Wednesday 6 June 2018

Blousey

These make me think of that word, used in a derogatory way for women in the past, but perfect for my peonies.


They lasted well inside and out this year

Next door neighbour asked if I needed anything doing in the garden, I said just strimming the edges so he came round with an electric  strimmer and I found an extension lead and he went quite a way round the garden doing the tatty bits that I can't get with either big or little mower. The trouble is I'm not used to relying on someone else to do something. Our way of life had been so self-sufficient for nearly 40 years but I can't work the huge petrol pull-start strimmer (I think they have a different name in the States so readers there might not know what I'm wittering on about!) so either I have to give in gracefully or get something I can use myself.

In other news........car was serviced and passed it's MOT ....good.It needed a couple of new bits on the suspension and new brake pipe and a new tyre - I await the bill! I know I'm not getting ripped off as the people who own and work at the garage are friends of Brother in Law.

 I'm eating strawberries from the garden - a handful everyday at the moment, lettuces too. Leeks have been planted out and the French climbing beans are heading up the canes. Not too many jobs left to do apart from weeding, successional salad sowing, planting out runner beans and then harvesting all the goodies.......raspberries are looking very good but we need rain for them - most of it has missed us

Still dealing with officialdom regarding money stuff.......... phone calls, forms and letters. I think I've sorted something then get a letter wanting another bit of information. I expect it will all get organised in the end.

Went to Big WI, we had a speaker talking about wool felting. There is conflicting history of how someone found that wool would knit itself together if wetted, heated and bashed about. She had some lovely books and had travelled to Turkey and countries in Asia to find out more about a craft that dates back at least 4,000 years. She had made all sorts of interesting colourful things, but it's not a craft I would ever have the patience to try.

(Edited in later to say.......I've just done what I should have done earlier and looked this word up in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.......seems it doesn't exist in the way I thought! Just means like a blouse? There is another word from the 1500's.....Blowze which means "A Wench" or "Slatternly".
So where did I get my word from? No idea!)


Back Tomorrow
Sue

34 comments:

  1. Thank you for writing your lovely blog, it really is above all others. What has just happened to you, happened to me 15 years ago and I well remember the paperwork, it took a year to sort, he was not a rich man, just a ordinary guy in a factory workshop. I have 4 lovely g.children now and life is ok and like you have always done everything for myself but now in my mid 70s have to ask for help, I hate it, so the place is beginning to look a mess but I don’t care. Your garden sounds productive, it’s a lovely feeling when everything is planted out and the pots stacked away for next year. Good luck.

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  2. I think that across the pond they call strimmers "weed whackers". I'm glad your neighbour helped out. There's no shame in asking for/accepting support like that. People love you and are genuinely sorry that you've lost Colin, and will be grateful for the opportunity of a practical way to show that. And don't worry about turning into to a weak, incapable female. That will never happen to someone as determined as YOU! XX

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  3. How nice that your neighbor helped you out with the garden. We call them trimmers here so that is a very similar name. I understand how you feel about people helping out as I've always been independent about doing things myself. I think sometimes we need to realize that people really do want to help or they would not ask. We have an electric trimmer and I can't seem to work that thing properly for the life of me. I mow the grass all the time but can't use the silly trimmer!

    Fresh strawberries from the garden sound so good. You will be having many delicious goodies from your garden soon. And that peony is just beautiful. I will be hoping for you that all the legal and business matters get sorted as soon as possible. You've had so much to deal with and you have handled everything so well. I wish I could help you but know I send you warm and peaceful thoughts for all to go smoothly.

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    1. As Angela said, we do also call them weed whackers! 😊

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  4. Your peonies look lovely, blowsy or not! My mum sent us a big bouquet of gorgeous flowers for our anniversary, the bunch contained 3 pink peonies, the heads were so big they were too heavy for the stems, in the vase I had to surround them with the other flowers to help support them. They smelt absolutely gorgeous.

    It's lovely when you can start eating your own produce each year, isn't it. Good that your neighbour did the strimming for you, it must be hard accepting help when you've always been so independent. As Angela says though, people will be happy to help, it's their way of showing support and being able to actually do something, at a time when we often don't know what we could do to be of practical help.

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  5. Gorgeous peonies. I haven't heard the word ,”blousy” for years but it's wonderfully descriptive!allowing someone to help you helps them too. Your friends, family and neighbours need to be able to show you that they care and helping with tasks is a good practical way of doing so. I'm sure you've probably done similar for other people and will be able to again in the future. Sue

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  6. I'm glad that someone offered help and you accepted. My mum finds that very hard, even though she is now approaching 80 and dad died 23 years ago...and asking for help is almost unheard of.
    Pleased that the car passed its MOT and that paperwork is gradually being sorted.
    We're almost planted up at the allotments now, and harvesting a bumper crop of strawberries, but the weeds are rampant too!

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  7. I love peonies, wish they lasted longer.

    I'm an independent woman, always have been, and electric tools are a godsend. Sell the petrol strimmer and get an electric one - lighter and much easier to use. I have an electric mower, hedge cutter and chainsaw, I know they are not as powerful as the petrol version but they are fine for most jobs.

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  8. So nice to have a kind thoughtful neighbour, glad your car was ok so you can still get out and about.

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  9. Peony is lovely, ours are almost out. Had one pudding of rhubarb, but so far, that is it.

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  10. Peonies are so beautiful and yes Sue I would have said it was blowsy. Glad you accepted some help as there is no point in hurting yourself trying to use tools that are too heavy. Garden sounds to be coming along nicely with food production-strawberries are lush when they are fresh and warm from the garden.

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  11. Like you I would use the word blousey in that way to describe a woman as "overdone". I have had to get used to accepting help since my husband had his stroke.

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  12. I have seen the word blowsy so it may simply be the spelling variations. The dictionary definition of blowsy is having a sloppy or unkempt appearance or aspect. Does that fit what what you were thinking?

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  13. Glad you are coping with all the paper work. I know my sister in law found that one of the most trying things when Toms brother died.
    Wool felting is one of those things that I have yet to try, not sure if all the messy stuff really appeals to me.
    Keep positive, lots of love
    Briony
    x

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  14. The parer work is a bit of a pain but it does eventually settle down. I would have used exactly the same word to describe the peonies so perhaps it is a generational thing.

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  15. I'm glad your neighbours are being so lovely and supportive. It's things like that which unite communities and connect people and I am sure that, in time, you will be able to pass it on or back.
    I would have said 'blowsy' too and, whatever the word, that peony is absolutely beautiful.
    And finally, three cheers for the car!

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  16. The flowers are over on our peony, which is a shame, they are wonderful blooms. My hubby often helps ladies in our street, little things they have difficulty in doing, he loves it, so if they offer, take the help, plus it's another person to chat to in your day. We too are eating strawberries and lettuce and I am watch a cucumber grow, should be ready next week.

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  17. Eventually the paperwork will all be sorted Sue. The trouble is, officialdom doesn't recognise feelings, it's all just day to day business for them. When my dad died, thirty years ago, the paperwork was an absolute nightmare, and no online applications or help pages.
    Dad was a Police Officer, still serving at the time of his death, although the job was nothing to do with his illness. I have to say, the Police were wonderful at getting everything sorted out quickly, sent a uniformed delegation to the funeral for a guard of honour, dealt with the pension details quickly, kept checking on mum to make sure she was okay, and were generally efficient and caring. I've heard that it's not like that anymore, too many cutbacks, it's all about saving time and cash now!
    It's good to accept help from people who offer, if they didn't want to do it, they wouldn't offer in the first place. They want to help, it's a way of showing that they care, so it helps both you and them.
    I haven't the patience or the inclination to try wool felting, although I fear that during the early years of our marriage I inadvertently did quite a lot of it via the washing machine, most notably an Angora sweater that went in as a size 14, and came out to fit a seven year old child!
    Years ago, I mentioned to someone that I like big blowsy flowers, he laughed and said "I can't imagine why!" Cheeky bu**er! I do love big 'loud' flowers though, and absolutely love peonies, the bigger and blowsier the better! My Paeonia lactiflora Bowl of Beauty is in full flush at rhe moment, it's breathtakingly gorgeous!
    Maybe I like Blowsy flowers because I'm a bit Blowsy, my closest friends often say I'm "All T*ts and Teeth", but that's because I'm blessed in the upper circumference area and laugh a lot!
    Take care, remember, one day at a time.

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    1. Gosh Col. you could be describing me too!!!

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    2. Sadly Col passed a couple of weeks ago

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    3. @Maureen Finn,
      I regularly post on Sue's blog and have done for quite a few years now, and my name is 'Col'.
      I have been called Col all my life, it's my name, and no-one has ever confused Sue's husband and me before! My name is above my post, making it obvious that I am indeed known as Col!

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  18. I have always found solicitors probate department's do the job well. So long as you don't let a bank probate department anywhere near a Will or an estate, and never let a bank appoint themselves as an executor, you are laughing. Our family deaths always involved too many people for it to be safe for one person to handle probate. A friend of mine handled probate when her second husband died and she had four step children accusing her of mishandling the estate and she had to then engage a solicitor to prove to them she hadn't. Not that any of this applies to you Sue, but I thought it might be of interest.

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  19. I would have spelled it like you did Sue - andthought of that as the meaning.
    The farmer's estate is not quite finished with fifteen months after his death - I would have been lost without my solicitor (and friend) - but of course there are so many things to be sorted with a farm.
    Col would be immenseley proud of you you know

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  20. I always use the word 'blowsey' to describe Regal Pelargoniums, which I am not keen on. So glad you have some lovely helpful neighbours.

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  21. I had to send a couple of 'thank you' emails to friends who helped when I had a meltdown the other week. I used the words 'big girl's blouse and cry baby'. They were very kind, as 70yrs plus I know they understood.
    Let's take all the help we can, after all I suspect that you & Col were on the giving end before.

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  22. Blowsy. Just the spelling is different, but gives it a different meaning!
    Perfect description for peonies. They look like tutus to me, which is probably why I am so drawn to them.

    Lucky you with all your veggies. Absolutely everything in our back garden has been scoffed by slugs. I am not happy. If I hear Bill tell me one more time 'we need some cheap beer for them'. Agh! Just do it! But why they deserve beer as they ruin my veggies I don't know! ;o) x

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  23. I think of blowsy as a radiant woman, buxom, pearls, tendriled hair, warm heart and fulsome laugh. Something like a peony.

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  24. You weren't mstaken by your remembe=rance of a Blowsy woman; I looked it up online . .

    "of a woman) coarse, untidy, and red-faced.
    ‘the cheap perfume worn by the blowsy woman’
    figurative ‘blowsy, old-fashioned roses’

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  25. Hmmm...your word blowsy made me think of "floozy" meaning a somewhat woman with loose morals.

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  26. I recognized the expression - a bit like Elsie Tanner in the old days of Coronation Street!

    I could do with a man wot can strimming for me as K's frozen shoulder is still no easier and he can only manage the bare essentials of keeping the grass cut. Glad that your neighbours are helping out.

    You will be glad to see the back of the paperwork I am sure.

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  27. Gorgeous Peonies.. they make such a beautiful bouquet. How nice of your neighbor to help you out. We call them "Weed Eaters" or string trimmer. I hope you get all the paperwork done and dusted soon. Have a super week! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  28. "Blowsy" means what you originally thought in the States! Maybe an older Brit English expression still in use here??? All the best, Laura from New Jersey (now Louisiana, where they used to speak Acadian French!)

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  29. Lovely peonies. Kind of your neighbour. Will be very tough to adapt I think. Good luck with the mountains of admin.

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  30. Love your peonies, it's the same as mine. My plant is over 4 feet tall and I quit counting at 75 buds. It's quite spectacular when they all flower, but sadly they only last a few days. Is the neighbour that helped you the same one that just moved in and you lent them a few things? We call them whipper snippers here!

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