It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

JIL

taurusgb wrote: »

Thanks again for all the good wishes. Am sitting in my hospital bed feeling sad & sorry for myself as painkillers don't seem to be working as well as they did. Also we have had to cancel a 3 day youth hostel trip next week which was supposed to be a (cheap) surprise trip for my DS2 16th birthday as It doesn't look like I will be well enough to go.

On top of that, I was chatting to DH when he visited this afternoon and remembered a couple of incidents from our recent camping holiday when I seemed to lose all strength in my lower body so couldn't get up without help. Don't really see how this fits in with my other symptoms but will have to tell consultant on Monday just in case - and I feel soooooo stupid for not thinking about it before. I'm sure the doctors will think me all kinds of a fool.

Am also trying HARD to remind myself how DH, DD2 & DS2 are doing their very best to keep the home fires burning the best way they can but am aware several months of my hard work OS'ing are being wiped out as I sit in my hospital bed.

I'm also aware of garden produce that must be ready to dehydrate or freeze to help get us through the winter and I'm not there to keep on top of it.

I know I must sound horrid, and unappreciative - just needed to get it off my chest to people who aren't close enough to be hurt by anything I whine about.....so thank you for reading.

I just wanted to say that over the past few years I have had quiet a few spells in hospital and it is not easy sitting around not being able to do things that we would normally take for granted. Your family may well surprise you, they will have taken lessons from you and may well be thinking before they make tea etc how would mum do it?
You really do not sound horrid and unappreciative, just frustrated and fed up? and who would not be, if in your situation.

Make some lists of things that need doing with some hints and tips of what to do in the garden, or do the family a meal plan and do the shopping for them on the internet. This way you may feel you have some control over what they are eating and the budget?

Hope you soon have some answers and clarity. Take care

Charis

shelley_crow wrote: »

I've had the unholy three due within a few days of each other, pet insurance, contents insurance and AA cover. I got a good deal through M&S and quidco for contents, £65 per year plus £45 cashback, let's hope it works! I've paid £99 for the full works on the breakdown cover, RAC were much cheaper so they bettered it. Pet insurance left to go, eek.

For next year, if you shop with Mr T, the 'Rewards Scheme' includes RAC membership. I get extra points as I have a Mr T Visa, so each year I get my RAC membership (roadside, recovery and at home) and my son's magazine subscription from the points. There's a big choice of different RAC membership packages.

Softstuff

bonnie_bumpkins wrote: »

This morning I have used up all sorts of veg leftovers (mainly stalks and tough end bits) with leftover veg stock, garlic, onion, whatever herbs came out of the cupboard first and a tin of T***o value range mushy peas which I tried and didn't like. Simmered for about an hour. It smells lovely and I'm going to whizz it into soup.

That makes the best soup .

If you get bored of what I call "veg-ish soup", you could always add a teaspoon or two of curry powder for "curried veg-ish soup". We like both.

I find the key to the taste is variety. I always have carrot, onion, potato and garlic in it, and then add in whatever else there is: cabbage, zucchini, pumpkin, sweet potato, brocolli, cauli etc. If it isn't tasting as good as you expect are you seasoning well? I find it's not too tasty until it has a good pinch of salt and pepper. I haven't tried the butter suggestion (thanks MARDATHA), but I will now. Sometimes I sprinkle a bit of cheese on top for fun when it's in the bowl.

Glad to see you've delurked. Have a slice of virtual cake.

GREYQUEEN - A recipe suggestion for your squash is what we do sometimes with pumpkin here. Roast it until soft, fry off some garlic, puree them together with a little cream, and use it on spaghetti as a very thick sauce. Nice if you have a bit of grilled chicken with it too.

TAURUSGB ((HUGS)) hope you get some answers and treatment soon.

Rosanna79

Delurking after months - the last thread became too unwieldy too follow with the time I had available.
Seems ages since I posted.

Interesting to hear other people's take on Aldi /Lidl.. When we lived in East London these were shops we would simply never visit for similar reasons to other posters as well as the fact that there always seemed to be aggressive beggars hanging around. It was Mr T mainly and the odd drop in at Waitrose late on Saturday when the goods were being marked down.

What a change when we sold up and moved to my hometown. I ended up with a very stressful health visiting job and OH was unable to find suitable employment so he took over the household work including the shopping. He proved extremely efficient at that among other tasks. When I thankfully retired I saw no reason to take over the shopping part of his role.

Needing to keep extremely active to facilitate my recovery physically I've tended to be out a lot with craftwork classes , writing group and endless walking with the local Council walking scheme. I've fitted in going along with OH on the weekly shop when I wasn't walkingetc. He's brilliant and never complained.

As my mobility increased from 2 sticks between the bedroom and bathroom to being able to walk 3 miles several times / week and OH's mobility decreased (until his recent op successfully changed things) life drastically changed.

During the month of December when it was impossible to take a car out I discovered that by being flexible with the brands it was indeed possible to maintain the storecupboard / freezer supplies using just our nearest supermarket which is Aldi and whatever small shops i could walk to- OH certainly couldn't get out and I had no choice but to get out and use ALDI. It became somewhat of a social occasion to go out most days as I could only carry what would fit in a rucksack as both hands were taken up with walking poles.

Yes it's great to return to normality and the range of shops we normally use . OH's Organisation is such that we have a preprinted shopping list - unless it's ticked off on the list it doesn't get bought and he outlines where things should be bought. I simply take the trolley, set my Garmin sports watch on and do the High st bit including the weekly market. By the time I've got back home he's often done Aldi and anything else we need is bought at Morrisons when we use the car. In any event I will walk back from there and still clock up 2-3 miles walking for my food/ exercise diary which please my dietician!

Teamwork is essential in this OS lifestyle and I find OH's being in charge of that a real bonus. WE both keep a keen eye on our budget

He did learn to cook as well but now I'm retired & I have both the time and inclination to cook everything from scratch he says he just can't cook like me so we've settled for my having one day off/week from the kitchen. How can I not bask in the glow of such compliments? I'm still out walking with my friends and being a lady who lunches while OH has a lie in or does is his own thing.

We have a wonderful kitchen garden and work together growing our own. I really don't miss work! Retirement's ACE!!

ceridwen

taurusgb wrote: »

On top of that, I was chatting to DH when he visited this afternoon and remembered a couple of incidents from our recent camping holiday when I seemed to lose all strength in my lower body so couldn't get up without help. Don't really see how this fits in with my other symptoms but will have to tell consultant on Monday just in case - and I feel soooooo stupid for not thinking about it before. I'm sure the doctors will think me all kinds of a fool.



I know I must sound horrid, and unappreciative - just needed to get it off my chest to people who aren't close enough to be hurt by anything I whine about.....so thank you for reading.

You dont sound "horrid and unappreciative" at all - you sound human and its entirely understandable when one's life is disrupted like this to worry about being able to "pick the reins back up" again once things improve and how things are being managed during "temporary leave of absence" from that life.

As for any thoughts of "doctors thinking you all kinds of a fool":
a. Its not up to them to have any personal thoughts or feelings about the patients they are treating - its just their job to get on and treat them regardless and keep any personal thoughts/feelings they have about them to themselves.
b. I'm sure they wont even be thinking anything like that in the first place anyway. They will just be glad you mention those symptoms now - whether they turn out to be relevant or no to how you are feeling now. Good doctors like to know all relevant factors that might influence their diagnosis.

Take care and hope you soon feel back to normal.

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EDIT: Thanks to the poster who mentioned the banana icecream - even those things that are "not so much a recipe - more a method" iyswim are worth knowing. In fact I would say - particularly worth knowing. I often have frozen bananas in and do find myself wondering what to do with the odd bit of cream so as not to waste it - sounds ideal to put the two together.

GreyQueen

ceridwen wrote: »

GREYQUEEN

Black medic?? Well - I'll be darned - I never heard of that before - so had a quick google and its not native to these here isles (could explain it then.....:cool:).

I bethought myself - it does look like it might be edible and googled that too and found that the seeds are - either raw or ground. Fancy experimenting??:rotfl: I'll hazard a guess that one could scatter the raw seeds over a salad or grind them up and use them to bulk out some flour maybe???

Morning Ceridwen, not sure we're talking the same plant, it's Latin name is medicago lupulina? It's deffo native to Europe and indeed to most of the world, see except from Wikipedia below.

This plant can be seen through the old world: all of Europe, a great part of Asia, including China, Korea and Taiwan, as well as the Indian sub-continent, North Africa, the islands of the Atlantic (the Canaries, Madeira) and throughout the United States, including Hawaii.
It thrives in dry limestone grounds and coastal sand dunes, where it suffers less competition from the other plants. It is relatively cold resistant and can be seen in mountains up to 1800m.

It's all over my lottie, trefoil leaves a bit like clover and small tufty yellow heads, imagine a daisy minus petals. The seeds start off in a little cluster green and turn black. Grows like cress on my plot and I'm sure as heck not on either limestone or coastal sand dunes.

I once borrowed the Daily Telegraph's Book of Weeds (or some similar title) which was a handy A4 photoguide, from the library. It helpfully bands weeds as Red, Amber or Green in terms of their hazardness to the gardener. Most of the things on my lottie fell into the Red Zone; horsetail, creeping thistle, curled dock, bindweed and greater bellbind and various other horrors. And couch grass....if only I didn't have the couch grass.:(:(:(

When I weed I use 2 containers; Good Weeds and Bad Weeds. Bad ones are the things which will laugh at being composted and come thru viable and they get taken, in a compost bag on the back of the pushbike, down to the green waste section at the council tip. Good Weeds can be composted safely on the lottie, and will be.

When I'm gardening I also usually have a container for the trash (nails, glass, bent cutlery, bits of guns and uncle-tom-cobbley-and-all) and a smaller container for the Archaeology; the Neolithic knapped flints, interesting bits of pottery and clay pipes.

Whoever thinks of gardening as restful has obviously never dragged a badly-neglected allotment back from the brink by the scruff of it's neck.

Oh, you can eat the seeds of the common mallow roasted, if this is an experiment you haven't tried yet.

Well, time to have my breakfast then I shall need to get up to said lottie and wrangle some docks out of the ground. Like to dig them up in one as if you tug, you can snap the root and they'll regenerate as soon as your back is turned.

Hope everyone has a great Sunday; weather's cool here with sunshine and lots of cumulus clouds, so could go either way.

ceridwen

Yep - thats what I was looking at GreyQueen. I was interpreting "Europe" as meaning mainland Europe (aka the Continent) - as I know most peeps in Britain dont regard Britain as being part of Europe iyswim. A whole other story there - and, politically-speaking, nor do I these days - as its costing us all too much (and not just financially)....:(

Hmmm....seeds of common mallow roasted edible eh??:D Mentally adds to that great long "To try out" list.....

I raised a couple of eyebrows the other day when out on a guided walk and I picked and ate a wild flower - well...I'd just read that it was edible and hadnt tried it yet....so no time like the present...here it is/pick/chomp...:rotfl:(conclusion = will do for decorating salads).

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LARUMBELLE

How goes it for you lass? Been concerned not to hear how things are recently...

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EDIT: and you know the world Financial Situation is worrying you at a personal level when you start having dreams relating to it. Just recalled that I dreamt in t'night about having moved to a bigger/better house (but still interim en route to Final Home) and was asking myself why I felt a bit bothered about it - as it had only cost a coupla thousands £s to swop (a lot less than it would ITRW) - so it didnt matter that a couple of thousand £s had been spent on a "halfway up the ladder" house - even thought it wouldnt be for long.

THEN - I realised that the house was full of the previous owners' junk and the central heating was solid fuel (ie expensive to run) and the previous owner had had a housekeeper to run the house and it would be too big to run on my own/couldnt put her out of a job because I couldnt afford her and the house was much bigger than I thought it was. Well - THAT dream didnt take much interpreting at all to wake up worrying personally about whether "the oar will get snatched out of my hand" that I need to "paddle my canoe". I sternly reminded The Universe at that point at just how far my life had strayed from what I had expected already and "Dont try it Mate at making it stray any further" and am back onto checking and rechecking financial plans....

GreyQueen

Yup, that's the ticket. Meet it, greet it and eat it.

I've possicked around the countryside in Tuscany, in Slovenia, in Bulgaria and in Greece and the majority of the wild plants are exactly the same ones which we have here.

Mind you, never saw peace lilies growing wild in Blightly; cracked someone I was travelling with in Crete up by yelling; "Look! Escaped pot-plants!" when I'd spotted peace lilies on a mountainside. I assumed they must be escaped pot-plants as they originaly came from the cloud-forests of Central America. Crete certainly has prickly pear cactii in abundance, so that's an American import which has naturalised quite happily.

We've now got Golden Rod (Canadian import) flowering around here and very handsome it is too.

And I never yet saw wild peonies in the mountains of Scotland but you can occasionally spot them on high pastures in Tuscany, usually in a declivity down by a stream.


Oohhhh had a worry a moment ago as I thought a bit of a filling had come adrift but it was a bit of grit or a stone from the sultanas I'd chucked into my porridge because it is Sunday and I felt like living it up.

((kidkat)) hope your dental woes will soon be over, sounds like you're having a grim time of it.

mardatha

Our garden is a sea of liquid mud. The henpen is a swimming pool of sludge. The hens took one look outside and sensibly stayed in. I am so tired of RAIN. Has anybody got a good recipe for an Ark?

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

Our garden is a sea of liquid mud. The henpen is a swimming pool of sludge. The hens took one look outside and sensibly stayed in. I am so tired of RAIN. Has anybody got a good recipe for an Ark?

Errrmmm.....well there is a certain book that memory vaguely tells me included the details about how to build an Ark to escape from a coming Flood......

Do you want me to look up copies for sale for you on Amazon?:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

(I just so know how to live dangerously sometimes.....:rotfl:and the next thing is I can look up some good recipes for kale if you like...:D).