Time is in short supply

 

Emma and I went  to visit Tam and Rosie yesterday, and we all had a lovely walk together in the spring sunshine.  Tam is lucky to have a network of footpaths and bridleways literally on her doorstep.  I am envious as it's much flatter than round here!  We could see a pair of Ravens flying round this hill and the field below.

Long valley views and an inviting path leading into the distance.

Emma and I both had long baby-cuddles whilst she slept and Tam was able to finally get the shower she'd been trying to get for days! If she's allowed to drive, she will visit us next weekend.

I managed to get out in the garden today, and potted up a couple more plants and sowed red Spring Onion seeds, and also a couple of packets of Verbascum and some home-grown Hollyhock seeds.  About 40 of those went in a tray and probably 40 more sprinkled along the herbaceous border. It was good to potter.  I pulled out spent strawberry plants from last year - 3 yrs old now so time for fresh ones which I ordered from Ebay last week.

I also had a books offer come up in my email.  I went to check out one title and of course bought it.  Ann Hayward's "Where the Saints Came From - on Pilgrimage in Wales and Beyond."  Thought it had my name on it.  

Just off to bed now.  

One Swallow does not make a summer . . .

 ... but it certainly cheers me up.  One of our stable Swallows has returned home.  I saw a 2nd yesterday morning, but it was just Passing Through.  Hope more of our Swallows soon arrive.  Yesterday's sunshine and delightful warmth cheered me up no end.  I pottered about in the greenhouse, and transplanted the other cucumber plants, and have sown some runner beans (Scarlet Emporor) and a packet of Sarah Raven's seeds - Rose Campion.  I bunged the Iris, Lychnis Strachis, and Paeony which I bought in Hereford Garden Centre in pots as I need to dig over where they are to live and remove grass and old house debris.  A job for tomorrow.

In between watching the racing from Aintree with Keith, I went out and finished painting two walls in the summerhouse for Emma, who was away in Carmarthen for the day.  I listened to Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone (Diana Gabaldon) and it was an absolute joy to listen to the story as I worked.

I did some weeding on the left hand side of the bank, where grass was threatening to overwhelm my plantings.  I will have to get some membrane and mulch down. 

I have found a little time to do Family History research (it's wonderfully distracting to escape into the past) and have gotten back further with Keith's Isle of Man ancestors.  Back to 1602 with his main line now. Manx records are brilliant and there is so much on line.

Today Emma and I are going to see Tam, Jon and Rosie.  I am going to tidy her back garden for her and will pot up a few Aquilegia from here (seeds from Ynyswen) so she has a nice link to our old home in her new one.  

Enjoy your weekend all.  I will try and find time to answer your comments. 

A day to sleep

 

I didn't have a good start to the day yesterday, as I cleaned my teefs too enthusiastically and the peppermint taste hit the back of my mouth and then made me sick.  I don't know why it is but me and peppermint don't get along.  

I still didn't feel right - this "little bit of a cold" and worries, kept me awake half the night and then after seeing to Keith, I had to lie down on the sofa where I fell into a really deep sleep for an hour.  Same after lunch too.  By teatime I had rallied a bit.  I didn't need to cook as Emma did us a stir fry which was gorgeous and MUCH better than my stir-fries (different sauce for starters, and she cooked the chicken breast in a tasty different sauce).  Then when Keith was all tucked up (following a visit from the D. Nurse to attend to his needs), we sat and shared a bottle of wine and watched Pride and Prejudice which was just what the Dr ordered, and I slept really well after that.

This morning we need to set up the Sky Q box so Keith can get Sky on his tv and then we can watch the racing from the Aintree meeting over the next few days.  

It is currently NOT raining (though skies threaten more) so I may even get an hour or so out in the garden and greenhouse today.  I have SO many seeds to get started off, mainly flowers.  

That little wretch Pippi has just come back in the house with a dieing just-fledged Thrush.  I am very cross with her and she is housebound now for quite a while.,  Don't mind her catching meeces and voles, but bird are out of bounds.

Right, I need to go and sort Keith out as he wants a shower.

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!