Overcast.

I was disappointed that I hadn't gone out for a walk yesterday so even though rain was threatening today I took myself up the hill. It was warmer than I had thought so I left my bodywarmer on a fencepost halfway up the hill. I was mainly concerned about protecting the camera if it did rain but I only felt a few drops when I was on my way back.
Walking along the crest of the hill towards Oakwill I was refreshed by the warm wind. With the noise of the wind in the trees it felt as though I was walking by the sea. From the gate at the bend in the road I could see right down to the sea. Today's walk was still only about 2 miles. Of the circular walks from our place there is only one short one and you have to cut back across the fields off the footpath which I don't really like doing. The other circular walks have long sections along a busy road or between high hedges. However it is still lovely to be able to go for these short walks.

At home I got down to some gardening, cutting back the alchemilla around the pond.

Last night I watched the Olympics closing ceremony and I enjoyed every minute, in fact I thought it was much better than the opening ceremony.
Although I have had the opportunity to watch the Olympics I'm just not that interested. I've watched the occasional competitor and taken note of the medal table but I think I'm more in tune with Mary Beard - read her blog here
I think the most impressive aspect of the show was the pixel array which created a lightshow across the whole of the seating areas. For sheer spectacle the prize must surely go to Annie Lennox singing 'Little Bird' aboard Dracula's ship. Though as I am easily pleased the taxi that turned into an enormous octopus during Fatboy Slim's set came a close second. For emotion I would pick the sung & signed rendition of 'Imagine'. I will admit to singing the whole of that with tears running down my cheeks. Eric Idle singing 'Always look on the bright side' brought back the memory of a day many years ago when I was laid up and feeling miserable. Peter taught the song to the the boys, who were very young, and then brought them up to sing it to me and yes it did cheer me up. It was great show last night but the cynical side of me can't hep thinking 'Bread and circuses'. (Juvenal.)
Photo from the web.

Back Home.

Well the deed has been done and I'm back home once more. My back is pretty sore, not much worse than a serious graze with bruising but there is that worry that any movement which causes pain might result in everything bursting open. So I'm moving around very cautiously. Being a private hospital you automatically get an en suite room of your own. (In the NHS you're usually in a 6 bed room). The room was clean and tidy, a few knocks on the woodwork, but the real difference is in the amount of time the staff spend with you. None of those flying visits by random nurses that is more often the case in the NHS. Also the choice of food is good and it was tasty and well presented. Last night I had a smoked salmon salad sandwich on wholemeal bread. The salad was served next to the sandwich so it was easy to pick at slowly whilst lying down. I chose a healthy breakfast; coffee (fresh of course), wheetabix and a fresh fruit plate of orange, grapes, kiwi fruit and pineapple. (Notice I write about the food first.)
The TV had all the Freeview stations so I kept it tuned to Radio 4/ The World Service which was the perfect thing to listen to as I lightly dozed through the night. They kept taking my blood pressure because it got low and the foot pumps, while it is quite nice to have your feet massaged every few seconds, are noisy.


Hanging on the wall opposite the bed was this big photo of St Ives. (I haven't yet worked out how to turn off the flash on my baby Nikon.) It brought back comforting childhood memories as the photographer would have been standing on the beach that was my daily playground when I was a toddler.

I'm not going to bore anyone with gruesome operation details, indeed I was asleep at the time. The last time I had a general anaesthetic I was disappointed not to have been asked to count down from 10, like they do in all the films, so this time I counted anyway as the second injection went in. And I got down to zero (by counting fast) and even remember the anesthetist commenting on the fact. Next thing I knew I was in the recovery room and I remembered the advice I had been given at the pre-op appointment to ask for pain relief there as they have stronger stuff than down on the ward. The low blood pressure kept me woozy all night but I slumbered away listening to the radio and sticking my arm out when the nurse came in to do her obs.

After some x-rays in the morning and advice from the physio there was not much to do but sit and wait for Peter to collect me. It was a 2 hour drive home on the scenic Old Road which runs through the river valley all the way up to Barnstaple. There are some very pretty parts especially when you drive through the forest. It's a deceptive forest because it runs up the side of one hill and then turns into farmland but you would never know as you pass under mature trees shading the road. Now I have 7 weeks of R&R to look forward to and I shall take it extra easy for the first 2 weeks though the ban on sitting up in bed has scuppered some of my plans.

PS for those who live with a different health system.
Here in the UK we have a National Health Service. If you work money is deducted from your pay along with all the other random taxes. If you don't work you don't pay BUT everyone in this country gets free health service. It's not always the best and often you have to wait, like me with my back though years ago I had a D&C within a few weeks. Some people pay insurance for private health care but that is the exception. I had my op done in the private hospital by my NHS consultant because the NHS had more than doubled the statutory wait of 18 weeks at the NHS hospital and they are trying to clear up the back log. Prescription, not hospital, medicines cost about £7.50 each though if you need more than 2 it is worth having a yearly ticket which works out to £9 a month for unlimited medicines. National Health dental care is limited and often not so good so many people do pay for private dentists. I'm stuck with the NHS dentist, a check up is £15, minor treatment like fillings are £45 and for root canals and dentures it is £250. These prices are what I remember anyway. Eye tests are free for children, students, claimants and pensioners with some free or subsidised glasses everyone else pays. All visits to your GP (family doctor) and any treatments at their surgery or health centre are also free. As long as we can stop the greedy Tories from privatising/outsourcing our health service we will have a system where nobody has to fear being unable to pay for treatment.

The Big Day.

Well here I am, showered and ready to go. Just waiting for Peter to come down and drive me off to Exeter. I'm not feeling nervous, the last time I had a general anasthetic it gave me a wonderful sleep, but I would like it to be over with. I stayed up late last night as I reckoned there would be enough time to sleep today. I'm leaving this page open for Peter to complete and post at the end of the day. Very tired and slightly nervous arrival at hospital...however, just a quick update...operation went very well...wifey temporarily very subdued(post anasthaetic sleepiness)...further reports tomorrow.

School Summer Fayre.

Another cold summer's day. It stayed dry for our school Summer Fayre but rained later on. As I had volunteered to help (like all the staff) I was assigned to serve at the bar for an hour. I kept having to go and make new jugs of Pimms to keep up with demand. I turn down the chance to spend 10 mins in the stocks having wet sponges thrown at me as I wasn't sure that it would be good for my back. (And that's my excuse.) The Fayre was well attended and it is nice to see how much ex-pupils have grown, both in stature and in confidence.
Peter drove Linas down to Plymouth this morning to collect the last of his belongings. Right now they are making sweet and sour pork balls in Linas' deep fat fryer. I'm not a fan of too much fried food and actually got rid of the deep fat fryer that was built into our kitchen when we first moved in.
First thing this morning I got on with my decorating and painting woodwork with sparkling white gloss paint. Then there was just time for more weeding before heading into town.

The garden is looking quite colourful at the moment with the roses coming into their best. I look forward to spending some relaxing days in the sun (I can dream can't I?)

Beach Day.

Today we took the whole school down to Saunton Sands. Initially the clouds were low and we had the occasional drop of rain with a light shower at lunchtime. Then it cleared up and started getting very hot. I was glad that I had decided to throw my dignity to the winds and wear a pair of running shorts though I did have some joggers in my bag as back-up. Last year I chickened out at the last moment and then regretted being stuck in jeans for the day.
I would quite like to live in one of these houses up on the cliff but they have been gradually losing their gardens over the years so perhaps it is not the best spot.

The colourful beach huts brightened up what was rather a drab scene. Above, up on the cliff is the white facade of the Saunton Sands Hotel. Linas enjoyed his evening there and was busy serving wine for a big party for the Military Wives' Choir. That's another of those connecting strands that I always seem to be coming across in our small corner of North Devon. The mother of one of the children in the Year 2 class is in the choir. Because of this connection and the fact that they are based at Chivenor it was interesting to watch the progress of the choir on the television and the rise of their record in the charts. I did chat to this mum after school today but she said it was one event that she hadn't been able to attend much to her regret. Linas also found that another of the staff was one of his skateboarding friends from Barnstaple. It was late, 11.30, when I had to collect him last night but apart from being tired I do enjoy driving on the country roads at night. At the top of our drive I surprised a badger running along the verge. I didn't get to see much more than his muddy bottom but seeing live badgers is rare so I was quite excited.

We had a number of activities for the children to do on the beach but for most of the time they were happy to dig and create sandcastles. Even though we are only a few miles from a number of beaches some children don't get much chance to go to them. One little boy said that it was the best day of his life! The highlight of the day, for the children at least, was when we took the whole school down to paddle in the water. It was surprising the number of children that 'happened' to fall in the water though I don't think they were expecting it to be so cold. This was where I was grateful that I had short shorts on and could wade out to yell at the too adventurous kids. We had to be so strict because there is a big difference between watching a few of your own children swimming and surfing in the water and being responsible for 30 children.

After lunch it was back to digging. Some of the mums organised a game of rounders and a group of boys played football but most of my class were involved in a Who can dig the biggest/deepest hole? competion against another class with spies being sent over from the digging sites and traps being dug for the willing to fall into. Our hole was small but deep so we stationed an adult there in case of any emergency.

All too soon it was time to gather up our many belongings and trudge off the beach. The short coach trip back to school was unusually quiet, I think we finally manged to wear them out.

Grey Day, Rainy Afternoon.

It hasn't been the brightest of days even though it is midsummer. Peter went off to row first thing this morning and once he returned we put on our glad rags to attend a wedding. This was the wedding of one of Peter's friends and the ceremony was held at the Civic Centre. I loved the outfits worn by Fred's daughters who were the bridesmaids, very alternative. The bride was dressed more conventionally in a red dress with a white stole and Fred wore a dark grey suit with a red tie. I haven't been to many weddings and they have mostly been church weddings but the ceremony was pleasant and there were no other wedding parties around which would be my worry with a civil ceremony.

The unconventionality continued with this wild choice of wedding limo, a restored fire engine. Fred, of course had arrived to the Civic Centre on his beloved Royal Enfield motorbike. The bike was entrusted to one of his mates to be ridden away safely.

From the Civic Centre we went to the reception being held in a local pub. We stayed for a couple of hours before heading home as it was a very informal affair and people would probably be partying until late in the evening.

Alongside the wedding cake was Fred's piece de resistance, a 3 tiered pork pie. Although Fred is a burly, bald, bike-riding builder he also likes cooking and experimenting with flavours. He and Peter often exchange sausage recipes. Although the pastry had not responded too well to being put in the freezer the pies were still delicious. One was pork & leek, another pork & pickle and the third pork & egg. As well as the pork pies there was a cold buffet with lots of plain party food and a chicken curry. Although the curry did smell good I was too full up after a piece of pie and some other cold nibbles to try any.
Now we are back home and once again it is pouring with rain. I foresee a quiet evening sans supper but with plenty of cups of tea.

Gig Club Evening.

It's official, there will be no summer. The weather for the next few months is forecast to be dismal with the possibility of sunny weather returning in September, but don't hold your breath. So I shall try and ignore the grey wet days and take advantage of even the briefest of sunny spells.
This evening we were down in Pilton for the gig club's photo night at Pilton Hall, home of all community events in Pilton. It was great to relive our trip to the Isles of Scilly by watching a well put together slide show, with amusing captions, on a full-sized film screen. There were also several video clips and once more we were back at the Wolf & Bishop joining in with our enthusiastic rendition of old sea shanties. At the end there were joke awards given out eg The Construction Award (a tent peg) given to someone whose tent fell down. There were fines as well and Peter had to pay up for breaking a pin in a race (he wasn't the only one) and he also had to pay up for having the most clothes on before a race on and nearly delaying the start when he had to take off his jacket.

Pilton Street looking down towards town (Barnstaple) which is hidden behind the trees.

The top end of Pilton is a maze of little lanes cut into the top of the hill. I tend not to use this road to get to work as it's a long way to reverse back if you meet someone coming up the hill at you.

It was so chilly this morning that I had to put the heating on in the classroom. Just for a short time to take the chill off. The children had yet more SATs in the morning and then it got so wet they had to spend most of the day in the classroom. It has been a busy teaching week for me and I will be teaching for most of next week as well. So I shall make sure that I try to have a relaxing weekend.

Beer Festival.

Yesterday's rain refreshed the garden and softened the soil making weeding a lot easier today. Although there were some dark clouds at times the day stayed dry as promised. Unfortunately the same weather forecast was for showers to return for the rest of the week.
There were some big branches blown down in the field and in our garden a smaller branch had come down from the purple beech tree.
I drove Peter into town in the afternoon for the beer festival. He enjoys the general bonhomie of serving behind the bar and of course the willing volunteer 'bar staff' may sample the wares free of charge. They are expected to use some restraint but last year a couple of lads had to be sent home after an hour of their shift after imbibing a little too freely. I popped in to say hello to people when I went to collect Peter 4 hours later but it really isn't my thing.
Driving through the countryside there were signs of community events around the place, bunting stretched across a road in town and banners tied to hedges and gates advertising a vintage car rally in one village and horse agility trials in another. As I turned into the back road on my way home I caught sight of an adult and youngster riding across a field in full show clothing. With the late afternoon sun it all felt very bucolic.

Members of the Gig Club in the foreground.
I don't feel I have done very much today apart from a little weeding and baking flapjacks for Peter. I start to feel twitchy if my day has not been productive. Ah, I did do some cleaning and I'm trying to get to grips with the music from The Piano. I tackled the part with the melody first but now I've gone back to the introduction. The notes themselves are not hard, its the different timing for each hand that takes concentration. The notes are in sets of 6, with the right hand the emphasis is on the 1st and 4th note of each set of 6 while in the left hand it is on the 3rd note. If I keep on plodding away I'll get there eventually.

Nightwalk.

I have just got home from the annual Nightwalk in aid of our local hospice and the Macmillan nurses. This year as well as the long routes from Torrington and Bideford to Barnstaple along the Tarka Trail they also offered the option of walking along the beach at Saunton Sands. I was really pleased when my friends from school all said they would prefer to walk along the beach. Also we decided to do the 5 mile walk though there was the option to walk 10 miles. Since I have had to stop taking anti-inflammatories my knees have been a lot worse and I thought that 10 miles would have been a bit much for me. I got there after 7.00 and was already regretting my decision not to bring my big camera, it usually goes everywhere with me but I thought we had too much cloud cover for a good sunset and only took my pocket Nikon.

It was still quite light when we set off having been issued with wrist labels, a banana and a bottle of water.


That's Paula's mum in the bright pink wig. I'm not sure why everyone is laughing at that point but there was plenty of laughter along the way.

It was a lovely 2 1/2 miles along the beach and then we turned and walked back. The setting sun turned the wet sand pink and we kept stopping to take photos and jump on sea urchin shells which had been washed up.

On our return to the car park the path was lined with candle lanterns. Earlier as we had been walking along the beach one of the marshals sent up one of those paper balloons with a light inside.

It didn't get dark until the very end of our walk so all our glow stick adornments didn't show up that well. Janet did best with some battery operated Christmas lights though my flashing shoe laces looked quite good once it was dark. At the end of the walk, once we had given in our numbers, we were given a certificate and a pen and then a cup of coffee and a bacon roll. A better end than last year when the heavens opened and we got soaked. I took the precaution of putting plasters on some of my toes as my feet are rather wide and used to being in wellies, crocs or flip flops but I have still got a big blister all down the side of my big toe because I decided to wear a pair of old trainers instead of my walking boots. I think I am going to have to try and find somewhere that does wide fitting trainers because I either have to have slightly cramped toes or trainers that are far to long for me. I LOVE CROCS.

Gig Rowing

I had my first try at gig rowing this afternoon. My back is stinging like mad right now but as it was pretty sore this morning after yesterday's mowing I will give it another go before making any decision. Also I will ask to sit on the other side of the boat as I could feel my bad hip twinging. I would like to be more active and as Peter is so involved in the gig club it would be good to do something together (though I don't fancy blisters on the bum which is a hazard).
This is the gig that I went out in. It is plastic and easier to row than the Odessa (top picture) which is built of wood and much heavier. I quite enjoyed the rowing though there was so much to concentrate on. I found keeping in time not too bad and I didn't catch too many crabs. It was when the trainer sitting behind myself and the other person having a taster session started to instruct me to keep my arms straight and then pull my hand right up to my shoulder, that things got a bit unravelled. Too many things to think about at once! It was fun and at times we got into a steady rhythm and flew along.

Myself and the other newbie at the boat shed after we had walked the gig along the road.

Another view of the Phillipa Jay.

This was Peter's second row of the day so he was content. While he was rowing I went to the library and did a little shopping. Afterwards we stopped at the Co-op and got more bargains including some lamb bhuna and onion bhajis which we had for supper.

Didn't do very much earlier in the day as my back was bad and I had a nasty sinus headache. However Peter and I did remodel the cabinet that the tv sits on, or rather we hacked the back off to make it more suitable for the flat screen tv. The hardest part was replacing the wheels at the back as we needed a 12mm drill bit to make the holes to put the fittings in and we had to search high and low for one. (Tidying and sorting all our tools is on my to-do list but not until I've finnishe the current round of decorating.)

Fair - Not.

I had hoped to be posting pictures from the annual Barnstaple Fair which is taking place this weekend but things conspired to end up with us not going. We were going to give the carnival a miss as that happens in the afternoon and I have watched or taken part in enough carnivals over the years but had planned to be in town for the fireworks (which are happening as I type) but that didn't happen. The day has been one of blustery showers so we might have been caught in the rain (or not), and then there was the new TV . We had been waiting all day and it finally arrived just before 5.00. The men were a bit taken aback by the size of the old TV which they had to take away. Such a shame to throw it out but Peter didn't want me to offer it on Freecycle as he is uncomfortable with people coming to the house. It took us a while to unpack the new TV and get it running (Peter got Sky working again) and it still has a blue/green cast to the picture. The help desk weren't surprised by this so it must be a fairly common problem. They've suggested some ways of adjusting the setting otherwise it will have to be replaced.

As well as missing the fireworks we would also have gone for a walk around the fair to soak up the atmosphere and I was looking forward to throwing my dignity to the winds and having another ride on the merry-go-round horses. Oh well, I can try to get there next year.

I did quite a lot of garden work inbetween the showers so the day hasn't been wasted.

Where Has The Sun Gone ?

Back to grey skies and a drizzly afternoon so I couldn't even finish off the mowing. I'm not taking any more of the new medication because it is way too strong for me. I went back to sleep after Peter went off to row in a regatta this morning and didn't wake up till midday. That's from 1 tablet taken yesterday evening !

I haven't had too much energy today but I got a spare bedroom ready for Vytas' visit on Thursday and tidied up the conservatory. I'm still thinking about sealing the bare plaster walls in the kitchen so that I can paint them tomorrow evening. I have to go in to work in the morning and Fred will be finishing off the plastering anyway. He's not going to start on the sitting room until August because I've got various people coming to stay /visit next week and I don't want the sitting room to be out of action.
Nothing much else today. Peter enjoyed the regatta at Instow but he said it was rather cold and miserable for the spectators.

Green Man Day.

Look closely and you can see me reflected in this owl's eyes.

Yesterday was St Swithin's Day and as it rained all morning folklore says we will have rain for the next 40 days. And yes it poured with rain this morning. I do hope we aren't in for another wet summer. The rain was especially unwelcome today as it was Green Man Day which is celebrated as a big street festival in Pilton. Peter went down early in the morning to help bring one of the gigs from the boat shed to Pilton High Street and everyone was setting up their stalls in the pouring rain. By the time we got there in the afternoon the rain had died away and it was quite hot in the sunny spells.

Green Man Day is always well attended and I saw many of our school children and their families.

Talking to potential new members for the gig club was thirsty work or so Peter assured me. With 2 pubs in the High Street , one of them having its own brewery there was no shortage of liquid refreshment. I left Peter to continue his arduous task and wandered up the High Street enjoying the atmosphere and listening to the music from the 3 stages.

The owl man was there again with his display of rescued birds of prey so I took the opportunity to take some decent shots of a buzzard. The wild birds, of which there are plenty around here, fly away the minute a camera is pointed in their direction.

The festivities include a procession and many of the weirdly dressed characters could be seen wandering around during the rest of the day.

Here an aquaintance of ours is talking to a couple of pirates.

Before going to the festival I had called in at the Barnstaple dump with some bags of plasterboard and old plaster. I was shocked to find that they now charge £2 a bag to get rid of plasterboard. Because I can't lift too much my bags were about 1/3 of a normal amount and anyway I objected on principle. There always used to be a charge for people ie builders bringing rubble etc in vans but we already pay a local for tax which includes services such as sewage drains which we don't have. So I left the dump and instead bought some heavier duty bin bags. I've now repacked the plaster waste into smaller amounts and will go to the Ilfracombe dump tomorrow and throw it all into the compactor instead. The whole system is ridiculous and will only encourage people to fly tip in quiet country laybys.

Now that Fred has finished plastering I will have to paint the kitchen walls as he only used the pink plaster. 18 years ago our builder used white plaster and we took that as an excuse not to paint the walls as it would have been white paint anyway. But first I need to do the ceiling, having most of the furniture out of the room makes it the perfect time even if I hadn't decided it was time to cover up some old water stains and sort out the crumbling surface in one corner. If only it was just a matter of picking up a brush and slapping on some paint. But first there was the flaking surface to be scraped off, then the whole (large) area to be washed with sugar soap followed by application of filler to the places where the swirly artex coating had fallen off. That's the stage I've got to now. Tomorrow I'll paint the stained places with special stain cover paint and then finally I can paint it all nice fresh white. I like wallpaper in decorating magazines and catalogues but when it comes to my own home which is always full of clutter I prefer plain painted walls, usually white. Before I can paint the kitchen walls I'll have to fill in the many chips and small holes that have resulted from having 3 boys growing up in the house.

Beer Festival.

   

Heavy rain again this morning. In the afternoon I drove Peter into town as he had selflessly volunteered to work behind the bar at the Beer Festival. Hard work but someone has to do it and the free beer might have been an incentive.

                           

I did some shopping before returning home for more time on the jigsaw and a little gardening. Soon it was time to go back to collect Peter and say hello to people I knew (a lot of the gig club were there in their red fleeces and jackets.)

On my home in the afternoon I saw 2 deer in the field, they ran off as soon as they saw me and jumped over the hedge.