london1952 | Entries tagged with roses

Twice in a week, but hey, it's my journal ! LOL , but the "Teasing Georgia" rose continues to be fabulous and demands photos taking of it !

The weather has returned to normal this morning after a very warm weekend. Oh, the weekend, where did it go !? they pass so quickly and poor

london1967 has to go back to work !

On Friday evening a friend (and very brief LJer) came for dinner as he was up in London for the weekend. We last saw him early last year, again for dinner, but we could not remember what we'd had to eat that time.. I got quite a "bee in my bonnet" and had to search in various places to try and find out (he couldn't remember either, though apparently "it was delicious!") which I eventually did only to find I'd made the same main course on both occasions ! (though thankfully the side dishes were different) - chicken breasts stuffed with tomato and mozzarella seasoned with oregano. Dessert was a creamy apple tart flavoured with sultanas and cinnamon which was thankfully a change. And Franco made a lovely Insalata Russa for starter.

The tart got a photo taken .........

looking all "rustic" !

(........and, oops, I forgot to add these two first time round)

Friday was quite warm, Saturday with its clear blue skies and sun was even hotter, but considering the awful weather we've had on a Saturday over the summer it was a lovely thing, especially for our friend Simonetta who was marrying (another) Adrian and we were invited to the wedding. The bride wore a very elegant cream long dress, under which a pair of wonderful dark red "killer heels" could be spotted every so often. It was a very happy wedding.

On Sunday I had a lazy day, though I did give the garden a good watering and a little tidy-up. In the evening we caught up with the start of this years "X Factor" with the first installment of the auditions. There was as usual a mix of good and bad, unexpected and, in one case "car-crash-television", but the high-light for me was this young lady......

And so we start another week.............................

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: home

........after the last couple of very busy weeks I was hoping to catch up with everything, particularly as I "home alone" on account of

london1967 being away in Italy visiting family. LJ was one of the main things on my list, but guess what, it's still "to do", I don't know where the time has gone, and I never seemed to have stopped ! I've also got a bit of a hey-fever/chill thing going on that seems to have mainly been a throat thing, barking and clogging up have caused some very disturbed night's sleep, so I've been up quite early (for me!) each morning to start on stuff, apart from today.

Friday evening I caught up with a very old friend who, it seems, I haven't met up with for at least 18 months ! ....at least FB keeps us in touch but I'm amazed it's that long.... he only lives in north London ! Then Saturday, after food shopping, as it was the only day forecast to be dry, I spent all afternoon tidying the front and side gardens, planting out some summer-bedding plants and generally trying to deal with mess left by cats, snails, slugs and aphids..... and laundry was happening too. Yesterday was very dull weather-wise and I caught up with, at least some, of my outstanding chores for the residents' association etc, but not nearly enough. The rain arrived and was very heavy, I don't think it stopped at all in the night and is pretty much non-stop today....at least we've escaped flooding so far.....there's plenty of it around the country, particularly Wales.

I "gave up" on Desperate Housewives quite a while ago, at least a season and a half I think, though Franco has been watching it, but succumbed to watching the very last episode last night....it was sweet, and really quite touching and very different from the weirdly fascinating programme I ended watching the hour before. Reviewed today in the Guardian:-

TV review: Nina Conti – A Ventriloquist's Story

‘Putting a new hand into a dead artform’ … Nina Conti and her puppets.

"That's an awkward title, isn't it? Nina Conti – A Ventriloquist's Story: Her Master's Voice (BBC4, Sunday). Too long, too many parts to it, very hard to include in any sentence. In some ways it's an awkward film, too. And self-indulgent, luvvie-duvvie, rambling, a bit weird. It's also – also weirdly – touching, brave, honest, imaginative, self-aware, hilarious.

Conti became a ventriloquist after her mentor and lover, Ken Campbell, the maverick theatre person and "truffle pig for other people's talents", snorted out this old-fashioned and unfashionable stagecraft for her. It could have been worse, I suppose; she could have got juggling. When Campbell died, he left Conti his collection of dolls (including one of him). She's been doing it for 10 years, and is now having doubts about whether to continue or not.

Thing is, even though it may be unfashionable (she's right, you do groan when you find out someone is a ventriloquist), she is brilliant at it. Not technically, perhaps – most of her characters seem to have the same voice, the voice of a person with a rictus grin. But she pours herself into them, especially her monkey, and lays herself bare. She messes about with roles – she's the monkey, we're the monkey; she's talking to him, to us, to Campbell, to (mainly) herself. The books and the teach-yourself-ventriloquism kit Campbell gave Conti to get her started have been torn up. She's put a new hand into a dead artform, given it a new voice, made it much less groansome, and much funnier.

But now she's going on a journey, possibly a final one, with her odd little collection of friends in her suitcase, ready to have a hand – and an alter ego – stuffed up them. Except Campbell, who remains silent. They're off to the World Ventriloquism Convention in Kentucky, at an eerie place called Vent Haven, where puppets are laid to rest.

It's a pilgrimage of sorts. And a requiem – to Campbell, to the other puppets perhaps, to an aborted child (oh yes, it's dark, too). It's an adventure, a journey of discovery. The discovery of a bunch of weirdos who say things to and through their dolls that they probably wouldn't say otherwise (ventriloquism really seems to be a kind of therapy). It's a journey of self-discovery too, of course, for Conti. And it's lovely, easily the TV highlight of the weekend."

---o0o---

And just to finish off this post, a couple of Victoria sponge cakes that I made very recently, one lemon, the other raspberry and vanilla, and a couple of roses in the garden.....I'm not sure why I keep feeling compelled to photograph them all the time......... I should get out more !! LOL

~~Guns~~ Cakes & Roses !

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: home
Current Music: radio

It's a "home alone" weekend for me as Franco has gone to visit his family in Italy. Quite often I will arrange for my weekend away, up-north, to tie in, but back when we booked tickets etc we decided, as it would be June, one of us should be here to water the garden in case of hot and dry weather. Well, of course, we needn't have worried because after weeks of no rain it has rained quite heavily part of every day this last week. It is a good job I'm home though, as my hay-fever really kicked-in on Thursday evening leaving me feeling very rough yesterday and below par today..... the sleepless nights don't help at all (not being able to breathe properly) ... though the pharmacist has found me a tablet that shouldn't interfere with my arthritis medication so hopefully in the next couple of days I'll be back on form. I am "barking" quite a bit today so I'm wondering if it could actually be man-flu....

I did open up the house between midday and 2 pm for the sale of our neighbourhood greetings cards and local honey, the proceeds of which go to our resident's association, for anyone who had missed our sale three weeks ago and wasn't around last weekend at our open gardens event. I sold 30 cards and 5 jars of honey, so it was worth it as I was at home anyway.

It's been quite a pleasant day weather-wise too, with sunny intervals, and it waited until 6.30pm before turning to a heavy rain shower..... we've not had to water the garden or any pots for over a week which is great....... though the slugs and snails are now enjoying the wet conditions, and all the enticing seedlings "salad" !

The garden is looking good, and some of the first roses of the year have been lovely........

It will be Franco's turn to be "home alone" next weekend............

Current Mood: lethargic
Current Location: home

Well, it seems Autumn is truly here, it's been rather chilly this week with some quite heavy morning frosts, and the foliage is begining to "glow". The shops are full to the brim with Halloween merchandise of all tacky types...... When I was in the supermarket this morning there was a group of ~~witches~~ old dears stood around a (presumably battery-operated) "toy"..... a fearsome looking witch-like doll rolling around cackling maniacally..... and they were cackling too ! LOL ... A whole aisle of orange, purple and black tastelessness !

We have just had a charity fund-raising event at the Garden Museum, and the autumnal feel was somewhat more tasteful ! A number of florists spent the day in preparation, working their magic with boxes full of amarillis, roses, hydrangea, sea-holly, rosemary, et al

Hops from Kent adorn the entrance porch, and bevy of beautiful table centre floral arrangements lie in wait for the big evening !

A big box of lovely chinese lantern flowers, and one of ornamental gourds sat waiting to be added to the final touches............

And the bright October sun was shining through the trees creating a peaceful scene over Captain William Bligh's tomb in the garden. The Artist in Residence at the museum, Charlott Verity, has been out in all weathers since the begining of the year working on paintings to form an exibition in Spring 2011.... there she is at her easel, next to the Tradescant tomb.

At home, amazingly, we have a number of rosebuds waiting to bloom, hopefully they will succeed as it is rather late in the year, though here is one that is in full loveliness now ! It's a rose my sister gave us for our first (civil partnership) anniversary ..... and a very late flowering "morning glory" - such a vibrant colour !

So, from here on, it's thermals and hot water bottles at the ready !! (and that's just me !!)

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: home
Current Music: gaydar radio

It's much cooler and damp today after a long period of hot (for the UK) and sunny weather. You can almost hear the garden breathing a sigh of relief for the change.

Our roses have been beautiful this year, and we are really hoping they will have a second flush of blooms........

Friends of

london1967 will know of our recent shock of winning 1st prize in the Beautiful Bromley competition this year...... it's really all the plants that are the stars-of-the-show !! (the roses were still in bud on the day of judging)

Current Mood: impressed
Current Location: home
Current Music: katy perry

For photo-posting no.4 here are four more taken at the Garden Museum.

A wonderful detail on one of the tombs, and the tomb William Bligh - of Muntiny on the Bounty fame (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bligh)

The lovely Alex and a "Beautiful Britian" rose !

Current Mood: good
Current Location: home
Current Music: Whitney Houston (on the radio)

And here is photo no.3

I went with Alex to see "A Riot of Roses" at the Garden Museum (next-door to Lambeth Palace) in May last year. Although it wasn't quite (my idea of) a riot, it all looked pretty and included a few roses named Gertrude Jekyll after the famous Victorian gardener(www.gertrudejekyll.co.uk) , which reminded me that I had lusted after having one in our garden for some time. Sadly, none of the GJ's were for sale but it set me on a mission! Nowhere it seemed had any for sale. A few weeks later we were invited to Malcolm & Tony's BBQ on a very sunny Sunday afternoon, and there were 2 of these roses in full bloom and smelling divine!

After a number of searches (online and otherwise) of rose suppliers we found that a company called Crocus had some "in stock". As luck would have it, Franco had a discount voucher to use on an order of over £50, so after some discussion we topped up the order to exceed the amount to take advantage. It was somewhat irritating then to receive all the other plants but no rose ! as apparently the ones they had were below quality.... so £40something worse off, and with a struggle to find space for the extra plants, we gave up ! Until the end of November, when it appeared David Austin Roses had stock (bare-rooted).... so we ordered a climber AND a bush rose... hooray! After being held up in the various postal strikes they finally arrived mid-December, the day before THE snow fell and the ground was frozen !! After surviving 5 weeks wrapped in wet newspaper indoors, they are both now planted out and looking healthy!

So, fingers crossed, we will have big pink blooms to look forward to in a few months.

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: home
Current Music: gaydar radio

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london1952

May 2013

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Dragged out of Retirement

What happened next?

Entries tagged with roses

The Weekend !

Trying to catch up......

HOME ALONE !

Autumn has arrived !

Everything's coming up roses........ !

Four in One

Lusting after Gertrude!