Weekend tales

A great weekend for weather with Mrs DeeJay and I doing as little as possible in the way of household chores in order to be able to spend as much time in the sunshine as we could. Three BBQs in three evenings from Friday to Sunday,culminating with sitting out in the garden until VERY late on Sunday.
We had to visit the allotment twice a day to water everything as it has been so hot, but all of our delayed crops; due to late sowing, not starting off plants early in the greenhouse this year and also our holiday falling at a time when they really needed our attention; have started to really put on a lot of growth now. The potato crop is superb this year and we have been dining on young juicy broad beans recently.

Have you ever heard of "Cupping Massage"?
On my penultimate visit to the Chinese lady who has been treating me with acupuncture to cure my rhinitis (and yes it certainly seems to have cured it) she suggested in her imperfect English that a session (pronounced as COPY Massage) would alleviate the rather 'thick' sensation that I have in my throat. The principle is to massage the chi channels in the back which have an effect on many areas of the body.
A sucker for a lovely smile and being a very trusting soul, I agreed.
Being on my front with my face in the little hols in the massage table, I had no idea what to expect nor indeed what she was preparing behind me. The first I knew of the fact that this was to be no ordinary massage that one might experience at a spa, was when I felt a very warm 'plop' as something appeared to be attached to my back. Aha, I thought, a variation on the old hot stone massage. Nope - wrong!
There were several of these 'attachments' to my back at which point she told me that "some people experience a slight change of skin colour after a treatment. She then proceeded to slide these attachments around my back with what seemed to be a fairly heavy pressure to a gleeful exclamation of "oh yes your back is changing colour".
I discovered when looking in her mirror when putting my shirt back on that my back was covered in a mottled bruise that is still with me, although somewhat faded, today. It looks as though I have taken a severe beating and it has accounted for some very funny looks in the gym locker room yesterday and this morning.
I will keep my big mouth closed in future!!

For an idea of what it was all about see these two videos

What a weird weekend of weather

I suppose we should have expected it as it was a Bank Holiday!
Saturday started very damp and windy, but although the wind continued, the afternoon was very hot and sunny. Enough to tempt me and Mrs DeeJay to perform the dreaded weeding of the allotment where they were trying to stifle the poor seeds that are just shooting (cabbage, broad bean, dwarf bean, beetroot and carrot. The six rows of potatoes are coming on a treat as are the raspberries, gooseberries and rhubarb (some of which we pulled and stewed on Saturday). we also followed that with some garden clearance and grass cutting before resting for an hour, admiring our handiwork with a gin and tonic.

Sunday also started wet but cleared well enough for me to play golf in the afternoon. It was then that I realised just how much rain we had over the Friday and Saturday nights with a veritable lake across the third fairway with ducks swimming on it. I wish I had my camera with me.

Yesterday was another story - a complete washout! So I managed to spend some time practising my guitar playing which seems to be stuck in a bit of a rut at the moment so I have challenged myself to find a number that I will learn all the way through. Favourite, although maybe a little challenging towards the end is Throw Down The Sword by Wishbone Ash. I have just rediscovered them when I uncovered one of their albums in my collection that I haven't played for ages.

By the way did I tell you that I have been having acupuncture treatment?
I have been suffering quite badly with sinusitis and rhinitis since the beginning of the year and nothing my GP has given me has worked. 6 weeks ago I went to a local Chinese herbalist and acupuncturist and completed a 6 week course on Saturday. The improvement is quite marked and I am going to persevere with a second course which according to Dr Susan Sun will be a complete cure and also will have strengthened my Chi which according to her was low. Who am I to argue about something I know nothing about - I simply know that it seems to be working for me