celebrations and their subsequent hangovers

So this weekend was the great celebration for my Birthday, in the end about six people turned up but that meant that we had a royal BBQ feast as there was loads of food (and more importantly wine & beer) to go round. Fi & Alex made a guest appearance as did Em & Rich (I got a fabulous lace collar which Emma made for me, she made me open it as its not actually my birthday till next Monday, and a very large book entitled 'craft' which seems to be the authority on the subject, although it might be after Christmas before I get to make anything except Christmas presents). Yesterday I recovered from the small alcohol related illness that I seemed to be suffering from, chilled out on the sofa whilst enjoying an entire packet if prawn crackers and watching a film about Beatrix Potter. This was not the plan, in any sense of the word. So tonight I predict that I shall be running around like a maniac, trying to make earrings, wrap presents and make redcurrant jelly & chocolate truffles for seeing the cousins this weekend. Should have done some of it yesterday I hear you cry, I know but it doesn't seem I'll ever learn!

I haven't had a reply from the chicken lady so it looks like I might have to phone her to go visit the chickens, unexpectedly however I did get a reply from the V&A (we went there before gong to do the presentation at the Natural History Museum and sat in the gardens drinking tea, they had the most beautiful Hydrangeas (usually I'm not a fan but these were such gorgeous bright colours and the flowers were so big, so I decided to be a pain & email to see which variety they were)). This was Bob from the V&A's reply
These Hydrangeas have a bluing agent added to the water to keep them blue as the soil in London is not acidic enough. The file on the garden is not at hand at the moment and I cannot be absolutely sure of the type. I will let you know soonest.
That is service is it not? I was hoping to be able to get hold of one of these beautiful plants but I think adding bluing agent to the water may be too much faff (its taking me an hour to water the garden at present, but most of that is tending to the pumpkins and squash which are just taking over!)

I didn't get to go and see the bees this weekend as it was raining quite hard on Sat morning (when we were supposed to go & bees don't like rain). Viginia couldn't make it on Sat afternoon (and neither could I because of the BBQ which thank goodness went ahead) and Sunday morning it rained some more. I hope they are okay. Virginia united two swarms last week into what I think may be my second swarm (I'm going to have to buy a second hive if this indeed is the case). Over the weekend I finally managed to get hold of 'a world without bees' from our loca & very good bookshop, Mostly Books, which is a book that has been getting a lot of coverage in the media as it points out the devastating effects we can expect should bees be wiped out (in short, we wouldn't be able to survive). The guy in the bookshop very seriously informed me that this book would make me want to keep bees. Ahh my dear man the damage is already done :-)