Walk and acquisition

The Isle of Arran with the Clyde shining

Marsh marigolds

Young beech leaves, just the right time to make Noyeau

Wood anemones..did you say them as Wooden Enemies first?!

Gean..wild cherry blossom

Blackthorn...hoping for sloes

Celandines 

 

Not sure what this is called....Garlic mustard?

I was pleased that our usual walk still only took an hour... after such a long break I thought I would have been slower.

Then yesterday I acquired a "new" lawnmower for £10.....

Job done, what grass there is is tidy and the compost heap has just enough for one layer.. exercise done and no fuel used!

Paperwork proceeds slowly...but Pirate is now accepted by the Glasgow medical school for research... carrying on helping folks as he did throughout his life.

I have the unenviable job of searching through his papers for photos and matters for a display and for use in a printed item...his Celebration day in Kent is in just under a month...so I need to get on with RSVPs....and up here we are arranging his usual big birthday ride...which he had every five years!

He had been aiming to have a Possee party in Kent in May, then his birthday celebrations....just a pity that he ended in a rush and couldn't make these in person..but his spirit will be there at both.

Eventide

first from the front..the hill in the background is actually the Northern end of the Isle of Arran by Lochranza.

Then the moon rising from the rear of the house.

 

After the rain, a breath of fresh air

 

It has been mostly a beautiful week..a relief to get out and relax between carrying on with the tidying and sorting that we started having a real push on two years ago.

Steady progress, no rushing..the worn out shoes...the piles of till receipts...I'm glad that we had started already as doing this from scratch now would have been hard.

Then late this morning until mid afternoon it gently rained...and now it is warm, the clothes are out on the line and birds are singing.

I have met with friends at the coffee stop at the end of their cycling club run yesterday..all twenty! But they split into two groups to make it easy for other traffic and also the ability and fitness of the two groups.

They always meet at the end...which makes it easy for those who miss the run or just want to catch up with friends.

Now I have a relatively tidy living room, the next job is to sort photos and cuttings.

I need to get proper acid free albums with Glassene (sp?) between each pair of pages..

And when the mammoth job of sorting Pirate's photos has been done..I must stay on a roll and do mine!

One thing that I will do is scan all the photos and email them to every family member so that everyone has a copy Then keep the originals together in one archive instead of splitting up the whole.

Gone

 But never forgotten, our Pirate, Victor James Possee, "Vic", Man of Kent.

17 July 1939 - 15 April 2024

Always thinking of others...Caring and Sharing.

With our Fife friend who has with others been going above and beyond to help us both.

Getting help.

 Pirate is now in a palliative care assessment bed in a village ten miles from here...much happier as it doesn't feel like hospital.

Hopefully they can rehydrate him and get meds into him....then we will see.

Probably two weeks there.

Once there he had charmed the staff...and he hasn't lost his sense of humour!

A couple of friends who are also cyclists have rallied round to help us both.

Hopefully I can sleep tonight... shouldn't be too difficult as I am tired!!

Pirate

 As ever. On the phone, a few days ago.

Our Fife friend, his mate, his Bro...is with us to help. 

Our District Nurse calls every day.

We are still here

 I discovered yesterday that Avus is no longer with us in blogland or real life.

Sad. I miss his blog, and his daughter used to do a picture a day blog from Australia...I miss that too.

Pirate isn't too good at the moment. Reality is sinking in and he isn't a happy bunny.  He has had a life if being put down and his efforts belittled..now he is worried about being a nuisance and no good for anything.

He is doing marvellous things, encouraging people on the phone if not in person. He has just had a FB. Video call from a good friend north of Brisbane..you don't get that without being worth it.

I am doing my best to keep ordinary things going. And Fife friend will be back over again late this afternoon to help him and give me a hand too.

Like Pirate, he lost a brother at this time of year, so he finds it hard. Unfortunately he has been brought up not to show it.

Slowly does it

 Pirate had a visit from our own doctor on Tuesday...I can't take her portrait....but she arrived having had a haircut...from long red hair in a plait to a shoulder length bob!! Almost like a schoolgirl, with a leather Gladstone Bag!! She drives to work in this....

And in her time off rides a Clydesdale horse!

She approved of the medications regime we now have...and the way I have made a list to tick each dose off...a good way to keep track of that.

Our Fife friend came to stay on Wednesday, the idea being to help me in the garden...and it showered all day....with rain in between!!

Not just that, but first thing I realised that we had a gas leak!! If course within an hour then gas was officially turned off.....

We did get the deep beds moved...

Luckily the night was warmer it has been....and eventually I was successful in locating not just a plumber, but one who lives in our village!!

Today, thankfully it was a nice dry day....time join two wind battered polytunnel frames together.

Next step is to find some heavy duty pegs to anchor the frame down...

Under the white cover is the garlic patch, growing nicely thankyou.

It is a relief to get those jobs done, and two of us have done more than twice what I could have achieved on my own. 

Plus Pirate came out to supervise in his FedEx jacket and a beanie, getting some good fresh air, as the plumber and his mate came and replaced a badly soldered joint that had been done a long time ago...and had very very slowly been increasing...

We waved Fife friend off, as our favourite district nurse arrived! It was all go this afternoon.

We have missed her....seen most of the others in our local practice...but she has had pneumonia...so we are very glad to see her back and looking well.

My turn then to have a break...off to collect a new wet and dry vacuum cleaner from the outskirts of Ayr, get a bagful of reduced goodies from a big supermarket then hunt for heavy duty pegs... unsuccessfully....

Nice to have two hours out on my own as Pirate had a well deserved fresh air fuelled nap!

Buddens and Doulton Lambeth

 Thanks for your request, Dave...this is something I need to pass on to my daughter who is doing our family history research ( I am working on Pirate's history)

Buddens, Doulton Lambeth

My Grandmother, Ethel Mary Webster was a tweeny for her great aunts, Alice , and Alice's cousin Mary. 

I will have to see what my daughter has on them...the easiest open access site to check is Tribal pages...it is free(under a certain capacity) and she has an account...but all you have to do is search on the main tribal pages home page by surname.  She has found a few cousins..and been found too!

Turning a corner?

 The meds started working yesterday, thankfully... And his system started working...but to keep him safe I had to get up with him every time he did through the night...but come the morning, it was all systems go...and he started to be more himself again, at last.

I have a Systems drinks bottle...which holds 800ml...he has drunk just over 2 litres of sports rehydration drink today.....and proper food for three meals too.  He won't be 100% straight away...but we are going in the right direction.

Even I had a nap on the sofa this morning!! We had a TV and radio day, with minimal "news".  Having messages and calls from all his friends is bpvery heartening for him.

Not just a pirate portrait..with his Saltire buff...

In front of him the Canterbury, a present from our late friend Big Pete...full of books.

On the wall, a map of NZ. On the top shelf a Denbyware jug, and nearer, an earthenware puzzle jugs that I made in Porthmadog Pottery in the old Snowdon Mill in about 1996.

Below that a teapot made by Mick Morgan who was a year ahead of me at Cardiff College of Art and is still making lovely work, near Carmarthen I think. On top of it a small white teacup made in NZ. (Crown Lynn?)

In the bottom shelf and earthenware pitcher..from Devon? And on top of that a small bowl and jug from Eastern Europe.. possible Romania.

Then at the end of the mantelpiece an oil lamp from Doulton Lambeth..where grandma's great-aunts, the Misses Budden worked as paintresses.

A collection of things..which give a little of me?

It doesn't rain, but....

 At least it is beautiful outside.

Pirate has managed to get himself seriously dehydrated...so another infection to clear, and I have to stay on his case to get him drinking.

Being dehydrated he is also a tad confused.

Neither of us need this. Why do things like this always happen on a weekend...and a long weekend to boot!

Still, it was a bonus when the emergency doctor came out...he is a cyclist and walker, and his wife is a triathlete..and we know him!

I cut a leek from the garden in half...soup time... isn't it beautiful.

A bit of a mess

 And that's an understatement!!

I need another pair of hands to help me move a deep bed and a polytunnel frame...

That I can't manage on my own..and I am not dismantling them!

Then the workshop

You should see how much of Pirate's stuff I have shifted out ..shall we say his sheds are full to the doors....and Stuff has gone to the cowp ....

The kiln shed is now clear of non kiln things, I will be discussing strategy with another potter from up the coast....

So much to do ..but at least everything is inching in the right direction.

Carthen. For Joanne

 Please excuse the colours..not taken in daylight..but I have tried to tweak the images to nearer the blue yellow and green that they are.

A carthen is a traditional Welsh 8 heddle double sided blanket made from wool.

Equinox, weather, friends

 

There always seems to be stormy weather around each equinox.

Eleven years ago we were in NZ and people here were saying to us "don't come back now"..with heavy snow and the telegraph poles along the western side of Arran snapped like matchsticks...

No snow here, but we have been having days of "washing machine weather", four seasons in a day, hail yesterday...we might get a break in this for a short walk.

Pirate now has diuretic tablets..that and non penicillin ABs are working slowly..but worryingly his appetite is still low..if it's not one thing....

Getting there slowly. We will see what the stoma nurse says at his review on Monday.....

I have a sale to post! The six books in the series "Earth's Children"by Jean Auel . I must get more things listed, a sale is a good incentive!

Yesterday we had a friend visit from France. When Pirate came out of the RAF sixty years ago, friend was a 13 year old, getting into racing and noone else in the club they were in then was willing to help. Pirate encouraged him, and for the years that he did race he enjoyed it. He kept on cycling, became a mechanic and ten years later was working with British Cycling squads. I met him at Lilleshall on a Women's Squad training weekend...but I hadn't seen him again since then!

So a good day of reminiscing for us all. 

And one step back

 Up and out on time this morning, just after 8am, to take cardboard, a bag of green waste ( brambles), the old ripped polytunnel covers and a "dead" vacuum cleaner and fan heater to the cowp...the tip, or recycling centre.

It is run by a private company for the council.

Unload all that, then fill my four bags with free compost (council bags, £2 each then yours to use again) ..no more than four at a time,  but as many visits as you want. Since lockdown you have to book every visit, but that is no big deal.

It isn't perfect, you do get a certain amount of woody material..and are advised to use it 1:1 with garden soil. I do that, plus using it as one of the layers in the compost heap.

A quick visit to the nearest small town, Cumnock, the home of Kier Hardie, for a small top up shop....

And back to see how Pirate was getting on.

The district nurse yesterday had advised a doctor's phone call...and thankfully the doctor asked him to call by the surgery..verdict, fluid on his lungs.  Not surprising, with a serious bout of pneumonia 70 years ago, plus covid two years ago, plus weather too cold and wet to keep walking after his op....luckily there is an alternative to penicillin (which he can't take)...

Picked up the new meds..we are so fortunate to have a medical centre and a pharmacy in our village, just 200 metres apart.

Then he had a bright idea....lunch out!  The first place in the next village was full....we should have thought before going on to the next place..a garden centre cafe....it wasn't overfull, but he couldn't relax and eat even half...

Back home, him for a nap and me to do some research...which was confirmed by next door's daughter who is a nurse...I am doing the right things!

Then our daily walk, this time IN THE SUNSHINE!!!! and the walk was slow but steady, not painstakingly slow any more.

It does feel like Spring..even if we are heading for a cold snap.

Hopefully I will be able to get out on the garden and be destructive and constructive tomorrow... weather permitting!!