Friday 18th August - Snails and criss stitch, and Food or Medicine?

Not much to say about snails, except they are quite engaging creatures with their little 'horns' and beautifully patterned shells. Except when they are eating my lettuces and primulas. I spotted a couple wending their way across the path this morning in the rain, along with a slug or two. Slugs are not engaging creatures in my view. Anyway, I picked them all up using my slugging tongs and deposited them in the council garden waste collection bin. The ones I had dumped in there a day or so ago had all laboriously climbed to the top of the bin and then I heard them drop back to the bottom when the lid fell closed wit a rumble-thump. I did feel a little bit mean...

There's a lesson there, in the way the snails persist in their determination to reach the top of the bin. Persistence is the name of the game with this month's cross stitch; for some reason I keep forming rows of cross-crisses instead of criss-crosses, and have to embark upon unpicking and redoing stretches, sometimes twice over. What is the matter with me? 

I have solved this problem for the moment by doing an entire row of crisses, and then going back with crosses over the top. Hallelujah! It worked! I completed a section in about 15 minutes, having spent an hour getting the previous section right. With this tactic I might make some serious progress.

At the moment I am enjoying delicious 'medicines'. Seriously. Recent blood tests, in preparation for an annual infusion of - wait for it - zolendronic acid - (I love saying that, sounds as though I should get a super power or at least glow in the dark, but it's just for osteoporosis which is a consequence of taking steroids) flagged up low levels of potassium, so I have been advised to have a banana and a glass of tomato juice every day. Good job I like them both!

(That's the new tray cloth). Then there is a handful mixed of nuts, I forget why it is supposed to be a good idea.

 Finally there's the small bowl of four soaked prunes with half a portion of live yogurt and a generous sprinkle of whole grain cereal. That's because I have altered my breakfast from muesli and milk to white toast and honey to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of the iron tablets I have to take twice a day, which clash with dairy, whole grains and calcium supplements. I'm reliably informed by Best Beloved that pictures of prunes are not a thing anyone wants to look at. Can't think why.

Anything else? Well, Dr Tim Spector would probably advise adding kombucha (not keen on the sound of that) or kefir (I've tried it; I'm not enthusiastic unless it is strained and used as a soft cheese spread) or kimchi (Tried that too, even made my own, and that's a NO) or sauerkraut (I do like that) That's to combat the effect of the prophylactic antibiotics I have to take all the time (to protect me from the consequences of taking immune suppressants.).

Somewhere in all this lot I have fit in time to actually eat a meal... oddly enough, I don't seem to be very hungry at the moment...

Hey ho. We shall see what the repeat blood tests show next week.