Wednesday 6th November - oh-oh, more books...

A friend sent me this poem by C S Lewis, which I'm sure many of you know already. A few years ago I challenged myself to learn a short poem every week. This was one of the poems.

 I didn't keep it up for long, as I found after three or four weeks I had forgotten most of the poems I had learned earlier. But I might try again, maybe allowing a month for each poem! Anyway, here it is;

          All that is gold does not glitter,

          Not all those who wander are lost;

          The old that is strong does not wither,

          Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

But did you know it has a second verse?

          From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

          A light from the shadows shall spring;

          Renewed shall be blade that was broken, 

          When crownless again shall be King.

It sounds as though it comes from 'The Lord of the Rings'. I love the mysterious sound of it.

This has sent me on a hunt for another similar poem I read in a hospital waiting toom many many years ago. There was a scheme to put poetry booklets in hospitals. It's quite difficult to find a poem when you can't remember any particular lines from it, or the title, or the poet.

I have put in motion a solution by.... ordering a couple of anthologies as I am sure it is in one of them! I used to have these books, but am pretty certain I passed them on to friends. 

Ah yes. 'Four for the price' of three strikes again. If the anthologies are in good condition they will might become Christmas presents...

Ang is busy knitting for half an hour every day in support of the Bone Cancer Research Trust. A very good cause; a young girl at our church had bone cancer in her leg. For a while it was thought that they would need to amputate at the knee; poor girl,  she was only 9 or 10, but they managed to save it and do a replacement knee opration instead. She still had to undergo massively debilitating chemotherapy, and then, several years later, a second knee replacement as she grew taller. I'm not doing the sponsored knit, but it's not too late to sponsor Ang if you follow the link above to her blog. 

I am trying to knit some of my Adult Surprise Jacket most days.

It is the weirdest shape; here is a sweet little youtube showing how to origami the finished knitting into a jacket.

I'm heading at slow speed to the moment of maximum despair before the final push;

I think (but I'm not sure at this stage) that the blue lines will become the button bands, and the red dots, where the needle points emerge from all the knitting, are where I will be keeping some stitches for the front neck shaping. 'Slow speed'? I've currently got over 200 stitches on the needle, each row takes me about 20 minutes to knit, and I need to continue increasing by 4 stitches every other row for 8 more rows. Then I shall reserve 16 stitches either side for the neck (are you still with me?) and contine with the increases on the remaining stitches. 

Next comes the scary bit; I think I then pick up stitches from one neck edge, down the front to make button bands, and then... and then......... and then................... well, I've studied the diagram and read the instructions about a dozen times, and I'm hoping it everything will become clear. Heaven know how many stitches I will end up with, but I'm hoping I will be able to cram them all on the needle  - I have checked that far as I can...

It's a good job there will only be a few rows of the monster number of stitches.

Tuesday 5th November - how many books on the go at once?

 Oh, too many, has to be the answer.

'The Counter-Tenor's Daughter' by Elizabeth Falconer is one, a 'real' paperback, and the third in a loosely linked series. Many thanks to Elizabethd for recomending them. I get the next in the series when I'm putting together an order from world of books.

I'm dipping in and out of 'The Carlyles at Home' by Thea Holme is another 'real' paperback. It's a Persephone Book, and I only buy them occasionally. It's about Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane and their life in London in the mid-1800s. You have to sjile; they've only just moved in, and Jane's priority has obviously been to get his study ready for him; 'here I sit' he writes in a letter, 'all nice comfortable' while Jane is still battling with ordering the rest of their house. 

We visited the house, now a National Trust property some years ago when we were in London, so I can picture the rooms as I read.

It's taking me ages to read 'Unapologetic ' byFrancis Spufford, which is an account of why, inspite of everything, he is a Christian. I've read it before, and it's written in quite a d3nse style, and a bit sweary for some, but I find it fascinating and honest. I can read a couple of pages and then I need to step back and re-enter my normal daily life for a bit. I wonder what it would be like to actually talk to him?

The bookclub choice this month is 'Emminent Victorians' by Lytton Strachey. I've know of this book for years. My word, but LS is 'waspish' as one of the other bookclub readers said! I've just got through his opinion of Cardinal Manning, which is so uncomplimentary that I looked up Cardinal Manning on Wikipedia to get an alternative view. 

8n my mind it links to Anthony Trollope's book, 'The Warden', and the impassioned and opposing discourse between the Evangelical churchmanship and Anglo-Catholic churchmanship of the period. Who can forget Alan Rivkman as the egregious Mr Slope in the TV series all those years ago?

LS's next subject (victim?) is Florence Nightingale... 

I've finished 'The Day of the Storm', Rosamund Pilcher. Not one of her best... a bit of a pot-boiler in my view. But it was only 99p. 'University  Challenges' by Jack Sheffield was also 99p, so worth a punt, especially as it is set in a thinly disguised York University. But I won't be buying any more... it was OK, but a bit  - how can I describe it - a bit like a mug of luke warm weak coffee...

The Mary Stewart (99p) will be a cozy re-read when I need something like that, and the Penelope Lively looks intriguing, again 99p.

What else? There are more?

Another 99p Rosamund Pilcher; I've read this already, many years ago and fancied reading it againsome time. Well, I'm a just a sucker for these 99p kindle offers.

I've no idea why I bought 'The Photographer's Wife' by Nick Alexander. I started it this morning to see what it was like and have kept going... so far.

I always read Nigel Slater's 'Christmas Chronicles' at this time of year. I've bought the booze and fruits for the liqueurs (recipes on November 2nd) and have every intention of making them as soon as I have rounded up enough jars.

So, how many books is that? Don't bother counting because there are a couple of others that I haven't mentioned! 

Monday 4th November - My Oxygenated Life

I'm nearly at the end of a series of hospital appointments; last week was a trip to London to see the ILD (interstitial lung didease) consultant  - 'carry on as you are' was the conclusion. 

Today was a home oxygen follow-up at a local hospital for the 24 hour oxygen prescribed at the beginning of September. It involved the usual tests; a blood sample from my ear and 6-minute walk tests, walking up and down a length of corridor for six minutes to check the distance I can cover and the effect on oxygen levels and heart rate.

In the event I stopped the first test at 4 minutes, using 6 l/m, as I could feel a tightness beginning in my chest. I'd been told previously by the heart specialist that I can keep going until I can feel the tightness starting, and then I must stop and I catch my breath before carrying on. 

Second time around, using 7 l/m I walked for nearly 6 minutes before I said I had to stop.

I learned some useful information; 

when I'm active I should aim to keep my heart rate below 100 beats per minute and my oxygen saturation above 88% 

it's OK to cross these boundaries for a very short period of time as long as I then allow plenty of time to recover. 

These levels will protect my heart from having to work too hard to get the oxygen in my blood pumped around my body.

(By the way, this is specifically for people like me with Pulmonary Hypertension and severe Pulmonary Fibrosis. I don't think it applies to 'normal' people!)

The respiratory nurse also commented on how much better I look now. 'Your colour is much better; your colour was a bit grey and washed out'. Yes indeed. She's not wrong; I had got so tired from trying to get some clarity and useful advice on how to manage my oxygen needs, as well as battling through on lower levels of oxygen than I actually needed.

Also, the respiratory nurse was the first person who was able to tell me which moisturising creams I can use. I knew it was really important to avoid creams with parabens - paraffin type products - and not to use vaseline type products if you are on oxygen. But which ones could I use? I'm not sure of the details, but these substances react with the oxygen in an unhealthy way. The only advice I ever got was 'Read the labels'. Have you ever tried to read the labels on the tubes and understand what the ingredients are?

She suggested I switch to Aveeno products. I am using their moisturisers, cleanser and shampoo. My skin had become very dry and flaky; now it is so much better.

Next week I'll have an echocardiogram at a local hospital, and them I'm 'done' until after Christmas, I hope!