Showers.

Apologies for going into so much detail about my back yesterday. I remember well how tedious it was to listen to every single detail of my mother's state of health when she made her daily phone call. Let's just say that right now I'm focussing on making every effort to improve my health. We are lucky enough to have our free at point of use health system but it's not without its problems. The main one appears to be that although GPs are paid according to the number of patients they have on their books the hospitals aren't. The government keeps telling us they are increasing the amount of money allocated to the hospitals but that increase is only keeping up with inflation. No account has been made of the vastly increased numbers of patients needing hospital care and the system is at breaking point with simply no beds to put people in. Then there's the problem of greatly decreased funding to the local authorities to provide at home or residential care to our increasingly elderly population who can't be discharged from hospital to look after themselves. That's another reason why we try and follow the guidelines for a healthy old age. (Not that I consider myself old but it is creeping up.) Following the exercises set by the physio will hopefully restore me to a state where I can work on my fitness. Together with keeping my weight down and eating a healthy diet I should live to at least 200!

We've had sun today but an awful lot of showers as well. The osteospermums decided the light levels were too low and stayed shut all day. In spite of the rain I feel I've achieved my goals today. Firstly I put more sealant on the inside of the conservatory roof as it has been leaking a little in the recent very wet weather. Then in a dry spell I tidied up the area between the back of the house and the stream, weeding and removing leaves and twigs. Now it looks a lot more cared for.

Finally I went up into the loft to see how much more there is up there besides my mother's art works. I found a box of small glasses which I haven't unpacked yet and a large box of ceramics. This was so big and heavy I had to hand down each newspaper wrapped piece to Peter. These would all have been the things my mother found in local junk shops. In those days junk shops would mainly have been filled with items from house clearances most of which would have been junk and an occasional treasure. I pulled out a picture frame and a glass cake cover to keep but we haven't decided what to do with the rest. I'll check that the boys don't want any and then either sell some items or give the lot to one of the charity shops. They have specialists who make sure they value stuff properly and it would be going to a good cause. Have to think about that. 

I was really pleased to see this flowering clump of irises. Last year there were only about 6 buds and before they could open snails or slugs had eaten through the stems causing them to fall to the ground.

Windy.

It's funny how although I normally don't open my eyes until around 7.30, today when my alarm was set for 6.00 I woke at 5.50. At least it stopped the jangling alarm clock from disturbing Peter. I took the above photo on my way to the hospital at about 7.45, the rest were taken this afternoon on my way home again.

After 8 weeks of physiotherapy I'm now noticing significant improvement with my back. From having 4-5 severe spasms each day I've only had one mild one this week and yesterday was the first time I was able to lie down on my back straight away without easing myself cautiously down. I did feel a little disappointed when my back began to ache this afternoon but that was after an hour in the physiotherapy gym, walking the length of the High Street and back and shopping. I guess it's going to take some time before everything settles down. When I got home I decided to give myself the afternoon off sitting outside to enjoy the fine weather and dramatic skies. Nice as it is to read outside I felt like I could easily nod off so instead I found myself some weeding to do where I could work from sitting down.

This morning as I drove out I noticed a second pair of geese in the field but it wasn't until I returned that I saw they too have 6 goslings. 

Windy.

It's been dry and fairly sunny with a good breeze today. I got some washing out on the line and although there were a couple of moments when I thought it was going to rain it was nearly dry by the time I brought it back in. 

I spent the afternoon working in the garden. Initially I planned to clear the steps in the far corner as they were almost hidden by long grass. This was a hands and knees job (thank goodness for my soft strap on knee pads) using a pair of large dress making scissors. Although I could have used the long handled shears working on my knees made it easy to weed the bank on either side of the path at the same time. Also using scissors  means I have my other hand free to clear the grass away. Once I'd done the steps naturally I carried on working along the path but came to a halt when I got to the section of path full of plantain. That will have to wait for the next time I run the mower over the path.

One last bit I did do was to trim the grass along the sides of the rill that empties into the pond. Having tidy edges makes a difference even when the lawn itself needs mowing. Wildlife seen today were a newt found under a leaf in the rill and a toad walking in the nursery beds.

Wet.

It rained all morning and then not only was the afternoon drier but it was also warmer. To occupy myself in the morning I had a thorough clear out of all my folders and files. That resulted in several bags of rubbish and more empty space in the sitting room. 

Each time I walk around the garden I see more weeds popping up and even worse- flowering so I took advantage of the dry afternoon to spend some time weeding. I think I got all the weeds in the propagating beds though no doubt a fresh lot will spring up over night.

Squeaky is getting to be very fussy in her old age. One day she'll eat boiled minced turkey, another cheese or sardines. This morning she turned up her nose at all of those options so I tried her with tinned cat food. She ate that with relish and this evening when I gave her turkey and cat food she ate all the cat food and left the turkey. She spends a lot of time yelling at me. Sometimes she wants to sit on my lap, other times she just wants to sit on my pc chair which is what I think she is waiting for right now.

This 'border' along the edge of the old hens' run has gone from a mass of brambles, stinging nettles and other weeds last year to what looks like an established bed full of perennials. I threw in spare plants from around the garden; day lilies, sisyrinchium, something with whorls of yellow flowers and ornamental grasses.

Wet.

It has rained all day long. This led to an extra long guitar session though the 6th string is proving a challenge to both fingers and brain. I also had a good sort out in one of the spare rooms that's currently being used to store empty boxes and things brought down from the loft. Knowing we would move eventually we kept all the boxes and packaging from more fragile items bought in the last few years. The end result of today's efforts was a much tidier room, a few things to give away and a bag of rubbish. Now I suppose I ought to get back up into the loft and bring down more of the things that have been up there for 23 years. In between doing other things I also backed up my photo files, something I had been a bit lax about recently.

I needed a waterproof coat just to go outside and take some photos. When I looked at the plant nursery I couldn't believe how many weeds there were, some of them a couple of inches high. I thought I'd been doing a good job with my constant hoeing but obviously it wasn't good enough. I carefully stashed my camera in the potting shed (aka ex hen house) and began hand weeding. It's only been a year since the main beds were a weed ridden plot so it isn't that surprising to find so many seedlings.

Wet.

Today has been cold, grey and frequently wet. I thought it would be a good opportunity to go through some of my stored clothes to see which could be passed on to the charity shops. As I've done this several times already I didn't find much to give away. There were a couple of classic straight dresses made of that crinkly, stretchy fabric which is so good for taking on holiday. Admittedly I would prefer to have a few less bulges before wearing them. The chances of losing the weight are a lot higher than of us going on holiday to somewhere nice and warm so really they should go. However while I have them I can persuade myself that there is more a case of when rather than if. I have got a couple of bags of stuff to take to the charity shop so that's something at least.

Peter came home from the doctors' with tales of an extremely long needle and having bravely watched at least part of the injection into his knee which would have been a lot more credible if I hadn't had exactly the same thing done recently. And I usually watch whatever is being done.

Even though I was stuck indoors for most of the day I was able to do some nature watching from the bedroom window. 

 A pregnant looking red deer doe.

Windy.

We stayed up late last night watching Eurovision last night and thoroughly enjoyable it was too.  The winning song wasn't my favourite but it was a good song and the backstory was touching.

Today has been sunny once more again with quite strong winds. Right now the sky has turned an ominous dark grey so we may be in for another wet night. Outside in the garden I did some tidying up of the heather banks, pulling out the long grass that was creeping in around the edges. Even though the flowers are looking a bit faded the air was filled with the buzzing of bees including lots of honey bees. I had to be careful not to get stung as I clipped back the heathers which had grown over the small access path. I don't mind the actual sting but over the years my body's reaction has gone from a small bump easily soothed with an ice cube to the whole of my upper arm swelling up. Whenever I've mentioned it in response to the 'Any allergies?' question in the hospital the doctors have looked bemused and it earned me a red wristband at the Nuffield Hospital. It's a shame as I would have liked to keep bees but I don't think it's worth the risk.

Naturally I took advantage of the sunshine to sit outside and read. There's something very soothing watching the dappled shade dancing to the wind.

I'm still working away at my teach-yourself guitar efforts. Having realised I needed to correct my finger placement I went right back to the start of the book and have just worked my way back up to the 6th string. It's a challenge but they do say that the way to keep your mind active is to learn new things. Something to do with making new pathways in the brain.