Life, the Universe and Everything

Out dancing tonight, I saw a face I thought I recognised. Couldn't remember her name, or where I knew her from. Somewhere, a fleeting memory that she was good to dance with. It was enough :-) After the dance she told me she hadn't danced for 3 years. It's often like this with dancers. There are people who can't remember my name but know they (don't) want to dance with me.

It's supposed to be a good thing. We're told that women want men to do this and it really frustrates them when we won't. There's propaganda that it's what "real men" do and how happy it makes women. Good news ladies, it can happen but we need your help! On those rare occasions when the man in your life does express his feelings - especially if it's about inadequacy, fear, grief etc - put your arms around him and whisper in his ear "That's so sexy darling, let's go upstairs….."

Saw a sign on the back of a bus "Drive this bus for £7.25 an hour" with a phone number. Just for a minute or two, I pondered this. Would I pay £7.25 to drive a bus round for an hour? Would it be fun? Brm Brm! Then my brain tapped me on the shoulder and explained the scheme was that I would get paid £7.25 if I drove the bus around for an hour. Strangely, that didn't seem to be such a fun idea.

Picture says it all, really

Just three apples  from my Ashmead's Kernel  tree this year. Had over 100 good ones last season which is  possibly the reason. It's tired out poor thing although the scientists call it "biennial bearing" and further damn the variety as "erratic". I think it's building itself up for next year, it's got about twice the normal number of leaves (see pic) so it should have made a whole lot of sugar.  It'll need a good cold winter though to make sure of a good crop. The cold tells the tree that it's really had a winter and now it's spring and kicks off the springy things like blossom. If trees had evolved wearing digital watches, it would have been simpler and, err, more digital. If you see an apple tree that does have a watch strapped to the trunk, let me know…. More about the Ashmead's Kernal

This is a bush we have in most of the gardens along my street. One of the less civilised Hypericums (aka St John's Wort), it's scruffy and self seeds fairly easily. No one has grubbed it out and replaced it with an "official" plant from a Garden Centre and if I ever upgrade this blog to scratch'n'sniff you'll understand why. When it's sunny, the whole plant (not just the flowers) has a gorgeous and powerful scent. Think warm treacle, tobacco and rubber. You'll sometimes see me leaning over garden walls and sniffing furtively at other people's tidy Hypericums. I'm just checking they haven't caught up with our variety :-)

Regular readers - and I think there's at least two of you :-) will know that I don't do multitasking. Talk to me (or worse still, witter) when I'm dancing and it all goes to pot and I probably won't ask you to dance again.   But wait, at the Sidmouth Festival recently, I danced and talked with A all at the same time and it worked! And thinking about it, I've done that with her before.  So what's going on? Well, she's a very fine dancer. So perhaps she makes it so easy for me that my brain has the capacity for conversation? Could be.  Another possibility is that she has the sensitivity to know when I've got the capacity to talk and listen and when I haven't. Pretty good either way. Unfortunately, I think she has a boyfriend. Not surprising really...