Tuesday, February 24, 2015

One Thing After Another...

You'll never believe it, but have now got gout/arthritis in my left foot (previously it was in my right foot) and boy, does it hurt!   Am finding I can hobble around with the help of my 'wheelie-pusher', and since I realised that warmth makes it worse, have now decided to switch off the electric blanket in my bed, so although the pain eased somewhat during the night, I felt very cold.

Today have closed the bedroom window as a chill wind blows through (and over me), if I leave the bedroom door open this should help to keep the air fairly fresh until the weather warms up.  Tonight I'll be wearing a cardigan on top of my warm nightie - this worn on  top of a t-shirt.  It's pretty cold in Morecambe at the moment.

Have to say the 'foodie-flyers' that come through the door are probably the same as yours Eileen, mainly from the Pizza parlours/Doner Kebab places.  Tempting, but too expensive for what I would want (which would be pizza, chocolate brownies, and ice-cream!!!

If I was to republish my books as 'E books' Jane, I'd probably have to get permission from the BBC who first published them. At the moment am not thinking in that direction as they can be bought second-hand from Amazon (very cheaply). 

Certainly liked the 'help the aged tea party' idea Cathy,  would I have to contact the local Help the Aged to arrange this?  Our main living room is very big and would hold several small tables (each holding four people) and we also have our dining room that would hold another 8 round the dining table, the bathroom being close to both rooms and all on the ground floor, so fairly easily accessible.
Soon as I feel a bit stronger I will start making enquiries.

Well Kathryn, there will be 3 of you in your new property, so room for another horse for one of the men to ride - this could also be trained to draw a trap or trailer (to hold logs etc).  A cob is a very sturdy horse, but possibly too hefty to pull a trap.   Why not buy/make a traditional 'vardo' (gypsy caravan) that the horse could pull, it could be let out as a holiday 'van', as well as used personally.

Didn't mention keeping pigs as part of your smallholding.  Certainly worth keeping a couple so that you could have pork/bacon/ham to see you through the winter.    Think the idea is to barter one pig. Get the butcher to do the necessary (kill, cut into joints, smoke the bacon, make sausages, then he has the second pig (or most of it) in exchange for all the work.

Did anyone watch Monica Gallati (?) last night when she visited France?  One of the best cookery programmes I've seen in that series.  The French cooks (and housewives) really do take a lot of trouble using the best local ingredients and turning them into something that would be very expensive in this country and not even what we call 'posh nosh', just good peasant food that tastes absolutely wonderful.

Many years ago I was able to gather a lot of info about our ancestors Mary, especially on my mother's side..  My daughter continues to find more, so we now have quite a large family tree covering at least 10 generations (I'm in the middle).  It's more difficult the further back we go, but the Internet now keeps so many records (births, marriages, deaths etc) that it becomes easier.   Thing to remember is that if it wasn't for them (ancestors) we wouldn't be here now.  Same could be said of us and our descendants. 

The sun has now begun to shine.  I'm off into the kitchen to do the washing up (having spent the morning in bed due to my foot), and get it as tidy as possible, for who knows what tomorrow will bring.   These days it just seems as though it is one painful thing after another that makes me remember I'm still alive.  And believe me, at times like that/this I often wish I wasn't. 

Gout doesn't last more than 3 - 4 days, so by the end of the week I could be almost back to a pain-free hobble.  Something to look forward to.  

Depends on how I feel as to whether I'll be blogging over the next few days.  Just watch this space to find out.  TTFN.