Going under the knife

The sun is shining and I have been able to do a lot more photography of late.  Broken shoulder is more manoeuvrable and left arm is at its worst at night and early morning.  Gosh I'm sick of talking/writing about my ailments, hopefully I'll be able to get on with my life soon, and I intend not to waste any time or energy on things that aren't important.  As a lot of people struggle with health issues and mine really are insignificant on the grander scheme of things, it has made me not to want to waste any of the time I have left on this planet.

After having several terribly painful stomach attacks I go into hospital next Monday to have my gallbladder removed.  I was thinking of asking the surgeon My Loy whether I could have the gallstones so I might use them in a piece of mixed media work but they most probably would gradually disintegrate, anyway I still might ask - could be a talking point if the piece is displayed on the wall.  Had my pre-op checks this morning which involves having swabs from various places taken to test for MRSA, nostrils, armpits and groin.  At least I had a female nurse, I wondered how the gentleman who travelled in the lift with me for his got on.  At least he was wearing pink shorts which should have led to easy accessibility.

We have sprung a leak in our lower pond and fear it could be something to do with my over vigorous weeding of the water iris around the edge.  It looks like I might have loosened the clay and the only product I can find called 'Dam Seal' is available in Australia.  They are looking for a uk distributer, and after watching youtube videos on it being used, we need this product here.  I'd be tempted myself its such a good product.  Can't find anything like it in the uk so have plumped for pond liner which Alistair is going to pin down with ' something'

Looks like I will be out of action for a couple of weeks so I need to get as much gardening done before the op.  Also planning a body-builder shoot - could move me entirely away from shooting flowers, who knows!!

Kiki enjoying a early evening dip

Candelabra primula's in the late afternoon sun

Thoughts from abroad, well Guersney actually!

I won't bore you with all my health issues that seem to have arisen following the breaking of my right shoulder last August. One thing after another, it seems. Anyway I had both arms out of action at one point which makes life slightly grim, and made photography and painting impossible. Things have improved in the arm area and so I am reappearing once again.

We took a trip to Guersney to relax and enjoy some sea air, which was truly lovely. I lived on the island for a short time and it became one of the most significant times in my life, resulting in major changes for myself and my family. A mixture of happy and sad memories, but a love of the island has remained with me. The coves and beaches are stunning and we were lucky with the weather - I think it ought to become an annual trip from now on for recharging batteries.

We stayed at The Old Government House Hotel and treated ourselves to The Sark Suite, which has the most lovely views over St Peter Port harbour. I don't eat meat but I do eat fish and shellfish and there are many excellent places to eat. We met up with my lovely friend, also called Lynda, who I met when I first moved to the island (our daughters were in the same class at school together). Our friendship has lasted over the years and to meet up several times during the week was just the remedy I needed after all my pains.

We did the touristy visit to Castle Cornet which I had never done when I lived there, and explored the whole coast, just taking our time and breathing in all that delicious sea air. Above are some fishing boats in St Peter Port harbour and below one of the beaches we walked along.

Since returning to the mainland I have undergone some more tests for some extremely painful stomach/abdomen attacks i have been having. These take me out for six hours and strangely enough did not occur while I was on Guernsey. I had a gastroscopy last week after the worst attack ever on my return, and am due an MRI soon. If you've never had a camera down your throat, its an absolute joy (not) and you don't know what you're missing! My husband Alistair reckons it is caused by the large amounts of codeine I took during my rehab after breaking my shoulder; let's hope he is right and that things repair now that I have stopped that medication. Here's my own personal research: I am absolutely fine if I live on Almased replacement meal drinks and lobster washed down with prossecco, it seems!

We need to live by the sea I think.

Two months after breaking my shoulder

It hasn't been a bundle of laughs these last couple of months and it doesn't seem that I will be back properly till February.  I'll never be a shot putter, tennis professional or fast bowler now. 

Life has certainly moved slowly as my bones have started healing and the house is dirtier the garden weedier and not a lot I could do about it. This week I was x-rayed and I could hardly see the difference from 4 weeks ago but the nice young doctor assured me that new bone is growingbut these sort of breaks take a long time.

I had dressed with a t shirt under my top so I could take it off and show the doctor the amount of bruising that is still present on my arm.  Alistair didn't know this or what I wanted to do, so when the young doctor came into the cubicle and I started removing my top, Alistair was like " What are you doing"  Not quite sure what he thought I was going to do - or maybe he thought that I had lost my mind due to the amount of painkillers i've consumed over these last 8 weeks.  Anyway I thought it was amusing.

Here are a few pics I took before the fall. I have just tried to lift my camera and take some photographs but can't quite lift my arm high enough yet and Alistair will most probably shout at me when he reads this for trying BUT there where 3 red admiral butterflies just outside my window.  soon, soon I hope.

Dancing poppy

Stopped before I Started

Well, I started clearing the veg patch as mentioned in the last blog I wrote,  which was 5 weeks ago.  I had cut back hedging with the hedge cutter and then realised that i had meant to film the before pictures, off i trot and got my camera, was all set up and was walking back to the entrance of the veg patch so as to film the entrance when I tripped over a root that i had nearly tripped over several times before and was going to get Alistair to pull out with the truck or a digger.  As I fell towards the gate my hand hit the gate and was thrown up and backwards as i fell forwards CRACK is what i heard and a lot of pain as i staggered to my feet and cried for Alistair.  Arrived at A&E in my muddy boots and was looked after very well.  Liquid morphine was the first thing i needed and actually it didn't seem to touch the pain but most probably helped anyway.  Xrays taken and it showed that i had broken my shoulder - it turned out that the humerous head (the ball joint was broken in three places, it was later called smashed rather than fractured. 

First two weeks were very painful and there was not much i could do but sit propped up in bed with my painkillers which my doctor very kindly gave me plenty of - and I needed them.  I wont go through all the tips i could give on surviving a broken shoulder but might do that at a later date,  It is now 5 weeks to the day and i am able to get about a bit but not for long before the pain starts.  Don't want to overdo things and slow my progress so am taking it easy.  Doctors said last week that i need to stay in the sling another 4 weeks which will make it 8 in all by the time i next see them on Oct 3rd.  Saw Physio on Monday and have started some hand and elbow exercises and some pendulum exercises of my shoulder - overdid them yesterday as I was too keen so have taken it a bit easier today.  

My computer wasn't working when I came over to the byre today so I have wasted time getting that up and running and now the pain is starting and i want to get back to my bed.  There are funny japes and anecdotes i was going to make but pain has erased all from my mind. 

Photography isn't going to happen any day soon so i am going to start painting again.  At least i am left handed and it was my right that is broken.  I wanted to say how transforming this has actually been, its as if i needed this to make me STOP and look at my life and there has been a lot gained by this experience and that i will cover another time.  I also apologise for lack of capitol letters in this blog in places but it just gets to much stretching one hand to hold shift all the time.

Pass me the painkillers

Till next time, here is a pic of said gate taken on that fateful day

Clear the Decks

“The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t want”

— Joshua Becker

Thank you to Sebastian Michaels from PhotoshopArtistry.com who is an amazing teacher

The Monarda's are blooming

and the more Hydrangas I can have in the house the better

The Patio is finished and the lawn is at last growing - Boudicca has to go ..... Tears in my eyes this morning when I found that she had killed the remaining Pied Wagtail parent and their orphan chick is sat in the nest waiting for food.   I cannot bear to have her around any longer so I have got in touch with the rescue centre we had her from to see if they can find her a home.  Achilles never kills anything.  I feel heavy hearted today over it. 

The title of this blog 'Clear the decks' could relate to Boudicca but its to do with a 21 days to Creating Abundance, I have started - relating to my photography and art.  Todays and tomorrows actions are about clearing the decks and simplifying everything, starting with actual desktop then computer desktop and then onto files on my computer.  My whole work area and life actually needs simplifying - why use more 'stuff' than needed.  So that is what I am about for a couple of days and already I have an empty computer desktop and I like it, 'no' I love it.  The picture above has my metal pig with wings, I saw it at a flea market a few years ago and I think it cost me ten pounds, it has turned out to be one of my favourite possessions and I continue to follow the impetus it gives me in wanting to fly, all be it only creatively. I will let you know how my life and art changes after these 21 days.

Another project that is in the offing is the creating of a new veg garden in a space that is overgrown and has not been used for veg and fruit growing for a long time.  We have lived here a year now and it is time to get growing some nice organic food.  The hazel bean support will stay and I will hopefully be able to use hazel and willow from the woods to make other structures in this area.  We have made a start by buying a gate the other day and once that is installed I can get in and start clearing the ground and making a path through to the back of the veg garden to where I plan to put a potting shed for all my gardening paraphernalia.  The picture below shows how it looks at present.  I've just spied another pied wagtail outside my studio window , maybe there is hope.

Patio finished

Finished at last and now time to move on to other gardening jobs.  The Main garden at the back of the farmhouse needs a lot of work.  Campanula's are collapsing and are in need of wire cages around them - this I should have done earlier of course.  Paths need weeding as does all the garden :-(

I bought some old crates, lined them and yesterday planted them up with various diasica's , heuchera's and nemesia's.  A new viburnum 'popcorn' for by the top steps and the final lavenders were planted. Today the wisteria is getting a trim and then I'm back to the main garden.  Not feeling on top of the world at present but wanted to get some final pictures up.  Top soil on the lawn and seeded, so now all we need is a parasol for some shade - I think Alistair is planning on an outside bar in the stone corner of the patio like we had when we lived in Spain.

Our Spanish outdoor kitchen and bar that Alistair built

Achilles and Sparticus found in a bin in Mijas when kittens and the only survivors of the litter

Sparticus sadly died before we returned to the UK but Achilles is with us.

Nearly Done

Between the showers and downpours work has nearly finished on the patio. Now I am digging a border around the edge for the planting of a lavender hedge but as this was once a working farmyard, the ground is hard and stoney. After all, we are slap bang next to "Stiperstones", steeped in history and a lot of ancient stones!

I will be planting 20 lavender Hidcote from 'Lavender World' shortly. At the side of the steps leading down to The Byre, I have placed a Viburnum Kilamanjaro from Burncoose Nurseries, which won RHS plant of the year 2015 I believe. It should have layers of sweet-smelling white blossom and grow quite vertically - we shall see. On the right of the patio is a brick edge with planter where two Cotoneaster horizontalis will go when they arrive from Thompson's.

Photography has been held back by an annoying throat infection/cough which had almost gone and then decided to make a return visit. I think there is some sun forecast for this weekend so I hope to be out in the garden and the woods taking photographs. At the same time there is an extreme amount of gardening to be done, especially weeding the borders, so I will have to combine them both.

Bees are doing bee things and this one above was by my side yesterday evening as Alistair and I relaxed with a G&T after the stone digging.

Viburnam planted by steps, pointing up to be done when the sun comes out!

Lawn has to be leveled and seeded

There are four lights that have arrived for the patio area and now we are just waiting on the electrician but hopefully next week they should be done.

Too much Rain

The rain has been quite incessant lately so patio progress has been slow and the cement mixer had to be hired for another week. Alistair is working like a Trojan laying the large area and just wants to get it finished so he can get onto the next job on his list. He would like that to be 'writing' but I think there are a few jobs he needs to get done before that happens, for example hefting the chainsaw into the woods where there are some large branches down. I have been ill with a throat infection that has knocked me off my feet and, with lack of sleep due to coughing fits, there is much to catch up on before photography becomes the priority again.

Look carefully at the pictures and you'll see specks of white. That's because Lucca and Kiki are moulting - those blobs of white are dog hair and it is everywhere, in and out of the house.

The garden has got away from me and there is much to do. The beds need weeding, the edges need cutting and the lawns mowing. As I am only doing 'light pottering' today, I can manage the sit-on lawn mower on the front but am not up to a jaunt through the woods to the main lawns behind the house. I need to make a plan of the garden and seriously get on with some photography before I miss some of the best shots of the amazing plants.

Man and machine - Alistair and cement mixer

Poppies by the front gate

Look what I found today

A couple of months ago, we found a duck with some eggs on a little island on our top pond, we kept an eye on it but nothing emerged and when Alistair had a look, there were no eggs or shells.  We were really sad that there were no ducklings and that something could have ate the eggs.  Then several weeks ago when we were working by the lower pond, a female ducksuddenly took off from the grass and plants along the edge of the water.  We had a look and found six eggs.  Hooray we thought but then we realised that now it was on the edge of the pond and not on an island thatBoudicca out psycho cat, whose life is hanging by a thread at present ( one more killing and she has to go) would be able to reach the eggs and baby ducklings if they did eventually hatch.

I thought of a way to protect the nest and we made a barrier around the outside with canes stuck into the waters edge and then chicken wire attached so as to form a barrier on the land side and pegged into the ground so said cat couldn't get under it but leaving it open on the water side.

You can just see the chicken wire on the right hand side of the photo

The picture of them isn't great as I had my 180mm macro lens on my camera as I was out shooting plants but after some cropping you can see them quite clearly.  I had been very quiet approaching the pond as I was hoping to get a pic of the moor hens, so this was such a pleasant surprise.  There was no sign of mum and I did rush back to the studio to attach a telephoto lens but they were no longer anywhere to be seen when I arrived back.  They must have raced back to their nest when I left.  Tomorrow I will take a picnic rug up there and keep very still and see if I can get some more shots of them.  How cute are they!!!

Lucca and Kiki

As Lucca and Kiki are such a large part of our lives I thought I would introduce them properly.  Here they are as pups around 10 weeks old. They are Maremmas, a breed of Italian guardian sheepdogs from the north of that country. They are found in the Alps, left by the shepherds to guard the sheep and goats on their own. They are known for thinking for themselves and have a very strong mind, and will see off any predators from bears and wolves (which we don't have here) to foxes and badgers (which we do).

We have had many breeds over the years but Maremmas are different in many ways. They are not the easiest dogs to come when you call them, and will decide for themselves whether it is necessary and will act in their own good time. Throw a stick and ours tend to look at us as if we were mad. 'Why should we fetch it, when you have obviously thrown it away?' Lucca and Kiki are brother and sister and now are three years old. Loyal and loving. Lucca is very much like a polar bear. Not dogs that need massive amounts of exercise as they are bred for guarding not herding. Feed them and they may raise their heads without much enthusiasm and then will meander along sometimes hours later to eat their dinner.

A few months old

I wish I had known about the moulting - my word, you've never seen anything like it, you could spin it and make blankets from it, there is soooo much hair. Hoovering can be a twice-a-day job even after brushing, and guests leave with a layer of white hair on their clothes. Kiki seems to moult earlier than Lucca so it seems to go on for months - the fact that I usually wear black does not help matters!

Lucca on the left. The male tends to have a wider head than the female

So here they, fully grown. They don't mind cold or wet weather but sometimes they are grateful to us for having an Aga for those times when it is extremely cold. We love them to pieces, even with all the vacuuming!