ALL HALLOWS EVE

This morning I set about carving another pumpkin(slightly smaller than the first,thanks be to goodness) to sit in the porch scaring away evil spirits and we hope attracting some trick or treaters.

A batch of Fairy Cakes,I beg your pardon,cup cakes as we now must call them covered in white icing and each with a grinning skull painted on.....very creepy they are too,completed the culinary preparations for the evening.

Yesterday I iced the cookies so we also have grey cats,green bats, orange pumpkins and spooky white ghosts,quite a collection.

The day passed very quickly and by dusk a life sized skeleton made from news paper was to be seen hanging from the tree at the bottom of the drive,the pumpkins were lit and the conservatory ,where the food was to be served was lit by colours lamps.

Jugs of “muddy pond water” a mixture of lemonade and apple juice were set out with tumblers to wash down the cookies.

I had made a batch of chocolate rice crispy cakes and decorated them with two white chocolate buttons painted to look like goggle eyes,these popular little treats always go down well with small witches and little devils,I made an extra dozen for my son......grown up devils like them too you see.

Mindful of the fast growing mountain of pumpkin chunks I made a huge pan of pumpkin soup for dinner which I served with crusty bread and a selection of local cheeses, the boys are beginning to realise that pumpkin will be on the menu in one form or another for some time to come!

By five thirty we had deployed the pumpkins,the skeleton,and the Jolly Roger flew high above the hedge....we very ready for business and we did not have long to wait.

Were wolves,vampires and witches arrived to munch the cookies and drink my witches brew. Gory zombies and blood soaked ghouls were very much in evidence and we even had an amazing drag queen rock up, and he had us in hysterics long before he left.

It was lovely to see the children enjoying themselves and chatting away about their costumes and the people the had scared with their masks. It was also nice to see the parents taking their children out for the occasion,all in all it was a merry evening and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

By the end of the evening just a few ghostly cookies were left and those will be dealt with by my son who still enjoys such things in spite of his advanced age.

The Parish Magazine for November arrived this afternoon and it looks as though we shall be busy with Christmas bazaars, Race Nights,Bonfire parties, Film Shows and Concerts,there is certainly plenty of choice and we are all looking forward to the fun that the weeks before Christmas will bring.  

LIBRARY DAY

One of my greatest pleasures,as a child was the fortnightly visits of the Mobile Library,especially during the long summer break from school. Having chosen my books I would disappear for hours, with a bottle of water, into patch of long grass or a certain Sycamore tree which ,near the top divided into three,making a convenient and well hidden seat. There,free from my young brothers attentions and unavailable for chores I would spend the sunny afternoon reading of Kings and Queens or Gods and Monsters,I floated down the Mississippi with Huckleberry Finn or trekked through thick jungle in search of ruined temples, or strange animals.

More often than not my absence resulted in a scolding but my enjoyment of those magical hours made it well worth while.

Now I have rediscovered this forgotten pleasure and look forward to the Mobile Library's visits with the all the old excitement .

With the onset of winter the hours spent curled up on a huge armchair in our own library are as welcome a distraction from chores as ever,the bottle of water replaced now with a glass of Whisky or a cup of coffee....bliss.

There is something about this quiet time, disturbed only by the crackle of burning logs or the somnolent sound of the ticking clock, I must confess that these days I often fall asleep so it is a good thing that I no longer have to perch high in a tree to enjoy this pleasure.

As darkness descends earlier and I find such occupation more than compensates for the loss of out door pursuits. There is something quite different about winter in the country,the pace of life slows as the nights draw in and there is time for reading,games of cards or dominoes,story telling or writing.

All here are great readers and collectors of books,hence the need for a library to keep our treasured volumes safe and to hand,it is a far cry from the small bookshelf in the bedroom of my childhood home ,and a luxury for which I am profoundly thankful.

As a child I often felt confined by the cold rainy winter days,preferring the freedom to wander through the woods and fields near my home. Now in later life I have learned to see winter as a respite from the busy summer months

Of course there are still many tasks peculiar to this time of year,the baking of harvest loaves, Halloween, bonfire night and of course preparations for Christmas which  looms closer each day. For me these events mark the changing seasons and each is welcomed as an old friend and enjoyed ,but the quiet hours spent among my books will always be precious and I look forward to many such peaceful hours in the months to come.

AVIE DAY

Every Wednesday has been designated “Avie day”. It is a day when,with luck I can do a few things just for myself. Usually it works well and I have time to do a little drawing or writing,style my hair properly instead of just blowing it to blazes with the drier on max!!!!

At other times I find I end up working harder than on a normal day,tough but there it is!

Today I decided to carve the pumpkin masks for Halloween, one hell of a job considering the size of the blessed things. Armed with knives,scoops and bowls I began what was to be a mammoth task,and producing enough pumpkin chunks to make pumpkin pie for the whole village.

I agonised about what form the carving should take,having seen some amazing carvings of castles,wolves,owls and spiders,in the end I decided on a traditional Jack-o-Lantern,and as I surveyed the finished mask I was pleased with my decision.

The job took much longer than usual,I had not taken into account the worsening if the arthritis in y wrist and thumbs,even so the prize winning pumpkin was duly carve in a style to befit it' status,

I shall,of course try to carve the other but since tomorrow I must bake and ice Halloween cup cakes and ice the cookie made on Monday there may not be time.

Tonight we had fish pie,pastry topped not potato. I served this with chunks of roast pumpkin and sweet potato,the boys were very complimentary about the meal, I have not yet told them of the mountain of pumpkin chunks awaiting my culinary imagination....it will be a nice surprise for them....I expect!

My special day gave me time to wash my hair and dry it carefully,and to apply some make up,a thing I seldom do these days. In my youth I would have rather cut off my head than be seen out and about with a bare face,now I go out unadorned and I don't give a damn.

Growing older has it's compensations I find.

WHAT'S IN THE ATTIC ?

When we first moved in to our new home we found a message from the owners requesting that we. “Do not got up into the attic until they have removed some personal belongings left behind when they moved.”

So insistent were they that the attic was undisturbed that they made it a condition of the lease that we refrained from going up there!

Odd,we thought. What in earth could be so important as to warrant such a degree of secrecy?

Well of course we made the obvious joke that they had left a body up there,possibly the mother -in-law,a mortal enemy,who can say? They certainly were in a hurry to leave the country ,that much is certain. Eventually we forgot about the attic …...........until the smell became noticeable.

We had noticed a faint odour some time ago which we put down to the ancient rural drains. We had also noted the fact that each room in the house had at least two air fresheners installed,plug ins,diffusers even car fresheners hanging off the door handles,just a little excessive,we thought.

Three months down the line the air fresheners are defunct and all at once a nasty pong is very,very evident. We searched the place from top to bottom,with the exception of the attic ,of course..we found...nothing. I purchased a fridge freshener in case the problem was being cause by Pa's penchant for whiffy cheeses but to no avail.

Came the dawn! This morning with the smell much worse a plague of flies, newly hatched I suspect could be seen swirling about the attic through the glass panel specially constructed to show off the lovely old beams..............and then we remembered...........perhaps we had been right all along,perhaps there was a body in the attic.

Now I freely admit that it is much more likely to be a dead rat,mouse or bird of some sort,unpleasant but not unexpected in a rural area at this time of the year. All the same,the air fresheners,the owners paranoia about anyone entering the loft, lets face it folks the murderer Christie had seven corpses walled up in his house....it happens !

The owners are due to visit us in a weeks time,an event which we now look forward to with considerably more interest than before and in the mean time I have deployed air fresheners,joss sticks neutralisers and fragrant candles in quantity about the place.

Thankfully the flies cannot gain access to the house and the battery of air fresheners is working well,but, we shall have to wait and see what happens next week

SETTLING IN

I woke early on the first morning in my new home having slept much better than usual. Twice during the night I had gone to the open window and look out on to the moonlit garden marvelling at the silence,no cars, no planes,no police sirens;nothing but the hooting of owls and the snuffling of a badger digging in the border under my bedroom window.

At dawn the sound of pheasant calling from the newly cut wheat fields and the chirping of sparrows cheered me as I drank my morning coffee.

Weary from my journey and  still sleepy I climbed back in to bed and from there I surveyed my room. Two windows looked out on to the garden ,the ceiling slopped almost to the floor as my room was in the roof of the house.

My son had filled the room with the sort of furniture I love and on my arrival I found piled up on my bed a heap of gifts,pretty ornaments ,cushions and all manner of treats placed there as a welcome ,it was a lovely thought.

A long landing runs the length of the top floor,opposite my room Pa was still asleep in a cosy own room of his own . A bathroom,a shower room and the guest room with their ancient wooden floors lead off the landing and at the end of the house my son's room spacious, sunny and commanding some of the best views in the house.

At this time I was still in considerable pain and was obliged to hobble about on crutches,even indoors though even this could not spoil my pleasure in such beautiful surroundings.

It has taken time to become accustomed to the size of the house,the large rooms and the luxury of space,even now,three months later I still marvel at the changes in my life and my good fortune.

Within days of our arrival there followed a spell of illness for me and exhausted as I was I had nothing with which to fight the pain and the dreadful weariness,thankfully I spent my afternoons wrapped in a rug on one of the huge reclining chairs in the library,while the last days of August drifted slowly away, with gusty winds and squally showers.

With the arrival of September my health improved and I once again took up the reins of the house. We had begun to know our neighbours,I had a gardener,and a cleaner to help me keep things in order and this I found very odd indeed.

I had once been a housekeeper to a lord and his lady and had also earned a living as a gardener when times were hard,so having “staff” felt very strange to me.

As the weeks passed I grew stronger,thanks to a new treatment regime and my new G. P's care. In the two months that followed our arrival I lost two stones in weight and it seemed like a miracle.

The operation that was cancelled in July will now take place in the spring and this will,I hope go a long way towards my rehabilitation, and for now the pain is under control at last and the medication which was making me so ill has been changed,it's wonderful to feel the strength returning to my legs and arms.

Well I think that's enough catching up, it would take far to long to tell all and besides there is a Halloween party to prepare,pumpkins to carve cookies to ice and creepy skeletons to be made form old news papers,in fact all the fun of Autumn in the country.

AVIE BUGS OUT!

In my last Blog at “Avies Small World” I told you that I was going home, home to the countryside I love. Well in spite of many difficulties I made it and am now ensconced in a lovely country house in a picturesque village in the heart of rural England.

I had seen pictures of the place of course but nothing could have prepared me for my first sight of the home my son had chosen for us. I was exhausted by weeks of packing and tired from the long journey though I had slept through the later half of it,I awoke as the taxi drove into the village.

We passed a beautiful and ancient church and every house looked quaint and old,suddenly the taxi turned down a quite lane,turned into a leafy drive and finally I was face to face with my new home,I gasped in amazement at the beautiful old house,much larger than it looked in the photographs and the gardens,oh the gardens. It was some time ,and many hugs before the tears stopped and I could take a tour of the house and grounds.

I had been alone at the old house for several,sad awful and very lonely days,so the hugs were much needed . Proudly my son showed me round,first the gardens and then the house.

Even with boxes everywhere it was welcoming and impressive. The Drawing Room,pile high with boxes(the removal van had arrived a little before me) was lovely with a large bay window with a window seat and another window facing the far off hills. A lovely old fireplace and a stove added to the cosy feel of this pretty room.

The library, gosh,what can I say, a large room filled with wooden book shelves (my son's handy work),three huge leather armchairs and small tables dotted about and a large stove set in to and enormous fireplace. Every where there were old beams,not just on the ceiling but the walls too,for me it was perfect.

Some French doors led in to a conservatory which was almost as large as our old sitting room and this in turn led in to my son's study. This had been a dining room and was filled with beautiful crystal light fittings and rich brocade curtains,soon it would house my son's desk and his writing paraphernalia. A set of French doors led out in to the garden and an ornate white fireplace completed the picture.

My next surprise was a kitchen as large as the entire ground floor of our old home and very well laid out. Another set of French doors led out into a shady part of the garden where a seat welcomed the tired gardener or the overheated cook! In the kitchen a massive range glowed in the late afternoon sun.

Another door lead in to the scullery and a small wash room, I was delighted to note that there was a stable door which led out on to the patio and a cat flap for our two much loved moggies.

We sat in the kitchen at the beautiful table specially made for me by my son,drinking coffee and preparing ourselves for the massive task of unpacking the boxes,thanks to the boys the furniture was already in place.

Later as we sat down to our first family meal in our new home we were full of excitement for the future and talked of our plans. Tired as we were it would not be long before we were all showered and in bed.

Upstairs......I'll tell you about that tomorrow.