Big Girls' Knickers Day

 

Sisterly cuddles when it's wet and miserable outside.

The trees in our copse are dropping their leaves - there was a lovely light here when I took these but it didn't show well in the photos.

This is a strange rusty-coloured sport from the deep reddy Nasturtium I planted in the spring.  I will save seed from it and see what colours I get next year.  It has spread along the bottom of the house for about 6 feet so far.

The new big planter and Gypsy Boy rose happily planted in it.  I've since popped in a dark blue/purple Violet to keep it company over the winter.

Lulu: "here's one Pippi caught earlier . . ."

Looking over the fence towards the woodland to the South-East of us.

Well, this has been Solicitor day so I've had to don my Big Girls' Knickers (actually slightly smaller BGK's as the 6 lb I lost has stayed off).  Gabby came up as joint attorney. He talked us through the LPA's in regard of Keith's future care and financial decisions and is a lovely chap - really knows his stuff AND he likes cats!  I went straight down to the GP's surgery with a letter requesting K's Dr write to the Solicitors confirming that he is still of sound mind regarding the LPA's.  So that and our revised Wills are with the Solicitors.   Next thing, the Bill!

Tomorrow should be Start Putting Up the Greenhouse day.  He's not phoned, but he is a very organized man and I expect him here first thing.  That is something nice to look forward to anyway, as since Keith's health has started to deteriorate, there has been precious little to look forward to, and as an Aries, we need these little pleasures in life to keep us going.  Keith has even less of course, being virtually housebound now, but he was always happy to be a home bird, as long as he could potter around in his workshop.  Sadly, that ceased almost the moment we arrived here.  

Still having to rest a good bit of the day, but hoping there will be an improvement soon.  Tam said she was the same when she had Covid, but she had the luxury of being able to rest up in bed all day long.  

I wonder how soon there will be a volcanic eruption in Iceland?  I hope everyone has been moved to safety.  Debbie, I imagine you will be watching the news, having lived there.

A hard day's night

 Last night was the night I had been dreading - the car rally was coming through between 3 and 5 a.m.  We used to have these regularly at Ynyswen too - only they seemed noisier as we were on a Z-bend with a rock "canyon" wall on one side, which held the noise in of frantic gear changes and revving. Last night's was quieter and I was able to nod off again after the initial fast cars came through.  Of course, the cats had to be kept in an Little Whale was NOT amused.  He likes to go out until he chooses to come in (normally on the dot of 9 o'clock once late autumn is here) but sometimes he will be out until the wee small hours but has a nice warm bed in the Utility when he has finished hunting.

        Keith was up before me this morning and in the shower by the time I padded, bleary-eyed, to the bathroom.  Good to see him greatly improved upon yesterday and clearly shaking off the Covid hangover.  Wish I could say the same.  Mine is a slower recovery.  I did half an hour's gardening yesterday, emptying the smaller planters of summer plantings - the Gladiolis in the bigger ones fought back and by evening my right shoulder needed a painkiller to calm it down. 6 pots are emptied though and ready to have bulbs planted in them - if it ever stops raining!   Tomorrow I believe we have another storm coming through - Debi - which is mainly going to hit Ireland, but Wales may get it along the coastal regions.  Hoping it won't be here too.

View through the gate at Hay Castle.

I had a visit from my friend this week.  She brought me some apples  (fallers from a tree on a dog walk she does). We chatted, and it always cheers Keith up to have someone other than me to chat to.  My late ma-in-law had a very pertinent saying though - you can't cut my throat and put a sticking plaster on it!  Very apt in this case.  

        I had a delivery of two big parcels for our neighbour the other side of the Big House (this happens regularly - so many people with the same postcode in our area) and his wife said she'd send him round to change my water filter for me - she knows this is something I always need help with.  That was a couple of days ago and it's already full of mud again!  

        I've just baked two big Cardiganshire Boiled Pineapple Fruit Cakes (like giant Bara Brith) - one is a thank you for the neighbour of P's who has given me a long loan on his brush strimmer so I need not worry about the orchard or the paddock in future - Glyn (gardener) can deal with them.  That's how it works in the country - someone does you a favour, and you do one in return.  I guess if you are a townie this is all a foreign language.  Like thanking other drivers who slow down or pull over or reverse for you. You can always tell the townie holidaymakers.   They are also the ones who walk in a row across the road from the holiday chalets going down into town . . . all wearing dark clothing so they don't show up beneath the trees.

Here's one I made earlier.  Remembering Eira, our nearest neighbour at Ynyswen, who gave everyone this recipe.  Always think of her whenever I make it.

        I have just been tempted by Audible's 60% off offer.  I will write on the calendar when the 3 months is up, but a £2.99 credit has just bought me a compendium of 10 Charles Dickens books, so those should see me through the ironing mountains for the next year or so!

        All our children have been so helpful in the past few weeks - Gabby has organized for the Solicitor to come to the house to sort out the signings of the LPA for Keith.  She will be here too to do her signing part and then we take it down to the GP for them to sign it.  Not long now until Tam and Jon move into their first house together.  When she was here last week she tidied up all the bits and bobs she needed storing until after their move so her bedroom is accessible again.  Danny & Emma bought me a lovely baking book "Bake Me a Cat" which has some lovely ideas to make with little "I".  I have had fun buying sprinkles, pink food colouring and some fine icing decorators in rainbow colours.  We will be having fun.

        Right, I've let my fingers wander on the keys for long enough.  Nothing exciting, but this acts as a sort of diary for me, and I've been nowhere to write about for weeks now.  Hope you have enjoyed your weekend.  

P.S.  Thelma - it seems I am no longer invited to view your blog. When I click on the link I can't get through.  Thankyou for your friendship down the years and hope that you will still drop in here sometimes.

Finally some Malvern treasures

Wednesday has taken its toll on Keith, and he needed to be ferried about in a wheelchair from the moment he struggled out of bed today.  He will need to rest up and hopefully get some energy/mobility back.  

This wonderful dog painting came home with me - who could resist?  There is an old label on the back, where someone thinks it might have been painted by Landseer's daughter, Emma C Mackenzie as she became.  However, this is dated 1899 and she died in 1895. Wish I were able to attribute it, but it's a smashing piece all the same and someone will fall in love with it.   Dog pictures always sell well.

 

I could not RESIST this lovely little whimsical gypsy vardo nightlight, with roses round the door.  Probably dates from 1970s, and unsigned.  It was an absolute give-away price and everyone who's seen it (apart from Tam!) loves it.

Folk art now, but this horse twitch (for control) was beautifully carved with a snake, which lifts it out of the ordinary.  Another at a give-away price.

Captain Birdseye!!  Or at least an old mariner in his So'wester.  Lots of character.

Uncle Tom Cobbley off to the fair c.1921.  Think I put this one up earlier?  Anyway, you've got it again.

A beautiful Studio Pottery cider flagon, made in Exeter by Laurel Keeley, clearly stamped, and as she has been a potter for 40 years, possibly one of her earlier pieces - it's not in her Gallery. Her more modern pieces command 3 figure prices.  Another piece I can enjoy for a few months.

This is a fabulous Mughal Warrior's saddle, predating 1858 when the British Empire took control in India.  The wooden saddle frame is embellished with intricately engraved brass plates, whilst the front "pommel" is covered in (low grade) silver, also embellished.  A rare piece and I just HAD to have it for a while.  It will go to Builth next year.

Part of half a dozen bits of kitchenalia I bought.  I have never seen a round bun tray like this one.  I alo got an American 50s lemon squeezer, another baking tray, an old pastry crimper, a metal sieve with very fine holes punched in it (size of fine needles) and a hand-made one-ended rolling pin 1920ish.

I've not included photos of the lovely marble pestle and mortar or the fabulous Indian painted table/storage, but they were good buys too. 

I've settled Keith in the living room and now have to buzz off to Llandod with stuff for the charity shop and another bag of compost to fill that huge planter!  What's the betting I can't park anywhere near the charity shop?!

Glad there's no cooking today - all cooked, veg included.  I just need to bung the beef in the Onepot on pressure cooker, so I will rest this afternoon.  I am feeling a bit better now - legs not so chewed string and I have a bit of energy returning, thank heavens.

Thanks for all your support.  

Time to relax

A slightly blurry photo of a recent walk (up by the lake).

Well, having been told every hour or two hours to phone back in an hour or two hours, we finally had a phone call just after 8 p.m. to say Keith was fine and to come and pick him up.  By then Tam was nearly here from Aberystwyth.  I had put fuel in our car to get to Hereford, but Tam said she had psyched herself up for the trip and knew I didn't enjoy driving at night (I don't but would do anything for Keith) and her car was easier for Keith to get in and out of.  So she drove, and we picked him up and he was blardy glad to see us having been sat in a wheelchair (which kills his neck, and that was already sore and very painful) for 8 hours.  Despite my telling the nurse at reception that he had Parkinsons and HAS to be kept hydrated, he only had some water when he waved his pills at a passing nurse and said he needed a drink to get them down.  I also told another nurse he had no-one to get him any food - oh he would be given food.  Really?  Why lie to me - if I knew he'd been so totally abandoned, I'd have gone there hours earlier.  I will know another time and be beside him as his advocate.  Mind you, Keith is going to refuse point blank if this scenario happens again.

        We got home at about 11.30 p.m. and it was chucking it down with rain - by the time Keith got out of the car, I had to swipe a pool of water from the wheelchair seat and our coats didn't dry out until I hung them over hot radiators this morning.  He had taken extra Sinemet, knowing he would need something to help him with the journey home and getting upstairs to bed.  Those worked and he managed the stairs, but gosh, we were all so relieved to tuck him up in bed.

        It's his birthday today so I've been out for some lovely stewing steak from the butchers, which is already in the slow cooker and we will eat early, so Tam can get away before it's dark, as she has that long journey through the mountains.

        A couple of good things from yesterday - the Dr said Keith had good lungs, because he used to be a runner, and that would stand him in good stead.  He also said that Keith was under-medicated, and also that he should look into taking CBD oil as he thought it would really help with the Parkinsons.  I've done some initial research, and the Parkinsons website says it's just at the experimental stage.  We shall see what else we can find and mention it to the GP etc.  I can already imagine what the PD nurse will say!

        A drive out to the Elan Valley may happen after lunch, but sadly the sunshine we woke up to has been replaced by rain and grey skies.  Thank you for all your support yesterday and apologies for the blow-by-blow account, but it is too stressful to keep it all to myself.

And then the day got worse . . .

 Keith has had another choking episode.  I had to call 999 and the ambulance was here even quicker this time.  Keith had shifted the food by the time they arrived, but they listened to his chest and thought he had aspirated food.  K and I both think it's the last of his chest infection they can hear.  Anyway, he had to be taken to hospital for an X-Ray and has just arrived at A&E and been booked in.  I guess I am going to be bringing him home this evening - just checked the waiting times and it seems to be around the 2 hour mark.  That we can cope with.  If it's much longer (she said they were busy) and into the night,  with his Parkinsons and him stiffening up, Lord knows how I will get him inside, let alone upstairs to bed.  Is there anything else the Universe wants to throw my way to bring me to my knees?  Praying they don't keep him in . . .

Update:  I have been on the phone to the Hospital every hour or two hours when they said phone back. Phoned 7.15 p.m. - phone back in two hours, they're very busy and he's still not had his X-ray yet.  If I CAN pick him up tonight, we're going to be on the road at midnight.  Tam is on her way here, so I will at least have someone with me to keep me awake. If he's been in a wheelchair for the last 5 hours, then he is going to be in agony with his neck as it had seized up earlier and a wheelchair offers no support whatsoever.    Update again: 8.10 - hospital phoned whilst I was out getting fuel - Keith fine, so we can come and pick him up.  Just waiting for T to get here.

Hitting a brick wall . . .

 . . . health-wise that is.  On Sunday, for just a few hours, I felt back to normal.  I didn't do much - Danny, Emma and "I" were here to help out, and I took them for their train later.  Monday I was back to exhausted again and needing to lie down on the sofa after getting Keith up, showered and dressed, and giving him his breakfast.  I worked out this morning why my legs always feel like chewed string though, because if I went up and downstairs once, I did it 10 or a dozen times.  11.30 and I've done 5,000 steps just around the house and taking out the compost, litter trays etc.

Landscape overlooking Tretower Court.

I had planned an hour's respite yesterday (first time off in over 3 weeks) - a trip to the Old Railway Line garden centre as they always have a brilliant display of Christmas decorations and temptations.  The main reason was I wanted to get my Christmas present from Keith - a large terracotta planter - needed early as I have my Bourbon rose Gypsy Boy still waiting to be planted.  I had a wander round and found that the planters I was interested in were half price.  Goody-goody, £45 for the huge one I wanted (50% off the original price of £89.99!) - and if you think THAT is expensive, they had some really gi-normous ones there for £499.99!!!

I was tempted by a lovely little (Christmas? really?) decoration of Peter Rabbit to hang from the tree.  No prices on any of the ones on display, so when I got to the counter and got her to scan it, surprise, surprise it was £9.99.  Most people would just buy it, but I said I didn't want it THAT much, they could have it back!  Other than the planter, I bought some more fleece to tuck my roses in pots up if we have more frosts like last year.  I have some bubble wrap I can call into use if it's really cold.  Tess of the D'Urbervilles survived after being cut back to nothing, but it will take that rose another year to recover.  Currently twiggy and about a foot high. 

No peace for the wicked though, as either side of my outing I had things to sort out.   Keith's repeat prescription was wrong again - two items missing.  I had phoned the Dr about his 50mg Levothyroxine as that was one of the missing items.  I was told that it had been on the Prescription.  Boots said it hadn't.  Sorting this all out took an hour of my time, as I had to go back to the Surgery and order this as we had run out.  This also meant going back to the surgery later, after 4.30 p.m. to collect it, then back down the town to Boots to get them to dispense it.  Another 1/2 hr plus.

When I got home from all that, I had to do the evening meal (Keith's was in the slow cooker and a jacket potato had gone into the oven earlier.)  I had planned to have a chicken curry, but my legs were saying they had to sit down, so I had Scampi and Chips from the freezer instead.

Then Keith wanted to go to the bathroom, and I still hadn't sat down apart from eating my meal.  My legs didn't want to do much in a vertical position.  I had just poured myself a cup of tea (the one I didn't have at 3 p.m. as I wasn't here) and only had a mouthful before we had to go upstairs again.  By the time I came down it was luke warm.  I poured myself another, sat down and had a mouthful, and then Keith called me up - he wanted to go to bed.  I finally got to sit down but had gone past the tea and found that Danny had left a little can of Hazy Jane IPA beer in the fridge, and oh my goodness, that hit the spot!  I watched a family history programme I'd recorded and fell into bed at 8.30, but tossed and turned as Keith was snoring loudly and I couldn't relax and was awake 3 hrs, so I'm a bit short of zzzzzz's again.  I have to say, last night I really did hit that brick wall of exhaustion.

Anyway, our friend M from across the river, obliged (when I texted him) with lifting the big planter from the car for me and it is now waiting for me to fill it with good compost and put my new rose in.  I will do that later if it stays dry.  I am going to rest first.  He cheered me up (not) by saying he had Covid when it first hit as the pandemic, and said even 3 years on, he's still not totally right.  I will settle for a bit more energy and a functioning left ear!

Hoping that you are all having an easy week.

ALL CHANGE - and all those "useful things" . . .

 

Pant-y-Llyn lake

We all have them, stashed away in boxes.  I shouldn't really have THAT much, bearing in mind how much we got rid of when we moved, but guess what, boxes and boxes of "useful things" moved with us.  Because the hospital bed arrives tomorrow, Danny, Emma and I have been moving furniture around, and I knew the tin trunk that I have my bedside lamp on and the contents of, would need to be sorted.  Offout to the stables and to the next Fair if necessary.

Then of course I had to empty the sewing things from another spare painted pine box, which will go on Marketplace or Ebay. It's a nice one, but we are going to have to be practical.  In the New Year, Danny, Emma and "I" will be coming to live with us for a few months so they can save properly for a house of their own.  They have some furniture of their own of course, and a cat, so the latter will properly upset the applecart for a bit! 

I have been going through the storage boxes (big black plastic ones) in the linen cupboard upstairs, and hoiked out a big bin-liner full of fabrics, sewing bits etc that I don't need, to go to the charity shop, along with 2 end-rolls of lovely silk fabric which no-one has shown the least bit of interest at Fairs .  I got them from auction at Wooton - put in by a curtain-making shop in Tetbury - and the fabric was something ridiculous like £150 a metre.  Can't get £10 each for them but I hope that the Charity shop will do well.  I support the Bracken Trust (Cancer charity) in Llandod, so will take this all there on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I need to put all my Heirloom quilt fabrics in one bag and make space in my pine sewing cupboard upstairs.  Fortunately I have woken up with energy this morning, leastways more energy than I've had this past 3 weeks.  I'm sat down resting now with a cup of Earl Grey but at least I don't need to go and lie down on the sofa today.  For the last 10 days I have got Keith breakfast and then have to crash out on the sofa to sleep and get over the effort!

Photos still playing me up - I put them into a folder "November 2023" but cannot find it anywhere!!                                                                                          

I feel hugely relieved that Danny and Emma will be support for Keith and I for a while.  I may be able to keep the carers at bay for a bit longer.  Little "I" has already been booked in at the school down the road, so will have a chance to make friends.  It's a nice area to bring children up.  Danny will work from home, as he does at the moment.

There is other exciting news to tell you, but that will wait for another day . . .

Oh, and was it Ruta who was looking for a Captain's Chair?  We have several here - we know them as Smoker's Bows.  If that is what you're after, I could sell one of these and replace it with a more practical tuck-under-the-table kitchen chair. I will try and take a photo which I can FIND afterwards, to put up on here.