Weekend Roundup

Last night's 'Countryfile' weather forecast showed a little map that recorded that our part of the country has enjoyed 110% of the average March rainfall already.

Our blog pals up North (way up north) are on about 36% of their average.  Lucky them. 

110% explains a lot - like the extra layer of mud on the knees of the grandlad when he turned up after rugby.  No he didn't want it washed off but he was happy to kneel on the carpet to get involved in the next craft project.  It also explains why our lawn could host a bog-snorkeling event, why even the ducks have retreated up the slipway into the stream across the road rather than brave the surging current, and why half the neighbour's embankment seems to have washed out onto the shared drive ('forcing' them to use our side).

Mr B gets a bit unnecessarily antsy about territory and parking encroachment.  He's not the one that had to hoist their bike above head height and bear it aloft to negotiate the tight space between his deliberately messily parked van and the small runabout wedged into the remaining space at the top of the drive.  Fortunately my bike is light.

Saturday's preferred cycle group outing over the South Downs to West Dean was over-subscribed so we settled for a 6 parks tour of Havant, Portsmouth and Hayling Island; all rather flat by comparison but rewarded by a lovely coffee and cheese scone at the Victoria Park cafe in old Portsmouth - a very well run social enterprise cafe where you can also 'pay forward' a hot drink or food for a homeless person to enjoy sometime. Junior rugby was being played near home while we were out.  Such are the clashes on social calendars sometimes, so we had to make up for that with a swampy game of boules on the lawn back home, and then some indoor crafting in which grandlad finally got to drive the sewing machine (put handles on a shopping bag made out of a teatowel) and then paint said teatowel/bag.

What had been, I suspect, a fairly random design became a fish after a stray splot of purple paint on the green got turned into a bigger circle.  Studied on completion there was clearly a fish in the design, so the tail was made (by me) and added on Sunday afternoon.

Saturday was filled out with a visit to the allotment, digging all remaining leeks (a wheelbarrow full), and generally tidying the place up for handover.

Havant Community Litterpickers' regular Sunday morning outing chose a nearby copse so I joined in. It was a damp slippery experience clambering about over rotting dumped garden waste but a fruitful one if you regard quantity collected as something to be pleased about.  Weirdest things hauled out of the woods?  Space hopper, school uniforms, a baby walker (one of those round things with wheels that turn a non-walking baby into a dangerous projectile), suitcase full of clothes???  We had a good laugh proposing a story for the demise of each.

Parking tensions had crested when I arrived home to find that a new tenant next door is a taxi driver and Mr B is incensed by that for some reason.  He needs a chill-pill.  The sun was shining by then so dragging a spade out of our shed I shoveled the collapsed embankment off the drive, in the process widening it by about 3 feet, and then retired for a nap.  Oh there was the fishtail, and some overdue mending of clothes in there somewhere, processing of a large quantity of leeks (sauteed and heading for the freezer), and the making of a leek (naturally) and nettle orzotto* for our evening meal.

It hadn't felt like a particularly well invested weekend, but I guess stuff got done and enjoyment was had.  Like the song says: life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.

*Orzotto - like risotto but made with pearl barley.

Middle of a tulip - just for fun.