Finally

I bought this rug ages ago but it got put to one side. It finally came out today.

I'm not showing the patch that I was trying to cover that needs a spot clean. We wanted to look good because my brother and his partner called in. It was great to see him. We had a wonderful time and he had some things that he had brought back after his holiday. 

Hugs and good health to all 

Need to Raise My Game

Normally I would say that I could talk for hours about nothing at all, and you may have seen that in some of the posts here. Recently, though, I've not felt able to talk about too much. I feel like my words have dried up. It hasn't helped that I'm not going out. I won't be going out much for the next week and a bit either. I'm bound to a timetable, which means that I have to take two tablets two hours after my last meal and one hour before the next meal. By the time I've messed around with all the tablets, I don't want to venture very far. Besides, the antibiotics have had an effect on my stomach and staying near bathrooms seems like a good idea. I need to get better at looking at my world as there are always stories.

I ended up ordering sweet peas for the garden. They'll do for this year, though I don't expect much, and then we can consider what else to put there next spring. The berries on Deirdre are looking splendid.

But Gladys is looking a little subdued. I'll get some more cleared over the next few days, or perhaps bear will, and give everything left standing a good feed. 

Speaking of food, I've been strangely sensible for the last few days. I've had healthy, low calorie meals. Currently our freezer is jammed full, so today I cooked a bag of frozen chicken pieces to make some room. I thought that I'd do a batch so I tipped it all out on a tray and covered with foil as per instructions, then bunged it in the oven. I set a timer to go down and remove the foil after 25 minutes as it said on the bag. Unfortunately, I got confused with the different timers on my phone so I took my tablets twenty minutes early and forgot all about the foil. The result was chicken that was completely cooked throught but somewhat pallid. It tasted fine, so I wasn't complaining. 

I realised, when I took the chicken out, that I was supposed to eat it all within three days, as it's unsafe to keep cooked chicken, even if our fridge is hovering around sub zero. Next time I'll just do half a bag. I had a load tonight with tinned potatoes and frozen peas. It was pretty plain, but low calorie and could be worse. I had Huel for breakfast, which isn't bad for one of those meal replacement shakes, and tomato soup for lunch. I've even been drinking more water. I've got quite a bit of chicken left over so I'll probably use it up over two meals with something like pesto and pasta or I've got some hoisin sauce which I could use with veggies and rice. I need to lose weight, and for some reason, today seems like a low calorie type of day. I hadn't planned to start a diet, and I'm not committing to low calorie tomorrow, but I'll take today's attempt as a win. 

Writing stuff - yesterday I posted Cookies and Carburettors Chapter Nine here. I feel completely inadequate as a cook compared to the main character.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Quiet

Today has been a quiet day - for me. Bear spent an hour in the garden. 

He's in a mood to get things done. Unfortunately he cleared away the clematis. The lad doesn't know much about plants. I'm now thinking what climbers to plant there at this time of year. I was considering honeysuckle, but bear isn't so keen. The berried are poisonous and we are near a primary school. Deirdre, the honeysuckle near the gate, has plenty of berries but they are out of the reach of little ones. Besides, the birds get there first. However anything planted on a trellis would only be a few feet from the pavement on the other side. I did ask for bear's opinion, and his opinion was that I should work it out. 

I didn't give him a proper lift to his quiz night. With one thing and another, I didn't feel safe. The bus he got back didn't get very close to us, so I picked him up from a bus stop that wasn't too far away. I'm off for an early night.

Hugs and good health to all.

Getting Out

I rang the doctor this morning and they persuaded me to go and see them. It was really early in the morning so I drove and there were three spaces in the car park when I got there! I have cellulitis. It's quite bad. I'm on massive doses of antibiotics for the next fortnight. My stomach will hate me. And the antibiotic is one of those where I have to take a dose two hours after the last meal and one hour before the next meal which means I'm messing around trying to time things with meals. I shall be grumpy for the duration. 

The doctor was amazing, though. She was incredibly supportive and encouraging and suggested that I apply for a disabled parking badge. She watched me walk maybe ten yards from the seating to the doctor's office and she had seen enough. I'd considered applying for this as I genuinely can't manage more than a few yards. However, it feels so final, like I won't be getting better. The doctor told me that if I got better, I could give it back. 

I wasn't very productive today, at least, not as much as I would have liked, then I went out to Tesco to pick up the prescription. I was leaning on a trolley for a lot of the time, but I was running on empty after a few stops. Still, I resisted buying these.

Writing stuff - adding this for mischief, eBay is my friend and I even use it for research and you can read it here. 

I Did Not Want This

This morning, I opened the kitchen door and saw a dead pigeon, completely dead and right there in front of me. I did not approve of this at all. I'm sure that the pigeon wasn't keen either, but whatever was in the pigeon had gone off to join the choir invisible and I was left with the remains. I had a full body cringe just thinking about it.

I was so unimpressed. I absolutely did not want to touch the remains, but I couldn't leave it just outside the door! I called bear for moral support (he was less enthusiastic than I was) and got the poor bird's remains onto a dustpan, then I dumped it into a black bag that I had put in a bucket, to make it easier to fill. I tied it tightly and then bear put the remains in the wheelie bin. I didn't want to put it loose in the bin as I thought that it may attract yeurk and the bin won't be collected for another week. 

In other news, I've been trying to move more. I washed some bedding, sorted some stuff and generally pottered. I'm looking at ways to make things easier for myself. In another instalment of the inexpensive bag saga, I bought a smaller bag that will be lighter for me to carry and cause less issues for my hip and back.

I got a small coin purse to go in it because my normal wallet is huge. It's big enough to take the coin purse, the shopping list notebook, nail scissors and my phone. I can probably add all sorts of bits, but I'm currently not bothering. It's light, easy to use and I can work with it. I need to adapt things to work with how I am now. 

Bear spent an hour clearing stuff in the garden. He worked brilliantly, but managed to slice his finger with the secateurs and I was able to make use of his expedition's first aid kit. He had something of a fight with the gooseberry bushes. I realised today that babies are apparently left under plants that are full of vicious, long, sharp spikes. It makes me question the stork's judgement.

Writing stuff - Today's instalment from the White Hart is here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Harehills

I don't know if anyone has seen the news about the riot in Harehills, Leeds. It's the other side of the town centre from me so I was in no way affected at the time. I just find it incredibly sad.

Image from Wiki Commons, taken by Chemical Engineer and used under the Creative Commons Agreement

It's very hard to see places that you know filled with such awful scenes of violence. 

Nothing much has been happening here. I've not got much done. Still, it's crazy warm so I suppose that I can excuse myself. 

After I've finished this post, I'm going to go away and write down lists of ways to get myself moving and keep motivated. I'll share if I manage anything. Funnily enough, my leg hasn't been too bad. However I didn't want to do too much due to the heat! 

Thank you for all the kind words.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Epic Pity Party

I'm struggling to walk and I've had a huge pity party. It looks like it's going to be hard for me to get moving again and I need to look at making my home easier for me to navigate. I'm trying to pick back up, hopefully with something fun and interesting. I've got some knitting done during the football, though I couldn't when England were playing. My nerves got to me and I kept dropping stitches.

Bear is being awesome. He wants to do a long hike in the autumn so he's been doing a few practice walks with his friends. He got all A* in his mocks, and we're really proud of him. 

Writing stuff - I'm not sure where I'm up to in the notices for my writing stuff. You can find the latest instalment from the White Hart here. If you are subscribed to my writing blog and get emails then I'm afraid a load will be coming your way as I am going to post all the chapters from Cookies and Carburettors that are on Royal Road. I sincerely apologise. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

It's Complicated

I've not done enough to warrant taking pics, and I've not done much to write about. However I'll come back with what I have done when my head stops working. Bear was explaining mathematics to DH and I. I think that it was somewhere around undergrad level, but he was talking about derivatives at one point. I'm not exactly what they are but some of them are called 'Snap', 'Crackle' and 'Pop'. I think that says a lot about mathemeticians. I got some knitting done while he was explaining everything. And I found this pic.

Image from Unsplash, taken by Dan Cristian Paduret

Bear seemed to be talking about these sorts of mathematical processes, and he was so happy and enthusiastic that I was loving it. I may not have understood it, but I absolutely loved it.

He also explained complete and incomplete combustion after lighting a candle. The candle is supposed to smell of fresh water and moss. I've not noticed either having much of a scent and the candle smells very faintly green. I won't try that again.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Temperature Issues

I am not talking about the Great British Weather, which is once again unseasonally cool. Instead we have temperature issues in the fridge. You may remember that our cooker caught fire a few months ago. Well, the fridge was bought at the same time and I've been a little worried. Last week it seemed a little warm and food was going off a little faster than expected. I bought a fridge thermometer and adjusted the thermostat.

So far, not so good. The fridge seems to have two settings, regardless of where the thermostat is. It's either so cold that it freezes the salad or it's too warm to preserve the food. This morning the fridge was -2C (around 28F) but I only realised that when I tried to pour almond milk on my cereal and the stuff came out in lumps. I think that the thermostat may be on the blink. 

On the one hand, I can fiddle around and see if I can keep it at a good temperature. The recommended range is between 3-5C (it was 9C the other day). I'm sure I could find a place that does repairs if necessary. On the other hand, we could do with a smaller fridge. We got the big fridge when I needed a lot of space for bear's snacks and lunches and DH was eating different foods then. A smaller one would suit us more and I could use the top as a place to put the pans. I think the first step is to give it a good clean, including the pipes at the back, which is theoretically pencilled in for tomorrow. 

Today hasn't been focussed. Tomorrow I'm determined that I'll do at least one thing that means I take a pic to share on here. Of course, today I'm still recovering from the England match. I try and keep this blog family friendly so I'm not going to say what I thought of the England performance. 

Bear got his results from his mock exams which are the ones that they send out to Universities as a guideline to what to expect from the student. He got A* across the board in Physics, Mathematics, Further Mathematics and Computer Science. I am incredibly proud of him. He's currently planning out his summer studying. I have so much respect for him. I'm also encouraging him to build in time to relax and refresh for what is likely to be a tough year. 

Writing stuff - The latest from the White Hart is here and it's a lot longer than I planned for, but it was the story I heard so I wrote it. I've also written a few bits on Royal Road. If you're interested, here is Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four and Chapter Five. 

Hugs and good health to all.