August for me was like a bad firework night - there were a few bright sparks, but the rest of it was like a dud roman candle - even worse as if it rained all the time.
September I have always liked, even as a child, going to a new term at school. I loved getting all my brand new exercise books and covering them with wallpaper or brown paper. The smell of the ink and polish and the scratchy collars of a new uniform shirt.
Many years later it was for my son, it was always about buying clothes slightly too big to allow him to grow as the term progressed. New shoes, new football boots, new plimsolls, new wellie boots - none of those could be bought bigger, but replaced every three months as he grew out of them.
At work it was the early start of the Autumn schedules, followed by Christmas, and stings (adverts) for the programmes to come, had to be made. I loved the smell of the electricity in the studios, getting lost in the countless circles of Television Centre, working deep into the night walking through corridors that lit up as you passed by to save energy.
Then there was the September that I married my husband, today 15 years ago in fact. We got married in Sulgrave House, George Washington's ancestral home, but more important to us a 17th Century House still with it's furniture and fittings and resident ghost!
This Anniversary is the first one that we've been apart during the day - we normally go somewhere - usually Lyme Regis or Tregenna Castle, but Andy used all his holidays up looking after me while I was ill. So he is at work and I'm at home doing paperwork and all the necessaries of life to keep a home going.
Tonight I will cook his favourite, melt in the mouth roast chicken and roast potatoes with green vegetables and we'll have fancy ice cream for dessert. I bought a film for us to watch Guardians of the Galaxy 2. So we can snuggle down together and pretend we've got to the weekend!
I wish I wasn't still deaf, I hate it. I can hear some things now in my left ear but my right ear is not working at all.
But this is all small beir when I think of those poor people suffering under Hurricane Irma.
I don't understand why scientists haven't invented something to reverse the pressure in the centre of the storm and dissapate it. Surely raising the low pressure in the eye would stop
it building into a twister. Only a theory, I know nothing much about this sort of thing. But if in the 1960s the Russians could seed clouds to make it rain - something could be done to stop these storms growing.
Anyway that's enough for now. Have a good weekend everybody and look after yourselves and each other.
Thursday, 7 September 2017
Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Molly
Here she is
Molly Polly Evans! A real little sweetheart from the RSPCA Cat rescue. She's fun and loves her new toys, and food and is getting used to Eddie - they've even had a sniff of noses at close quarters. We think she's about one year old and was found in a shed after having kittens.
Only two kittens survived and have been found homes.
She's going to be so loved and spoilt! and so is our Eddie below!
We will always miss Amber forever - in our hearts
Here are some of my other cats - loved and lost - although at much greater ages which somehow makes it easier to bear.
Sammy and his mum Sabrina - Sammy lived to 16 years Sabrina 18 years
Going Sealed Knotting? Me too!!
I know I had a moan in the last post about stuff, but I am so very very lucky to have what I have and be who I am. I have a lovely husband, a nice home, tiny but nice,and food on the table and have two lovely pets. I am not waist high in water having lost everything or in a war zone. I am so very very fortunate.
Wishing you all a good weekend, and all good things.xxx
My problems are nothing.
Only two kittens survived and have been found homes.
She's going to be so loved and spoilt! and so is our Eddie below!
Sammy and his mum Sabrina - Sammy lived to 16 years Sabrina 18 years
I know I had a moan in the last post about stuff, but I am so very very lucky to have what I have and be who I am. I have a lovely husband, a nice home, tiny but nice,and food on the table and have two lovely pets. I am not waist high in water having lost everything or in a war zone. I am so very very fortunate.
Wishing you all a good weekend, and all good things.xxx
My problems are nothing.
Thursday, 24 August 2017
Thursday
Starting to feel better at long last. Not crying now when I speak about my little boy lost. It's Thursday and it's been a very long week for me. I am still not completely well but parts of my hearing are starting to return along with shrill whistles and low tone.
It's been a strange year, a year of replacements, my car affectionately known as Ruby gave up the ghost in May and puttered into the garage to be exchanged for a super duper Mitsubushi 4x4 that was a few years old and very swish. Now known as Hi Ho Silver because of it's colour. Silver has a female voice and it's a shock when your car talks to you!
The caravan was crumbling away after many adventures and repairs, it was exchanged for a brand new one who, with us, had already had many adventures and repairs! The washing machine started to chew and grind the clothes and spit them out distastefully sopping wet and dirty, so we sourced a new Samsung that sings jolly tunes to me and speaks.
The tumble drier decided it had had enough and was replaced, luckily because of a recall.
Why does every appliance have to speak to you these days? I know sometimes I talk to the kettle on long days of writing, but my shiny copper kettle says nothing in return.
Although I complain about the chatty utilities, now I'm deaf I miss them!
So I look at the savings account that we both spent ages building up and we have £34 left.
Um.
We haven't had a proper holiday just a weekend here and there. Not just because of money - although the palliative care of my poor Amber came to over £750.
No. I have been ill and can't go out, the last time I did, I caught this baterial infection that dissolved my ear-drums. I hope they grow back properly.
Going to see a rescue cat about a year old with a striking resemblance to Amber, hoping this will help Eddie get over his miseries - and us. So even replacing my poor little cat.
Money is like the tide, it comes in and goes out, taking flotsam with it, and sometimes bringing in jetsam. Flotsam is what is accidentally lost from a boat and floats, Jetsam comes from jettison - goods thrown overboard to lighten the load - and this can be good stuff .
The Washing Machine is singing telling me it's finished and also to come and empty it
so I must go. I am pleased I can hear this even if it sounds like it's in the distance!
Today the sun is starting to shine and there is enough blue in the sky to make a sailor a pop sock, so perhaps, just perhaps things are starting to look up.
It's been a strange year, a year of replacements, my car affectionately known as Ruby gave up the ghost in May and puttered into the garage to be exchanged for a super duper Mitsubushi 4x4 that was a few years old and very swish. Now known as Hi Ho Silver because of it's colour. Silver has a female voice and it's a shock when your car talks to you!
The caravan was crumbling away after many adventures and repairs, it was exchanged for a brand new one who, with us, had already had many adventures and repairs! The washing machine started to chew and grind the clothes and spit them out distastefully sopping wet and dirty, so we sourced a new Samsung that sings jolly tunes to me and speaks.
The tumble drier decided it had had enough and was replaced, luckily because of a recall.
Why does every appliance have to speak to you these days? I know sometimes I talk to the kettle on long days of writing, but my shiny copper kettle says nothing in return.
Although I complain about the chatty utilities, now I'm deaf I miss them!
So I look at the savings account that we both spent ages building up and we have £34 left.
Um.
We haven't had a proper holiday just a weekend here and there. Not just because of money - although the palliative care of my poor Amber came to over £750.
No. I have been ill and can't go out, the last time I did, I caught this baterial infection that dissolved my ear-drums. I hope they grow back properly.
Going to see a rescue cat about a year old with a striking resemblance to Amber, hoping this will help Eddie get over his miseries - and us. So even replacing my poor little cat.
Money is like the tide, it comes in and goes out, taking flotsam with it, and sometimes bringing in jetsam. Flotsam is what is accidentally lost from a boat and floats, Jetsam comes from jettison - goods thrown overboard to lighten the load - and this can be good stuff .
The Washing Machine is singing telling me it's finished and also to come and empty it
so I must go. I am pleased I can hear this even if it sounds like it's in the distance!
Today the sun is starting to shine and there is enough blue in the sky to make a sailor a pop sock, so perhaps, just perhaps things are starting to look up.
Monday, 21 August 2017
Goodbye my little love
Wednesday, 16 August 2017
The best laid plans of Mice and Men and Margarets.....
Well it's been a time since I posted.
Why?
I have had a serious bacterial illness that left me unable to function and has left me deaf.
Came on like a strange headache, I was in the garden when it started to sway round me and I thought I was going to faint.
I nipped round the corner to the Doctors who luckily was in and had an emergency appointment, he looked me over and told me it was a one off. Probably tiredness.
The next day I was in excruiating pain all over my body and couldn't move, hubby took me to see Dr Edwards, a jolly hockeysticks kind of woman, skinny, fit, tanned, big white teeth and a mane like a horse.
"EEEhhh " she laughed, "Ear infection, it'll burn itself out you have blisters on your eardrum."
Later that night, the pain increased and I was crying in agony, it felt like a burning hot knife was being pushed into my ears, we rang 111 the emergency online doctor and they got us an appointment with the walk in centre at 11pm.
While we were waiting to see the Doctor, I heard loud popping in my ears as if someone was popping balloons or shooting a gun. Bang bang bang so loud my dear hubby could hear it sitting next to me.
Then my ears bled and seeped yellow goo. God it hurt, it really really hurt.
When it was our turn to go in, we saw a lovely Carribean woman doctor with pretty dreads and a lovely caring attitude, she took swabs from my ears and told me to ring my doctor and they could give me the appropriate anti-biotic as it was a bacterical infection.
The following day I couldn't stand up, I felt the room swirling around me, everything went dark. I was by now completely deaf, I sat down and felt like I was falling into a pit. I needed air so hubby took me into the back garden and I sat on a chair and screamed in agony and panic.
We visited a Doctor or emergency room every day for a week and nothing was stabilising, we had lots of advice that didn't work - Dr Edwards refused to get the swabs back for us as she thought there was no point, so the locum doctor did and I have a specific infection that can be cleared up by the antibiotic and I was also given anti dizzy tablets.
Dr Edwards told me not to take the antibiotics.
Now it's what three weeks later, I am deaf as a post, feeling bit better, can read, write my blog, do about ten mins of Facebook before I feel queasy - I'll know if I will hear again in another two weeks or so apparently.
Winston Graham wrote in one of his novels, "one day you can be fit, strong, planning for the future, and the next gone."
I'm not gone yet, I'm still fighting.
Why?
I have had a serious bacterial illness that left me unable to function and has left me deaf.
Came on like a strange headache, I was in the garden when it started to sway round me and I thought I was going to faint.
I nipped round the corner to the Doctors who luckily was in and had an emergency appointment, he looked me over and told me it was a one off. Probably tiredness.
The next day I was in excruiating pain all over my body and couldn't move, hubby took me to see Dr Edwards, a jolly hockeysticks kind of woman, skinny, fit, tanned, big white teeth and a mane like a horse.
"EEEhhh " she laughed, "Ear infection, it'll burn itself out you have blisters on your eardrum."
Later that night, the pain increased and I was crying in agony, it felt like a burning hot knife was being pushed into my ears, we rang 111 the emergency online doctor and they got us an appointment with the walk in centre at 11pm.
While we were waiting to see the Doctor, I heard loud popping in my ears as if someone was popping balloons or shooting a gun. Bang bang bang so loud my dear hubby could hear it sitting next to me.
Then my ears bled and seeped yellow goo. God it hurt, it really really hurt.
When it was our turn to go in, we saw a lovely Carribean woman doctor with pretty dreads and a lovely caring attitude, she took swabs from my ears and told me to ring my doctor and they could give me the appropriate anti-biotic as it was a bacterical infection.
The following day I couldn't stand up, I felt the room swirling around me, everything went dark. I was by now completely deaf, I sat down and felt like I was falling into a pit. I needed air so hubby took me into the back garden and I sat on a chair and screamed in agony and panic.
We visited a Doctor or emergency room every day for a week and nothing was stabilising, we had lots of advice that didn't work - Dr Edwards refused to get the swabs back for us as she thought there was no point, so the locum doctor did and I have a specific infection that can be cleared up by the antibiotic and I was also given anti dizzy tablets.
Dr Edwards told me not to take the antibiotics.
Now it's what three weeks later, I am deaf as a post, feeling bit better, can read, write my blog, do about ten mins of Facebook before I feel queasy - I'll know if I will hear again in another two weeks or so apparently.
Winston Graham wrote in one of his novels, "one day you can be fit, strong, planning for the future, and the next gone."
I'm not gone yet, I'm still fighting.
Monday, 31 July 2017
Plums!
Made about 2 kilos of plum jam, plum crumble, plum ice cream sauce, and have frozen loads to make sugar plums at Christmas. Life has been better and not just because of the multitunenous plums.
Garlic has been abundant, strawberries, blueberries are nearly there - pears and apples growing on apace. Sage, Chives, rosemary, fennel, oranges and grapes are all waiting for us. Our little garden is almost a totally edible experience. Apart from the grass yes - but that's for the goats!! We also use the roses,lavendar, nastursiums, curry plant, and the Bay leaves growing next to the sage. We have Aloe Veras by the score. Our freezer is full of cooked recipes from 1625 to 1940s to present date.
We have decided to move away - somewhere where we can grow and sell stuff- we seem to be good at it. I will still write & hubby still has to work, but we will look and see what we can find. It's given me a kind of peace knowing we're ready to move on.
We'll pot up as many plants as we can and take with us. I couldn't bear the thought of some-one chopping my lovely kitchen garden to bits to cover with cement - like the guy at the end house did with the little orchard in his garden - or the people next door who prefer paving to plants.
We'll take the blackberries, the rhubarb, the edible sunflowers and everything we can pack, after all, we brought them all here.
So I'm starting to look, peace and quiet to write, a big kitchen so I can cook, room for two cats and a dog and perhaps some chickens, and our garden. Who knows might even find a derilict castle!!
We have decided to move away - somewhere where we can grow and sell stuff- we seem to be good at it. I will still write & hubby still has to work, but we will look and see what we can find. It's given me a kind of peace knowing we're ready to move on.
We'll pot up as many plants as we can and take with us. I couldn't bear the thought of some-one chopping my lovely kitchen garden to bits to cover with cement - like the guy at the end house did with the little orchard in his garden - or the people next door who prefer paving to plants.
We'll take the blackberries, the rhubarb, the edible sunflowers and everything we can pack, after all, we brought them all here.
So I'm starting to look, peace and quiet to write, a big kitchen so I can cook, room for two cats and a dog and perhaps some chickens, and our garden. Who knows might even find a derilict castle!!
Monday, 3 July 2017
Hiatus
Well, I've already had a little break from the blog, but I'm going to have a week or so more to decide what I really want to do with my life.
I can't live in this house anymore, however beautiful I've made it, however fruitful and lush the garden has become. The Cotswolds are becoming claustophobic, every time I look round another field is being turned into houses. Little houses crammed on top of each other without a breathing space. Those who aren't moving are extending so the village is a constant thrumm of building machinery.
I remember the scree scree scree of the house martins as they sail across the summer sky. Now drowned out by diggers and pile drivers and the swearing of workmen wearing just shorts and a yellow armless jacket over massive beer bellies and tattooed legs.
If I lived in the middle of London for instance, jack hammers on the road, buses,heavy traffic and general noise would be something I had signed up for. Been there done that - moved for a quiet life. Not happening.
Today I'm particularly frustrated as I can't get out of my road. Blocked by builders vans and cars. Ask them you say?
Tried, apparently they're all deaf and I'm invisible.
Anyway time to have a think - if I can with the constant thumping in the road and the dog barking next door. I need to get out. Need to feel a breeze that doesn't contain brick dust and cement.
See you in a couple of weeks.
Keep well and safe,
I can't live in this house anymore, however beautiful I've made it, however fruitful and lush the garden has become. The Cotswolds are becoming claustophobic, every time I look round another field is being turned into houses. Little houses crammed on top of each other without a breathing space. Those who aren't moving are extending so the village is a constant thrumm of building machinery.
I remember the scree scree scree of the house martins as they sail across the summer sky. Now drowned out by diggers and pile drivers and the swearing of workmen wearing just shorts and a yellow armless jacket over massive beer bellies and tattooed legs.
If I lived in the middle of London for instance, jack hammers on the road, buses,heavy traffic and general noise would be something I had signed up for. Been there done that - moved for a quiet life. Not happening.
Today I'm particularly frustrated as I can't get out of my road. Blocked by builders vans and cars. Ask them you say?
Tried, apparently they're all deaf and I'm invisible.
Anyway time to have a think - if I can with the constant thumping in the road and the dog barking next door. I need to get out. Need to feel a breeze that doesn't contain brick dust and cement.
See you in a couple of weeks.
Keep well and safe,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)