Wednesday 15 March 2023

Paradise lost

 


Progress has been made in the pink bedroom.  The wallpaper STILL looks much darker than it is, due to the vagaries of the camera, but I  love it and the paper is lovely to work with and hardly any loss with the pattern repeat for these short drops.  I had to start at the "wrong end" of the wall because of the furniture at the other end.

    However, the first thing to hit my stomach this morning were two Ibuprofen as my arthritic neck is complaining and running down across my shoulder from all the flat-out painting I've done.  Tam arrived yesterday evening, for a 24 hour visit (working from home today) and I need to finish that end of the room before she leaves so she can help me put the furniture back in place.

    We had roast lamb for tea last night - rarely do we have a roast and lamb is our favourite, so it was a treat.

    I had to see the GP yesterday morning and have been put on blood pressure tablets (no surprise).  I am hoping that I won't need to be on them forever, and that worry levels over Keith's health might calm down a bit.  I have to have more blood tests taken in a fortnight too, including a fasting one for Cholesterol as mine's not been done for 3 years and it's meant to be done annually.

Pylons would look so good marching across the landscape don't you think?

    Another hit to the Blood Pressure was the arrival of a map from Green Gen Towy Usk mapping out the proposed route of PYLONS to take wind power from Radnor Forest to Pont Abraham, near Carmarthen.  Blardy hell - the proposed route bad enough - clearly in sight across neighbouring farmland but the alternative route (the one not running right beside the holiday chalets at Caer Beris) would be within spitting distance of our house!  There has been one meeting on the showground already.  I shall be going to the next one, have signed the petition and everyone is up in arms about it - wherever it goes it would bean eyesore and a ruination of beautiful Welsh scenery.  In this day and age, underground is the only way to go.  They mention delivering "clean green energy" - but at what cost to the landscape and inhabitants?  Of course they want pylons at a tenth of the cost of burying cable.  There is already great opposition and the Countryside Alliance is against it, and the Campaign to Protect Rural Wales, and our MP will be hearing from me this week.  Billy Blue Eyes - check the route, as it goes down through Hundred House too . . .


The alternative route appears to be not far behind the stables . . .  This is the view from our bathroom window . . .

    Anyway, one good thing is I have taken my DNA sample and it's in the post to Ancestry now.  I have to wait 6 - 8 weeks for the results.  I'm not good at waiting!  Meanwhile, I am going great guns with my tree on Ancestry and have over 200 rellies on there now.



16 comments:

  1. Oh dear. Not good news in this entry today at all, is there? I don't want to put the dampener on your spirits, but they put me on blood pressure tablets telling me I wouldn't be on them forever. And five years on and I'm still on them with a higher dose. Well, that does look a proper future mess, in the name of "green energy" doesn't it? There's always something done to our landscape in the name of progress.
    In days gone by, I would have happily tucked into a roast lamb dinner. Like you, it was my favourite meat.

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  2. Morning BB, I think I would be up in arms if pylons were put in that beautiful space. That would be criminal. I do love the colour of your bedroom and can see why you love the wallpaper so much. Glad Tam has been there to help you. This getting older lark is just a bummer at times and when we are still so young! Just trying to help, but with my arthritis I am finding that heat works better when I am having a bad session with it, and wondered if a wheat bag that you could drape around your neck would be of any assistance. I will not take Ibruprofen as my brother ended up with kidney damage as a result of taking it. He only ever had it the once. I have been told to stick to Paracetamol, but I do not take it all the time as I am always wary that if you over egg it, it will not do what it needs to do. I also know his sounds crazy, but do you have an Aromatherapist near to you that you could go to once in a while. It might help with the arthritis and any anxiety or stress in the body; you time where you could just relax for a short period of time just to recharge and re-balance. Remember you need the time too. Just a thought. Hugs anyway take care Tricia x

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    1. Pattypan is correct about the ibuprofen. Also, if you are on blood pressure medication, you shouldn't be mixing it with ibuprofen. check with your pharmacy. Personally, though, Paracetamol is as useless as taking a spoonful of sugar. Deb

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    2. I take Ibuprofen perhaps 3 or 4 times a year. Now I know it isn't a good bedfellow with BP medication I shan't take it at all. I take Panadol when I want Paracetamol based medication. That works. I agree with you that Paracetamol doesn't!

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  3. The paper looks lovely.

    Funnily enough the pylons never worried me when they cut across our view in North Wales, but with all the flooding we got in the latter years some of them, the ones nearest the river, did end up at strange angles and have to be weighted with huge blocks of concrete to keep them standing straight. The birds loved the pylons and the sheep loved the concrete blocks. I guess nature is more forgiving than humans.

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    1. Hah - I get cross because we have the ordinary power lines cutting across the fields and in EVERY photo I take! I feel if they are starting from scratch, they should bury them. Better still they should have any new windfarms OFF shore. Best of all, wavepower . . .

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  4. It is a nice view that you've had. I've said it before. It may be different there, but my country needs desperately to reduce its reliance on foreign oil. It winds up being the motivation for too much saber rattling about 'protecting our interests'. We have our own oil, but it is not renewable. To be honest, that industry has bespoiled a great deal of natural beauty. In the end, no matter how we drag our feet, producing our own energy will allow us to focus on our own country.

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    1. I agree countries should be self reliant on energy sources but the windfarm itself is a huge despoiler of the countryside - offshore windfarms or wave power are less damaging. If you are going to have overland power cables, then bury them.

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  5. Hope the BP tablets work and are not forever.
    Really love that wallpaper - hope you get it all finished without any more aches and pains - be careful!
    Pylons - yep know all about them having lived with 2 monsters at the top of our field for 23 years. They are a pain and spoil the view and really shouldn't be used anymore But better than a motorway and of course much cheaper than underground. There are plans in for upgrading some ordinary sized ones to giants not far from this village to carry the electric from all the off shore wind farms down to Essex. It might happen or it might not we shall see.

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    1. I've taken the first one - have had an explosion of frustration and anger this afternoon, so probably not a moment too soon. Apoplexy not good.

      Pylons better than a motorway, but they are avoidable. There has been such anger that perhaps they may decide to replan the entire route anyway.

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  6. At least you have made progress on the room. I come to the conclusion it is no fun getting old.

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  7. I'm sorry you'll have your views spoiled by pylons. They installed huge ones here some years ago, right across some lovely countryside. People fought it, to no avail. I hope you have better luck. Here there's now more oil drilling approved for Alaska, in the wildlife preserve and very sensitive habitat. We chatter on about preserving nature and energy efficiency, but we want cheap oil for gasoline. Offshore wind and wave power are good ideas.

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  8. I hope that the opposition to the pylons will be heard.

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  9. It would certainly be a pity to have your beautiful views spoiled.

    I hope that you don't have to take the blood pressure pills forever.

    God bless.

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  10. Oh no, I thought pylons were being replaced by underground cable. Here in the south a similar furore is playing out over the infrastructure needed to bring offshore wind power inland except here it is by cable requiring the digging of a 10 metre wide channel to bury it safely and sufficiently. You cannot win when it comes to progress it would seem. Interestingly our neighbour (Grade II listed house) had his planning application for a solar array in his garden refused recently. I am waiting for some bright spark to harness the power of the river Arun (the second fastest flowing river in England) and why we cannot have tidal power I do not know. Our friends down the lane at the water mill not only produce the flour for the local baker but also sell bags of wholemeal and now white flour in the village shop and in one or two farm shops and it is all produced using hydroelectricity. A fantastic carbon neutral local business. I spent all day in the garden on Tuesday - it was sunny and warm and still all day - and I planted the greengage tree, sowed some veg seeds and fettled around under the pergola cutting back, dividing and mulching with my own wool and comfrey enriched homemade compost. Living on the greensand ridge in the dry south east mulching is essential. I don’t do anything special with my compost-making, I just make heaps and when they are nearly as tall as me I start making another heap - size is important as the bigger the heap the more heat is created and the quicker the breakdown. I have three heaps on the go at any time: one I add to, one is decomposing and one is being used. Hope you can get out for some soothing restorative walks and start feeling better soon. Look after yourself BB - easier said than done I know. Sarah x

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  11. What a nightmare that pylon scheme sounds - just awful :( Sorry about the bp pills - I've been on them for years tbh. Horrid things - the latest ones make my feet and ankles swell from time to time :( Hope you can get on them in the future.
    Bedroom wallpaper looks lovely.

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