Girding my loins

 Tidying up doesn't do itself.  Nor does housework,  Nor does preparing for a Fair.  I have the Builtn Antiques Fair in early May, so need to get organized.  The Library is forever a dumping ground.  I knew where things were, but books, craft items etc etc kept landing up on the table and it was driving me mad.  ALL the books have now been tidied away, in the places where they belong. I had a sort out in the stables, found a box full of china in the teal blue/turquoise I am short of, and sorted out a couple of other boxes to go, plus brought in a deep empty box to fill with stuff from the table.  A job well done.

The table, btw, is freeform Yew, and the holes in it are from the original tree growth.  Keith and I loved it and I still do.  Glad it's not covered in junk now.  

Here is last night's stirfy, with Pak Choi, Spring Onions, Courgettes, Orange Pepper and Mushrooms, and some Soy Sauce and Sesame Oil.  It was delicious.

I finally got to make the Scandivian Apple Cake, which is nice, but ideally needs ice cream with it :)

Tonight I have defrosted some chicken pieces from the last roast we had (probably months ago as I can't afford a joint very often).  I will do a chicken risotto with that for tonight's meal.  I like my rice dishes.

I had a long chat with the vet about the best way forward for L. Whale and his toe and she is just going to take off the very last digit (and not the whole toe) and make sure that there is obviously no nail left to grow into his pad any more.  He's booked in for Monday, poor chap.  

I've watered the plants outside which needed it (new Hellebore, the big one, had gone floppy in the flower department).  Also the new Blackcurrants.  Most seem to be putting out shoots but the first couple or 3 are slow to do that.  Watered round in the greenhouse too.  

Now I shall sit down with my book for half an hour.

NOT at my best

 I have - unsurprisingly - acquired the cold that Gabby had on holiday.  Not a bad one - a bit of a sore throat, a bit of a sniffle - until yesterday when I came back from my walk and suddenly felt chilled.  I retired to the sofa with a hotty botty and a woollen blanket, but that wasn't enough and I had to turn the central heating on for a while.  I even put my electric blanket on before I went to bed AND took up a hotty botty.  I woke in the night from a nightmare where I was struggling to breath, to find out that yes, I was struggling to breath and think this may be the start of a chest infection.  

A bank of Violets.  I have lots in my garden too - they were just in the lawn but are now in the gravel stretch beside the lawn too.

I shall rest up today, and be glad that I made the most of yestrerday's sunshine.  We are back to overcast and chilly this morning. I pottered around yesterday but managed to achieve this: 

1.  Cleared kitchen table.  Books put away, pile of paperwork sorted.

2.  Started sorting out proper compost heap.  Took outer printed skin off ancient banana boxes put out to recycle, and tore up inner card for compost. Added contents of sewing room bin.  Added more water.

3.  Topped up planters with soil from planter than the roofers managed to drop something on and smashed the edge, and planted a pack of mixed colour Nasturtiums.  Did some weeding around roses in the front.

4.  Did a load of washing.

5.  Sorted out a box of old stock in stables and checked through two others.  Need to further sort out and put some stuff for charity shop. Put all china cats in same box.

6.  Emptied a Tamzin Box from attic, some stuff for her, some to chuck, and repurposed it for sewing things in the craft room.

7. Went for a walk.

I was going to bake Norwegian Apple Cake from one of the Library Books, but ran out of energy so will do that after breakfast today.  I may make some cookies too, as the lovely Debbie from deepest Pembrokeshire, sent me some Betty Crocker Cookie magazines.  Bless you Debbie.

My wonderful Copper Beech just coming into leaf.

Not sure quite what to make of the latest (and last) season of Outlander.  Claire and Jamie both seem to be more irritable, or perhaps I mean less tolerant.  I was NOT expecting what happened to Fergus as it departed totally from the book.  Does anyone else follow it?  I have all her novels, and most of them on Audible too, though I find some of the details hard to cope with since Keith's death, as elements bring it all back and I am driving along crying.  I have to say as a love story, and historically accurate series, it is brilliant.  Is anyone else a fan and been following every word?

I shall have a sofa morning and carry on reading Elly Griffiths The Night Hawks which I got from the Charity Shelf in Tesco's.  It bears re-reading. I read Marram by Leonie Charlton, whilst I was away on holiday.  It was a birthday present (along with two others).  It tells of an ambitious ride on Highland ponies the length of the Outer Hebrides.  Well worth reading.  I am debating about starting The Dovekeepers next.

I have never noticed this before - Dog's Mercury after pollination.

A lovely spring day

 

My little scarlet Tulips burst into bloom whilst I was away.  Just about all my orchard trees are in bloom - one of the Pears spectacularly - and the grass and weeds have shot up in my absence.  I got out in the garden yesterday afternoon and weeded some more of the cobbles, planted 3 Lupins in a triangle on the far end of the bank, sowed the White Lady runner beans as so few of my saved seed Scarlet Emperor runner beans have germinated.  The Salvia Nemerosa (overwintered) needed potting on and I also planted the three Aubretia's a friend gave me for my birthday.  

Today I will do some tidying up in the Library - so many boxes of stock and they could do with consolidating.  I will adjust some prices too and try and clear out some of the older stock at my next Fair at Builth, early next month.  I have just had to cough up £225 for my pitch - they have shoved up the price from £185 (new company have taken over).  I hope I have lots of customers . . .

Due to the cost of fuel, I am considering what outings are now scratched off the list of days out.  Wonderwool (held next weekend on the showground) is now off, as I can't afford it, although obviously it is a negligable fuel charge.  I still have wool I bought two years ago, to knit up, so no real need for more!  I have decided not to go to either of the Quilt Festivals at Malvern either, as I am going with my quilting group to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in Birmingham in July.  That's £22.20 to get in (advance ticket to be bought) and then the transport taking us, and then spending money on the day.  

I am about to go down and speak to the vet's about L. Whale's treatment as the sliver of nail is still there.  Surely they can give a pain killing injection just to clip it, rather than me paying £420 to have his toe amputated?  (On top of the £143 in Feb for the nail stripping, which I also had to have done last year too).  I am NOT made of money although obviously I don't want him to suffer.  Update: Just checked it again and it appears to be healing well - he is licking it a lot - and so I will keep my eye on it.  

Here is last night's meal which was a bit tastless - needs some curry powder or Smoked Paprika to give it some oomph.  Lots of it, which will be frozen for instant meals when I need them.

Vets - and then some work . . .

An unexpected guest in our suitcase . . .

 

I don't know how it happened, but we did finish our packing in the living room (we were sharing a suitcase as only away a few days.)  Somehow the DVD remote had a little holiday too!!!

Our hotel room overlooked the Tivoli Gardens - NO WAY would I have gone on this ride!  When we walked past earlier, they were screaming blue murder!!

I have lovely memories of the special meals we had (though tbh, nothing could beat the meal in Resto, the Italian restaurant, on the first night.  This was  our meal for the last night, at Pate Pate, a restaurant Tam had researched.  YUM!

 

My meal, which was large prawns in a Vodka and Chilli sauce. 

This was Gabby's - can't remember what it was though.

Safely back home and all my holiday clothes washed (and now dry).  I went to Llandod for fresh food shopping and have decided to try lots more veggie recipes to save on money.  I got two books from the Library - Miguel Barclay's Meat-Free One Pound Meals,and Pinch of Nom Budget, then found The Australian Women's Weekly fast fresh Vegetarian recipe book on the charity shelves.

I bought Courgettes, Pak Choi, Lettuce,Spring Onions, a pack of Sweet Peppers, Mushrooms, plus fruit (apples, strawberries and a couple of bananas).  Passata, lasagna sheets, a can of caramel (I want to try and recreate the amazing salted caramel bun I had in Copenhagen), yeast, a stir fry sauce, live yoghurt, Mango chutney, Sesame Oil (haven't had that for years), Peanuts for protein,  houmous and coleslaw.  

I have to clean out the deep corner cupboard in the kitchen today but in having a brief fossick yesterday, I found the spiralizer that Danny bought me years ago and I had never used so will give that a try today.  Handy for prepping courgettes etc for stir fries.  The cupboard and contents will be better for a good scrub down.  First job after breakfast.

I had a walk up to see my horsey neighbour Chris and had horsey cuddles with Cas, lots of kisses for his soft mushroom grey nose.  It was good to have a natter again.  Good to be home to and to sleep in my own bed, in a room which wasn't at 24 deg (we turned it down but 20 was as low as it could go) and with winter weight feather duvets (all best quality - the final hotel had only been open a month).  

I waited for 56 years to meet him . . . Bog Bodies of the Jutland Peninsula

 

You have this photo of Gabby and I eating a lovely meal (still at the bread and Olive Oil stage) at Pate Pate restaurant on the last night (back in Copenhagen).  Just in case you don't want to see Bog Body photos which start 9 or 10 photos down.  Here is our hotel too - very modern and swish.

It was round like these other buildings.  We were on the 8th floor.

In Silkeborg, we had to walk into the town to reach the Museum - poor Gabby hauling the heavy suitcase.  These houses were typical of the older style of property and many houses had the steep pitched rooves.

We crossed a bridge over this lake and saw a sign for (what was left I assume) of Silkeborg castle.

What they think Tollund Man looked like in life.  

The contents of his last meal.

These figures were also put in the bog at Bakkegarten near Krageland.  Similar abstract figures have also been found in bogs in the Netherlands and Germany, and were possible markers for a safe route through the wetlands.

Elling Woman, who was found not that far away some 12 years earlier.

Rendswuhrenmanden Man 220 - 320 AD.

Damendorf Man, or at least his skin.  290 - 360 AD.

Sometimes only skulls were found.  The acidic bog turns the hair red.

Various hair styles.

He just looked like he was asleep . . .

It was well worth the wait to meet him.  I have 8% Danish blood (Gabby too) from my mum's side of the DNA.  I was glad to pay my respects.

Exploring

 

We had to take the boat trip around the waterways of Copenhagen and it was a good way of seeing the city and finding out a bit about it. Old and new architecture nestled together.  We had a good guide.

I think this was an old warehouse, now waterside apartments.

I'm not sure how the honeycomb windows building works or indeed, what it is.

This area is where homeless people set up home - there's an area of Bristol I believe, where the same thing has happened. The house was unusual and looked to be missing a storey.  Modern building behind...

The iconic Little Mermaid of Hans Christian Anderson's imagination. Smaller than expected.

There were lots of houseboats on the river.

Then yesterday it was on to our Airbnb in Silkeborg. We discovered at the train station that there had been a total outage on the train lines throughout the country the previous day. People working in Copenhagen just couldn't get home!  There were lots of cancellations and overcrowding on the trains where people were still trying to get from A to B. Our train wasn't affected. The electrified line took us to where we changed then we travelled on to Silkeborg on a "dirty diesel" - ever since reading the Thomas the Tank Engine books to Danny, that's what they've been in my mind :). 

Some train views. Around Copenhagen it was very flat and the soil light in colour. As we went Northwards, the land became hillier and the soil darker. Hardly any sign of livestock though.

We had a lovely apartment for our Airbnb accommodation and shopped at a localish supermarket for a pizza and some wine. Nice to relax in a more homely setting. 

National Museum of Denmark

 O.M.G!!! A mind blowing day for me yesterday, when I got to finally see items that I had only seen as book illustrations. I would have been happy to set up home in the Prehistory rooms . Do many wonderful things from fabulous worked flints that must have taken many many hours to perfect. Amber necklaces from amber found on the Baltic coast. Wonderful little animals carved from chunks of golden and cherry amber. The replicas of the wonderful golden horns which were found in the 1600s and melted down!!! Sacrilege. Fortunately someone drew all the symbols on them and so they have been forever lost.

Then, this...

The stunning Bronze Age Sun Chariot.

One of the copies of Runestones from Gotland.

A bevy of Carnyx, rescued from Bogs. Blown in battle.

Amber...

The star of the show - the wonderful stunning Gundestrop Cauldron. I stood by this for quite a while, just committing it to memory. I can remember Dr Jennifer Foster lecturing about this and being so envious the shd had been to see it.

Pottery with eyes, which reminded me of the chalk shapes with eyes found on Salisbury Plain.

Today we travel on to Silkeborg and the Museum with the bog bodies...