Gardening and Cake.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

How is everyone doing?

How many of you have had your vaccinations and did you have any ill-effects afterwards?

After I had mine, I got about 5 hours in and the headache kicked in and lasted all day Sunday. I also felt a bit under the weather, but come Monday morning, I woke up absolutely fine. This morning, I got a text from our medical centre to say they would be letting us know when our second vaccinations are due.

I have been busy doing jobs. We collected more wood for a garden staging, which we are still waiting to have built. I have tended to our garden, because things are beginning to bloom, now that we are into Spring. Today it was a change of garden for me. I went to work on the Arm's raised beds in what we have called the Sensory garden. 

We have decided to strip the beds down and replant them with other plants we have in other raised beds in the Arm. So this will not be a Sensory garden anymore, but just a raised bed. One of the car park raised beds is going and all the plants in it will be heading in to these raised beds. As I am the only gardener here, it is down to be to get the job done, before the digger and dumper truck arrives to take the old raised bed out. Yesterday I made a start on digging the bed over and today, I began transplanting the plants. I have also been splitting them up, so they go further. I start this morning at 8.30am and finished at 2.20pm. 

Having hung up my fork for the day, I then had to make some Lemon Drizzle Muffins, because our cake tin was empty. After a much needed coffee, it was time to go and do the laundry. Phew it has been a busy day, but so satisfying.

Where has that year gone?. A year ago today, we were all told in the UK to stay at home. We began the journey through this Covid-19 Pandemic and little did we know then at how devastating it was going to be for everyone. My heart goes out to anyone who has lost a loved one due to Covid-19 and to those who have long Covid. I am thankful that friend Steve from Narrowboat AmyJo, is doing great. He has been home for over a week and today, his oxygen was turned down to One. Hopefully it will not be long before he is off of the Oxygen and can get back to his boat with Chris. I know some people think that this whole situation has been a hoax or exaggerated, but having seen what it can do first hand, I can tell you it is very real. With everyone being vaccinated, hopefully we can get back to some sort of normal very soon, but I for one am not hurrying out and about just yet. 

Pop back soon xx

V Day.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

Today was my V Day. I have been vaccinated and I cannot tell you about how happy I am to have gotten the first one done. I now wait for the call in 12 weeks for my second. 

There has been so much said about whether or not to have the vaccine, but I have always been of the mind to have it done. I have the flu vaccine every year and it has protected me, so I always knew I would have the Covid-19 vaccine. It was a simple and painless thing. Our local vaccine centre is a drive through, where they have two lines of cars and people working both the lines to take details and then someone to do the vaccination. It was totally painless and i feel fine. Please if you are not sure whether to have the vaccination, please do get it done, because it will protect you from the worst of getting Covid-19. I have friends who have had Covid-19 and I am so thankful none of them have lost their lives, although a couple have come very close. The latest friend to get Covid-19 is our friend Steve off of AmyJo. Poor Steve has been very poorly with the virus and although he is now home with his daughter, he is still on Oxygen. He cannot go back to the boat yet because the oxygen cylinders could be a fire risk, so he and Chris are staying with their daughter. Steve did a short vlog yesterday on Facebook, to let everyone know how he was doing. Steve has a long haul in front of him, to get off of the Oxygen, because his lungs are scarred by the virus. This virus is really no joke and I wish Steve all the very best for a good recovery. 

Do not think about it, make sure when you are offered the vaccination, take it.

Pop back soon xxx

For the exhausted woman.

I didn't write this, but I feel its important to share.

For the exhausted woman who showers a few minutes longer to cry with the water...

For the person hidden in the bathroom, because she needs a few minutes of tranquility while slipping tears from her eyes.

For the woman who is so tired that she feels she can't continue, that she would give anything to feel like herself again...

For the woman who cries in her room when everyone leaves the house and for a moment she let's go...

For the woman who desperately battles with self Confidence when wearing denim pants because she wants to look pretty and wear them to feel better but everything just climbs over or can't close...

For the woman who orders pizza for dinner because she didn’t have the time to make dinner again as she expected... Because she's tired.

For the woman who feels alone, even when she's accompanied.

You're worth a lot.

You are important.

You are enough.

You are wonderful...

I love you...💯

 

Happy Saint David's Day and boat jobs.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

Welcome to March everyone and Happy Saint David's Day. February saw snow, winds, rain and another month in lockdown. The weekend however was glorious, with lots of Spring sunshine and warm from the sun, which meant time to get some jobs done. 

Saturday morning began with recovering the timber which was the old pontoon on the non-residential moorings opposite our mooring. We are going to use it to rebuild the staging in front of our hedge, which is now rotten and leaning and is dangerous to walk along. We hooked the timber with a boat hook on the bank and I caught the wood and threw it into the work boat.

Keith then ground the old nails off, to make the wood easier to stack, which was my job.

I stacked the wood on our patio area, so it is ready for our friends to come and build our new garden staging.

This is our old rotten staging.

A couple of weeks ago, I ripped off the top timbers, to see what was underneath and also to see what would need to be renewed. With the recycled timber all stacked and ready to go, we spent the rest of the day recovering. It had certainly given Keith's back a good workout, and he came through with flying colours. I spent the afternoon finishing off a blanket for our grandson, because his old one is now too small.

Sunday the only real job we did was put up a light.

We put up a new solar light to illuminate our patio area, which we hope we can use more of a dark evening during the Summer, with a light now installed. I began weeding the garden. Weeds never stop going do they? Luckily in this garden we do not seem to get as many weeds as we did in the other garden and at the moment no bindweed, which was a nightmare in the other garden. After fabulous morning in the garden, enjoying the sunshine, birdsong and just the chance to be outside, I did a little bit more family research in the afternoon and watched the Sunday films. After all Sunday is my do little day.

Monday morning dawned, and it was a foggy start to Saint David's Day, with no chance of sunshine according to the weather forecast. First job of the morning was to have a cup of tea in bed, whilst watching the news. We seem to have sorted the TV signal problem out partially, with putting in a new cable, but Keith thinks the issue maybe the TV, only time will tell. With Mr Tesco coming between 9am and 10am, I left the boat chores until after he had been. He arrived at 9.15am and we quickly changed over the trays and he left. Shopping stowed away in the fridge, freezer and cupboard, it was time for coffee. 

Having put the oven on for lunch to bake some Steak and Kidney pies, I decided to try out a new recipe. Muffnuts is part Muffin and part Doughnut. A friend baked some and they looked so scrummy I decided to have a go. I will let you know how they taste, when we have them at teatime. With it being the 1st of the month, we ran the engine and the generator for a while and Keith topped up the batteries, which is done every three months. That was the boat jobs done for at least another month. I will now begin my Spring clean, which would of normally been done by now, because we would of been setting off on our Spring, Summer cruise. But because of the virus, we are going no where at the moment. At the moment boats are only supposed to move for essential shopping, repairs or emergencies. Hopefully that will change come the 12th April, but we will not be moving anywhere until later in the Summer, this is our choice. Not only that Keith needs to have his second vaccination and I have not had my first one yet. We are quite happy to stay put and enjoy our mooring and garden.

Pop back soon.