Wintry.

It's been a wintry day today though not quite as cold as yesterday. I slept while Peter went out early rowing in the rain. I haven't done very much today, a lot of sitting at the PC as I had several months of photo files to back up. My PC will only do one file at a time so I sat and listened to the radio while I ploughed through my files. Also did some lesson planning for next week. And maybe a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. That's sufficient for a winter Saturday.

Colder.

It was a little colder this morning and there was a thin skin of ice of the chickens' water bowl. Looking across the lake I saw what I thought was an unusual cloud formation in the valley. It was only when I walked to a different vantage point that I saw it was just the smoke from a bonfire.

I've had a lovely day at home. As I wrote out my list of jobs for the day I reflected on how my activity levels are a bit like going through the gears on a car. When it's just the 2 of us at home for a holiday I'm in first gear, lazing around and doing just a bit of cooking and clearing up. Then when we have friends to stay I shift up to second gear with more cooking and clearing to be done. When the school term starts my activity levels go right up into 3rd gear with a daily job list that hopefully includes some maintenance jobs on the house or garden and some progress on one of my many hobby projects. 4th gear is when I teach for half a day and then up to 5th not stopping for a second when I teach all day and everything else including planning has to be fitted in around it. So today was a 3rd gear day and I've got to the end of the day having done most of what I planned to do.

I had a phone call earlier in the day from my GP (is he feeling guilty about stressing the so-called angers of an MRI scan?) to let me know the initial results of last week's scan. It showed that the operation was a success, which I knew anyway but that I have a bulging disc lower down the spine which is probably pinching the nerve there. He's going to pass all this to my back consultant and ask him to contact me for another appointment. At last things are moving in the right direction and for the time being I shall just have to be very sensible and not strain my back any more.

Rest ?

It's been another busy day. It was back to the hospital for an early appointment with the rheumatologist. I did try presenting him with a table of all my various joint problems but as he deals with soft tissues he was only going to deal with the pain I have around my hips. The rest comes under the orthopaedic dept. He did a general check and confirmed that I have osteoarthritis in my knee and hand as well as my back problems. His thoughts on my hip pain was that it is due to bursitis which simply means inflammation of the soft tissue around the hips. It had been ruled out 5 years ago when I first went to my GP because she injected steroids to no effect. The doctor this morning tried to be diplomatic and said it's sometimes better when a specialist does it and also GP's tend to use very little local anaesthetic while he was drawing up bottle after bottle into each syringe. I guess the anaesthetic kick starts the reduction of the inflammation. Then he advised me to  rest for the remainder of the day. An afternoon of teaching is not that restful but I did go home and sit at the PC for an hour before heading out to work. I have to admit to being selfishly relieved that it was raining in the afternoon and the children didn't question working on their art right through playtime.

 It has been very misty for most of the day. I took these photos on my way home from the hospital at 10.30.

The tooth saga also drags on. Having finished my second course of stronger antibiotics I rang the dentist because I've still got a lot of pain and I was worried that a lump below the tooth hole was an abscess. They gave me an appointment straight after work and the dentist is happy that all the infection has cleared up, the lump being simply a normal bony bump which just happens to be bigger on that side. She said that the pain is from a nerve (I worked that out as I've got tingling in my lip, tongue and gum) which might continue for weeks or even months! so she is sending me to the hospital. I assume that is the dental dept at our local hospital and not the dental hospital in Bristol and she has flagged it as urgent because it usually takes a while to get an appointment. After the dentist I dropped into Tescos and got a few bargains including blocks of Double Gloucester cheese with chives and onions for 1/6th of the price. Cheese freezes well so I bought 8.
PS I had been wondering how Vytas was doing as there have been some of those dreadful bush fires in the region of the farm where he was working but I've just heard that they are both in Sydney, Sally's about to get on a flight to Auckland and he will be following in a few days. And so the next chapter begins. 

Sunny.

I woke this morning to a bright, clear day. There was a definite chill in the air when I went out to feed the hens and we have been promised colder weather soon. The ground is still soft so I spent an hour weeding one of the flower beds. Even though I would have happily spent all morning outside, experience has shown that my knee and back can't cope with a lot. 

My afternoon down with the little children was as ever busy but fun. We had our usual lunchtime staff meeting but there wasn't a meeting after school so I was free to drive home in the golden light and be home by 4.00.

I stopped at the same lay-by as yesterday to show the difference that 24 hours can make. Coming home it was clear to see that the sun had hardly reached down into our valley as everything was still covered in the morning's heavy dew.

Grey.

Almost had a drama this morning. It started yesterday afternoon when Peter noticed that the interior light of my car was on due to me not shutting the door properly. He suggested that I leave my engine running to charge up the battery so I turned on the engine, went indoors and forgot all about it. That is until this morning when I thought it would be a good idea to turn the car and bring it closer to the house as it looked as if it was going to rain. Then I noticed that the fuel gauge was pointing to empty and realised that the engine must have continued running until it ran out of fuel. I had no idea how many miles I could drive on empty so I grabbed a petrol can and put on my walking boots (in case I had to walk/ hitch to town), and started to drive the six miles into town. When I remember I usually coast down hills anyway as petrol is so expensive and today I took advantage of every downward slope. I breathed a sigh of relief when I reached Shirwell for not only is it the half-way point but from there it is all downhill. The red warning light was on for the last mile of the journey but I made it to the petrol station. Phew! 

Driving out for the second time the clouds were down on the hills and visibility was limited. I had to stop before I got to the road when a group of riders appeared out of the mist on their way back down to the stables.

It was a lively afternoon as my class designed and then created a tasty sweet or cake to decorate a large witch's cottage (Hansel & Gretel), that is in their role play area. I gave them lots of choice of media but I think they had enough of collage work before Christmas and many chose to use watercolours. Surprisingly there were no disasters even though there were pots of water all over the place. It was nice to be able to praise them for their sensibility as that class has a group of boys who are often rowdy and silly. Indeed I had to give 2 of them a serious telling off later for pushing children over in the cloakroom.

Coming home the rain had begun to fall in earnest so I just pulled into a lay-by and took these shots of the misty hills through the car window.

Overcast.

It has been another mild grey day. Out in the garden several flocks of small birds were twittering away in the trees. Later I saw a pair of jays which are the first I have seen here. At first I thought they were collared doves but their slimmer build and quick movements gave them away. As soon as I went out with my camera, true to their shy nature they took flight and flew off. 

Peter had taken today off as well but we couldn't go out for a walk because he twisted his back yesterday and needed to rest. As Christmas is now officially over I wrote myself a list of jobs to work through. I was congratulating myself on taking down the decorations and actually putting them away in the loft when I glanced across to the vase of branches only to see one last glass drop still hanging there. That will have to go in a drawer as I'm not getting the ladder out and climbing up to the loft again. It would have been a good day for working outside but I overdid things yesterday and my poor knee was stinging like anything. Instead I read through all last year's blog posts so that I can write a summary in my family journal.

Glancing through the back room window I spotted Patch in his favourite fishing spot. The water is no more than a few inches deep so he waits patiently for a trout to attempt to make its way upstream.

Overcast.

It's been a dull, grey day. If it wasn't so warm I'd say it was a snow sky. I better be careful about what I wish for as temperatures are set to drop at the end of the week. I've had a quiet day at home. While Peter was out rowing I spent a couple of strenuous hours shifting stones and gravel in the stream. There's now a satisfying pile of stones at the point where the water was eating into the bank. I've accepted that I can't change things permanently in the stream, only slow down the inexorable power of the flowing water but it makes for a good work out in the fresh air.