Garden for pseu

I must preface this with the reminder that this is how I personally would treat this new area and is subject to my own personal tastes.

We have a triangle roughly 18’x16′ facing mainly East with early morning sun, ph neutral to alkaline that has previously been laid to lawn.  The requirement is mainly shrubs with some perennials, some evergreens and with mainly white flowers.

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Another big step forward?

The building of the EU and the establishment of peace in Europe for all time is an exciting project full of crises, disagreements and ultimately progress.
Those that, with the Maastricht treaty, established the euro knew that they were advancing us down the track to a federal Europe. For the euro will only stand if there is an EU wide economic govt to coordinate tax and to redisitribute income between nations. That is ultimately what the Greek affair has been over and for which three people have sadly sacrificed their lives.
France as always has been the lead nation, with others notably Germany not wishing to advance too far. But the process was ineviable. The hedge funds based in London and new York would bet against the euro if they saw a chance of making money. And they have, massively. The only way to counter this speculative movement beyond our borders is by coordinated govt action in the Eurozone.
So this weekend France and Brussels announce a 750 million euros Eurozone fund to assist nations to resist speculation of their govt bonds. A fund that, if the annoucement is correct will be a major step forward towards federal Europe. But let us be cautious, so often what has been announced by the dynamic French president has been watered down by subsequent announcements from Berlin.
But if it is true we can finally thank the hedge funds based in US and the UK for making this historic step possible. Irony there is.

The EU’s monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, said the agreement “proves that we shall defend the euro whatever it takes.”

As I have always said, test us, the European union is stronger than you think.

The New Creative Writing (and Photo) Challenge

Inspired by Cyanide P. Bunny’s brilliant post on “Sport”:

For the next contest: Write a short fiction piece, 700 words or less, that includes:
• a reference to some sport or sports
• the word “stain”

Entries can be essay. memoir, fiction and poultry, rhymed or unrhymed.

In order to broaden the endeavor, this challenge will include photo stories. If you would prefer to address this challenge by submitting your story in photographs, you may do so. Here are the rules for the photo stories:

• Stories must include a minimum of 5 photos and a maximum of 10
• The photos should suggest a narrative thread
* A reference to some sport or sports
• And somewhere in the photos, a stain.

Stories due here by 10pm GMT on Sunday, May 23. (Two weeks from today.) THERE WILL BE A PRIZE!

So very very green…

You know how it is when you’re returning to Blighty having been abroad somewhere hot on holiday?

You’ve had a week or two of sand, sea, parched-looking potato fields (I’m thinking Cyprus) and dusty tracks and you’re gawping out of the little window of the aircraft at beautiful Britain laid out below and feeling inordinately fond of it with it’s patchwork fields and lakes and stuff and as the plane descends for the landing you can’t believe just how very green it all is?

Well it was like that today when we were cycling in the Forest of Dean. I kept saying, inanely “I can’t believe how GREEN everything is! Just look at the green. No, but seriously, it’s really REALLY green. Beeoooootiful and green.”

Well DT man can only put up with so much of that stuff and eventually dropped behind me so that he was out of earshot. But I didn’t care. I just kept thinking it anyway. This time of year is the most spectacular time – when all the young leaves and fresh ad vibrant with colour, the big soft foxglove leaves are out and the bluebells have pushed up and are a haze of subtle blue with buds coloured up and waiting to burst open. Continue reading “So very very green…”

Sport

There is a part of the game of cricket that many foreigners don’t get, even people from other cricket mad countries. When I lived in America, Indians would try to taunt me about the latest defeat for England, but for me cricket always meant sitting in a deckchair at a village game, slightly disorientated from the alcohol and unable to get out of the chair except by slowly toppling over sideways and collapsing in a heap on the grass. Sometimes something would happen on the field and an uncertain applause would trickle around the edge of the green as the spectators tried to figure out what had transpired.
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Flash Fiction competition results

Well, I was hugely impressed with the wide range of imaginative and wonderful entries that you all came up with. We had gripping narrative, lyricism, crisp dialogue – and themes from the dark and the violent, to real life shenanigans abroad. I enjoyed every single one. In fact, the standard was so high that I couldn’t just settle for one winner; I went for an overall winner and two joint runners up as well.

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Guy

I first met Guy in London . He was a friend of a friend. He loved parties, he drank, restaurants. We stormed around london in his car. Turned left at no left turns went 60 in 30 mph areas. Up one way streets the wrong way . I loved it. He was my idea of a Frenchman. Irreverant, small slim, smoking Gauloises , well dressed, living life at both ends. In those dreary days, no money , shabby flat, drizzling weather, train strikes, he was the shining light in my daily routine. A hope a gaity that I found nowhere else.

He left, back to France. His gay bachelor days were over. He married, and settled down lived near avenue Kleber in Paris.

I missed him, I’d go and live in Paris, why not. I hunted around for some jobs. What do they offer ? Little French, little education, little experience. Well we’ll just have to do this on BS. If all else fails tell the truth. I love your country, I love French people, I want to work and live here and I’ll do anything.

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