WOYWW 513 Share, Foot and Mouth

Edit:  I am afraid I am still having problems with photos. No need to comment if you can’t see them. I am working on the problem and hopefully you will be able to see at least some of them. I can get them to appear, but they disappear again…

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I think I may have sorted the problem of my non-appearing photos – I had tried viewing my blog after logging out of my Google account and lo and behold, the photos were no longer visible to me along with everyone else, and since they were visible when I was logged in, I thought long and hard about that and wondered if it was a “share” issue on Google Photos. After making them “shared,” I logged out again and yes, they were visible to me. So please let me know if they are visible this week, and if they are, please scroll back to last week’s posts and you should be able to see the photos there as well.

As for all my disappearing photos since the demise of Google+, I am trying to work on two posts per day on average, and so far, working backwards, I have got back to June of last year, so it’s not going too badly.

Foot

Well, at least, footwear.

When we went shopping in Totnes last week I bought some gorgeous new felt slippers with really fun tops with felt balls on them.

They are quirky and fun and everybody says they are very “me”! My first thought was what fun it would be to embellish them! Having done my striped scarf with embroidered felt balls and other embellishments:

I thought I could do something similar with the slippers.

I have started cutting out some simple flower and leaf shapes from my large stash of felt.

Unlike with the scarf, I want the flowers and leaves to be flush with the surface of the slippers, rather than being 3-D. I am planning to do some wool embroidery on them and then stitch them to the slippers, and maybe add some embroidered stems, depending on how they look. The felt balls dangling from the tops of the slippers will have embroidery added to them.

Next time we go to Totnes I shall have to take the slippers back to the shop where I got them and show them what I’ve done!!

Mouth

Not so pleasant. I’d had the permanent filling put in my cracked wisdom tooth last Thursday and all was well, although it was a bit painful on and off when I bit down on it. My hubby said this was normal and he often got this for a few days after having had a filling (he has far more than I do so his is the voice of experience). It was pretty bad on Sunday and I was worried about it. Then at tea time on Sunday I thought part of another filling had broken off so my hubby rang on Monday and made an appointment for me for yesterday lunch time.

When I got there the dentist agreed with my hubby about teeth often being a bit sore for a few days afterwards, and then he looked at the other tooth and said the whole filling had come out! He fixed it then and there but it was a lot worse than the wisdom tooth one and the whole thing was pretty stressful. I had loads of local anaesthetic and my mouth didn’t come back to normal until tea time, and it’s been hurting since then, even though it didn’t hurt after the old filling came out. Hopefully it will settle down in a few days. I do hate going to the dentist and consider I’ve had more than my “fill” (sorreee) of it recently!

Our dentist is so lovely – he’s really friendly and knows what a wimp I am and always tries to put me at my ease (impossible) but we usually manage to have quite a laugh once the horrid part is done! He was very amused once when I told him I’d rather have 6 months of chemo than come and see him! Today he said everybody hated him and he had no friends because he was a dentist (which I don’t believe as he’s really nice and friendly!) and he said it was on a par with traffic wardens and tax inspectors. He then asked me, “What do you call 80 lawyers at the bottom of the sea?” I hadn’t a clue. Answer: “A good start.” Lol!!! (I have to agree – they charged us an arm and a leg, and possibly a mouthful of teeth, to wind up Mum’s estate… and it took them over a year.)

Anyway, I hope I don’t have any more tooth problems from now on.

Hospital appointment next Wednesday

I am going to see Mr. Daniels, another colorectal surgeon, at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) next week, having been referred by Mr. Pullan, my surgeon at Torbay. He wanted a second opinion on what he calls my “intractable” parastomal hernia, and depending on what Mr. Daniels has to say on the matter, I may need further surgery. I shall be very interested to hear his opinion about it.

Kitties

Lily and Ruby haven’t been doing anything spectacular recently apart from the usual sleeping, eating, the odd tiff, a fair bit of chasing each other around the house – thundering paws above our heads – whoever said cats were silent on their feet? We’ve always had elephants! They’ve been out most days and seem safe without constant supervision now my hubby has fixed the defences, but we don’t let them out unless he’s around, just in case. They have been moulting their winter coats and getting a few fur balls (fluffy Lily especially) and very, very demanding at feeding times!

No new photos recently so here’s one of their baby ones, just to remind you how dinky they were. 5 weeks old, the first time we saw them, the day we claimed them for our own. We got them at 9 weeks, and my goodness, it was hard having to wait those few weeks for them.

Ruby on the left of the picture, Lily on the right. (My hubby in the middle!) I can’t believe how tiny they were – they are really substantial now – great hulking girlies!

Finally, a cat funny for you.

Have a great week, everybody.

Allerton Three Tea Party and New Chandeliers

Warning – Long post, picture-rich.

On Friday we had our Allerton Three Anniversary Tea Party. The Allerton Three is the group of us girls who met up on Allerton Ward last year, all having our bowel cancer operations. (It sounds like a criminal gang. I am convinced they discharged us for bad behaviour.) We became firm friends and have kept up, meeting when we can, and are in regular email contact. We all attend the monthly relaxation sessions put on by the Lodge, the cancer support centre at the hospital, which is a good regular contact time, and we’ve had lunch out together, and last week one of them had several paintings in her art group’s exhibition so we went over for that, on a day that she was stewarding, so we could see her.

We decided to celebrate the first anniversary of our friendship by having this tea party. Unfortunately we couldn’t do it exactly a year on from our meeting because the other two were away, and Friday was the first day when we were all free. It also coincided with a Lodge day so we met there and all came back here together afterwards – first we chilled out, then we pigged out lol!

It was lovely showing them where we live, and both of them enjoyed seeing my studio and some of the work I have done, and the artist denied being green with envy!!

I had laid up the table in Mum’s room with my best embroidered cloth, and it was groaning with plates of all my baking! Unfortunately, in all the excitement, I completely forgot to photograph it so I will have to leave that to your imagination, but it did look lovely. Afternoon tea is a great favourite with us all, and we agreed, happily, that this seems to be an institution that is at last coming back into fashion. I got my pretty cake plates out (I wish I still had Mum’s old wooden 3-tier cake stand!) and my Denby pottery tea set – this is rather thick and heavy, unfortunately, but the beautiful bone china one that was my grandmother’s all got broken over the years and is no more. I put out my little tea knives, though, and the silver jam spoons for the cream tea, and the matching table napkins that go with the cloth, and it all looked very pretty. I’m so fed up with myself for forgetting to photograph it!

This afternoon I decided to plate up the leftovers and photograph them so you could at least see a bit how things looked.

Chocolate chip cookies. They are flavoured with vanilla. One of my friends said that instead of vanilla, you can add orange zest and/or essence and get a real Terry’s Chocolate Orange (“not for sharing” lol! – remember those adverts?) flavour. I must try this.

Cinnamon biscuits.

Shortbread.

Remember the little cakes I made with the sticky icing (featured in my previous blog post)? Well, that icing failed to set, so on Thursday I scraped it all off and chucked it out. I made some more, this time butter cream, which worked much better, and coloured it pink, and spread it on the cakes, and then coloured the remainder a nice rich dark red and piped the little stomas on top!

Here’s a detail. You can see that for added realism (!) I have added a chocolate chip in the centre!

One of my friends asked me, “What’s that little brown thing in the centre?” I said, “Well, it’s poo, isn’t it!!” We all fell about laughing at the stomas and she said, “Yes, but what is it really?” so I told her it was a chocolate chip! Then she helped herself to one of the chocolate energy bites and said, “These look just like poo, too!” More laughter!

I am convinced that our time together on Allerton Ward turned us into three giggling poo-obsessed schoolgirls! It’s all the fault of the nurses. They never talked about anything else – but then you can’t blame them – it was the gut ward after all! It was there that we learnt all about the Bristol Stool Chart – I couldn’t believe that someone had actually poked around in people’s poo and graded it, and was convinced that the nurses were pulling our legs, but no, it’s genuine!

What a lovely topic of conversation over our tea party.

A friend on the stoma forum I’m on came up with the Bristol Ileostomy Output Chart (being different from poo, we felt that we needed our own chart – I printed this out and took it in to the stoma nurses!)

It’s a good thing that for those of us fortunate enough never to have grown up, poo remains a subject of giggle-generating infantile humour. I’m sure it’s one of the things that got us through last year’s ordeal!! Guffaw guffaw!

Here’s a mixed platter of goodies.

You can see that there are some buttered Scots pancakes (drop scones) and a couple of plain scones spread with strawberry jam and clotted cream – a traditional Devon cream tea!

I also took some photos of my beautiful embroidered table cloth which we used for the tea party. This belonged to my grandmother and I think it may have been one of the pieces she brought back from the Canary Islands where she often used to spend the winter. It is a beautiful natural-coloured linen with slightly darker embroidery, with satin stitch and drawn thread work.

Last week everything went brilliantly, timing-wise (apart from the first attempt at icing the stoma cakes) and the two chandeliers I’d ordered both arrived. On Wednesday, when our sitting room one came, I phoned the electrician straight away, and he said he could come the following day to fit it, which was great – it’s now installed and looking so pretty! The light in the room is a huge improvement on the single bulb under a shade that did little to improve the dimness of the room – it has five arms, each with a nice bright LED candle bulb.

What pretty patterns it makes on the ceiling when it’s lit. Also, I love how I can see it reflected in the mirror from where I sit on the recliner.

The other chandelier didn’t require the electrician to fit it, as it is just a fancy sort of lampshade, but he did install a longer flex for it. When Mum was in her flat, she complained it wasn’t bright enough and got my hubby to take the shade off her ceiling light, and it was so grim with just a bare bulb. Having a pretty chandelier answers the problem, and I chose a particularly pretty one on Ebay, in the “cascade” style.

In preparation for our tea party, I also added a few things to the room to make it more homely. Mum had brought very little with her from her old house and the room was stark and unwelcoming and unattractive. Unfortunately she has no sense of style and if something was of no practical use she wasn’t interested. My hubby brought the rug down from the loft, and the red armchair and the Indian table had already gone through when Gary was decorating our sitting room. I finally got around to unpacking one of the remaining boxes from the house move and put out the sitting room ornaments that there hadn’t been room for in our other room. I rummaged in my studio to find my huge Chinese fan that I bought years ago and which had never been displayed. I also put up some other pictures in place of the horrible ones that had been there before! Now that the big bookcase has gone, the room is looking a lot more attractive, homely and welcoming. I brought the large silk ficus plant in from our entrance lobby (where everybody just walked past it anyway without noticing it) and that’s softened things a bit, too.

The standard lamp that we bought for her has a pink shade which doesn’t co-ordinate with the room but I am planning to replace this.

A view of the garden through the open door.

It was great that both chandeliers arrived in time to be installed before our tea party, so that both rooms were complete. Also, on Friday morning, again just in time, my hubby went over to the furniture restorer who has mended the broken section of my magnificent Burmese screen, and for the first time since we moved, it is now displayed in all its glory.

All three panels of this screen are as intricately carved front and back, so it can be displayed anywhere in a room so that all sides are visible. I’ve never had a large enough room to be able to use it as a room divider, which is what would be ideal. I inherited this screen from my grandfather and it has accompanied me throughout my adult life. It is made from solid Burma teak and weighs an absolute ton! Over the years various bits on the tops got broken and the restorer has re-attached the bits that I still had. When I disassembled it to move here, one of the top pieces fell into two halves and I could see that this had happened before, and that my grandfather had mended it, but the glue had dried out. These two pieces have now been stuck back together. This is one of my great treasures!

Our sitting room looks so beautiful now it’s all complete at last, and everything is integrated an appears “meant to be” rather than the overcrowded clutter of before, and with Mum’s room being so much nicer too, we are taking advantage of it and sitting in there sometimes, getting the afternoon and evening sun, and having a nice view over the garden, with direct access to the little patio with the pots of flowers.

I shall be taking some more garden photos soon, and possibly doing a video tour of the garden as things start to grow and mature. My hubby has worked so hard out there and it’s all looking lovely.

One final bit of news – I sang in church for the first time today! I was thrilled to do it and it went very well, and I got some lovely feedback, which was very encouraging. I am booked to sing again on 12th June. It is a number of years since I have done this. I have such a sense of many doors beginning to open for me now that last year is behind me, and it’s an exciting and positive time, with lots to look forward to now that I feel I’ve been given my life back and I am looking upon things in a new light, as if everything is all fresh and clean and new.

I just feel incredibly blessed.

I Have Finished my Chemo!

The second of two posts for today. Please scroll down to see my latest Florabunda card collection – worth seeing as the Perfect Pearls are just gorgeous!

I have posted an edited entry from my Cancer Diary page into the main blog because it is such an important event, and I know that not everybody visits the Cancer Diary. Edit: I have been experiencing problems with Blogger (again…) and am unable to post from Blogger’s editor so my latest Cancer Diary page has not yet been updated. Unfortunately I cannot post to any page except the Home Page on my blog from Windows Live Writer, which is my preferred blog editor. Further edit: I have now discovered that this is a problem with Firefox. I can successfully publish posts to my Cancer Diary page if I use Chrome – not my preferred browser, so I am hoping Firefox will resolve this issue in double quick time!

I keep being quite overwhelmed by the fact that today I had my final chemo session! I wonder when I am going to wake up and find that it is not true and that I still have loads to get through... Recently I got really fed up with feeling ill all the time, and wondered if I'd ever get through it but the time has simply raced away, and suddenly I was facing the final session.

I had to wait for nearly an hour before being seen, but in the end this was a blessing in disguise (more later). I was taken in and prepared for the chemo as usual, and then went into the treatment bay. I began by eating the lovely packed lunch my hubby had so kindly made for me, and continued through the afternoon with a combination of a bit of colouring for my Florabunda card project, reading my book, and doing part of a puzzle, and chatting with some really lovely people. One lady told me she’d recently had a colostomy and wasn’t dealing well with it. I had a chat with her and said that how she felt did not alter the fact of it being part of her life, and that a change of attitude would really help her. I shared my story, and also gave her quite a few hints that I have learnt along the way. I got some nice feedback from one of the nurses later, that this lady had found the conversation very helpful. I shall be very happy if any of my experiences over the past year can be used to help others even in a small way.

The atmosphere is so friendly on the unit and even people whose cancer is terminal have the most amazing upbeat attitude and are full of smiles, and the resolution to make the absolute best of whatever life remains to them, and everyone emphasises the importance of family, of love, of appreciating each and every day, of counting one's blessings - all those things that money cannot buy, and which are of infinite worth. All attitudes and thoughts I have been cultivating over the past months! The nurses are also all amazing, and the clerical staff too - there is a lot of laughter in what is a happy place, despite the seriousness of its raison d'etre. Logically, it should be a place of doom and gloom and depression, but the resilience of the human spirit, and love and caring, make it quite otherwise.

My hubby arrived while I still had about a quarter of an hour of chemo infusion to go, and then I saw the machine count down from one minute to zero, and my final beeps began, and I raised all my imaginary flags! The nurse who had been looking after me today, came and did all the necessaries to finish my treatment, and I was free to go.

By this time, because of the delay at the start, all the other patients had gone, and the nurses were not all rushing around being ultra-busy, so I got my phone out and said I wanted some photos of me with them all. They were all very enthusiastic about the idea, apart from one who wailed, "I haven't got any makeup on!!" in very good humour, and was instantly shouted down, in equally good humour and a lot of laughter ("We haven't got time to wait two hours..." "I've got some permanent markers in my locker..." etc. etc.!!) We called Emma, my favourite desk clerk of the team who work on reception, and she came and joined in the photo shoot too.

Here are the photos I took of the Ricky Grant Day unit (looking very strange with no patients!) - you will see what a lovely place it is, and how they have gone to a lot of trouble to introduce restful pastel shades, and a lot of pale wood panelling, to make it look less "hospitally." The first photo shows the corner of the reception desk, looking down the further corridor, which has doors off to the right with separate treatment rooms, some of which have couches in them for people to rest on while they have their chemo. You can see the drip trolleys on the left, which are used for the treatments.

Looking back the other way from reception, you can see the wide corridor that also serves as the waiting area. As usual in every hospital waiting room I have ever been in, there are NO spaces to park wheelchairs, with the result that I ALWAYS feel as if I'm in the way! I have written this on numerous feedback sheets but so far nothing has happened to remedy this - considering how many disabled people attend hospitals, I think this is quite an oversight. On the far right of the foreground of this photo you can see the large rubbish bin, the space in front of which has become my favoured parking place! (Make of that what you will, lol!)

Behind the seats in the waiting area are two wide gaps giving access into the two treatment bays. The next picture shows the first one, where I have always gone. On the right, between the windows, you can see a low dividing wall which separates the two areas. The second area has a wide-screen TV on the wall. It looks very odd with no patients sitting in the chairs (you can see one of the recliners in the corner - my preferred seating as they are very comfortable, and the other chairs certainly are not - at least for me!), and the occasional tables which have jars of sweets for people to suck to take away the horrible taste of the chemo. Along the wall, on the white strip, are numerous power points to plug in the drip machines.

Here is Emma, my favourite reception clerk, at the desk. If you look carefully it looks as if she's got three arms. This is because one of the nurses was hiding behing her, unbeknownst to her, and raising two fingers above her head, which you can just see if you look very carefully! Lol!

Finally, here is the group shot my hubby took. I am leaning back with my arms around the two nearest to me, and I look so FAT!!! (OK, I AM fat, but not as fat as I used to be!) You can see how happy everybody looks.

I was sorry that several of the lovely nurses who have looked after me over the past six months were not present today. I shall be emailing one of them with the photo so that she can pass it on to the others. They were all exceptional people, so friendly and encouraging and helpful, and efficient in their work - so sad that they are so busy because there is so much cancer about. They are unfailingly cheerful, remember our names, and give us the very best treatment. As we were leaving, Emma gave me a questionnaire to fill in about what I felt about my treatment, and I gave them a five-star rating on every count, and in the comments section, said that if chemo could ever be considered to be fun, it would be, given the nature of the truly wonderful staff on the unit, and that they all deserved a gold medal with diamonds on it. When I started writing, they all started chipping in with remarks like, "I (Emma) am the most efficient clerk on the unit," and "I am the best nurse," and "I am the most beautiful nurse" etc. etc.!!! Eventually I cried out "Stop! If I start writing that I'll forget someone and they will get upset" lol! We had such a good laugh.

Although I am absolutely 100 percent delighted that my chemo is now finished, I am going to miss going to Ricky Grant and receiving such loving and caring treatment. I shall be going back, though - I have an appointment in six weeks' time for port flushing and bloods, and will probably be returning in the future for further blood tests until I am guaranteed clear of the cancer, so I shall be seeing them all periodically, just not on such a regular basis.

I also want to make more things for the chemo people. I have been thinking about this, and while I simply love to give things away, and would be happy to continue to do this, it occurred to me that if I charged a token amount for each item, the gift would be a double wammy, because the recipient would have something nice to treasure without breaking the bank, and the unit would benefit from more much needed funds, so that they can continue to give others the excellent care that I have received. There is a box on the reception desk with cards in it that people have made, and I could certainly do some for them in my own style, and I could make other items too. I have gained so much from my six months' attendance on the unit and it would be a nice way to put something back, and also an opportunity to call in every now and then and catch up with everybody.

My hubby took me home after this, and I really wasn't feeling too bad. I managed to eat a nice evening meal, and while I do feel slightly peculiar, and have had a little peripheral neuropathy in my hands after touching something cold, it is not there in a big way and I haven't resorted to my gloves. Like last time, I may find that week 1 is pretty good, and I may crash again in week 2, but we shall see.

I think that already, the effects are less severe because my whole attitude has changed now that the treatment has finished. I am feeling so good that phase 3 of my journey is now at an end (phase 1 being preparation for surgery and then the actual operation and hospital stay; phase 2 being learning to manage Kermit, my stoma, and phase 3 being the chemo). Phase 4 can now be called "the recovery phase" when I can really concentrate on getting well. I am convinced that I am going to be OK now; they are all very optimistic at the hospital that all the cancer has gone. I shall do my best with eating the right foods to help my body expell the residue of toxic chemicals from my system, and my positive attitude and determination will also help me along the way.

What a journey this has been! Phase 4 will include the CT scan and further blood tests in the next 4-6 weeks, and then ongoing for the next five years. At some point I shall have to go in to have the port removed, but they will most likely leave it in for a while until they are sure it won't be needed any more, and this means I shall have to return to the Ricky Grant unit for it to be flushed every six weeks if it has not been used. However, during phase 4, I shall be concentrating on getting my life back on track at home, and gradually taking on my previous roles on the domestic front, relying on my hubby on the days when I am feeling not so good - he has had plenty of practice and I am sure he won't mind stepping into the breach when necessary. I am not intending to rush into doing too much and setting myself back, but I shall be sensible and continue to listen to my body.

Amazingly, today, the "Daily Blessing" in my side bar has come up with this:

Friday October 16, 2015

Today's Verse:

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:13,14 / KJV

How appropriate.

Our New House–Painting, Grouting and Other Matters

The first of two posts today.

We are definitely in the “pretty phase” with the new house renovations. Gone are the days of hidden work – plumbing, electrics, etc. The finishing touches are being made, which is very photogenic and exciting, as the end result is in sight.

Ashley the painter was there again today, making everything look beautiful! Here he is filling around the doorway from the kitchen into the utility room,in preparation for painting.

Here he is painting the doorway.

The doorway painting completed.

Ashley painting in the utility room.

General view of the kitchen, showing the painting completed.

The back passageway painting completed. When I said you’d never know there had ever been a door there, Chris said, “There was never a door there! Was there, Paul!” They insisted that I had dreamt the door!

The panel over the new door into the airing cupboard has now been plastered and painted.

At last the hole in the doorway has been filled – I was sure I was going to fall down it one of these days.

Now some lovely attention to detail. Paul has scribed some mock tiles into the wet concrete, to continue the effect of the tiling in the back passageway. When the concrete is set, he will paint these “tiles” to match the originals. I love this sort of thing.

He has even done it with the concrete filling around the base of the new arch.

Now that all the debris, tools and materials have been cleared out of the airing cupboard, you can see the heater, running the full width along the skirting board. The airing cupboard will be divided in two, half for us and half for Mum, but they will both be heated by the same heater, with the control on our side, complete with its timer. The timer will come into its own once we have the solar panels fitted some time after the move.

There is now a door in the doorway into the airing cupboard from the annexe sitting room. It was clear that there had once been a door there, but it was missing when we bought the house. It has been a case of musical doors around the house – I think this particular one came from between the kitchen and the utility room but it may have come from upstairs… Anyway, we have one redundant door now.

Here is Paul, unpacking the extractor hood and getting to grips with the fitting instruction manual, and planning how he’s going to fit it.

Paul fitting the extractor hood.

A detail shot of the extractor hood partially installed. The white covering is a protective film, here shown partly peeled back, revealing a black reverse, and the steel chimney of the extractor.

I love the curved glass hood, with its discreet control panel. It has two halogen lights underneath, and the fan can be “off” or on at three different speeds.

Paul grouting the kitchen tiles.

The grouting on the other side of the kitchen complete. Tim the electrician is returning tomorrow to finish wiring everything in, and to attend to one or two other details.

The painting in the annexe kitchen is almost complete, and the box containing the ceiling pipes has now been painted. Here it is, with the spotlight turned on. It makes quite a difference to the worktop underneath – a very nice touch, and a good idea of Andy’s.

The plaster to the left of the sink is not dry yet, so Paul cannot complete the tiling in the annexe kitchen until later in the week, but he has finished grouting the tiles he has already fixed.

Now for the outside. Here is Andy working on the foundations of the new garage, building up some block shuttering at the bottom end, ready for the concrete pouring which is taking place tomorrow.

This next picture shows the preparation for the foundations complete. The whole of the old garage is now broken up and forms the hardcore for the foundations for the new garage. It looks massive! Usually foundations look disappointingly small, so I dread to think how huge the finished garage will look! I hope it will be a suitably impressive Man Cave for my hubby!

Finally, some fun and games that happened today. Unfortunately I was inside at the time, sorting stuff in my new ARTHaven, so I missed it all, and had to hear about it later. Andy called me over to look at the wheelbarrow which is in a sorry state, having lost its wheel. Andy said that the tone of the area had definitely fallen since our arrival, and no sooner had he brought his beautiful wheelbarrow onto the site than we’d nicked the wheel!!!

I was then treated to an explanation of what had actually happened. The handles of the wheelbarrow have smart yellow rubber grips, and Chris (it has to be Chris, didn’t it lol!!) was wheeling the barrow down the sloping path towards the steps, when the grips slipped off the handles, leaving him holding them, while the wheelbarrow careered down the steps, coming to a graceful halt (thankfully!) just short of the back door! We had visions of it crashing into the door and dumping its load of concrete into our back hallway!! (A bit like me with their idea for my wheelchair, and the velcro suit to stick me to the wall at the far end! – in fact, Chris said this was a practice run for that!)

Apparently Ashley was practically wetting himself over this! I wish I’d seen it… The result was a puncture in the wheelbarrow tyre, and my hubby went out and bought a puncture repair kit, and the inner tube was repaired over lunch.