Monday, 28 February 2011

I am not mad! Honest!

Well you will think me insane. Until last night I was doubting myself with this one and even for me this is crazy. I put my chickens to be at dusk as you do and every day there is a pigeon. Nice to believe its Walter but too far away to really be sure. Yesterday there were no pigeons when I put them to bed so I asked "are you there Walter?" and she came and sat on the tree. Well she does know me but still shes a wild animal and this is just amazing.....She is NOT tame. Not at all. I disturbed her eating from the feeding table yesterday morning and just like any wild bird she flew away. She will not sit on me or come to me and is not hand tame at all like pet. She does tho know I am refering to her when I speak and call her Walter and she definitely turns up each evening to say hello to me and this is far more than I would ever have believed possible and I never expected this. Its brilliant.

The dishwasher has yet again gone wrong. Fixed again - I wish I could believe it was the last time................ Anyway had to wash up all weekend and finally now its working. Never will I buy anything Smeg ever again!

Bath is finally in place so we will eventually have an upstairs bathroom. This bath we bought in 2007 and it has coloured lights and jets of air and water - supposed to be good for backs and your health etc. I think everything is far more eco nowadays so its very out of date. Took us this long to get round to putting the thing in. We have an ikea sink to go with it and toilet-to-go from Wickes! Still its all white!

Hopefully soon we can rip out the old bathroom which is going to be my dedicated work room and i need this now. I am also about to start a part time temp job - suspect very boring but never mind. Only 25hrs a week and only for a couple of months but since income is down by 2k from last year I have to do it. Could do with working indefinitely but probably will not manage that one. The summer will start soon anyway so hopefuly it will get busy again. I am also considering doing the very expensive but probably worth it Brum xmas market so have to try and pay for that soon. And starting part 3 of webdesign tomorrow evening at Leamington college. Right now do not know where Leamington college is so am off to investigate in a minute so I am not late getting there. I would rather have done this course in January and more locally but it didnt run due to lask of students so I had best do it while I can. Tho price of it has doubled which is really bad. Its now nearly £400 for the whole course but you pay in 2 halves so hopefully I will start earning soon.

Publisher has again lowered the rate of articles so I am not writing any more for them but am trying to write a book instead. Well aim high etc. They owe me nearly £700 ( currently £400 and £180 in 2 weeks time) but so far are 2 weeks late paying. Hopefully they will eventually pay me. If not I am being advised to go to small claims court by the accountant so will probably have to do that cos its not very expensive when you are owed so much to do this. I will leave for a couple of weeks though cos you have to be seen to have been reasonable. Also best to do everything at once rather than 2 seperate claims since its cheaper. Technically they only owe me £400 right now but wil owe the rest in 2 weeks so if I have to go to court it will be cheaper to do one claim for everything rather than 2 smaller ones.

Why is everything so complicated in life. I mean why do they not just pay me? I really need this money too to pay for the events for the rest of the year and can do without this hassle. I am actually glad they decided to lower the rates of pay. Originally it was £90 per page ( so £270 for some articles0 then this publisher bought the mag and they lowered it to £90 per article and now they want to pay just £60! Considering some articles take a week to write, several sometimes expensive experiments and can use lots of supplies up to get the formulation right, and by the time you have invented the product and tested it etc this is just ridiculous to only pay £60 per article and makes it not worth doing anymore. Besides having to take photos of the whole process send them by endless emails and even send them your products so it costs. You do not even get to keep you wonderful new invention. Tho I admit to having made extra most times so I could. It was lovely to get published though. Having said all this though it will be wonderful not to have to chase them every month for payment! It really is getting very wearing ringing up day after day and being fobbed off each time. Last time I ended up borrowing a phone so they didnt know who called and ringing over and over until I got to speak to the woman in charge. She was not happy. But neither am I and I need to be paid. They have published the work so now pay me. Are all publishers this much hassle I wonder?

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Walter and the garden

We have both seen Walter several times now. She disappeared for about 3-5 days after the last post and I really though she had gone. Then one evening there was a small pigeon in a terrible state on a tree in a neighbours garden. I could not see if it was Walter but bearing in mind shes the smalles pigeon round here I reckon it was. Anyway the next morning she came to eat when I pit the food and water out. She was not afraid to eat with me there and all other birds kept away as you would expect. The black birds obviously found this very annoying. Soince then I have seen her several times and she keeps returning to eat. It was really windy a couple pf weeks ago and M was putting plasterboard on the walls of one room we are decorating and he looked out the window to see Walter on next doors boiler house roof. She was not flying well apparently but it was gale force winds and no birds were. M reckoned she was watching me putting washing out on the line. Maybe when I was distraught thinking her missing forever she was always there. Since this we keep seeing her. I think perhaps she flew a long way from home and it took her several days to get back. She looked awful but maynbe this was down to the fact most people chase pigeons off bird tables and she is not used to having to hunt for food. Whatever happened to her in those 3 days she seems to be here to stay now. Maybe the exploring is done and now she will just carry on living here. Its weird cos I sware she calls for me. If I have not seen her you can hear a pigeon cooing and it continues until I go out of the house. I was lying in the bath and the cooing began and I got dried and dressed and went out of the back door and Wlater was there. I am assuming Walter is a she cos the ring is not all the way round her neck but I know noting realy about it so she could be a he. She eats with me there I think cos the other birds probably chase her off since she is small and with me around they do not eat - well with the exception of one dove and Walter can handle that one herself.

AS for the rest of teh garden: I have planted 3 kiwis ( Jenny so self fertile) and my Mum has just bought me a 4th one, 2 grape vines ( one is chardonay which I do not like but they only did 2 types in wilko so I bought one of each) a goji bush, 3 gooseberries and I have dug up and moved all the rasberry canes to a better spot. They were in the shade and now are on a bank and will get full sun. I couldnt get all of them out due to closeness to other shrubs but I still have a complete hedge accross the bottom of the veg patch. Also I have planted a fig tree and 2 rhubarb plants. Inside the cold frames: my peas are coming up, I also have some kale, purple sprouting and lupins starting off and a few shoots of lettuce. The lettuce is straight into the soil and the rest are all in trays or egg boxes. I will plant some more lettuce on Saturday since not working and the early seed potatoes are going into bags on the patio rather than the soil so I shall do these as well since a website I was reading said they can go in mid february if in bags. No idea what if anything is actually going to grow but the 8 climbing roses I planted are all but one growing so I am hopeful. Sadly the crocuses are making a lovely display hidden from sight next to the caravan since it never used to be there but never mind. You cannot win them all and I will plant some more somewhere else next autumn I think.