So, I come downstairs this morning, irritated because it is so dark already. And I wonder absent mindedly, why Calum’s trainers smell so horrible. The cats are looking bewildered, and are picking their way across the kitchen floor as though they’ve painted their claws and are trying not to smudge them.
As I’m making the coffee, I decide it’s not Calum’s trainers that smell, it’s the fridge. Something must be rotting at the back.
It’s only when I go to feed the cats that I realise the reason they are walking so strangely, is because they are picking their way through the shards of glass sprayed across the end of the kitchen. And then I discover that the smell is the smell of fermenting pear juice which is dripping from every surface from the bottle which has exploded overnight. Chris had to stand in the garden opening all the others which fizzed and splashed all over the place.
We’ve got apple and pear trees with a huge harvest on this year. So, every afternoon whilst Rosie slept, Chris, Calum and I made some juice. The apple juice is brilliant. This was the first time we’d tried pear juice. Something went badly wrong. That’s payback for the mouse the other night though, cats.
Different approaches to grief and mourning are so interesting, aren’t they. And yes, I too feel homesick. Looking forward though to seeing Rosie teevee 3 which is being edited at the moment. Will be shown very soon. Will let you know when.
Jo
The Knock On Effect 
Thankyou for the updates.
Watching Pride of Britain Awards, making me think of Rosie’s hard work and achievements. xxx
I think you made Babycham! Better luck with it next time and very glad no cats were injured in the making of your kitchen drama…
Will look forward to the tv programme, it will be bitter-sweet but another big facet of Rosie’s legacy.
Love to you all. x
Your exploits remind me of an experiment we did once making sloe gin that went horribly wrong. So we emptied the contents of the very large bottle on the garden. Later on that day we went out to find a very drunk cat busily licking the grass like mad. If yours start singing loudly at 3am you know what they will have been up to ….!
lol 🙂
A man once brought down his Jack Russell to my husband’s vet surgery. His balance was all over the place, his sight seemed flawed. The diagnosis was possible heart trouble.
Owner took dog home tenderly – and found the home-made wine empty behind the arm chair!
Ho ho ho. And there was I with a vision of actual pears exploding and wondering how? Why? Whaaaattttt????
Glad it’s sorted though.
I thought of Rosie last night. Toilet, big spider walked across the floor in front of my toes. But I love spiders. My thought was Rosie would have jumped 🙂 Spider didn’t know I was around till I tapped the floor, spider jumped 😉
Hope all is okay at team Kilburn. Mic, on phone
Did you see the reports of the poisonous spiders in Bletchley? not far from you Mic 🙂
Yes I did Maz. And I was, wow, photo op missed there 🙂 – sad person that I am, having worked with stingy and bitey insects!
Dad had a dinner party ages ago and let the Parrot out…he cheekily drank some wine….and then stumbled around the table…eventually falling in the Cheesecake!!!
Were you walking round this glass strewn kitchen in bare feet? Maybe next year just stew the pears or something…
Hi Jo, pity about the pear juice!!
We still have a bat that lives in our bedroom – it flew round this morning, mainly because the windows had been shut all night, for once, due to rain….
Am off to the hospital this morning, for a bone scan to see if I’ve got osteoperhosis, but don’t worry, I’m taking some of Rosie’s courage with me!!! Whenever I have a ‘challenge’ I think of Rosie and how she had so many major ‘challenges’ which she met head on….!
I look forward to seeing the new t.v. programme.
mags.
Maybe rosie shock the bottles up just to say Hello to you all, I find myself reading her old blogs to give me strength like they used when she put new ones on here
Thinking of you
Jill
Nooooo… don’t throw the pear juice away, stick it in a demijohn and turn it into wine, pears make fantastic wine and if you leave it long enough it turns into something not unlike fino sherry, excellent for poaching pears in, I have done it many times, fantastic 🙂
Actually it’s really funny that you have posted this today because this morning I came down to a similar scenario, Mr A got up at 4.45am this morning and whilst fumbling in the fridge for a new carton of milk managed to yank a bottle of rose wine out too, smashed glass removed out of the dog’s way in the sink but no time to mop up the pink lake so left for yours truly to deal with. The thing is he didn’t think about was the fact that the dog would attempt to clear it up for him and in his drunken stupor had got hold of the composting bin and littered its contents from one end of the kitchen to the other, major cleaning operation required :oS
Well I don’t know about the Kilburns but my father and I have been laughing reading all these funny posts this morning!
marvellous!
x
Hi Jo. All i can say is glad it was only the one….
I love the image of the cats with painted claws! Did you take a photo of Chris creating pear fountains?
Fruit stories continued………a friend was thoroughly un-nerved ,on a small hours glass of water trip to the kitchen, to hear a hissing, bubbling sound. Eventually, a search revealed a forgotten water melon in a cupboard, fermenting happily. Unhappily for her the excitement of being moved caused it to pop. showering her, the ceiling, walls & floor with pink, fizzing highly scented goo.
Back in the good old days when home made wine was all the rage, another friend had her (mercifully) plastic demijohn of blackberry wine in a room with a white carpet (told you it was the ’70s) One day she discovered it, expanded to spherical &, she swears, vibrating. Rather sadly for the purposes of the story, she managed to remove it to the garden before anything exciting happened.
Smelly trainers? My son wears trainers on the side of the pool where he’s a lifeguard, so they;re warm & damp on both sides all day. Ew. I discovered (omg that sounds like a washing powder ad…) X Play Trainer Restorer in Sainsbury; it has sachets to tuck inside & a gel to rub in before putting in the washing machine, & it actually works!! Not cheap, about £5.50 for a packet which does 2 pairs, but much cheaper than a new pair of trainers. I’ve just noticed the box says ‘Punch’ caring since 1851.’ Didn’t know they wore trainers then……….
Reminds me of some home made wine we were given once. Our donor was a white haired lady in her 80s. She gave us two bottles, one we drank….thinking it was quite nice we polished it off. Then we tried to stand up! Sat down very quickly with the world going a little wonky. The wine became known as Marys falling down juice!! The other we decided to put in the cupboard for another day. Some weeks later there was the sound of breaking glass from the cupboard. The bottle had gone pop and covered the entire cupboard in red wine 🙂 House smelt like a brewery for a while 🙂
Marys falling down juice is now drank with a lot of food and is not kept for long 🙂 And Mary is now in her 90s and still making wine 🙂
Hi Jo, just wanted to let you know I raised a total of £230 for Macmillan on the sponsored run I did. A respectable total. Lots of love to you all, Chloe
Ps – I am normally an avid blog reader but have been moving into my new flat and have only just set up the internet so it was nice to catch up with your updates and I look forward to seeing teevee 3!
Well done Chloe, that’s brilliant.
That’s brilliant – well done you.
Ps – It is better to make pear juice and have it explode than to never dare to try and never know!
Another cat story.Years ago when my husband was into making beer he used to do it in a flip top bin but with a tea towel over the top.Cat thought itwas a solid surface ,jumped on it straight into the beer.Managed to scramble out somehow but then licked herself clean and ended up in a very sorry state!!
Our explosion was a gallon of home brew beer, and I was at a particularly sickly point in early pregnancy when I could smell a glass of scotch at 30 yards, and anything – but anything – made me heave. So Paul was on his own with that one.
I hate the dark mornings too, much more than the dark evenings. I am re-reading the poems of Ivor Gurney, and he has a line
“It is winter, the soon dark annoys me.”
He also has a line which I think so applies to Rosie :
“…. there are bright tracks where I have been.”
Will look forward to teevee3.
Love and lots of supportive thoughts
Jonquil
My brother’s ginger beer used to explode the bottle tops off from time to time.
We also (- a bit like the parrot mentioned above) had a budgie (Billy) who was very partial to sherry! He used to get a bit sloshed sometimes and then dive-bomb our TV dinners ….. usually skidding through the gravy …. rather annoyingly!
Once he got so drunk he was comatose and we thought he was a ‘goner’, so we made a cotton wool bed from him in a shoe box, thinking that might be his last resting place, only for him to recover within half an hour …. totally sober …. well, if you can tell a crazy budgie is sober! So …. sober – drunk – unconscious – sober …. all withing about 45 minutes!
Never had a drunk dog though Pip …. ha ha! Good idea about the pear-wine too! My best friend at uni used to make wine out of almost anything! (- a Yorkshire lass!) …. the one I sort of remember the most was her ‘carrot whisky’, which went down rather well with her home-made ‘parkin’ (- or however that is spelt). We fellow students loved it when she came back to hall, laden with goodies from home!
David is going to try making sloe-gin ….. hmmmmm!?!
Liking the image of the cats too!
Love to you all,
Deb and gang xxxxxxxxxx
Oh dear the post I sent today was put in comments for the 4th and I just realised that you might not know its there unless I tell you. I think Ive had too much of what that parrot that fell into the cheesecake had!! That was sooooooooooooooo funny xxxx
Dear Jo, I realised I hadn’t checked Rosie’s blog until early last month, and I was devastated when I came here yesterday and read the news of her sad passing. I am a million miles away on the other side of the world, and never met your wonderful daughter, yet I was inspired and touched by her every time I read this blog. Rosie was such an amazing and inspirational woman – much wiser than her years, and both she and TKOE will certainly continue make a difference! Thinking of you all xx
Dear Jo
I have been sitting here hooting with laughter at your blog and the images you create and then all the follow up stories from every one else! I love the picture you created of your cats with their nails painted – I always wanted to paint Bannock’s, our border terrier’s nails bright red but for some reason Kit, (my son objected). The tale of the parrot rang a bell then I realised that was my daughter Amy, writing!
Look at what you have achieved – lots of funny tales from your friends giving us all the opportunity to laugh whilst we are sad – thank goodness for the gift of laughter and thank you for your gentle humour and witty writing. You said before – life carries on – and so it does – but Rosie lives on in all the people who were connected with her in any way.
Jo – many have said it before – but you are part of an amazing family – sharing the joy and the pain you have gone through with us where ever we are in the world. Let all of us enjoy each day that we live and our contact with family and friends.
Today – you know you have – tomorrow you don’t know you will have.
Big sunny hug and love from Turkey to you and your family – Georgina xxxxx
(and thanks SO much for making us all laugh!!!!!!!)
I have been suffering exploding (plastic) bottles too! Unfortunately when I moved I didn’t have much room so decided my wardrobe was a nice dark place to store my elderflower champagne. I got home one evening and yes I had to wash the entire contents of my wardrobe!!
I then decided to take it to mum and dads, having left it safely in the utility room, em moved it into the kitchen to clean, and another bottle exploded covering every surface, I wasn’t there for that one but did get a grumpy text off mum!!