To wee or not to wee, that is my problem!

Do you recognise these? They're dandelions, and used as symbols for incontinence clinics. I don't suffer from that, but I do have a bladder problem. I have to get up 5, 6 or more times at night to use the loo.

 It's really getting me down, and I'm tired, the lack of sleep is stealing my days and today I'm crotchety and miserable! 

To add to my moans, we're having a new kitchen fitted. We have had this builder booked since last November and he starts tomorrow, so we have had to empty all the cupboards and everything out of our little pantry. Just as well we have a good size lounge and we left off getting the new carpet as the room is full. 

I have various tests booked for my problem and for the first time ever in my life I feel anxious about them, anyway will tests make me better?? Dh has suggested that we do a dummy run next week to suss out the hospital, where to go and where to park etc. And that will help some of my worries.

I've already had two cystoscopies and they were clear 2 years ago.

I am taking Magnesium and Pumpkin seed extract, both advertised for bladders.. Only just started so can't say if they will do any good, but I'll give them a good try.

And I'm fed up of repeating myself to different Drs, who class pain as uncomfortable, let them have it and then they can say.. just uncomfortable!!

I wish I could blow it all away like this seed head..... 

                                                 Chrisxx

A delightful morning.

 We've had a lovely coffee in town and a mooch around. There's a market there today and I sampled the fudge, but it was so small a piece I could hardly taste it! But at £6 a very small slab, it was easy to resist buying; I love fudge but at that price I can leave it!

We'd seen a shop selling all manner of stuff, but never been in, such a small frontage, but inside it went right back and appeared huge. It had beach toys, crab lines, screws, tools, and hardware stuff and all manner of things, an Aladdin's cave! My boys when they were younger would have loved it and I could remember times,  when on holiday down in the West Country, they would have been in a similar shop every day buying bits and pieces with their holiday pocket money.

We went in there for some glue to stick the frame on my prescription sunglasses and spent a lot more than we intended.

BUT.. When we got home I went to check on my tomato plants and sad to see some had blight. In the little plastic green house with the sun on it, too humid and insufficient air, so I'll sow some more seeds right away in my little propagator. 

We drove home and detoured through the village and down past the  12th Century church.

My school friend, Judith is buried here killed in a car accident when we were 16 years old, a sad memory.

We drove on down to the beach, just to look at it and reminisce of times we used to stay in the dog friendly B&B there. Shame they gave up,  as it was perfect for us; there was a kitchen for your use and a café where we used to have tea and a cake in the afternoons. 

Home now and someone's mowing their grass,  so too noisy to sit outside for lunch, but we can't complain, as it was their first time and we've cut ours three times already! But we did sit and have a decaff coffee outside,  admiring our garden and watching the birds, all the feeders being used now and the bird bath, none here when we first arrived; the sounds of their song is magical.  Loads of hover flies and small bees around as well,  I think our gardening has been a success.

We've even planted our vine, which we've had in a pot ever since we bought it 5 years ago. We have had grapes in the past so hoping for a lot more now its in the ground

YEH, come on summer. we're ready for you!

 Chrisxx

14th, April the day my life changed.

 14th April is not a good date in my life. 

7 years ago I tripped and broke my right humerus.. and my life totally changed.

It wouldn't heal and 4 ops didn't do much, except to cause me a lot of pain. It still hasn't healed properly and is still very tender. 

I no longer can garden using my right arm, I can't dig.

If I can't do it left handed I don't do it.

I fail at cooking, because I can't lift anything just slightly heavy and I can't raise my right arm up to stir liquids.

I struggle dressing, I struggle doing anything that needs two hands.

I struggle drying and styling my hair

I rely on my husband for a lot of things.

And what I really miss is driving.

I have nightmares where I can feel myself tripping and falling.

And sometimes dreadful weepy days when I've tried to do something and failed.

For 7 years I've thought of that first Dr,  who said they didn't do plating and pins on fractures to hold the bones together to help them heal, and just relied on the bone healing as long as the bone was in alinement.. mine didn't!

A year later a surgeon did pin and plate it,  but it was too late and the bone wouldn't hold the pins. 

Then he had another try, which failed again.

I went to my own GP in tears, who said get an appointment at the Royal London Orthopaedic Hospital.. and so 2 years after I broke my arm, I did.. By this time non use of my arm had caused it to dislocate, so I had 2 huge ops, 6 hours long, a lot of horrible unbelievable pain.. And here I am, with limited use of my arm and and still days of pain,  7 years after my fall.

Without my right arm I'm not able to balance properly hence why I bought my Rhett (wheels).. Just a simple trip totally changed my life!

Chrisxx

What's to come......

 I have always gardened,  since I was first married and we had our own house. Since then with experience,  I have managed to fill my different 8 gardens with flowers and veg.  This garden is my 9th! 

I did have an advantage here, as I brought some small snips of plants and two small trees from our previous garden in Suffolk.

My neighbours wondered if we would take the new shrubs and small trees we had bought, as we had totally transformed the garden. In our second week there we had 8 dark leylandii removed which opened up the garden. And made new flower beds and rockeries and new circular lawn and paths. Plus we then had a new patio laid.

I left a lot of things thinking I didn't want to be mean to the new owners, however when I learnt they'd moved in and then gone to relatives in Italy for 2 1/2 months I wish I'd brought more! Especially the soft fruit bushes and raspberries. We were astonished to hear that and wondered what their reaction would be when they got back at the end of September to a wilderness! 

These were bulbs I forgot I'd bought when we first arrived, which to me look like 'ballet' dancers!

My Suffolk neighbours had lived there for 60 years plus,  and were all doom and gloom with our move to Wales,  forecasting that we'd have a lot of rain. Well, we would be pleased with that because, the three summers we had in Suffolk were too hot and we had to water every evening. Our peach tree failed to keep its fruit even with regular watering. Pretty alliums budded and dried before they opened, as did the camassia and other flowers,  it was so hot.

 So far here in Wales we've been watering just to get the newer plants established. It's still spring and without a green house I have managed to germinate a whole load of seeds.

Sunday was beautiful here and I sat outside and made 48 newspaper pots because we can't find any small pots I'd packed when we moved, typical!

My friend would be horrified to learn I bought these grape hyacinth bulbs, (Muscari  Latifolium) as she digs them out and chucks them. But as there was nothing here when we arrived I bought a whole lot of stuff I wouldn't have normally

And here are just some of my newspaper pots with antirrhinums, petunias and aquilegia seedlings. And in my little propagate are rudbeckia seeds, my favourite flowers.

Have you guessed I love my garden where ever I've lived. 

What about you?

Chrisxx

Do you have favourites?

I have had the opportunity of going to two talks by this author, Patrick Gale, at book Festivals.

He was very entertaining and his book 'A Perfectly Good Man.' was given to our book group before it was published so we could review it.

He writes the first drafts in an A4 note book, by hand!

I've read most of his books and loved some, especially 

'A Place Called Winter' 

A story about a man called Harry Cane, a shy young man in Edwardian England.

He marries but discovers something about himself, that forces him to flee to a place called Winter, a town in remote Canada.

Called then the 'Forbidden Love', Harry struggles to learn the skills required to build a homestead from scratch, but what was more important was Harry coming to terms with his sexuality.

Patrick Gale is a great writer, who is able to write about sensitive issues and his prose is fluid and moving.

When speaking about this book Patrick Gale suggested that this was possibly his great grand father.

Interestingly he said he didn't write his stories in a chronological thread! That is, he writes sections and then fits them onto the story, from the overall plan. He researches and takes two years to write his books.

I'm presently reading his latest book,

'A Mother's Boy' and thoroughly enjoying it. And there are 6 more I haven't read yet.

Anita Shreve (1946-2018)

I was so sad when I read of this author's death. I had bought and read all of her books, after I read that first one, 'The Pilot's Wife.' I couldn't read them fast enough. 

The Pilot's Wife is about Kathryn Lyons, whose husband Jack, an airline pilot is killed when his plane crashes. Trying to come to terms with his death and working with his airline, she finds out things that makes her realise she didn't know her husband at all. And things come to light, which showed he was leading a double life. 

The book was made into a film, which was good and true to the story.

I was shopping when I saw her then latest book 'Fortunes Rock,' and wanted to buy it, but it was a hard back and £14.99 so I thought a bit too pricey.. when I got home and told my daughter about the book, she said..'But she's your favourite author and if it was for some one else you would have bought it!'

So I drove the 12 miles right back and bought it.  

Her last book 'The Stars are Fire,' was published after her death.. Another lovely book..

These are just two of my favourite authors and why do I love their books, because every story is different, none are similar. The language is good, and the writing has great sensitivity, the stories flow, and the characters come alive. I always feel bereft when I have finished one and struggle to get into another book for a while.

Reading has always been one of my greatest pleasures. I grew up a lonely child, without a TV and lost myself in books. 

    Do you have favourites?

Chrisxx

I 

He's got courage!

 Say what you will about our PM Boris,  but he's there in a war zone in a suit, a very white shirt and tie!

All around him are in army greens, and he is there as though he's walking along a street in UK. So whatever you think of him, he's willing to go and speak to the Ukrainian President, Zelenskyy,  right in the middle of the war zone.

I admire him for this and am pleased that he has, no other head of state has left their cosy home to do anything similar.

What do you think of him doing this?

Chrisxx

A horrible morning.

 I'm not having the best of times. I have recurrent urinary infections, so my Dr referred me to a consultant. I thought in Urology but she was Gynaecology? 

We started off wrong as Dh was using the sat nav, while I who knew the way to go, wanted a different route, so we had an argument 10 mins into our journey, Dh said he would be better following the sat nav so we did.. It was a back road over the mountain, narrow twisty roads, me nearly screaming! We got there, never been there before, a small cottage hospital. The carpark was uneven and hilly and it nearly killed me with my walker. By the time we got there my only thoughts were ...'a toilet!!' The receptionist wanted my details as I didn't have a letter with me, because it never arrived. But I went to the loo first, buggar my details!! 

We waited 40 mins, what's new? I eventually saw the consultant, who spent a lot of the time complaining my medical records weren't available to see on her screen?? She asked me the same questions as my own Dr and did the same exam.. then she continued to explain what tests she'd like me to have, but didn't talk to me, but to my husband! It was a case of a person with a walker isn't 'compos mentis?' 

It was a complete waste of time and a horrible journey there, we came home my way! A bit longer but good roads and no twists and turns..

Chrisxx

Even further than Disney Land in the US!

 40 years ago on Monday, the weekend after Britain had declared, that we were at war to protect the Falklands, my class of 11 years olds came tumbling into our class room shouting....'we're at war, will we be bombed?'

'Are we going to be given gas masks, will school be closed, will there be tanks and bombers?' Of course their only knowledge of wars was the Second World War from an earlier teaching experience.

I must admit if the BBC hadn't shown maps of the Atlantic on the news, I wouldn't have known where the islands were. No internet in those days, but I did have my child's Arthur Mees Encyclopaedias and I had looked at the maps of the Atlantic the evening before to see how far the Falklands were away from Britain. Those Encyclopaedias were bought for me by my Aunty Glad who with my grand mother brought me up, thank you Aunty Glad. They were useful when I was 10 and even as an adult I consulted them!

So the first lesson of the day was geography and to explain how far the Islands were from us I used the children's own knowledge.. Most had been to Disney Land in the US and so we looked at how long it took to get there and then how much further to get to the Falklands.. Even further  than Spain too I'd said.. We spent the rest of the week, looking up that far away place and how the people lived there. Drawing maps and maths about time and distance, and that the people there were not that different to us in Basildon Essex. 

The children were happy to learn about it, altho' some of the boys wanted the gory details of bombing and ships on fire and soldiers killed, most were content to learn we weren't going to be bombed and they loved colouring the maps they drew!

We didn't talk about the 255 soldiers killed, but most watched the news with their parents so they knew what was happening. And I hope in my classroom they learnt the geography of the Falklands and where Disney Land was in the US,  and what a green and pleasant land we lived in and freely.

Did the news that it is 40 years since it happened bring back memories for you?

Chrisxx

Y Llyfrgell

 We were up and out in the sunshine to y llyfrgell,  the library, this morning. It was newly re-furbished a few years ago and is very nice inside. It's not the library I used when young, that was in the John St. the main high street. I was there quite a few times a week, just a couple of rooms, but my favourite place.

With those steps up to this new library,  I use the long 'S' disable ramp.. it's my exercise for the day, especially when I then walk to town via Lias Rd, which I call the road of obstacles with the broken pavers and the steep camber slope to the road! So was it worth it?

Oh yes, I picked up this book by T M Logan, which I've had on reserve for weeks.

I've already read the first few pages and its good!

And this one which is the reader groups choice for April. I asked about joining it when we first moved here but covid of course had disrupted the meetings.

But we are to go to the meeting on 20th April so I am so pleased.

I've looked up the comments on this book and some are not good, but as its the Book Group choice, I'll read it.

And of course we stopped here!

Do you use your local library?
Chrisxx

No snow here.

We've got up to bright sunshine and no snow, but the bird bath was frozen and there was a sheen of frost on the grass, so we were glad we'd covered our peach tree again. 

Although there was sunshine, there was a keen breeze when we went out, but it was very pleasant walking along.

Since having a decorator here a few weeks ago, every day for 2 weeks, we're back into getting getting showered and dressed before 9:00am.. So this morning we were out just after 9 o'clock for Slimming World. I'd not had a good week last week as I 'd not been well and I'd had a few naughties,  so half pound loss was a pleasant surprise.

Then we went to our favourite café in town, a big chain of coffee shops, its always warm there, cosy and I love the 'hubble' of chat, the smell of coffee and they do a very tasty cheese toasty! 

Dh went to the fish mongers and I strolled along slowly window shopping. I love the gift shops they have in our town. It is so nice to be back where there are shops to see and lots of people shopping and we went to the greengrocers too. Lovely fresh veg and he sells plants!

Do you like your town for shopping?

Chrisxx