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. 

Boat jobs and Spring.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

How are you all doing?

I like to think I am doing just fine, when in reality I find myself overthinking things and wondering why am I doing something, which is making me uneasy.

Do you ever have that feeling, that something does not feel or sit right? 

You cannot put your finger on why it does not feel right, because it should, but it puts you on edge and has you unsettled. Well that is me at the moment and I have been feeling this way for a few months now. I know it will all work itself out, but in the meantime I have to figure out what to do, for me because as far as I am concerned I matter and I will not have or do anything which is going to upset my life. I have been through too much over the years, to allow anything to unsettle me at my time of life. I think we all go through unsettled times, and we have to make a choice to go with it or sort it out. I am running down the middle right now, because I hope the situation, will sort itself out. Of course, if it does not I will have to bite the bullet and do something about it myself. I sometimes think being an adult sucks :-).

Changing the subject with a huge swerve to the right and talk about the S word. Oi get your mind out of the gutter, I am talking about Spring. I think over the past few days, it has definitely gotten milder and clearly the bulbs think so, because we have Daffodils.

The Crocus are out and the birds are looking for new nesting sites. 

Even our Helebore's are in full swing.

I love Helebore's they have such joyous flowers and for me it say's Spring is coming. Yeah I know tomorrow it will be freezing cold and snow on the ground. Look we are in a lockdown, let me just throw a bit of joy out there. Talking about the lockdown, on Monday Boris is going to set out a map to coming out of this particular lockdown. I for one hope he does not do it too fast and he goes with the science this time, because I have felt that he has listened to businesses too much and look where that got us. Of course if we do begin to open things up, we will not be changing anything. Keith has had his vaccination, he has the Astra Zeneca one. A very kind friend took him to the local golf club to get the jab The following day he had a sore arm and a bit of a headache, but other than that he was fine. I am waiting for my text or call to go and get mine. I am quite happy to wait, because there are plenty of others who need it more than me. Hopefully once everyone has had the vaccination, we can get back to some sort of normal, what ever that may be. 

Living on a boat, it always seems that every job takes ten times longer to do than normal. This mornings job was to try and find out why we had no TV signal to the TV in the back cabin. Yes we have a TV in our bed 'ole. We like to drink our first cuppa of the day, whilst watching the news, but this has not happened for a few months, because we lost the signal and neither of us could be bothered until today to find out why. What we did was to test the aerial cable at the joints and it looked like things were alright, but still no signal. Two hours later, we came to the conclusion that the issue maybe we have too many connectors in the cable and this may be causing the problem. We have now ordered a new reel of cable, which will take out all the connectors and fingers crossed we can have our signal back. I will let you know how that goes, when the time comes to fit it. Next job was to fit a new security light on the pontoon. The old one had been up for donkey's years. Actually I do not know how long it had been up, but it was definitely a long time ago. This job actually went really well and was quicker to do than we thought. Hooray a job which did not take hours. We have a few jobs to do on the boat, and now that Keith's back is much better, I am hoping we can get them sorted out soon. I am quite capable of doing most jobs, but when it comes to plumbing, I will definitely need Keith's help. We need to fit two new valves for the heating, but to do that the stove has to go out and as it is still nippy around the edges, we will probably put that job on hold. 

Talking about Keith's back. The work with the physio, seems to have really worked. Who knew, physio over the phone could work? Well it does. The physio would e-mail the exercises over and we printed them off and Keith did the work and hey presto, he is doing much better and his off his medication at the moment. Keith has now been signed off with the physio, so we are on our own, but if it all goes belly up, we can ring him up and start again. Fingers tightly crossed. 

I recently had a phone call with a Dermatologist consultant at the hospital, who now wants to see me face to face, because the photographs I sent him did not help. He also wants me to have a couple of biopsies. I may have to wait for 6 to 8 weeks for the appointment, which is understandable. I have been waiting for months to get to this point, so a bit longer does not matter. He also told me that my GP had also put in for an appointment the Gastronomy department for me as well, which was news to me, so I have that delight to look forward to. This may have something to do with my angry Liver. My Liver was angry because of my allergies and not because I am a drinker. I rarely drink, but my Liver does not seem to like my Nickel allergy or it could be one of the other three. I guess I will find out when I get the appointments. I looks like the over stretched NHS, maybe seeing me for a while. On that note, I am going to stop waffling on and give your eyes and ears a break.

Pop back soon xx

New Venture.

 

Dear family, friends and followers.

What a difference a few days makes. A few days ago we had temperatures of -7.5c overnight, ice and snow and now we are 11c, sunny and mild. Does this mean Spring is just around the corner. The birds certainly think so, as do the plants in the garden.

Like you all, we have been sat at home, doing our best to keep away from the virus and this has given me time, to think about what to do with the many photographs I have taken over the years. Many of you will already know I use Redbubble to sell my photographs, well I have found a new outlet, which I am going to try out. I have put some of my photographs on Picfair. On Picfair you buy the photographs as framed prints or canvasses. I love taking photographs and people have asked said I should sell them, so that is what I am doing. As an amateur photographer, I know what I like and I just hope that other people like them as well. I shall see how it goes. I have put Fifty photographs on to begin with and if it proves worth while, I will add more, but to do this I will need to subscribe and pay to show my photographs. I very much look forward to getting out and about, once this virus is under control. I have really missed taking photographs.

In the Arm, work has carried on as normal. The offside mooring pontoon, has been getting some TLC. It had begun to collapse due to bank erosion, so our site manager and a couple of helpers, have been sorting it out. This meant taking the old slats off, putting in more scaffolding poles and straightening the the timbers, so no one feels like they are sliding into the canal, when walking along the pontoon. They have done an amazing job.

With all the major works done and the new slats nailed down, it was time to put the new fencing up. The last job will be to put down the new anti-slip gridding, which we are now using. At least it will be nice and safe for the boat owners, when they are eventually allowed to visit their boats again. Hopefully with lots of people having had their vaccinations and the rest of us lining up ready, things will get back to some sort of normal. I am certainly looking forward to the call to say I can have my vaccination. Hopefully it will come before, I have to visit the hospital to see my new Dermatology consultant. I have been having issues with my skin for months. I have also been waiting months to speak to my new consultant, but with Covid, it has been tough to get an appointment. We finally got to speak last week and he needs to see me. I did send him photographs of my skin, but he wants me to have a couple of biopsies and a proper face to face consultation, because he cannot tell what is happening from the photos. In these Covid times, waiting for an appointment, has not been too bad, because the NHS has been stretched and so we must all be prepared to wait. I should get an appointment within 6 to 8 weeks, and I am hoping before then, I will have had my first vaccination. The cause of my skin problems, is down to one of my allergies kicking off, but I do not know which one and why, because I have been doing nothing different. I have managed the condition for almost 20 years, which out too many outbreaks, but something is kicking off, so much so I have been living on Priton tablets since last April. Oh well we will see what happens, when I get my face to face appointment. Oh and he informed me that I should also be getting a Gastronomy appointment, which apparently was booked by the GP, but was news to me. I am wondering if this is to do with my upset Liver a few months ago? Again we will see what happens. Oh the joys of health issues and getting older.

I trust that you are all keeping well?

Pop back soon xxx

Time to get physical.

Dear family, friends and followers.

Brrrr a chilly few days, with snow on and off. Not enough snow for my liking, but hey ho. 

On our wonderful mooring, we have our garden running alongside it and across the back of the garden is a 70ft walkway, which is there, so we can cut the hedge, which also runs along the mooring. Since we moved onto the mooring back in 2019, we have been worried about the walkway, because it leans and some of the slates on top are rotten.

We are having it replaced by a friend and having spoken to him this morning, I agreed to start dismantling the walkway, so he could see what lay beneath.

What lies beneath is soil, timber and broken paving slabs. The walkway has been there a number of years and because it open to all of the elements it has rotted from the inside out, which means it will all need replacing.

An hour later and I had taken all the top slats off, which pleased Mr Robin no end, because he could have a nosey around for something to eat. We are planning to use some of the timbers taken up from across the canal. Our site manager has been replacing some of the odd side pontoon and some of the timbers are still in good condition, so we are going make use of it.

Once he has finished the pontoon, I will go over and help to load all the old wood onto the work boat and then we can sort through and see what we will need for our walkway. This is going to keep costs down by a lot. Really enjoyed being out and getting physical.

Pop back soon xxx

Six Months has passed.

 Thinking about my Mum, 

Janet Martin 💔💔

Where has the time gone?

How has Six months already gone by, since we all said its time for you to rest now and let your light shine on high.

Mum I know I will see you again on the other side, and I will get to hug and hold your hand 😘.

Love from your daughter who is heartbroken 💔💔💔