Physiotherapy.

The tops of the trees are swaying gently in the wind and there is a light drizzle in the air. Everything is quite grey and cold but all around the garden there are signs of new growth; the first blue grape hyacinths, buds on the kingcups and tadpole shapes inside the frogspawn. 

I went down to the hospital today for some physio and an x-ray of my knee.  The poor physiotherapist had so much to write down as my hip, knee and back pain have their own causes but affect each other as well. It seems that my current back problems may be due to stiffness of the vertebrae that were operated on and weakness in the muscles around them. I've been given exercises to strengthen my inner core which I have to do 3 times a day. I'd be happy to spend all day exercising if that would improve my back but I'll stick to the regime I've been given. When I went to my GP yesterday she gave me a certificate signing me off work until April. I posted that at about 4.00 and when I rang to speak to my Head Teacher the certificate had already arrived this morning. Excellent service and I only put a 2nd class stamp on it.

The roadworks to put in a roundabout in place of the traffic lights is due to carry on until July. At the moment you cannot walk along the road there so when I parked in the next street along I had to take a long detour to get back to the main road and the hospital. It was a bit like a treasure trail following the arrows on red signs which took me through a smart part of the housing estate and eventually to the main road. You can tell this is the 'smart' area because although the houses are all quite new each house or pair of houses is built in a different mock Georgian style with a variety of roofs and colours making it all look like a village. There was even a little village green with a small children's play area but of course there were no shops or other amenities. It was nicer and no doubt more expensive than the road I had parked on where all the houses are the same apart from door colours and the painted upper sections which tended towards cream/white/grey.

Peter has taken my car back to the garage today. Because it was raining when he drove it to have new brake shoes he didn't hear the regular clattering which I'm sure is coming from the exhaust pipe. I poked it with my foot and it did seem quite loose at the back. The front section of the exhaust was replaced last year but with the stream being so close everything here gets damp and rust is a real problem. I think this may well be the last year for my car as it probably won't get through it's next MOT.

I'm blogging earlier today as I'm fed up with not being able to put photos on when the wind or rain hit the system. PS I noticed that the smart houses had fibre-optic broad band, that won't be coming here for a very long time if ever.