Irene’s (in red) 12th birthday party in our conservatory |
Fab, busy fine-tuned day. Got Zoe off to the Lake District for a week’s post-GCSE holiday–9 teens together in the Lakes, absolutely no adults. Fingers crossed! Transported Irene to a friend’s iceskating party & back, then on to drinks to celebrate the wedding of lovely Lesley Fellows, blogger extraordinaire (revdlesley.net) and Alan Crawley. And then gardening in late June’s golden light!
Summer garden joys–Irene bouncing in the sprinkler, in her swimsuit, listening to her iPod, wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap. Will it survive? Let’s see. Realizing how sharp Jake’s olfactory senses are compared to mine. He drops his yellow-green tennis ball amid clumps of plants, and looks at me as if I’m daft when I can’t smell it. Black crumbly compost I’ve made myself. Smells good!
Roy and I working in the garden together come to an epiphany almost simultaneously. “Zoe, you should become a farmer.” Zoe, patiently, wearily, “Yes, mum and dad, I’ll use my state of the art education to become a farmer.” Perhaps it takes middle age to attain wisdom!
We’re going to be beekeepers. Ordered a Queen Carnolian Bee & 5 frames of bees, a hive and accoutrements. Largely to pollinate our orchard, veggie garden & flowers, partly coz local honey is good for hay fever allergies; natural (not sugar fed) honey is good for colds, coughs & the immune system; & coz we like honey. Not because we’re crazy! Roy’s dad and grandmum kept bees, so we’re hoping he’s absorbed some lore!
Okay, today is not only the longest day of the year, but the last day of Zoe’s GCSE exams. National exams taken at 16 for my overseas friends. Mandatory Math, Science and English and 5 options. Zoe took Latin, Ancient Greek, French, History and Drama. They started on May 16th!! Everyone’s weary! Now Zoe gets 2.5 months off before A levels–French, English, Philosophy and Theology.
Quack. Quack! Latest addition to the Mathias symphony/cacophany. Roy and I bought two snowy white laying ducks, one Aylesbury, sweet, fat and contented, and one Indian Runner, gawky with an impossibly long swannish neck. This improbable Laurel and Hardy pair are comical, noisy and adorable. We bought them, on impulse after a lovely visit to National Trust Manors, Snowshill and Chastleton in Gloucestershire.
Ah, have been eating the 1st strawberries from our garden. The sweetness far surpasses store-bought! 1st strawberry success! Went on an interesting escorted tour of Merton and Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The head gardener of Corpus deliberately leaves weeds in his wildish garden. Blink!! Oxford’s lovely now. “And that sweet city with her dreaming spires; she needs not June for beauty’s heightening! Matthew Arnold
Thanks God for weekends. Irene’s was fabulous–early lunch here & a second lunch with her friend Phoebe, early dinner at Phoebe’s & second late dinner here. And youth group at church and Sunday school. She has become a church goer again after we changed churches. Yay. And we’ve spent hours taming our garden, neglected for 5 years, while Zoe studied for her last 4 GCSE’s. She’s done this week at last. Good weekend!
- Zoe, “I wish it were as easy to buy time to read books as it is to buy books.” Amen!
Top of Form
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067. Or something like that anyway. Irene and her friend, Lisa, who is Chinese are competing to see how fast they can work out the value of Pi mentally. They’ve got to 35 places. Roy says he, and his friend, David Wong-Toi who was Chinese, did the same thing at breaks. What’s up with Indians and Chinese?
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
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My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK
Anita Mathias says
Lol! Yes, bad writing. I noticed the ambiguity after I posted it, but you can't really edit FB statuses. Slap on the wrists!!
Jennifer in OR says
“wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap…”–at first I pictured Irene wrapped in bubble, haha!! I LOVE the picture of the birthday girl and her friends in your conservatory. Just beautiful!
Anita Mathias says
Ah, Roy says he thinks it's quite time-consuming. I just hope he's wrong!
Thecurateswife says
Do enjoy your bees – my mother kept them when I was growing up. They are fascinating – but I still don't like honey. I take it for medicinal reasons only;