Had a real shock this morning which resulted in a call to 111 and being told to go straight to A+E (Hereford). I am being kept in, don't know how long, but the blood thinners have done a particular problem no good - didn't know I had it in fact. Some positive thoughts wouldn't go amiss. Hoping I can update you on my phone even when Gabby's not here! See you all soon, I hope.
Wednesday, 27 August 2025
Tuesday, 26 August 2025
Family near and far in time and place
I bought just a handful of things yesterday. This really appealed to me and I paid £15 for it - more than I wanted to pay but she wouldn't haggle. Her loss - if she'd dropped to £10 there were a couple more I'd have bought, including a lovely watercolour of Lower Brockhampton Manor and gatehouse. Ah well. Now I have to try and find a frame for it in the charity shops.
I had a VERY frugal shop today, sticking to my short list. Lidl was £23, which included back bacon and chicken breasts, onions, biscuits to go with cheese, small zip-lock bags, butter, fizzy mineral water etc. I needed a bath mat from Tesco (slipped and bruised my arm the other day, and Rosie needs one if she is to have a bath here). A pack of reduced pork mince which I will make meatballs from and freeze. Two cheap for all the wrong reasons Miss Molly chocolate eclairs (79p) as a treat, a small multi-seed wholemeal loaf and some fizzy pop. £18. Since Tam is booking my middle week in NZ accommodation and travel this week, I need to keep my current account as high as I can as a chunk of my savings is going out and I need to pay all my bills from my current account. Tea tonight is bacon, baked beans which need using up and a spud made into home-made oven chips. ('twas very boring!) Pork meatballs tomorrow.
The Giraffe I bought yesterday, and the lovely little model of Ledbury Market Building which is just in shot. Both £10 each. I kept it cheap and light as dragging the camping trolley through the long grass, even without a great deal in it, was very hot and tiring work.
It feels like Autumn here today. I have belatedly taken quilts off the sofa and put them in the wash. We are having short showers now and again but should have them dry by tonight. My Anthisan cream has arrived (thankyou Amazon Prime) and is helping the bites.
I found 3 books on Co-op's charity book table and bought them for winter reading - yeah I know, like I NEED more books don't I?! Another Ken Follet doorstop - The Evening and the Morning; and two new-to-me Kate Shackleton mysteries - A Death in the Dales and Murder in the Afternoon. Nice light reading in those anyway.
I have been researching one of the items I bought yesterday, which was a German 1920ish wooden horse and cart. He's lost the end of his nose decades ago - Keith could have repaired him easily - but is very unusual and I can find nothing like him.
I thought I would need a nap when I got back yesterday but a post on the IoM family history page involved Keith's ancestors, so within minutes I was searching for my notes, and checking out the whys and wherefores and within half an hour, another rellie hove into view! Wonderful stuff, and we are keeping in touch.
Next month one of my Hampshire cousins and her husband are coming to our part of Wales (Rhayader) and are taking me/us out for a meal. They want to meet little Rosie again (and of course, Tamzin).
Now it's time to sit down and work on the quilt back. Enjoy your evening/day.
Monday, 25 August 2025
I nearly lost the will to live!
. . . From Willersley onwards I had the rising sun in my eyes and had to wear sunglasses, but that wasn't ideal as the roads were still quite shady on bends/under trees. It made for a tiring drive.
Then, it was SO hot at Malvern. I walked round for an hour or so and had to go back to the car to change into the skirt and thin top I'd bought with me, and change trainers for thin daps. I was not the most stylishly dressed person there, but I was cooler and hopefully no-one saw my striptease in the car . . .
I was trying to show the complete mixture of stuff which is on offer. House clearance here.
Turkish dough boards, but nothing took my eye today.
Same stall - lots of amphora type earthenware containers.
Sorry, that's it for photos. I just couldn't be bothered. I missed a chunk of the outside stalls once it got hot (23 or so deg, rising and it feels hotter as the showground is in a natural amphitheatre).
I didn't bother with the Avon Hall - Bargain Hunt were apparently filming and probably in there as I didn't see them outside or in the sheds. I went to see a couple of friends in the sheds, for a natter, and a lovely hug from Simon. (Don't worry, I'm nearly old enough to be his mum). He is always VERY positive (he is a widower) and has really helped me through the last year or so.
Then, absolutely sick of the sight of antiques - or rather, second hand STUFF in many cases - I left and was driving away by 10 a.m. It was Carnival Day in Ledbury, so I couldn't get my groceries from Tesco nor could I visit Ledbury Church again (think it was holding a service anyway, and I went to our local church service yesterday. One in a week is enough!)
I was too hot to even walk the other side of the pylon to get a better view without wires in it . . .
Would you believe I got bitten 3 more times in the night (judging from positions on trips to the bathroom) and 3 more times at Malvern. I itch everywhere and am heartily SICK of it. Several other people said the same thing, never known bitey things so bad. It is meant to pour with rain tomorrow - hooray - I hope it drowns them all!
I didn't spend much, didn't buy much, but in retrospect it was good to be out. Off for a cool bath now in the hope that soap and water will ease the bites.
Sunday, 24 August 2025
A leisurely day
And would you believe, I ended up covered in yet MORE bites. I am really fed up with this - never been bitten to pieces like this before. Thinking back, it may have been when I lifted up a pile of cut back stems which I had left on the lawn, and carried it to chuck on the compost heap in the back triangle. Though I had some on the back of my legs and around my VPL too . . . This, despite having sprayed myself with Avon Skin so Soft earlier (and that is given to Marines on Jungle Patrol as it works)! Clearly I didn't spray enough. I shall stay indoors today though there is SO much in the garden which needs doing.
I had a letter from my Dorset friend Danette and decided to sit down and write a reply straight away - writing rather than typing as I usually do. It was therapeutic sitting outside at the patio set and listening to the gentle sounds of country life.
Then I went foraging for blackberries and to see where the best haul of Sloes were when it's time to pick them. I got jut under two pounds of blackberries and added the last of last year's blackberries from the freezer, and two windfall cooking apples from Pam's tree, and have had the jelly bag set up overnight for Bramble Jelly. Some of the nicest ones are from the brambles growing through my Rhododendron bushes at the back of the garden, so I didn't have to go far for those.
So that will be my first job after breakfast. My other friend Pam gave me some more jam jars this week, so I shan't run out in a hurry. Then I shall bake some Manderin Orange Muffins. I need a couple to take for breakfast/lunch at Malvern tomorrow.
It made 4 jars - you can just see the smaller one at the back. I used some jam sugar, topped up with granulated, and brought it slowly to the boil, by which time, when I stirred it, it was already flaking off the spoon so I got it in the jars in record time! I'd cooked it up yesterday with the juice of a lemon, so that probably made the difference.
Late afternoon I began to get this sorted out, starting to make the templates for the various components. That wall is going to take some doing! There are some lovely patterned fabrics to use though, and it will make a nice addition to my half landing of things I have x-stitched (and ones that Gay did as well, as gifts).
You can't see the tents very clearly, but lots of people staying on the showground for the Big Truck Festival this weekend. Not something I will be going to!
Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend all.
Friday, 22 August 2025
Catching up with friends
It was my friend Pam's birthday yesterday. I drove down to Carmarthenshire to see her today, and take a card and a gift and some flowers. I stayed for lunch with her and her husband, and we had a lovely catch-up and put the world to rights.
I stopped at the Post Office to get a drink, and a couple of my quilting pals were in there (one is a regular volunteer on the PO side) and so we had a lovely chat too. Not long until the group starts up again next month.
The countryside is looking autumnal - already trees are changing colour, especially the ones on banks and at the edges of dry verges. The countryside looks so parched and the hills are all dun, with bracken already turning gold or brown. We will certainly remember 2025 for its Californian sunshine from April until ??? No sign of my Swallows again, and a friend up the lane has said the same. The first (and only?) nest of House Martins have fledged and are on the wing. That happened a couple of days ago and what a joy it was to see them flying in loops, dizzy with the joy of flying.
The insects are still VERY busy - my holly and shrub-with-tiny-pink-flowers was thrumming with them this afternoon, including several burly Hornets, minding their own business and hunting for food amongst the other insects there.
I am having an Outlander evening tonight, as there are two more Blood of my Blood episodes for me to catch up on.
Have a lovely weekend, all, and Sarah - I am thinking of you and S. (((HUGS)))
Quick note for Billy Blue Eyes on the Wind Farm debacle
Forest Fields are very involved with fighting this windfarm plan, and have a GoFundMe page. I don't know if you are on Facebook, but this is their recent SOS. Which pretty well sums up the situation. I can see it already done and dusted before it goes any further because the Welsh Govt have pledged their pensions to fund it . . . :
Thursday, 21 August 2025
I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them . . .
Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Learning - and another look at Welsh history
Learning is something we do (or should do) throughout our lives. Though when I happen to look at my dissertation on occasion, I always think, was I really clever enough to research and write that?! I have certainly let things slip on the academic learning front, but a chance comment on an old (2014) post of mine about Gwyddno Garanhir and Cantre'r Gwaelod has led me down a rabbit hole where Taliesin and the Welsh Mabinogi have Irish roots. Although Irish Medieval history is a mystery to me (as is much of Welsh Medieval history, since prehistory was my chosen subject at Uni when I read Archaeology), it is always good to learn and to stretch ones thinking processes again. I have just spent an hour reading and trying to digest a very interesting paper about the religious - and other - influences on what the Welsh have always considered to be their cultural heritage. It will take several more readings to get a better understanding, as I familiarize myself with the Irish landscape and placenames, as well as patronomics and the ecclesiastical history of Ireland. It rankles a little to think that Cantrae'r Gwaelod may not/probably didn't exist and that Gwyddno Garanhir was Irish though! Yet at Uni the first thing we were taught was not to bring our own beliefs/baggage to the table or to start with the conclusion of an essay and then make everything else fit. We had to keep an open mind - I guess having spent half my life living in Wales, it is hard to step back from what I have learned thus far. Gosh, it is so well researched and written and clearly by a more educated mind than mine!
I am about to get ready to go to a talk/discussion about Bute Energy and what they propose to do to our beautiful landscape, by way of gigantic wind turbines and pylons marching across Builth fields, within sight of us all. I know - beware of bringing baggage to the table but I am NOT open minded on this and like many others, we do NOT support it.
My other learning today was how to take out an old bulky pocket in a pair of velvet trousers (Tam's) and to replace it with more suitable fabric. Let's hope my efforts look ok when worn . . . It was a job I'd never done before.
Finally, the front of the house now all blue where it should be. I need to crack on with it again tomorrow.
Sunday, 17 August 2025
Berrington Hall
Beautiful Shropshire countryside (near Ludlow). Taken from the house.
After the hall, this is the first room you enter, with its beautiful fireplace. The architect employed, Henry Holland, used a version of Neo-Classical design in this Georgian house.
A nod to the Greeks and Romans with the Doric capitals in this room and a lovely shell-like arch above.
We ended with a walk inside the walled garden, with its wonderful orchards of ancient heritage apples.