A Womans Work!

Moorea!

An opportunity to slow down, to relax each day as the sun works its way into the brilliant blue sky. A place where I could sit around and simply be!!

Who was I kidding!!

Having spent a good part of my life picking things up after my children, arranging their lives, ensuring their safety and casting then out into the Big Wild World, I have managed to replace them with an even more demanding substitute! The Garden!!

No longer do I crawl around picking up toys and clothes, now I spend each morning, before the sun reaches the height of pure heat, gathering the leaves that my playful trees have thrown around as they tarried with the breeze the previous evening. As my own children grew, their responsibility towards their own welfare increased. The same can not be said for my trees. The large maturing children cast their leaves around in total abandonment of any resulting consequences, I swear they were planted in the 60s!!!


Compost bins lie located all around the garden, like open toy boxes. Do they deposit their leaves in these?? Do they Hell!! They pile them up in the corners, they scatter them liberally onto the grass, they even invade and disturb the sweet babies as they snuggle in their beds! Unruly children I have coped with and survived, my trees test my patience, as each morning I gaze out of my window onto their abandoned destruction once again!

But like children, just when you think you have reached the end of your patience, a smile, a seedling, a flower, evaporates all the strain, all the tension melts away and you gaze at your garden with pure love and adoration!

Beneath their 55% protective cover, the lettuce, cabbage, Basil, spinach and courgette spread their leaves, growing stronger every day.


In the large bed above them flowers explode upon the large courgettes, tomato plants stand true and strong. The vine snakes its way around the poles, new shoots appearing on its stem where we have harvested its leaves for our supper.

The Pineapple grows daily before my eyes, the bananas ripen in the trees.


My Garden is Growing!


Lisa, (a grown, mature, pick it up yourself, offspring!) has also had a challenging few days. A Climbing Competition in London! The climb was the easy bit as she is an excellent climber and thoroughly enjoys pushing her body to its limit in strenuous moves and complicated manoeuvres. Her challenge was to write about it for the club notice board!!

Lisa has an excellent ability to write. Her essays through University, her introductory letters to potential employers, even the introduction to her CV, is descriptive, informative, flowing and easy to understand. Yet she hates to write. It is an effort, a chore, and so yesterday, via the wonders of the internet, she sent me a brief description of the days events and asked me for help.

This may come as a surprise to you but I just love to write. I used to love to talk, but I ran out of people to talk to and so I discovered the Blog page and the joys of writing.

Taking the 20 lines of information Lisa has supplied I sat down at my wonderful desk, as the sun reached the height that says “Step outside and I will fry you instantly!”, and began to write. An hour later I had a story. Possibly one of the most unusual stories that I have ever written as I wasn't there! I wanted to describe the Hall, the atmosphere, the mood of the team. These details Lisa had left out. With a time difference of -11 hours I also couldn't call her to ask for more information, and so I wrote …..

“Once assembled, our (tired, excited, enthusiastic) team moved into the foyer (or where ever you went in) We were ushered through all the form filling by the helpful organisers of the competition until finally, with an encouraging smile, our trusty score cards were issued. With these clutched in our hands (or safe in our pockets, bags, or gathered by whoever for safe keeping) we entered the arena!

(describe the room) Mile End Climbing Club boasts a (huge, modest, expansive, intimate, small) array of climbing walls. (tall, short but complete, well laid out, all the previous above words, expansive etc) walls surround a (small sitting area, open standing area, lie either side of a long corridor?? help me out here girl!!)The bouldering section is situated in (another area, the middle, to one side) of the main walls.”

And so the story continued!!

I pressed SEND on the PC and sat back!

While my mind was concentrated on word formation, I also compiled a flyer, information sheet and Poster for 'RON & KERRIANN' ( Mooreas Latest Duo, in case you haven't heard!!).

I searched for, located, copied and pasted, lyrics to a few more songs onto my memory stick. I updated the 'Publicity Profile Page' with forthcoming events. Now that my morning job of Garden Maintenance had finished I was able to assume my role of Private Secretary!!

Oh, my role of Nursemaid to the four legged residents is also coming along fine! I have yet to introduce you to the other residents of Journey's End, namely, Nessie (as in Lock Ness) Tattoo (as in Edinburgh) and Whiskey (as in ….. well you are getting the Scottish theme I guess!)

These three canines have found themselves homes with Pape by default! Nessie arrived on his door step 6 years ago and has yet to leave.

Tattoo is a rescue dog too and Whiskey is the result of a night on the town with the boys (that's Tattoo's night out not Papes!!)
Each night either Nessie or Tattoo is dispatched to guard my door. The night Whiskey got the job she wandered off to our neighbour Jan, pleading abandonment and begging for shelter!

Tattoo loves being out, she wanders the garden, rustles around in the long grass searching for land crabs, she barks at the lizards, checking out all of our boundaries before settling down on my doorstep for the night.

Nessie, the only boy of the bunch, is not as self assured. He sits outside afraid of the big, dark, open sky. He stands in terror as the rain begins to fall, he whimpers pathetically as the breeze blows leaves across the doorstep, and so we have taken pity on this fierce butch dog and made him a cubbyhole to hide in! Each evening, fortified with a handful of biscuits, he retires into his new den, peeking sheepishly through the legs of the table, as I lock my door and climb into bed!

Whiskey, oblivious to all this lies asleep in her kennel in the garage. The youngest of the bunch with a loyalty factor driven by her belly, who seems happy to roam and get herself into all sorts of bother. She is not the prettiest of dogs, although she is incredibly lovable, she sort of reminds me of a gangly tomboyish teenager, who hasn't quite found her beauty yet. She also unfortunately suffers from a skin allergy (Teenage Acne?) which causes her to scratch relentlessly. She is bathed each week in medicated shampoo, as are the others just for the fun of it all!

Her latest adventure, misdemeanour's, whatever it actually entailed, resulted in an very swollen ear! An ear so swollen it hung down the side of her face like a half inflated balloon. Within 24 hours it was twice the size causing her whole head to lean over giving her a pained expression, so a trip to the vet was required!

I can not tell you the exact problem as the whole visit was conducted in French, but Whiskey ended up staying there for the day having a general anaesthetic and an operation to drain said earlobe of infected fluid!

She was returned to us in a most unusual state!! A turban style bandage pressed the drained ear against her head, a small growth has also been removed from her leg. Although she seemed happy to run and play, her lopsided appearance caused the other dogs to wonder and they examined her from the top to the bottom of all four toes when she returned to the fold.

Four days later it was time for a check up. She positivity bounded into the back of the van, enthusiastically posing for her photo as we drove along.

At the vets the ear was checked and we were offered one of those lampshade collars as a replaceable to the turban! Knowing this dog as we do, we opted for a replacement turban and with a nice clean bandage she has returned home for another week. Stitches are due out on Friday, I shall keep you posted!


And so today, having played Nursemaid, Gardener, Secretary,and Singer yesterday, I am going out to lunch! Decadence, I hear you ask?

Don't you believe it! We are lunching at a Restaurant that Pape played in a few years ago, and we will just happen to have a few flyers on us, as we accidentally bump into the owner having enquired about his Health and Temper!!

At least I will get an Ice-cream out of the day!!