Monday 8 July 2019

09:30 Lois wants to be out of the house before 10 am when her Jehovah's Witness friends have the habit of calling at the door. She had promised to look up some verses in the Bible that they had debated between them last time they visited, and she has had no time to do so. Good grief, what madness !!!!

We drive over to Stoke Orchard and pop into the Wingmoor Farm Recycling Centre to throw out 14 black plastic bags of unwanted paper (mostly Sarah's old school and university notes) into the site's huge paper “bank”, and also throw our old printer into the small electrical appliances bank. My goodness! What an achievement to have got rid of all those unwanted piles of paper I recently came across in the  attic.

flashback to 2008: Wingmoor Farm Recycling Centre in happier times

We feel like we should now celebrate the end of such a decisive phase in our current downsizing mini-project, until I suddenly remember that we forgot another box of Sarah's old high school notes, which I have stored in the garage - damn!

Nevertheless, we must have now completed 95% of this phase of the downsizing, which is nice.

10:30 On the way home we pop into the nearby Court Farm farm shop to buy meat, cheese, and vegetables, also our birthday present for our friend, "Magyar" Mike - a box of speciality beer and cider: yum yum!

Court Farm Shop

The box of speciality beer and cider I buy as a birthday present

for our friend, "Magyar" Mike

Afterwards, we order a leisurely cup of coffee and then visit the farm's locally famous sow Flora, and her (11?) young piglets. It's quite warm, and we feel like we're on vacation, for some reason, maybe because we're suddenly free of all those piles of unwanted paper.

After loading the food into the car boot, we order a relaxed cup of coffee

We visit the farm's locally famous sow, Flora, and her (11?) Piglets

Flora and her piglets are sleeping in the barn behind the farm shop. "What are they dreaming about?" I ask myself. A fun life, and it must be very reassuring to always have your (10?) siblings around you all day every day.

It reminds me of our own grandchildren, Lily and Jessie. What a close bond they must feel towards each other – good grief, what a phenomenon it must be to be twins!

flashback to July 2013: our twin grandchildren Lily and Jessie

in the Gloucester hospital, only 1 day old.

the twins today, with their mother, our daughter Sarah (42)

at a zoo near the family home in Perth, Australia

Our daughter, Sarah, last night sent us the twins’ "wish list" for their upcoming 6th birthday.

Lily:

Warm socks like Mummy (she has seen some at chemist here)-ABOUT $9 I THINK

Mermaid leggings- no idea where you get these :)

Slime making kit (these are a plenty and range from $10 to $20)

Gum boots with kitty cats on (wellies!)- prob $12

A tiara with blue fluffy feather and jewels- you guessed it..from the chemist!!- $8-$12?

Rhino slime small animal - from the CHEMIST LOL! a few dollars

Unicorn curtains for the bed (this one is just a big hint to Francis..Francis- this needs to happen).

Unicorn cushion

Plastic treasure box with pretend money (to be spread about the house presumably)

She has also listed a load of things she already has!

Jessie:

If you buy any of the following items for Lily only, there will be much fighting, so best to double up and get the same for Jessie:

0. Warm Socks

1. Slime making kit

2. Gum boots with kitty cats on (wellies!)

3. A tiara/headband with blue fluffy feather and jewels

4. Rhino slime small animal

5. Unicorn cushion

Other stuff on Jessie's list

A plastic bowl with hearts on it.

A pretty curly straw

A necklace and bead making kit

Tangled DVD (Rapunzel)

Isn't this the cutest wish list ever ??? Nothing much that costs more than a handful of dollars, and mostly things they've seen in their local drugstore, bless them.

How cute they are!!!!

If only I could be 6 years old again ha ha!

flashback to August 1952: me (6 yrs 5 months), 

and my sister Kathy (4 yrs 9 months)

11:30 We come home and have lunch. Afterwards I go to bed and take a gigantic afternoon nap for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, Lois goes out into the backyard to pick even more raspberries - yikes!

Lois picks even more raspberries in our "fruit garden" - yikes!

She also browses the internet in search of a good recipe for gooseberry chutney: but she says that all the sites she comes across want her to register, something she’s not interested in doing:  she just wants to get hold of one good recipe – good grief, what madness! Finally, she manages to find a few promising ones, thank goodness.

Our life is currently dominated by fruit picking. Tomorrow, as soon as my "Hungarian hour" with my friend "Magyar" Mike ends, I have to help Lois pick the rest of our green and red gooseberries. Then there will be a few weeks' break until the plum trees require our attention, and then the apple trees – my god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

16:00 I browse even more pages of Njal’s saga, written in the 13th century in Iceland, even though the saga itself and the events in it are much older. Scilla's U3A Old Norse group is holding its regular meeting on Wednesday in the bar of the town’s Everyman Theatre, and this saga is the group's current project.

The deadly feud between the two women, Hallgerd and Bergthora, takes a break for once (death toll standing at about 10 among Hallgerd's employees, same for Bergthora's employees too).

Hallgerda....

... and Bergthora - the score in their long-standing feud is 10-10

(number of employees killed on each side)

In an amusing, delightfully lighter, and slightly less lethal episode, Hallgerd sends her Irish (or Scottish?) slave, Malcolm, on a mission, this time not to kill a Bergthora-staffer, but merely to steal cheese from one of Bergthora's farmhouses, and also to burn the farmhouse down.

Later, however, the crime is revealed, when some of Bergthora's friends examine a suspicious piece of cheese and discover that weirdd marks on the cheese match the marks on Hallgerd's cheese mould.

the moment Hallgerd's crime is revealed

Gunnar offers to pay a sum of money to compensate for the cheese his wife Hallgerd has stolen, but this time some of his enemies decide to take him and Hallgerd to court for the crime -  how modern !!!!

They decide to ride over to Gunnar's farm and serve the couple with a summons. And Gunnar gets very angry to put it mildly. Yikes (again) - I foresee trouble brewing, that’s for sure !!!!

the moment the decision is taken to to serve 

Gunnar and his wife Hallgerd with a summons 

- Hallgerd for having stolen the cheese, and Gunnar 

for having "received" it from her – good grief, what madness!

No wonder Gunnar is angry. My goodness!

Flashback to earlier in the saga: the moment Hallgerd and Bergthora

have their first ever fight over a giant piece of cheese

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening watching television. The final episode in the annual Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival series is airing. The programme presenters are the charming Joe Swift and the DJ Jo Whiley.

We have enjoyed the previous episodes of this series, but this final one is a little disappointing, we feel, and shows us very little that we haven't seen before in the previous programmes. But nevertheless, there are still a few features that fascinate us.

Food journalist and grower Mark Diakono shows one of the programme's guest presenters, Arit Anderson, how to make cocktails or “mocktails” out of some of the plants and herbs we grow in our gardens, which looks promising.

Mark's cocktail: mojito, raspberry, Moroccan mint, a whole lime cut into 8 pieces, a little "garden syrup" (half water, half sugar, warmed up, with lemon-Fabinho added) and a little apple juice. Yum yum!

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation:  mandag den 8 juli 2019

09:30 Lois ønsker at være ude af huset før kl 10, når hendes Jehovas-vidnere-venner har for vane at ringer på døren. Hun havde lovet at slå op nogle vers i bibelen, som de havde debatteret mellem hinanden sidste gang de besøgte, og hun har ikke haft tid til at gøre det. Du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Vi kører over til Stoke Orchard, og smutter ind i Wingmore Farm-genbrugcenter for at smide 14 sorte plastiksække uønsket papir (for det meste Sarahs gamle skole- og universitetsnotater) i den kæmpe papircontainer, også vores gamle printer i den kæmpe container til små elektriske apparater. Du godeste! Sikke en bedrift, hvad angår de uønskede bunker papir, jeg for nylig faldt over i loftet.

tilbageblik til 2008:  Wingmore Farm-genbrugscenter i lykkeligere tider

Vi føler os som om, vi skulle fejre enden på en vedgørende fase i vores nuværende downsize mini-projekt, da jeg pludselig mindes om, at vi har glemt endnu en kasse med Sarahs gamle gymnasiumsnotater, som jeg gemte i garagen – pokkers!

Ikke desto mindre har vi fuldført 95% af fasen, hvilket er rart.

10:30 På vej hjem smutter vi ind i den nærliggende Court Farm gårdbutik for at købe kød, ost, og grøntsager, også vores fødselsdagsgave til vores ven, ”Magyar” Mike – en kasse med specialitet-øl  og cider: yum yum!

Court Farm-gårdbutik

Den kasse specialitet-øl og cider, jeg køber som fødselsdagsgave

til vores ven, ”Magyar” Mike

Bagefter bestiller vi en afslappet kop kaffe og besøger gårdens lokalt berømte so og hendes (11?) unge smågrise. Det er ganske varmt, og vi føler os som om vi er på ferie, af en eller anden grund, måske på grund af, at vi pludselig er fri for alle de der bunker uønskede papir.

Efter at læsse fodevarerne i bilens bagagerum, bestiller vi en afslappet kop kaffe

Vi besøger gårdens lokalt berømte so, Flora, og hendes (11?) smågrise

Flora og hendes smågrise ligger og sover i laden bag gårdbutikken. ”Hvad drømmer de om?”, spørger jeg mig selv. En rolig tilværelse, og det må være meget beroligende altid at have ens (10?) søskende omkring sig.

Det minder mig om vores egne tvillingebørnebørn, Lily og Jessie. Sikke et tæt bånd de må føle over for hinanden – du godeste, sikke et fænomen dét, at være tvillinger!

tilbageblik til juli 2013: vores tvillingebørnebørn Lily og Jessie

i Gloucester-hospitalet, kun 1 dag gamle.

Tvillingerne i dag, med deres mor, vores datter Sarah (42)

på en zoologiske have nær familiens hjem i Perth, Australien

Vores datter, Sarah, sendt os i går aftes tvillingernes ”ønskeliste” til deres kommende 6. fødelsdag.

Lily:

Warm socks like Mummy (she has seen some at chemist here)-ABOUT $9 I THINK

Mermaid leggings- no idea where you get these :)

Slime making kit (these are a plenty and range from $10 to $20)

Gum boots with kitty cats on (wellies!)- prob $12

A tiara with blue fluffy feather and jewels- you guessed it..from the chemist!!- $8-$12?

Rhino slime small animal - from the CHEMIST LOL! a few dollars

Unicorn curtains for the bed (this one is just a big hint to Francis..Francis- this needs to happen).

Unicorn cushion

Plastic treasure box with pretend money (to be spread about the house presumably)

She has also listed a load of things she already has!

Jessie:

If you buy any of the following items for Lily only, there will be much fighting, so best to double up and get the same for Jessie:

0. Warm Socks

1. Slime making kit

2. Gum boots with kitty cats on (wellies!)

3. A tiara/headband with blue fluffy feather and jewels

4. Rhino slime small animal

5. Unicorn cushion

Other stuff on Jessie's list

A plastic bowl with hearts on it.

A pretty curly straw

A necklace and bead making kit

Tangled DVD (Rapunzel)

Er denne ikke den sødeste ønskeliste nogensinde??? Intet, der koster mere, end en håndfuld dollars, og alle for det meste, ting de har set i deres lokale drugstore.

Hvor er de dog søde ha ha ha!!!! Hvis bare, jeg kunne være 6 års gammel igen ha ha!

tibageblik til august 1952: mig (6 år 5 mdr) og min søster Kathy (4 år 9 mdr)

11:30 Vi kommer hjem og spiser frokost. Bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en gigantisk eftermiddagslur i et par timer. I mellemtiden går Lois ud i baghave for at plukke endnu flere hindbær – yikes!

Lois plukker endnu flere hindbær i vores ”frugthave” – yikes!

Hun surfer også internettet på jagt efter en god stikkelsbær chutney opskrift: hun siger, at alle de websteder hun falder over, vil have hende til at registrere, hvilket hun ikke interesserer sig for at gøre: hun har kun lyst til at få fat på en god opskrift – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!  Endelig lykkes det hende at finde et par lovende, gudskelov.

Vores liv er for tiden domineret af frugtplukning. I morgen, så snart min ”ungarske time” med min ven ”Magyar” Mike bliver slut, må jeg hjælpe Lois med at plukke resten af vores grønne og røde stikkelsbær. Derefter vil der være nogle ugers pause, indtil blommetræerne kræver vores opmærksomhed, og derefter æbletræerne – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

16:00 Jeg blader endnu flere sider af Njals saga, skrevet i det 13. århundrede i Island, selvom selve sagaen og begivenhederne er meget ældre. Scillas U3A oldnordiske gruppe holder sit regelmæssige møde på onsdag på baren af byens Everyman-teater, og denne saga er gruppens nuværende projekt.

Den dødelige fejde mellem de to kvinder, Hallgerd og Bergthora, tager en pause for en gangs skyld (dødstal stå på omkring 10 blandt Hallgerds ansatte, Bergthoras ansatte også).

Hallgerd og ....

... Bergthora – scoren i deres langvarige fejde står på 10-10

(antal ansatte dræbt)

I en morsom, munter og lidt mindre dødelige episode, Hallgerd sender sin irske (eller skotske) slave, Malcolm, på en mission, denne gang ikke for at dræbe nogen, men for at stjæle ost fra en af Bergthoras stuehuse, også at brænde  stuehuset ned.

Senere imidlertid bliver forbrydelsen afsløret, da nogle af Bergthoras venner undersøger et mistænksomt stykke ost og finder ud af, at mærker på osten matcher mærker på Hallgerds støbeform.

det øjeblikket, Hallgerds forbrydelse blev afsløret – yikes!

Gunnar tilbyder at betale en sum penge for at kompensere for den ost, hans kone Hallgerd har stjålet, men denne gang beslutter nogle af hans fjender at tage ham og Hallgerd  til retten for forbrydelsen – yikes, hvor moderne!!!!

De beslutter at ride over til Gunnars gård og indstævner parret. Og Gunnar bliver meget vred, for at sige mildt. Yikes (igen) – jeg forudser optræk til ballade – det ved jeg med sikkerhed!!!!  

 det øjeblik, beslutningen bliver taget

at indstævne Gunnar og hans kone Hallgerd – Hallgerd for at have stjålet osten,

og Gunnar for at have modtaget den af hende – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Det kan ikke undre, at Gunnar er vred. Du godeste!

Tilbageblik til tidligere på sagaen: Hallgerd og Bergthoras

første skænderier nogensinde over et stykke ost

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at se lidt fjernsyn. De viser det seneste afsnit i serien om den årlige Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. Programmets værter er de charmerende Joe Swift og dj-en Jo Whiley.

Vi har nydt de forrige episoder af denne serie, men denne finale afsnit er lidt skuffende, føler vi, og viser os meget lidt, der vi ikke har set før i de tidligere programmer. Men ikke desto mindre er der et par indslag, der fascinerer os.

Mad-journalist og dyrkeren Mark Diakono viser nogle af programmets gæst-værter, Arit Anderson, hvordan man kan lave cocktails eller ”mocktails” ud af nogle af planterne og urterne, vi dyrker i vores haver, hvilket ser lovende ud.

Marks cocktail:  mojito, hindbær, marokkanske mynte, en hel lime i 8 stykker, en lille smule ”havesirup” (halvt vand, halvt sukker, varmet op med citrom-Fabinho tilført) og en lille smule æblesaft. Yum yum!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!!