Malala

I was sent this link to sign a petition http://www.avaaz.org/en/malala_hope_d/?bkpLVbb&v=18667 Well I did it cos the girl must be very brave to fight this regime. When I read My forbidden face some years ago now the whole Taliban thing was vey upsetting and that was without me ever having to experience such a life. To be less than second class! Now that is so horrible. There is no word I can think of to describe it. Malala must change the world. I really hope she does. I am sure there must also be many thousands of other women and girls who feel just exactly like her. WE just do not know their names - yet. And how many have already died for just this? Made me blog again anyway. I have been very lazy and un motivated recently. Looking for the next pathway. Well I may have found it. Still no news on the manuscript I sent to a literary agent but no news is good news. Every day when the post arrives I am scared and check for my returned document and so far so good. At least whatever happens it may actually have been read this time. I am still waiting and hoping. Walter still comes and is seen most days and if there are no peas out or wild bird food he still flutters too close and dive bombs for want of a way to describe his antics. And if it rains he / she sits on top of the bird table looking sadly at me. Still tho he is a free wild creature and not in the least tame. Yesterday he was throwing what was possibly his most recent offspring off the table. They must now be old enough to look after themselves. Walter for us was a success story indeed. Except for one tiny problem.......I feel tied. That I am now not able to move house since he may just be relying on my peas and food to survive. So for now at least I am stuck here. wood pigeons get to around 17 years of age. Walter is just about 2 years old now so we have some time yet in this house. The fact was when for just one day we had no wild bird seed and Walter followed me around in the garden and front and back of the house where usually Walter is never noticed sort of suggests the food is needed and important. And so I have a problem.......Does the bird actually know how to survive without our help?

More dishwasher problems

Well it is 6 months since SMEG gave us a replacement dishwasher for their piece of junk we bought. Again it is broken!!! Interestingly just as I started to look at fridges. I need a fridge desperately. Cant afford it right now but had a quick look round and ofcourse liked SMEG. Well I am not going to buy anything SMEG ever again!!!! What a load of expensive rubbish made by smeg. The customer services dept are saying we may not have a warranty for the replacement dishwasher as well so could be back to doing washing up. May have to talk to trading standards about it. Considering our bottom of the range Candy was thrown out to make our house look more saleable because the Candy was an ancient rusty but working machine, Smeg really is rubbish. They look nice but are unreliable in performance. Blogger has changed and I cant find anything!! Suppose I will get used to it eventually. I am going to try to blog regularly again. Walter has a new baby. About a month ago he/she flew down to a tree and showed me where it had had an egg hatch. Weird. This wild bird is very friendly. I am worried tho cos seems to have a hole in chest. Unlikely to be a bullet hole since where it is there would be no bird left so have to assume he has been caught in something.Also shows no pain and continues to preen when I speak to him. Anyway there is new fledgling and like parents is unafraid and sits on the tree and I can talk to it. We now have a whole flock. I wonder how long till the council cull them. They could do so. These tho are wood pigeons not feral pigeons so I do not know if they will cull. I hope not and certainly will not allow access in my garden. I am prepared to go to court if necessary to try to stop them. Having said that they have not said they will yet but nasty neighbour has been complaining cos they sit waiting to be fed on her roof in the morning. If we had a bigger garden I would put up a dove cote. Mind you I have been told the starlings tend to be the residents not pigeons and doves. Still would be a nice feature. The business has near enough ended. Sad but true. Since no business debts I hope one day it may pick up. Trouble is vegan or not many folk are being forced to buy cheap cosmetics from places like the £1 shop. Cant blame em. I am struggling to survive. Alcohol is off the menu completely. I havent made any wine either since am using the wine butts as water butts cos we have a hose pipe ban. Mind you right this minute we also have torrential rain!. Funniest drought I have ever known. I am just waiting to be reported for using the hose to empty the water butt which contains our bath and sink water. Greywater. We diverted it to use on the garden in droughts but with all the rain I have to keep emptying it else it overflows. Our lovely neighbours will eventually report us if they havent already. Still no offense is being committed and cant see the water company minding. If ever we get to have a real shortage of water we will be able to keep our garden alive. I am growing loads of veg again. We already have radishes and lettuces and oriental greens which can either be cooked or eaten raw. Thats in the garden. Up the road at the allotment I have spring cabbage which is starting to flower so we need to eat asap. Spring onions and garlic and we have just planted some spuds. We have loads more spuds but it is so wet we cannot get them in. Need a day of sunshine to do it. I now have 2 allotments. The new one was wasteland a couple of weeks ago and took some serious clearing and rotovating.I think it could be good tho. Its 4 times the size of the old one and has great potential altho half of it is shady. I have been researching plants to grown in shade - edible plants that is. I am going to invest in saskatoons. They originate in Canada. They are very like blueberries which I love but will grow in any soil. I am having problems with the bluberries I already have. I am rubbish with acid loving plants. Saskatoons could be just what I need. There are also alpine berries which are similar to redcurrants so I am thinking of these as well. That would take care of most of the shady bit cos we can put compost bins and a shed on the rest of it and some sort of water catcher to divert the rain into a water butt - which we have yet to buy! I have great plans but currently not even the money to fence it! Still give a few months I am sure it will happen. So now all I have to do is try to get round to blogging...........