Can I be someone else today please?

 I have been extremely unmotivated today.  Haven't wanted to do anything.  I had to force myself to go for a walk this morning, and even then made it half an hour instead of 3/4 hr as I had no energy.  It's been quite muggy out too, which doesn't help.  Yet last night I was watching stuff on Instagram - daft clips of people falling over on ice, being chased by cows, chickens etc and there was one of goats on a greenhouse roof - they lost their footing - and I was laughing till I cried!  The being chased by chickens reminded Gabby and I of when we had a small bantam cockerel called Grotty Cock (after a Yorkshire friend's version of the same temperament, who ended up as a pie).  He came as a freeby when I first started keeping hens - did I want some chickens?  They came in boxes and turned out to be all small bantam cockerels . . . too small to eat.  One in particular took a real dislike to Danny after he pretended to be a cockerel up in the copse.  He must have been convincing as the cockerel chased him all the way across the paddock and ripped a hole in his wellie heel with his beak or spurs.  After that it would wait for Danny to get out of the school taxi at the gate, so we had to go out and chase the wretched thing off so Danny could get indoors safely.  He soon went on a little car trip up the valley, where we gave him his freedom to terrorize local foxes . . .

Anyway, after my walk today, I came home, read my paper, did my puzzles from it and had a nap.  I got some meat out (unmarked - pork?) for tea, but now it's thawed, I can see it has freezer burn, so that's for bunging now.  Giant fishfingers it will be then . . .

I needed to make two cakes for tomorrow - one as a thankyou and one as a gift.  One's a Lemon Drizzle cake and the other a Windfall Apple Cake.  I had to go out for more eggs before getting the lemon drizzle under way.

My tummy has been painful too, calling for a Panadol.  Trying to think of the positives today.  I have been out to admire the three big clumps of plants my local friend Pam donated yesterday (she had them growing under a tree and they weren't happy).  They are Leucanthemum "Banana Cream".  They are big daisy type flowers and we've put them in on the bank - Pam, bless her, dug the holes for them after I'd cleared the area.  I had a good cut back of Monbretia, Fennel, etc etc yesterday.  So that was a positive in itself.

I am debating whether or not to bother going to the last Malvern of the year next month.  Seems an unnecessary expenditure tbh as I only have the small December fair after that.  Right now, I am all for drawing a line under everything, but that may well change when I haven't been anywhere all winter.  We will see.  With diesel at £1.99 a litre now, I am going to have a hit in the next few days - yet more fuel to put in for my journey tomorrow and Tam's later in the week.  I can't afford an actual day out just for me, not really.  I have been very short on those since my holiday in the spring.

Tomorrow I have my other chiro session, and patchwork, and catch up with Carms. Pam, which will be lovely.  One of the cakes is for her.

Jay-walking chickens on my walk the other day.

Back to reading Evil Under the Sun, though I think I have twigged who the murderer was already . . .

Today's podcast on my walk, was a Dan Snow one about Stamford Bridge.

So, what came home with me?

 Not a lot. Cheap things for the little Fair where they have deep pockets and short arms.   I stopped at the Railway Line garden centre on the way home, so I could look for a Fuschia to replace Pam's which I managed to finish off (falling apples had broken off two branches).  I trod on the last and broke it off at the roots.  I also bought myself a pack of 6 beautiful autumn Cyclamens to help dress my stand at the little Fair.  Three of them will look lovely in the French copper fish kettle I have.

This has been voted not just the best Garden Centre in Wales, but the best in the UK (Supreme Award given by the Garden Centre Association).  It isn't that cheap, but not the priciest either (that award probably goes to one the other side of Hereford that I stopped at - just the once - and saw clematis which normally sell elsewhere for £14.99 at most, £7 dearer!!  

Temptation beyond endurance!!!

Speaking to a friend who was in one of the Front Buildings at Builth and she had a dreadful time with few sales as people looking in the door, seeing it half empty, and walking away.  She is thinking about slumming it in the back sheds next time . . .

This is for my collection of old and obscure bits.  This has an open tongue layer, to stop a horse getting its tongue over the bit (that doesn't help control!)

This spoke to me - simple design, but no maker's mark on the bottom.  WIll hopefully appeal to the modern home owner.

Three porcelain cats, German, marked 1885.  The exact thing on Worthpoint, but you have to pay a chunk to join that.

Teddy or dolly chair.

A Victorian/early 20th C Dairy cream skimmer.

A couple of other things came back with me but as I said, nothing really appealed or was the right price.

I need to go out for a short walk now to keep my hip mobile.  That said, the sofa is already beckoning . . . 

Running on empty

 I set two alarms last night - my clock and my mobile.  In the event I didn't need them.  I went to bed at 8.30 and read for a bit, slept until midnight, and that was IT for the night.  I got hot and of course the more I moved around the bed, the hotter I got.  At 4.50 I checked the clock yet again, and just got up and got myself sorted to go and was out of the house inside of an hour.  The first half of the journey was in the dark, and I don't enjoy night-time driving.  I took it steady and didn't listen to a podcast as I needed to concentrate.

I think my being tired didn't help me buying.  I really didn't find much to interest me.  Some nice things there, but shop price.

Various doors, a water pump and a modern penny farthing bicycle . . .

This made me smile :)

Every stall seemed so very random . . .

This is the stand of the chap that buys up everything dirt cheap at an auction I've been to a couple of times.  (He isn't in the picture).

An interesting cart saddle - European I think.

I think everyone was trying to clear old stock.

A quilt.  The only others I saw were a couple of crappy hexagon ones.

Above and below, our friend A's stall.  Love the little child container (seat) on wheels.  We had a similar one years ago - thought it would fly out as it was so different, but it nearly ended up as firewood!

This lady has a lot of French stuff too.

I didn't buy much.  I was pretty disappointed by what was on offer and wondered why am I here at all?  I wouldn't have missed much if I had just turned the alarms off and gone back to sleep.  I clocked up 10,000+ steps and now my hip is complaining.  I did the few bits of shopping I needed for the week, spending £18 in Tesco in Ledbury.  I need to save fuel where I can as I have quilting group on Weds and the Chiro in the morning before it, and then am going to Tam's next week too.

So now I shall settle down and have an early night.  

A definite improvement, and patchwork

 

I am relieved to report that my stye is a lot less inflamed - I have changed to a thicker eye gel rather than drops at night - a bit like putting a slug in but it lasts all night and keeps the eye from drying.  In the day, I am using drops too, both ones Gabby got for me as samples.  OK, I wake up in the morning with my eyes feeling like they have had vaseline smeared all around them - just like we used to do when we were showing my friend's part-bred Arab horses, when we put Vaseline around their eyes and on their muzzles.  Oh and sprayed their coats with Pledge furniture polish to really make them shine!!

The yellows are actually deeper than they appear here.  They will hopefully tie in when I start putting them together.  The butterfly print is too wan.  

It rained hard this morning.  I polished the kitchen table and a couple of Windsor chairs, and did some work on the curtains.  It's a start anyway.

No sign of my neighbours but their cars aren't there so they have popped out somewhere.  Update - caught up with them and have met Sam's girlfriend.  She's lovely.

I've just been down at Pam's helping her pick the apples from the tallest branches - the biggest apples of course.  Now I have lots to lay down for autumn and winter.

Now a quick meal and do my rolls for tomorrow.  Pastrami, with a small container of chopped salad.

Enjoy your weekend.

A Scary Day and an Update

 I decided I would try and get an appointment with my Optician yesterday, as the soreness from the stye I had 6 weeks ago still hadn't totally gone away.  She was very thorough and used a dye and checked it with her opthalmic machine.  I had two options - ignore it, and wait for it to heal, or I could spend £10 on a heating mask that you put in the microwave.  I chose the latter.

As I was driving home, my phone went.  It was the Optician.  I pulled over and phoned back.  She was writing up my notes she said, and she went to check her Big Book of Eyes . . . she was going to get an emergency appointment for me at the Hospital at Hereford, as she just wanted them to thoroughly check my eyelid just in case it was Squamous Cell Cancer.  She said she was 95% sure that I had just had a stye, because of the pus it had produced, but clearly she wanted to do due diligence . . .

Tiny catkins on the Hazel bushes.  A sign of hope . . . there will be a spring after all.

Needless to say, this hit me like a brick and I spent the evening trying not to think about it.  95% chance it wasn't, but still a teensy chance it was . . . We all take our health so much for granted.  Problems with limbs I can deal with, but anything to do with internal giblets or eyes/mouth etc, not so easy to think about . . . 

Much sewing today I think, to take my mind off it . . .  

A helpful little Pippi Cat . . .  I have to move from my place on the sofa so she can snuggle down beside or behind me!

Update:  I have an appt. to go to Outpatients early in October for an eye check with a consultant.  Not long to wait and not as far to go as Hereford, as it will be in Llandod.  That doesn't sound so worrying.

I have guests tomorrow - part-time neighbour and good friend Sam is bringing his girlfriend up to meet me.  I have galloped round with the vacuum, deep cleaned the bathroom, and baked two Chocolate Courgette Cakes (BBC Good Food recipe).  I have had a still warm slice and it is GOOD.  My friend Ann will get a slice on Sunday when I go to Malvern.

Postal deliveries too - a new (half price) sweat shirt from Cotton Traders, and my two yellow fabrics from The Cotton Patch.  A little brighter than yellows used but one is virtually the same pattern (which is like a little darker shadow) and I think they will tie in nicely.  

I have had my dehumidifier on this week as Tam was telling me last weekend I needed to as it had been so humid, and I had to empty it this morning. A container full of water.  So she was right . . .

My walk today was up to my horsey neighbour and my back/hip coped with the steady slope up there.  I was fed up with the same flat walk along the old railway line.

Now it's time to sit down with a cup of Earl Grey, my new library book (Agatha Christie's Evil Under the Sun) and an ice pack on my lower back.  

What happened to Pope (Popess!) Joan . . .

 

I had a bit of a wasted journey to Carmarthen yesterday, as I wanted to close my account with Nationwide and can only do that by going in person to their office.  I found out it is shut on a Wednesday . . .  So I will have to combine it with another journey south-westwards.  I allowed myself the luxury of going into Waterstones bookshop, but just had a quick look round the history/archaeology section and didn't indulge myself.  Then I popped a Welcome to your New Home card through Danny's front door (he was at work) and went to friend Pam's for lunch and a natter.

You can see what I was up to at my Patchwork class.  I am afraid I was cursing the lady who made this quilt as she used the TINIEST machine stitch to stich-in-the-ditch quilt it and it will take many hours of unpicking with my stitch-ripper to take this off.  Never mind, it was good to see my friends again and was able to sit with Pat, and talk about her horses and patchwork.

I am just about comfortable enough to get back to my x-stitch Puffin, so here he is.

I DID actually take this the right way up, then the camera/computer put it sideways and even after I had righted it, put it back sideways.  I give up.

Not much happening here today, but I shall go up and work on the bathroom curtains after I have had my walk.  Just simple 3" squares in blue and a pale cream print.  Should make up quickly.

Yesterday's The Rest is History podcast was a bit mind-blowing - a very clever Englishwoman who managed to go up through the ranks and finally became a female Pope, but who wasn't discovered to be female until she began giving birth as she was mounting her horse to take part in a religious parade (rather bad timing there!!)  Pope Joan she was (though Pope John as her male name).  She had one of two fates according to legend, the worst being tied by her ankles to a horse's tail and dragged through the streets being stoned to death.  Or else she went into a nunnery and her son became a Pope in due course.  Probably a mythical allegory, but you never know . . .  It made for good listening anyway.

WIld birds, blogger and new curtain plans

I wrote my post then checked on my side bar to see if Blogger had sorted itself out now, but no - it has shot itself in the foot, and several blogs have gone right out of order and when clicked on (Going Gently is one of them) just appear in gibberish - the HTML? view.  This is getting ridiculous.  Just done a search on this and last month lots of "hobbyist" blogs were blocked under a Malware False Positive issue.  Don't know quite what is happening but it is frustrating . . .   Moments later, refreshed again, and the blogs have returned!  Crazy.

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I must have slept awkwardly as I woke this morning with my SI pain stretching up to my right shoulder (that is the route of muscle attachment).  I have just checked my calendar and Sunday is Malvern Flea.  I don't think I shall be going, as hauling my camping trolley round would be the worst thing for shoulder and hip.  I'm not much good at Being Sensible . . . but needs must.

Yesterday I was auditioning fabrics for a new curtain for the main bathroom, and one for the door there too as the lace effort there at the moment doesn't really give total privacy.

These all tie in nicely with the tiles I have in there.  A good way of using up my stash.  It will be a simple pattern.  I'm not sure how long I can sit and sew right now though.  If only the painkillers worked. . .

Yesterday I had my asthma clinic check (OK), and then went on to do the shopping.  I needed some hair conditioner, as I have just about reached the end of a couple of  bottles left behind by my girls.  I was really quite shocked at the stupid prices on them in Tesco (I did my main shop in Lidl - £23).  Most were £4 plus, many £6 - £8.  Oh come on, that is just daft especially when I look on Amazon (not renowned for being cheap) and they are half that price on there!  I paid 89p for a bottle, on the principle you can only spend it once . . .

You can just about make out the little Swallow perched on the phone wire.  I noticed it sat there for 15 mins or so, resting on its way home to Africa.  A youngster, as full tail feathers not developed yet.  On the roof, I had 3 Spotted Flycatchers, and two Pied Wagtails, and it was a joy to see them.  In the shrubs on the bank this week, there has been a female Bullfinch and a couple of Chiff Chaffs.  It's lovely that my garden attracts so many different birds.

Close up of a Robin's Pin Cushion.  Tam from Llandod - best picking of blackberries up opposite the giant boulder blocking the gateway in the last few hundred yards of the path.

Not a lot happening here.  Still reading Death in a Desert Land, and yesterday's podcast was an interview with the proprietor - Christina Oakley Harrington - of Treadwell's bookshop in London, which specializes in Esoteric books - Pagan, Wicca, Occult etc. She grew up in several countries, speaks various dead languages and had an Anthropologist as her dad.  This podcast was on The Three Ravens.  Made quite a change from Samuel Johnson last week!

Both Pam and Tam bought me apples, so I am a bit unsure what I can do with them all now the freezer is full and Tam has my dehumidifier . . .  In the past I made chutney - but I can no longer make that as the fumes upset my asthma.

Looking outside, there are rainclouds, so I had best get out for my walk before it comes on to rain.