Saturday 18 April 2009

The Calming Influence of Flowerpots




The field is full of lambs and calves and courting pheasants. Everything's growing like crazy. Mowing takes twice as long because primroses, violets and cowslips have sprung up everywhere this year, and I haven't the heart to cut them. Blogging's had to take a back seat, and this is bad scenesville because I know I'm missing good stuff in all of yours. If it rains for days I'll have the consolation of catching up.

Yesterday some update from Microsoft or AVG fouled up my virus protection, making it impossible even to uninstall what I already had, and therefore to load a replacement. In spite of my antediluvian past I have the computer literacy of a gnat, and spent most of yesterday trying to resolve it. At one point I became so stressed out I had to go and buy flowerpots.

Even though I go cold turkey for days, internet access is like a far from superfluous extra limb. It dangles somewhere cerebrally prominent, possibly trailing like a pony tail from the back of the head (and as my brother-in-law is wont to remark, we all know what is found under a pony's tail).

I had to resort to searching for and deleting anything with 'avg' in the title. This probably means lots of vestigial orphans clogging up my memory and that I've deleted the pictures of Auntie Vera's Garden. But the joy of success was almost worth the angst. My prodigal PC and I are friends again.

32 comments:

  1. Good to have you back again, Brother T. Do you fancy popping over and sortingn out our wireless router problems? I'll throw in a cup of tea and a free garden fork for your trouble..?

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  2. Those photos are gorgeous and I am glad to hear you are cutting round your 'wild flowers'. Didn't (and refuse to) understand any of the computery bit of your post, la, la, la, can't make me....

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  3. I'd offer the assistance of my in-house technician, M DeFarge, as he is whizz at these things. He suggests going to a site http://www.techsupportalert.com/pc/security-tools.html

    where advice may be forthcoming.

    Cute lambs, Make me feel peckish.

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  4. Oh, to be in England now that April ’s there.

    I was also colleagues with some very excellent silver-haired nerds when I was at the Open University, including Michael Jackson. If in the requirements engineering community you want to talk about the King-of-Pop, singer Michael Jackson, you have to say "no, not him, the other Michael Jackson".

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  5. thanks for stopping by, sugar! i do so hope y'all are talking advantage of this lovely saturday! (lovely photos!) xoxoxo

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  6. Ah, about this time of year my Mum would start singing (in a very boarding school tapioca pudding-tongue-in-cheek- sort-of way) 'Nymphs and Shepherds come awaaayy, come away come come come awaaayyy...' and sigh for cowslips and bluebells...
    I've inherited it, and sigh too.

    Lovely photos.

    I'm also terribly impressed at your bandying around terms like 'vestigial orphans'.

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  7. No worries BT. I think we all need the odd blogging break. I found rather strangely that I couldn't face it for a week or so (even though I normally love it). Then when I had some spare time, my printer decided to play up all afternoon and I was busy trying to fix that (and then my broken TV digibox) rather then catching up on my blogging and blogmates. I just clean ran out of inspiration even though I actually have about a dozen ideas for posts in reality. I think I've been depressed about the job situation, but I can't really blog about that at the moment for various reasons.

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  8. Such a vivid post: Lambs, cowslips et al. WOW!
    Computer madness is madning indeed, poor fellow. Aloha-
    Thrilled to see you out and about the web today ;-)

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  9. (I've just realised, my comment only makes sense in reference to your "my antediluvian past" link, and maybe not much even then.)

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  10. Being a techno-twat as well I can only offer sympathy and wine. However, am a bit busy with a sick wabbit at the moment....

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  11. Sympathy on the lacking in techno bits of the brain (I have none). Great tip that buying flowerpots is all that's needed to calm down. Cheaper than therapy

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  12. *sigh* i meant taking advantage, not talking ... like lulu, thanks for the tip re: flower pots. i'll post a pic next week of what i've done. xoxox

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  13. It's somewhat ironic that I announced a blogging breakd and was then away less time than some regular bloggers-no names mentioned here.

    What a pain your pc has been playing up though - I'm hopeless with all that kind of thing too

    Lovely pics

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  14. Simplicity, natures beauty,and happiness. You are the King of all three.

    I'm truly envious.

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  15. Thank goodness! The lambs are sweet. We overlooked lambs last week and I have to let the memory die down a bit before I can eat one again. I like the way they seem to have little plans of what they are going to do. Lamb's plans, cut short by the butcher.

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  16. Ha Ha Sarah! You've coined a phrase there, 'Lambs Plans' for hopeless dreams and doomed strategies.
    Florence did one once.
    "Don't flood the puddle, Mum', when I was making a simple situation complicated.
    BT, what a lovely part of the country you live in and how well you write about it!
    I'm just about to mow the lawn (a lambless lawn) and will say a prayer for the daisies just before I decapitate them.

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  17. In order to gain this calming influence, what should one smoke through these flower pots?

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  18. I've got a few IT problems of my own Brother- I feel your pain and I don't have any flower pots or lambs to calm me down!

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  19. Hmmmmm ....thought I had already commented on this! Am clearly losing what left of brain cells..
    Nice pics!

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  20. Ah, flowerpots, that's where I'm lacking.

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  21. You have to make the most of the nice weather while you can - I have been doing. Sounds like it'll be raining again by the weekend.

    Hope your virus problems are sorted.

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  22. Oh I love lambs. Just love them.

    As for blogging - breaks are good, I think. I am VERY ready for one. I always feel enthused and ready to return if I take a couple of weeks off completely - I think I took an 8 week break last summer.

    I have no idea what the computer stuff you talked about is!

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  23. Congratulations! You have been nominated for a Noblesse Oblige award! See my blog for details...

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  24. "I became so stressed out I had to go and buy flowerpots"

    Yep, happens to us all...

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  25. Steve - Milk and one sugar please! And thank you very much for my award, which I am about to investigate. It is wholly undeserved, as my blogging, such as it is, has dried up - I hope temporarily!

    I have been working on a wilderness at the remote end of a neighbour's garden - a disused pool neglected for many years, which has become a forest of briar and thorn. Very hot work, but with some of the enchantment of a secret garden, as walls and terraces and forgotten buildings emerge from the chaos. And between times proof-reading someone's dissertation, and other distractions. The days are too short!

    DJK - Thank you. And I am harmonising with your la la la's.

    Madam DeF - Norman seems to be behaving, but I much appreciate your tip and have noted the address for next time! You are lucky to have a resident whizz-kid. But perhaps it is not luck.

    Gadjo - Michael Jackso is one of that great breed, and we were very lucky. I';m wondering if his 'Problem Frames Approach' might help with our metal window maintenance headaches...

    Savannah - Oh but I was; and all those since. High time for a hot summer, and I live in hope!

    Katherine - I can almost hear her! (I was pretty impressed by 'vestigial orphans' as well. It has a mythical ring to it, don't you think?)

    Laura - You too? I hope things are looking up in every way, and will be back to visit after my break.

    Cloudia - My horizons have shrunk a bit...to a petrol mower and a pair of secateurs. But not for long, I hope.

    Gadjo - I knew what you meant, and it made perfect sense in any case.

    Amanda - I need to visit you to find out how it went with your rabbit. But the wine was much appreciated!

    Lulu - The soothing and phrophylactic properties of pots are greatly under-rated. I may become a pothead...

    Savannah - I read it as 'taking'. Like "A bird in the the bush" and so on. (If you haven't encountered that phrase written in a triangle, you won't know what on earth I'm taking about. I mean talking).

    Fancy - You know how to make a chap feel guilty! And now I'm compounding my bad bloggedness. Like Swarzenaeg Swartza...Like Arnold, I'll be back, all witty and revitalised.

    Jimmy - Simple I am, happy I am, Nature's beauty I'm not. But you are civil as always, befitting the gentleman you are.

    Sarah - It don't seem right, does it. I console myself that they wouldn't be there at all if it weren't for the butcher.

    Helen - You must come and enjoy it soon. K has just written a song about dandelions. She'll put it on her Myspace when she's recorded it.

    Jules - Anything suitably aromatic reaches the spot. Even weeds.

    Daisy - I hope your IT probs have evaporated in the sunshine. How about starting off some peppers on a windowsill? Nothing like peppers for triggering those endorphins.

    Justme - Thank you. Don't worry about the brain cells...maybe all my blogs seem the same!

    Eryl - Flowerpots are an essential in every bathroom cabinet. If only to puzzle inquisitive guests.

    Rol - Good for you. I guess I need to plug myself into the garden occasionally. Like a mobile phone.

    RB - Thank you. You've made me feel a lot better about not posting. I just haven't been spending time on line at all, really.

    Steve - as above, thank you so much for my nomination, which is greatly appreciated!

    Chimesey - You've been there too?

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  26. 'Bout time for a post, Brother?

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  27. Cloudia - I know...mea culpa. I will, I'm sure; just taking a sabbatical or something. There are just not enough hours in the day!

    Fancy - How solicitous you are...thank you! I'm fine - just aching in every sinew, and half a stone lighter from hours of heavy work in a neighbour's garden, helping reclaim an overgrown and forgotten quarter acre (now I know why it's called an acre!). I think my creative bits are on holiday...I will visit yours shortly, and hope all is well with you too.

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  28. HI BT, the rabbit is fine now. We ahd to put him in a new hutch by himself as the "other" wabbit keeps attacking him. Still ahven't flipped Daisy over to see if she is a he too but I suspect that will be the case! Right, back to the garden with you!

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  29. Well, BT, those flowerpots made you very calm indeed!

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  30. Noushad - But I was blown away by yours. Another world, beautifully captured.

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