Am I the Only One ...

 

Image from Google Images - BBC Good Food - Porridge Bowl

Am I the only one who looks at a bowl of 'porridge' like this and thinks 'for God's sake just give me a bowl of porridge ... please'.

Google Images - Stock photo

Just nice warming, plain porridge made with water in my case but occasionally with a splash of almond milk to finish.  Some days I do take the more healthy road and add a sliced banana or a dollop of apple sauce but I make sure that gets eaten up in the first few spoonfuls so that I can finish on a nice plain porridge taste.

A Health Update

I thought I'd do a quick one-off health update as lots of you have been very kindly enquiring about my health, and I have now finally got the results of the x-rays I had a month ago.  They had not been forwarded to my doctors office but after managing to get a telephone appointment and speaking to him last Thursday he sent for them immediately and then I had a face to face consultation for over half an hour the next day - yes actually in the surgery with a doctor!!

Basically my initial problem was with L5 (circled in green) and started with stress tissue damage and inflammation causing damage to the vertebrae.  This then led to my muscles reacting and protecting that area which in turn caused a fracture higher up in my back T12 (red circle).  This has now collapsed and is triangular shaped instead of being square.

I am really lucky that the radiologist at the hospital noticed the now very pronounced curve to my back and made a point on one of the three x-rays taken, of x-raying higher up than he had been instructed to.  This cleverly captured both the fracture that was higher up as well as the damage in the lumber area that he had been asked to x-ray.  If he hadn't done that I would now be waiting for an x-ray on the thoracic area of my spine.  It's nice when people work together to save the NHS time and money.

I am also very lucky in that the particular doctor that I have been talking to and finally saw on Friday also works at a specialist spinal clinic, as seemingly GPs these days cannot request MRI scans but in his position at the clinic he can.  I am now waiting to hear firstly about a DEXA scan and then afterwards if necessary an MRI.  This is to see if I have osteoporosis, which is quite likely as my Mum has it and possibly my gran also had it.  So more waiting but this time with more painkillers and at least knowing that the doctor finally knows most of the extent of my problem.

While I wait I am doing everything I can to help myself including a healthy diet, mild exercise, lots of rest, losing weight and learning to meditate.  The latter will help with my high blood pressure as all the tablets up to now that the doctor has tried me on have given me serious side effects that meant I had to stop them.  All this off my own bat but now with the doctors full agreement.  There now I've turned into a moaning about my health type of blogger - BUM!!

Anyway enough about all that .... what is your opinion on porridge?

😀😄😉

Sue xx

The Changing of the Seasons

 

No matter what this late in the year warmth and sunshine is telling us at the moment, it really is the time of the year to bring out the woolly pullies and stash away the lightest of Summer clothes.  Even in the unusual warmth of this years October it just feels wrong to me to be wearing light, bright colours so the only t-shirts I have left out are the more muted shades and the darker stripes that will see me through Autumn and Winter as an additional layer under cardigans, jumpers or fleeces.

So the other day the big swap around was done, well it's not really that big this time, just one drawer to empty of t-shirts and light tops and a few hangers to pull shirts off and then a quick switch over to jumpers and cardigans.

All the tops and shorts in good condition ... and that was most of them ... were quickly popped into the storage bag that the jumpers had come out of and in a flash of the hoover sucking the air out they were ready to be stashed under the bed.  The couple of t-shirts that were past their best were relegated to the 'sleeping in' pile in the drawer next to my bed.  No doubt in a few months they will be downgraded once more to the 'nice soft duster' pile.

Thank goodness for a little bit of secret storage!!

You would never know anything had changed 😃

Sue xx

Lazy Week, Cosy Afternoons

 

It's been a lazy type of week, my ongoing health problems keep me in most of the time, but this week we did go out on Tuesday to Poulton le Fylde to get Alan measured for a couple of new suits.  He needs to be very smart for work on the occasions when he has to venture into the office or to meetings, working mostly from home means jeans and t-shirts even when on secure line meetings, when visibility with other attendees at the meetings is a personal choice.

Anyway we found parking close to the tailors so I managed the couple of hundred yards walk to the shop, and very handily the carpark we were in was adjacent to a Wetherspoons so it would have been rude not to stop and have a spot of lunch.  We must remember to time the visit to pick up the finished suits with lunchtime ... the meals we both had were very tasty and very well cooked 😃

Yesterday I somehow came across a totally new to me YouTube channel.  Although it is in Russian most of the videos, of which there are only a few at the moment, have English subtitles.  The gentle music and the Summerhouse home that Daryadarcy is creating was absolutely lovely to watch and to relax into.

Although every time her beautiful cat came on the screen Mavis got a little excited.  After a while she settled down to watch with me, cocking her head to one side whenever the cat appeared on screen.

YouTube Link for anyone watching on phone etc.

Click on the photo to have a little watch yourself and you will realise why I found it so enthralling and relaxing.  She has a very similar taste in vintage and also re-using the things that she found when they bought the little summerhouse to me.  I have included the written link for anyone watching on a mobile device.

It was nice to sit and watch yesterday on a gloomy Thursday teatime, and seeing all that pretty china being broken up for the splashback it somehow reminded me that I had yet to unpack my shopping bag full of Beryl ware that was languishing in Alan's spare-room.

I knew I had one of my pretty plates missing!!

Sue xx

Do I Still Do the Things?

 

The fridge is fuller after a weekend shopping trip you can stop worrying about me now  😉

Someone asked me the other day if I still do 'the things that I used to do'.  

The short answer is Yes.

I still drink my coffee black, still eat the same foods, in this case yellow stickered strawberries with my morning Weetabix.

I still pick up the unused sachets etc if we eat out and don't use all the condiments.  This was from a couple of weeks ago.

And this from yesterday.

If we need anything from Dunelm ... and this week I needed a Winter-weight duvet for my bed ... we tend to go first thing on a Sunday morning.  Before getting our shopping we usually treat ourselves to a coffee in the café and for the last few months you have been able to buy a bacon bun for just a pound with each cup of coffee.  Now obviously I don't eat bacon but we still take advantage of the offer and get one each,  Alan then moves the four slices of bacon from one bun and adds them all to the other.  Meaning he is getting a well filled bun and a lot less carbs, which is the best thing for a diabetic.  

Well you know me rather than seeing a bread roll go to waste I scoop it up along with any other condiments and take it home wrapped in a poly bag if I've remembered or a serviette if I haven't.  I usually have a couple of twin packs of Lotus Biscoff biscuits in my bag so I have them with my coffee.

Yesterday we called to Aldi on the way back for a bit of shopping so I treated myself to a tube of Stackers, their version of Pringles, to go with the bun.  Which once home was filled with cheese, spring onion, mayo and iceberg lettuce.  It was a lovely lunch eaten while watching back to back episodes of Martin Clunes in Manhunt, series two.  Gripping stuff for a Sunday afternoon.

So the answer to the question is most definintely yes I still do all the things I have always done, eat the mostly the same things, buy yellow stickered bargains when I see them, pick up the spare condiments and binge watch pre-recorded programmes on the television so I can whizz through the adverts and not have to wait until the next day or week to see the next episode.  

I'm sure there's a lot more things that I 'still' do, but at the moment there are a lot of things that I can't do because of my ongoing health issues, which is very frustrating but I am working on things slowly but surely and I can see a glimmer of light at the end of this long tunnel.

Sue xx

October is Here

 

Wow, October is here already ... how the bloody hell did that happen?

If one more person asks me what I'm doing for Christmas I'll scream!!

(And YES that includes YOU Alan 👉)

Summer is almost completely packed away here, although there has been some preparation for next year to lighten my mood and give me the hope of actually doing some growing once again.  My posh new raised bed was built last weekend and was filled with the compost and manure that we already had waiting and there are three more bags to top it up to the top with in Alan's car boot.  These will just be placed on top as they are so that all the nutrients don't get washed away by a Winters worth of rain.

There has been some homegrown food this year thank goodness, our little apple tree gave us three apples, which were very unexpected considering the transplanting and waiting around in it's pot for so long, but very welcome.  Alan had two of them and made a pie and I have this one in my fridge.  And we have had a constant stream of Courgettes from the three plants I grew in pots while we were still at the flat and transplanted into the flower bed when we moved here ... oh and a couple of marrows when we didn't spot a courgette in time for it to qualify as such!!

It's a good job we have something homegrown as my fridge is a bare and desolate waste ground at the moment, that's what happens when you get used to living with a tiny fridge and suddenly you have SPACE to expand your horizons. 

 Don't worry it will be filled once I go shopping ... and you know I have a bit of a larder of tins and dried food  😉

Sue xx

A Final Peek

 

As promised here it is, a final peek behind the doors of my new home.

The only room left to show you is the bedroom, measuring in at a smidge over 8ft wide by 12ft 7 inches long it is a good sized room with lots of light coming in from the floor to ceiling double doors and window and the same high ceiling as the living room.  I have the voiles at the doors puddled on the floor as I haven't been well enough to hem them, and if I'm honest I am kind of loving the effect now, they might just stay that way.  One job less to do and it's a nice casual look.

I'm still loving the accent wall with it's Laura Ashley wallpaper, I'm so pleased I chose this one and in this colour scheme it gives a calmness to the room.

The mis-matched bedside tables were both Vinterior finds, you saw the Ercol drawers on the right before I moved in on  THIS  post and the dark wood French cupboard was another find a couple of weeks ago ... gosh sometimes I am so easily tempted!  Although that really has to be my last furniture purchase as I have pretty much run out of space for any more.

I am hoping that one day when I am in a more brutal mood this bookcase and it's contents will go, but for now my papery overspill of friends live in here with me. 

A calmer side of the bed, just the basics and everything I need to hand.

And that it is, the final room of the home tour.  To give you an idea of the full space and the overall layout, here below is the floorplan.

It also shows you how the annexe is connected to the main house.  The connection in the top corner of Alan's kitchen is his tall broom cupboard which has the main soil pipe to his two bathrooms and mine  behind a false back.  The whole thing is very well done, and although our kitchen are back to back we really can't hear each other at all when we are in them.

So my 336 square foot of living space is working out very well and proving to be a better and more useable space than the caravan, which actually had a total of 432q ft but some of it just wasn't used at all, hence me being confident that this would work for me.

Now the tour is over it's time to get back to some more regular and more normal blogging, and it's time for me to simply chat and to show how life is being lived here at Lavender Lodge.

Sue xx

A Quick Living Room Tour

 

It's time for a quick living room tour I think. 

Sorry to have kept you waiting but this week has been all about appointments and such, the boring stuff that I really do not want to talk about.  So ... some housey housey photographs to take my mind off things.

Two small steps past the kitchen and there is the bathroom door on your left, and heading onwards just  two more steps bring you to the living room. 

The modified radiator cover gives me a welcome extra surface for display of much loved treasures and a handy surface for putting down keys etc  The painted picture sellotaped to the wall was done by my son as my 60th birthday present but due to Covid and his work patterns was only delivered in person by him a few weeks ago.  I wanted to have framed myself once I had decided what colour scheme to go with, so it's there while I make up my mind.

It is a representation of this.

Just a girl in the woods by a simple log cabin ... my idea of heaven ... that I wanted to bring the spirit of to Lavender Lodge.

Anyway to carry on ... turn yourself around watching you don't fall over the ever present Pug, sometimes I think there are three of her she is simply everywhere!!

My gloriously lavender coloured sofa and footstool dominate the small room with a very welcome splash of colour, with most other things having come with me either from the Van or from Wales.  The bedside lamp re-invented now as an evening reading light and my much loved and years old lavender cushion having at last found it's perfect home.

Opposite my sofa and from my viewing position you can see what I see when I sit down on the sofa to relax, and there's been a lot of that recently!!  Everything fitted in so neatly thank goodness, although I do feel slightly dominated by doggy beds.  One or the other was supposed to be the choice but both the dogs and Ginger the cat vary their choice of bed so often I can't bring myself to take one away and leave someone disappointed.

The light floods into this room so wonderfully through the almost floor to ceiling and wall to wall double doors and windows, and the vaulted ceiling takes the eye up so well that although this space is small ... just over 9ft by 12ft ... it feels quite spacious.

There's just one more room to go, so I'll see you next week.

Have a good weekend.

Sue xx