Improving

I have made a leap forward in that I have completed - and got right - both The Times Sudoku and the crossword.   I am getting back on track.   Also I have read - and commented on - most of your posts over the last week or so so I really feel I am getting there.

For the first day this week we have been fog-free here;  no sun and very cold but  also clear.   Friend and neighbour H came round for an hour this afternoon and we had a pleasant chat about this and that.

I do so love blogland - now that I am not very mobile, I get such inspiration from all my friends - both those calling in on me and those of you writing in blogposts  -that it is good to be getting back to taking part.   If you haven't already done so and find a moment to press a few buttons, do please read John Going Gently's post for today.   Sometimes he paints such lovely word pictures and today is one of those days.

Hopefully see you all tomorrow.

Trying again

 I am trying again but now am having trouble keeping a post on line - and I have forgotten how to retrieve.   But here goes - I'll try again.  Almost a century - heaven forbid that I should live another ten years that make that true.   But if I look back to my school years everything has changed.   Friend M called yesterday - she had been helping at her church sale at the weekend.  Jumble  sale? No way - don't have those any more.

I suppose in a way Charity Shops have replaced them.   I have been reading Barbara Pym - read her many years ago and all I can cope with at the moment.  The way Lady M sent her last years 'cast offs' and the way the church 'elite' looked through them to see which they could buy and adapt for next year.   None of that any more - seems this years sale had hand-knitted Christmas tree ornaments which sold like hot cakes.

As we agreed clothes aren't made to last any more;girls watch television, read the fashion pages and buy the up to date  stuff and wear it to death.

I look in my wardrobe and see a coat I have had at least fifteen years (and still wear).

A Long Life

Try again

Try, try, try again so here goes.   More hospital visits which were a waste of time, still gradually changing my drugs which is making me very tired - coupled with very dull and wet weather which is depressing anyway and leads me to speculate on what I would feel like if I didn't live in a so-called temperate climate.

I have spent Christmas in Moscow when  they were shovelling snow off the roads and into canals, in Beijing when you could barely walk because it was so icy,  Mongolia up in the mountains.   What they all had in common was a lack of wind  and often plenty of sun. Here for the last fortnight it has been cold, wet, windy and no sun to speak of and jolly cold and miserable.     But would I rather spend my days somewhere very hot?   No thank you.

I suspect that round here everyone's resolution to turn their thermostat down a notch has flown out of the window.   What about you?

 

I am OK thank you.

 Thank you dear blog friends for your enquiries,   I am feeling a bit better every day but until my drugs are completely changed my brain is not always in gear.    Some days I feel more like putting a post on than others.   It is now my bedtime but because so many of you are sending me e mails asking after me I am just putting an up date on.   Tomorrow I will attempt to post properly - I promise.

Saturday

 No better = grey, cold and wet.    Friend W called and we chatted for a couple of hours, which passed a pleasant morning.    At least my computer sits next to the radiator so I am warm as i sit here chatting to you.

This week there seem to  have been so many car accidents round us - at least one each day and some days two.   One of the problems is that we live only a short distance from the largest army garrison in Western Europe and so of course near to a large YOUNG population.   This doesn't help.

Earlier in the week a kind reader sent me a link to a drone flying over East Witton F ell.   This morning I managed to get it and to spend a quarter of an hour happily zooming over it,   I wish I had not lost your name but thank you so much 

After a busy morning I am off to have a nap.    Take care everyone - see you tomorrow,

I don't think I ever remember such an awful day as yesterday.   It was pouring with rain when I drew back the blinds at seven and it was still pouring with rain when I went to bed.  There was enough fog to  make it impossible to see much further than across the road.

How different it is this morning.    I am sitting here just after twelve, the sun is out, there is enough breeze to have cleared away the fog and looking out of my sitting room window I can see -( looking through three almost leafless silver birches and between the houses) my beloved East Witton Fell.  I always think of this as the Eastern edge of the  Yorkshire Dales.   Most days that view tells me enough so that I don't ever have to listen to the weather forecast.   And in addition it treats me to a magnificent display of heather every August.

I really am no longer able to go out but I have plenty of views to look back on  in a cupboard full of photographs from around the world.   I am always intending to start but never do - I might start this afternoon.   Yesterday I watched a programme  on Plymouth, Massachusetts and as I watched, so many memories came back.

 See you tomorrow,

One day at a time.......

 Yes - each day a little improvement.   Today it is such a grey day here - a totally grey quiet day  - all of which helped me to go back to sleep sitting in my chair with today's Times immediately after my carer had gone at just after eight.   I woke up at a quarter to twelve!!   I have just eaten the lunch she left for me - garlic mushrooms and salad to which I added baby beetroot in sweet vinegar - and have just come to my computer,feeling a bit more perky.   I am assured by my doctor that this intense tiredness is all to do with this total change of tablets bit by bit and that once I have totally changed things will return to normal (whatever that is).

Yesterday one or two people commented on the performance of the N H S.    So I just wish to say here - I do understand that many folk are unhappy with the treatment they have had but I can only speak for myself when I say that I am 100 percent happy with the way things have gone for me - perhaps the wrong words to use but I can almost say I have enjoyed the last few weeks.   I feel that right from my seizure everyone has gone out of their way to be kind, reassuring and comforting.

I feel stronger each day and little by little my brain is returning to normal.    It is as though my brain was a finished jig-saw broken into many pieces by my fall and bit by bit somebody is redoing it.

My lovely birthday cake is almost eaten.   My son has taken over the distribtion of my tablets and my carer bought one new tablet box and my son bought another.   He called this morning for last week's now empty box (to refill for next week) just as I was making my after-lunch coffee and I saw him looking at my birthday cake so suggested he cut himself two slices for their after-lunch.   He had no difficulty finding the knife.   Like his father before him fruit cake is near the top of his list of likes.  It is now 31 years since his father died and after 39 years of happy marriage I count myself very lucky to have had 23 equally happy years marriage to my dear farmer.   And while we are  on such things as dates - interesting to read that Petula Clarke was also 90 this week and has been married for over 60 years to the same man.   And is at present singing "Feed the Birds" on the West end Stage.

Such is life dear friends.

Wet! Wet! Wet!

An absolutely horrible day here -it has never stopped raining/   I suppose the one thing in its favour is the fog has more or less cleared.

Thank you all for your foot hints - T and S are already trying some of the hints out - how wonderful the internet is.

I have had an interesting day.   A lady who works for  the  Health Service throughout Lancashire and North Yorkshire called to assess that all my care needs were being met and we decided that I was jolly lucky with the care I was getting.   Thetie up with our local GPs seems very impressive to me and I do sometimes think we under-estimate the care we get.  Especially in areas like here with (I would guess) an ageing population.

Each day my addled brain is sorting itself out bit by bit and - hopefully it will continue to do so.   Then my legs need to start working again.

Until tomorrow dear blog friends.

 

Good morning World!

 Much more like my world this morning I am pleased to say - still gaps but comforting words on here yesterday from some of my US readers.   I shall hold on to those for a day or two.

So now another medical plea.   I feel sure that you are all such  an energetic lot that somebody might be able to help (several people helped me considerably yesterday and were very comforting).    

Plantafacilitis.   My dear friend T has suddenly developed it in his foot,  (it is rather like trying to walk with a marble under your heel. )  I know I had it in my young, "energetic" days but can't  remember how I got rid of it.   Getting a doctor's appointment these days is like getting hens' teeth) so hope somebody has something helpful to say.

See you tomorrow.

Here again

 Back again.   My brain still seems slightly addled and I have to sort through it to find the right words but I am getting there slowly.   How strange itis to have my brain in such a mess but it does get easier to communicate each day so I do have to keep trying.

It is especially cold; the forecast said sunny but not so here - fog until late morning now misty and dull. typical November day. Does anyone remember the poem with the lines "no butterflies, no bees, November?"   If so, please remind me.

Back tomorrow.

Definitely Autumnal today - not cold but windy, cloudy, damp and as I am not moving fast at the moment I am needing the central heating on.   Although I am here alone I have just observed the two minutes silence - quite important to me.   There is a darling old man, Matt, who has collected round here for years and everyone supports him.

At this point a friend called and we stopped for a coffee.   Now two hours later I am trying again and struggling so shall not write any more today. See you all tomorrow.

Getting there.

 Well I understand from various sources that my  messages have not been getting through - I have been pressing the wrong buttons, so here I am trying again.

Here is the 'low down' on the state of play.   I seem to have developed Grand Mal Epilepsy and have just been in hospital for a fortnight after a very bad fit  not nice  for any of us.  I was in Darlington M|emorial  Hospital -delightful staff from all over the world - lovely doctors- lovely food and nothing at all to complain about.   Now bit by bit my drugs are being changed.   I am feeling strange and not thinking straight.

Thank you all for your concern and good wishes.   I will be back when I feel well enough. In the meantime much love dear bloggy pals - missing you.