John went to Abersoch yesterday

All photos in this post taken by John, and used with his permission.

I have been gifted with a cold from John's work again. Feeling better now than I did this morning, but still worse than I did yesterday. Still haven't got out to buy seeds yet, should have bought online. Maybe will yet!

John had a swim yesterday morning, and then brought me breakfast in bed before heading off to Abersoch to visit the caravan and see how it had weathered the winter.



Some of the plants are doing really well.



But the oregano always seems to thrive!



So far it looks as if there are 3 buds coming on the agapanthus, but more may appear still if last year is anything to go by.



This hydrangea has some good looking buds coming. This is the one we "pruned" at the end of last season, and took the flowers to GranMary in the rehab nursing home she was in following her op last summer (she's back home now). I hope we get such beautifully coloured flowers this year.

Some plants aren't doing quite so well!



These were left on the table over the winter. I think the greenest one may be chocolate mint. The twiggy one with a few green shoots is Blackcurrant Sage I think, and others are maybe thyme (looks totally dead) and Curry Plant (which looks a bit questionable as to life). Ah well, yer win some, yer loose some.

There are two new caravans at the bottom of the field. These are called 14 & 15, there isn't a 13.



The row of tall trees behind the site have been chopped down over the winter. This should make a lot of the site much sunnier I think, especially late afternoon and evening in autumn time. Here's what it looks like now looking up the field across our neighbour's area.



Oh yeah, as well as the 2 new caravans we have a track down the rest of the field now too.



But the lushness of our bit of hedge hopefully makes up for the loss of grass.



I wonder how the bunnies are doing this year - forgot to ask John last night, and he may not have remembered to ask the rest of the folks on the site. Looking at my plants, I think maybe there are fewer than last year. Time will tell!

Gardening and random other stuff

Not done much this week, but I did get into the back yard and water some plants.



I have loved the Peace Rose since I was a child. The one in our back yard is attacked most years by aphids. But we usually get at least a couple of blooms. I love the flower, and especially the scent - just wonderful.



Am very entertained by Shrink Rap's post about Darth Vader. I am just a person and not a psychiatrist (if you see what I mean, no offence intended to My Three Shrinks or any other psychiatrist), but I tend to agree with Shrink Rap's take on Darth Vader's possible psychiatric disorder/difficulty. Rather than the alternative.

Am amazed at how the garden is coming on, especially the lillies. We brought these back to Liverpool to sit in the yard safely - left in Abersoch the bunnies would nibble the shoots as they emerged. Now the plants are tall, ready to take to patio at the caravan, but we aren't fit to take them this weekend.



My Day Lily seedlings continue to grow, must pot them on soon into good compost.



Been reading up on Agapanthuses (Agapanthi?) as just love the ones we have in Abersoch so much. My seedlings are coming on, will be interesting to see if any of them flower anytime soon, and if they do if any are worth keeping. Takes about 4 years to get a flower from seedling I think, so not yet! ;-)

This is my mystery bud - will update when it opens!

Sunny Sunday morning

Just browsing a few blogs, following a few links, and came across a really fantastic idea to make a DIY hackle. Great photos, and very clear video of how to use it. Can't wait to give this a try!

We just sited the swifts, so Summer must be here. I thought I saw one last week, but it was only a single one. I'm assuming it's the same for swifts as for swallows - one swallow does not a summer make.

We have guests this weekend - David, Rob and Em, otherwise known as The Resistance. They are playing at the Cavern tonight. So John and the kids will have a fun evening.

When the going gets tough...

...the tough go shopping.



Monday "From Fleece to Fabric" by June R. Lewis arrived. Won on eBay. I think this is going to be a really useful book. My wheel still needs work (rather putting it off with all the other stuff going on at the mo), but will be pleased if I can get spinning again over the next couple of months. I haven't done any spinning for over 15 years, and was only a novice back then. But it's fun, and maybe my spindle will come out until my wheel is mended, fettled up and running.

Tuesday Cloth Paper Scissors dropped onto the doormat. I first came across it when reading my friend Loretta's blog. She has a lovely thoughtful article in this issue about life's changes as we move through our lives.

One of the things I like about the magazine is that many of the projects in it are small. Small enough to be contained on a tray (or over the bed hospital-type table) so something I could try even when house/bed bound. This is my first copy, am subbed for a year.



Today's goodies from the Postie are a nice pattern for bags (believe me, I am going to have a LOT of fun choosing fabric for the one in the biggest picture on the packet). And "The Craft of the Weaver" by Ann Sutton, Peter Collingwood and Geraldine St Aubin Hubbard. Another eBay win. Useful overview of weaving methods, not much on spinning, some nice history. This is just on a quick glance. Hopefully will be able to take a more leisurely look soon. I like to have books like this for a quick first reference for any question I might have.

Nice bonus is the book came wrapped in "stress squares" though transparent and not red as seen in Red Dwarf. In other words bubble wrap. But I'm having fun popping away and busting my stress.

And then there was the consignment of various things from Amazon that I forgot I'd ordered it's been so long (1st May) since I placed the order. Ah well, it was a nice surprise and included yet another knitting book.

International ME/CFS Day 2007

Not sure what this flower is - bulbs planted in a hurry between showers. Might it be a ranunculus?

Today is International ME/CFS Day. It's also Florence Nightingale's birthday - some people believe she may have had ME. She certainly had some sort of disabling, relapsing and remitting illness. She may have had chronic Brucellosis, as suggested by D A B Young, formerly principal scientist, Wellcome Foundation. Maybe that's another thing that could be checked for in ME/CFS patients.

Was very pleased to see that Dr Crippen included a post from Mary in this week's BritMeds about her recent consultation with her (locum) GP over her DLA renewal application. I have always been looked after both well and kindly by my GPs, but I have heard many stories similar to Mary's.

Dr Crippen also included a link to an article in the Scotsman about the spread of Ticks and Lyme Disease in Scotland. The lady in the article was misdiagnosed with ME, and I wonder how many other ME patients may be misdiagnosed when they really have Lyme.

This time last year we were staying with Sarah in her shared house in London. We demonstrated outside the Department of Health, and I presented documents from the MEACH Trust to 10 Downing Street. We did some gardening too.

This year we have had too much on our plate with Dad's hospitalisation and then discharge into a nursing home to have been able to travel that far - we haven't even made it to the caravan yet.



I like the way the raindrops have spattered the black pollen around the petals.

PS The knitting is going very slowly (and is also very mistakey!). About 1 or 2 rounds a day. But I think (hope!) it's longer than it was the last picture I took. I don't think John will mind the mistakes (he's not a knitter, so probably will think it's supposed to be the way it is), nice soft warm wooly socks, who cares about mistakes.

New Toy

I've managed to get the radio to work, but that's all so far. Might try out the voice recording later, which is really what I wanted this for. But it'll be fun to have a few of my favourite bits of music on it too, if I can learn how to do that. Of course if I can't manage it I'm sure one of the kids will sort me out!

Grand Rounds at Shrink Rap

Feel honoured to be included in Grand Rounds over at Shrink Rap.

There's also a pod cast about Grand Rounds up here.

I spent a couple of hours just reading the links from the first post mentioned - lots of good stuff about ducks there. Did you know you can keep house-ducks? You just have to use duck diapers!

Off to look at some more of the goodies up on Grand Rounds now.

I don't think I've put this up before, here's another Duck! Taken by Sarah last summer.

Postie brings a parcel!

Sunday I spent a lot of time reading knitting and craft blogs, and landed on Get Knitted. So I had to order some wool... I wanted to have something relatively simple to knit, the sock I'm currently working on has seed stitch panels. Because my concentration is so bad at the moment I keep making mistakes. While the sock will be perfectly functional with some misplaced stitches it seems a shame to put so much effort in and the final sock have loads of mistakes.

And then I thought that since I was ordering anyway, I'd get the Spring/Summer Vogue Knitting International. And of course I needed needles too - now I'm wishing I'd got 2 sets so I could knit the pair simultaneously. Ah well, next time I'm ordering! (good excuse!)

As you can see, the parcel also contained a sock pattern, Get Knitted biro and a lollipop too! Ordered Sunday, had an email Monday morning to say the parcel had been despatched, and arrived this morning. Great service.

Can't wait to get going, but will have to wait for John to hold the skein for me to wind... I should have ordered a swift while I was at it!