Wobbling around the garden

It was a grey day here today so, since I don't do heat well, I took the opportunity to go into the garden and weed.  And weed.  And weed a bit more.  Drizzle persuaded me to come inside.  I have done too much and my bones hurt.

Later the sun came out briefly so I went for a wobble round the garden camera in hand.

Odds and sods

Pain got me up shortly before 5 this morning.  So I thought I would improve the shining hour and go for a swim.  I bundled up my swim gear and headed out about 6.30, leaving the smaller portion fast asleep and the cats inside.  The rotten beasts let him sleep, until he woke of his own accord around 9.30.  I wish they would let me sleep like that.

Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths.

I managed 1.25 kilometres this morning, which I am pleased about.  However DJan mentioned that she had been to a swim class recently which had identified her stopping kicking while breathing as a problem.  Drat her, this is something I do too, and I spent this morning's swim trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to change it.  A work in progress.

I finished my swim in as much pain as when I started which is irritating.  And now the horror story begins.  I went in, had my shower, towelled my hair dry and while dying my face was assaulted with attar of cat piss.  Oh thank you Jazz.  I had brought the towel in nearly dry and hung it over the back of a chair where he had been unable to resist spraying.  Urk.  Hot water.  Disinfectant.  And worse, I was meeting a friend immediately after my swim so headed off convinced that I reeked of both chlorine and cat pee.  Oh joy, oh bliss.

And to add insult to injury said friend took one look at me and told me I looked like shit.  Why thank you.  Just what I wanted to hear.

Home again to a cat pee removing shower.  And yes, I resisted the temptation to kick the little so and so.  Despite him greeting me with ecstatic purrs while gnawing on my hand and arm.  On the consolation side, more things come out in the garden each time I turn around.

The crab apple is glorious every year.  The neighbour across the road from us (now deceased) apparently used to have morning tea parties so he and his friends could enjoy it.  His daughter told me that, and I wish I had known while he was still alive.

More garden joys include:

And there is much more to come.  The blood, sweat and tears which went into the planting are almost forgotten as I enjoy things in bloom.

More whinging

I have been in a lot of pain recently and it has brought out my psycho bitch from hell.  I have a lot of difficulty getting up from chairs, bed and the toilet.  Also walking.  And dammit, swimming which usually helps, now causes more pain.  My hips are giving me a lot of grief and my hands and legs are not far behind.  Jazz is not helping me, and goes into attack mode many, many times each day.

Earlier this week I went to see my neurologist.  This time he listened to me when I said that I was in significant pain.  Sadly I think the fact that the smaller portion nodded in agreement when I explained that I was waking the household shrieking in the small hours had something to do with the neurologist deciding it was time to do something to alleviate the pain.

So he prescribed new, and expensive, medication.  It will cost me nearly $100 a month.  Ouch.  I don't yet know how much of that I will get back from my health fund.  Less than 50% I expect.  I have started taking it.  It doesn't eliminate the pain, but it does take the edges off.  A good start.  It also turns me into a space cadet.  My brain is full of fog.  And if I move suddenly the world turns with me.  Other effects that may or may not emerge to delight me are nausea, vomiting, weight gain, constipation, diarrhea, suicidal thoughts.  Oh joy, oh bliss.  All things I can do without.  And I love the way the pharmaceutical company hedges its bets on what to expect.  Sigh.

So, because I am a firm believer in the virtues of denial I waddled/wobbled into the garden.  We have had a few days of glorious sunshine and unseasonable warmth.  Things are springing out of the ground everywhere.  There is not much in bloom yet, but there is the promise of many, many glorious things to come.

Some of you may remember that I was seduced by this Brazillian Edelweisse, and now it has started shooting.  Excitement.

And outside, everywhere I look, things are poking through the ground.  There is not much in flower yet, but a heap of promise for the weeks to come.  More excitement.

And while I was wandering round with my camera, I was being observed.

Two galahs, separated by a pair of corellas.  And when I came inside, they came down and squabbled over the feeder.

A more positive update.

Scary times have not left, but have eased.

Himself is through the operation which was a bit touch and go, and starting on the loooong road to recovery.  And is being encouraged to use morphine for the pain.  Which he has started doing.

I succeeded in tracking the doctor down this morning.  It is a good thing that I am a chronically early bird.  I was told that he does his rounds between 7 and 9 am.  When I arrived at 6.40 he had already completed more than half of them.  He really, really didn't want to talk to me, but I did get a little information out of him.  Sadly I will have to repeat the exercise a little later.  But for the moment the smaller portion is doing OK.

My boy's eyes started a morphine induced glaze over, so I headed back home a little before seven.  And, dammit, the bus didn't come so I had an hour to wait for the next.  Sigh.

I will head in to the hospital again around 3ish.

Thanks for all the messages of support.  They were much appreciated, though I have not been playing in the blogosphere very much.

PS:  A really nice thing.  One of the ambulance drivers who took us to the hospital on Monday, came in to visit the smaller person yesterday.  He was really chuffed, and I wept when he told me about it.  I will write them a thank you card.

Cat Condominium

Still hurting, still stiff, but what the hey.

Our cats have long made it clear that they consider themselves to be underprivileged.  They lie, but that is another story.  So yesterday we went to the markets and bought them a condo to replace the much smaller one that they have shredded. 

And it was such a success that Jazz climbed aboard as we were carrying it across the kitchen.  And they play chasings on and around it, leaping to the ground to run through their tunnel (seen in some of these shots).  Jewel has carefully placed her acorn on it.  And batts the acorn to the ground and carries it back again.  I am not certain who gets more fun out of it, the cats or us.

Towards the end of the day the sky started to glow.  So I wobbled/waddled outside with my camera.  And was rewarded with this.

Shortly before we went out yesterday I stepped on an earring. And broke it.   One my father had made me.  He has been dead for a little over twenty years and it has enormous sentimental value.  I wept.  And today I headed off to try and find a jeweller who could work magic.  And was almost unbelievably lucky.  The jeweller I approached told me that he didn't work with silver anymore.  And looked at my face and said 'it obviously means a lot to you.  Take a seat.  I will fix it now'.  And did.  So I wept again.

I am still a bit anxious about the commitment I have made for tomorrow.  Not only will I be knackered long before the end, but critiquing other people's style is difficult and delicate work.  And I well remember how much an off the cuff comment can hurt.  Still, my philosophy is that I can do anything if I have to.  And having made the commitment I guess I have to.  Cross your fingers for me please.

(Overly) Ambititious Plans for Spring

Lusting after Spring is not rational because Canberra does Autumn and Winter beautifully, and they are both seasons I relish.  Nonetheless we have this week succumbed to the wiles exerted by the catalogues of garden porn we have been receiving.

Through J.N Hancock and Co I have ordered:
100 Premium Rainbow Mixed Daffodils
Gamblers Pot Luck (end of season run, including probably about 50 bulbs)
100 Split Corona Daffodils
100 Double Mixed Daffodils, and
100 Perfumed Mixed Jonquils.

In the meantime, unbeknownst to me the smaller portion ordered through Van Diemen Quality Bulbs:
200 Mixed Triumph Tulips
200 Mixed Darwin Hybrid Tulips, and
50 Yellow-Purple Blends of Dutch Iris.

We are seriously loopy.  At the moment getting down to the ground is very difficult and very painful for me.  Getting up again is worse.  So between us we have ordered 900 bulbs. Since I discovered this I have been weeding my heart out so we will have somewhere to put them all. We will also have to buy copious amounts of smelly fertiliser for the cats to snort.   It is really lucky that we ordered different things.  The work will be awful but I hope the results will be worth it.  I weed and plant, himself plants.  He is much faster than me, so he will be putting in a lot of bulbs this year.

Last year the results of our work in the jungle looked like this:

Our neighbours across the road hold tea parties to celebrate the blooming of the crab apple each year.

This year we seem to be planning a bigger and better display.  I am more than a little perturbed about the work involved, but looking forward to the drama of the results.

On an entirely different note.  Last night I didn't get to sleep because of muscle spasms and pain.  So I devoured the Faber Book of Diaries that I had previously been savouring.  It was really cleverly presented, itself in diary form, with three or four entries for each day from predominantly English diarists.  Some of them I have, some of them I have read, some of them I now know to avoid and others I lust after.  And will track down.