New Year

 I'm not the only one I know who had a difficult 2012. 

Let's hope this year is good for us all.

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I love the LOL Cats! 
I think you either love or hate them. 
I did read on someone's Facebook page that they hate the language applied to them, as it didn't reflect a cat's intelligence. I know what she means, I don't doubt how intelligent cats are. There was always a deep wisdom in Scooter's eyes. But there was often a wee bit of cheekiness, too.

I've no doubt that, just as I don't feel my 45 years on the inside, neither did he feel his 19, or whatever it was in cat years. On the inside there was still a trace of mischievous kitten. I think that's the same for all cats. So that's why I can imagine them using LOL Cat English. Just as Bob T Bear (esq) uses Bear English, after all.

I think there are pictures around of LOL Dogs, but I don't think it works. It works with cats because we all have a hunch that they are up to something.

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 Platforms at an old disused railway station at Clare, Suffolk. 

You can walk along where the tracks used to go, through woodland, under bridges.....

To all the very well-meaning friends who have urged me to take in another cat- I can't, I can't even move his bed. 

Or even the pillow on the windowsill- the pillow and its fluffy cover, which he slept on during his last night and day, is still where it was that day. I haven't moved it at all. I can't. I haven't even picked it up and put it back. I've just let it be. Sometimes I sit on the sofa beneath the window, with one hand up on the pillow, and imagine that last night when I sat there, hand stroking him.... so how could I have another cat here?

I still hear him sometimes, though it has got less.

Recently he meowed at the foot of the stairs. It woke me up, it cut through the night air so clearly. I think it was because Luvbug was sleeping downstairs on the sofa. His bad cough was keeping him awake, and he was worried it would wake me, so he moved downstairs while I was asleep. That meow waking me was the first I realised Luvbug had moved. I think Scooter was worried to see his daddy there and was asking me if he was ok, or was everything all right. I told him, it's ok, but daddy isn't well, so you go and snuggle up to him. Luvbug settled down and slept after that.

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We all have a nasty virus infection here. Luvbug has had it since the start of December. I caught it in time for Christmas. Mum caught it last week.  

It features a bad, chesty cough, tiredness and aches, hot and cold shivers and goose-bumps, headache. Mum's is mainly a bad throat; she has almost lost her voice. Luvbug's is mostly a bad cough. Mine includes a bad tummy. I've also been coughing up blood in the morning.

We've had anti-biotics and I seem to have gone downhill again since I finished the course, so I may have to return for more. The doc gave me a form to take to the hospital Outpatients and get a chest x-ray. I haven't bothered to do this so far because she said it will take at least 10-12 days for the results, pos. more because of the holiday. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? I may go to Accident & Emergency instead, not mention the form, and see if I can get one done there. At least then I'll get the results straight away.

I keep being tempted by the boxes of treats that Luvbug received as gifts from the children at school at the end of term. Now and then I think I'll have a chocolate. I'm soon regretting it, and running off to the smallest room in the house again :(

I bet the bug was a gift from one of the kids, too! Little snotty germ factories.... 

I hope you have managed to avoid this virus, which apparently has affected at least a million of us in the UK this winter so far. If not, I hope you are well on the way to recovery. 

The way it drags on and on is getting very boring!

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Love, tea & cake,  
Helena

Colds and die cuts and two cards.

I was just saying recently how good it was that none of us here have had bad colds so far this winter. Oh, me and my big mouth! Naturally we now have some.

It's a side effect of being a primary school teacher of snotty little brats ahem! small children who don't cover their noses when they cough, or know how to use a tissue: soon you catch whatever they've got. And bring it home. Oh, how I love the parents who send their beloveds into school regardless of how full of germs they are!

Luvbug's cold seems to have passed in a few days and he's in the last of it now. Mine started Friday. I try to sleep upright when I get one, so that it doesn't get to my chest. My asthma means there is a weakness there, and if a cold gets there then it lingers for ages. Well, sleeping upright wasn't very successful! I spent yesterday morning and today in bed, worn out. And who should come and join me but Scooter?!

I didn't even think he could still climb the stairs! It wasn't because he was alone, as Luvbug was downstairs. But he must have known I was missing and so, yow yow yow, all the way up the stairs, and then up and INTO the bed. He snuggled up and helped keep me warm for hours. Luvbug brought me tea and brought him his chickeny food. We were both thoroughly spoiled.

I haven't been up and about long, and Scooter is still up there under the covers, all warm, stretched out asleep. Awww.

Luvbug has gone off to get some shopping in, and then he's going to pick up mum as no amount of 'you'll catch the cold, better not come up today' will put her off. No. She wants to be here every day. And besides, she said that I sound 'much better today' on the phone. (Bites tongue and counts to ten.)

Stroof. I hope she doesn't catch it but I don't see how she'll avoid it. I think this one might knock her off her feet....

Meanwhile I am coughing away, having failed to keep this off my chest. My ribs hurt when I cough and you just don't want to know what's coming up. Yuck! I'll have to go to the doc's tomorrow to check to see if I need anti-B's.

One small mercy is that it is half term, so Luvbug doesn't need to go to work this week. I wish we didn't have colds over Valentine Day though ;)

Poo!

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A REQUEST- On a crafty note, does anyone out there have a die cutting machine? I've never been able to justify splashing out on one :( -for fear that it would just be one of my phases and I wouldn't get my money's worth out of it! LOL!

I did buy some 'matting and layering' shapes from a craft shop in Kent but I've used these up now and we don't get down there any more. If any of you have a machine, would you consider cutting me some squares and ovals? - You know, one white oval for me to do a picture on, and a slightly larger coloured one for behind, to frame it?

I've looked through ebay but can't find a seller offering this. I'd be willing to pay for your time and materials- I have a PayPal a/c so no problems there! Please let me know!

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Here's the card I made for my Dad's birthday recently. It's all watercolour. I've done this sort of thing before but used watercolour pencil. This time I used 'proper' watercolour, heavily diluted, and moved the card round to get the colours to spread into each other as I wanted. It took a while. I used a water-colour postcard.

The tree silhouttes are a couple of stamps from Crafty Individuals.

He rang when he got it, he liked it :)

 

This next one was for a friend of mine, Donna, in Missouri. We met online and have been friends for 12 years now. I can't believe I forgot her birthday this year, especially as it's the same day as my mum's! So I had to send a belated one...

Oh look! If you look closely in these photo's you can see Scooter asleep on the windowsill in the background! (top right)

Right I'm off for a cup of ginger tea.....

Hope you are all ok and not full of snot like me.

Not quite normal, not even for me, yet.

Thank you, everyone, for the lovely messages and emails =)

Seems I have had a bad head cold with an upset tummy. Bleagh. No joking; at one point my poo was orange. ORANGE. That's just not normal, is it? At times like that I'd love to be a doctor, the type that works in a lab and knows about stuff like what turns your poo odd colours. Weird.

I've been up and about since Wednesday night and I went out today for the first time in at least a week. Nearly attempted this yesterday but was too dizzy.

Thought I was doing well till I realised, on the way home, that I was sans one umbrella. Oops. I had left the house with it. I had used it. I definitely had it in town because I got sworn at when it nearly took someone's eye out ("I'm sorry, but look where you're going, you stupid horse!" I thought, then wondered why on earth I had called her a horse of all things.) I only noticed that I'd lost it when I saw some for sale in a shop window. No, even the rain falling on my head wasn't a clue. Oh dear. Perhaps I better keep taking the bunged-up-head pills for a little longer.

Cough, splutter, ufff...

Since Thursday I've been spending nights trying to sleep sitting upright on the sofa. I get propped up by cushions and have a soft, fleecy blanket round me. Still not very comfortable! But the idea is to try to prevent the cold from settling in my chest and triggering my asthma. It's a drill I've got used to each time I start getting a cold...

Well, ooops! I gave in last night; I felt myself sliding down into a horizontal flop and didn't have the willpower to make myself sit up again! The call to sleep flat was too strong. D'oh!

I had a nice nap of about 3 hours or so there, but knew as soon as I sat up this morning that I was going to have to pay for it- cough cough cough, deep and loud like a foghorn. Oh dear. Now I'm on my inhalers.

Might do some steam inhalation later. And perhaps I better cancel tomorrow's Art Therapy. As well as thinking I should stay in the warm, I don't really want to pass it on!

Bleagh!

Ooo! Ooo! I won! I won!

Sharon Duncan Craft is a nice online shop that I've had a link to in my left-hand column for ages now. I love this shop because it has free UK p&p so I don't feel put off ordering if I only want a few things. It also gives more info' on the products than many other sites, which I need as lots of craft tools and materials are still new to me.

Anyway, I'm signed up to their email newsletter and recently entered a caption competition in it. This is the competition photo- it's Sharon, talking to some bees! Below is my wining caption :)

"YOU'RE busy! You should see what I have to do in a day!"

I don't usually win anything! At least, I can't remember the last time I did! So I'm all excited now. The prize is a Goody Bag. YIPPEE!!!!!! It's really given me a lift, as I've been laid up with another rotten cold this week, all coughing and achey, and playing havoc with my asthma. Bleagh. Now I have something interesting in the post to look forward to. Thanks, Sharon!!!

Is it someone else's turn yet?

Just a wee update in case you think I've disappeared :)

Sorry for lack of posts. I feel so tired and grotty!

I still have the labrynthitis- 4th week of it.
And 3rd week of a bad cold and cough, too.
But also, I now have an infection in my OTHER ear, so I have anti-biotic & steroid drops for that.
Oh! And the little matter of a chest infection, which is making my asthma worse, so I have anti-biotics for that.

I am constantly tired and dizzy, and my chest hurts from coughing. Surely it is someone else's turn by now?!!!! -Not that I would wish this on anyone, I'm sure. Hmmm.... or am I.... a bully or two from my past, perhaps?!!!! LOL! Oh don't laugh, it hurts!

Hope you are faring better. Take care!!!

Packing away old stuff

The sun setting today, at 4pm. This is progress! It was getting dark at 3.30 when we went away!
It doesn't really show here but the sun was huge and so red, it made me think of a big, juicy, blood-orange.

Well, I took down our three Christmas decorations today. Big job, but someone had to do it :)

And all our cards, too. I never put cards away immediately; I sit them in a box for a few days, so that we can browse through them and rediscover who they're all from and enjoy them again. This is also where I pick up on the "please write" and "would love to hear from you" pleas. Oops. Sudden guilt. I resolve to answer them this year. They usually get put to the back of things because I have so many birthdays to remember in January (6 at last count). (Oops no -7 - just remembered someone else.)

There is a big push in the English media to recycle all our used Christmas Cards. A charity called The Woodland Trust -of which I'm a member so I should pay attention- is putting collection boxes into shops for this purpose. They promise to plant new trees if we do this. I forget how many trees for how many cards. I'm a useless ambassador, aren't I?

Even more so because most of my cards end up sealed in large manilla envelopes (I'm not even sure if they're recycled manilla envelopes), marked with the year in big black marker pen and stored in a box. I've kept the cards and Advent calenders from each Christmas K and I have been together. So far then, I have 6 manilla envelopes.

I do part with the ones we get from businesses. And most of the ones from the kids at the schools where K teaches. But the rest, I just can't part with them.

Maybe when I turn 70 (touch wood- quick!) I'll gather up our 35 manilla envelopes and drive them in a truck to the Woodland Trust's head office and ask for a forest.

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My cold bug is progressing nicely.
I am in the running-to-the-toilet-for-the-sake-of-both-ends stage.
Sorry about that.

I've uploaded our photo's from Ireland, so that is some progress! Hope I can blog some this week.

Only Two Things To Worry About!

Hullo and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We got back from Ireland Thursday night. We were there 12 days and it didn't rain once! This is a first for me!!

I can't process the photo's at the moment as I'm feeling pretty awful!

The cough that K has had since November and which came and went and came again throughout our holiday, has now become a full-blown cold, with dizziness and weakness, shivering, temperature, sneezing, the works.

Yesterday I was still ok, so went into town and bought up lots of chicken and vegetables. I made a chicken, onion and sweet potato soup with fennel, ginger and mace. It was yummy and very warming. I was pleased for it as much as K was, as the cold was reaching for me. By this morning it had caught me. Now I am as bad as he.

We're hoping this isn't the same bug as some of his nephews have had. When we last popped in on them to say goodbye before coming home, two of them were suffering a new dose of it. K's niece had already been through it. Apparently, it really floors you, and lasts for weeks! WAAH! (Oh well. It will kick-start my New Year diet plan, won't it?!)

My throat is like sandpaper, my chest aches already from coughing and my eyes (and nose!) are watering.

I hope it doesn't settle on my chest, as my asthma doesn't go well with chesty colds. To try to prevent this happening I am taking to sleeping upright on the sofa, propped up with cushions. It isn't the most comfortable. But this, along with drinking tons of water and taking paracetamol, has proved to shorten colds in the past.

But I shan't be worrying too much.
Here is a bit of wisdom I picked up in Ireland:

There are only 2 things to worry about: either you are well or you are sick. If you are well there is nothing to worry about: but if you are sick there are 2 things to worry about: either you will get well or you will die. If you get well, then there is nothing to worry about. But if you die then there are 2 things to worry about: either you will go up or you will do down. If you go up there is nothing to worry about. But if you go down you will be so busy shaking hands with old friends that you won't have time to worry.

So there you are :)

Ahhh.... K has just offered to get me some soup! Oh good. I do feel I need a little nursing today!

OK, don't rub it in!

I've had a week of sleepness nights and groggy days, thanks to a heavy cold. To make things worse, I have to try to sleep sitting up when I have a cold, or at least propped up, so that it has minimal impact on my asthma. Hence, I've not had much sleep lately, as I just can't sleep like that!

So it's sort of rubbing my face in it, to turn over my cat-a-day calendar and find this cheeky wee fella!

Don't you wish you could sleep anywhere, anytime, anyhow? -Like Mr Ginger, here? LOL!