Wednesday 16 July 2014

Who Cares


except me,

that the grass in the lower field, where Millie and I walk daily, is finally being cut and I can actually see her again  rather than just follow a movement in the grass,


and that a nice farmer is turning the rows to dry them prior to baling the hay, all out of the kindness of his heart - I really can’t see the Duke of Norfolk, who owns the land, paying to have it cut - and for the sake of the village carnival at the beginning of August,


and that the garden is a perfect wilderness and my despair, but that Paul is back and is hard at work cutting hedges and trimming shrubs and that he and I are planning to dig up lots of herbaceous plants this autumn and replace them with shrubs to lighten the load for future years,


and that after a very hot period today was actually made quite pleasant by the addition of a few clouds but that a heatwave (i.e. nasty and sticky weather with thunderstorms) is forecast for the weekend, and that that means that I will once again have to disappear from view and hide behind a book and a tall, cool drink,


and that I’ve been to a vernissage and bought a couple of water colours for which I have yet to find the most suitable space in the house,


and that WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS,


Image Source: Sticky Wallpapers

although, come to think of it, there may well be a few million other people who do care about the latter. I sat up half the night watching the celebrations on German TV, wishing myself to be part of it. And I’m not even a football fan. (I lost a follower the night of Germany v. Brazil;  if you are a Brazilian, I am sorry; 7-1, what on Earth happened?)

It’s been too hot to blog, there’s been Wimbledon, the Football (soccer for you in the US) World Cup, some theatre, an informal party or three, a bit of gardening in early morning and late evening and not a lot else.  Nothing to blog about. I wouldn’t want to admit to reading rubbishy thrillers and very light-weight novels for hours on end, so I won’t mention doing that. Absolutely nothing to blog about.

After all, who cares about other people's boring recital of the banal doings of their daily grind. Just pretend you hadn’t read any of this. Sorry to have been wasting your time.




46 comments:

  1. Time spent here is never, ever wasted. And your life sounds pretty full to me. Light weight rubbishy novels are sometimes essential. And can be fun.

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  2. It's always nice to find an obviously literate, intelligent person who admits to enjoying bubble gum for the mind.
    A kindred soul!!
    And as dull as you day may seem to you, since I'm not rambling through farmers' fields with a canine companion, I like reading about someone who is.

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  3. I liked reading about your life
    and the thought often comes to mind
    as I type away sharing with my family
    close and far away
    "does anyone care."

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  4. We all think from time to time that our blogs are boring, the grass always looks greener on the other side. Someone else's life may look more exciting, but I enjoy the everyday things that may be so different from mine. I enjoy sharing some of my life....not everything goes into my blog.

    Balisha

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  5. So glad I'm not the only Summer sloth. Glad too that you got pleasure from the victory, Fraulein.

    I love your photo of the valley, and the painting that so resembles it.♥

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  6. that is a pretty cool water color...i love all the colors in it...we are in the polar vortex...so it will be in the 50s tomorrow...so i plan on being out and enjoying a break in the heat...i dont mind watching the farmers work the fields...though ours are full of corn right now...

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  7. I'm in California, wishing I could look out upon such wonders as you have pictured.

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  8. Your "boring" life is pretty darn interesting to me. And I did enjoy thinking about all the things you mentioned that are not blog material. :-)

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  9. ..my friends...and we'll keep on fighting to the end...
    We are the Champions...

    Do you know that song? Congrats!

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  10. Don't be silly!

    Like you, I am not a football fan, but during the World Cup I watched all but one of the Germany games. That 7:1 was unbelievable!!! The finals was nerve-wracking, and since I did not eat anything, just drank several glasses of Sekt, I was rather tipsy at the end of it and glad for the next day being a home office day.

    Gardens like wildernesses are the best, so don't have Paul clear it out too much.

    We'll be getting past the 30-Grad-Marke again this weekend. A lot of people will be complaining - I won't. It is summer, after all!

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  11. :) I'm a speed reader Friko, it's fine - really! and besides I love hay making time!

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  12. Everybody's life is different, so the everyday details of it are interesting to someone else - especially when you write so interestingly about it. It's what you make of it that counts.

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  13. I watched only the last minutes and was very happy. May be becouse my mother was German.
    I shall give a lot for boring life this days.

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  14. Iedereen moet genieten op een manier waar hij zich het prettigst bij voelt.

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  15. I am a student of human nature and thus find all kinds of gems in blogs of others tedious lives. I also enjoyed the soccer games when I caught them and did not have to root for any team. A Duke...you do know that dropping names like that perks the ears of commoners across the pond. I would give good money to walk across a field of grass. We are in an area of many dangerous ticks and almost every other person I know who likes the outdoors is on or has been on antibiotics this year due to infections from tick bites. There is a new infection that makes you allergic to mammalian products...really! Maybe just for months or maybe forever.

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  16. Okay, so, here I sit, pretending not to read this bit of life that seems much like my own only much more poetically fashioned by your words. Here in the States we have fast become Football fans, opening our downtown venues to ginormous screens so all the watch. There. You have it. We always seem to do things up so big here, I know, but, we have come to lovers of Soccer - now, where is m cup of tea.

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  17. First let me congratulate the team and I agree - What the heck happened? - As, well, such is the world of sports. I do not blog, when I have nothing to blog about and I do not worry about not blogging. I take a break sometimes, for summer is way too short - I really do not know how people post 2-3 times a day - that would not be me :) At the end of the month and the first week in August, we have the Chocolate Festival (St. Stephen) and the International Festival (Calais, Maine, USA) The two border towns blend together during this time and many events, music, chocolate tasting, music, games etc take place on both sides of the border. Parade and fireworks - and then its all over for another year. We play hockey here and soccer. Have a wonderful day

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  18. That was plenty enough for you to blog about. I love to hear from you whenever you have the time and whatever you want to chat about. Just like to know you're okay and whatever you're thinking. Like stopping by for a cuppa. ;)

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  19. SO so wonderful of that farmer to do that out of the kindness of his heart. I love all your observations here :)

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  20. Friko, thank you for letting us see a bit of summertime in your surroundings. Remember when you wrote about the walk to the shop? I also loved that post, because of your wonderful observations and way with words.

    The new watercolor purchase looks very good to me. I'm sure you will find a fine place to hang it.

    The garden and gardener report is also of interest.

    I admit to doing a lot of summertime sitting around. It's been very hot and that is definitely an energy sapper. Now that we've had several days of rain, it's a bit cooler, so I am counting on some actual movements today and tomorrow.

    xo

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  21. It is nice that you have Paul back to help you in the garden. Summer is for enjoying and taking it easy.

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  22. You can do a lot worse than "disappear from view and hide behind a book and a tall, cool drink" -- even if you are reading thrillers (besides, what's wrong with that?!?)

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  23. I'm learning so much today from words used in blogs...makes me go to Google to look them up. Today it is vernissage...an art show preview. I loved your selection, very colorful. Thanks for your thoughts today.

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  24. Your new watercolour is so full of life and brightness that it will surely lighten the dark winter that lurks ahead. Perhaps we should all admit to what we're reading these days. I just ended a binge of 8 mystery novels by Josephine Winspear - all read in the past 2 weeks. Easy reading seems to go along with summer.

    I was very happy to see Germany win the World Cup. I didn't watch any games but I followed the scores, the wins and losses. You might be interested to hear that I read a news article in El Universo yesterday that complimented the Germans on not only winning the WC but on winning the hearts of Brazil as well. The article said that the German team built relationships with the people in the area they stayed in, and in fact, the complex they constructed for the 7 weeks in Brazil has been donated to the local town. They were praised for their awareness of social responsibility and the time they took to interact with the everyday people.

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  25. I'm not a sports person and although our Texas house if full of football and soccer throughout the year, I usually pass through doing my own thing while the boys watch. But... I did watch some of The World Cup. And as far as I could tell, everyone was happy when the Germans won. The responses I heard were that they really were the better team. So that settled, I will comment on your tedious life... I love to read about it... it's so different (yet in some ways the same) as mine. And I love your pictures!

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  26. Here too everything grows especially weeds ! I didn't watch football at all, I only looked at the results the next morning. I thought it was an error when Germany made 7 goals ! Poor Bresil. I watched a little bit the craziness in Berlin when they came back. I mixed up the Belgians with the Germans who ran around with coloured faces, the flags have the same colours ! Today we have 35° ! and on Friday 12 ! It's a roller coaster !

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  27. Not a waste of time at all. Love reading your blogs Friko. I like the picture of your neighbour's little blue tractor. Isn't he good, cutting the grass,

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  28. Your lovely writing and photos allow all of us to care. Thanks for sharing.

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  29. Well clearly WE care! And besides, what is blogging but "other people's boring recital of the banal doings of their daily grind" anyway? You read MY blog, don't you? And that's all that mine is :)

    Also, "I really can’t see the Duke of Norfolk, who owns the land, paying to have it cut"--- you actually have a Duke around there who owns the land?! That is so… so… storybook to me. Like you're all serfs or something. Ah, well, just goes to show how American I am.

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  30. I LOVE knowing your daily grind! I'm glad Paul is back and I was rooting for Germany in the World Cup. And so nice to be able to find Millie more easily on your walks. Your garden is lovely and every visit makes me happy.

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  31. For nothing to blog about, you did just fine. Keep on enjoying your summer.

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  32. Congrats on German Football team victory, Friko! They know how to play football.
    I can imagine your stroll through the grassy fields, wonderful! Also I liked the water color you've bought, it's pretty,feels like spring in fields.

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  33. Hi Friko - love the new picture .. gives me many thoughts of hazy landscapes, smells of lavender and rows of poplars ... but the World Cup - the only one I've enjoyed was in 1966 when we beat you ... thankfully we get beaten fairly early on now - but your result was amazing 7 - 1 ...

    I had email communications with Lenny about your team!! He was totally bemused and overjoyed with the 7-1 win ...

    I guess the storms will be making the hay grow and gently steam, the garden sprouteth .. but good to read Paul is back ... I have to say I was glad of the rain overnight .. though I unplugged for the storms ...nothing serious down here ...

    With tongue in cheek - are you going to put your sticky wallpaper up at home?! Fun looking poster ...

    Happy walks with Millie in that lovely countryside .. cheers to you both - Hilary

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  34. I love the smell of fresh cut grass and how it sweetens as it dries into hay.

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  35. I'll read yours if you'll read mine. around here, whoever mows and bales the field gets to keep and sell the hay. I assume they have an arrangement with the owners of the field. not a lot going on in my garden right now, a few things blooming. middle of summer and all. too hot mostly to be out there exerting myself except for all these plants and bulbs from the other house to get in the ground.

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  36. 36 of us must care as here we are writing our comments :) It's the banal, the commonplace, the everyday things that make for interesting reading under your skilled hand. No need for apologies!

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  37. I'd better be polite and congratulate on your victory .... though maybe through gritted teeth .

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  38. I actually like hearing about the minutia of others' lives. (Which is a good thing, since I'm a therapist!)

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  39. I enjoy the minutiae of other lives. Congratulations on the victory -- Germany played a terrific game.

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  40. Lots of activity, and I hope the heat wave isn't too bad. We have snow predicted in areas that don't usually have it. I can feel the chill already.

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  41. Your posts are always stimulating and you do have a great sense of humor. I am slowly catching up with the blogging friends who left comments on my posts, and I am way behind. I went back to look at all the posts you wrote since my last comment – and could not find my comment (it was about your going to the theatre 16 times) so I guess you did not like it. Many of your posts are amusing, and you do have a quick wit. I think you can keep your followers interested for many years. When you said that your team were the champions – I thought that it was the German team not the British one who won. Then I realized you meant the German team – but then if the British had won, it would have been your team as well – isn’t fun to have 2 countries in a way?

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  42. What are we all but banal, really. I write banality. We all go to the toilet.

    Basically.

    XO
    WWW

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  43. Utterly immersed in le Tour de France here (but did notice there were some blokes kicking a ball about on telly the other day). German riders have done pretty well in that, too (Marcel Kittel and Tony Martin).

    Talk of grass cutting reminds me how when I was a toddler we lived in Lincolnshire opposite a huge wheat(corn?)field. When I was still shorter than the crop I wandered into it, to the horror of the adults, who ran up and down the road shouting, terrified that I'd never find my way out.

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  44. Hi, Friko! Nice to be with you again after a while.
    I do care! About the grass being cut (it has become quite an obcession in our town), about unpredictable Mundial 2014, about your gardening, though I don't do any, and more than anything I care about what you read, whatever it is. Your blog has a character. But I know what you mean by "nothing to blog about". I guess we all go through a dry spell sometimes, when no word is born, nothing worth mentioning. Drop in on my blog to share reading impressions!

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  45. Nothing much happens here either. I'm back after a long blog break and it's good to catch up. I did watch so much of the football, which I'm not a big fan of but I do like the big occasions. Didn't Germany do well. I'm glad they won and almost a whitewash! Now the Commonwealth Games start today so I will be glued to the tv for that duration too. I love sport.
    Enjoy the heat, your walks, your books and that long cool drink.
    Di
    xoxo

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  46. the story of an ordinary life, Friko, told with wit and just a touch of acerbity. :) I followed the fortunes of Germany in the World Cup online as we don't have TV here and was very pleased you won.

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Comments are good, I like to know what you think of my posts. I know you'll keep it civil.