Episode 32 - The New Zealand tea room

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Well folks, here we are, beside the hot springs of New Zealand.

The tea room (with the customary distressed chintz sofa) overlooks the steaming, bubbling lake. For the bold and sporty, hiking, biking and sky-diving are on offer. Personally, I'm not planning to leave the spa.

Please come and join us for a celebratory drink and conversation ranging from the profound to the profoundly silly. The cardinal rule remains: no fisticuffs.

Ugh, CMOT, that sucks. Does your arm act up when in flight? My mom has, since I've been here, broken both of her shoulders/upper arms (did the second one just after a year to the day after the first one) and they give her a lot of difficulty when she flies.

Yay UniS's Boy! That's impressive swimming!!

UniS, I've had different types of PB Ripple. PB running through vanilla ice cream; PB and chocolate running through vanilla; PB running through chocolate ice cream; PB and chocolate running through chocolate. All of them are YUMMY.

I'm restless.

Oh, Maud, I heard your Will Smith song on the radio today and thought of you.

Well done UnisBoy!

I wouldn't call it my song, but I do like it.

::Throws shapes ready for the weekend::

Yup, Maud, that one. Any time I hear it I think of you because I know you like it.

It's not the sort of thing I would ever buy - or listen to - but if I hear it at a party, I just have to bust some moves!

::::

They're playing in my home town the day before my birthday. Have seen them twice around my birthday before.

Free to a good home -- one toddler.

Rotate the door about its pivot, lower thyself towards the ground and proceed to travel the age-old relation to what we now fondly know as the ornithological animal.

I challenge you not to grin while listening. video isn;t much cop tho.

Hello, all; frequently think about you (as if you were real friends with whom I have lost touch, as I suppose you are) but always seem to be busy/tired/laptopless. No kind of topless is a good look nowadays. Not really any idea what is going on atm; I have a horrible chesty cold and laringitis and just wrote a cheque for £250 instead of £2.50 for a second-hand book this morning.

waves at labelle in a vague way~~

I think I ought to recognise you but I'm struggling? Can you give me clue or PM?

Waves at LaBelleDame too - I think I recognise you too but don't want to post too much.

Hope you feel better soon and that things are ok. Sending hugs and bisous!

Oh dear, Scout, wassup?

::Waves at LaBelleDame, hoping that her guess as to her identity is right::

Ivor Chestikoff, too. It's really getting me down.

::::

Oh, nothing more that can't be explained by the fact that Toddler is 2.5. He's 2, he's a toddler, he's teething molars, he's 2. Toddler's lovely, really, we just had a rough day.

I have no idea who LaBelleDame is so I'm not going to pretend. Hello, anyway, LeBelle!

Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk are dangerous, dangerous places.

Have you succumbed to what I call Slippery Mouse Finger Virus, Scout? It's a debilitating condition that means that you constantly click on the 'buy' button when on Amazon and similar sites.

Well, sort of -- not the buy button but the various wishlist ones. I have too many wishlists and too many things on them.

But if they're only wishlists, that's not harmful, is it?

No. But one click leads to another which leads to another. My Mom has the .com wishlist links and it makes me feel . I did go in and rearrange some of them and delete things. But I still feel .

Oh.... Toddler and I got lots of different seeds today. He was proud walking through B&Q with his box. Now I need to figure out what to do with that big flower pot from last year.

Oops. Forgot that I had name changed for something else and couldn't be bothered to change back. Used to be - and will no doubt be again when I get round to it, since it is many years since I was belle - Unserpent.
Have the most terrible cold. Haven't been ill in any way for a year or so and REALLY hate it. My throat and chest really really hurt.

::Clasps LaBelleDame to her ample and soil-spattered bosom, having done a lot of gardening today::

I too am feeling very grumpy because of a cold I cannot shift.

Scout - How big is the pot? Could you grow a sunflower or two and something low-growing around it?

I did wonder, Belle, if that's who you were/are but I'm terrible with guessing name changes. I'm sorry you're unwell.

I love family days out in the sunshine. And weekends mean I have help with a toddler who's two but at the same time I think his twoness is worse on the weekends. Still, lovely day -- picnic lunch and trip to the farm.

Maud, I have a big pot (Very big) out front that last year we grew sunflowers. Now the soil has sunk, it doesn't look very healthy and it's full of weeds. I don't know if I'm meant to get rid of the soil and start fresh or if I should get rid of the weeds then top up or what.

It depends what you want to grow. If it's a huge pot and you're only going to grow annuals, you could get away with scooping out the top 8 inches or so and refilling - the roots probably won't get down to the bottom so it doesn't matter if it's old compost.

Incoming, Maud, re the pot.

Would anyone like to join me for a Sunday night ?

Lovely weekend chez Bean. Small Bean had a great swimming lesson yesterday and is trying so, so hard to swim unaided. The sweet peas that we planted last week are just beginning to germinate which strangely makes me smile. We have been out for lunch yesterday and to the wildlife park for a picnic today. And it's a short week this week - hurrah!

Scout - I can clearly remember the toddler days. Keep smiling, I'm not sure that it gets easier but it does get 'different'. DH and I commented this afternoon that we actually had breathing space again - we got home after a day out and Small Bean trundled off quite happily to play with his trains without needing constant input from us.