TARRAGON & THYME

This post started early this morning (Tuesday 26 May) at 6:00am  as G had a fishing match today with his buddy T.  They have been fishing buddies for over 40 years.  So as I was up, I got a few things done.  Whilst the weather is good I intend to try and get up early, as it is cooler to work then and hopefully will be able to get a wriggle on and get a lot of stuff done. Please note that the Action Days do not necessarily run consecutively but focus on a particular day's achievement.  Take Day 4 (Friday 29 May) I did not get much done because of G's eye appointment which threw everything out of synch. Things to Do Go shopping to Home Bargains for Bird Bath, and to look to see what plants are available, and to buy a few if I can.  Also to price up some other items which I know are available in the gardening section.  Particularly after some hanging basket brackets, Hose Pipe, attachments and Wand and some of those triangular shaped hanging baskets....

 I was kept busy all day on Wednesday. No particular focus just going to jobs that could be dealt with relatively easily and chipping away at other projects a bit at a time.  I was a bit all over the place but was choosing aspects of larger projects that could be dealt with to get them a bit sorted, but also moving larger projects forward that little bit  more and getting them on to the Ferris Wheel of production.  Equally I have been doing simple jobs that could be got out of the way easily.  I seem to be getting more done at the moment working this way and will utilise it where I can for the sake of speed and getting things out of the way.  I have a heck of a lot to do over the coming weeks.  I am choosing to be more active where I can.  Cannot always do it every day, but I am determined to get things done.  With the past seven weeks being out of action it has slightly done my head in.  I am still not 100% but am able to do more t...

Sorry I managed to schedule a couple of posts out of sequence.  This is the post that should have gone live this morning, not the one about books.  Apologies for the confusion. Saturday evening After things had cooled down a bit last night I sat out in the Old Herb Garden and watched the Crescent Moon in all her glory in the night sky.  It was lovely to be in the cooler air (to the day in any event) and just simply be.  It is something I need to do more of and hopefully when the garden is done a bit more, something that I will be able to do more often.  Even in the City there are quiet moments.  Whether I will achieve it this year or not is that I would quite like to prepare a small Arbour with a bench and trellis work so that I can simply sit.  Would quite like a Wisteria to run up it as well.  Will see how things pan out as the house and going to the caravan are the main focus this year and in reality the garden usually gets left as a result of ...

 That is order the other three Kate Mosse Books in the Joubert Family Chronicles.  I thought I had actually purchased them.  I had ordered books just not the ones I thought I had and was after. They are Kate Mosse's books and fortunately ones that I have not read.  These consist of The Taxidermist's Daughter, The Winter Ghosts and the Mistletoe Bride. They will therefore make extra reading.  The actual ones I was after and which I have re-ordered are The City of Tears, The Ghost Ship and the Map of Bones.  The one I read last week which is the beginning of the Joubert Chronicles was called The Burning Chambers which I read in one day and thoroughly enjoyed.  It looks therefore as I will have a goodly amount of reading to do in the next few weeks.  That will keep me out of or get me into mischief!  You can never have too many books to my mind.  I do not get on with Kindles, I prefer something more tactile, physical and present which you c...

The Weather and an Early start Boy is it warm.  Fortunately though at this time of year or when it is hot we are grateful for the house being cooler.  Not so grateful in the Winter when it is freezing.  These houses were originally meant to be heated with fires.  I think a Woodburner would sort out a lot of the problems with this house on the keeping it warm side.  It still has all the ventilation grills and a good underdraft through the floor boards.  We get the Sun first thing on the front of the house and it is usually about midday to 1:00pm when the Sun steers itself around to the back.  At the moment it is nice and sheltered in the back. So glad managed to get up early and out and about. Did not get into the garden though. We ended up paying an early visit to the Bakery. Came away with a fresh cream and strawberry sponge, a couple of Scotch Eggs, six crusty buns and a Trifle.  The Bakery makes very good Trifles. Breakfast was rather informal ...

I decided in my infinite wisdom to go into town on one of the hottest days we have had so far here in the East of England. I was going to walk, but G put his foot down and took me in the car.  I do not mind the exercise by walking into town as long as I come home by car or Taxi as I can no longer carry shopping as I used to be able to because of my back. I went into town for some plants.  I have been seeing videos of potting plants and other plants being cheap at Asda this week and so I went in to potentially get some.  Mostly fruit bushes and bedding plants  I was bitterly disappointed as they only had two racks of plants available and there was nothing on them that took my fancy.  So it is back to the seeds for the time being.  I am however hoping to go to Home Bargains shortly so will see if I can find anything there. I had not been in Asda for quite some time as it is the other end of the town to where I usually go.  However I took the opportunity ...

I have had for a while now a small but ever growing list of Kitchen equipment that at some point I would like to acquire.  These are either as replacements for items I once had and know that they work well or completely new acquisitions altogether, however I am mindful of cost as well.  Sometimes we just have to wait a little bit longer for items to come our way as it were. This month however, I have managed to locate a couple of items reasonably which are on the list.  Starting with the item photographed below.  (schh - not my photo on the B & M site). Blender, Grinder, Milk Shakes, Fruit Juice Gadget For some years, I had a cheapie gadget which was bought new from a car boot sale.  It consisted of a blender jug, four mugs and lids, two different sizes of  holders with a grinding disc and a blending disc,  It was a brilliant bit of kit.  Some pieces broke but I have been unable to trace it - think it may be in the Unit.  In any event, I ...

And it has been very much down to it is just the depth that varies! Last week seems to have been one of the more difficult weeks I have experienced in a long time. It started off with G getting a cold.  He never gets a cold, but he has had a stinker.   Which he promptly passed onto me, even though I am still contending with the remains of the Shingles. I am still experiencing pain and itching from the Shingles.  It is going to take its time a lot of it is nerve damage under my arm and part of my arm is also numb.  Have found it difficult as when I get cold I have to wrap up, but when I wrap up and get warm it exacerbates the itching because I get warm.  If my arms get cold it often ends up in a Raynaud's attack! I have therefore not been well with the cold or the Shingles.  Slowly getting there though. We then lost Missy which broke our hearts.  However, I would very much like to thank every single one of you who passed on lovely supportive messag...

 Well it was for me yesterday.  The computer crashed on me on Saturday night and I was not in the mood to try and untangle it.  That I dealt with on Monday. G went fishing on Sunday and left me on my own.  I decided that I was going to do something that I have not done in a long time and that was to down tools and indulge in my love of reading.  It is a long while since I read a book and with him being out of the way it was an ideal time for me. I have always been a "Reader".  Trouble is when I get my snout in a book, I become terribly anti-social as I am involved in the plot and with the characters in the book and I cannot be doing with any distractions. I am a big fan of Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth, Sepulchre and Citadel.  These are fantastic if you have not read these.  The other day whilst in town I found a copy of The Burning Chambers, which was said book that I read, yesterday and which |I managed to complete in the day. I had no interru...

Thank you for your commiserations.  It is appreciated. Always with her Dad  .....even though we knew it was in the offing, somehow or the other the rug ends up being taken out from under your feet.  I did not sleep last night choosing to be with her.  G has been ill and I let him sleep and I kept an eye on her.  She was with me for quite sometime before going in with her Dad. Such a good and special girl.   We have buried Missy in the garden border that I cleared the other week  I did roughly clear the other border as well this morning (Thursday 14 May 2026) and gave G the choice of which one he wanted too rest her in  He has chosen the side border which I had cleared the other week and forked over.  Much easier to deal with than the top border.  He might still have to give me a hand with digging this section though.  We have added a few slabs and I intend to buy a bird bath to go on top.  Probably get one of those Solar f...