Quiet Day

I was supposed to be going out this morning, but I didn't feel like it. I'm taking huge doses of antibiotics plus I have the lingering cold from getting the covid and flu jabs, plus I have an infection. I stayed home. 

I took bear to the dentist this afternoon. Bear went in by himself while I parked nearby in Aldi car park. I called in for some butter than I forgot yesterday. Bear's being pretty independent. He remembered to book the next appointment in six months time and he came out with a clean bill of health. He made himself dinner as well. I was quite relived as DH was having his usual pasta bake and I have to eat not less than two hours after taking the antibiotic and not less than one hour afterwards so I'm on a strange schedule. 

I need to keep up to the bird feeder. I could have sworn that the sparrows were chasing pied wagtails away this afternoon - I hadn't seen them around before!

Image from WikiCommons, taken by Caroline Legg and used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0

I couldn't take a pic, and they were deep in the honeysuckle so I didn't get a clear view. Have I named the honeysuckle? It's doing a good job of spreading in inconvenient directions. Perhaps I should call it Deirdre. It produces a lot of flowers and berries, both of which are deeply appreciated by the local wildlife. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

I Went to the Doctor

I managed to get a really early appointment and was out of there by 8.50am. I now have loads of antibiotics to take for a fortnight. The carpark at 8.50am looks like this. 

Which could be worse. However it gets very full very quickly as it serves two GP practices, a physio centre and a pharmacy. It's not even parking. It's getting out afterwards as people have a habit of filling up the gaps in the centre of the parking spaces and parking vans in the drop off zone. It's just in a tricky place. If I can walk, it will be easier. 

Gladys is massive.

As a reminder, this is what she looked like May 25th.

I called in to Tesco for the antibiotics. I picked up a few bits while I was there, and I noticed that there was a load of Christmas stuff out, including mince pies

If you look closely, you can see that the best before date was yesterday. They know that people like me not only like to stock up but will be too weak willed to resist all the goodies before Christmas. Except that this year we're not getting huge amounts of goodies and I am checking all the use by dates.

Later this evening I called in to Aldi with bear and let him loose in the frozen food section. I don't know if anyone remembers, but back when he was in primary school, he had a lot of stomach issues. One Christmas he couldn't even face eating chocolate. This has led to him being picky about food and not really having a big appetite. I've been driven daft by him not wanting stuff, then wanting it, then not being bothered. I'm determined that he takes control of his eating, so he chose a few bits that can stay in the freezer and that he can make himself. 

He can cook if he wants to, but he doesn't want to. Therefore I am happy that he'll eat up a frozen chicken and chorizo paella that is relatively additive free rather than go out for a burger or similar. Some days I feel like sobbing, 'please eat something that's technically food'. 

Speaking of bear taking control of his life, he has a dentist appointment tomorrow. I asked if he wanted me to go in with him and he was very clear that he was fine, thank you, and that he'd rather do things for himself. I'll be around if he needs anything, so I'm not stressing. The next stage is shirts. Bear has decided that he would quite like to wear a shirt instead of a t-shirt now and again. I pointed out that he would have to iron it himself. He shrugged and said that he needed to learn anyway so no problem. 

I am very, very, very, very lucky. 

(and I'll be doing all the washing and ironing etc for him during exams and busy study times, of course)

Hugs and good health to all. 

DH Had Fun

DH put some fake tombstones in our garden. As the garden looks very similar to an abandoned graveyard, it works. 

I am not tidying up before spring. At the moment the garden is still a resource for insects when we're coming up to a tough time of year. Also, the sparrows enjoy any insects provided. 

Though I could do with planting out some hebe I have in the pots I bought them in a few months ago and I've also been considering giving the garden a quick water of fertiliser to tide the plants over. Any advice on that would be appreciated.

I'm also worrying a little about my parenting. Bear needs wants a haircut. He's been going to the barber shop at the end of the street since he was tiny, and for a while I've been giving him the money and sending him off. The hairdresser has set up appointments after the plague, and normally DH (who also goes to that very reasonable, pleasant and competent barber) books it for him. I encouraged him to get the details for him to make his own bookings. Bear is almost seventeen. I would absolutely go with him if he wanted, but he says that he's fine. 

I hope that I'm not leaving him too adrift. I'm letting him make his own decisions about things like clothes and, well, practically everything. We talk about stuff, so I hope that he has at least some understanding of possible pitfalls. There is less than two years before he leaves for university, and if he's going to make mistakes then I'd rather he make them now when he has a safety net. And whatever else, I don't want him to go off and be so helpless that he can't function away from home. So far, bear is far more sensible than DH and I, but I worry.

Bear is confident that he has it all under control. 

Leg is still sore. I'll see how I do tomorrow. If I'm being silly about going to the doctor then I may try the walk in centre. Going to my GP is hard, because the carpark is tiny, tricky and always jammed so I would never be able to park there. It's on a dual carriageway so there's no on-road parking. There is a stream at the back of the building so I can't park there. It is also around 500 yards away from our house as the crow flies. I should be able to walk there without issue, but it feels like it's impossible. I could drive somewhere further away and have no problem. 

Thank you for the kind comments - you are awesome! I'll do a proper answer tomorrow.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Not Doing Well

I'm not doing too well. I couldn't make a routine GP check up because I couldn't get out of the house. My leg is bad and I'm worried about cellulitis but how do I get to a doctor? I think I need a little bit of a shake and I'll be fine by Monday, I'm just feeling a little low.

I managed to get out of the house today. It's always easier if I can go in a car and I drove to my usual 'park and knit' spot but got grief from a strange man. I don't know how sitting with the doors and windows closed with my knitting translates to 'please pester me for my phone number for ages' but in the end I just left. I rather hoped I'd aged out of this sort of stuff, especially as I have a face like a bag of spanners and a figure like a well stuffed sack of potatoes, but apparently there are still a few moments out there. Sigh. 

There is a silver lining out there. Perhaps I should take the time to sort out the housewifery. At the moment so much hurts so it will be a process. I know it could be worse, I just wish it was better. I'll work on getting some quality sleep and take it from there. 

The only pic I have since last time is one of a selection I took. I got the car to Aldi (just about - there were tears) and took pics of frozen food for bear as part of my campaign 'please eat something different'. He had some prawns in pesto instead of the chickenless dippers which is, I think, an improvement. 

I have to drop him at a nearby dentist next week so I'm going to encourage him to please come shop with me, go wild in the frozen foods and vary his diet. 

Of course, that was followed by a dream where Aldi was taken over by aliens. It didn't make much difference in the dream except parking was harder because their spaceship was in the way. Afterwards I thought about it and didn't think so much would change. You would go in for a pint of milk and come out with a loaf of bread, some very pleasant German salami, a kit for a macrame wallhanging, a mixeervergan spaceblart and a kayak. Your items would still go through checkout at Mach 2, you would come out without the milk (again) and you would still have problems parking. The kayak is the most implausible item as there isn't much room in their centre aisle, though they did have inflatable hot tubs on their website for a while so who knows.

Writing stuff - I suppose I should share that I have a post on Hazardous To Your Sanity here. There have been some good posts on there recently. I have to confess that when it comes to writing at the moment, I'm just getting the dial up tone so this is a reworked version of an old story, but I think that it's still fun. 

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with something more cheerful. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Things That I Will Never Buy

Things that I'll never buy are probably quite a small set, but I'm including these.

Christmas Pudding Flavour Crisps. For those not from the UK, it's like having brownie flavoured Doritos. I saw these in Aldi when I went to pick up some salad and I rejected them utterly! It's an abomination!

The lilac leaves are turning and a wonderful striking colour. 

Gladys continues ridiculously large. As the flowers will be keeping the remaining insects going, I'll cut her back after the first frost when she loses the flowers. 

Brain continues completely dead. I'm a little achy but it could be worse.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Mistakes May Have Been Made (Again)

My girly bits seem to hate me more than my satnav. I'm heading rapidly towards sixty and they still have it in them to get feisty. This weekend has been aches, pains and brain fog. It's settling down somewhat, but the brain fog continues. I was trying to write earlier and all I got was static. 

Today I went to get my flu and covid boosters. I was really achy on the way there and back. I noticed this on the way.

I really love seeing dew on cobwebs. It was very misty this morning and I was glad that I wasn't on the school run, but I loved looking at the softened landscape. We've been very lucky and without any issues from the storm. My heart goes out to those affected.

I've broken two plates today as well. They were the nice ones and I'll have to get some more from Tesco. I'm still flinching at paying £4.50 a plate and I'm annoyed at effectively breaking a tenner. Unfortunately those plates aren't on the website so I would have to shop in person for them. Going out is still something of an issue. 

Do you remember me talking about knitting a lap blanket because I was feeling the chill? And I started out with the double knitting but unravelled it and changed to two strands of DK yarn over 8mm needs and 110 stitches? It's a bit bigger than I expected. The first two balls, knitted as one, look like this. 

The pen in the middle is a standard ball point and I put it in for scale. I had a rough measure and it looks like it could be as much as 48 inches wide or over a metre. This is somewhat wider than I expected. It's also very roughly 12 inches or 30cm long. I have seven balls in the stash (there were 8 but I used one to start a scarf). I've used two knitted together so far, and if I use four more (knitted double) then it should theoretically come out at 4ft by 3ft which is a very respectable size for a blanket and somewhat larger than I expected. I was considering 3ft by 2ft a respectable size to keep my knees warm. I may make another shawl as well. The thing about a shawl and lap blanket is that I can put them on and off again as I'm on my laptop then down to put some more washing in, then sitting back down, then up to put the dinner on etc. I'm sure that it's better value than putting the fire on. For reference, the eight balls cost £9.99 which means that it's around £2.50 so far and I find it reasonable value. It feels warm, snuggly and gives me something to do with my hands while I'm watching dinosaur documentaries.

Bear picked up quite quickly but I'm keeping an eye on him. He's worked so hard over the last few weeks. He's enjoying college, no doubt about it, but I think that it's taken it out of him. I also suspect that there's been a growth spurt. I'm looking at the hems of his jeans and I swear that they're heading north. He's heading into the 'can only get trousers in certain shops' territory.

I will hopefully make more sense tomorrow.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Bear Is Poorly

For the first time in three years, bear took a day off school. Poor kid is full of cold. I never thought about Covid until I saw the comments. To be honest, I've lost track of what the symptoms are of the latest strain are. Bear just seems to have a normal cough and cold. He isn't even coughing that much but he's complaining about a sore throat. 

Anyway, first thing I headed to Tesco. I picked up some cold medicine and some Halloween decorations - I had a coupon and this had been calling to me for a while.

Bear missed out on the food tasting session as they will be finally into the new building with its own canteen next half term and today they got samples. He was sent a copy of the menu that looks pretty good so fingers crossed that it lives up to the promises. He says that he's fine to go into school tomorrow, and to be fair he's looking a lot better, but I'll keep an eye out for him. 

I've done some sorting and writing today. I've found quite a few bits that have been pushed down the back of the cupboards and I've had to throw stuff out that I really wanted to use when I bought it. Still, there's a donation pile growing so I'll be able to drop that off soon. I even got some washing done.

Writing - Today I posted a piece about avoiding bad luck here on #HazardousToYourSanity and I posted the latest chapter of Invitation Accepted here. There should be more Kane tomorrow of some sort. 

Hugs and good health to all.