A wonderfully normal Monday.

I have had the letter from the ophthalmic consultant that I saw on the 21^st March

It’s the best letter in the whole world, because until that day when I saw him I thought my world had come to an end. How can I survive I kept thinking when my eyes are so bad I can’t stitch or sew or knit and worse not be able to read. Reading is my greatest love, so I thought I couldn’t live if I couldn’t read. I woke that morning to the most brilliant sunshiny day, the birds were singing in the garden, children skipped past our front window on their way to school and we set off for my appointment.

… we thought there was plenty of time, because we knew where to go, we pass that private hospital each Tuesday night on our way to choir practice. But it was 8:30am and everyone was going somewhere, work, the school run and we were in the middle of them. I was stressed as the time ticked on, but then when we got there we had to wait. I was still feeling uneasy and couldn’t calm myself.

He had the referral letter in his hand from my own Dr.. his smile was warm and I began to relax. He spoke quietly and calmly, and kept saying ‘ don’t worry’ but I did. When he told me there wasn’t anything to worry about I was not going blind.  My first thought was disbelief, then happiness and then I cried with my lovely man, who had to explain to the staff at reception, that they were tears of happiness. I am not going to take my sight for granted ever again. Life can be upended in a moment, it can change in a flash. But I am fine, I have been released from the greatest burden I have ever had to face. And I feel for anyone who has had to face their own ‘ end of the world’ scenario whatever it might be

But here today in black and white is his report, my eyes are fine. I have good eyesight with my glasses. There is nothing to worry about, albeit I have the starting of cataracts which is nothing and can easily be corrected. And these have not got any worse since they were first diagnosed in 2006.. I am fine, my eyes are fine.

 

Today we have had a normal Monday, housework is done, washing is done and it is a wonderfully normal day. It is even raining so a proper normal Monday!! < smile>

xxx

 

Love to everyone and be blessed for a perfect normal day.

 

 

My sort of Sunday afternoon

We have been out in the garden trying to catch up with what needs to be done.

The damson tree is full of blossom. The other tree is an amelanchier, which we call The Pigeon Berry tree as they love the berries.

 

Little pots still flowering and the veg patch dug and ready to plant

 

My pretty pink primroses and cowslips

And where did this come from??? I didn't plant it but isn't it a pretty colour? As soon as we get this centre bed under control I shall spilt this and plant it in other places in the garden.

And this the beautiful camellia that my DD gave me for my birthday last year. The photo doesn't do it justice as it is the palest of pinks with the petals edged with a deeper pink.

 

So in a another week or two I will have weeded all the garden. The green house is full of plants and so is my kitchen window sill.. Last year I gave away tomato, squash, courgette and some flower  plants and I will be doing the same this year too..I just can't throw away seedlings when I am thinning out!

First thing this morning I opened my Mother's day cards which were beautiful and I have a lovely bouquet of flowers from #1DS.. DD has phoned, nice to talk to your children even when they are parents too!

Happy Gardening all.  It has been a wonderful rewarding afternoon for me, spring has definitely arrived here.

 

This little fellow was hiding behind our compost box.. he ran off so hope he won't come back!!

Back to cross stitching and will this be my OPAM for March???

I started this quite a while ago, in fact so long ago I can't remember when!

It is a funny sort of fabric, like aida but softer.

When I bought it years and years ago I didn't really know a lot about cross stitch and relied on the girl in the shop to pick the colour threads. Well they were all wrong, I think she looked at the chart and just chose the colours from the picture.

 

Anyway when I pushed this to the bottom of my wips basket which was months ago, it was like this.

 

And I think I did a bit in January but didn't take any photos, and then I stopped to knit socks for my #2GS, and then the mitts for DD and 'LOVE' cross stitch for my lovely DH and then crochet shawl for me, which I have worn!!

So last night I stitched this and it looks like this now

 

 

So I am stitching the cat, which is really hard as the colours are all very similar.

But I will carry on till it is finished, although I am not enjoying the cat stitching!

Thank you for all the comments on my last post, you can't imagine the worry I had that I was losing my sight.

But I can see and all is well.

Thank you Lord!

Beautful wild flowers that I can see, thank you God

Last month at a routine eye test I was told I had macular degeneration.

It horrified me to hear that I would gradually lose my sight.

I have had some sleepless nights and have worried so much,  that some days I couldn't concentrate to do anything.

 

But today I have seen a Consultant Ophthalmologist privately and he examined my eyes

and there is nothing wrong with them at all!!

 

'Stop worrying'.. he kept saying.  At one point when I was chin on the machine and he was shining lights into my eyes into which I had had drops to enlarge the pupil, I was hyperventilating!

How could I not?

I thought I was losing my sight.

So thanks to the Lord I can see.

These wild flowers grow in my garden bought many years ago from the WI stall in Chelmsford market and have travelled with me from house to house!

And a joyous sight in my garden, which I look at each time I take a little walk up the path.

(Not my photos but from a garden nursery site)

 We had cream doughnuts with our morning coffee, not a regular occurrence.

And DH and I have been out for lunch to celebrate

 

So thank you, thank you, thank you Lord for prayers answered.

It has been a wonderful Friday!!

 

Happy Days

Happy day to everyone today and every day!

 

We sing the song  'Happy' with one of our choirs and if I am feeling blue as soon as we start my mood changes.
But when you listen to the words some don't really make sense!

 It might seem crazy what I’m about to say
Sunshine she’s here, you can take a break
I’m a hot air balloon that could go to space
With the air, like I don’t care baby by the way

 Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do

 Here come bad news talking this and that, yeah,
Well, give me all you got, and don’t hold back, yeah,
Well, I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine, yeah,
No offense to you, don’t

But I suppose the whole ethos is no matter what you can be HAPPY! We do clap at one point but it is so difficult to clap a rhythm and sing.... and I sometimes get it wrong but who cares...........

.....................Because  I'm Happy!!!

  And I hope your day is a happy one too...

A little crocheting..

Thank you for all the get well wishes I do feel a lot better although still taking the tablets. I hate to think of myself as being old, but truth be told I am and it seems that with old age comes tablets!!  LOL

But when I feel a little under the weather I knit or crochet.

 

This was a free pattern on Ravely....South Bay Shawlette

 

I added the picot edging myself.

 

 

And the yarn is King Cole Riot. A mixture of wool and acrylic so lovely and soft and warm.

 

Spring is here today and it's so lovely to see the sunshine.

Hope the sun is shining with you.

 

Chris x

Health

I am in a bad place at the moment with my health.

Constant infections have made me feel every year of my age!

I came across this and realised I have taken my health for granted.

 

 

And  this said it all for me so I am thanking God that taking anti-biotic tablets have relieved my symptoms and I have a wonderful DH who takes good care of me. One thing though with this quote I think we should seek God in all moments.

So thank you Lord for all the blessings I receive and for all the moments in my life.
My family, my home and my life that is filled with pleasant moments every day.

 

 

'Craftiness' and gardening at last... yeh!!

No photos of my cardigan, it isn't quite finished I still have the bands to do, but horror of horrors, the sleeves are way too long!!

I know how to pull a thread and as the welts are garter stitch it wouldn't look out of place, but can I be bothered?

But on a plus my yarn has arrived to crochet a shawl.

Dare I start this??? I might just try a bit of the pattern, as I have had a practice with some old yarn.

I had some help but I can now crochet following a chart!

 

And the sun has been shining and when it does my mind turns to gardening.

I washed some pots ready to pot on some plugs and plant some seeds.

 

The plugs are for my hanging basket and are plants I don't usually grow from seeds.

And a whole lot of gazanias.

For my basket, some trailing petunias, and a couple of diacia, a trailing fuchsia and a brachycome.
Yesterday I weeded a flower bed, which borders the path, so I am pleased. It was so nice to see it looking clear and freshly dug this morning. Truly several  blessings to pop in my Blessings jar!

Hope the weather has improved with you too, it was lovely yesterday to see the sun and we sat out on our bench for our morning coffee, temperature got up to 15°C
 Spring has sprung, hurrah!!!

Welcome to my new followers, I am gradually getting to the blogs of all followers but sadly some have stopping blogging. I often wonder why, were they too busy, an illness or a family crisis?
Perhaps they'll start again some day.

Happy day for you all today.

Poor winter garden!

Like the rest of Britain we have had our share of rain, but we haven't been flooded nor did we have power cuts, so we were blessed.

But our garden has taken a bit of a beating and it upsets me to see it like this.

But these are the 'before' pics and soon I hope there will be the 'after' pics!

  Being here in Essex on clay, our lawn is still water logged and squelches when you walk on it.

So we don't

Although the flower beds have old perennial flowers now well past their best with greying stems and yellow leaves, we still have some colour with the tete a tete daffs and some polyanthus.

Our veg patch is bare, but our herbs have survived and so have the pots.

 But look at this Christmas rose,  (hellebore) it has been flowering since before Christmas. A present from a teaching colleague back in 2002. It has grown and spread and is wonderful to have when the rest of the garden looks grey.

So it is all too wet to start gardening, knowing me I would get stuck in clay and fall over..
But I have cleaned the patio and sorted out the pelargoniums and fuchsias in the green house.
They all look good having had a trim back, the compost in the pots topped up and fed.. so now I am expecting them to do their best and flower their little cotton socks off.

This morning we are off to a garden centre, one of those that I think of is like a gin palace , although I have never been in one. This garden centre looks like and smells like what I think a gin palace would be.. carpeted, lights, scented candles, shining glass, trinkets and grandeur all around.
They make a good coffee so I am looking forward to the whole experience and I will be buying some plugs of those plants I don't grow from seed.
I am hoping that our garden will be tidy and weeded by the end of March, so come on Mr Sun do your best and dry us out!
Happy Days to all..

Magazine disappointment x 3

I really wanted this issue if Simply Crochet because Lucy from Attic 24 had written an article in it.

My shop in town that has every magazine under the sun on its shelves, did not have a copy.

So I looked on line, all you bloggers who follow Lucy had been there before me and lots of places had sold out!!

But then I found a firm who had copies, so I duly paid the cost of the magazine  £4.99 and £2.45 postage. It arrived within two days and I couldn't wait to open it and read it.

#1  The lower page edges were damaged, they were warped as though had been kept in a damp place, so making it difficult to turn the pages as some were stuck together, plus there were holes in the packet in which the project, a crochet heart was and holes through to page 12! They looked old holes.
I emailed the company and complained, as there was nothing wrong with the heat sealed plastic envelope so I assumed it had been dispatched in that condition.

Of course the firm denied that they had sent me a damaged copy as you would expect. Although I was offered £2.50 when I bought some thing else from them? I will never buy anything from HULU again!

#2 The artcle by Lucy was great but.... they didn't show her blankets open to show her wonderful crochet work, although they were pretty in a folded pile. I would have liked to have seen them open. The ones open on the page were of other bloggers.

#3 I won't be buying Simply Crochet regularily. There wasn't any wonderful designs that took my fancy in fact all the designs were of things I had seen on line. Who wants lots of baked bean tins with crochet sleeves, or cushion covers with pompoms???  In fact the best thing I saw was a hexi blanket where the centres were flowers.. but unlike Lucy I don't have three small children to make blankets for and the ones I have made are enough for me. I might make a baby one if someone I know is expecting, although I think I would rather sew a patchwork quilt!
Here are the two crochet blankets I have made.. a wavy pattern...

and some grannies and rounds of treble.. so I am happy with just having these.

Happy days... I am knitting that cardigan and it is going to be my OPAM for March.

 

PS Get on over to Victoria motto shoppe as she is having a wonderful giveaway/