Moonwalk night was getting ever closer and, with just one more long walk ahead, I was almost ready. Then, on the morning of April 15 2013, a parcel arrived. It was the Moonwalk pack, filled with such goodies as a see through plastic mac, space blanket, my race number and, the most important item, a bra to decorate. It made it all seem scarily real and, of course, I had to start thinking about how I was going to decorate the blasted thing.
15 April 2013
Today was a lot about being tired, the weekend catching up with me. The postman delivered a parcel with my name on it this morning. After I’d signed for it, feeling a little embarassed to be caught still in my PJ’s at ten o’clock, I took it into the living room, puzzled because I couldn’t remember ordering anything. It turned out to be my Moonwalk pack, complete with bra, t-shirt, pink hat and my all important race number. Crikey that makes it all seem very close. Now I have to really start thinking about bra decorating! As if I didn’t have enough to fit in with all the walking and some rather pathetic attempts at fund raising.
After a bit of staring at the pristine white Wonderbra wondering what on earth I was going to do, there was a walk up the Big Hill. When is there not? As I passed, I had a quick look at the front garden and noticed the dark red berberis leaves are coming out, there are even some little flower buds. The sun that had been out when I dragged myself out of bed decided to disappear as soon as I was out walking in it and half way up the hill the rain came down. The big old willow tree near the traffic lights was bright with new leaves just beginning to come out but most of the other trees are still bare.
My first task was a visit to the bank to order a new cheque book. Apparently, the last time I ordered one was 2009, shows how many cheques I write. Then it was Sainsbury’s to get icing sugar to make buttercream icing for Commando Senior’s cake. He’s become a bit of a dab hand at baking lately, often bringing round cakes he’s made. I think it’s become a bit of a hobby. He’d been baking on Saturday when he had his fall and was worried because the cake hadn’t been iced. While they waited for the ambulance he even told Commando to take it home with him and ask me to ice it. Yesterday he was still worried about it and I promised I’d ice it for him and bring some in when we next visit.
In the end I cheated. There was some ready made buttercream icing in the baking section of Sainsbury’s, who knew they made that? I thought it would save me having a bag of icing sugar in the cupboard going lumpy because I don’t use it and also all the ‘taste testing’ that goes with making icing. On top of that, it’s so long since I made buttercream icing I’m not sure I remember how.
Despite the rain, I decided to walk down the Little Hill with the shopping because I wanted to check out the magnolia in the gardens on the way back. As I feared, some of the petals on the large magnolia have been scorched by the frosts we had but at least the flowers didn’t fall. The little magnolia stellata further along has fared better, perhaps because it’s more sheltered and the strappy white petals are all perfect. Both plants looked beautiful with a dusting of sparkling jewel raindrops.
In my own garden the khol rabi seedlings have begun to come up thanks to the warmth of the mini greenhouse although none of the other seeds have germinated yet. Down on the veg plot the broccoli are coming along, what a wait for them to flower, I hope it will be worth it and I’ll get to eat some of them eventually. They should be ready in a few more weeks, slugs willing. Flower wise nothing much is going on yet other than the Skimmia whose tiny white flowers are just beginning to open.
The rest of the day was fairly lazy. Of course, I did ice Commando Senior’s cake. I’ve put it in a tin and I’m trying not to think about how wonderful it smelt.