Waste Not ...... Want Not?

Yesterday Nigel found himself doing a mahooooosive double take outside the large Polish Supermarket just up the road .......

...... at first he thought he was seeing things ........

..... but on looking again, there actually were real life tomatoes........

....... and lettuce ........

...... and all manner of, what he was pretty sure were romantic smelling herbs growing in the raised beds......

....... Nigel couldn't put a name to most of them, however their pungency seemed awfully familiar, which made him pretty sure that Darrell, being the chef of the house, would undoubtedly be able to recognise them..... 

.... so Nigel thought it might be a good idea to get Darrell up there for his considered opinion.

From memory the beds were/are planted by a local group, Nigel had noticed them before, but this was the first time they had ever looked soooooo abundant and healthy, in the past, to be honest, the old fag ends had greatly outnumbered any growing plants.

Now, whether people passing by and noticing this veritable cornucopia of edible greenery could avail themselves of such treasure is quite a quandary for someone as honest as Nigel and there was no one really to ask.

He recognised the mint by its aroma and the thought of  a proper mint sauce with one of Darrell's wonderful Sunday lunches was a very tempting prospect ...... perhaps a just little surreptitious trimming of one or two said herbs wouldn't be looked upon as too serious a nefarious act...... if he dared?

Happy Happy Days

It has to be said ..........

....... that being an (devoted and adoring) uncle .........

...... has to be .........

....... one of the most wonderful things in the world!

All dreams of potentially having the X Factor, becoming Sir Lord Alan Sugar's next business partner, or the United Kingdom ever having a chance of winning the Eurovision Contest again .........

.......simply pale into insignificant insignificance when Bertie wants to chill with you over a few Smarties, ask about your day and then tell you that he had fish fingers for his dinner at nursery and he ate them all up  ........ let's just say it's emotional!

Christmas Jumpers

With Halloween not yet cold in its grave, I have a slight suspicion that Darrell might now have been taken over by the spirit of Christmas ......heaven help us!

He'd nipped up to town for some bits and pieces and noticed that with all the Halloween merchandise now half price or less in the sales, the Christmas stuff was now being brought out with vengeance, but, it was all the new and exciting gay apparel that particularly caught his eye.

Now, we all have a pretty comprehensive festive wardrobe to cover December being our very most favourite month of the year, but I have to admit it's always nice to have something new to wear to start the season off, and Darrell done good, picking out two very lovely long sleeved Santa t-shirts for him and me and for Nigel, not the easiest person to find clothes for, a lovely knitted Scandi design jumper from the Elf on the Shelf range at The Works.  We were all well chuffed with his considered purchases ...........

......... However, with another 26 days or so to go it would very much be tempting fate to even as much as try them on to see how resplendent we look, so until the morning of December 1st they must all remain hanging up our wardrobes ....... when it comes to the avoidance of any festive fate tempting we will certainly not be found wanting!

What To Do?

We have a bit of a problem with one of our Halloween decorations........

.......it's a ghost, that we believed was motion activated, except that it just won't deactivate, even when left in a completely empty and pitch black bathroom. Unless The Towers is haunted by goodness knows how many entities that constantly set it off  we suspect said ghost is most likely faulty

But what do we do with it in it's full activated state, the noise is driving us up the wall, but if we simply put it in the bin there will undoubtedly be complaints from irate neighbours who can't sleep at night for spooky noises.

Darrell and Nigel's plan is to take it down along the river bank and dump leave it there among the trees and let nature decided it's fate ....... I am not so sure. 

What if it the situation somehow gets out of hand and the paranormal word gets around, resulting in our small Evesham estate becoming a global metaphysical focal point with research teams from all over the world descending upon us to investigate a unworldly and unexplained psychic phenomena.  I have told Darrell and Nigel in no uncertain terms that if this happens ............ I "know nothing" .......

........ but Darrell says if it does we might make our fortune in offering bed and breakfast in situ and with Nigel as our runner, clean up in taking hot liquid refreshment to said investigators in the field!  What is he like?

Our Happy, Happy Halloween Sleepover

After Iris and Bertie's glorious Halloween Sleepover Weekend ...........

I think it is safe to say that Darrell, Nigel and are completely exhausted and in need of quite a long lie down in a suitably darkened room......

....... but hope it made the sort of happy memories with their beloved and doting uncles that they will fondly remember and hold dear to their hearts for many years to come.

The Towers did look lovely for about first five minutes after they both burst through the door, straight from a few days away in, what sounds to have been, a very bracing Salcombe..........

........ but although they had witnessed huge waves crashing over the sea wall, which had obviously made quite an impression .............

......  Bertie left saying that he had had a lovely time, but he needed to get back for Uncle Monkey, Uncle Darrell and Uncle Nigel's Halloween Sleepover, bless his little cotton socks!

Bertie was keen to get stuck into carving one of the pumpkins they had bought with them ....... but no, Darrell wasn't going to make punkin pie from it's contents, not this year anyway.....

....... as he'd spent most of the morning preparing his signature Gok Wan Chow Mein dish, always a  huge favourite .........

...... which looked just like worms,  especially when served in a witch's cauldron, but tasted absolutley wonderful and went down treat, if not pretty disgusting fashion.

The Halloween crackers filled with Ty Mini Boo's (carefully selected presentettes from lovely Uncle Hugh in Notting Hill) also went down very well, as did the Fortune Cookies, but which needed careful listening to when read out by Uncle Darrell, followed by an even more complicated translation, which made Nigel go crossed eyed concentrating a little too hard!

Tea was followed by a spooky "Midnight Walk" ............

....... with everyone well wrapped up and armed with glow sticks and torches to look for moles ....... something we did last year when Iris was well into her creatures of a nocturnal type nature!  

Because of the inclement weather Darrell and Nigel's carefully crafted PVA covered, bottle lanterns were a bit of a damp squib (see above), really needing stronger lights, however, from the lounge window, Iris and Bertie were still suitably spookily impressed.  Next year Darrell, thinking well ahead, says he might just go lumiere in the garden with outdoor fairy lights.

On the other hand our (Christmas) star lights in the windows at the front of The Towers looked most resplendent and, I believe, left our neighbours in no doubt that we will never be found wanting in the window illumination department  ......  but that being said, they will definitely not be making another appearance until 1st December, no matter how much Nigel pleads the case.

Despite the rain, there were still several fairly large firework parties going on, so plenty of fizz, bang and sparkle for us to stop and ooooooo and ahhhhhhh over as we walked towards the meadow. Sadly, there were no said moles to be seen, probably scared off by all the fizz, bang and sparkle, but spirits still high we headed back to The Towers for a magical, dim lighted, bath time featuring more glow sticks, two play foam sprays and a colour changing bath light ..... carefully supervised by Nigel.

Then it was time to snuggle up on the settee, under a huge blanket, with popcorn, crisps, Maltesers and the odd Fruit Shoot or two to watch Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets ......

....... before, finally bed!!! 

We were woken at 6.37a.m precisely, the time indelibly etched on my brain, as well as Darrell's and Nigel's, so after a much earlier than anticipated breakfast .......

..... Nigel volunteered for another walk to the meadow for a good, long, hopefully energy sapping run ........

....... and climb.......

......... to leave our Halloween pumpkin in among the trees to make sure that the wild animals have something to eat as the river bank is rather boggy at the moment   .......

....... and also to find that the moles had been very busy during the night, despite all the fireworks and extremely loud band and party going on at the Marina on the other side of the river!!!! 

This was all followed by lunch and a quick game of Peppa Pig Bingo before it was time to return Iris and Bertie to mum and dad, leaving The Towers now spookily quiet and eerily empty.

We now need to have a good tidy ..... but where to begin? And, after that, it's down to Darrell to start scheming and planning all over again, this time .... for Christmas, our most favourite time of the year and then our New Years Eve Iris and Bertie sleepover .................. happy happy days!

Darrell "Dun Gud"

Well, I think I can safely say that  Darrell has excelled himself with his Halloween decor this year, so far he has certainly not been found wanting.

Everything that need to be is now up, but since we are not actually starting our festivities until the weekend when Iris and Bertie come back from a few days in Salcombe there are still a few things to prepare........

......... like Iris and Bertie's weird and wonderful concoction cocktail bar (of a totally non-alchofrolic type nature of course), the much anticipated, well for Nigel at least, spooky pick and mix counter, and if the weather manages to hold out, a lantern lit midnight walk.

However, in the meantime The Towers looks like an explosion in a Halloween factory but done with certain degree of taste if you know what I mean, but goodness knows what the Queen of Beige Lord Lady Dame Kelly Hoppen would make of it all!

I know that Darrell is particularly pleased with his Halloween Tree, to be honest I think it was just a sneaky excuse to get out festive branches out without looking too ridiculously early!

I have to say I quite like being surrounded all the fun and colour

...... especially as I find November can be such a long and dreary month.

We now have time to bask in all of Darrell's efforts for the next  couple of days before the mayhem of our weekend celebrations begin ......

 ....... and then ..........

...... although I am not saying a thing, if Darrell is not in any great hurry to start to putting things  away .......

...... I really have no objections to leaving everything where it is ....... for say a week or so .......

........ What am I like? Happy Days!!!