WOYWW 492 Peacock Feathers and Purple Spots

This week I’ve been working on crochet and knitting projects.

Crochet Peacock Feathers

Working on the peacock feather embellishments for my peacock scarf.

When I did the ironing the other day, I pressed the ones I’d completed and this really improved their appearance. After this I made a few more, but have now run out of the lime green so will need to order some more.

Yesterday I began adding the “barbs” to the feathers. On the above photo you can see the two variations I’ve made of the pattern: one feather with a shaft and one without, with their barbs added – I still have a few more to add to the shaft of the one on the right.

I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with different lengths, and making a chart on my desktop publisher so that I know how many of each length to cut. On the original instructions it said just to add them (no measurements) and then trim them but I thought that was rather wasteful of yarn when I had so many to do (amazing how the inches soon add up!) so I thought a bit of advance planning would pay off better.

They will need a small amount of trimming but nothing significant. I may not have enough of the peacock coloured yarn to complete this so I shall hold out on ordering more of the lime green until I’m sure.

The next step was to comb out the barbs. The instructions said to use a wool carder for this, but when I tried, it tended to pull the strands off so I abandoned that, and tried with a stiff brush, but that didn’t really work.

In the end I used a fine embossing tool to tease out the plies of the strands. They look a bit kinked but once they are steam pressed they should straighten out.

These feathers are proving to be a lot more labour intensive than I’d thought! Attaching the barbs is extremely fiddly, but I don’t really mind because there’s no time limit on this project.

Re-knitting the Purple and Yellow Circles Jumper

During the week I made good progress on re-knitting the purple and yellow project I spent so long unravelling. It’s looking good! I had a lot of problems initially because I was keen to centre the pattern repeat. If I don’t do this, when I get to the neck, it will stick out like a sore thumb if it’s wrong! The trouble was, I kept ending up with the wrong number of stitches between the circles, and spent hours and hours undoing it and redoing it until I’d sorted out where I was going wrong. My hubby thought I was spending far too much time and effort on it but I told him if I didn’t get it right at the beginning, the whole thing would be a struggle. Eventually I got it right, and I can now knit away happily, almost with my eyes shut! Well worth the effort, and a good sense of satisfaction for having invested the time in it.

Kitties

Lily relaxing on my feet. I’d just put the recliner down because I wanted to get up, but she showed no sign of shifting herself and is resting her head against the foot of my table!

She is sooo soft and fluffy!

Ruby relaxing on top of Lily.

Her favourite place. Her sister is like a little soft feather mattress. Good thing she doesn’t seem to mind!

After being dirty little stop-outs all through the hot summer, they are now very content to be happy little indoor lap-cats and don’t much appreciate the cold and the rain!

More on the Pet Service

At church on Sunday, our resident photographer had made a montage of all the photos and put them up on the noticeboard.

Note Lily and Ruby bottom left.

I just had to get a picture of the photo of one of our members coming down the steps outside while doing some work with the Men’s Working Party!! Good thing he’s got a sense of humour!

(For non-UK residents, “HMP” is “Her Majesty’s Prisons.”)

Sourdough

Another turtle again this week, I’m afraid.

I haven’t had time to research further this week, but I’ve got a few Youtube videos saved which I’m going to refer back to, and have another go with a different method and see if I can be more successful. The only thing I can think of that has changed is the weather. When I started with this method I was able to produce a very acceptable loaf – this one was baked back in August.

It’s all very mysterious because when I turn the bread out into the Dutch oven after its final proving, it always collapses and spreads, and I’m not getting the required oven spring to give it the height during the first 20 minutes of baking, which I was certainly achieving when I first started using the Dutch oven method. People say that this is all down to the handling, and not over-proving the dough, which causes it to collapse. I don’t think I’m folding it any differently from before, and if the colder weather is having any effect, it would surely be to under-prove the dough, not over-prove it.

This time I did try using a bit more of Esmeralda (my starter) but all that did was to make the dough more hydrated and a bit more difficult to handle. It still collapsed.

It’s disappointing when I have achieved better results in the past, and now seem to have slipped back. I’ve left a couple of comments on the blog of the baker whose technique I have been following, but he hasn’t replied.

I did make another batch of very successful sourdough starters from excess Esmeralda, and I’m pleased with those. Really thin and crispy! This recipe is a huge success and now one of our staples. Very nutritious and tasty.

Health Update

My first pair of support pants arrived, replacing their first attempt which didn’t fit, and they are fine. I contacted the firm immediately and requested the other two pairs to be made as soon as possible to the same pattern, and I’ve heard from them that another prescription has been requested – I had thought they’d ordered all three on the one prescription but apparently not, which is going to cause more delay. She said they would put it through urgently, but at least I’ve got one pair to wear, but I shall have to wear an old pair when they go in the wash.

After receiving a letter from my surgeon confirming the definite return of the hernia, I have now had an appointment to see him in mid-December, which is better than I’d hoped – I really didn’t expect anything before the new year. I hope he will agree to leave it alone and hope for the best, that it doesn’t cause another obstruction. At least Kermit, my stoma, is working very satisfactorily, not like last year when the hernia was causing him so many problems.

I also have my regular six-monthly oncology appointment tomorrow. I am not anxious about this, and am sure that all will continue to be well on that front. After this, I shall probably only see her once a year for the next two years, and if all continues to be clear, they should discharge me after that.

Other Activities

Last week we went to Somerset and met up with some friends who live near Bristol. We try to meet up for a meal several times a year, choosing a place that’s about mid-way between us. They are very old friends – my hubby knew them years before I met him, and we’ve been married 32 years, so they are very much part of our lives! We had our usual brilliant time, with a great meal too. She has completed all her embroidery City and Guilds and is now working on her diploma (what she laughingly calls her “diplomol” as they would say in Bristol! – on old maps, Bristol is called “Bristow” but they have to put an “L” on the end of everything haha!). She is very good indeed at what she does. I took along the album I made about Mum, in its new box, so that she could see what I’d been up to lately. As it was quite a long drive, I was able to work on my knitting, and sorted out the problem on the way up.

I’ve got to try and do some cooking tomorrow or on Thursday – I’ve got chicken and lots of roasting veggies arriving in my grocery order tomorrow, so I can get on and produce some freezer fodder.

Adventures in Fermented Foods

Since I came out of hospital in early May after a serious post-operative infection, I have been researching the benefits of fermented foods. What sparked me off was the fact that I was on a high dose of two different oral antibiotics for a couple of weeks after I came home, and it was playing havoc with my gut. I have recently become very interested in the whole new area of research into the gut microbiome and how it profoundly influences our general health, and I have discovered that after antibiotics, it can take two years or more for your gut microbiome to recover, and for some people, it never recovers. This can cause long-term health problems, and not just confined to digestive disorders. We need this vast army of micro-organisms living in our gut to help us digest our food and to keep us in good health, and these ancient fermented foods are enjoying a revival as people recognise just how healthy they are.

There is something wonderful about the link with the past that one feels, when making these ultra-natural, tasty and nutritious foods! Perhaps they were developed originally by accident, from the natural yeasts and bacteria in the environment, but people soon realised that they were an excellent way of preserving foods in the pre-refrigeration age. It is only in our modern scientific world that the facts have been revealed as to why they are so good for us, feeding the gut microbiome which is an essential component of good health.

I think there is something of a reaction going on to the over-processed, over-packaged and additive-loaded foods in Western culture, and people are getting increasingly concerned at the rise in certain diseases now proved to be linked to this unhealthy diet – notably obesity which leads to many serious conditions such as heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes which is now reaching epidemic proportions, and bowel cancer, the second largest cancer killer. I am a colon cancer survivor and I wonder if I could have avoided it had I taken greater care over what I was putting in my mouth all those years? – although several of the professionals involved in my treatment reassured me that it was a complete lottery and anyone could get it. We don’t know, of course, just what, and how many, harmful substances are in what we might consider to be “healthy” foods because they are everywhere in our environment, through chemicals in agriculture, etc., and perhaps in the very air we breathe.

Kefir

A friend came over recently, armed with a lot of information for me – she has researched this subject in depth, having suffered considerable digestive problems in recent years, and she is now much better, having adjusted her diet and also started eating fermented foods with all their probiotic benefits. She brought some kefir grains for me to start making my own kefir, which is a fermented milk drink, something like drinkable yoghurt, but containing a much wider variety of friendly bacteria.

My kefir has been going very well, and I’m making a new batch every 24 hours. It’s a good thing my hubby is on it as well now, because otherwise I’d be inundated with the stuff! I have to say that since I started drinking it every day, I have felt better than I’ve felt for ages and my nails have stopped splitting! We are hoping that it will be beneficial for my hubby’s diverticular disease as well. It has numerous health benefits.

Here are some pictures of how I make my kefir.

After 24 hours, sitting on the kitchen counter, covered with a piece of kitchen paper, the kefir is ready to be strained and can be drunk straight away, or decanted into a bottle and stored in the fridge. I have two small glass jars that I fill each day.

Here is the kefir being strained into a jug. You can see the grains in the sieve, and the empty jar ready make the next batch – no need to wash it in between. I just wipe around the top of the jar with kitchen paper.

Here are the grains closer up. They look a bit like miniature cauliflower florets, or like cottage cheese.

They are made up of colonies of friendly bacteria and yeasts. In the jar with the milk, they convert the milk into kefir. They feed on the lactose and ferment the milk; many people who are lactose intolerant are able to drink kefir because the grains digest it away. They grow in the process, and I now have quite a lot. I store the spare ones in a jar in the fridge, filled with milk. Refrigeration slows the fermentation down but doesn’t stop it; the grains continue to grow slowly, and once a week I strain them off and replace the milk. I can give them away to anyone who wants them, and when I’ve got enough I am going to try drying them; this way they can be preserved for about a year. It’s always good to keep some spare grains in case something goes wrong and you lose a batch.

Strained kefir in the jug, and the grains replaced in the glass jars ready to be topped up with fresh milk.

Kefir grows best in whole milk rather than skimmed or semi-skimmed. I read somewhere that the saturated fat in the whole milk is converted into short chain fatty acids which are better for you, but I don’t know the full details of the science of this.

Starting the next batch of kefir. The jars have been topped up with more whole milk. They just need to be covered with kitchen paper or a cloth secured with an elastic band, and stood on the counter at room temperature. It is important not to seal the tops but cover them with a breathable cover, because some carbon dioxide is given off and this gas needs to escape.

It’s all happening pretty fast in this hot weather! Sometimes kefir can take 48 hours to ferment the milk but at the moment it’s ready after 24 hours.

Any excess kefir can be strained through cheesecloth and made into kefir cheese (delicious) and the whey is full of goodness and has numerous uses too. Here is a batch of kefir just after pouring it into a sieve lined with cheesecloth, over a bowl.

To keep the flies out (apparently fruit flies love kefir, and you certainly don’t want their eggs in it) I cover it with a plate, and fold the excess cheesecloth over the top. It only takes a few hours for the whey to drip through into the bowl.

I squeeze the last bit of whey out of the cloth once it’s done, and then scrape the cheese from the cloth into a bowl, cover it and put it in the fridge. It is a lovely sharp-flavoured cream cheese that can be eaten as it is, or other flavourings can be added, such as herbs (I haven’t tried this yet).

Sourdough

This is my original starter. I followed some instructions from a selection of websites I found, but without the benefit of many pictures, so I wasn’t sure how it should look.

My early attempts at sourdough bread were quite successful, although the starter didn’t seem excessively bubbly or lively.

The bread rose well, and seemed to keep its shape quite well after the final proving.

I bought myself some bannetons (proving baskets traditionally used for sourdough), and these support the dough during its final proving.

However, I’ve had a couple of disasters with it recently, with the loaves spreading out and ending up like flying saucers. I found that when I tipped them out onto the baking sheet immediately prior to baking, they would immediately spread, and not keep their shape.

Something was clearly going wrong, and I did some further online research, and found some excellent Youtube videos, on how to make the starter from scratch, and how to bake a successful sourdough loaf. There were several things that I wasn’t doing right.

My starter didn’t look right at all, and it had a slightly odd smell, but I didn’t know how it was meant to smell! It did make sourdough bread, even if it was flat and rather tough to eat, but the flavour was still excellent.

I found that if you prove the dough for too long, it will fail to keep its shape. Lately, I was having to prove it for longer and longer in order to get it to rise at all, which made me suspect that my starter was no longer as active as it should have been.

I discovered that you are supposed to remove and discard some starter before you feed it each time, so that it doesn’t end up consisting of too much exhausted material that the wild yeasts have already digested. I wasn’t doing this.

When using my old starter, it was accumulating in volume quite a bit with all the feeding, and I wasn’t making that much bread, and I discovered some good recipes for using the excess to make other things – I made some absolutely delicious pancakes with it, and some savoury crackers.

The first time I made these, I forgot to add the sea salt on top just before baking, so with this batch, I added it, but never again – it made the biscuits far too salty! I am trying to scrape them off before eating them and it’s quite difficult – they are stuck on pretty fast!

Like sourdough bread, they are full of resistant starch which is a lot better for you than the high-GI carbohydrate in regular bread, and should be helpful in weight loss too. They are so delicious, and go particularly well with the kefir cheese. They are very quick to make.

I cut this particular batch with a new set of cutters that I bought for about 50p at the recent village fete we went to. They are a series of shapes – fluted circles, stars and hearts, that all nest together inside a box, the top and bottom of which both consist of two cutters! A very clever little design, and I couldn’t resist it!

When people discard some starter before feeding it, they often throw this excess away, I think this was rather a waste, especially if you can make nice things with it, which are very nutritious, like the sourdough itself.

A couple of days ago I decided to throw away the remaining starter that I had, and begin again.

You would not normally expect to see much activity until about the fourth or fifth day of feeding, but because the weather is so hot at the moment, my new batch seems to be going berserk with activity even by Day 2!

You can see the carbon dioxide bubbles forming as it ferments – this is just flour and water being acted upon by the natural yeasts in the air all around us, and on the surface of the grains used to make the flour – a completely natural process. It had doubled in size since I started it. All this activity had taken place less than 24 hours after I started it. I began with all whole rye flour and water, and for its first feeding (no discarding of starter at this stage) I used white bread flour, and it seemed to really like that! As stated on one of the websites, after a few hours the starter had subsided quite a bit, but this is normal. I shall continue to feed it and discard some on a daily basis until the weekend, when I am sure it will be ready to use to bake bread. It’s looking much more like the videos than the previous lot ever did.

People online often name their starter – after all, it’s a living thing, needing feeding and watering – so I have named mine Esmeralda! Here is a picture of her, all dolled up for the camera.

She is a mere infant – only a couple of days old. People continue to use the same starter for many years and there’s no reason for it to go off if you look after it properly.

For a home baker like myself who is probably only going to bake once a week, feeding an established starter every day is going to produce far too much. I have found out that I can keep it in the fridge, and feed it only once a week. As with the kefir, refrigeration will not kill the bacteria and yeasts but it will slow the fermentation process down, and make it more manageable.

I am quite sure that from now on, I am going to be a lot more successful with my sourdough. The previous batches did taste good, although they were so flat!

Another thing I discovered I was doing wrong, in addition to proving the dough for too long, was that I was not moulding it properly before its final proving. Kneading and moulding the dough encourages the formation of the gluten chains which give the bread its structure. You need to form a “skin” or gluten membrane around the final loaf, to give it some tension and prevent it from spreading. Watching several videos, I have now learned how to do this, and I am sure I shall be more successful from now on.

When you bake the bread, you have to introduce some steam into the oven. Commercial bakers have steam ovens, but for us domestic bakers, we need to put a roasting tin of boiling water into the oven at the beginning of the bake. The steam stops a crust from forming too soon on the bread. For the first eight minutes or so of baking, the dough will continue to rise, and if a crust forms too soon, it can crack and the bread can end up misshapen. The surface of the loaf is traditionally slashed with a very sharp blade immediately before baking, and these cuts spread as the dough rises in the oven, opening up to expose the darker colour of the bread in contrast with the floured exterior. This makes the bread very attractive, and some people have developed this into an art form with carefully placed decorative cuts. This is something I am determined to perfect.

There will be further progress reports and pictures as time goes on, and hopefully I will perfect my technique in time. Watch this space to see if Esmerelda and I can come up with the goods!

Parastomal Hernia Repair

Warning – this post contains graphic medical details and surgical procedures. Those of a squeamish nature are advised to look away now or read with caution!

On Wednesday 28th March I was admitted to hospital to have my parastomal hernia repaired. Finally coming home on Thursday 5th April, it is only today that I feel up to updating my blog. The after-effects of general anaesthetic and morphine always causes problems with my eyes – nothing will focus, and I keep wanting to rub my eyes to clear them, and check my glasses to see if they need cleaning, and even checking to see if I’ve actually got them on! Also, my concentration tends to be poor and my energy levels are extremely low.

A bit of background – in March 2015 I had major surgery to remove my whole colon because of bowel cancer. My whole cancer journey can be seen here. By 2016 everything was hunky-dory and I was managing Kermit, my stoma, like a pro, and I thought that was “it,” and that my life would now move forward unchanged, and I was very grateful for the improvement that Kermit had made, with the total eradication of my ulcerative colitis. He was a very well-behaved little stoma who gave me very little trouble.

However, that autumn I developed a parastomal hernia. This is a very, very common problem for ostomates (people with stomas) because by the very nature of the operation to create a stoma, a weakness is introduced into the abdominal wall. If you are older, overweight, smoke, you are more likely to develop a hernia, and some estimates are as high as 60%, depending on how they calculate the statistics – one also has to consider the general health and fitness of the patient, and how long they have had their stoma, because with time, the risk increases. OK, I was overweight at the time, and over 60, but didn’t smoke, and really did hope that I’d make it a bit longer than 18 months before developing one!

They tend not to interfere with these hernias unless they are causing problems. I was prescribed some support garments, and went my way.

At the end of January 2017 I suddenly developed an obstruction, and had to go straight to A&E as this is a life-threatening condition. After a lot of waiting around and being poked and prodded to try and shift things along, all the while becoming more and more poorly, throwing up and getting very weak, the CT scanner was finally available and they discovered that my small hernia had caused the obstruction and I needed emergency surgery to correct it. Emergency… from Sunday morning I had to wait until Wednesday morning!

I was in hospital for 2 1/2 weeks and the whole experience was most unpleasant – emergency surgery is a lot worse in terms of outcome than elective, especially if you are poorly to begin with. To cut a long story short, I had a general surgeon to perform the operation because my own specialist colorectal surgeon was not available, and this surgeon was not qualified to do more than suture the hernia closed. Statistics show this method of repair to have a 100% failure rate, so it was then a waiting game to see when, not if, it failed.

Last year I created a little book entitled “Second “Wind” which depicts my journey in terms of the passage of a hurricane – the “first wind,” causing great destruction, being my whole cancer year in 2015, followed by the eye of the storm, when everything quietens down and you think the storm is over (2016), only for the “second wind” to arrive, which causes even more destruction than the first. You can see the book here, and the video flip-through here.

Throughout last year things were much less stable than during 2016. My colorectal surgeon saw me several times during the year and I had CT scans which revealed that by May, some fat was beginning to come through, and by September the hernia was back in full force. He was able to reassure me that large hernias are less likely to cause obstructions than small ones, which gave me peace of mind as far as my worries about a repeat performance were concerned. I told him that the whole area was quite unstable and causing the stoma to retract regularly, which caused output to seep under the flange of the bag rather than passing into the bag. This is a problem because with an ileostomy, the output is not a fully-formed stool and still contains digestive enzymes, which one’s normal skin is not designed to withstand, and after short contact, the skin becomes excoriated and extremely irritated and painful. When things are working normally, one only has to change an ileostomy bag every few days because the more liquid output is drainable from the bottom of the specially-designed bags, but by this time I was having to change the bag daily, and sometimes more often when there were leaks, in order to keep on top of the skin problem. After 3 years of experience I know how to deal with the problem so it wasn’t fazing me, but it was becoming a major pain having to do this on a daily basis. My surgeon said the problem definitely needed to be fixed. I saw him again in January and he put me on his urgent list for surgery.

I didn’t get a date for some time, and the end of March from January isn’t brilliant if this was supposed to be urgent but we all know the pressures the NHS is operating under at present. Then the snow came, and I thought I was absolutely guaranteed to be postponed, but determined not to allow myself to get upset about this, having experienced melt-downs in the past over postponements.

However, thanks to everyone’s very kind prayers, everything went ahead as planned, and down I went.

We turned up at the hospital at 7.30 a.m. as arranged, and it was not long before I was ready to be taken down to theatre. I felt a bit weepy and vulnerable before going in (I haven’t felt like that before and the only thing I can think of is that I’d been warned to expect some considerable discomfort afterwards but perhaps one can’t rationalise such things).

My surgeon approached the operation through Kermit, rather than opening me up right down my midline yet again (been done twice). He made a small incision horizontally either side of Kermit to give him more room to manoeuvre, as he told me he was intending to insert a much larger piece of mesh than usual because of my muscle weakness due to my ME. He opted for Permacol biological mesh, derived from pigskin, which gives better results than synthetic, with a lower risk of infection, and it being similar genetically to human tissue. It eventually becomes incorporated into your own muscle layers, strengthening them. It is ironic, and poetic justice I think, that having named my stoma Kermit, I had named the hernia Miss Piggy, and she has been banished (hopefully forever) beneath the surface with pigskin! When I told my surgeon this, saying how Kermit hated Miss Piggy and kept retreating from her, and how there had been this ongoing battle for supremacy of my belly, and that from now on, Kermit and I could resume our hitherto happy relationship together, he was very amused and laughed aloud! He roared with laughter when I first told him my stoma was called Kermit, and wanted to be reassured that he hadn’t turned green!

(Many ostomates give their stomas a name. It helps make friends with the little fellow and to see him not as a red alien that has arrived on your stomach and changed your life forever! While I was in hospital this time, there was a lady with a brand new ileostomy which had come about through an emergency, so she had had absolutely no mental preparation for it in advance, and the poor lady couldn’t even bear to look at it. I tried to encourage her as much as I could, having three years’ experience literally under my belt, and after a couple of days she made a huge stride forward and gave it a name – Prince Harry! All of us in the bay laughed uproariously and asked why on earth? She said because he is brave, and loves his mummy! I thought, well, if she can think of her stoma loving her, perhaps the day will soon come when she can love him back. I said the name was brilliant; Prince Harry is a popular, fun-loving guy who does a lot of good in the world, and even more appropriate because he is a redhead! I gave this lady my phone number and said to her and her husband that any time she wanted any advice or help, or just a shoulder to cry on, she could call me. I am sure she will do fine eventually but for her it’s a huge adjustment, because beforehand she wasn’t even suffering any bowel problems – her colon had pretty much died as a result of an adverse reaction to a drug she was taking for quite another problem.)

After the operation, my hubby joined me in the recovery ward and I was definitely away with the fairies with drugs, and in quite a lot of pain. Before long I was taken up to the ward and ended up back on the same bay I’d been in twice before, each time in a different bed!

Before going in, I had been concerned about the problem I had last year with all my cannulae failing because of vein damage caused by 6 months of chemo. At my pre-assessment, the anaesthetist said that it was possible that my veins might have recovered by now, but they would note my request for the insertion of a PICC line at the outset, while warning me of the risks associated with this. When I came round, I found a regular cannula in my left wrist, and further up my arm, a mid-line (a half-way house to a PICC) for them to use if the cannula failed, but in the event, the cannula was as good as gold throughout, so the mid-line was not necessary. I am reassured by this.

Everything went according to plan. As expected, with Kermit being remade, he is huge – as big as he was when I first had him, at 40 mm, but over the next few weeks he will shrink and probably end up about the same 25 mm he was eventually. I am now using flat bags rather than convex ones, as he protrudes enough not to need the surrounding area to be pushed in, and the team sent me home with enough supplies to keep me going until my next order to my supplier which I put in on Tuesday, and the parcel arrived yesterday.

Being in over Easter as I had been three years ago when I was in for my total colectomy and the creation of Kermit, I fully expected to be kept in until the Tuesday at least, to take account of the two Easter Bank Holidays. However, when Easter Sunday came, four days later, I was told I was fit to go, and they discharged me.

I felt far from ready to go. With my ME I have a lower baseline and it takes me longer to bounce back, but they said I would recover better at home, and surgically speaking there was no reason for keeping me in. So off I went, and on arrival home, went straight to bed.

I stayed there for two days, feeling very weak and unwell, and in quite a lot of pain. I didn’t interfere with Kermit that day, but on Monday I changed his bag. I had noticed his output was quite red (as if I’d eaten beetroot!) and put it down to the general early days recovery etc. but when I took the bag off, there was quite a lot of bleeding from the underside of the stoma itself. I was able to clean it up enough to get another bag on, and my hubby and I agreed I should phone the stoma nurse the next day (that day was a Bank Holiday) and when I did, she said these things usually clear up on their own but if it didn’t, to try cold compresses to constrict the capillaries, and if that failed, I was to come back.

On Wednesday late morning I again changed the bag and was concerned how red the output had been in the meantime; this time the bleeding was profuse, and from other areas as well. It didn’t seem to be coming from the operation wound but from places all over the surface of the stoma, and it was running down my stomach onto my legs, and as fast as I cleaned it up, it was running again. I changed basin after basin of water and was getting through endless dry wipes. If you cannot get the skin clean and dry, the bag simply won’t stick. I was getting so desperate and called my hubby, and together we battled with it for getting on for 45 minutes. Eventually I wrapped the stoma in a dry wipe and got my hubby to hold it while I cleaned and dried the surrounding area, and we quickly zapped on another bag.

I went straight to the phone and called the stoma nurse. As we were speaking, I felt some activity and asked her to hang on, and blood was already seeping under the bag. Asking her to wait, I grabbed some “blueys” – those large blue incontinence pads ubiquitous in hospitals, and stuffed my pants with them! I looked 9 months pregnant! She said to go straight to A&E and they would catch up with me in hospital.

Then began a horrendous time of waiting around. We got through A&E to the medical assessment unit relatively quickly, but we waited for hours, being seen every now and then by people who just wanted to take blood and do endless paperwork. Repeatedly I asked for pain relief, and it was not until I had been a total of eight hours with no pain relief that any was forthcoming. I was also instructed not to eat anything because they were not sure whether I would need further surgery. I was therefore in considerable pain, weak, hungry and pretty agitated and upset (and gave my poor hubby a bad time, but he will fuss so!! – I know it’s only because he worries, but it really doesn’t help anyone!!). Eventually I saw someone, and a stoma nurse and one of her HCAs came down and they had a good look at Kermit. She reassured me we’d done absolutely the right thing coming in, and there was no way we could have dealt with this. She also said that I should not have been sent home before the stoma team had been up to see me and check all was well, but none of them were in until the Tuesday.  They would have spotted the bleeding and kept me in until it was dealt with, and I could have avoided all that stress and hassle, especially as I was feeling so weak and unwell, and less able to deal with it. My hubby said, and she agreed, that I was feeling a lot worse because of the loss of blood.

Before my operation I had been instructed to stop my rivaroxaban. I had been prescribed this anticoagulant in 2016 when one of my CT scans revealed numerous small pulmonary emboli. After the operation they had resumed this, and the nurse said this certainly would not be helping with the problem. For now, I have been taken off it, and have not yet had any instructions as to when, or if, I am to resume it. She said again that the problem usually resolves itself. They had removed my bag and put one of their clear hospital ones on, so that people could look at Kermit without taking the bag off each time. I was told they were keeping me in overnight, and then we had to wait another goodness knows how long until they finally found a bed for me.

They were keeping me in for observation. Having taken blood they wanted to check my haemoglobin levels and see whether I would need a transfusion, or IV fluids, but this turned out to be unnecessary.

I was put on a general medical ward, in a dingy little room on my own which was very depressing. The only adornment on the walls was a series of posters which were just too far away to read, and every single one had been stuck up crooked! I thought if I was in there for any length of time I would just have to get out of bed and straighten them all! I had to wait while the right airflow mattress was found, and when I eventually did get into bed and my hubby was able to leave, I was so exhausted that I couldn’t sleep till gone 4 a.m. As soon as I relaxed in bed I got a violent attack of restless limbs – I often get restless legs in the late evening, probably due to my ME, but never have I had it in my arm before, and while my legs were bad, my right arm was sheer torture. I eventually lay hard on it and eventually it subsided.

They asked me to save all Kermit’s output into a pan so they could measure it, and in the morning, because I had eaten so little, there was very little in there but about 1/4 bag full of blood.

In the middle of the morning I was producing output again and the blood was a lot less. The stoma nurse and her side-kick came in and had another look, and while the bag was off, my surgeon turned up, and was able to have a good look, too. He was satisfied that the problem was nothing to do with his excellent handiwork, and pronounced me fit to go home that day, and to stay off the rivaroxaban, and the stoma nurse said she would phone with a clinic appointment for me in the next fortnight, but I could contact them any time with any worries. As he left, he said, “I am very chuffed with this operation. It all went very well.” I know he had given it a lot of thought over recent months, wondering how best to approach it in view of the fact that the hernia was sited awkwardly – on the outer side of the stoma – and taking my ME into account too. He had told me this would not be a straightforward operation and would probably take some time. He is so charming and friendly, and I am endlessly grateful to him for all he has done for me over the past three years.

After lunch, my hubby was able to take me home, but the usual wait on the pharmacy to send up my drugs meant we didn’t get home till tea time. I went straight to bed and stayed there till yesterday morning.

I left Kermit well alone during this time, but kept a close eye on him through the small window in the bag, and his output, which seemed to have no blood present. I changed his bag again this morning and all was well – he is still bleeding, but not hugely. Stomas often bleed a little when you clean them and the nurses warn you not to panic over this; it is because of the rich blood supply and the delicate nature of the surface of the tissue.

Yesterday and today I have been up, and resting downstairs on the recliner. My hubby is looking after me very well, preparing the meals. I had cooked a lot of low residue meals to freeze before going into hospital and it turned out that I didn’t need to go on this very low fibre diet this time after all, but no matter – we now have lots of good home cooking available as single-portion ready meals and I can eat as much fruit and veg as I want to bulk up the fibre. I now have to rest, build myself up, move about a little in order to build my muscle strength and improve my mobility – I am still very shaky and weak, and not to overdo things.

This morning I showered and washed my hair at last – utter bliss! – but oh so tiring! My hubby and I sorted the vast quantities of laundry together and he stuffed it all in the machine and I pressed the right buttons, and later he hung it for me. Throughout these activities, I kept taking time out to rest for 20 mins or so, and then started again. Together we’ll get through it all.

The stoma nurse phoned yesterday to arrange a home visit next Thursday – I am highly delighted as this saves the drive to hospital and a lot of waiting around while I am still so weak.

Although they have taken me off the rivaroxaban, I still need some sort of anticoagulant treatment for the prevention of DVTs (deep vein thromboses) post-op. When I was in last year, because I was on rivaroxaban, this was deemed unnecessary, but I am now back on the normal post-op schedule of daily fragmin injections, but fortunately for only two weeks instead of the usual four. The district nurse is calling in each afternoon to do this for me and I’m counting the days till the box of little syringes is empty – this stuff really stings – like being stung by a bee! The great thing is not to rub the place afterwards because this makes it a million times worse!! They sent me home with the supply of syringes together with a sharps bin for the nurse to put them in, and she will take this away for proper disposal after her final visit.

So that’s me for now – hopefully on the road to recovery at last, and with time to build up my strength and be fit to enjoy the warmer weather and get back in my studio again!

WOYWW 444

Nothing on my desk yet again… Just when I thought I might actually get some studio time, last Tuesday afternoon my hubby slipped in the street and broke his leg. He is now in plaster from toes to knee and is not allowed to put his foot on the ground, so he’s hobbling around on crutches which is a real struggle for him. Added to this, for the first three days he was in a temporary plaster to allow the swelling to subside, and this has seriously abraded his skin, causing him a lot of pain. He’s been back to the hospital a couple of times, and at the fracture clinic they put a new, permanent plaster on, and dressed the blistered skin. On Monday they drained off quite a bit of blood from the swollen blisters and this has relieved the pain somewhat. He’s going back on Friday for his scheduled appointment, when they will re-X-ray his leg to see how the bone is knitting.

He will be in plaster from 4-6 weeks. He’s sure it will be 4 weeks, but I am a bit more realistic, given his age, and think it more likely to be 6!

This has caused a major disruption in our lives, because we are needing lifts everywhere, and during this first week I was very busy with activities and appointments out of the house, after a relatively quiet period. I was unable to attend the Ileostomy Association meeting I’d been looking forward to at the weekend, because I had no way of getting there. For other things I managed to get lifts, but this isn’t as straightforward as it might be, because I need the wheelchair, and not everybody has a large enough car to carry it. I’ve taken off the powered wheels, which are extremely heavy, and hard to take on and off, and am using the regular, lightweight ones which are easy peasy to snap on and off, making the chair easy to transport, but it makes it a lot harder work for me to propel myself. Fortunately, so far, I haven’t had far to go.

On Thursday I had my six-monthly oncology appointment at the hospital, for which I got a lift. No problems there – I knew from my CT scan in September that all was well, and my recent bloods confirmed this. We spent most of the time discussing the hernia problem that I have, and I said I was concerned that I still had not had an appointment to see the surgeon. She said she would chase this up herself, which was a relief – I thought she might make better progress on that front than I could! Still nothing, though, and it’s been another week. I’d been told I would be seen before the end of the year, but this is looking less and less likely. The hernia is larger than it was and is causing me more discomfort, and I am scared of another blockage, and ending up in hospital having emergency surgery again. What I want is a proper, scheduled operation performed by my own specialist colorectal surgeon, and I think that the way things now are, that he is more likely to agree to do this, but I’ve got to see him first!

Fortunately we got the kittens’ spaying out of the way before my hubby broke his leg. We had such a lot of trouble with both of them pulling their stitches out, necessitating numerous return visits to the vet, and this would have been a nightmare had my hubby not been able to drive. For their final appointment, I got a lift and took them down, and they had their little body suits removed, and their wounds had both healed up beautifully, and the fur is starting to grow back again. Lily has now finished her antibiotics and no longer has diarrhoea, and she seems in much better spirits; the two of them have had endless chasing games and wrestling matches, and my hubby has been sitting with them in the flat and enjoying their antics, and when they have worn themselves out, they have loved cuddling up on his lap for warmth.

They are now six months old, and have had a growth spurt! They do look a lot bigger since their body suits were removed, because the fur has fluffed up again. The vet weighed them and they are both over 2 kg each. Although Lily looks bigger than Ruby, Ruby surprisingly weighs more – she must be more dense! Lily is incredibly soft and fluffy with the most amazing fur I’ve ever felt on a cat, and she’s so relaxed and floppy when you cuddle her – I can’t get enough of it (and neither can she, it seems!). Ruby is a great wriggler and very active, and it doesn’t take her long to start fidgeting when you’re holding her, but she purrs and purrs throughout, and she will lie in my arms with her paws in the air, just gazing up at me!

Yesterday we decided that they probably needed to be eating more, so from today, I have been giving Lily a whole pouch of kitten food at each meal instead of 2/3, and she’s been wolfing it down like there’s no tomorrow, and ending up with a round little belly like a football! Since the early days, Ruby won’t touch wet food and will only eat biscuits, and I’ve increased her quantities too. She drinks a nice lot of water, which is a good thing, since she’s not getting any in her food. They definitely have their own preferences and likes and dislikes, and it’s fascinating watching these emerge as they grow. They’ve really been enjoying my hubby’ immobile company and when I’m not there, they spend most of the time cuddled up on his lap, but they always get off when I come in, and come to greet me and demand cuddles. Highly responsive, loving and affectionate kitties!

I am having a job trying to get my hubby to rest, though, and let his leg heal up properly. He has loads of things he’s arranged to do, and thinks the world will collapse if he cancels anything! Just watching him trying to walk makes me feel tired! He can hardly get in and out of the front door, and the whole effort of walking, even from his chair to the loo, is taking a lot of energy and is obviously tiring him.

When he was out a couple of days ago I had a bit of “me” time and had a friend from our cancer group around and we had a lovely chat over coffee, which was great. It made me feel more human again! She’s such good news and it was a real tonic to see her. Today I have been out for lunch with the two friends I met in hospital when we were all in together two years ago, and have remained friends ever since, and get together when we can. This also really helped keep me going!

I’ve also started doing some Christmas cooking which is very therapeutic – over 2 dozen mince pies yesterday. It is tiring though! Over the next few days I’m hoping to get the stuffings made, and some other advance preparations that can go in the freezer. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve cooked a Christmas dinner and for the first time I feel well enough to tackle it, and I shall really enjoy it, even though it’s just for us two! It’s so lovely being able to spread the load and freeze things in advance, and I shan’t be making a pudding or a cake – Lidl does such good ones, and very reasonably priced, too. I love the aftermath, because you get all that fabulous cold meat that you can do so much with, and above all, the carcass from which you can make gallons of delicious soup! I’ve bought a medium-sized turkey and this will keep us fed for ages into the New Year. There’s absolutely nothing like home cooking!

No time this week to make much progress on the second pair of socks I am knitting for the homeless but I’ve been assured the project is going on after November, and anyway, there is someone in our church liaising with the groups helping the homeless, so there’s nothing to stop me continuing after the official programme ends. Here’s a picture of the socks so far – I’ve completed the first one and made a start on the second. They will look less lumpy after they have been blocked.

WOYWW 422–Infusions, Gesso and Socks

Well, here’s some amazing news from Shoshi – managed to spend some time in the studio this week and actually start creating again!! It felt good, good, good.

My desk on Tuesday evening:

Over on the other side of the room it’s pretty chaotic as well, because I’ve got a lot of knitting stuff out – no point putting it away while I’m still looking for colours for my socks!

I needed to make a card quickly for someone but as it turned out, I knew I wouldn’t get it finished in time, so I found one I’d made some time ago and gave her that one instead, but continued with what I’d started. Unfortunately the Infusions Mini-Album is still on the back burner but I have been working with Infusions again.

Remember this technique using gesso from my mini-album?

I really loved the effect you can get by applying gesso to the surface, sprinkling on Infusions and then brayering over it. It gives a gorgeous subtle streaked effect.

In the four samples above, I did the first one (top left) in the standard way, and the rest were the result of mopping up the mess on the craft sheet, and adding more gesso and infusions. The Infusions subtly colour the gesso the more they are mixed.

I made a selection of die-cut circles from these samples. I’ve started making some card bases with gesso and inked backgrounds to put these on, and they will then be embellished in various ways. This is a stash-busting exercise as much as anything – covering up some over-bright card I couldn’t see myself using, and turning it into something useful!

The outer two pieces in the above photo were done with gesso and some stamping with Distress Inks, and the centre one just with Distress Inks and Infusions. You can see full details of these here.

Toe-vember

The project from our church to provide socks for the homeless is ongoing. I’ve finished the blue pair and am very pleased with the result. They are great fun to do.

I’ve now started on a really bright pair, using rainbow colours with black. Why knit boring colours when you can go a bit wild and make something that not only keeps people’s feet warm but can help brighten their lives a bit too, with a bit of fun and colour?

I am hoping to complete at least one more pair after this, and hopefully if the appeal goes on, I can continue – but even if it doesn’t, there’s an initiative from the local churches to help the homeless in lots of different ways, so there will be an open channel to continue to use.

Kitties

The kittens are still in their little suits.

We are taking them back to the vet’s this week so that Lily’s stitches can be removed, and they can both have a good check-up to make sure they have done OK since their operations. Lily has been on antibiotics since her operation because they found an ulcer in her mouth, and this needs to be checked too. The poor little thing has had diarrhoea since being on the antibiotics and I think we are all keen for her to finish them asap so she can get back to normal! She’s been a bit subdued, which isn’t surprising. Ruby has been her usual bumptious self – that kitty is so full of enthusiasm for life and has the exuberant character of Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh stories! It’s very flattering how much she loves me and how she gazes up at me when I’m giving her a cuddle, and she instantly turns on her little purr engine! After years of two kitties who hardly gave me the time of day if my hubby was around, this is such a joy!

I shall miss it when her little suit comes off. She looks so like a little baby in a babygro! That is one dinky kitty.

Lily is definitely more bonded to my hubby than she is to me. I am so glad about that, and the fact that we now have “one each” as it were!

Health Update

Still no appointment from the hospital for me to see my surgeon. The hernia is causing me intermittent problems (slight pain and discomfort, and Kermit, my stoma, is definitely not as settled or easy to manage as he was last year) and it’s now visible. I am most anxious to avoid a repeat of what happened at the beginning of the year – it was exactly in this state when I had the blockage that put me in hospital for 2 1/2 weeks… I really hope my surgeon can be persuaded to get this sorted once and for all.

I had a blood test at the surgery on Monday in advance of my oncology appointment next week. This will be the final 6-monthly check-up, as it is now two years since I got my all-clear; thereafter they will see me once a year for three years, and then, all being well, I will be discharged. I’m not a bit concerned about next week’s appointment as I am convinced the cancer was all dealt with at the time, with surgery and chemo, and also, my latest CT scan in September to check on the hernia also revealed no evidence of cancer.

WOYWW 439

I’m sorry to have been AWOL recently, but my ME problems have been ongoing, and I’ve been alternating between busy days when I’ve kept going, and less busy days when I’ve crashed out unable to do much of anything! No change on the desk, just stuff still out for the ongoing project, the Infusions mini-album which I wonder if I’ll even get finished this year!

A week ago we had our regular cancer Cakeathon meeting, and I managed to do some baking for that, so here are some foodie photos to keep you going. I made an apple cinnamon twist loaf from a recipe I found on Pinterest and it was a huuuuge success – definitely one to make again! It went down very well.

Here is the loaf out of the oven with its dusting of icing sugar, ready to be cut, photographed on my grandmother’s lovely old bread board, together with her antique knife with its bone handle carved into a corn cob.

When it’s cut, you can see how the twists give a marbled effect.

The filling consists of a spread of apple butter and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. Deeeelicious!

Here’s a small tub of the remaining apple butter. I’ve never made this before, and it’s really easy to make, and very tasty.

I found several recipes online, most of which are stuffed with sugar and/or maple syrup, but I made mine from a sugar-free recipe – the apples off our tree are so sweet that the healthy option is fine. At final count, we got about 35 lb of apples this year! I’ve got several large bags of sliced apple in the freezer to use throughout the year.

Kittens

Can you believe that our kittens are now five months old? How quickly the time passes! They are getting so big now, and Lily especially is getting quite a grown-up look, although to my eyes, Ruby still has her baby face! Long may that continue… I simply adore that kitty! A few weeks ago, Lily suddenly developed a really soft fluffy coat which is absolutely fabulous. My hubby is thrilled because he really misses Beatrice’s fluffiness which was legendary – she never grew out of kitten fur! Lily has definitely adopted my hubby, and Ruby is my baby.

We have moved the big cat tree back into the flat. They behave so badly in our sitting room that for now they are banned unless under the strictest supervision, and so they were unable to use the cat tree while it was still in there. Now, it is in constant use. They love it because they can be high up (as all cats like to be), and it’s nice and soft, and they can sleep on it. It has lots of interesting platforms and little houses on it, as well as dangly mice to play with, so it’s been a huge success.

Here’s Lily in one of the little houses.

Ruby being queen of the castle, right on top.

The two of them.

This latest one, taken today. Not much room for both of them on one platform – Lily’s leg is hanging down, and just after this, Ruby nearly fell off! (Note the curtains still tied up – a preventative measure against kittens climbing them!!)

They get really warm when they’re snuggled up together like that.

The other day I found them acting like two naughty little bookends on the flat kitchen windowsill. They’ve just got to the stage when they can jump up onto the kitchen worktops so absolutely nothing is safe from them now!

They continue to be very affectionate and relaxed and happy. They have now had their booster inoculations, and sometime during this coming month they will have to be spayed, or as my hubby calls it, “having their squeaks removed” – for little boy kitties it’s “having their pockets picked” lol!

I was hoping to get some art done this week but again I have failed. Apart from not feeling well, I’ve been very busy preparing sessions for my Bible study group which meets weekly – this is something I can do from the comfort of the recliner and in addition to all the research, it does involve a certain amount of creativity in the form of the PowerPoint slides I prepare, which I try to make artistically.

Diet

I have now reached my target weight!!!!! Yaaaayyy!!!!! I shall continue with the 5:2 in order to maintain it from now on, which shouldn’t be hard, as it’s a way of life for me now. Since I started in the summer of 2014 (stopping for most of 2015 while I was being treated for my cancer) I have lost 4 1/2 stone (63 lb) and lost 10 inches around my waist. I hardly recognise myself these days. It’s so lovely being able to wear some of my old clothes again, that I could never bear to part with, and also have an excuse to buy some new ones! If I can do this, especially as I can’t take exercise to burn off excess weight so it’s been by diet alone, then anyone can do it!

Health Update

I’ve been experiencing some pain from my parastomal hernia which the recent CT scan showed had definitely returned, so I phoned the hospital yesterday. My surgeon’s secretary couldn’t tell me exactly when my appointment would be, as appointments are dealt with by a separate department, but she thought it should definitely be in November, and if I hadn’t heard anything in a week to ten days, to phone again. She said she would pass on the fact that I was getting some pain – when I last saw my surgeon, he told me to phone his secretary if this happened, or if I had any other concerns. She told me that of course, if I developed another blockage, I must go straight to A&E – I said I knew to do this, but it was something I wanted to avoid because I wanted my own surgeon to deal with it and not have anyone else messing around with it like at the beginning of the year. I am hoping that when I see him, he will finally agree to fix it properly and insert some mesh to reinforce it. I’m not happy being in this limbo state. I’ve also got an oncology appointment in November, which should mark my 2-year all-clear – all being well, this will mean that for the next 3 years she will only need to see me once a year instead of every six months, and after that I’ll be discharged! Obviously as far as the stoma is concerned, they will continue to keep an eye on things and be available if I have any problems – all last year I was fine, and thought that was it, but then everything went pear-shaped at the beginning of this year which just goes to show you can never anticipate what might happen! Life is never dull, that’s for sure.

A couple of funnies I found this week on Pinterest:

This one sums up my current brainfogged state:

Various Updates

I missed this week’s WOYWW unfortunately, and I’d have posted this if I’d managed to join in. I had a very busy day on Wednesday with a lunch out with friends, and after that, all I felt up to was editing a backlog of kitten videos. Yesterday I felt wiped out again and brainfogged. It’s a bit demoralising at the moment – I’m really busy on certain days, and then when I get a few days free to do the things I want to do (like art), I’m feeling too exhausted to do them and all I can do is rest. You’d think after nearly 11 years of ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) that I’d be used to this but there are times when it’s deeply frustrating…

First, our lunch out. Here’s a photo of my dessert!

It was called “Chocolate Trio” and consisted of a chocolate brownie, white chocolate mousse and Bailey’s crème brulee. I love how they’ve decorated the plate with swirls of melted chocolate and fresh raspberries. I started with whitebait and for the main, I had their lamb and mint pie – the whole meal was absolutely delicious. We had a great time together – we are the Allerton Three – the three friends who met in hospital (Allerton Ward) back in March 2013 when we were all in for our cancer operations. We’ve remained firm friends ever since, and try to meet up regularly, although it doesn’t always happen because we are all so busy!

I haven’t taken many photos or videos of the kittens lately – also due to busy-ness and fatigue. They are now 18 weeks old and are getting so big! Lily is still larger than Ruby, and over the last week I’ve noticed a change in her – she is growing the most fantastically soft coat! Her fur is fluffier than Ruby’s and feels like silk chiffon – very fine and just fabulous. It’s probably developing as she starts to grow her first winter coat.

Lily is also proving to be more intelligent than Ruby. She is doing really well with her clicker training, but Ruby tends to get confused, and do things I’m not actually telling her to do at that moment! They both vary as far as their attention span is concerned – if there’s anything else going on (like a fly in the room, or if they are too wild, or too sleepy) they get very easily distracted and wander off! Also, they are pretty good during training sessions, but during the rest of the day they are hopeless and seem to forget everything they’ve learnt!! Never mind, I shall keep persevering, because I know from what loads of people online are saying, this really does work, and a bit of hard work reaps great rewards. They will improve as they get older, I think, when they are less babyish and easily distracted by things to play with!

My hubby says Ruby is a happy little kitty who says “Hello sky, hello clouds…” and is very loving and affectionate. Lily is more independent but she enjoys a cuddle too.

The latest photos.

Lily in the hammock, aged 15 weeks.

Lily relaxing on the cat tree at 16 weeks. With her arms hanging down like that, she reminds me of Chloe, who was Phoebe’s sister – she always used to lie like this!

Here’s Chloe doing it.

Also at 16 weeks, here is Ruby sitting on the cat tree. Queen of the Castle.

This is what happens when I try to work on my laptop. They both want to come up for a cuddle and there isn’t a lot of room – I have to push the computer away a bit. They are 17 weeks old here.

Here they are together on the cat tree. Ruby on top, Lily below.

The final two were taken on Wednesday. Here is Lily with her head stuck in my shoe! They say cats have a much more sensitive sense of smell than we do. If I needed it, here’s the proof that I haven’t got smelly feet!

Not sure what she thought was so interesting in there!

Unfortunately, the kittens have now discovered loo paper…

Not sure who was guilty of this little feat, but we discovered it when I got home from my lunch out on Wednesday. I had put a new roll up in the morning. I have now wound it all back on! We are now making sure that there is no “tail” hanging down from the roll to tempt them. Anything that dangles is fair game, it seems.

They can now get up on the kitchen worktops so nothing’s safe up there any longer either!

This morning a friend from our monthly cancer Cakeathon meetings held one of the national coffee mornings in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, and several of us from the group went along. I wish I’d taken a photo of her table, groaning under the weight of so much CAKE!!! I’m afraid I made a right pig of myself – cake is so irresistible! I justified it by reminding myself that it was all in a good cause! I took along a lemon drizzle cake. Her house was full of her lovely friends and we all had such a great time. She was thrilled that we’d turned up to support her. When we arrived, she’d strung bunting outside her house – supplied in the pack that she got when she signed up to host a coffee morning, and there was more bunting inside, and balloons.

As usual, no time or energy for art, but I did manage to put a few stitches in my embroidery. Here’s the latest piece I’m working on. The French knots around the design are worked in gold – unfortunately this doesn’t show up as shiny on the photo as it is in real life.

I’ve still got quite a lot of these little pieces to do before I can assemble them into the bed drapes I’m making.

I’ve also been very busy preparing sessions for my Bible study group which resumed meeting formally again this month. It takes much longer to prepare each session than it does to teach it!!

Last Sunday we were invited back to our old church to share in their harvest celebrations. I’ve done a separate post about that. It’s such a lovely little church and special because Dad’s funeral was held there.

We are going to the harvest at our new church this coming Sunday.

My poor studio has reverted to a dumping ground and is gathering dust. I really hope I can get back in there during the coming week – this is getting ridiculous!