes in the garage!! No harm was done but I'm thinking my motto of "if in doubt, throw it out" might not be a good idea for cold frames and garden tables after all!

The "creative hedge" in the background
is the handiwork of Mrs. Gossip's
husband!

The Easter egg hunt is on!

Watering "the harvest"!

I don't remember planting that!

He was determined to drag
all my junk up from the basement
(but guess who bought the junk
in the first place)!