Tuesday 3rd November - Update - health, extension, joy

 Two concerns have been dealt with this morning and it's not even lunch time. We're celebrating with a - wait for it - third cup of coffee!

The first two were dealt with in the course of a routine clinic appointment with the ILD chest clinic, following up on the lung function tests last month. As expected, as I already knew, the results showed a slight decline, but not enough to raise alarm bells. That slow and steady loss of function is what happens with pulmonary fibrosis so no-one is surprised. In other words, keep calm and carry on as before.   

The doctor was also able to reassure me that the loss of appetite I am experiencing (and how many readers are enviously exclaiming 'lucky you!) is due to the Nintedanib. I need to watch my weight...! Pass me the chocolates, someone!

The other concern was regarding the problem of moving all our kitchen stuff into our lovely new kitchen, hopefully in a couple of week's time. There's no provision in the new kitchen for the contents of the current broom cupboard, and for the bread machine and slow cooker and LOADS of other things, as they will all find a permanent home in the new utility room. So what to do in the interim, when the old kitchen is being gutted to become the shower room and utility room?

Inspiration struck; back in the summer we bought a new sentry box shed for the oxygen cylinders. The current shed is in need of major repair - but suppose BB put up the new shed outside the new kitchen door and we stored everything, temporarily (says I to myself very firmly indeed), in there?

Problems solved.

......

I get a feeling of intense delight, pure joy even; a complete uplifting of my spirits however my day is going whenever I look across the gardens to where the birch trees are outlined against the sky. The leaves shimmer and sparkle in the sunlight as they catch the breeze. I can stand just inside the new back door, out of the cold, and just gaze... 

          

Monday 2nd November - autumn vocabulary

 

Frugally challenged has her hibernaculum all set up, to see her through Autumn and Winter. 

Thanks to Susie Dent, I have found a similar word, 'hibernacle', for mine.

I would love to arrange a cosy comfortable home to settle down in for the next couple of months. It's not going to be easy, as we are in a world of chaos with furniture and bits and pieces everywhere while the building work continues. 

Progress is happening; the extension has all been painted a sort of off white and looks so clean and fresh. The kitchen will be fitted next week, and then we will have to clear the current kitchen into the new space.

 Unfortunately this includes all the stuff we are planning to store in the utility room, once it has been constructed, so there will still be chaos. I'm sure we'll cope... somehow!

The drawing at the top of the post is what the sitting room hearthrug looks like at the moment; various stacks of boxes, heaps of things, the hob for the kitchen, a spare chair, a side table... all covered by a fine layer of plaster dust.

From time to time it all gets a bit much and I'd really rather latibulate;

I just keep reminding myself how wonderful it will be when it's finished. 

Fortunately the misty mornings have usually given way to sunshine before lunchtime, and I can stand in a sheltered corner to appreciate the autumnal apricity;

.....

It's time for the monthly 'following a tree' picture;

The witch hazel still has a few leaves left. I'm hoping they will change colour over the next few weeks to red/bronze. The bare twigs have tight buds, ready for next year.

And I've added black ink 'leaf-pile' sort of markings to the painty splodge of a few weeks ago. 

'The Fall of the Leafe' by Martin Peerson (1571 - 1651)

Saturday 31st October - wild music in the air...

 A short clip of Hilary Hahn playing a wild and frenetic passage from the Sibelius violin concerto came up when I was wasting spending a few moments scrolling through YouTube this afternoon.

'That sounds like the perfect music for Halloween', I thought. This clip is half an hour long.... worth every minute in my view.

What else?

 Yesterday a young man pulled up in a pantechnicon; 'glass delivery for you' ge announced. He had all the paperwork, with our name and address etc, but all our glass is installed. So he went away. I felt sorry for him as he had driven for two hours from his previous delivery to get here. He seemed very philosophical about it.

The mornings are misty to begin with at the moment. I'm enjoying standing in the bedroom window bay watching the sun slowly burn through. First a pale circle, which steadily brightens until I can't watch any more. 

A robin has staked a place on the very top most twig of the ancient flowery cherry outside our bedroom window to sing in the dawn - how perfect is that? The leaves are only just beginning to turn, so I'll be able to watch the colours change a bit more every day.

I've just read that the best way to look after wildlife in the garden is to leave the garden alone... let the leaves stay in a heap somewhere,  just brush the fallen twigs etc into another heap, and let the seed heads stay on the plants in the borders. 

Fantastic! I would probably have done all that from laziness anyway! Now as well as conserving energy (mine) I'm doing my bit for the bugs and beasties without any effort. 

Thursday 29th October - the ice age recedes

 I think we're beginning to come out of our mini ice age here. As the plaster dries, and the extension is less damp, it's feeling a little warmer. 

The painter came this afternoon to scope out the job... we all  - me, BB and the painter - are dubious that it will be dry enough tomorrow, but he's coming round first thing in the morning to have a look. He says he can swap a couple of jobs round and come in next week so we're not worried. We've chosen a very pale sandy creamy colour. 

We took a trip to a nearby store called The Range... we were enveloped in Christmasalia from the moment we walked in the door.

I was rather taken by a lampstand like this

Except the one in The Range had THREE lanterns, each with a different scene. I didn't look at the price... but what fun! The 'snow' is blown through a hole in the top of the tree, or Santa's hat, or the cottage  in each scene. chimney. If I had unlimited space, and unlimited storage,  and unlimited money, I might have succumbed.

Jean asked me where Ang and I find the patterns for our knitted squares collaboration. We're using this book;

'200 knitting blocks' by Jan Eaton, although there are actually about 150 blocks as some are in different colourways. I don't feel cheated as I'm unlikely to want to knit 200 squares. Ang and I are using double knitting yarn and 4mm needles, and the blocks are a pretty consistent 6 inches square. (That's a fine mix of old and new measurements!)

I suppose if you use thicker yarn and larger needles it would probably still work... and make larger squares.

Tuesday 27th October

Oh, the cosiness of a lap blanket! I knitted this one years ago to use up some dk remnants... I could do with some of these colours now...

The colours of my leftover dk yarn are not inspiring me at the moment and I'm having to work to resist buying any! That would rather defeat the purpose of the current collaboration challenge.

I cooked the little squash/pumpkin, cutting it in half, scooping out the seeds, and seasoning with olive oil, salt and pepper, for half an hour at 180C in the air fryer. 

It came out pretty well, I'll do it again. LyndaG pointed out that there was a label saying 'eat my insides'. Which, of course, I missed. The skin was paper thin and dry, like onion skin. I'll definitely peel it next time.

The plasterer finished in the extension today:

He's done a lovely job. I had no idea plastering was such a very skilled and intense activity. One of the builders, you can see him in the foreground, came to remove the boards which were blocking the original patio doors and back door. I was overjoyed to be able to see into the back garden again,  and spent quite a while just looking at the trees. I've missed them!

But... once it grew dark, the temperature in the main house dropped until the hairs on my head were all standing on end... so, so cold. Hence the lap blanket. Why hadn't the heating come on?

Ah. The oxygen concentrator, which pumps out a good deal of heat, is exactly below where the thermostat was mounted, about fifteen years ago. Luckily it's the type of thermostat that can be unclipped from the wall and put somewhere else. We've moved it away from the concentrator and the radiator has heated up nicely. I'm much more comfortable now my hair has lain back down on my head!

This is today's piece in the book 'A Year of Wonder'. Not your usual Paganini fireworks, something gentler.

Paganini 'Cantabile in D major 

Monday 26th October - super caffeinated

 The only clock I can see from where I sit eating my breakfast and catching up on the news, thinking through the day ahead, etc, hadn't been changed yet - it's the one high up on a shelf.

So when I saw it said 10 am I decided it was time for the second coffee of the morning. BB raised an eyebrow and commented it was a bit early, but I pointed out it was already 10, so he obliged. Of course, it was only 9 am. That clock has now been altered!

 (I wish I could raise just one eyebrow.)

 So I have paid a humungous invoice for the no-longer-leaking roof, drawn and written the 20-minute journal above, read through blogs, skimmed the news, assisted in the eviction of a monstrous spider from the kitchen sink, made the plasterer a cup of tea, and quite soon I will be in need of a little lie down in a darkened room...

.....

Flash mob in a school cafeteria - how I wish something like this had happened when I was at University, but I don't think flash mobs were even thought of then.

  

Violin soloist having an E string crisis at the Royal Albert Hall (I think you'd need to be super-caffeinated to attempt this concerto)