Wednesday 31 July 2013

Rather excited



I’m quite excited. The landscape gardener is supposed to be coming round this evening with his plans for our garden. From our telephone conversation I’m hoping for great things, a real transformation from our rather dark jungle into an area I can get around, where the light will pour in, full of colour & wildlife. He’s even hoping to drain off some of the excess water that abounds so much in the garden, no more extra lakes inhibiting access to the garden.

We’ve been watching a few episodes of “Love Your Garden” (ITV 8pm Monday). Most of the gardens Alan Titchmarsh has transformed have been with disabled people in mind, most of them wheelchair users.

Certainly the gardens do look wonderful immediately but I do wonder how wonderful they will be in a few years time. For that matter I wonder how wonderful they will be in all seasons. The problem with a large garden, and ours is large, is how you keep on top of it when you haven’t the physical ability & stamina to do much.

Yesterday we watched Alan put in a fabulous looking pond. The idea of a pond does appeal. The problem is we don’t feel either of us is up to the business of thinning out the water plants to keep the pond in good health.

Our present garden looked great when we arrived here 13 years ago, but the previous owner was a keen gardener & the garden reflects that fact. We went through a bad few years (ill-health & family problems), as we do from time to time, with the result the garden got neglected. In that time, loads of unwanted trees have planted themselves. Brambles & couch grass, not to mention mare’s tail, have invaded the borders & rockery. Al, our gardener comes round for an hour once a fortnight, but by the time he’s mown the lawn, he hasn’t much time to do much else. The beautiful garden is becoming a jungle before our eyes. Most of the colour is eliminated as more & more trees make it so dark that the undergrowth of flowers is giving up.

I want colour & scents. I want the garden to remain full of wildlife. In the time we’ve had the garden more & more birds have visited & we want to encourage them to keep coming. They are so much better at keeping on top of the snails & slugs than pellets. Similarly we’re keen for the frogs to keep coming. This year, with the warmth, we seem to be having more butterflies fluttering around. All these we want to encourage, along with the bees – the oregano in the front herb garden is a real bee attractant, truly abuzz.

Oh I do wonder what the designs will be like. As I say I really am rather excited.

Tuesday 30 July 2013

One intruder found



A few blogs ago, I mentioned we had discovered signs of a four-footed intruder into our home, specifically the kitchen. We removed the evidence & kept watch to see if any further signs appeared. Nothing. A few days later we discovered evidence in another cupboard. We don’t often rummage in the back of that cupboard so we couldn’t be sure when that visitor had called. Again we removed the evidence & kept watch.

Yesterday I finally decided it was going to be dry so I would put my washing out on the line to dry. I went to pick up an empty bucket to put the things in to take them out, when I saw in another huge bucket, a tiny mouse sitting at the bottom. It was clearly stuck there. Our intruder I thought.

I took the bucket, a couple of foot deep, out into the garden & gently tipped the mouse out into the irises so it would have cover from any possible predators. Hopefully that’s solved our intruder problem. We’ll continue to check regularly our cupboards for a while.

I rather like these little field or harvest mice with their great bulbous black eyes. Hopefully he will be happier outside. I don’t expect he really wanted to be inside our house, any more than we wanted him there. We will certainly be relieved if our intruder problem has been solved. Certainly there are no signs of the ants being still around.

It’s clearly a good year for pests. I couldn’t help noticing the pest control man was around again yesterday. When he came to us, he got lost finding our address. He’ll certainly know where this road is in future. From the gear he got on I suspect this time it was a wasp nest problem. This warm weather is certainly encouraging the wildlife to go berserk!

Sunday 28 July 2013

Chasing up



There is a freshness in the air, the first time in ages. I suspect it rained most of the night. It is still raining. A lake has appeared before the greenhouse. I’m even beginning to wonder if I won’t have to put on a cardi before long. Maybe that’s why I slept better last night.

I’ve come to the conclusion the time has come to do a bit of chasing up.

Yesterday, I rang the landscape gardener to find out what has happened about some designs for the back garden. I discover not only that he’s been rushed off his feet in this prolonged spell of good weather, but he was basically afraid to tell us the cost. Ours is a large garden, over 100m long. We are hoping to add some sort of verandah to the house to give us a dry shady area to sit out in on a warm day & dry passage from the kitchen to the laundry room. He’s also hoping to improve the drainage. We’re realistic enough to realise it’s going to cost. It will inevitably cost thousands if we go ahead with the work. Just a plant at the garden centre costs on average £5 & we will need hundreds to fill this space. What we want to see is some imagination, a garden where we will want to spend time just sitting without having to spend all our time trying to keep the weeds at bay. Neither of us is up to the latter any more. When he realised this, he began to relax & started to tell us some of his ideas & the price. He is coming round on Wednesday with the plans.

Tomorrow I will tackle the hospital. I’m due to go back to find out how the pancreatitis is progressing. I feel remarkably well, better than I have for years. I would like to have a bit of alcohol again. I miss my glass of wine with dinner. It gives an extra bit of colour to life. I would certainly be relieved to know I don’t have to constantly check which food, particularly desserts, have alcohol in them whenever we eat out. However, I am reluctant to indulge if there is a high risk of ending up back in hospital as a consequence. I’m beginning to think the hospital has once again forgotten me, so time to chase them up.

Friday 26 July 2013

A passing thought



I’ve just been getting some potatoes prepared ready for dinner. We’re going spicy tonight with Salmon Fajitas. I thought a few sauté potatoes & some sweetcorn would be just the thing to set off all that chilli spiciness.

While I was doing the potatoes I half-listened to Woman’s Hour on Radio 4. They were talking about the first wave of feminism i.e. the suffragette movement. My gran was one. Throughout my childhood we still had the chains with which she tied herself to the town hall railings.

Why this segment of the programme particularly caught my ear is that I’m currently reading a novel based on the life of Katherine Parr, beginning just before her marriage to Henry VIII. In this novel Katherine is portrayed as secretly being a supporter of the Protestant church at a time when the King was tending back towards the old Catholic religion. Through her secret reading of the Bible & interpretations of it, she became increasingly aware of a woman’s right to be something more than just a vessel for the breeding of children. I can’t help wondering if this isn’t a very 21st century interpretation of Katherine’s views. Can feminism really trace its roots back to the introduction of the Bible in English, and everybody’s right to interpret what is written in their own way, not necessarily according to the strict orthodoxies handed down from the pulpit? I’m sceptical, but I will admit Tudor history is not a period I have ever studied in great depth.

But I must accept being free to think can be a very dangerous thing. You never know where those thoughts may lead.

Monday 22 July 2013

Home again



We’re home again after a trip to Harrogate. There’s nothing quite like going away for a few days to make you appreciate being home. It was wonderful to see our friends once more. We dined well, firstly at our friends’ home on the first night, then our thank you treat to them of a meal at an Italian restaurant. There is something very precious about renewing bonds with old friends - & these are friends of over 40 years standing – catching up with current thoughts & activities, of loving & being loved.

It also made us appreciate one of the assets of living by the sea as we do. There is usually a bit of breeze off the water, that breaks the heat, stopping it from getting too stuffy. Harrogate is a lot more inland. It seemed very hot & airless when we arrived.

We came back very tired. We hadn’t slept well, mainly due to the heat. I confess I do like to have something to curl into when I try to sleep. At the hotel we only had a duvet, a heavy one at that, far more than we could cope with in the present temperatures. There was no air conditioning in the bedroom. At home we have been sleeping most of the time just under a sheet.

However, we feel it was a worthwhile trip - a change of scene for us, a chance to let go of our everyday worries, as well as a chance to see good friends. As the years pass, it gets harder to make these little trips. The last couple of years we’ve not been over to Yorkshire, what with the Fox’s stroke in 2011 & my pancreatitis in 2012. Our friends have difficulty getting here as one has ME, the other has work commitments. Maybe we will see more of our friends after next year when she retires, so they can contemplate travelling when his ME is in temporary remission or at least, easier.

The journey home was quiet, barely a car on the road, so the Fox has returned not feeling too bad for the long drive. We may yet get a couple of days away to Stoke to see some of my cousins before we go off to France in September. We’ll see.

Thursday 18 July 2013

In need of an unwind



I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do today. Thursday morning is the time when Angie, our home help, usually comes. Yesterday she rang to say she couldn’t come today but would come on Friday morning instead if that was okay with me. I agreed.

So, this morning there’s nothing much for me to do. There’s not even food preparation as the Fox is cooking today – Rise e Bisi, essentially a risotto idea featuring pancetta & peas. It’s another use-up-from-the-freezer sort of a day. We’ll be having some mushrooms to accompany it.

It’s maybe just as well I’m having a quiet day. Yesterday I wasn’t coping too well. We had the pest control man round. I’d found a pile of something odd on the floor in the kitchen. Clearly we had an infestation of something. It turned out it was ants. They’d been clearing space in the cavity walls for their ever-growing nest. The Fox dealt with the nice young man. I kept out of the way as I was already feeling so stressed, unable to cope.

Then, in the evening, just as I was starting to make dinner, we found evidence in a cupboard of another intruder into our home. The Fox cleared up the evidence so we can see if the intruder is still around. Nonetheless, combined with the physical pain I was feeling, it was too much for me. I felt a bit like everything I loved was falling down around me. I would have suggested eating out, if it wasn’t for the fact I’d bought some fresh fish for dinner & feared it wouldn’t keep much longer. It was something of a relief to discover the whiting was delicious despite all my fears that that would be a disaster too.

I have a suspicion the Fox is right in thinking it’s time we had a break from everyday life. The benefit of the Italian holiday is wearing off. Even the unexpected bout of glorious sunshine & warmth this lat week or so is unable to keep me relaxed. It’s time for a change of scene, so it’s just as well we’re off to Harrogate soon. And for that matter I’ve got today to relax over a book or a jigsaw.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

All organised



The phone eventually rings. It’s 2pm. It’s Harrogate Tourist Information Centre (TIC). They’ve apparently spent all morning ringing around the various hotels in Harrogate & have at last located one with a vacancy. They thought I’d prefer to talk direct with the hotel to make the booking & check out everything I needed was available. They provide me with the telephone number & contact details, down to the individual who they’d talked to. I express my great gratitude & ring the hotel.

Sure enough the room is available. I can have either a double or a twin room. I took the double. I’m still haunted with the memory of one hotel we stayed in in which they gave us a huge bedroom with the twin beds as far apart as possible. No chance of a loving hug there, but then who would want to share a bed with a disabled person. They're all incontinent. Or at least that was the feeling I got from that hotel.

This Harrogate hotel then went on to ask me if I needed any aids provided. The shower is over the bath but they do provide bath boards, along with other aids such as raised seats for the toilet. It’s the first time I’ve ever been asked this. It is reassuring to know they can provide such things. I always go armed with the aids I’m likely to need. You can tell it’s part of an American hotel chain. They seem so much more enlightened when it comes to providing services for disabled people.

I go ahead and book. I’m utterly bemused by how cheap the hotel is - £79 per night per room for bed & buffet breakfast. What is more there’s complimentary coffee & cakes mid-morning – a little treat to look forward to.

So Harrogate here we come. I can relax now over sorting the accommodation & get down to looking forward to seeing old friends once again.


Tuesday 16 July 2013

Frustration



On Sunday we rang our friends in Harrogate with the suggestion that we might visit for a couple of days. We haven’t seen these friends for a few years, not since the Fox had a stroke in 2011. The Fox finally feels he is up to making the, for us, long drive over to Yorkshire. Our suggestion was greeted with joy across the way. All seemed set for a pleasant weekend ahead.

I then tried to sort out some accommodation for us. The first hotel I tried was fully booked. They could try their Leeds hotel, but that was further away than we wanted to be.

I tried a second hotel. This time I was told they had an accessible suite for the Friday night but not the Saturday. It really isn’t worth doing such a drive for one day. I will need a couple of nights to cope with the drive. I suspect these days the same applies to the Fox.

I enquire if there’s something happening in Harrogate that weekend. It seems there’s a Crime Writers’ Weekend. It apparently is usually very popular. My heart sinks.

I try two more hotels. Neither hotel even answers the phone. I abandon the effort until Monday. My conclusion is to try just ringing the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) to see if they can sort out some accessible accommodation for us.

So, yesterday, I start by ringing the two hotels I’d tried the night before. Same answerphone message on one – no-one available to answer the phone at the moment try again later. I begin to wonder if this hotel has ceased trading. I’m sure the recession will have hit Harrogate as it has throughout Britain.

I try the second hotel. Once more it’s a hotel that’s fully booked.

So now I try the TIC. The first thing I discover is the phone number has changed. I hastily try to get the new number down. By the time I’ve found pen & paper, half the number has gone by. I try the number again. I get all the digits but did I get them right? I ring a third time. I’ve got it. Why couldn’t they have just have repeated the number to save me so much re-dialling?

Anyhow, I ring the new number. It’s temporarily unavailable. How temporary is temporary? There’s no indication.

By lunchtime, I try the nearest TIC I can locate to Harrogate i.e. Knaresborough. Their number, too, has been changed.

I try their new number. All their phones are busy so try the Harrogate TIC. There is a link to the Harrogate TIC via Harrogate Borough Council. The phone rings. But no, it’s another answerphone saying all the lines are busy. However, this one can at least take a message. I leave my name, phone number & a brief statement of my query.

When there’s still no call back by mid-afternoon, we decide to go out, partly to buy some salmon for dinner, partly to see if our local TIC can have more luck. We get a more up-to-date brochure, but when they ring they get the same runaround. We retreat to the pub to regain some sanity.

When we get home, I notice the answerphone is flashing. It’s Harrogate TIC. They had finally got around to ringing at 4.10pm. They would try again around 5pm. I get the food prepared for dinner while we wait for the phone to ring again. They duly ring. They are happy to locate something for us, but it will probably be today, Tuesday, before they can ring back as they were about to close for the day. Fair enough.

So this morning I wait once more.

Somewhere in the midst of all this frustration the joy of having a weekend away & seeing friends of long standing once more is dissolving. We hadn’t expected it to be quite so hard to organise one disabled access room, at whatever price, in a place the size of Harrogate. But seemingly it is.

I continue to wait. I’m half-expecting to hear the nearest place they can find is Leeds. It’s debatable if we really want to be that far out, I’m also half-expecting to find the weekend away is going to have to be cancelled, which would be a pity. We liked the idea of seeing our friends once more & would hate to have to disappoint them.



Friday 12 July 2013

A Brief Encounter



I’ve just completed a jigsaw, showing 5 views of Carnforth railway station & its visitor centre devoted to David Lean’s film, “Brief Encounter”, which was shot mainly on this station.

As I did the jigsaw, I couldn’t help thinking that there was something sad about the fact that the best that Carnforth could come up with to attract visitors was the fact it was where a film was shot in 1945.

I am pleased that it has meant the continued life of this Victorian railway station. It has also meant the station has been smartened up. There are some interesting shops on the platforms, worth visiting even if you’re not waiting for a train. You can get decent refreshments as you wait for the train. At one time they even held a Farmers’ Market on one platform.

I can’t help feeling it’s a pity they didn’t do a visitor centre more generally based on the history of the railway in Carnforth. Before the railway came to Carnforth, it was no more than a tiny village, as it had been from time immemorial. In the mid-19th century, the population grew fast & enormously. As the railway grew, so did the population of Carnforth, as the briefest of glances at the census figures for the period will reveal. The villages around shrank & became little more than overflow residential areas for Carnforth. Carnforth became one of the biggest & busiest railway stations in the north west of England. None of this is revealed at the present visitor centre.

Maybe the main reason I find it all a little sad is that I find the film “Brief Encounter” a bit of a non-event. Yes, it captures that very English understatement of emotion. It does captures something of the period as some US soldiers moan about the lack of whisky (due to rationing) available in the refreshment room. I remember the filth & risk of getting something in you eye if you waited too near the platform edge in the days of steam trains. Undoubtedly the music, Rachmaninov’s piano concerto in C Minor is fabulous. I suppose even the idea of making a romantic film, which only incidentally featured the war, was novel at the time. But none of this alters the fact the film just doesn’t work for me.

I mentioned my feeling to the Fox. He commented that he was relieved to hear that I’d found “Brief Encounter” disappointing too. He’d thought he was the only person who didn’t like the film.


Tuesday 9 July 2013

Music of the Mind



We sit outside, eating our dinner. The temperature has soared to over 90˚F  in our little bit of paradise. For dinner our meal is Potatoes Florentine, accompanied by sweetcorn.

My mind turns to thoughts of what music might be appropriate to play this evening if we decide to switch the TV off, & just have a glass or two over music & conversation. I usually try to choose something that is connected in some way, often rather obscure way, to the events of the day.

I suddenly remember Cole Porter & “Kiss Me Kate”. The song in particular that suddenly haunts my thought is “Where is the Life that Once I Led?”. I can see in my mind’s eye Howard Keel singing away in the film version. Surely there must be some reference to Florence (& so with our meal) in that song that all its amazing rhymes.

I try to think of other songs that might mention Florence. I can think of none.

As my mind whirls over all things Italian, it occurs to me we have a five CD set of Dean Martin. Maybe there is something about Florence on one of those.

We clear up & I change into my nightwear. We settle down to our evening entertainment. We do indeed decide to switch off the TV. The Fox finishes off the bottle of wine he opened with dinner, while I have some Grapetiser – I’m still off the alcohol - & we get out some music.

“Where is the Life that Once I Led?” does indeed mention Florence, under its Italian name of Firenze. As for Dino, I could find no reference to Florence, but my eye landed on a track entitled “Come Back to Sorrento”.

Over our meal I had told the Fox something about my blog of yesterday, that I had mentioned Ruth & Col. One thing about these two is that they have some romantic associations with the song they call “Sorrento” which they had heard on holiday in Sorrento. We wonder if this Dino song is it. It certainly is very romantic sounding, with plenty of Italian words. Either way it reminds us of new friends & a happy time once again.

It was a very pleasant, & fitting, end to the day.


Monday 8 July 2013

The domino effect



What a shock! It’s turning into a positive heatwave! The last couple of days we spent some of the afternoon sitting in the sun, chuntering over a glass or two.

On the way back from the golf club on Friday we stopped at a toy shop & bought some dominoes, one nice set & one lightweight set for our hols.

A few years ago, we were staying in a gîte in Provence. It was too early to eat but we were getting bored just reading. We looked around & found the gîte had a box of dominoes. Neither of us had played since our childhood long ago. We decided to have a game to wile away the time. After that we played most evenings. We were hooked.

Once home we didn’t think any more about it. Then, on our recent holiday in Italy, we had a few very wet days. We looked at what games there were there. Sure enough there were some sets of dominoes. So we decided to play.

Our new friends, Ruth & Col, quickly got hold of the idea & became addicted to the game. Once they were back home, according to the card we received from them, they bought a set & now their grandchildren & disabled neighbour have all been drawn in.

We finally decided it was time for us to buy some dominoes for ourselves. Later this year we will be off to another gîte in Provence. We thought we would go armed with some dominoes. We found a very light, rather small set, for the holidays. They won’t add much weight to our luggage or take up much space.

We also saw a rather nicer, much heavier, set which we bought, thinking it might occasionally be nice to have a game at home.

So Saturday & Sunday we sat out in the sun. The conversation tended to dry up as the warmth encouraged us to doze off, especially yesterday as we were fairly tired after doing the chores.

We thought we might as well have a game of dominoes to pass the time until dinner.

As we played, the conversation once more flowed. We both found ourselves hearing Col’s doleful voice saying “I don’t like this” whenever he couldn’t lay down a domino or he had picked a high value one.

While we were in Italy, we also discovered that dominoes is not a game known in Rumania. The head waiter was a Rumanian. He was fascinated watching us play & trying to learn the rules of the game. He’d never seen anyone play before. Another new convert? I wonder.

Saturday 6 July 2013

A different experience



We’re at the golf club. None of our usual group is there. We get talking to a couple we’ve known on & off for a long time, long before they got together.

They recently went to gay Paris to celebrate JD’s birthday. It was just a weekend break.

Among other things they visited Versailles. JD hated it, although he will allow the gardens are spectacular. The only room in the palace he like was the Hall of Mirrors.

I found myself remembering the two visits to Versailles I made when I was still at school. I’d been impressed by the palace though neither time did I have the time to really explore the gardens, or visit Le Petit Trianon.

It transpired that JD’s real problem was the crowds. He’d felt pressed in, hardly able to move. He’d felt he was herded around. Maybe part of the attraction of the Hall of Mirrors for JD is the fact it is such a huge room, it could take the number of visitors better.

Now my thoughts moved to my feeling about Venice and the crowds there. We weren’t that pressed, not shoulder to shoulder, but I suspect we would have been if we’d actually queued up to go around either St Mark’s Basilica or the Doge’s Palace.

It certainly wasn’t that bad when I had been to Versailles. Admittedly I had been in April rather than the end of June.

But I wonder if the real difference is the fact I went in1969 & 1971. In those days, international travel wasn’t as popular as it is today. You certainly wouldn’t have got the number of people from the Far East or Africa that we saw in Venice recently. Visitor numbers at these big draws must have shot up. But I can’t help wondering if the experience felt hasn’t reduced.

Another person at the golf club chipped in he hadn’t found Versailles that bad. He too had gone out of the main tourist season. Maybe it is just the time of year rather than the decade that made the difference.

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Wheels again?!



I’ve finally managed to get hold of the wheelchair service. On June 7, the man came to repair my chair. He decided I needed two new casters, the front wheels, which he would order. He’d assured me they would be with me within a week.

I gave him a fortnight. Last Monday I rang the NHS to be told I’d have to sort this out directly with the contractor. They supplied the phone number.

I rang the contractor and was given the option of leaving a message on the answerphone or dial yet a third number if it was an emergency. I thought of the person wholly dependent on the use of his wheelchair which had broken down, & decided it wasn't that great an emergency. I left a message on the phone asking them to ring me back with news about to what was happening. No call back.

Reluctantly I tried again. I couldn’t believe it! A real living person! I’d come to the conclusion the office must be permanently closed with someone maybe popping in to check the answerphone once a month or so.

I told her my story. She promised to ring me back within half an hour. Sure enough she did. He is to come on Thursday afternoon. Three cheers.

I can’t help wondering whether anyone would have ever come if I hadn’t kept chasing them up. This is worrying when you consider they wouldn’t say I needed a new wheel, let along two, unless there was something wrong with my wheelchair & they thought my wheelchair was becoming dangerous. I can’t help wondering what would have happened if an accident had occurred. Or was I meant to not use my chair, & so not attend my doctor & hospital appointments, not to mention have any social life, until they deigned to get back to me? And what if I’d had a job, as the government keep encouraging me to do? Like most people with mobility problems, no chair would make the prospect of working, nil.