Wednesday 6th May - serves me right...

 Don't waste any sympathy on me when I whinge about getting a stiff neck again. I knew this would happen when I spent too long on my tablet at the weekend, on Monday, yesterday. 'You'll be sorry,' I warned myself, but I didn't listen.

So, two paracetamol and my rechargeable heated neck wrap are doing their work and I'm slowly feeling less fragile.

I've put my tablet out of reach and am monitoring phone use. A few days of 'adulting' and I shall be fine.

I stood outside in the only sunny patch I can get to near the back door, which happens to be where the neighbours haven't yet replaced their fence. They took a few panels down, having checked with us beforehand, when they were having their extension done last summer.  It made access much easier for the builders, especially when demolishing the old garage. Being able to seeing what was going on suited us very nicely as we thought and plotted and planned ours, hopefully (when's the next blue moon?) starting in the next month or so. 

I was waiting for the sun to reach the hazel tree I am following this year - the past few days have been quite clouded over whenever I've thought of taking a picture. The sun creeps along the garden up towards the house. By midsummer the back of our house (and therefore our proposed extension) will be in the sun from about 11am, but there are a few weeks to go yet.

Anyway, the sun reached the tree just before 10, and BB took a picture on my phone for me;

I noticed its leaves were drooping over the weekend, but a couple of buckets of water seem to have perked it up. I suppose it just gets leafier and leafier, and the pale green-ness becomes darker and darker as the year goes on now. To think it was just a few thin little twiggy bits in a pot last Summer when we got it...

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   I follow the blog of an author called Kathleen Jowitt, and she posted about a great-great-great-relative of hers a composer and conductor called Sir Julius Benedict, who seems to be largely forgotten today although very well known in his own life. He was born in 1804, and conducted the Norfolk Music Festival for over 30 years. The Burnham Music Festival in Norfolk is celebrating his work this year.

At Kathleen Jowitt's recommendation I've just listened to his C minor piano concerto - one single continuous piece, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Think Mendlessohn, ebullience, energy, spectacle...

     

   

Tuesday 5th May - unexpected item in bread machine

 Namely, this;

I don't  know how that happened! That sad mixture of bread flour, yeast (new packet, reliable brand) salt, sugar, butter and water, all measured and added in the right order  produced that. It really was inedible, amd is now in the compost bin where the worms will eventually conceal the evidence. 

BB cleaned the bread machine and made another loaf, meticulously weighing and measuring everything.

It tastes excellent too; we've just had bacon sandwiches for supper.

(Lunch, if you are interested, was Nigella Lawson's spaghetti with tinned sardines, much nicer than it sounds!)

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BB went out to try and book a haircut. The usual place, by our corner shop, has disappeared so he went to a place ge had been to before. Lo and behold, they could do him straight away, and I hardly recognised him. The haircut was very overdue, and he looks so much smarter!

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When he got back, we went straight out to post today's postcard. I managed to push past my natural inclination to have a day off, and once I found my (rather slow!) stride, I discovered that we'd got home much sooner, stopped less frequently and I'd only used half a cylinder! This improvement is a great encouragement. Thank you, Rustic Pumpkin, for inspiring me to get walking again! She's walking to raise money for Parkinsons UK, so do visit if you'd like to donate.

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Here's some unexpected Star Wars....

Monday 4th May - stickability

is not my strong point, but i have managed two trips to the post box in a row.

This was the first cross-stitch picture I ever completed, the first one in the Cross Stitch Collaboration project with Ang. We both seem to have double-joined arms...

We've completed four collaborations so far, the first, stating in 2022 was an embroidery 'postcard', the second was cross stitch. The third was a book cover, the fourth a patchwork project bag. We're taking a break this year, but I hope we come up with a new idea for next year!

What else today? Well, these all count as 'events' for me;

a shower

the walk to the post office; much easier today as although we walked the exact same route, BB joined me and carried the 3.8kg oxygen cylinder. What a difference that makes! I was walking twice as far before stopping for a breather! However we have a slight problem; I'm only using three-quarters of a cylinder, and I will soon me amassing a rather useless row of quarter-full cylinders... the solution us to walk a little bit further, of course, but close to home so if I'm getting too close to empty I won't have far to go.

sending in my order for our weekly grocery delivery

and, after lunch (sausages from earlier in the week reheated in a batch of freshly made tomato and veg sauce, with potatoes cut very small and roasted in the air fryer)

helping BB to change the sheets - clean sheets tonight! I do love a freshly-made bed! We've also swapped to the summer duvet, I've been getting too hot these past nights.

Now after supper (home-made carrot soup, toast and marmite, followed by toast and marmalade) we're settling down for the final part of the snooker final...

Oh, and here's a picture of Yoda, because... it's May the Fourth...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoda

I'm not sure I agree with his famous quote "Do or do not. There is no try." 

John Williams and The Vienna Philharmonic; the main title theme from Star Wars, called 'A New Hope'.

Sunday 3rd May - Community support and encouragement

In the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 24-25, St Paul says;

And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another... 

This is one of the very few Bible verses that I can sort of quote with Chapter and verse, because our mothers and toddlers group at church that I used to go to way back when my children were toddlers was called, confusingly to newcomers, '10:25' after this verse. I say confusingly, because we actually met at 10, but once you knew the reason why it all made perfect sense.

I suppose we tried to do a bit of Bible study in alternate weeks, and did something else on the other weeks, but the Bible study bit was always being derailed; no-one could remember who had The Book, or the person who was meant to be leading had forgotton The Book or was away, or someone started sharing a great recipe for carrot cake or asked urgent questions as to where someone had bought that dress/cardigan/shirt. 

The main thing, most important thing, I would say, about our group was that we all propped each other up as we lurched from catastrophe, to crisis, to total overload and exhaustion, as mothers of toddlers.

My current home group, over thirty years later, does the same. We pool our knowledge, offer practical assistance and promise to pray for each other.

And I reckon the blogging community that I have found myself in does the same; we might not ever meet each other in person, but I think we do a decent job of spurring each other on towards love and good deeds... and encourage each other as we navigate our very different lives and challenges.

And in that spirit, I hope Rustic Pumpkin won't mind me encouraging you to visit her site  and read her post for the 26th April, about taking on a challenge to walk every day in May to raise money for Parkinsons UK. The link to her gofundme page is there, and you can follow her progress.

She has inspired me to do more walking (I could hardly be doing less than I am at the moment 😒) and today I made it round to the post box to post a card to a friend. A there and back walk of just over half a mile, pretty good going for me. 

I'm not asking for personal sponsorship or anything, as I'm not committing myself any more than walking nearly every day, well, maybe several times a week is more realistic! But if you would like a post card, put your address in the comments and I'll send you one (but I won't publish your address) 

It will give me a reason for the walk. If I've already got your address, then a postcard will wing its way to you eventually... 

.....

I never thought I'd choose this piece to share - the famous (infamous?) Bach Prelude in C major from The Well Tempered Klavier, book 1, but it had a lovely video. There's no indication of who is playing the piano.

Sunday 3rd May - My Oxygenated Life - I've been in a strop!

 I haven't posted anything on my blog for a few days, because it's been  busy week and I found that was I tired in the evenings. 

And also, I've been Thinking, which can also be Very Tiring! There have been a number of 'incidents', shall we call them, with my oxygen support, all self-inflicted.  

Things like

forgetting to turn up the flow rate when I take the stair lift up to go to the loo

forgetting to turn up the flow rate when I go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea or start cooking a meal

not paying attention to how much oxygen I have left in a cylinder, so part way through a zoom call I start wondering why I am suddenly feeling so desperately in need of a nap

hanging the end of the oxygen canula off the back of a patio chair so I can risk taking several steps to the compost bin to empty the kitchen scraps bin, because the canula doesn't quite reach that far  

nipping over from the table to the the settee to fetch my cardigan and putting it on as I sit don to finish what I am doing, without adjusting the flow rate up, and then back down again  

forgetting to turn the flow rate down after I have made my porridge and before I sit at the table to eat it!

I am driving myself crazy!

What is going on?

Bear in mind that, at rest and at night I need an oxygen flow rate of 1 litre per minute, for mild physical activity such a getting dressed, having a bath or shower, making a cup of tea or gently cooking a meal, I need around 5-6 litres per minute, and for walking 7 or 9 litres per minute depending on terrain. When walking outdoors I also need to pause and catch my breath every 100-150 steps or so, depending on the uphill or downhill slope! 

I think it's a form of rebellion against the whole (adjective removed) business of being dependent on oxygen support, and also a kind of frustration at how quickly my oxygen levels plummet upon any kind of exertion. It's very trying that bending down to adjust the flow rate on the oxygen concentrator uses even more oxygen! The good thing is that I recover very quickly; usually within a couple of minutes or less once I stop moving.

'Just pace yourself', they told me at the clinic. Well, yes, jolly good advice. 'You try it,' I snarled back, but luckily in my 'inside' voice, while maintaining an intelligent and receptive (I hope) look on my face.

This happens to me every so often; I maintain an attitude of acceptance, and gratitude for the life changing, life enhancing effect of having oxygen support - you should have seen me two years ago almost weeping from exhaustion at the end of the day from just the effort of breathing to keep my oxygen SATs somewhere around 87%, and going to bed early just so I could hook up to the overnight oxygen I was allowed to have.

So I have to stop, and reflect, and notice that I am being rebellious and stroppy and - let's face it - rather silly and irresponsible, even if subconsciously, and start behaving better! I've had a word with myself, as they say, and going to pay more attention to what I do and how.

It's not just me that is being hurt by my behaviour, but also BB, who has to continually rescue me from my escapades, and what while I sit there gasped like a landed fish while my oxygen levels come back up to what they should be. It's just not fair on him - am I listening? Yes..... until next time....

Cheerfulness, gladness, gratitude and a more mature frame of mind have been resumed.   

 

    

Saturday 2nd May - I don't even like snooker...

 But the past couple of days I've been fairly glued to it...

The semifinal between Mark Allan and Wu Yize has been riveting.  It's still going, and they've started another frame so this is all I'm posting today...