Friday 22nd November

Raining cats and dogs....think that must be the title of tonight's blog as all three have featured quite heavily over this last week.

OnSaturday morning Billy the cat stumbled into the house from his late night foray, and usually he relishes his breakfast before slumping down on a sofa for the rest of the day. Sorry I did say Billy didn't I ? As it sounded a bit like one of our sons.....anyway this particular morning he was not a happy cat, almost unable to take the weight on one of his back legs. As usual with these matters a general family discussion took place, and as usual I went against all of them and called the vet. It turns out that Billy has ( after consultation and x-Ray later on in the week ) damaged a tendon . Fortunately not needing an operation but still requiring ' treatment' with mounting costs .... He is currently under ' house arrest' certainly while he has his leg bandaged up, an estimated 4 weeks.


Being stuck inside all day when he is used to hunting small furry rodents and such like is really, really tough, and not only for him!

When his miaows at the closed door as he needs to go and relieve himself reach a certain pitch, and we can take no more he gets put in the conservatory, and eventually when we' re not looking he will use the litter tray.




- We've had plenty of wind and rain over the last week , and I for one am getting pretty fed up with it, especially walking jess twice a day. It takes a good five minutes to get all the wet weather gear on, and even longer to take it all off and dry it, and that's just me never mind the dog!!
Still, I was pleased to find that one son had very cleverly arranged outside bathing facilities for our four legged friend.






As you can see from the photos, she doesn't look that impressed, and has to be lifted in, but is very quick to jump out! The first time I used it I got prepared with the towel, dog shampoo and cloth, and carefully went into the utility room and collected a bucket of what I thought was hot water, but it turned out to be cool as the heating wasn't turned on! Anyway I persevered and putting the plug in went to turn the tap on ............... Oh dear, a very blonde moment.

Lots of action in our woods with 'men of the trees' busy at conservation work, lots of chainsaws, diggers and bonfires, all the things that boys love! It does mean though that there is not ONE pheasant left in a mile radius, much to Jessie's chagrin!!!










Enough of nature, dogs and cats, onto hospitals...... One of the boys looked at the family pin board and counted about six different Health and Social services letters!! Not all mine I hasten to add, although there seems to be a bit of a blip in the system. I was supposed to go to see about my three month check up on Monday 25th , this was changed to 18th, but I only knew about it on the 15th and hadn't had a blood test, so that was void.

I then received a phone call from a very nice man in the CT dept who told me that I would be getting a letter about a head scan but it wasn't supposed to be for me!! And apparently my appointment for the scan is now on Monday but instead of coming in at 3:15 like the letter says please could I come in at 2 and have a blood test before hand!!!

So, today I get yet another letter in the post telling me that a new appointment to see consultant is made on 23rd December , that's an awfully long wait from my scan on 25th , I can't go a whole month not knowing the results.

Hubby and I have got a very big day tomorrow , we are singing ( well, he is I'm trying to sing) at the town church hall at a Christmas charity fair, with our choir Rising Voices, at about 12 o'clock, so if you are in town.......... Best if you avoid the area!!!



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Thursday 14th November

Never did finish the last blog,well, I don't like ending or beginning on a sad note, but then life is full of ups and downs and you have to ride the rough with the smooth.

We had a pretty tough week with the funeral of a child, it was as you would expect very emotional, and was incredibly lovely but equally hugely sad. This was followed by news that a colleague had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, and was shortly due an operation. As if that wasn't enough another colleague who has been instrumental in setting up the gynae support group and somebody who I aspire to, has, after three years as 'long time survivor' just had a reoccurrence. She is already on the journey of operations with chemo/radiotherapy to follow.

It goes without saying that is has rocked my world to learn this news, really taken the wind out of my sails. Certainly it opens up all those feelings you so carefully bury, while feeling utterly useless you can't make things better.

Now for more general news, on my various dog walking exploits I was lucky enough to see a family of six egrets fly across the bay of Bel Val, that was amazing. And I tried to capture footage of a heron swooping low over St Catherine's beach.....but my filming and photographic skills leave a lot to be desired.






Not impressed folks think she's a boy so gone for the ' pink look' .....

I went into nursery to do some supply cover just for the morning, I'd forgotten what fun (and hard work) it is with the three year olds. I only managed to reduce one child to tears, and got told in no uncertain terms by a little girl that it might be a good idea to "wash the make up off my face because it didn't look very nice " !!!!

With my ego somewhat bruised it was with a degree of trepidation that I entered into our local school to do a few days supply this week. This time with a reception class of four and five year olds, all 28 of them! I have to say they were generally very well behaved ( excellent teacher!) and once again enjoyed myself, particularly so when told by one little lad that "I was beautiful" !! Never mind that he actually tells every teacher they are beautiful!!!

The rest of the family are as busy as myself each in their own line of work, but we still manage to congregate around the kitchen table for supper each evening, with the conversation usually varied and diverse .

Only the one small breakage this week, with an accompanying note....






In case you can't read my sideways photo, it reads
Mum
I smashed this!
Unlucky
Dan x





My official certificate from Macmillan, the grand sum of £359.00 , enormous THANK YOU !!


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Thursday 7th November

10pm and instead of heading to bed I'm sat up watching a scary film with two of my sons and attempting to put a semblance of blog together. Probably not a good combination!

It's been a week of highs and lows, so not entirely sure where to start, I think with a bit of good stuff first. We had the tennis AGM on Sunday and much to my surprise I won a cup! It's labelled Player of the Year, but I'm sure that's a mistake, anyway I was very humbled to receive it as I am sure there are far more worthy candidates. My children weren't impressed, they just made random jokes about my tennis abilities.




I've been having some excellent racquetball games , ( well if you can call being repeatedly beaten but enjoying it In a funny kind of way!

Our dog has a new title ' Jessie the Great Rat Catcher' , it has sort of ring to it don't you think? There I was on Monday doing a spot of gardening , as it was the only dry and sunny day this week, Jess of course was helping in her own interminable way. Anyway, she was sniffing around the compost heaps so I obliging pulled a few things out of the way and suddenly there was a squealing and squeaking and she pulled a rat out! I didn't know whether to praise her or tell her to leave it! What with the rat squealing and trying to escape and jess excitedly barking and me in a mild state of panic, we must have been a sight. I knew that I had to kill the rat before it bit Jess but I also knew that I couldn't actually bring myself to do the deed! So I rushed to the house screeching for Steve to come quickly (!) fortunately for me he was home!!

Anyway he appeared as quickly as a man with a bad back and of certain years could appear, by which time I had remembered that there was a shovel with a broken handle in the greenhouse that would a good tool for the job, so thrusting it in his hand I pushed him towards the still squeaking rat and excitable dog!!

Without going into too much detail the rat was dealt with, but then what to do with the body? We couldn't leave it for the dog to play around with, so I suggested lobbing it over the wall and into the field. A good plan, so hubby swung the shovel which promptly parted from the handle dropping the rat by his feet and flying the metal blade into the field!!

I think I'll leave the rest of the story telling for another day.......



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