Sunday, July 12, 2009

The Full Del Monte

It's Sunday and I've given in. Sunday tea is not Sunday tea without tinned fruit for afters. Graham had produced homegrown lettuce, beetroot, spinach and new potatoes to go with the remains of the pot roast, so deprived of my usual Sunday pancake-making I retaliated with Del Monte Fruit cocktail and, well, not ice cream I admit, but Greek-style yogurt.

At least the ring pull on Del Monte is a nice smooth one, unlike the supermarket canned tomatoes whose ring pull slices bits off your finger joint. But inside, oh dear, I had forgotten the miserly attitude that prevails in the fruit cocktail world. There were four titchy bits of something pink lurking among the peach/pear/pineapple bits. I think they were once parts of a cherry. Commiserating with them were seven grapes. I imagine there is a sensor at the Del Monte canning plant, or possibly a little man in a white coat with a magnifying glass, who sets off a DNEEP DNEEP DNEEP warning bleeper if a newly filled can steams past him containing more than four quarters of synthetically coloured cherry or eight flabby pale green grapes. He probably chuckled evilly to see that my can only contained seven.

Next Sunday I'm going to have wild strawberries in my yogurt, and bugger Del Monte.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Posting letters

I waited for the post lady to come this morning as i had three letters to go, but by 12 noon I thought she'd probably not got anything to deliver and would not turn up, so I went out to muck out the stable and of course, while I was shovelling, she arrived and left without my letters. So I harnessed Ruby and trotted down to Orton Post Office (a little over two and a half miles away) where the collection time is 3.40pm. I've found if I time my visits for lunch hour, I can park right outside the PO, which is also a very nice local shop and usually blocked up with parked cars. Then I can get off the carriage, not let go of the reins, and post my letters in the wall box safely.

Ruby was very sober as she trotted in the midday heat. I let her walk through some of the shadier patches along the road to cool off - luckily there were few flies or clegs about.

At Mazon Gill where last week the road had begun to collapse into the culvert over the gill, there were temporary traffic lights to control the traffic passing the large JCB digger and the roadmending wagon and the big hole with men shoulder-deep in the culvert. Ruby stood like a champ while one of the workmen jumped up and down in front of the sensor to try to get it to change the lights for us! She trotted by the wagon and digger, glanced briefly at the submerged men, and went on down to the village cool as you please. On the return journey the digger was working and when he saw us waiting again at the lights, the supervisor of the gang made throat-cutting TURNITOFF gestures to the driver. He kindly stopped the engine and we went by peacefully - however, as I thanked the supervisor I did tell him that really, Ruby has an ambition to drive a JCB. She has an engineering turn of mind and if allowed, she would probably try all the levers with her nose.

She's now out in the field in her "ghost suit" and I've spent ten minutes refilling all the spray bottles with my home-made fly repellent after I realised that during Sonny's visit we used up most of the last batch.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Ruby alone

I have been vastly amused by Ruby's reaction to Sonny going home. I kept her indoors all day (mainly to save her from the heat and humidity and flies, in the nice cool stone stable) and her response to the empty box next door is to USE IT AS HER LOO - she has left a huge pile of muck in the middle of the swept floor. Her "own" box is clean.

So much for missing her darling offspring!!