Sweltering....

What a fantastic day. Bright blue sky, and according to the temperature gauge in my car, it was 19 out there. Nell (the dog) and I went walking in the woods that I've nicknamed 'butterfly alley' because of the wonderful range of butterflies that bide there. Today there were mainly peacock butterflies and the odd cabbage white. So lovely to see.

The only problem was I'd forgotten to switch the central heating off in the house, and Beloved's away for the weekend... I'm sure he'd have noticed. It's been on for the past week due to the freezing weather as it's felt more like October than May for what seems forever. So when we got back from our walk, the house was baking hot. I know the saying goes "ne'er cast a cloot til May is oot" but heck... it's hot in here!

The answer

Well folks... the answer is to yesterday's question at first glance seems to be 'no'.

However, if I look at the simple things that happened today, such as I had to get 2 new front tires for my car and was wondering where I could get this done, when I had to travel out of the office to see someone for work. I ended up right next (no exaggeration) to a tire place who replaced my extremely worn ones for brand new ones whilst I was doing my hour of work, and then all I had to do was nip next door, pay (of course), and then zip home.

I was concerned that I would be late for Jackie, the village hairdresser, but got home at the exact moment that she turned up. "How lucky is that?" she said.

Then, after the weather report this morning that promised rain 'later' and I had carried my brolly with me all day just in case, I noticed that not long after Jackie left the rain started and has not stopped for the last couple of hours.

You know... maybe the answer to the question is 'yes' after all!

Lucky

When I got home from work yesterday there was a package from my friend Tracy, who is currently travelling in Nepal. She sent us a 'care' package from India, but it had taken a while to get here. It contained blessing cords for my beloved and me from The Karmapa, and HH The Dalai Lama, together with a couple of cd's of The Dalai Lama's talks, and some incense from Tashi Jong monastery. In the pack was also a blessing cord for Nell, who now proudly wears her orange cord hanging from her collar. Beloved and I felt very lucky.

So when I turned on my computer today and there was a message from She Who Must Not Be Named to inform me (and the world) that she had got a 7 letter word on her first turn, which garnered her the fantastic score of 82, I felt in great need of luck. I took a long look at my letters which initially didn't turn up much, but then the word 'deicides' - using the second 'e' that She Who Must Not Be Named had placed - became clear for me. This gave me a score of 74. Being only 8 behind gives me a fighting chance. So for a second day running I felt very lucky.

Can I be lucky 3 days in a row? Wait until tomorrow and I'll let you all know.

My next home?

Hi folks

Back from the last weekend of my six month course. What was it like? I think the word is 'interesting'! Nuff said.

There is one bit that I will tell, and that was Mr Malcolm, a most delightful, learned 70+ year old, had bought himself a new Porsche. Even though he professed embarrassment he was also extremely proud of new green shiny mobile, and I was offered a go. Not to drive I hasten to add, but to speed along the narrow roads on the side of the river Esk with the hood down, wind in the hair, chauffeur driven by the man himself. That wasn't the funny bit, but the thing that was, was when we got back to Samye Ling, young James, hippie extraordinaire, was waiting his turn. This was much to the chagrin of Mr Malcolm, who found himself driving up and down the road, giving us all a turn. Carnival rides arrived at Samye Ling. Thank you Mr Malcolm, it really was fun!

However, during the weekend one of my friends, who is about to embark on building a new home for herself was told about Eco houses and now my heart is set on a two story eco pod. I think they're fantastic, and might just satisfy my love of bedsit accommodation combined with space enough to live. Now I just have to think where I could place my new home and then of course I will have to sell this house.

Beloved has yet to be informed of the new plan, but hey, it's just a dream right now... right?

Small is good?

Having nurtured my plants, I'm now off for the weekend to nurture my mind at Samye Ling on the banks of the River Esk in the Scottish Borders. The last weekend of a 6 month course. I'm looking forward to catching up with friends and also spending a bit of quiet time.

I think underneath it all I have what I call 'bedsit mentality', which is that I actually love being in a small room that contains all I need. Ok, for those who know will, I think, be screaming at me something along the lines of "yeh, that'll be right!" right now. They know that I live in quite a large house, and each room is packed to the brim with all kinds of things that I've never been able to throw away just in case they might come in useful some day.

But there is something rather lovely about simplicity, even if it is only for a weekend. And hey I'm allowed to fool myself for a short while, and then feel really good coming back to my house full of junk and feel good about that too!

Cut down in it's (not so) prime

The dreaded deed has been done!

All that is left is a tiny stub and a tiny leaf to go with it.

What was extraordinary was that the poor pathetic plant had one hell of a strong stem. Once I'd started cutting and realised how strong the stem actually was I almost decided to stop, but then again, once I'd started it seemed ridiculous to stop.

I'm not sure that it will survive such drastic action, only time will tell. But it was not doing well in the state it was and so doing something seemed better than doing nothing.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Babies

This week was my beloved's grandson's first birthday, so off we went to Glasgow for a day of partying armed with highchair for the boy himself and alcohol for his mum and dad. As you can see from the photo, he had the cutest wee shirt that his dad had printed for him.

It was a fun day, and we had a delicious dinner at Crab Shakk, which I highly recommend. But after a sleepless night courtesy of our Glasgow hotel, where the room was so hot that I was sweating like I was in a sauna, it was good to get home.

It's funny, but after being away just for 24 hours I tend to notice so much more and so I was overjoyed to see that the coffee plant that is doing the best has just sprouted even more new leaves and is looking quite resplendent. Sadly the weakest of the bunch is not doing quite so well and I'm thinking of drastic action to see if that will jerk it into wanting to grow.

I will keep you posted.