Alfie, Daisy and baby Brown

Sometimes it seems as if all your luck disappears. This has been a bad week. On Tuesday night my mummy sheep, Mary (who's photo is just above this posting on the right) gave birth to two little lambs in the barn, but they didn't make it and were both dead when I went down to the field in the morning. They looked so perfect - life's not fair sometimes.

Then yesterday late afternoon, Alfie was on my lap. He is my fourteen year old cat and came with me from Cornwall when I moved in 2006. I suddenly noticed that his right eye had no detail, just a dark green colour over the whole eye.

The photograph doesn't show it correctly, I think something to do with the light reflecting from the retina while he has this condition. The vet this morning didn't seem to know what it was exactly, but was thinking perhaps glaucoma. She gave me two lots of drops to administer and asked me to return on Wednesday morning. Poor Alfie - he is the most placid cat with the best character of any cat I've ever owned - the vet was amazed at how easy it was to do quite a long examination with him.

Daisie gave him a lovely welcome when he got back from the vet journey and didn't leave his side for quite a while.  When she finally settled somewhere else, it was on my table with her paws on my laptop so that I couldn't open it.

I have also had some bad news for myself.  My calcium levels are much too high and this seems to indicate that I have a tumour on one of my four parathyroid glands (nothing to do with the thyroid in spite of the name).  I am waiting for the results of urine tests and then have to have an ultrasound and a scintigraph before seeing the Endocrinologist on 21 April.  It is almost certainly benign, but would need removing as it means that I produce too much calcium which would lead to possibly malignant tumours elsewhere.  Unfortunately, my doctor has said that she wants this to be sorted out before my mini gastric by pass, so that will not now be taking place next month. 

Right - so that's three horrible things this week, which is more than enough.  Time for some good news.

Some friends of mine in Cornwall had a little boy prematurely on 19 December weighing around 730g - less than 2 lbs.  He has been in intensive care for so long, but is gaining weight and here is a photograph where he seems to be laughing.

No-one knew if he would survive, but he's obviously a little fighter and has surprised us all.

Fingers crossed for a better luck for us all next week.

Writers' Group, New Hens and Daisy

This morning saw me lying in bed far too long. My friend, who comes in on Mondays to sort out the house was already downstairs, with the woodburner going and hoovering done. I just couldn’t seem to get out from under my duvet. It was a cold night and frost was on the tops of the wall and had frozen the bird table water. Finally, I did emerge to shower and wash my hair. My fringe needs cutting – it is overlapping my glasses - and I am peering out from beneath it a bit like a Dulux sheepdog.

Just before midday the first of the Writers’ Group started to arrive. We are slightly depleted this month. One of our members sadly lost her daughter to double pneumonia two weeks ago and she is still back in Wales where the funeral was held. I feel so sorry for her. I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose a child, although I now have several friends who have been through this awful experience.

We had a happy meeting, as usual, with some good pieces of work being read. We always have lunch first, which we bring to who’s ever house is being used for the meeting. Luckily, it has been at mine for January and February, so I don’t have to drive anywhere, everyone comes to me. One of the girls, who drives for about an hour to get here, had picked up some hens for me which I had bought from the village next to hers. She also brought six eggs from the seller to show me what their eggs will be like.  A friend has just set up my incubator and I am going to try to hatch these freebie eggs.  They may, of course, not be fertilised, but fingers crossed.  They are various shades of bluey/green and look very attractive. 

I clipped one wing on each hen and shut them into the hen house for the rest of the day, so they should be easier to get in tomorrow evening as they will be used to where they are supposed to be.

At the January meeting I took photographs and sent them to all members of the Group. One of the other members sent them back to me with witty captions – all good clean fun.  We all look very serious in this one and the caption she sent for it was:

"Sue quickly realizes she’s failed to make a good impression on the interview panel."

 

Daisy is spending her days looking longingly out of the window at the birds. Yesterday afternoon she went out to the other side of the pane and reached up to the window feeder. I think she finds it exciting and frustrating at the same time.

 
I think she has the look of a young polar bear up on her back feet at full stretch, not at all like my gentle Daisy.

My first blog of the year - Saturday, 12 February 2011

First of all, a very belated HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I haven’t been a well woman so far this year! After a traumatic family incident at Christmas which took me back to the UK on an emergency ferry dash, I was very tired and on 2 January, returned to Brittany with a chest infection which I haven’t been able to shift. I’ve had two different types of antibiotics, steroids, nebulizer treatment and finally ended up still with the infection, but also with candida from the antibiotics. Six weeks on, I still have the chest infection and no-one, not even the lung specialist, knows what to give me because of the candida. I am very tired and can’t do anything without feeling exhausted. I do hope this resolves itself soon, as I’m absolutely fed up with feeling below par, having no energy and not being able to play bowls. Also I need to be really well for my mini gastric by pass operation in March/April – provided they approve me at their meeting at the beginning of March. Right, moan over.

 
Primroses are flowering in the garden, joining blue periwinkle and pink bergenia blossom. I can’t believe how the honeysuckle is leafing up and there's already a 30cm cube of delphinium shoots and leaves.

It has been really cold this year, but the last few days have seen temperatures around 12°C and even a little sunshine. We are running late cutting the large hedge behind the main flower border, but should start in about ten days, hopefully before too many plants are growing where the ladder has to stand.

My hens had all given up laying completely when I went back to Cornwall immediately after Christmas, but about ten days ago they started producing eggs again, and I am now getting a reasonable amount – enough to supply friends again.

You can see that there are two smaller white eggs, which I think must be from the hens born from the eggs we hatched here late last summer.  They must just be coming into lay now.

On Monday, I am hopefully taking delivery of three Shetland/Araucana crosses, who will brighten up my egg basket with their greeny blue eggs. I am quite excited about this and do hope they arrive, as promised, and then settle in well.

The bird table has been well attended and I had one visitor which I had never seen feeding there before. The photo isn’t brilliant as I didn’t dare risk getting out of my chair on the other side of the sitting room.

A lovely nuthatch.  I was delighted as normally I can only see them on the oak tree trunk too far from the house to see them well.

And lastly, a photo of me, which a distant family member sent me recently. It was taken years ago, but I think I still look like this – I may be kidding myself!

Although it's in black and white it's really not that long ago!

Tuesday, 21 December 2010 The winter solstice - frosty plants in my garden and today's lunar eclipse

Although the snow has now melted from the trees and roofs, there is still quite a quantity on the ground.  The melted snow now leaves the ground wet for the low night time temperatures to freeze into dangerous surfaces on paths and roads. 

Today seems to have been the warmest day since all this white stuff fell, and I'm hoping the roads won't be too bad tonight for my daughter and grandson who arrive in Roscoff, from England, late tonight to spend Christmas and New Year here, and for my friend, Andy, who will be fetching them in my Land Rover.

The frost from these very cold nights does, however, make the garden leaves look quite beautiful:

This morning there was a total lunar eclipse.  The first at winter solstice for 400 years.  I was still asleep unfortunately, but Brian, out walking his dog, was lucky and did see it.  I have taken this photograph from the internet, but it didn't have a credit I could use.  The moon was a beautiful pink colour:

Beautiful enough to have got up in time had I known it was going to happen.

My friends who's border collie, Jess, died recently had a happy event yesterday.  We all drove over to a cattle farmer about 10 kilometres away and they chose a beautiful border collie puppy, now called Jasper, to bring home.  I hope to have a photograph to post later this week.