Author: boomingbanter

It’s been super hot the past days and it’s set to continue. A dip in the lake might be on the cards to cool down since all the pools are closed.

The hibiscus thinks it spring again and has gotten a second wind. It’s sprung a lot of new buds all of which are absolutely beautiful.

Hibiscus always make me think of hot and humid climes where they bloom all year round. Today ours reminded me of an old TV Series set in the Deep South called The Long Hot Summer.

It aired in the UK in the mid sixties when I was out playing hop scotch in the street. My Mum usually would have come calling me home about eight in the evening but when this was on I got to stay out longer!

It was considered steamy stuff at the time and Ben Quick was on everyone’s lips. Cheeks were pink with passion!

To this day the tune for that show is stuck in my head.

Before the TV show the story was made into a movie that resulted in the marriage of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward one of the most enduring marriages in Hollywood history.

Just goes to show what a little hot weather can do!

Blessing # 458 – Summer Sizzlers

When Dibley passed his auntie Carol said that he had « crossed the rainbow bridge ».

The first card we received was from our neighbors Karen, Mike and family featuring a rainbow too.

Just now we received Dibley home. His ashes are tucked into a beautiful little wooden box.

 

Along with this we received his paw print and a little bag of his hair. This was sent from our vet in a lovely little gift box with a card and a poem about The Rainbow Bridge.

The poem says it all and makes us so grateful for all the compassion and sympathy and for pink in the spectrum!

Blessing # 457 – Rainbows

Living with an Indian gives your taste buds a tingle. When Krishna isn’t cooking he often feels the need for a little additional OOMPH on his food. So of course we have pickles and chutneys but they don’t lend themselves to all meals.

The go to, if everything else fails, for pasta, pizza, salads and the like is good old HOT SAUCE.

We go through gallons of this between the two of us because Aaron wouldn’t touch it if you paid him.

It’s funny that when the spirits are low a little spice is so uplifting. Of course the over zealous use of the material has a consequence. You need to cool off afterwards.

So what better thing to do than have a few pink potions.

Krishna had cut up a big watermelon some days ago but with the stress of the past days we had no appetite for health and wellness so it was lying in the fridge going soggy. So it got juiced and was obligingly PINK.

So too was something equally rosé that slipped down very well and caused some early slumber!!!!!!!

Blessing #456 – Hot Sauce Cold Drinks

This morning we had to face the reality that it was an alarm rather than a bark that woke us up. The many times we’ve moaned about Dibley barking and getting us out of bed came back to haunt us.

We could have sat around home all day but Aaron was brave leading the way out by getting up and off to school on time.

So it was that Krishna and I followed suit and went to our Tuesday Morning Group where along with dear friends we began a study of Saint Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

We discussed the concept of God’s grace being given to each one without the need to prove ourselves.

Krishna, clearly focused on yesterday’s events, said that this reminded him of Dibley. No matter how many times we scolded him he never stopped coming back to give more love and was always ready to shake a paw!

I too thought of  Dibley in a slightly different context. He was always waiting with anticipation for that treat from the table. He was forever hopeful that we would be gracious to him.

So call us crazy but maybe a lesson to be learned from the latest Angel is don’t huff just hope!

On our return home our hope of something to keep our spirits up and make us smile came in the form of a Facebook post from none other than a pink haired Dame Edna Everage

Just goes to show that in the right theatre even Kings can be upstaged!

Blessing # 455 – Funny Fellows

Our hearts are breaking because despite the vets best efforts our dearest little boy Dibley slipped away today.

We loved him so and cannot believe he was taken so fast but we tried everything to treat him.

We will never know exactly what took him in the end. If it was the new medication or another complication of his Cushing. We found out today that he had a very high blood glucose and a serious infection of some sort too. Seems that the development of diabetes is not uncommon in Cushing patients.

He was only eleven and we all hoped to have him for many more years to come because he was so fit and well until recently.

He was sinking fast throughout the night and we took him first thing to the vet this morning. We had planned to go see him when Aaron got out of school but he passed before that.

We did still go to say farewell and he was brought to us wrapped in a pink and grey blanket.

It will take us some time to get over this shock and sadness but we know that love never fades and he will always be our little « Tibetan Terror » and that we will be with him again one day.

As my friend Carol said he has crossed the rainbow bridge. We so wish he had stayed longer.

Blessing # 454– Eternal Love

The Sedum in the pots on the doorstep is bushy and turning pink. Always a sure sign of fall. The Sedum in the yard alas is not in such good shape.

It has once more been ravaged by the deer but there is hope. Following an earlier rampage some of the chewed up bits left strewn in the flower beds we’re rescued and planted in pots on the back porch.

Each one is doing well and will come inside over winter for some TLC to keep them going till spring.

They are little signs of hope on a day when we are very worried. Dibley has not eaten since Friday and is very weak. He is just lying around like a carpet. It’s all he can do to drink his water.

We took it in turns to stay with him throughout the night and trust he will gain some strength as the chemo wears off.

He was due for another tablet tonight but of course we can’t think of that till he gets stronger.

Praying that like the Sedum there will be new life in the old boy yet.

Blessing #453 – Special Cuddles

Today our nephew Krishna tagged me in a post. It was a BBC Radio 2 spot by the actor Stephen Fry.

Krishna and I have only met a few times yet the past year has brought us close because of Facebook and Bantering and shown just how many things we have in common. To name a few a love of science, literature and women’s rights.

In the link Stephen was speaking about the importance of language. He underlined it’s a gift we are all born with but not something we freely share.

Why not?

We’ll  according to Stephen it’s because so many of us are bogged down in details and perfectionism. We care more about spelling or grammar than communication.

His plea to us is let it rip. Use language to its utmost. Write! Make up stories, love the letter, tell tales, spin a yarn! Just please please don’t let language be wasted on perfecting the placement of dots and apostrophes.

It made me think of someone that Stephen portrayed early in his career the beloved Irish author Oscar Wilde. A man who was so gifted and so tragic. Who loved and lost and left a legacy for so many to enjoy. So very grateful he put his pen to paper and put on pink!

Blessing # 452 – Global Connections

Growing up in Northern Ireland meant that a trip to the seaside could happen anytime. The nearest seaside town to Belfast is Bangor just thirty minutes by car.

During the long summer nights it was quite normal to “take a wee run down to the shore”

One of the must haves was a Candy Floss. This was made fresh in a big old machine and it seemed like magic. From just a little bit of powdered sugar a gigantic mass of baby pink fluff appeared. It was a BIG treat and provided lots of fun for just a few pennies.

In Bangor this was sold at Barry’s Amusement Arcade. The building was a bit like a decrepit castle and whether it was the Ghost Train or the old slot machines it all was just a little bit spooky. This made the magic even more incredible.

In France the delicacy is known as Barbe à Papa. Would we have eaten it with such relish with the name Grandads Beard? Maybe it would have made no difference.

Today in the USA we find it as the dense compressed Cotton Candy in plastic bags and plastic tubs and it just doesn’t seem the same.

Give me the face covering, hair clinging wobbly beehive bounty on a wooden wand anytime!

Blessing # 451 – Sticky on a Stick

My Mom and Dad always referred to Carnations as PINKS. We had a border of them in our little back yard and they had the most divine smell you can imagine.

Some of the Carnations we buy in the store today have no smell at all. Maybe they are different hybrids but these « Pinks » were powerful. The perfume was better than anything from a bottle.

The smell was spicy and a bit like a clove which explains another name they have Gilly Flowers derived from the French word for clove giroflée.

Fans of Brideshead Revisited will remember that when Charles Ryder arrived in Oxford his apartment was on the ground floor and beneath the window was a border full of Gilly Flowers.

Pinks are officially known as Dianthus which from the Greek means Gods Flowers (Dios Anthos). They got the name Pink not because of their color but because they look as though they had been cut with pinking shears.

Regardless of name they are beautiful and they remind most of my Dads second cousin Davy.

My Dad was an only child but he lived in the small village of Seapatrick along with a whole collection of family members. All the parents worked in the local linen mill and everyone was poor as Church mice.

Hardship, especially during the depression was worst in those who had large families as was the case for Davy. Truthfully I’m no longer sure how many they were but it was at least eight.

Davy was quite deaf and in those days of hard times hearing aids were unheard off but Davy did very well going on to do beautiful work as a carpenter.

I got to know him as a child. He was very gentle, talked only a little but had the softest brown eyes you’ve ever seen. It was almost as though he talked with his eyes.

He never married and lived with his younger brother and his wife. His great passion was flowers and each time we went to the village he’d take us to the garden. Here we’d find his trophy collection not just of Pinks but ever imaginable type of rose and his most prized treasure of all his Dahlias.

Each year these beauties seemed to get bigger and bigger until they quite honestly became the size of dinner plates. When we’d leave he’d send us home with arms full of them.

The last time I saw Davy was about forty years ago just before he moved on to the big garden in the sky. He left a mark on my life and I’m sure that of many others with his great bunch of goodness; contentment, gentleness and generosity.

Blessing #450 – Sweet Scented Soul

After almost two months absence the green monsters have returned to eat not just leaves but holes in whole tomatoes. Wouldn’t you think they’d have transformed into something magnificent by now!

They are in competition with the white fly, that had also disappeared for weeks after copious treatment with soapy water, to see who can wreck the most havoc.

So any fruit that is a reasonable size is being plucked even if it’s green and incubated with a ripe sibling to help it on the road to becoming something edible.

This little miracle is amazing. It’s something I remember my Mom doing when she got green tomatoes from my Auntie Nora’s garden. She’d put them in a brown bag with one seriously ripe tomato and let them rest for a while. It was like the older and wiser ripe tomato was infusing them with wisdom.

We’d take a peak at them now and then and see them in their various shades of rosiness. Little did we know what was causing this transformation. It was only at college I learned it was éthylène gas. Ripe fruits produce this and it acts like a hormone to tell other fruits it’s time to shape up and mature.

Shame it doesn’t work the same with humans but at least we can

be glad that it does in all those lovely pink plants surrounding us this time of year from watermelon to pomegranates and grapefruits.

The color tells us these foods are good sources of Lycopene an antioxidant that has all sorts of benefits protecting our eyes and skin from those UV rays that some of us like myself are a little too fond of at this time of year!

Its one of those goodies that’s best absorbed when it’s cooked especially with a little fat. So get stewing!

Blessing # 449 – Mighty Marinara