Thru the window at 4pm today.........

Autumn is definitely upon us..........

Yup. You don’t need to be a working mum to notice the flying by of the time, nice clock or no nice clock. The colours of autumn are encroaching, so enjoy them while you can ………. ChickPea was out in Kelvingrove Park again yesterday with her box brownie (well – a descendent of her BB), and all being well we’ll see some autumnal flavours getting into the Risotto over the next few days…….

Meantime, let’s see what’s been happening to fluff up the soufflé……. ( and we’ll just forget all about PK’s take on ‘fluffing’, won’t we…….)

ChickPea has been vigorously jobhunting of late. Various returns not wishing to employ her talents notwithstanding. Luckily, enough combined SAD light exposure and sunshine by-the-by to rouse her wilting spirits, and to fire up both The Imagination and The Latent Blagger Within……. Whoo hoo ! ….. So the most unlikely of job adverts have been viewed with decreasing suspicion, the CV turned inside out, with a nip here, a tuck there, a few more stitches and a modicum of embroidery……. I tell you – if all it took was Positive Thinking, she’d be running the world by now….. but…….

So there’s now another 3 applications in during this week… (quite enough to handle for just now - tho’ she picked up more possibilities at the Jobcentre this morning, so will doubtless peruse the potential therein before hanging her Blagging Boots up for the weekend……) …….. and I do believe the sunshine is out to play, the chooks are only up to their ankles in mud, Ms Mog is sleeping the sleep of the well fed, and Mr Mutt is surveying the back yard morosely, and wondering If There’s Any Justice At All In The Universe…….. (cos if there is, why oh why is he jus’ sittin’ waitin’ for his walk ?)

OK, Mr Mutt. Like the Guinness advert says, all it takes is patience…….. good things come to those wot wait…….

Ten Things Currently Visible From ChickPea's Window

1. Raindrops
2. Loads and loads of beautiful red cottoneaster berries
3. More raindrops
4. A recently cut hedge – tidy for the winter !
5. Rain on the windowpane
6. Trees turning all the wonderful hues of autumn
7. Raindrops dripping off the cotoneaster
8. Grey clouds
9. Puddles
10.Even more rain…………

Much too much rain recently........

ChickPea finally got outside today without needing brolly, macintosh or wellies ……… And the lawnmower came out to play too, much to Mr Mutt’s astonishment and the chooks’ surprise. The lawn itself is of multiple genetic inheritances – mostly meadow and wild rambling couch grass (as in ‘kooch’ rather than as in ‘sofa’ ) – and was nearing the length which would require a scythe……… but not quite……… and by assaulting it from every angle imaginable she got it got whittled down fairly well (TH doesn’t approve of this method – he likes to approach it from East and West, and so get A Lawn With Lines – but ChickPea has no such scruples – short is her requirement !). And then the chooks got out for a while on a Nematode Hunt, and Mr Mutt went off with ChickPea to rescue TH from The Big Box, alternatively named ‘Employment Environment’……….

Such was today’s excitement.

‘To Blog - or Not To Blog – that is the question’………

PS. Have you visited Risotto recently ? - do you know where Mr Heron is strutting his stuff ?

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Yup – no kiddin’ ! Today is “International Talk Like A pirate Day” ! ChickPea heard it on the BBC (Radio 4, at about 9am) – so it MUST be true !!

Avast, shipmates ! Shiver me timbers, but we need to get a grip here and sort out landlubbers from crew and make the place shipshape ! So wot’s to do ‘ere, then, wastin’ time on yon elekteronic gadjit an’ wearin’ out the sofa. Climb the riggin’ – an’ get hunkered down to business – else there’ll need to be some walkin’ of the plank………

Ooooeeeeee !

Sorry………. But wot fun ! ChickPea has just outwitted the gremlins that have been haunting her ‘Hi !’ ……… That big blank bit has actually had words in it for weeks n weeks……… Dunno why they wouldn’t show. Anyway – she appears to have dunnit………..at last.......

Tuesday 16th September, 2008

…..and STILL raining. Rain on rain on rain........

Mr Mutt is bored of paddling round the park and the chooks are well fed up of pretending to be ducks. ChickPea has finally given up thinking this is summertime and is accepting that her glums and lousy sleeping may be ‘SAD’-related, so she spent much of this morning in front of the ‘SAD’ light. We’ll insist she repeats this for the next few days and we shall see what happens…..

Dunno if it’s related, or not, but it is certainly high time she flexed the fingers and got back to the blogosphere……. All this rain an’ traipsin’ doon the Jobcentre isn’t doing her a lot of good. But she also toddled along to an employment agency a few weeks back – heard nuthin' - and then got a phonecall about 12.30md today asking if she wiz available to work this very afternoon………

So, wot the heck – off she scampered, and spent the next 30mins changing ‘Euro’ prices on shoes to ‘££££’ prices, and the next five and a half hours changing black plastic coathangars to fancy wooden ones, and trying to make the new coats and clothes involved look just perfect for someone to buy tomorrow when the shop opens for the first time……. She knew it’d be tiring – and she’s not sure she wants to do the same ever again – but the astonishing environment of a new clothes shop sorting itself out the day before opening is a vignette not previously encountered. The progress over the six hours was really quite, quite remarkable. Organized chaos. The ‘boutique’ for tomorrow was emerging steadily from the apparent melee of today.

And rather good to finish an hour earlier than expected……….. and GREAT to find that TH had cooked ChickPea her supper for when she got home. Now, bath and bed……….and if she doesn’t sleep well after all that………..