Sailor's Warning

Photos Copyright: Maggie May

I'd love to be able to say in a bragging way, "I was up in time to see the sunrise."

Well I was.... but it was at around half past seven.

I happened to look through the window at breakfast time and saw the rosy pink sky and dashed to get my camera. When I was a child, there was a saying, *Red in the morning.... sailors warning.* That was a day or so ago.

When I opened the curtains this morning, everything was covered in snow. It really looked quite pretty before the locals started writing things on the snowy car windows and before the foot trails on the pavements and the beginnings of slush.

As I write this, the sun is shining brightly so it will turn into slushy ice.

Maybe we should expect any kind of weather these days. It is so varied.

When I was young, the winters were always harsh and the summers were hot. So this is how I remember things before I was 8 years old. It was normal then. However nobody had central heating or double glazing and I do remember how cold we all felt and the frequent long illnesses caused by it.

We are definitely better off today.

I have finished knitting Mary and Jesus and have started knitting Joseph. I am beginning to be very busy though now, so progress will be slow.

To Snow Or Not To Snow.

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

I took this photo back in April when we quite unexpectedly, had a sudden shower of hail.

It didn't last long, but I thought it was rather beautiful and I'm glad that I was able to capture the scene before it melted.

I had meant to post this picture when it happened but the daffodils died back long ago and have been replanted and the moment is over.

Or is it?

I am hoping that our recent warnings of snow will not come near to where I live. I expect anyone who knows me will realise how much I hate walking on the stuff.

Granted, there is beauty in a new fall of snow that stealthily surprises us over night. Snow that hasn't been walked on when everything is fresh and clean.

When this happens there is a real quietness that hangs over everything. This always seems to come with each fall of snow..... the quietness. Have others noticed this?

I like to think that we will get Christmas over before we get any snow and possibly the New Year as well.

A few days ago I was surprised when I saw a woman walking up the road carrying a brand new toboggan because it was fairly sunny.

I called out to her and asked her if she new something about the weather that I didn't. She just laughed.

The toy shops seem to be full of toboggans.

Waiting......

If the worst should come to the worst this year, I have some grips to put on the bottom of my shoes. I ordered them on the internet earlier in the year, but by the time they arrived, the snow was over and I never got to try them out.

The Shut In Days

Photo copyright: Maggie May

I have got quite used to being shut in the house. The days seem to just merge into each other.

I start off the morning in the front room, where we have a coal effect gas fire. I have a laptop in that room and spend sometime on that. I can see things from the front room window. Not many people are about. The local schools are shut, so there is not as much casual parking and I haven't seen any children about. Some of the cars that do pull out of the space on the road where they have been parked, slide about all over the place and have difficulty getting onto the un-gritted road. None of us has off street parking or garages where I live.

My son and granddaughters talk to me via the web cams. It is good to see them.

My sister in law bought me a jigsaw for Christmas. That is on a board in the back room. I have not finished it yet as it is double sided and takes much longer to fathom out. There is a certain therapeutic pleasure in doing a jigsaw though.

I usually end up turning off the gas in the front room and then spend the late afternoon / evening in the back, where we have another gas fire. However the central heating usually starts up by then.

This changing from one room to another makes me feel like I am breaking the day up into bite sized chunks. See how institutionalised I am becoming!

I am feeling better because this is the week that my body picks up before the next session.

I am not sure yet how I am going to get to the hospital on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

I was listening to the local radio and a lady who had to get to a hospital appointment urgently rang in to say that a taxi firm had charged her £25 each way! Like me she only lives about 2 miles from the hospital. People rang in to say that the normal fare should be £8 each way. Obviously that firm was trying to make some money out of the snow.

My hair dresser friend (who helped me chose the wig) has been round to see me twice. The second time was today and I asked her if she would shave my head. The scalp is very sore and the hair is coming out so slowly and shedding everywhere. It looks very dead and it is totally unwanted now that I know it has to come off.

Once again, she told me she couldn't bring herself to shave everything off, but she said that she would cut it very short about an inch in the longest place and nicely shaped up the sides. This did in fact look very nice and the front looked like a punk sort of style all sticking up. I might wear it like that when the hair is growing back. While she was cutting the back a large chunk came off in her hand...... so I don't feel I can go around with a bare head in case it does that again when in company. So I am back to wearing a scarf. I feel as though I have changed my religion to a middle eastern one, where the hair has to be covered. However,the hair manages to find a way out of the scarf and ends up sticking to my clothes down my back. I didn't realise that I had so much. It has always been very fine, fly-about hair.

My friend came unexpectedly today by bus. (She lives several miles away.) She came with bread and milk and pizza as well as bringing some cake treats. She also brought some *pick me up* Bible quotes written out for me, so that I could look them up when the going got tough.

I will be forever grateful to her. She made me feel like it was Christmas all over again.

That is true friendship, isn't it?

Chemo, snow and waiting.....

Hi everyone....... I have at last started my treatment.

When I saw the snow yesterday, my heart sank. It was thick, as British snow goes, and soon made all the roads a slippery mess.

You Canadians will wonder why this should happen. Well Britain, (England anyway), is never ready for the snow.

When it pitched, the roads were un-gritted and everything came to a halt.

Very selfishly, I was only worried about getting my treatment.

I got up very early in the morning and my husband de iced daughter's car for her. She hates driving in the snow. However once we got out onto the main road, it wasn't too bad.

We found ourselves in the Hospital car park and there was no place you could park without paying an extortionate amount, which for cancer patients, some of them going in everyday, is a great hardship.

The nurse struggled to find a vein that didn't collapse and as I noticed my daughter going a funny colour, she was pleased when I told her I could manage on my own. I was much more worried about the snow than anything else I experienced.

The infusions took a long time to go in, and I was there well over six hours.

They gave me lunch and I had taken lots of things to do. However I was surprised the simple crosswords in the book I had brought seemed suddenly very difficult and I realised that my brain was not as capable of solving easy puzzles. When the chemical was flushed out of the tube in my hand, I started to be able to do the puzzles again, but I am making lots of typos that I am having to put right and I had to think really carefully how to put the signature on the post. I haven't worried about a picture this time. So I think that my brain has been affected already.

All in all, I was surprised how I could eat tonight although I do feel tired.

I have got lots of pills to take and I have lots of dos and don'ts ...... a long list of them.

Thank you to all who have emailed me and for everyones' support.

I will get round to answering soon.

I will have to play it by ear, but I have had enough for today. Will keep you posted.

Was I Too Hasty?

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Was I too hasty in my last post, telling everyone how well the underpinning was going? I think so. You see, we turned the corner and immediately the problems started to happen.

Several fat pipes started to go under the kitchen that we didn't know about. Is this where the rodents are getting in? We will now have to get a firm to check these pipes with CCTV.

Next problem the snow starts to come down faster making it impossible to work. The forecast is snow off and on all week, this doesn't look good. No concreting can be done today and I have a gaping hole under the kitchen.

Sam, my son, has hurt his arm. It has been painful ever since he started digging. He had to go to the minor injury A&E at the local hospital and found that he has damaged a tendon. It will need a weeks rest.

So now I have strange pipes running under the kitchen (over a hundred years old), who knows what state they are in, a gaping hole under the kitchen, a son with a hurt arm, snow and a husband who is not strong enough to do things by himself.

Can things get any worse........ no don't tell me the kitchen could cave in! I need to go out and have a little scream.

That is better. In the mean time I can look at part of my undisturbed garden and wait for the birds to come back. They have been frightened off.

Photostory Friday is hosted by Cicely and MamaGeek.

The Unexpected Visit.

It's always lovely when my daughter comes to visit with the grandsons. Sometimes the boys' school holidays coincide beautifully with the school where I work, but this last one was completely out of sync.

After thinking that we wouldn't be seeing each other this time, she suddenly announced that she would visit after all and would leave husband to his own devices and come on Saturday and go home on the following Tuesday, which was the last day of the the boys' school holiday.

Its not a happy marriage and I think she comes to escape and have a bit of peace (if you can call our house peaceful, that is.) You know what I mean, though, a little time out of the unhappy environment!

Anyway, after a tiring journey of six hours that should have only taken half that time, she was surprised when her car engine completely cut out just outside our house. Luckily a neighbour, who happens to be a mechanic, looked at the car and told her that the alternator had broken and obviously she would need a garage. He also told her she was lucky that it didn't cut out on the motor way as it could have done. The thought of that was terrifying.  Anyway it was late on Saturday afternoon by then, so no chance of getting to a garage until Monday.

She decided to try and make the best of it and to enjoy her freedom over the holiday and not worry about the car or whether she'd make it back to her home town  in time for school and work.

Although the weather was not bad earlier on, it suddenly turned very cold. The two boys were very pent up after their long journey and the thought of her not having her car for the weekend, with its seven seats was a bit daunting. They had been promised trips out!

The next day it was decided to take Harry's car and Sam's and for us to go to a beautiful place that the children love to visit, in a valley, near a large stream and if everyone managed the trip through the woods, there was the treat of a really good children's play area at the end of the walk.

Before we set off there was a phone call from daughter's husband to say he was very ill and needed a doctor. She was not sure if this was for real or if he was trying to ruin her weekend. So from our house she rang her own doctor for a home visit. Apparently he had a really bad headache and was sick!!!!!!! Well I ask you! However there was the niggling worry that it might be serious. She had  already explained that the car was not working, so she couldn't get home. 

Considering the four grand children were such a mixture of ages, 3,5,9 & 11 yrs, they all managed the walk very well, but took a long time to get to the play area, having stopped off to play near the water and look at this, that and the other. Eventually they all got onto the childrens' swings and slides and were having such a wonderful time even though it started to get really cold.  Without warning it started to snow and within minutes the whole place looked magical and white. It didn't last and the flurry was soon over and the snow melted, much to the disappointment of the children.

In all the excitement Millie wet her pants and poor Sam had to carry her home, her wet bottom on his arm as she was much too tired to walk the distance back to the cars. Anyway it was very enjoyable but we were all a bit worried about the sick husband.

Next day, after many phone calls to many garages, daughter's car was taken to the other side of the city to one that promised to replace the alternator by the evening, so we relaxed a bit, realizing that she would make it home in time for work and school, after all!

The car was picked up with a reconditioned alternator, the bill paid and phone calls made to the sick husband who had had an injection & some tablets & an appointment was being made for scans........... A bit worrying !

The boys were so kind and understanding with their little cousins and a good time was had by all, though every one was made to feel a bit guilty about the sick husband. No one knows if he is really sick or whether it was manipulation to ruin the weekend. Only time will tell. He did manage to put a damper on the weekend from afar, though!

Anyway, they are safely home now and we really do miss them all and are slightly worried about the situation, no one likes to see their children unhappy. 

However, when she comes here, she really has a relaxed and enjoyable time and we were so glad to have the unexpected visit!