Clogwyn

We are at Clogwyn with Sheila, Bob and the family.  As I blog, Dave, Rachie and Sheila are cooking curry for our Saturday night meal.  We have had a good day, starting with a visit to a 'Greenshoots' event in Penrhyndeudraeth (or something like that).  This was for swapping seedlings, cuttings etc, and also an opportunity for local ecologyd and craft groups to share their enthusiasms.  Sheila took lovely tomato cuttings which went very quickly.  I was shocked at some of the weedy, neglected offerings, but hopefully their owners went away with better examples of plant care!  Dave bought Shitake mushrooms and I bought a very nice sunhat made out of old clothes and had a go at braiding, making a few loops of a four-sided rope.  We went on from there to a pine shop that we had all enjoyed before, and where S and B had previously bought lovely pine dressers etc.  We think it has chaanged hands because it now has very little natural wood, but loads of painted or distressed pieces all of similar taste.  As Sheila said it was very 'get the look', and at inflated prices.  Not even a cup of coffee this time either.

We went on to the Oriel gallery where we had a very nice cup of coffee and Dave drooled over the cakes.  (What has happened to him since he became diabetic  - these days he is always hungry, finishes his plate of food and demands puddings.)  We enjoyed looking at all kinds of pictures and ceramics, some wood-carvings and a family's collection of china bought over three generations just because they gave pleasure, not because of their rarity or possible investment value.  That was refreshing, and made us realise that our instinctive dismissal of much of the art was because it simply did not give rise to any feeling of pleasure or desire to possess to live with.

We then had a salad lunch at the pub up the road and came home via Tesco with our requirements for the curry.  I have managed to hitch my laptop to the Hughes wireless, thanks to son Joe's very clear instructions for finding a lost encryption code, and have been able to download a document in Publisher for Bob, save it as a pdf and present it to him on a flash-drive.  We both feel very clever!

Yesterday was Rose's centenary.  We celebrated with her favourite meal of fish and chips overlooking the sea at Barmouth, then took her favourite drive into the hills to see the bluebells.  We also put roses on the grave and admired the trough of pansies which have over-wintered there.  Sheila says she must look after them as it is very bleak and windswept up there in the winter.

Young Tom wants to set the table.  Far be it from me to discourage him.

We are in a season of unseasonable weather.  Our temperature was 24 today, hotter than the mediterranean.  The boys have been having a wonderful time outside on the trampoline and in the paddling pool.  We all had a walk the other day down through Scott's meadows to the Fen, where the boys played Poohsticks, or rather Poohboats.  Last evening we all went for a curry at the Akaash.  The boys behaved perfectly and enjoyed the food.  James's rather loud comment that the waiter was all black, white and brown was offset by his equally frank opinion that the food was yummy.

We managed to find some child-sized garden tools.  The boys seemed to be pleased, although I suspect they miss the opportunity to 'accidentally' bash each other. 

Today Dave and I have had lunch with Barbara at The Park, and a BBQ wih Dot and Rodney this evening while child-sitting for MAry-Ann and Dom.  It was a change to be with adults although I did get to read a story to cover the slightly tricky moments just after M and D had left.  Like adults we shall also have to stay up late - at any rate until M and D get home - as we would never hear the boys from the annexe.

Now we are six

Well, it happened, and the Knees are now installed at number 38.  The boys have settled in remarkably well.  JAmes went straight into his first real bed, calls it his 'cosy bed' and is no trouble to go down either at night or for his day-time nap, although he wakes in the night quite frequently and hasn't quite got the hang of getting himself back to sleep with his collection of dummies lurking under a duvet instead of scattered around his cot-bed mattress. 

Mary-Ann and Dom have unpacked most of their boxes although some will stay packed until such time as they go back to Devon or have their own place here.  We don't need two of each item from their kitchen, although we could do with their mugs, which haven't materialised yet.  So far the enormous Knee sofa is in our lounge; Dom still thins it will go upstairs, but his back is playing up and I have visions of half the family being stuck permanently upstairs and the rest isolated downstairs, with the entire stair-well full of sofa. 

So far the boys have joined us in the annexe bedroom every morning for fun and stories.  Mary-Ann says they are all still on holiday because she is, so nothing is quite normal yet.  I guess when she has to be out of the house by 7.0am and Dom has to get James to nursery by 8.0 and I have to walk joe to school by 8.45 things will be very different.  We have also been eating together at mid-day and 5.0 pm, which will again be difficult when MAry-ann is at work and Joe is at school. 

I have a persistent 'cold' which is probably rape allergy with and infective component.  I have had three different antibiotics, one of which was from the back of our medicine cupboard and was 12 years out of date!  None of them worked very well, nor did the anti-histamine, but I am now on steroid nasal drops properly presribed by my GP and there is a definite improvement.  I am still growly, snuffly and a bit deaf in the mornings, but it doesn't seem to make any difference to the boys' enjoyment of their story and that's all that matters.

Joe has been helping me plant up the hanging baskets and hay-basket.  He concentrates reamrkably well and seldom gets fed up before a job is finished.  He is desperate to do reall gardening but is lethal with the full-sized rake and spade.  I walked all round the town on Saturday looking for a child-sized garden tool set., and yesterday we tried Tesco and Roys, but no luck.  We have seen them in the garden centres, so will have to take a trip out somewhere soon, otherwise I foresee serious injury, most likely to James.

I am still Freegling.  Today I put our collection of maps on our local Freegle site and had a response within a couple of hours from a couple who are home-schooling their children.  So much better than binning them.  Mick and Iris came today and I was able to off-load his old school reports, Hammonds Gramar School panoramic photograph, and pictures of him at various stages.  Mary can have her package when she comes on Wednesday.  I have told them all they can throw them straight into the bin if they want to, I am just not prepared to throw away other people's memorabilia.  Joe was quite excited to get all his old music exam certificates and school reports, but then it turns out he has kept every letter ever written to him so he appears to have an inheirted inability to throw anything away.

We had a wonderful weekend in Stone.  Dave and Joe cooked meatballs on Friday evening and I believe some members of the party played some games on the Playstation.  I am sorry to say I missed it all, put it down to the bug I was incubating.  I slept all evening and most of the night.  I was below par all weekend but managed to enjoy and take part in everything.

On Saturday morning we went into Stone and had a full English breakfast at The Lounge, then Joe had to go off to rehearsal and the rest of us had a lovely lazy sleepy afternon.  The Messiah was fantastic. The soloists were very good but of course we were mainly interested in the choral pieces, which were all we had hoped for.  I didn't cough at all.  Joe enjoyed singing in it, but is mightily relieved to have some Sundays to call his own.  Afterwards Liz and Michael came back with us and we drank champagne and ate crisps and chocolates.

On Sunday morning we went to Trentham Gardens, walked through all the shops and bought a dwarf cherry tree in the garden centre.  It is already planted in the fruit cage, so hopefully we will have some eating cherries as well as the Morellos, maybe not this year, but soon.  It would be great if the boys could pick some this year!  We had Staffordshire oatcakes for breakfast, with bacon, mushrooms and cheese.  Jodie and Ben brought Krispycakes doughnuts during the afternoon and in the evening we went out for a curry.  Joe and Sal's favourite curry house has re-opened and it is fantastic.  Friendly prompt service and delicious food that didn't leave us feeling bloated or heavy.  I don't know how we managed to eat so much without suffering but we did.

I have had a cough for well over a month.  10 days ago my GP gave me anti-histamines as we both thought it was an allergy affecting my sinuses.  She also gave me a scrip for antibiotics 'just in case' it didn't get better.  By the time we got back here on Monday I felt really congested and unwell and went to bed for a couple of hours.  Dave fetched my prescription and I started the antibiotics, which have helped the cough and the sinuses, but now Dave has a cold, feels achey and stuffed up, and it is clear that I have succombed to a fresh infection on top of what I had.  I haven't resorted to bed again since Monday, and we did quite a lot of useful gardening yesterday before the weather broke.  Dave has got the new shower ready for tiling now, and I have found a Freegle home for another lot of bed-linen.  On my second attempt  I have even found a Freegle bed-guard to tuck in under Joe when he moves into his new room.  At Mary-Ann's suggestion we have left the design of his room until he gets here so he can take part.  It is very plain and white, a bit like a cell, but hopefully he will enjoy making decisions about it.

I realised when I opened up my blog that I haven't taken any photos of the garden for ages.  It's dark now, but when we get some clear daylight I'll remedy that.  I have some broad beans up, and have had to put a half tree-guard over them.  I have never known birds to eat broad beans.  We have to cover everything.  We have bought a new net for the top of the fruit cage so I am cutting up the old one to cover my raised beds.  Dave is gradually renewing the sides which were bulging horribly, and I got him to leave the posts sticking up about 3" so I could drape the net tightly over them.  He has also made me a couple of foot-square gardening beds.  I have lost my foot-square gardening book, but most of it is on the internet anyway.

Two things are happening this weekend.  1) Mary-Ann arrives this evening, Thursday, as she has to personally attend her new school for her CRB check tomorrow.  The end of her term coincides with the end of term here in Norfolk, so there will be no opportunity to do it after they have moved.  Little Joe has a place at Toftwood Infant School, so at least she will be able to make use of this visit to go and see the school and the Head.  Unfortunately Joe will go in cold at the beginning of next term. 

2) We are going to Stone tomorrow to hear Joe sing in Handel's Messiah at Lichfield Cathedral.  Bless him, he decided to sign up to this when it ws not at all sure that I would be fit enough to attend during my chemo, so this event is very precious for us.  It has been difficult for him to fit in the rehearsals, but he has done it, and we are really looking forward to the performance on Saturday.  Mary-Ann is going to join us in Stone when she has finished all her appointments tomorrow, and will do the other half of the journey home on Saturday, which breaks it up for her although the total distance will be greater. 

We should have spent this week working on the house, getting ready for the family.  In fact it has been a gorgeous sunny week and we have been outside every afternoon re-making the raised beds and generally tidying up and pottering around enjoying the sunshine.  Mary-ann's room is ready for her, otherwise the house is in chaos.

A really good week in the garden if not the house.  I have been able to get out in the sunshine and weed the bed round the patio.  It was full of celandine, I suppose left over from the damp area round the pond.  They are dear little shiny green plants that would soon have had bright yellow flowers.  I love to see them in ditches and other damp places, but they are greedy and spread into a dense mat that doesn't give a chance to the other plants.  Their slender white stalks go down several inches into the earth before connecting with little light brown tubers, and these multiply every year forming a knotty clump that breaks up and sprreads over a wide area when you try to dig.  I'm not silly enough to think I have winkled them all out, but I have attacked about 98% of the leaves.  Some broke off so the tubers will sprout again next year, thumbing their little brown noses at me, but I feel I have done a job akin to clearing the bedrooms and store-cupboards on my garden.

The broad beans are in.  The ones I planted rather late in the autumn are few and far between - six of them to be precise.  Let's hope this lot does better, because we have extra mouths to feed this year.  I have planted early peas along the picket fence in the boys garden by the playhouse.  I hope they'll do well as they will love picking and eating them - if Dave doesn't sneak out after dark and pop his way down the row!

I have a few pots of flower seeds in the greenhouse, in a propagator.  I hope I can be organised enough to prevent them overheating and dehydrating this year.  I have no excuse now.  I have only bought a few fuschia and geranium plants for my two baskets, and hope to get cuttings from them for the hay basket.  I have been scrapbooking our first holiday in Ireland in 1996, and among the photos were some of the garden and the pergola.  I don't think it has looked as good as that since, so I have a lot to live up to.

Yesterday was scrapbooking day.  I am trying to get my own album up to date, having spent so many workshops making pages for the boys' albums.  I am a bit overwhelmed by all the envelopes of holiday photos in the cupboard - I had forgotten Malta, and Alderney, and Denia, to say nothing of the three holidays in Ireland and all the times in Wales.  And I haven't started on transferring all the slides from the 70s onto computer - Dad's as well as ours. 

I took Barbara with me yesterday.  She gets lonely in the house on her own, and needs something creative and absorbing to get stuck into.  She loved scrapbooking, and was brave enough to bring her wedding and courtship photos.  John died on Boxing Day and I think she did really well not to get tearful.  Vicki gave her a lot of help, and other people from church talked to her, so by the time she had had cottage pie with Dave and me she had had a lovely day.

We have both had colds this week so haven't felt much like doing house-clearance.  However, yesterday I spent the afternoon in Joe's old room which we have been using as a store for bed-linen, towels, sewing stuff, suitcases and all my old medical books.  I have finally disposed of my old lecture notes from med school.  I was very impressed by how much I must once have known, but enormously relieved to realise no-one is ever going to expect that of me again.  The text books will have to be subjected to Dave's electric saw and his pot-bellied stove in the workshop.  They are mostly out of date, but not enough to be historical.  It feels like getting rid of the basis of my adult life, but I will be glad when it is done.  I loved my work as a doctor, but I am glad to have been relieved of the future humiliation of knowing I am doing it badly.

Dave is gradually getting to grips with the new shower.  We have ordered the tiles from Topps, and some for the kitchen too.  I would really like to get the kitchen done before the family come because it is the centre of the house and will be difficult to do once we are all living here.  In the shower the floor is now repaired but the wall of the bathroom needs some attention because we decided to remove the bit of wall above the door of the shower.  It would have been an anomaly as the entrance will now be a foot further out into the room.  Needless to say a bit of bathroom wall came away with the unwanted bit, so it now looks like a complete decoration job.

Little Joe is having really bad nights with nightmares and not wanting to sleep.  Dom and Mary-Ann are getting exhausted, and Viv and Roy have had the same problem for the two Saturday nights they have stayed over to babysit.  It is hard to say whether he has picked up on the forthcoming changes, even though he hasn't been told yet, or whether it is something at school unsettling him or even the TV at the after school club.  He started off saying the nightmares were about Baddies, but now says he just doesn't want to go to sleep.

I still haven't got a very clear idea how to make his cabin bunk into a space-ship.  I am hoping once I have the room cleared it will all come to me in a flash.  Is space travel conducive to peaceful nights, I ask myself.

I have an appointment with a surgeon next Monday, rather sooner than I expected.  I assume it is just the routine follow-up.  I hope I might have the opportunity to ask about the expected side-effects and different function following colectomy.  I suppose they have thought I should know all the answers to that, but even if I did it is not the same as living with it.  I suppose I am getting used to it, but having to go after every meal makes you think twice about a day out or even an evening meal.  And I am rarely completely comfortable.