Good news on the Nanna front. She managed to convince them to let her home today. She wasn’t going to get any better than she was already in hospital - she wasn’t getting any sleep and the food there didn’t suit her so she was becoming more and more depressed and thin. Someone went out to the house on Monday to assess it and gave it the thumbs up. A bed was brought downstairs to the living room and she is now at home a lot happier and looking a lot better already.

Long may it continue. She isn’t all quite right yet - her concentration, eyesight and memory are all a bit meh but she looks a lot better so that is the main thing.

Iain and I finally finished the chicken run and last night I went to the local Chook Man and picked out 6 chickens. There are 5 different types and they settled in to their wee shed very nicely last night and early this morning Jessica (who is now my shadow and chook assistant) let them out in to their run for the first time at 7.45am and watched them for ages. We are trying to pick names for them as we go along but I am not liking some of them. There is NO way Iain is getting his favourite “Henrietta” and yet Jessica seems to have gone off “Cauliflower” which I DID quite like. I’ll let you know what names they end up with once they are sorted.

We saw some different personalities coming through and one going in and out of the shed and on to the nesting box about 4 times but not performing for her audience. About 9am we left to go and get ready for work.

Just as we were about to leave the house Iain told me they had started making a lot of noise and hopeful one of them was laying Jessica and I went back out to see. Sure enough, one of them was in the nest box again. She looked at us terribly indignantly mid push but when she realised we were going to watch AND photograph our first egg being laid, she got on with the job and squeezed it out.

We went to work, leaving them out in the run hoping there would be another one or two by the time we got back. It is now a race between Jessica and me to see who gets to the shed first. Actually, I get quite cross that she makes it there before me. Doesn’t she KNOW THE CHICKENS ARE MINE???? When we looked this evening there was another egg waiting for us - this time in the poo tray! Don’t worry - there wasn’t any poo in it - but we need to encourage them to use the nest box - we may not be se lucky the next time!

Excitement all round then here at the chicken run. More updates to follow, both for Nanna and the chooks.

Tags: Nanna

We got home on Saturday afternoon. We were away for a week - did you not notice? Did you miss me as much as I missed you?

We had a great time - more details will have to follow later as I am far too tired to start updating now but I know a couple of people will be waiting to hear news of Nanna so this is just a quickie to keep you going.

Nanna has had her plaster casts taken off her wrists this afternoon, has had more scans over the past couple of days and has been told she is nearly ready to be downgraded to our more local hospital. This is good news, especially for Papa who is driving twice a day to the big hospital in Belfast and that starts to take its toll on on even the youngest of people. It is also better to have her in her own home town - even for her own *head*.

While we were away we had a call from Lesley saying that Nanna had had a very bad night - I think it was Saturday last week. She had had a heart attack and was now smitten with pneumonia and had been wheeked away off to the high dependancy ward. That actually was a good thing - she had one-to-one care there and was put on to a higher dose of antibiotics etc and got much better much quicker there. We were almost sorry when she was well enough to leave that ward a couple of days later.

They now reckon there is a possibility that she had some level of heart attack that made her fall down the stairs in the first place. That kinda fits doesn’t it?

Some of you will remember the events of this time last year - it is a the anniversary of Denis’ death today, although he had his *attack* on the 17th and most of us think of that date as when he actually left us. Nanna seemed aware of the date tonight when we were there but thankfully she didn’t seem as upset about it as we have been fearing for the last few months. Funny old world huh?

In other news: the shed is built and painted and ready for kitting out for TEH CHICKENZ YAY!!! Can you WAIT? OMG I CAN’T!!!!

Tags: Holidays

While I continued with the garden this evening, Iain went to the hospital on his own. I managed to throw loads of seeds in to both seed trays in the greenhouse and into The Allotment after sectioning off a narrow path to where the shed is going to be if it ever gets built. This means that I am able to use a small triangular piece of dirt (technical term) which would otherwise be unused and have put in lettuce, radish, another row of carrots, rocket, and a couple of other things. The packets are still in my cardigan pocket which is less than 8 feet from where I am now but I am so bloody tired after all that AND some weeding and general tidying up that I can’t be arsed to get up to find out what else was put in.

OH! And I raked in grass seed to the 10’ by 8’ area which the chicken run is going to cover in the hope that somehow this will help with the soaking wet quagmire which is there at the moment. . . Can but hope! Been a busy girl huh?

The news from the hospital is less than comforting though. Not only is Nanna more and more confused rather than less and less as would be expected as the days wear on but after another x-ray this afternoon it has been discovered that she has a fractured JAW as well as her fractured skull and two broken wrists.

She had two x-rays taken at the first hospital as well as cat-scans and at least one MRI that I know of. Not only was this small detail missed but the way the family was informed was by accident - while Lesley was busy feeding her an orange a nurse came over and pointed out that it would be hard for her to eat with her fractured jaw ‘n’ all. WTF?

I DID notice a slight drooping of one side of her mouth last night while I was there. Just when she was speaking, with hindsight, perhaps that was a sign that her jaw wasn’t aligned correctly.

This is not looking good at all. It is hard to know what is going on when Iain and I only manage an hour a day at the hospital and daily 8am phone calls from Papa. We don’t really get a good chance to catch up with the gen on what is happening and I think the family need to sit down, away from the hospital and think things through. We will have to organise this soon.

The *confusion-going-backwards* thing is most disconcerting and has upset Iain this evening.

Some weeks ago, Iain started mentioning the possibility of taking some time off and heading away. Nothing spectacular - staying in Northern Ireland so *if anything happens we don’t have as far to travel to get home* like the 7 hour drive we had last year. I was not keen on the idea. I held up the decision making because I was not keen and finally, after Iain pushed several print-offs from the internet of self-catering premises we could have for various amounts of money I caved in because I felt I was keeping him from his down time.

He sent a cheque off for a deposit on one place and received a cheery reply from the owner. It is booked.

Last week it looked like it was going to have to be cancelled but after consulting with Papa and Lesley last night it was all back on again. I was kinda hoping for it to not be. I would rather have my time off in my house with my things round me and being able to relax and catch up with the tings I can’t do because I run out of energy. Going on holiday is not relaxing as far as I can see. I’m feeling very hard done by. Can you tell?

Tonight. Who knows now? Will I get my wish at the expense of someone else’s unhappiness?

Tags: Family, Nanna

A quick update on the Nanna front for everyone who has been kind enough to continue to ask.

She is now sitting up, looking a lot less swollen, although still mighty bruised with new bruises appearing! She is fully aware of where she is and knows everyone paraded in front of her. She remembers dates and names and places. We have been every day, I was there with Jessica yesterday afternoon and Iain went last night with David and we all managed to go together this evening.

There is still a little bit of grogginess / slight confusion there though. Yesterday she kept telling me with total indignation that no one had offered her any food all day. Not one person had even so much as offered her a cup of tea. I sympathised with her a couple of times and on the fourth time of telling happened to glance above her bed at the NIL ORALLY sign. I told her they were under instruction NOT to feed her, pointed at the sign and then described it to her as she couldn’t turn round to see it. She huffed a little at this and then scolded again that THAT was no reason why they couldn’t have offered her SOMETHING!

About 5 minutes later the complaining started again as if she had never said it before and I tried a different tack with her. Was she actually HUNGRY? “No,” she said “But they could have offered me something to eat all the same.”

This evening I was in at the same time as Lesley and listened while they discussed Lesley’s children’s visit this afternoon. Then Nanna argued with us that the kids had been in last night and today is Monday rather then Wednesday. . . We gently reassured her that it was Wednesday then she announced it is Louise’s birthday on Friday. Lesley and I shook our heads in dismay - Louise’s birthday is in October. maybe she wasn’t as well as we thought. A couple of minutes later Lesley realised that Nanna had been talking about another Louise and her birthday IS on Friday! She’s not as green as she is cabbage looking!


Finally I am finishing the multi-part Reader Interactive Task set last week, this is the hardest part to sit down to. If this had been the first on the list I may never have progressed past GO! Something that someone else likes about me. . . . It is almost unfair to ask a person to define this. In our culture it isn’t often that you tell people what you like about them, it is more likely you will nit-pick about what you don’t like. So this isn’t something that is always obvious or expressed unless you are in some kind of personal developement training *flashes back to David Brent type seminars I used to have to attend*.

I did a wee bit of a survey and out of the limited response I received it would seem that my writing / presence on the internet is what other people like about me. David said that WHEN I am in a good mood I have a good sense of humour although I wonder when was the last time he saw it shining through. Jessica finally came up with “cuddles” after 20 minutes of thinking time. Apparently I give much better cuddles than Daddy - he just puts his arm around her but I give her proper cuddles. You could be remembered for worse things I suppose

Jacqui came up with the most personal thing - that I can soothe ruffled feathers when I put my mind to it - but I kinda think that there is a great likelihood that I ruffled them in the first place

So we are left with my blog and what I choose for you to read about me and my family and my life. I don’t know if this is a good thing for people to like as it isn’t really real but perhaps it is getting too late in the night for me to analyse any further!

Please forgive the screen grab rather than a photo of this one - I was stumped!

So there you are, that is my Reader Interactive Task complete and despite moans about the level of difficulty to this one I have throughly enjoyed this jump-start back to the blogging world. I would very much welcome more Tasks if anyone should like to send any my way.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Tags: Memes, General

Iain has returned from visiting the hospital with good news. Nanna is now sitting up and although appearing a little confused earlier in the day she is now able to hold conversations, opening her eyes a little at a time, fully aware of what is going on and thankfully totally forgetful of all the horribleness of the past couple of days. She has no recollection of the fall either which is probably for the best. It is unlikely she will rib Papa about leaving her lying in the hall all night now!

Big sigh of relief and girding of the loins now for the return home and us doing a care-tag-team over the next few weeks.

Thank you to everyone who has offered support and sent their best wishes - all gratefully received I can assure you.

The Thing I Would Like

This is the one thing I have been excited about for the past while and which I have been dying to tell you.

The idea kinda all kicked off when we started to get the garden under control again and we dedicated one part of the garden to, what we laughingly refer to as The Allotment. You now know that I have brocolli, carrots, pumpkins and strawberries in that part with more carrots and brussel sprouts in seed there now too but there was still one small area of garden which was not going to be actively used and that bothered me.

A couple of Saturdays ago I delivered Jessica out to a friend’s house for a play date, literally in the back of beyond and in the 3 minutes I was there realised that I would love to have a less “building site” or developement” type garden. You know the type: a cul-de-sac of houses, backing on to another cul-de-sac of houses with a rectangular garden, times two, between neighbours. Jessica’s friend has low level walls built of stones and a lawn here and a smaller lawn over there and all very natural looking and some kind of peace about the landscaping. Yea, I know, I wouldn’t have the energy for theupkeep of such a place but dude - it would be fun trying huh?

I came back from that visit a little unsettled but still not knowing what I could put in the empty space. Then I received an excited phone call from my Uncle David - aren’t all phone calls from Uncle David excited? He had just ordered a weird thing called an Eglu and urged me to look up the web site that sells them and to look at the wonderfulness of the whole thing . .. This is a chicken run with attitude and he planned on getting 4 chickens to go in it too.

I caught his bug and started to think along the lines of *anything is possible* for a while, planning the garden around MY Eglu until reality took hold and I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to afford a new one and second hand Eglus are umm like umm hen’s teeth in this part of the world and although there are plenty in England through eBay they are all listed as Pick Up Only due to the sheer weight and size of them. Then I had a shift in thinking about a run and we headed off to B&Q to buy a shed which we will kit out as a coop and then build a run round that too.

So far we have the base in. We were supposed to have the whole shed built and in place last Sunday but the rain started and forgot to stop. At one point Iain insisted in continuing on with the laying of the blocks and I was determined not to leave him to it so Bailey and I sat under a large golf umbrella on a patio chair and encouraged him on to lay the blocks faster. When the rain got too heavy he joined us under the umbrella much to Bailey’s delight and got his face licked dry for his efforts. Iain - not Bailey.

We stood in the rain trying to work out the shed plans but as the paper got wetter our determination got damper and we gave up. We will finish it another day.

Since deciding to get chickens in the garden I have learned loads and done much research and know new technical words. I have been thinking ahead and am so obsessed with the idea have actually gone to the window at night to make sure *the girls* have been put to bed for the night and have on more than one occasion asked the kids if anyone has let the chickens out yet in the morning. I hate buying eggs now - preferring to wait for the FREE ones when they start arriving and am getting such a kick out of the whole *eating free food from my own garden* malarkey.

I even went to the fishing tackle shop last week and bought a pint of maggots for them, got home and THEN realised WE. DON’T. HAVE. CHICKENS.YET!

Today we ordered the wire for the run and I even ordered some special food which will create less-stinky poo which is better for the garden. I have even ordered 2 new compost bins from the council! And yes, I have names shortlisted. This may surprise you when you remember that neither of my children were named for three weeks after they were born!

It has been fun! I joined the Omlet forum and have found the people there to be really nice and full of advice. I have no doubt that they will keep me right when the chickens finally arrive. That may not be for a while though - can’t have them arriving before the run is ready - can’t have the foxes having Chicken Tonight!

I am thinking that the final part of my Reader Interactive Task will be tomorrow now - am too tired to add much more this evening. I have had a couple of sweet replies to my plea for things that you like about me so thanks for those

You like my Thing I Would Like? Would you like regular updates? You want photos? This is a good thing to want - yes? You are jealous - yes?

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

Tags: Chickens, Memes, General