999 - A very scary day

 

Beautiful half-timbered house in Pembridge.

Gabby came over yesterday.  I had written a to-do list for all those little jobs which have been neglected and nagging me for weeks (ahem, months some of them) and all but the ironing got ticked off.  

    We discovered that the huge chunk of moss which had slid off the roof needed a Man On a Ladder to sort out and that the down pipe is completely blocked with moss debris too.  Another job for the chap who is coming to put my greenhouse up (he's an Odd Job man.)  I got the loungers away, put the seed stack in the stables too, got Gabby to fix my new-as-of-last-year camera/computer connection as new photos were disappearing though it said they had been loaded. I even got around to dead heading the pink Echinacea and bringing in seed heads to dry for next year's sowing.  

    We checked out the supposed (very convincing) scam email from Ebay which said I couldn't get payouts until I had given them my FULL credit card details, CVC number included.  Do I look that stupid?  It got deleted.

    She set up my Youtube account on Sky and I can now use it (hooray).  I've just bought a Yoga mat and I did my first set of simple moves yesterday which eased my sore back.  Many years since we last did Yoga (we used to go as a family). Pippi decided Yoga couldn't be done unless she was on my back!

    When she'd gone home, I got Keith what he fancied for tea (he doesn't have much of an appetite these days.)  He just wanted some streaky bacon and a fried egg in a roll.  As he was eating it, he suddenly began to choke.  Really badly.  He's had this in the past (since Parkinsons arrived on the scene) with dry biscuits or too-dry toast, but this was throat-blockage.  He struggled desperately to breath and I instantly knew I needed help/advice and phoned 999 and a young man who must have a PhD in calm talked me through what I needed to do whilst he sent us an ambulance.  I had to join my hands into a fist around his body, below his ribs, and then jerk into him to try and dislodge what was stuck.  It took 3 goes before he coughed up a 3" piece of bacon which had apparently stuck to the egg (he'd opened the sandwich up to eat the contents as it was too thick.)  The egg had spread in cooking and had to be folded in half. Oh my goodness, I've never been so scared in my life as at one point, as I was talking on the phone, Keith's arms dropped right down and his body folded forward and I thought he was dead.  With the bacon out, although coughing and spluttering, he was able to breath and speak a tiny bit.

     Just after that, two lovely medics arrived in an ambulance - flat out up our hill, sirens wailing - bet the neighbours know all about it now! They gave Keith a complete check up and he was deemed as not needing to go to hospital.  I am going to have to be very careful about what he has to eat now and make it soft and nothing dry.  At least I didn't panic (like I do over technical problems or legal jargon) but I bet my blood pressure was sky high.  Now we are waiting for the Dr to phone about another more mundane but uncomfortable problem as the Syrup of Figs didn't work for Keith!

    I am having to do a rethink of being away from home (say at Malvern) at Keith's mealtimes and think one of the family will have to be here.

    Gosh, just doing the ironing seems like heaven today as it won't involve anything too demanding.  I need an easy day.

St Mary's Church, Clifford

 Sorry folks, last week didn't improve much with keeping. Keith had his UTI (onto the 2nd lot of antibiotics by then - fortunately these worked.)  I was more than a bit tired and worn out and I just wanted to crawl into a corner with a good book. It was very difficult to even drag myself out of bed each morning - I felt like I'd run a marathon overnight.  

    Danny, Emma and "I" were here this weekend, which cheered me up.  "I" helped me bake some Chocolate Chip Muffins for them to take home, and we discovered she has a new passion - washing up.  She stood on the stool and washed up the same plastic bowl for quite 20 minutes, very happy and chattering to herself :)  Then we did some jigsaw puzzles I'd found in the local charity shop.  I've just ordered several dinosaur ones (all in the same pack) for Christmas.  Danny wants this to be a screen-free house when they visit, so it will be simple toys and then board games as she gets old enough.  They went for a walk in the rain, which then rained MUCH more the longer they were out, and came back soaked.

     Anyway, here is St Mary's Church at Clifford for you.

I presume this was the site of an old preaching cross, now topped with a more modern sundial.

There were a lot of chest tombs in the graveyard - not all as upmarket as this one.  In fact, the whole graveyard was densely "planted" with various tombs so I think this must have served quite a large part of the parish.

The church is 12th and 13th C, and this font dates from that period too.  Restorations were carried out in 1839 and 1888.  HERE are the listing details if you are interested.

The door above is also dedicated to Hubert Bagster Trumper T.D.  It sounds like he was much liked and admired in the county.

The great and the good are remembered.  I liked the castellated memorial two down, though the dedication is hard to see now.

HERE is a link to the family - as you will see families intermarried in this area and a few of them will already be familiar to you.  It really is worth following the link and reading.

This is what I really came to see.  I am thrilled that this effigy has survived down the centuries.  Such a thing is rare - the only other one in the county is at Much Marcle.  He dates from the late 13th C.

In memory of the fallen . . .

A rather splendid church organ.

The manor house, just across the lane.

View across the ploughed fields just before the church.

I am shortly off to view the Monday auction again.  I shall take a good book (and need it!)  It's a shame it doesn't start till mid-afternoon.  Keith is interested in something, so it would cheer him up if I am able to get it.  I am still struggling with low energy levels but at least I will get out and I can leave Keith some nibbles whilst I'm away.

Gabby is coming up to see us tomorrow, and Tam and Jon at the weekend, so that will cheer us up greatly.  Tam and Jon can cover whilst I go off to Malvern on the Sunday.  BFN.

I am here, honest.

 Sorry for the delay in putting up a fresh post.  Life has gotten in the way, and it's been a full on week, one way and another.  Danny, Emma and I here this weekend, and Keith slowly got over his UTI but still had another appt. on Thursday. I shall do a proper post tomorrow, I promise.

Near St Mary's Church, Clifford.

Yuk day and I hate technology

 I didn't want to get up today.  I had no energy, but I could hear Keith moving about. I kept losing words when I was talking to two ladies in the local history group in town (I felt so stupid) and I haven't improved with keeping and would happily go to bed now, just before 7 p.m. but of course I can't.  I lost two hours of my life today trying to sort out tv and wi-fi connection after Ghengis yet again knocked the main remote on the floor by taking a short cut to the sofa across Keith's table.  WHY he can't just jump up on the sofa is beyond me!

When we FINALLY got it sorted (after I had phoned our broadband supplier, typed in the router number several times with all its upper and lower case and numbers - GRRR - reset the router to factory reset etc) there was no Netflix and it wanted me to take out another subscription - I was gnashing my teefs until I realized we had it through Sky, who had offered it cheaper than Netflix do.  No wonder I didn't have a password in my little red book . . .

Pippi has been bringing in tiny voles (3) and then got me very cross when she bought in a butterfly (there were lots in the garden today) and then a 2nd and when I found a 3rd under the settle I shut her in for an hour or so.  I can't forgive her for taking their power of flight away by batting them about.  I've saved two bumble bees this week but it doesn't balance out those beautiful butterflies.

I guess something had to balance out the nice afternoon I had yesterday when I went to the first auction I'd been to since Lockdown - not that it was full of classy stuff and as I thought, anything decent didn't go cheaply.  The things I liked were towards the end too and I wasn't hanging around for hours (it didn't start till 3.30 p.m.) and driving home in the dark.  So I bid unsuccessfully on two items and went back into Pembridge to go round the church.  I shall leave you with a photo of the amazing bell tower - I have never seen its like.  Built in the early 13th C using HUGE trees, it was later enclosed.  I'll do a proper post later in the week, when hopefully I am more with it.

This is one of 12 lovely embroideries inside the church and shows the construction of the bell tower.  I love the idea of a Cowslip Fair too.

Finally, Llanarchaeron revisited

 

There are two cats at Llanarchaeron.  This is the mardy one - an elderly stray who took up residence but hisses at you if you approach . . .

As you can see, the brewing of beer was very important to the Estate.

As was bread making. There would have been several of these dough bins, which sell as decorative items for farmhouses now . . .

Part of the dairy, where cheese making was carried out.  The slate slabs kept everything cool.

For several years I had the top half of one of these butter makers down in our Dairy at Ynyswen.  Many had a Haverfordwest maker.  There's another complete one in Carmarthen museum, if you're down that way.

 

The loose boxes with hay racks.  Below, an unusual design of hay rack with the back built into the wall.  Not seen that elsewhere.

The tack room, with below, side-saddles.

The kitchen garden, with lots of herbs, flowers for cutting and fruit trees.

The bees absolutely adored this Wall Germander, so it's on my planting list for next year.

Well, this hasn't been the best week here - Keith has a UTI and for the first 4 days the antibiotics he was given didn't work at all.  He's got some different broad-spectrum ones now and they seem to be helping.  Broken nights this week and the previous one haven't helped Keith at all.  I stupidly forgot to give him his lunchtime pills on Thursday and then got the time wrong for his appt. with the PD nurse - she phoned and we got in as last appt. of the day.  Of course, by the time it came to leave, Keith was tottering so much when he stood up from the wheelchair and I don't know how we managed to get him in the car.  They wished me well the other end - and I was dreading it - but we managed it somehow.  Anyway, Keith's sudden worsening of symptoms generally has resulted in being booked in (God knows when that will be) with the Geriatric consultant at Hereford.  I am praying that the appts. with the MSK physio will help his neck and mobility, as that is what has made him find getting around so difficult as it greatly affects his balance for the worse.

PD nurse is also going to get someone out to try and improve on our method of Keith getting up and out of bed in the middle of the night - she didn't seem at all impressed with what we had in place!  (Heath Robinson and all that . . .)

I have just been out in the garden, having a sort out and taking a saw to the Mullein and then the reverted rose.  It's been here many years but just puts out white single-petalled roses now and does nothing for the look of the garden.  I am thinking about planting an apple tree there instead - perhaps a dark red crab apple.

The low wooden fence fronting a rhododendron has started to collapse from rot, so that will need replacing too. Getting someone to do it will cost more than the fencing!  I may have to try and do it myself.

Today I went to St Mary's Church at Clifford near Hay-on-Wye, so will write that up tomorrow.  

Enjoy your weekend.