I've had better days

 

. . . this year's birthday was a rather damp squib.  Unable to go anywhere because of caring for Keith (it being a working day for both D&E), and with Gabby due for lunch, I just went to Llandod for groceries, and on to Midway Plants for some compost, and I may have succumbed to a half price blue Cut-leaf Geranium (Johnson's Blue colouring but another name) and a very pretty Vinca minor "Atropurpurea". They'll go on the next stretch of the bank.

Keith hasn't been very bright, has no appetite and only wants jelly as his mouth his dry (he's on diuretics, and that is a common side-effect.) So, that's a worry.  

Danny was going to print something off, and discovered that the printer was sitting in a pool of printer ink - which has completely ruined the top of the antique Elm Box it was sat on.  I have removed the ink cartridge, and spent ages patting a bicarb of soda paste onto the ink, letting it sit 10 or 15 mins, and then rubbing it over the ink stain.  Ink is still coming off but it's a slow old business and it will never be the same again.  Fairly gutted over this. The printer has NEVER leaked before and where it was before it wouldn't have mattered if it did.

Anyway, trying to look on the bright side:

1.  Keith managed, holding onto the hall rails, to stagger a few steps today.

2.  It was lovely seeing Gabby, who brought flowers and a lunch which will feed me a couple of days more.  Plus the cake is a nice soft Lemon Drizzle sponge and will be nice for Keith with ice cream.

3.  The ink IS coming off even though it will leave a permanent stain.  The ink on my fingers will slowly wash off . . .

4.  I can have an outing and like our late Queen, have an unofficial birthday when the sun is shining.

5.  I have two new plants.

6.  The kids clubbed together and bought me a new mobile.

How to have fun when you're over the hill. . .

. . . when the highlight of the week is an optician's appointment, hastily organized after your reading specs go missing (little "I" likes to hide important things and deny all knowledge . . .) and you are completely lost without them.  Fortunately I managed to get the appt. this afternoon which I had cancelled on Friday (which had been Keith's appt).  I will have my eyes checked (due next month anyway)  and then choose a new pair of specs and hope they are here soonest.  "I" away at her granny's, so I can't find out from her where my current specs may be.  That's going to be £100 plus I hadn't reckoned on this month. . .

We had a lovely day yesterday with Tam, Jon and Rosie visiting.  Danny and Emma did all the cooking of the meal and I hastily rustled up a Manderin Orange Cake to fill the corners until Danny's Chilli was cooked.  Keith was delighted to meet his little grand-daughter and had a cuddle.  As you can see, he lost a lot of weight during his hospital stay.  Tam was quite upset to see him looking so gaunt. 

Happy families.  It was lovely to have a houseful.  We think baby Rosie may have a good few of Keith's genes being passed on as she has a little Elfin ear like Tam, and also a strawberry mark on her neck just where Keith has one.  

This morning Keith has sat out for a little while by the window, and together we looked at the first half of the huge tome of a catalogue for an antiques sale at Chatsworth House in 2010 - the contents of the Attic Auction indeed!  Blimey, I wish I had stuff worth £100,000 in MY attic (it was a beautiful mahogany extending table). He had to sit out on the shower commode with his thick anti-pressure-sore cushion, as we couldn't get the riser chair up the stairs - it's slightly too wide and there is a bit that juts out on the left of the stairs which prevents us getting quite normal sized furniture getting up there, and certainly anything BIG.

I'd like to get out and sow some more seeds in the greenhouse so hopefully late afternoon I'll get the chance.  I need to pot on the two boughten Tomato plants I bought recently too as they have made good growth, as well as the Cucumber seedlings.

A lovely spring walk

 E, "I" and I went for a walk to our little local church today.  Due to "I"'s little short legs, I parked nearer, so we just had to walk about 3/4 mile each way.  A wind was troubling the trees, but along a sheltered stretch of trackway, it was quite warm in the sun.  "I" loved running across the fields to St David's church.

It's a Medieval church, revamped  several times down the centuries, and yet again in late Victorian times, like so many.  

"I" playing hide and seek behind the replica sculptured stone.  The original was found built into the wall of an ancient house in Maesmynis.

Winifred Woosnam who sadly died aged just 13.

The fallen of the parish.  Hugh Stanley Hughes never went abroad after signing up in May 1918, and went home to die from TB . . .

A composite chair, as surely there weren't many Minnie's about in 1610!

The font dates to the 14th C.

The pond was very full, and a pair of Canada Geese had taken advantage of what was on offer and nested on the little island.

Keith has been resting today and has been watching a great series on Amazon Freevee - Into the Wild Frontier - and I've watched bits of it with him.  A great series.  We will have to be doing what we can to help get him on his feet again though as Physio said he's on the waiting list - having come home rather than go to the Community Hospital.  Ditto carers I imagine, but I will chase those up on Monday.

Tam, Jon and Rosie are coming over on Sunday, so Keith is really looking forward to meeting the little one.  

Our new neighbour moved in today and I baked him a cake as a welcome gift.  As an architect, it sounds like he will do right by the property, which is a couple of hundred years old.  

Right, back to bed as it's 3 a.m. now.  I hate it when I wake and can't get back to sleep.

Shattered

 Well, Keith is home, safely settled in bed and had a bowl of beef casserole at 9 p.m. last night - had to pass on the sirloin steak he'd have liked as chewing too difficult!  Anyway, I am the one with jet lag as I was awake 3 hours in the night, and was fast asleep when the alarm went off at 7.  Someone at the hospital was muttering about a care package and 7.30 last night.  Keith told me we wouldn't have carers for two weeks yet, but I set the alarm just in case.  I had been having nightmares about being in America, and I had taken the kittens - Pippi had disappeared and Lulu swallowed a syringe!  Not a restful night's sleep.

I am trying to get my head around the new medications regime, as he has three new pills - one's a diuretic, and there's a heart pill (he has AF) and a blood thinner.  Yeesh.

I will have to rest today as I am shattered.  District Nurse coming later to change catheter.  We know how to have fun!

Keith's coming home tomorrow!!

 Yippee!  Lots of straight talking and string pulling today.  At one point Keith spelt out Solicitors on his alphabet sheet! and he was definitely not going to be deterred from getting home, any way he could.  I put it across that Keith's next move would be digging an escape tunnel, to try and lighten the discussion.  Anyway, a very helpful OT lady came and asked questions and said she saw no reason why Keith shouldn't come home and have bed rest until everything else was in place.  I have been told that the Hospital have applied for carers for Keith, so that is in place too.  The relief is a bit overwhelming.  Just waiting for Danny & Co to get home and then I will start relaxing.

Anyway, here are a couple of photos of the finished quilt - with no close-ups to show the endless mistakes!

I hope we all sleep better tonight, knowing Keith will soon be home.

Malvern roundup

 I was so shattered yesterday, having woken so early (thanks for changing the clocks, Govt.  Just give it up as it is just a bad habit).  The car park was nearly full when I arrived - I got in two rows from the end, but fortunately on the tarmacced bit so no worries about being a stick-in-the-mud later. It just meant a long way to go when going back to the car with goodies.  Due to the weather (one assumes) there weren't as many stalls as usual and they had put everyone up towards the North Gate, parked in squares around the pathways, which made it very confusing, trying to remember when I returned from the car, which bits I'd been to. 

I didn't take the camping trolley on the first outing, as if I had to drag it across muddy grass, it is very tiring.  I went back later with it, having found we had the tarmacced paths to walk on. Even so, I avoided anything large/heavy/furniture shaped though in fact the only thing I would have liked in the furniture department was a lovely William Morris Sussex Chair - but at £595 that wasn't coming home with me! I stuck to a couple of pieces from an Indian lady's stall (she had stuff imported) - two little metal cooking pots, and a branch hollowed out and used for storage.  It had a natural curve in the wood which gave it character.  I got a little French jug of the sort which are only glazed around the top (neck) as they are buried neck-deep in the soil to keep food cool.  It had a pretty greeny glaze with cream speckles.  I got several pieces of studio pottery ceramics in blue colourways, two heavy horse cockades which someone had revamped using natural colour horse-hair.  Normally they are dyed but hey, these were cheap and appealed to me.  One plant came home with me - a large flowered Campanula.  Oh, and I found a stand selling the lovely rusty metal swallow-on-a-stick garden decorations - it was only £12.  The ones I saw before were £25, so this was a bargain and looks lovely where I have stuck it in the garden.

For Keith, I bought two illustrated auction catalogues, one for a house contents sale of a country house somewhere (£2), and the other cost me £10 as it was a doorstop of a catalogue for the Chatsworth Attic Sale. That will take him a while to get through.  They had some fabulous things in their attics, I can tell you!  Very grand.  We had fun looking at them together.  K was feeling more positive after a good night's sleep, and asked for a glass of milk, which didn't need to be thickened, and he enjoyed - some extra calories in that anyway.  He is off all breathing aids now, and had his last canula removed yesterday, so it is literally a waiting game.  First thing this morning, I phone the Council about his care package.

I didn't take any photos as I was walking round, as I was a bit down, and very tired but I did stop at my favourite viewing point on the Upton turning, and took some of the views.  I'll take some photos of what I bought later on.  I was awake early this morning (having slept the sleep of the damned last night, due to taking Magnesium two days running) so I am going to try and knock up the first of the smaller curtains for the Summerhouse.  

I was on my own last night, as D&E in Carmarthen (and little "I" with her father for Easter).  I couldn't get the tv to work though (Danny had used his Playstation to watch a video the previous night).  Then it wouldn't turn on at all, so I just sat and read my book, but was in bed at 8.45.  Changing the batteries didn't help, so think a new remote is called for - this has been dodgy about turning on for some time now.

I hope you all had an enjoyable Easter.

Off to Malvern

 . . . shortly.  Just having a cuppa and waiting for my hair to dry a bit more (too shattered to wash it last night).  Keith needs to come home. The food is dire at times and he isn't eating anything like enough. They even put him back on a pureed meal yesterday so I spoke to the dinner lady and she will make sure he doesn't have that again.  They've put him back on a 4 bed ward again now and one of the blokes was awake and noisy all the previous night and kept everyone else awake too - poor Keith was exhausted yesterday.  He can barely speak so I am his only advocate and it is such a worry.  I spoke to the Assistant Ward Sister yesterday - we have to wait until a care package is in place and Powys is apparently very slow at this - and the other chaps in the ward are all Powys, but only Keith ready to come home.  If necessary, he will just discharge himself and we will get him home under our own steam.  

Baby Rosie is still having midnight feasts and 2 a.m. feasts and 3 a.m. feasts and T&J are shattered.  I desperately want to get over there again but can't abandon Keith.  

Deep joy - pitch black and pouring with rain out there.  I hate it when they change the clocks - such a pointless exercise - and driving in the dark is no fun.  Oh, and my tummy has decided it's not happy with me this morning, so have had to dose up with Immodium.  NOT what you want when you are going to be driving for over an hour and a half and then walking miles round a wet field. So, walking boots are the order of the day, and comfy shoes to drive in, and a spare jacket too . . .  If it is pouring there (forecasts for here and Malvern don't mention this sort of rain) I shan't be long out on the fields.

Thank you for your kind comments.  Will try and stay awake long enough to reply later. It is a bittersweet time here, and I am unable to enjoy the baby's arrival properly because of worrying about Keith.