Yes. Well. I have put All my clouts back on today. Thermal vest, sweatshirt and fleece top. At one point I was also wrapped up in a blanket when we had all the windows open in the living room for 'an air change'.
I have been out into the garden for some fresh air and a bit of a walk around but otherwise stayed in.
The main push is to finish this book cover by the end of June in time for Ang and me to start our next collaboration in July...
I love the photograph of the children. The blue stitching holding the overlap in place is my first go at Quaker Stitch, a sort of split stem stitch. I started at the bottom, and you can see it took a while to settle into the rhythm.
A month, nearly, has passed since my last post in this series.
Where to begin?
I had a rather bruising assessment for the pulmonary rehab course back in the middle of the month where I was told in no uncertain terms Not to use any oxygen support that had not been specifically prescribed, and not to use any oxygen equipment not specifically supplied by the NHS.So, that left me in quite quandary, as the portable concentrators we had bought were with the knowledge and approval of the medical specialists I see regularly every six months. Their advice regarding using oxygen suppot had been far more relaxed and nonspecific. Along the lines of 'you may find it helpful when you are out and about' etc.
Anyway, I thought I'd have to follow the instructions of the rehab team, and I can discuss this all when I see/zoom the specialists in June. I've also had a CT scan so that they (the specialists) can see if there are any changes to my lungs since December 2022.
Well, I was passed fit enough to do the rehab course, and suddenly 7 cylinders of oxygen were delivered, and I was told to bring one, and the carrying backpack to the first session. I've had several sessions now of an hour of exercises followed by a session on various aspects of living with COPD or PF (pulmonary fibrosis). There about 10 of us in the session, all working at our own pace.
About seven people have COPD and three, including me, have PF and I'm the only one using oxygen. I've already learned that the management of the two conditions, and optimal breathing patterns, have a number of important differences which is most helpful to know.
I'm already seeing the benefits of the exercises, and a combination of these sessions plus recovery from whatever laid me low in March, and better weather, is helping me improve.
I've followed the instructions to use only the night-time oxygen (prescribed way back in 2013) the cylinders for activity and exercise. I'm supposed to be getting about 92% for resting O2 levels on the oximeter according to three different specialists. At the moment it takes a serious effort to reach, let alone maintain this figure, but that's still better than before. I'll feel more relaxed when this figure becomes more easily achievable!
I could get stirred up about spending millions on distraction election promises like National Service... (the latest is that young football stars will be exempt... what about gymnasts, musicians, ballet dancers and all those professions which require 24/7 dedication and training? What about the funding for the admin to check every application for exemption due to disability, hospital treatment... ) Actually, where is the money coming from?
nope. I'm not going to waste my time and yours...
All I'm asking is, that whatever your politics, priorities, you try and vote.
Right. That's enough of that.
I took a pen to the watercolour doodles I did a few days ago. In the case of the bottom one, I just used coloured pencils to add more colour to the flowers. It's really just exploring, experimenting, trying out this and that...
Which is the same as the current book cover
There will probably only be 6 charm squares stitched to the blue foundation, which can then be folded around the book covers and the edges turned in and stitched down. I haven't done more than stitch the title of the book I'm making this for; 'Project Book 2024'. This square will be folded around the spine, so I don't want to add any more until I see how it lies. The next piece, bottom left, has been tacked down and folded over so this time I know my seam allowances will be sufficient!
But I thought I'd spare you a photograph. There were at least half a dozen in each of the traps. But no snails. I don't know if I am merely assisting the snails in their push for garden vegetable patch supremacy. I shall have to wait and see.
The traps have been emptied and refilled ready for tonight's binge drinkers.
Otherwise... the morning was taken up by the rehab exercise class. My second week, and I am no longer the newbie. Once we've been shown how to do all the exercises on the sheet we're left to get on with it at our our pace. I still had to ask which coloured elastic band I needed for chest expansions (red), and check if I had remembered how to do biceps curls. Then I lost count a couple of times so did a few extra for luck.
Musicians count in 8s, and exercise class leaders count in 10s. I can 'feel' counts of 8 without actually counting, but 10s do my head in.
It's not surprising that apart from writing lesson notes for a couple of piano lessons I taught yesterday very little else apart from reading ('The Girl of his Dreams', an Inspector Brunetti by Donna Leon). What a lot of different covers for the same book
I bought it on kindle so I've no idea which cover I have. Although the first and third pictures have an awful lot in common!
The other morning I woke up feeling rather sad because I thought I had missed the Longest Day.... then I woke up properly and breathed sigh of relief. Still May, not yet June.
I was very annoyed to discover that Something had eaten a whole broad bean plant last week, and immediately sent off for two twin packs of these;
They were delivered today, and we have installed and filled them. Heh heh heh. Enjoy your beer...
We shall inspect them tomorrow.
I have practised backstitching a title on the first book cover I made before doing one on the current cover.
I might leave it until the cover is sewn onto the book, as I found stitching the letters fairly easy with the hard surface of the book underneath the fabric.
I finished the book 'The Secret Ingredient', by Sue Heaton last night. It was okay; I did find the ending a bit worthy, a bit twee, and a bit obvious. I might try some of the recipes, if I can find them!
It's been an 'indoors' sort of day; cold, grey and rainy off and on. So, guess what, wevspent most of the day, apart from setting up the slug traps, indoors.
And another Bank Holiday weekend draws to a close...
I keep wanting to write 'it was a quiet and peaceful day', and so it was, for a lot of the time.
In the morning I did a bit of sewing, a bit of knitting, and a bit of drawing. I've also started going through a great box of photographs that my father unearthed. Quite a number relate to various grandchildren - ie our children and nephews - christenings and birthdays when they were very little. A real trip down memory lane.
I also read quite a lot of 'The Secret Ingredient'. I suppose you would call it a cosy romance... Will Kate marry Jack? Will Della marry Dave? I'm only about 2/3 through but it's holding my interest. Each chapter seems to include a 'revelation' by, or about one of the characters and a recipe.
We seized the opportunity of a fine spell after lunch to go for a walk, just round to some friends in the next row to return some seedlings I had been taking care of for a couple of weeks while they were away. It was still sunny, so we sat in the garden and had tea/coffee and delicious homemade shortbread still slightly warm from the oven. Perfect. Then we completed the loop back to our house, a distance of about a mile in all.
We're trying use up one of the oxygen cylinders at least every other day for the exercise and to get used to using them. So this little walk around the local area was a perfect opportunity. We arrived home with the cylinder 3/4 empty, and just before the rain started.
I had a slight panic halfway home, because I had forgotten all about a piano lesson booked for the end of the afternoon, but there was plenty of time - phew!
Last man standing. Or, equally, last woman standing.
I am thinking of Queen Elizabeth II, after the death of Prince Philip, as the last of her generation in the Royal Family.
Many many years ago I saw a moving television play, possibly one of the Alan Bennet 'Talking Heads' series, where a very old lady was mourning the death of the last of her very old friends.
'There's no-one left to call me Margaret', she said.
The listener, perhaps a carer or a social worker or a nurse said 'I can call you Margaret'.
'No you can't. It's not the same. You can call me Miss Hathaway', the old lady snapped.
I've changed the names, and very likely the dialogue as I only really remember the sadness of the phrase 'There's no-one left to call me 'Margaret'.
My brother is out of the country at the moment, and my father telephoned yesterday, in the afternoon, uncharacteristically for him. Just for a short chat; I could sense him dredging up topics to keep the conversation going as he didn't have much to say. He, too, is the last man standing in his generation of family and friends. It must be a lonely and possibly frightening place to be.
If, however, you have discovered, in the lines of the old hymn 'what a friend we have in Jesus', then, like the late great Queen, you will never be in the position of being 'the last man, or woman, standing'.
I used to have a twitter account, but deleted it when Twitter became X and changed in tone. I still 'tweet' all day long, not to living friends and family, but to Jesus, God, or the Holy Spirit, whoever happens to be in earshot.
'God, what a glorious view,' I think, not as a casual disrespectful use of 'god', but addressing a real person.
'Now then, Spirit of Wisdom, what's the best way to do this? What would you say/do?'
'Jesus, give me strength, hold me steady because I'm feeling a bit wobbly right now,'
Give it a try... just chatter. According to the scriptures, God is interested in the minutiae of our daily lives, however trivial, so take him at his word.
What a glorious day! We went back to the gardens we visited a few days ago, this time in the morning.
We managed to walk further this time.
I took this photo of a massive fungus on a tree in the shrubbery. This is for one of the regular blog readers who often post pictures of interesting fungi...
They were obviously hosting a wedding in the garden later in the afternoon, and I took a couple of photographs of the signs directing the wedding party for the little drawings of doves. I thought they would be useful as templates for embroidery.
The afternoon was occupied by a little bit of fence panel maintenance...
Housework; clean pillowcases today. Changing the sheets, duvet cover and pillowcases tends to be a staged event. I'll change the pillowcases as a statement of intent, and then over the next day or so clean sheets and duvet cover happen. A day here or there - who cares! It will all come out in the wash...
Repairs; not exactly a repair. I've treated myself to cotton pyjamas this summer, and very lovely they are too, but the facing inside the fronts is the sort that crumples up instead lying flat. I ironed them when they came out of the wash - a novel event in this household, ironing - and within two nights the facing was all wrinkly and wrong again. So, this morning I back-stitched the facing on the side where the buttonholes are, and managed to invisibly stitch the other facing down. I didn't think I would really be able to do invisible stitching! Here's a picture of the back-stitch line, running up beside the orange strip on the left. You can see how wide the facing is. I'll put the pj jacket in the wash now with the other half.
I didn't take a picture of my magnificent invisible stitching because, guess what - it's invisible!
Painting; I'm not sure what I shall do to these experiments next, but something will happen to them soon.
Gardening; Some sly slimy molluscs has crept into my cold frame and started in on a whole load of baby marigold seedlings. A friend presented me with a paper cup full of seedlings, just beginning to have their true leaves showing (the ones that were left). I have pricked them out and moved them to another location.
Tne day brightened up in the afternoon and we drove out to some nearby Gardens for a little walk about.
On the way I saw the most ridiculous sight; a bird, maybe a sparrow? whatever it was it was furiously flapping across the road trying to catch a large butterfly. It was having to try and fly just a little bit faster than the butterfly, which was too slow for it to maintain enough speed. Every few flaps the bird lost height and the butterfly increased its lead while the bird struggled to regain height and speed to snap up its prey.
I didn't see how the titanic effort ended!
In the sun and out of the wind it was quite warm. Out of the sun and in the wind it was - quite chilly.
To ,you delight the handkerchief trees were all 'dressed overall' like ships, with their white handkerchiefs hanging from every branch as well as carpeting the ground.
AND I found something to stare at
I love the way the fronds unfurl all - unfurlingly.
This rose was already old when we moved here around 40 years ago and has survived decades of neglect.
Today's shopping surprise was this tiny bag of potatoes.
We do the main grocery shop online. It is so easy, when adding things to the list to forget to check the size of the tin, carton, packet, or in this case, weight of the product before clicking 'add to basket'!
My patchwork/embroidered book cover continues. I've finished the third square, and the fourth is pinned ready to start stitching. I reckon I will need six patches, plus maybe two half width ones on either side.
People in other countries wonder why the British always talk about the weather...
Yesterday I was plenty warm enough in cropped trousers and a shirt; today I'm plenty warm enough too in trousers, socks, sweatshirt, fleece and neck scarf.
Yesterday we sat in the garden in the sun; today I sat out again, wearing a raincoat and with a rug over my knees to meet with some friends. Tomorrow? Who knows.
When I lived in Indonesia many decades ago, we always knew what the weather for the season would be. For example in the rainy season it was hot and humid until about 4 pm when it rained heavily for a while, and then it was hot and humid again. Every day. So it wasn't a topic for conversation, apart from walking around at a snail's pace saying in a faint voice 'ah, it's so hot'...
While I was standing in the front garden waiting for them to arrive I saw that the peony flower was finished.
I took a picture of it when it was at its best, but didn't stop to look properly, to SEE it. Bother. Now it is over for another year.
I did have time to REALLY look at the rock roses; they are so pretty! The petals are softly crumpled, and arranged so each overlaps the next, and the coloration is amazing.
There don't appear to be any half open buds; they seem to be either fully out, or completely wrapped up in green ?sepals? Is that the word?
I had time to give attention to the love-in-a-mist as well. There is one really fancy, frilly flower, with ragged edges to the petals, and several layers, like petticoats under period costumes.
Most of the flowers are simpler, more everyday versions, and there are a lot of half open buds as well.
This isn't really a post about flowers; it's about spending time with something rather than noticing and moving on.
Even the weather is worth a little bit of attention and reflection.
I had my first pulmonary rehab class today; a mix of loosely supervised exercises and then educational talk. This first session was mostly about working out baseline measurements and taking me through the first set of exercises. I have high hopes that they are going to prove very useful. I'll post about them in more detail in a 'my oxygenated life'. But not today! I came home with wobbling knees and aching legs from the exercises I did manage to get done.
It was a complete delight to be surprised by the first poppies as I walked through the house when I came in,
I went straight through to the garden. The sage has been flowering for a week now
and the first snapdragon flower, left over from last year (and the years before, no doubt)
After lunch I pottered (wobbled?) about, and cleared out a few finished notebooks that weren't worth keeping, a couple of bits for charity and some music for a music teacher friend.
Then teach a piano lesson... and our evening meal (soup and toast)... and a phone call to my father...
Now it's after 8pm and I reckon that's a day's work!
This Sunday in the church year is about the third person of the Holy Trinity; the Holy Spirit. When I was little he (she?) was always referred to as the Holy Ghost. That sounds altogether more mysterious, which could be an appropriate description.
The Spirit is also called 'The Breath of God'. This name is the one I choose when my own personal lung issues intrude upon my life.
Dum spiro, spero.
I came across this Latin tag in a detective novel of all places. A friend said that her Latin teacher always used to say this to the class before exams.
The translation is 'while I breathe, I hope'. There's that word 'spirit' - spiro - again.
What have I been doing today? A bit of this, a bit of that...
I allowed myself to do some more on my crazy patchwork as I had done a chunk of cross stitching. My plan of finishing the cross stitch BEFORE Pentecost Sunday (tomorrow) faded a few da6s ago, but I will finish it ON Pentecost Sunday, which fits the dates on the border.
So, the patchwork; embroidering small scraps of fabric was so fiddly that I thought I'd pin the piece straight into the foundation and use a hoop.
Once I dealt with the consequences of catching a loose corner of the foundation into the chain stitching it is much easier this way.
I'm back at the paints again.
I just love watching the colours mix and merge and move about when I paint streaks across wet paper.
I'm using a 'dagger' watercolour brush, I don't know if you can see that the bristles are cut across into a diagonal rather than coming to a point.
I was wondering how else to use the brush, so I experimented with a very light, and dry brush to make leaves or grass. I think I see how this would work.
My brother and his wife dropped by for a chat and catch up... they'd taken our father out for lunch. We didn't join them as she has got quite a persistent cough, so it seemed sensible to stay clear. Also, that way they could all eat inside in comfort and out of the cold wind!
Yesterday we drove to the charity shop just as the secondary school children a little way up the main road came streaming out at the end of their day.
I watched them making their way into town in twos and threes, singly, in straggly groups threatening to overflow into the road, mostly weighed down and leaning forward under the weight of back packs and sports equipment. Almost all of them wore black school trousers ending just at the ankle bone. Is this the new length? Or are they all growing out of their uniform and having to put up with it for the next couple of months until the summer holidays?
The weather has been warm and close today, but with a chill edge to the wind. I have to agree with my peony flower, fully open now, but having a little rest on the garden wall
I had forgotten that I had Brompton stocks growing in the front. And one of the rock roses survived the determined pruning/cutting down last year and has become a manageable-sized shrub
I am so pleased to see it blooming again.
There really isn't much to blog about at the moment. It feels rather good to have a peaceful day.
A trip to Oxfam, unloading stuff for their charity shop;
That previous picture was just a taster; how about the boot?
I have no idea how many bags, full to bursting. Books, shoes, clothes, bric-a-brac, music teaching books, sheet music... (the rest of the family needn't panic, none of it was theirs, I promise)
Probably over a dozen. So that's more than fulfilled my annual New Year's resolution of '2 bags of anything' removed from the house per month. There have already been bags and bags of sheet music handed over to a younger piano teaching colleague, and quantities of music posted to former piano students, and bags of books to Cancer Research, British Heart and Ziffit, so if I have fallen short back in previous years, I have more than made up for it now.
After taking several years to bring myself to be able to separate myself from quite a lot of things for sentimental reasons, I feel all the better for having let go.
I've finished that doodle art page I started last week, and stuck washi tape on the next page all ready for action.
No sewing today on the cross stitch collaboration (yet; there's still time but it's not looking likely).
We've spent time in the garden tidying up a great spreading heaping 2/3rds empty sack of pukkamuck. It was a splendid cubic metre when delivered, but over time began to sag and take up more and more space, obstructing the way to the sentry box sheds and the compost bin. It was too heavy to move so we, no, BB, did the heavy work and I sat and watched and gave support and encouragement. We He reduced the contents of the sack by filling every single empty pot of any decent size, until at last the remnants could be heaved and rolled into a more compact shape.
This is the sack now, leaving just a dirty shadow of its sprawled self on the concrete. This has the huge advantage of being nearly invisible from the outdoor seating.
Vicky is coming on Sunday to mulch the flowerbeds. Up until now it's been too wet or she has been enveloped in chaos at home so it's maybe a bit late. Now it just depends on whether it will be too dry!
Several pots are earmarked for the Walking Onion to walk into.
And we can now get into the original blue sentrybox shed again.
The poppies; oh how lovely, there is the shiest glimpse of red peeking through the buds. I don't think you will make it out in the photograph, sadly.
The garden was just a lovely place be to in today. I regret to say that I am not sorry all three students cancelled their lessons so I have had an almost free day. (There's always admin...)
The sweet peas in the plastic greenhouse house are doing well. I've been leaving the door rolled up for days now. But the peas in the bottom blue tray have not come up. How long should I leave them before I give them the old heave-ho...
Here are the three spindly salvia Armistead cuttings that survived the winter. All the plants in the ground died - again. Julia Morville in her Morville Year book wrote that she planted her agapanthus into large pots which she then used to fill blank spaces in the borders, moving them around. That way she was able to bring them into shelter over winter. I think I am going to try that with these salvias.
Not literally; I am walking virtually the Camino di Santiago, roughly one mile per day on my current ConquerorChallenge app. As the trail is about 480 miles long I reckon it will take me until next Easter at this rate.
The mountains are a UNESCO world heritage site, because the caves contain the remains hominids - prehistoric people - dating back some 800,000 years...
I wonder how many pilgrims take a day out to go and see and marvel...
I'm really sad that I have finished reading The Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier. There are so many themes explored in the book that reading it has given me much to reflect upon. It wasn't a book club choice, but a book I have been thinking about reading, and decided to do so after reading a blog recommendation recently. Thank you, I'm sorry I can't remember who wrote about it.
The book club choice is
which looks like being a lighter read than many recent choices. I'm looking forward to starting it in due course.
First things first; make sure I cracked on with the crossstitch collaboration! The end is absolutely in sight, and I just need to make sure I keep going.
Today was the day for finishing the third border. I was doing fine until I discovered I had finished the first skein of green embroidery thread. No matter, I knew I had two more... somewhere...
After .tidying away my paints, filing some stray paperwork, relabelling the ring binders with clearer writing, sorting a craft box, going through and tidying a basket of miscellaneous sewing materials, I discovered them and finished today's section. I'll be able to carry on with the final border tomorrow.
A useful morning's works, I suppose... here they are, safely tucked into the little felt Corinne Lapierre sewing pouch that I made from a kit at the beginning of 2020.
It is a brilliant little kit, still available. A couple of pieces of felt (more than you need) plenty of thread, and even a tape measure and seam ripper!
I've had my eye on this book for a while. Somebody mentioned it recently on their blog, and I was between books so I downloaded it.
I am hugely enjoying it. It's a good read so far. I'm halfway through and have been reading it a lot yesterday and today. In fact one I have finished tapping out this blog I'm going back to it.
And did I mention tidying away my paints? I copied these techniques from a YouTube video '9 ways to fill your sketchbook ', fairly quick and fluid ideas to try out. I did enjoy doing them, and I've space for two more below these ones, which is why I haven't removed all the washi tape yet.
Here's the thing; having cast your worries, fears, heavy loads onto Jesus, DON'T PICK THEM BACK UP!
Easier said than done? Well yes.
I read this Zen saying recently
'Let go or be dragged'
I'm working on it. For me, I find it helps to have a very short word or prayer to say when I start 'mithering' (good word, that!) over something that is beyond my control. I use the word or phrase to remind myself to leave the burden alone and move on.
Enough ink has washed/worn off my fingers from filling my fountain pen to carry on with the cross stitch border. I'd like to finish it this week... who knows. Things have a habit of coming from left field.
This wonderful looking gadget, called a BackBliss, arrived today;
It is designed for applying sun tan or other lotion to your back. I can't wait to try it out. The lotion pad is washable and it comes with a spare pad too. I am amused by the instructions for replacing the pad when it becomes necessary; once you have removed the old pad and stuck the new one in place, it seems you sit on it for 20 minutes! I need to read the instructions again to make sure.
These past few days have been the the first time it has been warm enough to enjoy sitting out in the garden. We brought my father round for a morning coffee. The sun hadn't reached the table and chairs until just as it was time to go at 11.30, so next time, if the weather is like today we shall need the parasol!
