Italian gave us these English words but note the intonation

My previous posts have looked at the Italian words which are easy to recogize from the similar words in English.  If you like music you know or can easily see that we get the English words diva and maestro, piano and solo and sonata and soprano from Italian.

But you can also look at English words to find the Italian. If you want words in everyday language there are plenty more. I looked down the list in Wikipedia to select my favourites.

 Union Jack English flags in the UK. The English word coffee and the Italian word Gelato. 

English - Italian

balcony - il balcone

graffiti - writing - plural

Italian sounds smoothe and sonorous, a pleasing sound, even to speakers of Spanish, a language which is very similar. Italian, like Japanese, ends words with a vowel. The Japanese turn hotel into hoteru. The Italian for hotel is albergo. To remember the Italian I think of a lodging for the a followed by the l. But if you go to an Italian ski resort you just walk around and see the word Albergo everywhere on big buildings with balconies, so you quickly learn it.

The word graffiti is a reminder that the letter i is used to show the masculine plural. The names Maria and Mario are the singular masuline and singular plural.

I now have two common words acting as reminder for the masculine plural, spaghetti, and graffiti. 

English Intonation

English has German intonation, stamping loudly on the first syllable. Think of the word kindergarten, from kinder, child, and garten, garden. That is also a reminder of how the letters t and d occur in almost the same word in different languages. 

The English name Victoria sounds like VicTORia.

But Italian sounds the last vowel or the penultimate (last but one). We recognise this when we say Maria as MarIa. So the word Trattoria does not sound like Victoria but like Maria. 

Hotel Balcony Safety - and Keys - Locked out, climbed balcony, died - prevention?

 

A hotel bedroom key with a large fob, from Spain in 2024. Photo by Angela Lansbury, Copyright

This happens too often. What could be done? 

Design balconies so you cannot climb from one to another, except as a fire escape beding bars to protect you from falling. Singapore makes cat owners install glass and/or barriers to stop cats jumping and killing themselves or people underneath so it is both practical and affordable. 

Secondly, all residents sharing a room should be allowed a second key, or told they can call reception for an escort with a pass key or show iD or give their home address to get the room key.

If a key has a large heavy fb, you cannot lose the key,, and it is more likely to be left back at reception.

Useful Website

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13899283/footballer-dies-fall-ibiza-hotel-balcony-door-locked-inquest.html

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Another balcony accident - time to redesign buildings, don't you think?

Yet another balcony 'accident'. Whether the student, fell, was pushed, or deliberately jumped, the death was preventable.

Let's have a gofundme for rewarding a contest to redesign buildings. 

A few ideas come into my mind. A stepped pyramid like new fangled residences built for the Habitat expo in Canada in the Sixties by Safdie. 

I heard that San Francisco windows are sealed shut. Because of earthquakes. To prevent falling glass, rather than jumping. But it prevented suicides.

People want to see out. So enclose balconies with glass. But what about escaping fires? Enclosed fire escapes. Spiral tubes.

Balcony Barriers

How about installing barriers? In Singapore if you live in a high rise block with a balcony and you get a cat you are required to erect a cat-proof barrier. The same should apply worldwide to children, drunks, students, people holding parties.

They now have suspended hammocks under bridges which were previously suicide spots. It can be done. Failing that, bushes and trees instead of solid concrete.

This is just to get you thinking, outside the box, in new ways. Students and architects should be set safer buildings designs as projects. 

After that we can move onto railway crossings with surveillance showing the passengers oncoming trains with stopping times, and the trains obstructions and fencing swimming pools and surveillance on swimming pools. 

Useful Websites

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12637419/texas-university-student-died-floor-dorm-fall.html#comments

https://www.balconydecoration.com/balcony-safety-nets-protective-equipments-for-balconies/

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Queen's Platinum Jubilee: Trooping the Colour parade, military pageant t...

From global News. Starts with the soldiers on horseback, the guards in red unionf with high fur hats (now synthetic), the queen in pale blue on the balcony with a tall man who resembles Prince Phlip. It ends with planes flying in formation fanning out to make the number 70, then Finally, a flypast of planes with tail lines of red, white and blue. 

Useful Websites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4530KCYg9WQ

Did you miss the Jubilee? Where to find photos

 

We missed the Jubilee in London. We were away in Cyprus. 

However, when we came back I found three sources of information.

1 Street flags

 The bunting (string of small flags) of Union Jacks was still up at the Tonito Italian restaurant in Hatch End. Our street party had photos.

Wetherspoons pub in Hatch End had two big flags flying over their entrance.

2 Our street party and street organizers had photo of their event at one of our neighbours' homes.

3 The President of the online only Toastmasters Club, Singapore International Dynamic, Edward, lives in Belize. He sent me photos of the Jubileee of the little boy (the grandson) making faces.

4 Leftovers at home - Union Jack paper napkins used by family who had been in the UK.

Useful Websites

You tube trooping the colour with red guards on horses in front of Buckingham Palace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4530KCYg9WQ

The Rodon (Rose) Hotel in Agros, Cyprus had the best baklava

Angela Lansbury on the balcony of a bedroom at Rodon Hotel, Cyprus. Photo by Trevor Sharot

We stayed at the Rodon hotel in the Troodos mountains in the centre of Cyprus for a walking, and hiking holiday. The name Rodon means rose in Greek.

The Rodon Hotel and my rosy view of it

We were a group of 16 (Java Lava in exile) in about 12 rooms so we had to stay in a large hotel and the Rodon Hotel is the largest in the area. Oddly, it is given only three stars, although we thought it deserved four. The hotel has a large free parking area in front. 

Swimming Pool

At the back, in theory two outdoor swimming pools - the lower one being the best, curvy and cool but warm once you start swimming. (The upper pool was small, square, had a few leaves on it, and the adjoining small indoor pool was being renovated.) I also noticed a small gym.

Bedrooms

The balcony overlooked the mountains, trees and car park.

Our first bedroom was short of power point sockets, needed by two people. They gave us an extension board. 

However, we transferred to a larger suite, which cost more, about 20 Euros more. 

Toiletries

The toiletries provided were just two kinds, shower gel and shampoo, plus a shower cap. We bought a bottle of hair conditioner in the supermarket just around the s-bend mountain road, within walking distance. The suite did not have more kinds of toiletries than the plain bedrooms.

Towelling backless bathroom slippers were hidden in a drawer under the safe.

Beautiful Buffet

The buffet was great, a huge choice. The meats consisted of three or four choices such as chicken in sweet and sour sauce, two more meats such as beef or lamb and pork, meatballs, and what the serving person said was a Cypriot speciality - ground beef (I call it mincemeat) in tomato sauce. 

Breads included seeded rolls, white or brown bread, one with seeds on the edge, or plain. (At breakfast time a toaster.) 

Vegetables and Salads

Assorted hot vegetables included potatoes and rice or pasta. 

Two to four salads. We had three or four dips for starters, such as hummous, tahini, yogurt. 

Drinks. A cold water machine. A coffee machine. 

Delicious Desserts

Best of all were the desserts. Two kinds of mini mousse such as chocolate or vanilla. A jelly or two, green or red. Three or four kinds of Cypriot Greek sweet desserts such as baklava, or cake with coconut topping.

Drinks

Waiter service for drinks you wanted to order and pay for, such as Prosecco. All over Cyprus, no problem if a large group all wanted to order different drinks or food. In hotels, they took each person's or couple's or family\s room number. They put your bill for that order in a drinking glass. You signed for it. You paid on checking out of the hotel.

At lunch places, they gave each diner in turn a number. So when the food arrived, you got what you ordered. When you paid, they knew that number one ordered this and that, and checked it with you.

Fruit

Plus orange oranges, green or red apples, yellow bananas. Cut fruit was half moon shapes of red watermelon with a green rind. Also a yellow or green sliced melon. It would be easy to over-eat.

Breakfast

At breakfast we had boiled eggs, fried eggs, or scrambled egg, ham or processed meat, bacon, sausages and mini frankfurters, flat triangles of cheese. Fruits. Yogurt and cereals and nuts and sultanas and dates. Mini croissants, not flaky but with pleasantly chewy centres. Good enough. Yellow cake dotted with dried fruit in green and red colours. Miniature marble cake in plain and chocolate. 

Rose Shopping and Waterfall Walking

I shall describe the rose factory which is in walking distance, and the walk to the waterfall in other posts.  

Useful Websites

https://www.booking.com/hotel/cy/rodon-mount-and-resort.en-gb.html?aid=311076&label=rodon-mount-and-resort-

Visit The free Botanical Gardens - and grow Orchids On A Balcony in Singapore - An Ex-pats Delight

 

Photo by Angela Lansbury

Orchid represent elegance and fertility in Chinese New Year, which is February 1st in 2022, but the gifts are already in supermarkets worldwide.

In London, I can buy orchids in all colours from Tesco. They sit on the kitchen windowsill.

In Singapore, I rescued this plant from a dump in a condominium. The plant had sat, abandoned, forlorn, unwanted, beside the rest of the discarded trash beside a huge bin. It was just a little bamboo-like twig in a pot in dry earth. 

I thought, the pot will come in handy. 

Upstairs, I washed the outside of the pot. I carried it onto the balcony. I didn't want to make a mess. So I left the old soil there. Now wet.

I asked my husband to fetch a bag of potting soil from a garden centre. Nothing special. The cheapest soil. 

He went there on his motorbike. If you don't have a means of transport, some garden centres will deliver heavy items.

For a couple of days, as I watered everything else, the new pot got a sprinkle, an accidental share of the shower. Then, up popped a teeny green shoot. 

I watered it deliberately. And it grew leaves. 

Imagine my surprise when, a few weeks later, it grew white buds. They grew larger and larger. Finally, one opened out. marvellous magenta. Then another. 

We counted the two flowers and the buds. We had nine. We were expecting nine. Like proud parents.

They all opened out to vibrant magenta orchids. I stood next to them for photos.

Angela with magenta orchids on a balcony in Singapore. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

After they died, the plant went back to looking dull. It took up space on the balcony. My family threatened to de-clutter and throw it out. (Now I knew why the poor plant had been discarded by the previous owners.)

"No, no, no!" I cried. "That's an orchid!" 

It had to be watered daily, like all the other plants in hot and humid Singapore.

For a while nothing happened. We bought a big bag of soil to plant a new cutting we had been given. I decided to use some of the leftover soil to top up my existing plants with extra soil to give them a boost of nutrition. 

I don't know whether the supplementary soil helped. But it looked good, and could not have done any harm.

Eventually the dormant orchid woke up and grew white pods again. This time we knew what to expect.

Here is our second or third show. Aren't they lovely!

You can buy orchid plants from garden centres. 

Singapore Botanical Gardens

Also in Singapore from shops in The Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Gardens are free, but The orchid section makes a charge. Well worth visiting once to take photos of the plants and yourself with them. 

See the national flower of Singapore, the Miss Joaquim orchid. It was first seen, or grown in her garden, so the story goes.

Vanda Mis Joaquim from Wiki.

Thatcher

If you are from the UK, or interested in British history, you might be interested in seeing that there is a Mrs Margaret Thatcer orchid. The name Thatcher is from a person who used thatch, or straw on houses. How appropriate.

If you travel a lot and cannot water your orchids, or entrust a neighbour or family member to do so, you can buy artificial orchids on Amazon for under 5 dollars, plus postage.

Useful Websites

UK

https://houseplant.co.uk/plants-by-type/orchids-dendrobium-cymbidum-phalaenopsis

Singapore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_Botanic_Gardens

Singapore and worldwide

https://www.amazon.sg/s?k=orchid+plants&s=price-asc-rank

UK

Orchids from about 30 pounds reduced from 40 in January 2022 - add delivery charge?

The Author

About the Author Angela Lansbury

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

 

Food and Fun At the Jewish Harvest Festival - Fruit-Filled Canopy for Sukkoth Sept 20-27, 2021

 

This photo shows the traditionally bearded chief rabbi of Jerusalem in a sukkah. On the table are bottled juices and sweetmeats. The cloth walls have been decorated with paintings and streamers.

Another view of a sukkah shows the fabric wall, the wooden ceiling open to the sky, suspended electric lights, coloured lanterns, pictures of grapes, hanging and green fronds and paper chains.

Jewish Sukkoth - UK

Also following the lunar calendar, the Jewish festival of Sukkoth, celebrated at homes and synagogues in Israel, Jewish northwest London (where Anne Frank's father retired post WW2) and the USA. Some neighbours and synagogues will invite nearby communities to see and join in, welcoming all comers of all religions. 

I went to a Sukkah ceremony held at the back of Northwood & Pinner synagogue in Northwood. They had invited members of the next door church. 

I also visited a sukkah at the back of the home of neighbours in Hatch End, Pinner. 

Sukkah in London, England, built in the back garden against the house wall, with real greenery which has taken hours to install, a base of flowers, and citrus fruit and etrug. Photo by Angela Lansbury. 

Later in 2020 I was invited to a dinner in the Sukkah of a house in Finchley.

The sukkah is just like the booths you see built in India where a guardian sleep to watch over the gathered in crops.

See Sukkahs in Israel

A Sukkah on a rooftop in Jerusalem. Photo from Gilabrand in Wikipedia under Sukkah.

In Israel you can see the balconies of apartment blocks have a sukkoth. The only regulation being that the temporary structure must be open to the sky. That means if your balcony is immediately under another, you can't have a sukkah.

A place with lots of apartment blocks with balconies is Tel Aviv which has wonderful Bauhaus buildings - German fore-runner of art deco in the UK, France, and Italy.

What is a Sukkah?

The sukkah is a lattice with suspended fruits and ferns and greenery and nowadays plastic baubles like a Christmas tree. Expect a drink of fruit juice or wine, some fruits and or food and a quick prayer or blessing as you stand around or an entire service over a dinner table. 

The structure are called a sukkah. The festival is sukkot (Hebrew), or sukkas (Yiddish which is North and East European, German with a few words of Hebrew or Russian or Polish or the ancestor's language.

You can buy a sukkah kit. Ask or pay somebody to build you one. Build it yourself. Look in newspapers and on local websites to find an event. Ask friends and family.

Useful Websites

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/uk/sukkot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot

About the author

What grows easily? Aloe vera in Singapore

Angela's aloe vera. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

 That may depend on whether your garden or balcony is in sun or shade. I can tell you two plants which I have found grow prolifically. One survives four seasons. Rosemary. 

The other thrives in the tropics, rain or drought. Aloe vera. A succulent. It can grow without soil, so it used to be known as the plant of immortality.

London, England, UK - Rosemary

I bought a rosemary plant at a garden centre. I took sprigs off it. I planted six. Four of them took. They grew huge.

Over in tropical Singapore I found another prolific plant. A succulent. It's name comes from Arabic for shining bitter and Latin for true.

Singapore - Aloe Vera

My giant aloe vera was a cutting from a friend. I asked her what it was. She gave me a small cutting.

Aloe vera grows baby plants alongside the first one.  (The technical term is offsets.) One website I looked at said plant it in a shallow wide pot so it has room to grow sideways.

I wanted to re-pot the smaller ones because they were crowding out the first one.  I had spare pots to fill. 

I wore gardening gloves for protection. But most gardening gloves protect your hands oand not your forearms.

I put off doing so because they are so spiky. I cut off the spikes at the tip of each leaf. However, you are in danger of cutting your forearms as you reach through the plant..

Also I thought it would be a big job fighting to separate the roots. To my amazement the smaller ones lifted out with one gentle pull.

I now have several small ones. SUCCESS.

Aloe vera, small ones transplated. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Can you eat it?

 One person said you need to remove the skin first. But the skin is spiky to handly. Alternatively, aim to remove the centre. You might want to wash the outside first. And wear clean protective gloves. 

You can mix it into smoothies. If it tastes bitter you may have to add (rock) sugar. The Singaporeans add pandan which is a green leaf which I find rather bland. As the Japanese say, subtle. Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloe_vera

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offset_(botany)

About the Author

Angela Lansbury teacher of English (advanced and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, aspiring polyglot.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Common rock thrush Calling, Lissen Birds - Natural Birds Voice, Bird Nat...

In London the busiest birds in our garden are the four magpies, a couple of parakeets, the occasional robin, some wood pigeons or collared doves, and a very busy woodpecker, pecking away, plus a blue jay.

In Singapore, we recorded a bird singing on a balcony. We set the camera up on a tripod, focused on the balcony railing. At first we were too far away to get the bird in focus and the song loud enough to hear. We gradually moved the camera nearer and nearer.

We do have a remote clicker to operate the clicker. But it is designed to take you own photo or yourself with a group and the camera facing you. No good for the camera facing away from you.

We looked online to see cameras you can set up.

In Singapore we have always had plenty of birds. Singapore is a garden city. The palm trees and high trees abound, keeping birds way above the ground. Birds can fly from balcony to balcony.

Cats
What about cats? Yes, there are cats. If you have a balcony, you can only keep cats if the balcony is copletely railed so the cats cannot jump over.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

How to Choose Backgrounds for your videos

Back in the good old days before COVID-19 I was out every night at Toastmasters meetings.

Now I am online several times a week, sometimes at two overlapping meetings, talking to people all around the world.


Singapore Online club. you can see that plain backgrounds are effective. 

Were you thinking of creating a video indoors - or outdoors? both have their advantages. Let's start with indoors - including a backdrop creating the illusion of outdoors.

I have watched several videos of people giving speeches in club and area contests with distracting backgrounds. First, a background of a bed topped by clothes. , a distracting clock in another time zone from mine, a whirring ceiling fan in the centre giving the impression that the speaker is Harry The Helicopter.

Not to mention the mother or husband bringing in a hot drink of plate of food, the granny or maid limping up the corridor behind and then disappearing into room two, reappearing in the corridor with a bag of washing, going off to room three.

Others have had toddlers demanding cuddles or climbing onto their lap, grinning or even singing. One contest convener specified that the person manning the cameras must be single with no family nor pets in the same room or dwelling causing distractions.

To create the illusion that you are in San Francisco by the Golden Gate Bridge, or on an exotic beach, you simply pick one of the four optional backgrounds provided in Zoom and ManyCam. 

(What's this? Think of it as many cameras. The illusions of extra backgrounds projected from another camera.) 

This works best if you have a screen. You can buy green screens in various sizes. 

Wall backgrounds

You could alternatively sit with your back to a big blank white wall, a white screen in an office or school. 

If your study has a filing cabinet or pictures on the walls, this ruins the effect. Consider having a picture to match the subject of your video, or a series of posters. You can print them from your computer, including your own holiday or trip photos.

If your printer only takes A4 size paper, you can still make a larger print to look bigger or more impressive or be seen or to cover what is behind.

You need to divide the photo you are using into two or four or eight, or even more. Stick them very neatly together with no mis-alignments nor black edges nor undulating edges nor projections where corers match at the edge.

You need to find somewhere to suspend a sheet

I needed a green screen for my Braddell Heights Advanced online meeting (Wed evening 7 pm join us on Learncool.sg) so I went through all my sheets until I found a plain green colour. 

That was a long job because, having taken out all tangled sheets, I folded it all neatly, moved the pillowcases into drawers to reduce the pile, and moved a white board over the right hand drawers in the wardrobe to overhand and create two tiers in what was previously a full length hanging space.

1

• 

  David  Angela, nicely done! And how is the green screen working for you?

  • 
    
  •  · Reply
  •  
• 

  Angela Lansbury I shall tell you after tonight's meeting. Thanks for the reminder. I'll try it out. 
• Joke: Just getting out of this green dress. 
• One way to be a ghost, wear the same colour as the background. Some of the old magic tricks involved wearing black clothes and using a black curtain. If you turn your back, or cover your face with a black cloth, you disappear.
• The same applies to any other colour. Make sure you are not wearing the same colour as your background.
• Finally OUTDOORS

PARK

• If you have no suitable background at home, your home is untidy and you wish to give advice on tidying, or don't want to reveal your collection of gold bars and antiques to the tax office, the burglars and the person you are divorcing, go out into the nearest park or garden. (COVID-19 in your country or state or area permitting.) 
• Plants such as palm trees look exotic if you are in Florida, or Singapore, or even gardens in London have palm trees. Walk up and down your nearest street or search on google earth.

On the other hand, you might wish to do the reverse, conceal your local palm trees and pretend you are in London, or on a ski slope in the snow. 

• BALCONY
• You could also stand on a balcony. Even in a bathroom or toilet against the door or wall (American with all the fittings such as door handles and taps hidden by potted plants or hanging plants or the portable green screen.
• No green screen? 
  1
  • I have used a golfing umbrella. If you are holding it in one hand you have only one hand to touch your screen and record or stop recording.
• Golfing umbrella. - indoors or out
• You could also try a golfing umbrella. It tends to fall sideways.
• SHEET
•  I needed a green screen for my Braddell Heights Advanced online meeting (Wed evening 7 pm join us on Learncool.sg) so I went through all my sheets until I found a plain green colour. Having taken out all tangled sheets, I folded it all neatly, moved the pillowcases into drawers to reduce the pile, and moved a white board over the right hand drawers in the wardrobe to overhand and create two tiers in what was previously a full length hanging space.
• I reported this in the media

• 

  David Levy Angela, nicely done! And how is the green screen working for you?

  • Like
  •  · Reply
  •  · 13h
• 

  Angela Lansbury I shall tell you after tonight's meeting. Thanks for the reminder. I'll try it out. Just getting out of this green dress. One way to be a ghost, wear the same colour as the background propped up.

• 
  
• Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.

  See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

  
  

  Please share links to your favourite posts.

  If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club, Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England. I am also a member of Singapore Online. 

How to grow fruit, herbs and plants to eat on a balcony, patio or windowsill

Rosemary
Rosemary is cheap to buy from a garden centre, or a supermarket, or ask a neighbour.

In the UK my greatest success was with the herb rosemary.

Watering
You are suposed to water them. If you are watering anyway, good. If not, and you keep doing this, every day, or every time you pick rosemary to go on roast lamb, one day you will be lucky and the rain will do the job for you.

Apples
All the gardens on a housing estate had been plated with apple and pear trees. However isolated you were, if you were stuck in snow, or down with the flu, at least you had an apple a day throughout the winter.

Then we moved to Singapore. New climate. Living in a condo. The estate had allotments but we never managed to locate the person allocating them. We had a balcony. In fact, three balconies. One on the living room. A second smaller one by the bedroom. A third utility area in shade containng a washing machine at the back.

I visited a friend's apartment in another condo. She had every blacony filled like sardines with flower pots. More all around everywhere. Teeny cacti on the tiny windows at the tops of showers. flower pots on brackets on an inside wall over the piano. A jungle. A graden centre. Made our bare balconies look bare.




In Singapore the greatest success has been aloe vera. It was abandoned the first time for three week or nearly a month, we returned to find not the dead aloe vera we had feared to find, but a defiant doubled in size monster. It even had a baby aloe vera gowing innocently at the far end of the trough.

'Orange' tree
My second success was with what I thought was a miniature orange tree. It was identified by a local garden centre as lime. It certainly tasted bitter.

We loved our cheerful little 'oranges'.

We thought about it and commented that the oranges were bitter like Seville oranges used to make marmalade. Ah - marmalade. We used our 'oranges' to make marmalade, with one large ordinary supermarket orange added to the mixture.

That was in November 2019. By March 2020 the little tree has its second crop.

If I had more money than time, I would invest in buying a set of three miniature fruit trees in pots from a garden centre. These are sold online for delivery in the UK, and other countries. Whichever country your laptop or ipod or phone is operating in, you are likely to get ads for the same country.

But you can try planting seeds from the fruit you eat. Why grow them in water in the kitchen before planting them out? To be sure a keen gardener does not pull out the tiny shoots thinking they are weeds. Use a wooden lolly stick or improvised flag to alert yourself and anybody else that a shoot alongside is not a weed from seeds blown in or dropped by birds but a deliverately planted vegetable.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8151513/How-grow-vegetables-balcony-plant-what.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed

Why You Should Plant Pots & Gardens Overseas: USA, UK, Singapore, Worldwide

Grapes, gorgeous grapes. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Grapes grown in England.


I know several people who grow grapes in their gardens.

UK Wine & Dine Groups
If you belong to a wine and dine group in the UK which meets at people's homes you often start your dinner in daylight at a table in the garden and if you arrive early, whilst waiting for latecomers you can ask to see the flowers and fruit and trees and plants.

Inspiration
On one such occasion I admired the vine leaves which had draped themselves over the fence and back of the outside of the conservatory and house so much that I asked if we could have one, or more, in our back garden in London. When you see what can be gown locally, you can also ask the gardener, who may be the householder, whether the plants do well in light or shade, how long they take to produce edible fruit.

Growing For The Future
Plant even if you are planning to leave. Because your stay might get extended.

Singapore
My family went to Singapore on a two-year contract (for the rental flat). We stayed there ten years. If only I had started growing at the start! I discovered that aloe vera is easy to grow.


Growing Vines In The UK
Growing vines in the UK. created more work than I had expected. First a space was cleared in the garden and along the fence for the back row. No point growing just enough grapes for half a bottle of wine. Grow more than one variety to find out what you like and what grows best. the wine makers usually blend two or three varieties of grapes for good reason. Some grapes produce a bigger crop in a particular year. The sweet can counteract the sour and sharp.

We had to buy stakes and dig holes. (We is the royal we. It means my husband. I was just providing advice which was not welcomed by the one who was doing the work and trips to the shops and  ordering. Lesson learned. Do not give advice until asked, or the other person has agreed to listen to your suggestions.)

As soon as the grapes appear, so do the birds. You rush out to buy netting.

Next year you have netting. The first year is the most work and the most cost.

Singapore
In Singapore where a relative of mine has been renting a flat in a condo, I got talking to a local lady in the swimming pool. She invited us to her flat to see all the plants growing on her balcony and gave us a couple of cuttings and sent photos.

If you are an expat, plant a pot on the windowsill or balcony, or garden. It will be a conversation opener with anybody anywhere.

Indonesia
In Indonesia many expats and local people employ drivers, or cooks, or housekeepers or gardeners. When friends from overseas come to stay, it's easy to pop out to the back garden for fresh fruit and vegetables. If you are not a keen gardener, you can get an employee to do the gardening.

I have had two disappearing fruit experiences. If somebody has driven over to my house to visit me, especially if I have not baked a cake, I feel obliged to give in to their requests for fruit.

On one occasion, a friend asked if she could have some of my fruit. I said yes, She took all of it. She said just enough for a pie. She never brought me any pie on her next visit. When she asked for more fruit I said no I was making a pie and there was only enough fruit for one pie.

On another occasion a friend asked for some fruit from my apple tree. I thought he would take one bag. He filled about twenty bags, my entire year's crop.

If they are allowed to keep some of the crop they will be extra keep. Specify how much they can keep, ten percent, 50 percent, not 100 or you could find nothing there when you need it, and they spend all their time growing crops to feed the family and sell whilst drawing a salary from you and neglecting all other work. You might prefer to decide which items they can have after selecting what you want to eat and store.


USA
When I lived in flats and town houses in the USA I did not do this. I was too busy with my career, writing books, and travelling, and looking after our son.

However, now that I am semi-retired I have revived my interest in growing plants. My husband's interest in growing a vine to make wine has made him more interested in which plants you can grown.

On a wet day, or when you are too tired or jet-lagged to go shopping, it's handy to have some fresh fruit growing.

UK
In London, when we had a bumper crop, we saved apples on trays from microwave meals, covered to protect the fruit from possible bird or insect or rat droppings. As the saved crop increased, we found more and more space, on shelving, above a fridge and washing machine. When we ran out of space or had to cut bad parts out of an apple, the apple flesh could be cooked to a pulp and put in labelled bags in the freezer with a use by date. I thought of making apple juice ice cubes.

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