A WORD TO THE WISE IS ENOUGH

CHAPTER FORTY


" The Undergrowth Chronicles " season 1 is over.Mrs Deer and her little darling are safe and sound in the very depths of the undergrowth. I guess we won't see them again till the end of the works, which means...Dear me, I really don't know what the phrase "the end of the works " mean !
Breton craftsmen do have all the qualities but one : reliability !
Whatever you ask them for, quite sure you'll get a straightforward " yes ".
Then, you can feel quite satisfied, as long as you are not expecting a tight schedule.Calendars and deadlines are their pet hates.
Those skilled people are the stuff divas are made of ! They can keep you cool your heels, and then, once you have kissed them goodbye, come out tof the blue. Once you know that, you are immune !
So, I just keep my fingers crossed, and hope there won't be any more trenches in the garden by Xmas. Otherwise, I wonder how Santa Claus's reindeers will pull their sleigh to my place ... Time will tell.

Last week I told you there would be still plenty of twists and turns ( and fun, as well) in the chapters to come, and I swear I'll stick to my words !
But today, I'd like to attract your attention on something special.

While I was leafing through Mrs Deer's precious notebook, it crossed my mind that you could follow her example. I mean, keeping a diary ( in English,of course !). It is another way to improve your vocabulary and consolidate it.
You write your thoughts in spoken-English style, but you have time to think about the language you are using.So, a diary is a good link between accuracy and fluency.
Don't rack you brain to get a leading thread. Just jot down everyday facts. Even if you think you have nothing worth to say,you'll see that just pottering about means learning a good deal of new words and phrases.

For example, look at my diary entry for last Wednesday :

*****

Today I got up early, and, fortunately, I was full of beans, because Wednesday is my anti-procrastination day.
I had to deal with all the things I had kept putting off !

So, in the morning I got rid of all the red tape cluttering nearly two thirds of my desk : I checked my bank settlement, cancelled a subscription to a monthly ( I have not even read the one but last issue), tore the junk mail, updated some files and dropped a few lines to Domi ( a longlife friend).

Then, it was lunch-time. Quite satisfied with myself** for being able to deal with the left-overs crammed in the fridge. The left-over boiled chickpeas made a perfect hummus for the chicken salad !

In the afternoon we went for our daily ten kilometres' power walk. The weather was gorgeous and exercising was pure bliss ! We came back home frazzled but happy to have stuck to our self-imposed schedule.

For dinner I tested a coconut red lentil soup recipe. My coriander powder was a bit old, so, not as tasty as it should have been, but as a whole it is a recipe worth keeping.

As there was nothing much on telly (as usual), I decided to take the giant shoebox filled with loose photos out of the closet where it had been tucked in since we moved in. I've started putting them in some kind of order.


*****

You see, keeping a diary does not mean writing a masterpiece, or competing for Pullitzer Prize, but just being factual and trying to use the most accurate words.

Anyway, advice is cheap, so take it easy and have it your own way !

Next week we'll set off on new adventures and I bet you'll laugh heartily when I tell you what happened to me some days ago ...

** getting too big for my boots again !!!