Cold weather activities

Ahah!  I've just found out how to make my own jigsaw puzzles and embed them here.  This one is based on a picture I took during the recent snow.



» More free online jigsaw puzzles at TheJigsawPuzzles.com

Winter is a comin' in!

Since I last wrote winter has descended on us.  The leaves fell quickly as gales swept across the country and now we're having a blast of Arctic air, driving in from the northeast bringing freezing temperatures to most of the UK and snow to the eastern seabord.   Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

But we're warm and cozy at home, tonight.  It's Thanksgiving and we're having pan-fried Pheasant Breasts with Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans followed by Chocolate Cake.  It's OK - the pheasants in the garden have gone to roost and we won't tell them if you don't!

We have a lot to be thankful for - good friends, relatively good health, a comfortable house and a lovely environment.  We hope you're all well and comfortable, too.

Memories of Costa Rica

One of today's puzzles from the Free Puzzle site was this one of Arenal Volcano.  Ah, happy memories of a lovely trip!

October already

We're past the equinox, the nights are drawing in and it's definitely feeling fallish now. Most of the leaves are still on the trees, but it's chilly and windy.  But, just before we sink into the depths of Autumn here are a couple of pictures taken in September:

Later in the month, the Crabbs came to visit from Edmonton, Alberta.  The picture on the left shows them with John getting ready to have a smashing dinner at the Wenlock Edge Inn after a long day exploring the delights of our nearby Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.  I've written about Ironbridge before, so I won't do it again.  You can follow this link if you're interested in the site.  

Earlier, our smashing lunch at Ye Olde Robin Hood pub in the gorge was enlivened by the sight of this lovely, friendly dog, who not only visited everyone to say "Hello", but also sat very politely at the table while his master finished his pint!

John and Molly also joined us for the first part of our two-week cruise on Longsdon. Click here to see some photos and read about the cruise.s  Barry and Sheila were with us on the return leg of the journey and I hope all our visitors enjoyed it as much as we did!

I wish you could feel the muscles in my arms, now!  Too bad the rest of me is in such poor shape.... I've started going to a pilates class on Fridays.  Today I was so tired I had to go to bed when I got home!

And now, it's time to turn to winter activities.  Planning for next year's Art Exhibition is progressing. I've found a guest artist, but I'm not going to say who it is yet.  I need to get confirmation and then announce it at the AGM.

I've started to meet with two friends to do polymer clay.  This week we made hand-feet!  Next week we're going to do some embellished jewellery.  I have yet to decide exactly what we're going to do, but I hope to get some pictures of the finished articles.  It was good to get back to doing it and a wonderful excuse to clean and tidy my study!

I guess that's all for now, folks.  Please stay in touch - email is good, but letters and phone calls are also welcome and visits are always a joy.

Mikes Show Garden Video

Mike Russells Show Garden has just won gold and best in show at Shrewsbury Flower Show. Here's the video on You-Tube:

The Wait is Over

For five years I've been counting. First I counted years, then months and finally I was counting weeks, days, hours: and now it's all over. I had my final appointment with my oncologist, Dr. Agrawal, today and he's discharged me. I didn't cry when they told me I had cancer, but I certainly cried tears of joy today.

Afterwards we celebrated by going to the site of the Battle of Shrewsbury - made famous by Shakespeare in Henry IV pt.1. This is where Henry IV and his son Hal defeated Hotspur and established the power of the Plantagenet kings in 1403. It was a bloody battle and many were killed on both sides. You can read about it here.

A Royal memorial chapel was built near the battlefield, probably over the burial pit for the men killed in the battle.  It was replaced by this church in 1460.  The church has been renovated a couple of times since then and it's beautiful inside.  There's a lovely hammerbeam roof, superb stained glass windows and a little exhibition about the battle.  We got the key from the shop and had a good look round.  The pictures were taken in and around the church.

And now for something completely different!  The Art Festival ended about two weeks ago.  It was an exhausting but exhilarating fortnight with nightly performances and daily stints at the Art Exhibition.  John took most of the photos and they've all be processed and posted on the Arts Festival Web Site.  Click here to see the photos.  The whole committee was delighted with attendance figures and the quality of the shows, but I was especially delighted that the Art Exhibition, which is my special baby, did incredibly well.  We had over a thousand visitors, sold nearly £6000 worth of art, craft, photography and cards and doubled our takings from last year.

To relax at the end of the Festival, John and I took the train to Cardiff for a day of shopping, eating and sightseeing.  The first picture was taken on the platform at Church Stretton.  There is a group of dedicated volunteers who maintain the station in picture perfect condition and the flowers are fabulous right now.  We left about 8 am and were there by 10.  It's a very fast, comfortable journey and we whiled away the time reading and looking out of the windows.

Cardiff is also full of flowers - this is the scene that greeted us outside the station there.  We went straight to the new John Lewis store.  For our Columbus friends, John Lewis is a lot like Lazarus was in its heyday.  We wanted to look at their kitchens as we're planning to replace ours very soon.  We also took coffee in their espresso bar - below, there's a picture of John in this very modern class enclosed cafe.

Later we wandered through malls and arcades, lunching in "YO!", a sushi restaurant where the plates are colour coded according to price and are on a belt that moves past the end of the table.  You just grab whatever looks good and they bill you by counting the plates.

Late in the afternoon, we took an open top double decker bus tour of the city.  It was very interesting, if somewhat chilly, taking in the sights of the city center and the newly redeveloped dock areas.

Dinner was again Japanese style - this time a big bowl of ramen noodles in broth at Wagamama's!  And so we made our way back to the station and back home on the train.

So now - it's off to bed.  For the first time in 5 years I WON'T be taking my arimidex pill before I go to sleep.  I WILL be hoping for an improvement in the various aches and pains and other problems I've had over the past years, but who knows how much of that was due to the drugs and how much to other factors.  We'll see over the next few weeks as the arimidex slowly leaves my body and the estrogen builds up a little bit again.  Maybe my hair will thicken up - that would be nice - or maybe my brain will function more efficiently - others might appreciate that!

Experimental Jigsaw Puzzle

Many of you know I like on-line jigsaw puzzles.  I just found a new site and I'm doing an experiment here to see if I can include one of the puzzles I found.  It appears that I can.  Have a go with this!



» More free jigsaw puzzles at TheJigsawPuzzles.com

Woooo Hooooo!!!!!

Yesterday I received the letter I had been waiting for. My 5th year mammogram showed no abnormalities. That means I'm all clear! Yippeeeeeeee!

This is the best news, because the mammogram is probably the most thorough test I will have this year. I have one more visit with the oncologist in August and if everything is still OK I'll be given the go-ahead to come off the dreaded Arimidex. Then, maybe, my hair will thicken up again, some of the other side effects will go away and I'll get back to a normal life.

This time 6 years ago we were just starting to get hints that I might have breast cancer. It wasn't definite yet, but I was in the middle of tests and more tests. It was to be another few days before we cancelled our flight home and then found out the bad news. We went to Matt and Karlyn's wedding and then sold our house to them!  Happy Anniversary, you two!!!!!

As the summer progressed we managed to go through an excision biopsy that developed into an abscess, find a flat, move in, go through a lumpectomy and axillary dissection, develop another abscess and then start the process of chemo and radiation.

I say "we" because John was with me every step of the way. He was the one who pushed bandages into the abscess twice a day for 6 months; he was the one who sat with me through endless doctor appointments and every chemo session; he was the one who cooked and cleaned and did laundry when I was too weak and depressed to do anything and he was the one who took me out to fun places and brought in friends to entertain me. John helped me through by showing me the funny side of the whole process and in that way we were also able to amuse and help other cancer patients at the centre.

Thank you, John!

A walk in the woods

Ella and I took a walk in Rectory Wood this morning.  I managed it ok although I had to stop and cough a few times.  I really think I’m getting a bit better, but it looks as though it’s going to be a long recovery.

The bluebells are glorious, although I think they are not yet quite at their peak.

I found this little inch-worm on a railing.

Quintessential English woodlands in spring - lovely!

Sad News, Happy News.

Hello all!

The last few months have been a bit fraught, which is why I haven't done any blogging.  I'm at home with a cold and am finding it difficult to work on all the stuff I ought to be doing.  So I thought writing this would be a good alternative. The cold is clearly my body telling me to slow down a bit. I had another one 2 months ago and I've been coughing and exhausted ever since. I'd just decided to go to the doctor when this latest cold developed. It's really horrible. Everytime I move or laugh I start this chesty hacking cough. I don't want to spread the germs around so I'm waiting to go to the doc. till next week when I hope the infectious part will be over.  You all know that I'm a hypochondriac - when I start coughing I think I've got pneumonia or lung cancer, when I have a headache it's a brain tumour, etc. etc.

It has been a bit of sad/happy time.  The saddest news of all was the death of our good friend David Matthews.  David lived in the house at the  top of our drive with his wife Pam and the four of us became firm friends.  He was the first person to welcome us when we moved in and he was always ready to help with a project or advise on technical issues.  David and I worked together, took long walks, discussed all sorts of things (sometimes quite rudely, but always in the spirit of good fun), and of course, I was always giving him advice which he ignored completely!  Here's a picture I took of David on one of our walks with Ella, their lovely dog.  I really miss David.

We've also seen quite a bit of Ella over the last couple of months as Pam has been up and down to London a couple of times.  Ella stayed over and now thinks this is her second home.  It's not unusual to open the back door and find her sunning herself on the driveway!  When the door's open she comes in and makes herself at home.

Last week I went to a workshop on relief modelling.  I needed to learn how to do it, because I have tried it in polymer clay and failed.  Our teacher, Jane Robbins, was fantastic and here's what I produced.  Yes!!!!! A portrait of Ellla!!!!! 

In March we cancelled our trip on Longsdon because we had a lot of things to do.  I think, now, that this was a mistake because we're both tired and a rest on the boat would have done us good.  Still we have had a few trips out.  Most notably a day out with Joy and John when we visited two very interesting National Trust properties in the northeast midlands.  The first was Mr. Straw's House, which is an early 20th century house complete with all the furnishings and trappings of life from the 20's and 30's.  It was fascinating, not least because we recognised so many things from our grandparents houses.  The second property was the Work House and I include a picture.  This is where poor, sick and indigent people lived and worked in Victorian times.  It was a hard life, designed to deter people from living off charity.

On the way back from our outing we saw a beautifully ploughed and prepared field - is it banked up for potatoes?

In between work on birding courses, birding atlasses, Scrappies, Church Stretton Arts Festival and all the other things we do, there has been progress in the garden.  After a slow, cold spring we're finally seeing some green as the buds burst and lots of colour as the flowers come out.  There's more information and photos on the Peel Wyke Gardening site, but this is a picture I took from my study window this morning.

Finally, I want to tell you about a very happy event.  On May 1st, John's cousin Janice married her fiance Ian.  It was a beautiful, happy day, full of love, laughter and fun.  Here's a picture of Janice and her dad (John's uncle Wilf) as they prepared to enter the church.  Wilf is 98 - it's not polite to tell you how old Janice is!  We're all happy that Janice has found someone to love and who loves her, and that he comes from a good and caring family.  We wish them all the best for their future lives together.

I’m doing a test

This is a test of the Windows Live Blog editor.  I doubt if I’ll use it, but I have a new computer with Windows 7 on it and I want to try everything out.  It give me the opportunity to insert a lot of stuff I’ve never tried before like tables:

here it is	row 1 column 2
	our wedding picture – 41 years and counting!

Let’s see, what else will it do?  This is the map I chose from Bing – Church Stretton has DISAPPEARED!  Are they trying to tell us something or is it just a crappy map?

Enough of this – I don’t think it’s worth it.

Just a Couple of Days!

Some of you know that "Just a Couple of Days" is the title of Tony Vigorito's first book, but today I'm thinking of it in a different way.  Here's what a difference a couple of days can make to the view from our living room! 

This first picture was taken on Wednesday of this week.  We had a heavy, wet snowfall overnight and this is what we woke up to.  The bamboo is doing an octopus imitation.  This in turn exposes the dark woods on our southern bank.  It really shows you how dark it is under the beastly laurels.

Now here's the view today.  It's taken from almost the same spot.  As you can see, the bamboo recovered - helped by me bashing the snow off with my walking stick.  It has been raining on and off for two days and it's very grey and foggy.

I worked down at Scrappies yesterday.  It's the first time anyone has opened the store since before Christmas.  Irene is finding it difficult to get in from Clun in the van because of all the snow and ice. We had a few customers and it was very cold.  I lost the will to live about 3:30 and was home by 4:30.  It took most of the night for my body to warm up, in spite of going up the drive to Pam and Dave's for a lovely duck dinner.

Today, I saw our first heron in the garden.  It's a Great Grey Heron, very similar to the Great Blue of the US.  We saw its footprints in the snow at the weekend and people have been seeing it further up the valley along the stream, but it's a bit odd for it to be at our house where access to the stream is more difficult for such a bird.  I'm quite sure it's not after anything in our pond - there's still a lot of ice in it, no fish and probably no frogs or newts.  Unfortunately, it saw me as I came to the window and took off, so John didn't see it.  He's been lurking by the windows all day in the hopes that it will come back again!

On Monday we had a cock pheasant on that table on the patio.  When it saw John coming it didn't fly away - it calmly jumped off the table and walked towards the door as if it knew he had food.  Mr. Pheasant seemed to like the peanuts we threw out for him, but we haven't seen him since.

Britain Comes to a Standstill

I expect you've all heard about the "big freeze" we're having here in the UK.  Our American and Canadian friends will be laughing their heads off.  So far we've had about 6" of snow and the temperature hasn't dipped below -10C (23F) here.  Some places have had more snow and some are colder, but it's still nothing compared to what we experienced in North America.

However, we're not prepared for it here.  This cold snap has gone on for about 3-4 weeks and promises to last at least till the end of next week.  Grit and salt supplies are running out, and we don't have the snow ploughs to cope with all the snow.  Farmers are coming out with tractors and they're using front-loaders to shift the snow off the roads.  The big worry is that the snow melts a bit during the day and then freezes into "black ice" at night.  With no snow tires and very little experience in driving in icey conditions people are getting into horrible jams.  Lorries are jack-knifing up and down the country, cars are ending up in ditches, the railways are having signalling and points trouble and they can't keep the airport runways clear.

Scrappies is closed.  Their toilet has frozen and there is no heat in the shop, so it's too cold to shop or work there.  Our heating packed up overnight on Monday night when the condensation overflow pipe froze up and water backed up to the boiler.  Fortunately, we guessed that might be a problem and poured hot water all over the outside pipes.  We got it thawed out and the boiler started working again.  We breathed a big sigh of relief because one of our neighbours has no heat and the service people can't get to them till next week!!!!!

John and I are staying in today.   Our road has been ploughed, but we're not sure we can make it up the driveway!  Tomorrow we'll walk down to the market and get supplies.  We had a quick foray into the garden to feed the birds and take pictures and now we're settled inside with glasses of port.  I've posted some of my pictures on my Peel Wyke site and a couple here to show you what it looks like.

Greetings!

It's 2010 already!  Today John turned 65 - can you believe it? 

And on Monday we have our 41st wedding anniversary!

We hope all our friends have had a good holiday - we're sorry we're so tardy in sending out greetings but December absolutely flew by and we don't really know where it went.  We're determined to catch up on letters and e-mails in the New Year.

When John got back from Montreal, I had several meetings to go to and we only had a few days to prepare before we were off on our narrow boat for my birthday trip.  This turned out to be more of an adventure than we bargained for.  You can read all about it by clicking here.  The final disaster came when we got stuck in the ice and had to be rescued by our brother-in-law, John!  Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed most of it - it was just the ice and cold weather that put a damper on things.

A few more days went by as we did washing and shopping and prepared to go to Joy and John's for Christmas.  Christmas day was lovely - a quiet, warm family affair with lots of wonderful things to eat and drink.  Strefford Hall Farm did us proud with a multi-bird roast (goose, stuffed with chicken, stuffed with pheasant and all lined with sausage!) and the whole dinner was delicious and cooked to perfection.

Boxing Day saw us out on our traditional walk.  It was cold, but that added to the pleasure as it made the ground firm underfoot.  The sun shone, there were lots of people out with lovely dogs and the mince-pies came as a welcome break halfway round the walk!

We managed to get the boat home on the Sunday.  And it's a good job we did since it has been cold and icy ever since.  In spite of our 4-wheel drive and ABS breaks we have been slithering and sliding down the driveway with very little, if any, control.  This is a picture I've just taken from my study window.   If you look very carefully, you can see little black dots in the central field - that's people sledding!  You can click on the picture to enlarge it, if you want to.