Saturday 29th April - seize the moment

I thought I'd best write a blog post NOW as I am in SUCH a good mood... what has caused this surge of happiness? 

Lots of small things;

1. We have changed the sheets on the bed. This is a major task in my eyes, all that pushing and pulling and lifting and shoving and raising a dust... but how lovely when it is done!

2. It is sunny, and warmer than yesterday. Could April have finally arrived?

3. I slept like a log last night. Oh, what a difference a good night's sleep makes!

4. My father has made and eaten a proper supper 2 days in a row; a small steak and kidney pudding both nights, with a snack pot of mango pieces one night and a pot of rice pudding  the other night. Half his problems, I suspect, were due to not eating enough, and skipping the evening meal. I have filled his fridge with easy meals, mango snack pots and rice pudding pots in the hope this will help.

5. He is also enthusiastic about the rollator I have ordered; I am hoping it will make getting out MUCH easier!

6. I am reading an old-fashioned but comfortable book; 'Mrs Lorimer's Quiet Summer' by Molly Clavering, set in 1951. It is like an earlier 'Miss Read' style of book, very gentle, amusing, all about the interwoven ups and downs of a large family, but with no great emotional heart-wringing, tensions, searing, wrenching scenes. Maybe even no murders, as a change from recent books?

 I'm hoping that Guy WILL marry RONA in the end, that Phyllis and George sort themselves out and save their marriage, and that Thomas's life will be improved if Mary takes Mrs Lorimer's advice and employs an efficient cook housekeeper to take over the running of the house... but there are still many chapters to go before I know for sure.

Thursday 27th April - best laid plains...

Today was going to be all about cracking on with the of cross stitching. The end is in sight!

However, events intervened. 

I have spent more hours today wearing an FFP2 mask than I have in ages, even including previous hospital appointments for me and my father. Today I  have been accompanying my father to the GP, shopping for his suppers, and restocking his fridge, as he is now at the stage where shopping is too much walking, too tiring.

I enjoyed the shopping - this is the first time I have been in a big Waitrose, rather than a convenience store, since March 2020. Just looking at what's on offer is a real treat, with Himself doing all the reaching up for soup, down for cereal, trekking back for spring onions to help me.

We came home loaded with the contents of one of the cupboards at my father’s flat; packets of bran cereal, some Rich Tea Biscuits  -'I keep them in case I have visitors' (expiry date August 2016) and, big bonus, an enormous wedge of parmesan cheese - I'll replace it with some ready grated which is much easier for him to manage.

I spotted two carefully selected apples had been added to the trolley....

Sadly it's my compost heap which is going to be the main benefactor as the biscuits weren't the only antiques, and I'm not in need of HighFibre food.

Wearing the mask at the doctor's, round the supermarket and in the flat has given my rib cage such a workout! My chest is aching with the effort, bit a good night's sleep will solve it. Very few people are wearing them anymore, I noticed, but sadly it is still necessary for me, and therefore my husband, as catching covid or a chest infection would be seriously bad news. I'm looking forward with hope for when things might change in the future, and more closely for warmer weather which really helps.

Tomorrow will now have to be Even More Cross Stitching! 

Wednesday 26th April - Notebooks, cross stitch, daffodils

In other words, a random set of topics...

Notebooks

I think I've got it sort of sorted;

On the left, my current Commonplace Book which doubles as the new Sketch-a-day journal, and under it (with the little monogram) my paper diary/note book.

On the right, previous Commonplace books and sketch journal.

In the middle, a couple of old journals which are now torn into pieces and in the recycling. That sounds a bit drastic! That's because the writings in these are me expressing whatever upset me, annoyed me, stuff that I really wouldn't want anyone else to read. So, to avoid consequences, these journals are destroyed unseen by other eyes.

Finally, there is another diary upstairs where I write about the events of the day. Like a good friend dropping by yesterday with a bunch of daffodils;

Sunshine.

Or the mouse/rat (I had another go at drawing it)

Cross stitch

Another 160 stitches (crosses) completed. That leaves about 270 to go...

Tuesday 25th April - The long wait is over

Posting to this blog, and keeping up with projects and admin has been erratic for the last couple of months.

There's a reason for this;

Here are some of the daily drawings that I held back;

Thursday 19th January - top right, an appointment with a wonderful gastroenterology consultant (Himself was also there, but I ran our of space to include him in the drawing);

Back in December 2022 I had a routine CT scan of my lungs. At the follow-up appointment with the Lung clinic consultant in January, I learned that my lungs were more or less unchanged, but the scan had shown something in the pancreas area. She said she had asked for me to be referred to the local hospital gastroenterology department for further investigation. This appointment came through pretty quickly, and resulted in an MRI scan just a few days later; bottom left drawing!  

It was a long scan - about 30 minutes, maybe more; hard to tell with your eyes firmly shut! But then I had to wait - and wait - and wait to hear the results. I had been assured by the specialists - lung and gastroenterologist - that the most likely thing was that the unidentified objects would be harmless cysts. I had been in contact with the medical secretary because they wanted to get hold of the original CT scan, so I knew that my case had been reviewed within a week, but then she said the follow-up appointment would be 8-10 weeks... Oh. My. Word. 

I tried to stay calm by thinking that they would get in touch sooner if rapid action was required - I had been referred as a 'fast-track referral'. Even so, 8-10 weeks.

Meanwhile my father (who will be 94 in a couple of months) was ill in March for three or four weeks, so there was worry and appointments and so on for him as well...

Well, he has recovered and is back to his usual self, playing bridge every week, going to the quiz night, and hopefully even joining the weekly chair-exercise sessions which are beginning again!

And yesterday;

We had my follow-up appointment; yes, they ARE just cysts, and nothing else needs to be done about them (let sleeping cysts lie?). Another hugely helpful, knowledgeable, kind consultant - surgeon this time - took the time to explain everything very clearly.

I'm very relieved, and it is only now that the effort of staying calm, coping with the daily round of life plus dealing with what I think of as 'unexpected items in bagging area' is making itself felt. 

Normal service might be resumed soon...

Cross Country Collaboration

There have been many days over the past few weeks when I have been completely unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. But today was a marathon cross-stitch day. I have worked out that I will need to do 1,910 stitches for April's picture. Today, after an hour or so this morning, and again in the afternoon, I have completed 1,380 stitches! You don't know how good this makes me feel! So that means just 530 to go. I might even get it into the post box on Sunday!

  

   

Sunday 23rd April - Night Time Liturgy

This Night-Time Prayer comes from New Zealand. 

You can read the lovely story behind the prayer here.

Lord,

it is night.

The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.
What has been done has been done;
what has not been done has not been done;
let it be.

The night is dark.
Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives
rest in you.

The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
all dear to us,
and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.
Let us look expectantly to a new day,
new joys,
new possibilities.

In your name we pray.

Amen. 

Saturday 22nd April - I saw a...mouse?

Well, maybe... yesterday I was charmed and alarmed to see a fairly large mouse running along the wall of the raised flowerbed near the house. It sat on the wall for a few moments before disappearing down the gap between the back of the bed and the fence.

So I spent this morning watching and following a couple of video tutorials on drawing mice, in my 'rough book'. The artists in the tutorials used pencils - I used my fountain pen. I am pretty pleased with the results.

Today, our gardener says she saw a small RAT scuttling along the fence down to the bottom of the garden.

Oh.