Monday 7 September 2015

Fire, flowers and breathing garlic





There was great excitement here in town on Saturday morning.  It appears that at the crack of dawn, or thereabouts, a fire started out the back of the chip shop and no less than nine fire engines were called.  Everyone in town seems to be tightly connected by means of Facebook and Twitter, and by the time we happened to turn up the high street was thronging with breathless locals and surplus-to-requirements firemen.  There was even what appeared to be a Fire Station Catering Truck with toilets and Pot Noodles.  Who knew?

The local paper didn't disappoint, and got in quick with some fearless interviewing.  From their pages:

A local resident said, "I went to the bank this morning and they were talking about it in there."

They should have interviewed me.  I went to the stationery shop and they were talking about it in there as well.  Sadly a neighbouring shop and cafe with a lovely garden were damaged.  No-one was hurt though, fortunately.

We dragged ourselves away and I bought a notebook.  I have a feeling that buying a notebook is some sort of stress relief thing for me.  Not about the fire, but when life slips gently out of control I buy a notebook maybe in the subconscious hope that by getting things down on paper it will all be okay.  If it's contained within the pages of a book, then I can close the book and it will all be alright.  That is how it works isn't it?

At the top end of town, the local In Bloom group have outdone themselves with a wonderful drift of flowers, some wild, mostly pollinator friendly.  About a thousand times nicer than municipal bedding plants.  My little camera hasn't done it justice at all, it's glorious.  Hopefully all sorts of little beasties are in there.  If you're a lover of little beasties and hedgerows and other such natural loveliness, do pop over to see Countryside Tales' latest post all about hedgerows and their importance to wildlife of all shapes and sizes.  It's one of my absolute favourite blogs, I never fail to learn things every time I visit, and she's always funny and entertaining too.  Can't recommend her highly enough.

The flowers in the last two photos are from the garden.  Self-seeded cosmos and a second flush of lavender.  The lavender seems to have changed colour a bit from when I bought it.  Is that possible?  I know I had a lovely pale Christmas cactus once, but they'd done something to it to make the flowers really pale.  The next year it reverted to shocking pink.

A few germs have struck here already.  Just a cold or two, nothing dramatic.  But as soon as those classroom doors are closed and the urchins all clustered together in a warm and stuffy fug, the viruses are away.  I gave the littles a clove of raw garlic each tonight, which they love.  It was homegrown and really potent.  The whole house smells garlicky now.  If it doesn't banish the germs it will certainly banish the vampires.  I'm thinking about garlic soup next.  Just need to check we don't have dental appointments or anything.

34 comments:

  1. All very exciting with the fire etc, bet your boys loved that! I get the notebook thing, just the presence of a new notebook makes me feel instantly more organised:)
    Jillxo

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  2. Too bad for the fire and the damage to 3 businesses. I hope they were insured and can get back to business soon. I think I must need a new notebook so I feel organized. I'll go check out your friend's blog now. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  3. Ahhh, CJ, if I had only thought of consuming some garlic last week perhaps I could have warded off the bug that members of my household brought home and shared with me. You do have a delightful sense of humor :)
    The field of flowers you photographed is so lovely; so far I succeed more in growing weeds!
    Thanks for the link to check out.

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  4. Love the wildflower patch - so beautiful. I definitely get the notebook thing too - there's something about having a nice organized list to tick off, rather than just a jumble of vague ideas in my head. Raw garlic is a great idea, although I'm not sure how I'd manage to convince my 2 to take it - do you put it in anything or do they just chew the clove as it is? Maybe I'd better just up the garlic bread consumption! Have a great week. xx

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    1. They're nutters, they just crunch up the whole clove! I did ask them if it was hot, they said not, but their eyes were a bit pink and watering. I think it was a matter of honour to pretend that it hadn't affected them at all. Garlic bread sounds like a great idea, I shall do some on Friday if the calendar on Saturday is clear. CJ xx

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  5. I love the wildflower garden and am a great fan of hedgerows. Disappointingly the hedgerow that runs along the bottom of my garden has just been completed cleared by the farmer, so no more blackberries for me. I don't understand why the farmer would do that but there you go. I love notebooks too, I am a great fan of a list. It makes me feel as if I am in control.

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  6. How very exciting but at the same time I'm glad no one was hurt. I remember several years back a bungalow caught fire quite very close to my house. I only realised as I went upstairs to make sure Harry, who was quite young at the time was tucked up in bed. Instead I found the little horror curled up on his window sill fizzing with excitement. Again no loss of life but it can bring close to home the damage caused. I love that you give your little ones garlic cloves to chew & I love even more that they enjoy them. Wild flowers & note books what more could you want! Wishing you a lovely week x

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  7. Haha, brilliant. They should've interviewed me too, I just read about it on your blog. But obviously yes it's good no one was hurt and I'm sure it was very distressing for those concerned. There was a house fire on a friend's street a couple of weeks ago and the windows blew out, yikes. But no-one was hurt there either fortunately.
    The flowers are beautiful. The city council did one of the main roundabouts like that here, and it's been lovely all year with different wildflowers (I don't pass it very often as I don't have a car and don't go that way much but it's a nice treat when I do. Ah, hope you keep the bugs at bay, that's a real surprise your boys like garlic to chew!

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  8. Potent garlic smell will definitely keep the other virus loaded bairns at a distance :-) I should have done that, I am producing ridiculous amounts of mucus at the moment.
    I often think that it would be nice to put worries and stresses in a box and close it at night, a bit like you close your notebook with all the written things closed away. Have a lovely stress free week. xx

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  9. That meadow is wonderful. Wish I could pull it off. Whenever I try I get grass with a few weedy things in it struggling to grow.
    Boil up some garlic and spray the plants with the resulting liquor. Slugs hate it apparently. It's next on my list to try. Between you and I the M5 will reek of the smell of garlic from end to end.

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  10. Hey CJ,
    How funny that we both urge the great and the good of blogland to check out CT. She's taking on mythical status (you are, you know, CT). Olly loves visiting Bristol, because there are always sirens going off. He does love a bit of misfortune. A fire would send him over the edge, I reckon. And bravo for you town's bloom team. It looks gorgeous. So much nicer than a hybrid marigold. I'm manically writing in several notebooks at the mo. I think it has something to do with Sam.
    Leanne xx

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  11. Now then, you two (Leanne, I'm including you in this) you are making me blush. Such lovely words, you are very kind. And I'm very pleased the post was interesting.

    I did laugh at the fire (not the damage to the poor people's homes etc of course) because our local rag is exactly the same in its reporting. M saves the crime reports and reads them out to me, you know the sort: bag stolen from back of woman's car. I'm impressed the boys nibble garlic. L would run a mile. I also understand completely the allure of a new note book. I sorted mine out last week. I have a box full :o) XX

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  12. The drift of wildflowers is absolutely top-notch. Please post co-ordinates of where you live and I will move there to be near them. It will be nice for me to live near such a splendidly fed fire service as well.

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  13. I think I need to chew on some raw garlic, I'm full of cold and I haven't even got school-age children anymore. Nine fire engines does sound a lot, perhaps they were all there for moral support. The wildflower planting is lovely and I agree much nicer than bedding that needs weeding and watering.

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  14. As always a most enjoyable post and lovely pictures. It sounds like the fire brigade turned it into a major exercise with all those vehicles and the catering truck.
    You and your notebooks... I've always used scrapes/sheets of paper which do tend to accumulate rather alarmingly.
    Lovely cosmos, sadly I've had no white ones this year.
    I'm not keen on garlic so have to put up with germs and vampires, not that I get or see many if any. Flighty xx

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  15. Such gorgeous wildflowers! Really beautiful. There's something so joyous about planting like that. How lovely to have it nearby. Your post did make me smile – local papers can be hilarious. And serious kudos to your garlic-munching boys. Mine wouldn't do it. Sam x

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  16. Perhaps the local fire brigade don't get a lot of action so they all want to respond to reports of a real fire. Glad no one was hurt though. The flowers are really pretty, so much nicer than municipal bedding plants, In Bloom groups do brilliant work.

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  17. oh, those wildflowers are just brilliant!! definitely beats the usual municipal planting regime!

    i probably shouldn't have laughed about the fire [because of course it's not a laughing matter] but the profusion of fire engines, the tuck shop and the gossip-mileage wrung out of it *was* rather amusing.

    i'm very impressed with the eating of garlic.....your boys are seriously hardcore.

    xo

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  18. Because banishing vampires is a really important thing to do....

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  19. I hope everyone is healthy again soon. Those flowers are beautiful! And that local paper's interview is ridiculous haha

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  20. I'm glad the fire was swiftly dealt with and order restored. Local newspapers are a great, aren't they? The wild flower beds are heavenly and becoming more common now, thankfully, and I can sympathise with the notebook-buying thing. I have now banned myself from buying any more until I've used the ones I've got. I might try your garlic idea, if my family can stand it.
    Cathy x

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  21. Thank you for your lovely post. It brought a smile to my face on this cloudy morning. Notebooks - I love them too!

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  22. Well, a pot noodle and toilet truck, indeed, who knew! I am glad that although there was a fire and damage that everyone is safe. The flowers are beautiful aren't they! What a lovely way to make things look pretty. Hope that you can get everything down safely in your notebook, but don't pop any garlic in there, that might be too much! xx

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  23. The flower meadow style of hunting is beautiful

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  24. Oh CJ, that did make me giggle, especially the 'fearless reporting' bit! Glad that nobody was hurt in the fire and all that though, obvs!

    Your children are fabulous! I adore garlic but don't think I could actually chomp a raw clove. I think I'll stick to my Sambucol.

    xx

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  25. It's amazing how quickly they begin getting sick once they're back to school. My daughter was sick during the last week of school in May and she was sick again by the second week of school in August. But she wasn't sick at all over the summer. I see a pattern here. I love those flowers in the meadow, how beautiful. I wish we had enough water here to grow flowers that way. I'd be traipsing through them as often as I possibly could.

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  26. I love the wild flower drifts. I was hoping for something similar on our lottie this year but it is more difficult to achieve than it looks! Love local newspapers. They are the best! Glad no-one was hurt though.

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  27. Your village fire story made me laugh, glad no one was hurt of course. The meadow flowers are stunning, all those lovely colours. beautiful.

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  28. The incisive interviewing techniques of local journalists never fail to amuse. A fire must be something different to report on, they must get so bored of typing up reports of people getting trashed on alcopops on a Friday night down town. Lovely wild flowers, so much nicer than the usual municipal flower beds :-) Hope the boys are back to full strength after their garlic munching session! xx

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  29. Local newspapers are as amusing as local TV aren't they - how often do they state the proverbial obvious!
    Those wildflowers are gorgeous.
    How about putting a clove of garlic in a muslin bag and hang them around their necks for school - this would certainly keep their friends, and germs at bay!
    Thanks for an entertaining post.
    Caz xx

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  30. Do you fill all your notebooks with notes, or are they often papery talismen and it's a case of the more you have the safer you'll be? I must admit to falling into the latter camp.

    I also think our local rag is written by the same ground breaking interviewers who write yours.

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  31. I remember when I worked in a book shop in Bradford some years ago and there was a Very Small Fire in the shop. And old light fitting caught fire and we had to evacuate the shop just in case. The next day, in the local paper "Dramatic Blaze in Historic Bookshop!". :-)

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  32. i am in love with those colourful wildflowers! so pretty! you are so lucky to see them and to havea group to create them. mybe they can flower-bomb the new football oval...
    when i'm stressed, i straighten my cutlery drawer or line up my shoes *just so*...

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  33. I love your writing CJ. Those wildflowers are stunning! I wholeheartedly agree with notebook buying. Of course it makes everything much, much better :) hope the germs are dissipating xx

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