"Give them a chance," the expensive young optician said of my new spectacles, through which everything was a distorted haze. Giving them a chance has been very enjoyable: unable to see emails, work documents or hungry-looking family members, I had the luxury of drifting into the glad old reverie of storage solutions.
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| What can I store in my new seaside tin, bearing in mind that the household theoretically eats no biscuits? |
Amid the peace, I realised that my persistent daily thought is "What have I forgotten?" Your birthday, of course, and the request for nothing homemade in my lunchbox any more, please Mama, and the medicine, but also that worrying category of things that I've forgotten that I've forgotten.
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| Homemade Biscuits |
What I have been able to do is garden, and I can sense my interest switching full-force from cushions to gravel. If you are a gravel expert and habitually post about gravel issues, please get in touch now and I will follow your blog and read your gravel-related tweets.
I have a vision in mind of how a sandstone gravel courtyard would look, amply planted with juniper trees and hardy perennials, with myself in a sundress and fancy wellies sitting at a pale blue wrought iron table next to the mosaic feature, but Scottish Husband says I will need a backhoe digger. How the heart sinks. Could you direct me to your archive posts on backhoe diggers?
I have a vision in mind of how a sandstone gravel courtyard would look, amply planted with juniper trees and hardy perennials, with myself in a sundress and fancy wellies sitting at a pale blue wrought iron table next to the mosaic feature, but Scottish Husband says I will need a backhoe digger. How the heart sinks. Could you direct me to your archive posts on backhoe diggers?
Funnily enough, Cro's post today is all about gravel.
ReplyDeleteI haven't reached the dizzy heights of a backhoe digger yet, but have had some experience of a swing shovel if that would do?
ReplyDeleteP.S. Homemade biscuits look fab. Welcome in my lunchbox!
You have reminded me of my last visit to the optician. She was a tiny elf of a woman and had the most Irish accent I have ever heard, so she did. I remember thinking 'I wonder if this is how Mise sounds, and whether she says 'so' after every sentence too'.
ReplyDeleteShe would probably have been my fifth cousin, Mary Gabriel Murphy, Sue. We Irish have elfin relatives all over the world in the more lucrative professions, sending money home to me when my potato chips fail.
DeleteThat's good to know. She certainly brightened my day.
DeleteI had a tiny elf of a man at my recent trip to the opticians. He was smaller than me even. His little feet dangled from his swivel chair. Do you think it is a pre-requisite for the profession? The room was very small and very full of equipment. I failed my test to the tune of several hundred elfin pounds and eagerly await a new pair of glasses to give a chance to.
DeleteHello Mise
ReplyDeleteWith respect for Scottish Husband, I suggest you get a second opinion on the backhoe. (Some men, present company excepted, never outgrow the love for toys).
Don Imus lost his job for using the name of that excavating machine on air. So I would steer clear of back-hoes and hoes of any nature.
The image of you in sundress and wellies is priceless
Helen xx
For pictures of backhoes may I refer you to June 25th. So very long ago, and yet the builders are still with us. I am not ready for my reveal yet. Good luck with the gravel. It is very hard to sweep is all I can vouchsafe.
ReplyDeleteWe all live for that reveal, Lucille, and are silenced by mill wheel envy. My birdbath seems so puny in comparison.
DeleteMise dear Mise, no wonder we haven't seen you; all wrapped up in landscape architecture;perusing the Farm and Hoe magazines! I do vividly picture you in you garden attire, perhaps sipping a cup of tea admiring your works of nature! To wear new glasses or not?
ReplyDeleteAlso who do you think you are kidding...no biscuits in the beautiful tin! Ha!
xoxo
Karena
Giveaway from Scalamandre!
I am continually trying to convince my eyes that the haze in front is not age-related, but more figment of someone else's imagination. Especially seeing as though I am so young (ahem!). I may have to read your post out loud on a daily basis to keep my spirits up.
ReplyDeleteIf - after the rabbits have all gone down the rabbit holes - you can't find a use for the seaside tin, please just courier it on up the coast. Theoretically we don't eat biscuits either, but I will be happy to keep the non-theoretical ones in it.
ReplyDeleteDo pop over to me when your specs let you see out! I've got a fab giveaway at the moment! I think you would like it.
I was thinking of getting GG a tractor for Christmas. Perhaps you can find a backhoe in pink for Scottish Husband.
ReplyDeleteWin-win I'd say.
xo jane
I was getting ready to send you an 'all is well I hope' email but as you mentioned, I am blinded by all the fame and not able to blog myself ...
ReplyDeleteGlad you are finding your way back to the typewriter, there was a huge hole in the internet these past few weeks without you. And as for the gravel, alas I cannot help you. Tis nothing but muck and wellies here I am afraid.
Sadly I am only Tortured By Foot, which is still not better. This is, of course, the only reason that I have not been building up an archive of useful reference for you. Once I am mobile again I would gladly gravel and backhoe dig just so I could blog about it, but by then you will of course have created the necessary posts yourself, so I will no longer need to....
ReplyDeleteThere you are I was wondering. I live in a perpetual mist, which has nothing to do with our dour Lancashire weather. The last time I was at the opticians she complimented me on my large pupils! well I never, and asked if I was on drugs!! as it I would tell her if I was. Anyway I would swap a backhoe digger (if I knew what one was) for daily bunny biscuits in my lunchbox any time, children these days don't know when they are well off.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that you employ some fit young men to do the digging - much easier on the eyes!
ReplyDeleteI cannot help you with gravel, but I love the biscuits--I could be friends with all of them.
ReplyDeleteI have gravel but an expert, I'm not. Fortunately, it's so low maintenance, my lack of knowledge doesn't seem to matter.
ReplyDeleteMissed you Mise. I am short sighted but now with age I am becoming long sighted too - hoping they will both cancel each other out...but my vision is always blurry...and I blog blindly.
ReplyDeleteWe are all about the garden this Australian summer. Gravel does not feature but black river stones, new lawn (at least one section), stepping stones and weeding shall be en vogue. xx
Well wait till you're my age young lady...cute how the kids don’t want anything
ReplyDeletehomemade...Twinkee”s please!
It's de riguer to come away from the optician's able to see less than when one went in , I thought ? Like our elderly neighbour who cycled home proudly in her new purple specs .... and rode straight into a hedge .
ReplyDeleteGood luck with yours , though it might be sensible to leave the back hoe for a while .
I think Bartley Aardvark will be getting a backhoe for christmas so ,?
ReplyDeletea song for You
Thank you for that lovely song, Jaboopee. You are still my very best friend.
DeleteMy eyesight appears to be failing terribly (I saw no posts from you for weeks) but the young man seemed to think there was no need for new glasses.
ReplyDeleteI know this saves expense, and I welcome his thoughtfulness, but it seems to mean that this is as good as it gets. Oh dear. Happily, though, I resisted the need for little old lady bifocals, despite feeling ever more like a little old lady
Mise, I not only enjoy your lively posts (and yes, I use my spectacles to read them)but enjoy the witty comments almost as much! SmitoniusAndSonata gets my vote for the most hilarious one - so sorry for the neighbour though! Outch!
ReplyDeleteGod bless you for sharing with all of us in blogland!
(if hubby could get a hold of a backhoe on this tiny island, who knows what he would come up with!