2018

March 2018

So, the last few months of 2017 and the first of 2018 have been fraught to say the least.

Being harrassed by someone from the past is difficult to say the least and just when you think all is settled, things rear their head again but thankfully, now I am indifferent to any overtures from this person and I can look forward to a life with the most generous, supportive and loving OH I could ask for.

Somehow things in the house are gradually improving as we come to terms with things which we did ten or twelve years ago which now need further fixing. We have at last replaced a scratched and somewhat battered table and chairs which have been in my life for more than 40 years with a beautiful oak set and the best thing about it all is that the dining set has gone to a young couple who are just setting up house which has given us so much pleasure. With a bit of TLC I know that J and his lovely family will treasure it and that makes us so pleased.

However, the difficulties with my brand new car, tumble drier, double-glazing and ultimately the weather have meant that things have not gone as smoothly as they might but I am so supported by good friends and OH that I feel blessed.

21 March 2018

It is hard to believe, given all that has happened in the last years that seventeen years ago, when it was snowing, we moved into our present house.

This represented a great move forward for me and I looked to a future with a person who was probably a bit of an unknown although we had actually known each other for three years but the exciting thing was that we had so much to learn about each other. About two years later we reached the pinnacle of joy as we were married in the church to which we belonged after a glorious spring, not at all like the one we have just endured, with a moving and spiritual service in the most lovely surroundings with a choir who sang during the signing of the register with a beauty which I have not since heard.

Of course, a lot of this is coloured with nostalgia but having looked at our beautiful photographs recently I am struck by the loss of so many people who are and were of utmost importance to me. I am celebrating the joy of each person who is left behind and trying to make the most of the wonderful frienships which have developed since then.

8 April 2018

It is amazing how many incidents in my life seem to have occurred around the end of March/beginning of April. We moved house, had a wedding , lost my sister and OH's Mum and then I was in a bank raid all in the space of eighteen days!

This year we have had various domestic disasters and have reflected then when house improvements have been done for some twelve years then things need replacing and that is certainly true at the moment. The lovely chap who came to replace glass in some of our units has restored my faith in British workmen as he was just amazing, very neat considering what had to be done and the results are splendid.

16 June 2018

It is amazing how quickly time flies when life is busy! Problems with arthritis in my toes and ankles, knees and hips are getting increasingly difficult to deal with but I am so grateful to the lovely Nurse Practitioner who helped me discover Cognitive Behavioural Therapy when I was diagnosed in 2007 with fibromyalgia as I don't find pain-killers to be useful at all. So I can forgive myself for not being as active as I would like but it is a hard lesson to take on board.

The last few weeks have been quite busy and culminating in my replacing the computer which belonged to my son as it was six years old which in technology terms is a dinosaur! Oh but the advances which have been made mean that most everything is now wireless and I don't even have a tower - just a monitor, keyboard and mouse and I am spending far too much time getting to grips with it!

6 July 2018

This heat is unbearable and we have had only ten minutes of rain in the last ten weeks so everything is tinder dry. I am only using a watering-can on the pots and trying to resist using the hose as I am sure that there will soon be a hose-pipe ban - and that is my excuse for a filthy car!

This visiting woodpecker to the food on the table was certainly a suprise but it was obviously very hungry!

A further suprise today was the sparrowhawk which landed on the top of the bird-house but sadly our bird-cam failed to capture it! It has certainly cleared the garden!

6 August 2018

Whoever it was that said that the Blood Moon and eclipse heralded a period of change and difficulty certainly wasn't joking.

I find the summer months particularly difficult as it reminds me that Si's anniversary is looming and I need no reminders of that but I keep busy and have OH at home more now that he is semi-retired which is brilliant.

Still, a broken BirdCam (again- this is the third attempt!), a great-nephew undergoing horrible treatment at a young age, a relative with a particularly aggressive form of dementia, a pharmacy sending out of date medication for my ear-eczema, two dead baby birds, a friend diagnosed with cancer at only 50, a website I cannot master and then red wine spilled (by me so no-one else to blame) all happening since has me wishing that this moon had never happened!

The only bright spark on the horizon is that everything can be sorted out and my Mum used to say that when this phase of the moon has passed then things will change. I do hope so as I am so tired of watering the pots as the amount of rain we have had has nowhere near filled up the water-butts.

This stunning sculpture was created by Albert György and is called Melancolie and was posted on Bereaved Parents Awareness on Facebook as part of the month of July's marking of this dreadful state and it spoke to me so movingly of how it is to lose a child, particularly an only child.

22 September 2018

Well, the rain came eventually and indeed in the last few days we have had rather more rain than we can handle!

The good thing is that we do not seem to have lost more than a couple of plants and once the garden was re-hydrated it was astonishing how quickly everything not only recovered but also burst out into abundance and the leaves on some trees have actually still not turned and there is still a lot of green about.

In the middle of August we had a visitor in the shape of a great spotted woodpecker and although he has visited in times past, the heatwave has driven all varieties of birds to seek alternative sources of food - including the sparrowhawk scouting out the small bird but thankfully not catching any. He was perched on the top of the bird-house cage and didn't get anything!

Back to the woodpecker - he has obviously now decided that our peanuts are the best stuff around and now visits every day. Sadly, as a species they are very shy and manage to hide on the hidden side of feeders but I have managed to get a few photographs of him although the quality is not as good as I would like. He obviously spots me through the window when I get out my big camera and by the time I have the lens cap off he has flown off!

31 December 2018

Never have I been so glad that a year has come to an end!

I dislike all the hype around New Year's Eve and refuse invitations because I have such lovely memories of Mum and Dad's parties as that day was their wedding anniversary and nothing else comes close.

The visit from our lovely little grandchildren last week really made my Christmas and I am just so sorry they don't live closer!