Wednesday's Words.

Good Evening, don't take the lovely graphic (Thank you Sugar) too seriously although the south of the country was warm and sunny we had gloom and cold winds, what we call in Scotland haar. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow and it will be a little warmerg.
Could not get out today as I had a doctor's appointment for a itch won't say where but the cream she gave me is working already. We were also waiting for yes you've guessed it the plumber, we have another leek at the new radiator and lastly Tesco's with with this weeks shopping so a busy day for us.
This afternoon I went into the kitchen to make a coffee and I saw one of our tiniest of summer visitors there were three Willow Warblers up the Rowan Tree at the bottom of our garden. This is very early for us to see these little smashers it is usually May before they reach us here. Made our day.
Last night I updated my bird watching diary if you are interested the link is in the sidebar. Till next time Love Joan.

Good Morning.

Thank you Missie for this lovely tag.

Good Morning it's me again still here and still trying to get well. Things are a lot better now the pains I have had in my chest are abating at long last and the cough has gone. I have been trying to get out and about a bit this week sometimes in the car other times trying to walk a bit, that has been hard as it has been cold and windy this week and it has been difficult to get a breath at times. This morning it was raining too when I walked round for a paper.Enough of of the medical report.
Stuart went out to give the grass its first cut at the weekend, after he had lugged the mower out of the shed got all the wires sorted and plugged in it started up and then bang it blew up. Think the damp of the winter must have got into the wiring or something it was only about four years old so we were not very happy about that. We have been up to the DIY store and bought a new one so that should be us for a while, nothing seems to last these days it's like toasters and kettles they used to last for years, now you are lucky to get a year out of them.
We are way behind in the garden what with me being out of commission and the weather this week we have barely started so we are hoping it will get a bit milder and dryer so we can make a start. Have some seeds to get planted so maybe I will get that done, that should not be too hard for me and just maybe Stu will allow me to do that. I had a surprise this morning I had a Begonia last year and I had popped it into a pot at the end of last summer as it still had a lot of flowers to come, later in the year I put it in the vestibule to rest then a few weeks ago I placed it on the kitchen window and low and behold this morning a lovely little shoot has appeared so hopefully it will go out again in the garden this summer and flower it's wee heart out.
I have been reading journals while I have been ill although not commenting much but have noticed so many seem to have disappeared which is so sad I seem to have lost so many friends, hopefully they will come back it awful to have lost so many from J-land.
Seems to be drying up a bit outside now hope that's the end of the rain for today so till next time. Love,

Joan.

Where Did March Go.

Good Morning, At last I am feeling a bit more like my old self. I managed out for a run in the car yesterday for the first time. What a difference three weeks makes at this time of the year the Daffodils, Forsythia the Blackthorn have all got the Spring dresses on and the grass is green again and the trees are budding, it all looked so wonderful yesterday and even the sun was shining. It was so good to get out for a couple of hours. I would like to thank you all again for the good wishes and prayers. It has been just one thing after another a lot of was side effects from the very strong Antibiotics I was given. I have a bad allergy to penicillin so in makes prescribing antibiotics difficult for the doctors, the ones I ended up on were supposedly like Domestos (strong bleach) so no wonder I am suffering, still I am so much better. I think what was so alarming was the speed it knocked me down. I was fine on the Wednesday just a bit of a cough Thursday lunchtime I phoned for an doctors appointment and managed to get one at 5pm and by that time I was really unwell and went straight to bed when I got back and that was the beginning of my dreadful three weeks. Hopefully it is all behind me now, poor Stuart is absolutely exhausted trying to keep up with everything including the ironing but I think he has learned a lot and his cooking is coming on great too.Richard too has been trying to help cooking up a storm one evening and filling the freezer with homemade soups and pasta sauces, full of goodness he said.
Today we are waiting for the plumber yet again as the wash hand basin in our nice new bathroom is still leaking, it has never been right but with everything else that has been going on we had not noticed it again, and Tesco's shopping will be here this afternoon its just like Christmas love shopping online. Only made one mistake last week ordered a Quiche and it turned out it was an individual one we had ordered so there was not enough for us both so Stu bought another one locally.
Have been doing a lot of reading and thought it was very funny that the book I was reading in hospital was very aptly named 'The Book Of the Dead' by Patricia Cornwell on of the nurses thought it was very funny. Got through a few more books mostly rubbishy things but that all I could concentrate on. Well I think that's about it for now not a lot happens when you are not out and about but things will get better I hope. Till next time,
Love Joan.

A Wee Update.

Hi, thought I would pop up or a moment and let you know how I have been doing the last week or so. First of all I would like to say a great big thank you for all the kind thoughts prayers and good wishes. Since I last wrote in this journal I have been in hospital and out again, was having a lot of bother breathing so I had to get this fixed. Am still a long way from being ok and have been warned this is going to take a bit of time for me to be back up and running again. Have been reading journals when I can but my concentration is not great with all the pain killers I am taking at the moment. Stuart is doing a great job looking after me nothing is too much trouble for him, I am so lucky. Today we are waiting for our first online shop from Tesco, am really looking forward to that, Stuart could have managed to go but it meant he would have been away for about 2 hours and he did not want to leave me for this length of time at the moment. We have been meaning to try this method of shopping before this but the occasion did not arrive till now. Think thats about it for just now hope you are all well and thank you again for the support. Love
Joan.

Hi just a short entry to say I will not be around much for the next week or two for some reason unbeknown to me I have managed to get Pneumonia. I had a bit of a cough from early on in the week but by Thursday it had become out of control. So I managed to get an appointment with the locum and she said chest infection and gave me antibiotics. During Thursday night I got steadily worse so we had to call out NHS 24 We had a Paramedic here and an ambulance within minutes did all the test for a heart attack all was well with that dept. I then had a call from the on call doctor she said all was well other than a temperate and to take, guessed it Paracetamol the tablet or every occasion. Friday I was getting worse all day the antibiotics were upsetting my stomach and I ached from to to bottom. Last night we had to call out NHS 24 again diffeart doc he said Pneumonia and he would try to keep me out of hospital so more antibiotics and steroids to help me along. So here I sit in bed poor Stuart is being nurse housekeeper etc but the stairs take it out of you. Today I have been a wee bit better and hopefully all the pills I am taking will soon have me back up and about. People around have been so kind phone calls visits not to me but Stuart spoke to them I have even had flowers for the neighbour across the road. Will have to go now am very tired after writing this put in a good word for me upstairs please.
Love

Sunday Supplement.

Its been a dreadful day here today, it has been blowing a blizzard for most of the day, the snow has not stayed any time on the road but it is lying in the garden. So all in all a horrible cold day. We have been busy or at least Stuart has with the decorating of the bathroom and phoning the plumber for bits and pieces that needed fixing, don't want to start ranting about that again after last week. My bruising is doing away well and has started to turn yellow so it makes a change.
Yesterday we decided to have a trip up to Loch Garten, the home of the Ospreys that I talk about in the summer, no Ospreys just now they are packing their suitcases to get ready to migrate from their winter holidays in The Gambia and should be with us at the end of this month. All was quiet at the reserve yesterday but we did have a walk up to the feeders and saw all the usual birds you expect Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch, Greenfinch and don't forget the Robin. The were ever so many Squirrels and I managed to catch the photograph below of the one and am very pleased with the result as they don't sit still very long.
As you can see from the photograph below it was a driech day over the mountains and it was very cold. We had heard of a special bird that was wintering up that way but there was no signs of it and we just about froze to death looking for it maybe another day when it is not so windy.
This next picture is not upside down it is a reflection in a little pond with the raindrops.
I just loved all the different colours of Lichen and grasses in this next photo it was so pretty on the moorland and brightened it up with its lovely colours.
It was a long day and we were tired when we got back, we were away over 12 hours, on such a cold day it does make you tired, we had all sorts of weather wind very heavy rain and the sun did try, all be it unsuccessfully but we did enjoy seeing the highlands with her winter coat on. Think thats about it for today hope you enjoyed the photographs so till next time. Love,

Humpty Dumpty,

Good afternoon quite a nice day up here sunny with one or two showers. This does not seem to be my week at all, the saga of the bathroom continues with a leak in the new radiator not a big leak but a drip drip. The water pressure seems to be getting worse so will have to phone the plumber tomorrow to see what can be done.
As I was saying in my last entry there has been an awful mess with the bathroom going in and I had to wash the varnished stairs on Thursday after the plumber had left. I said to Stuart later I thought the steps had become very slippery and could not understand why as it was just water on the mop. Yesterday afternoon I was coming downstairs when my feet went from under me and I fell very heavily on my hip and back. Poor Stuart must have got the fright of his life as I was screaming with the pain I have never felt pain like it in my life it was horrific. Stu ran to help and calmed me down and managed to get me upright on the step I just sat there till the pain eased. I really thought I had broken something but all seemed well after the worst of the pain eased off a bit. Today I have the most gorgeous bruise about the size of a dinner plate but it is not nearly as bad as it could have been. Managed a short walk this morning but the rain came on and made us turn back, pity, as I was enjoying it. Not much else to say today today and hope nothing else happens for the moment enough is enough. Maybe the new month will change the run of things. Stu always thinks the 1st of March is the beginning of Spring, certainly hope so. till next time Love,
Joan.