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curiouswombatLife this week has simply been proceeding. I have achieved 2 of my 'really must do' list of things - and attempted, but failed at a 3rd. That 3rd thing was to have blood taken for my routine thyroid checks to see that the meds are still right. A district nursing colleague would take the blood and write out the form, I'd drop the specimen off at the path labs as I was going up to the hospital. No problem - simples!
Except that the DN, who spent two years working in the anti-coagulation clinic taking blood, couldn't get any out of me - I have what is known in the trade as poor veins. At least District Nurses are happy to admit when they can't do it without poking multiple holes, which medical staff tend to do.
So on the to-do list for this next week is 'ring up blood-clinic and make an appointment'. Along with 'get boat/rail tickets to go to WriterConUK' - which is the weekend after next!
Things achieved? The enormous rampaging fuchsia at the front of the house is not blocking the pavement any more, I have just taken the hedge-trimmer to it and then taken a boot-full of fuchsia tot he recycling depot. Thing 2? I have made an appointment to have my eyebrows waxed!
Yesterday I had lunch out with Mum in the next village to hers and picked up some cream to have later with the cherry pie she had made. I am local. I know to pick the cartons of cream in the shop fridge labelled 'For Pets. Not Pasteurised. Not sold for human consumption'. Visitors must think the pets in the north of the island are very pampered...
These cartons actually contain thick, thick, farm cream - so thick it stands up on the spoon. This comes to the shop straight from a local prize-winning herd. The owners refuse to send their cream to the dairy to be mixed with everyone else's and pasteurised - they still hand-skim it - but can no longer, officially sell it fresh as fit for human consumption. But those in the know, know that the best cream on the island comes from that one village shop, labelled 'For pets'!
For those who are interested, D-d is having an excellent time in Australia. She rang us up this morning; she had been riding yesterday and taken part in a goat round up. S2C wondered what the people who usually did the job ere called - 'goatboys'?
I think I won - I suggested, especially as she has just been in Argentina, 'Goatchos'.
Pictures this week are simply taken in the hedgerow on my way to Mum's. I love the number of flowers and colours that just grow in the verges.
For a selection
The harebells are in flower - these are growing in the hedge -
I tried to get a close-up, but it was a bit breezy and difficult to get them completely still. This is as good as I got, which is not very -
And thistles - thistles are really rather pretty, I think.
So is the ever-present cow parsley -
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deborahw37 has just posted a picture of ripe blackberries - ours are still in bud...
And, only about 10 yards further along, were some big daisies - probably self-seeded from a garden somewhere -
Somehow flowers seemed suitable for this week.
Except that the DN, who spent two years working in the anti-coagulation clinic taking blood, couldn't get any out of me - I have what is known in the trade as poor veins. At least District Nurses are happy to admit when they can't do it without poking multiple holes, which medical staff tend to do.
So on the to-do list for this next week is 'ring up blood-clinic and make an appointment'. Along with 'get boat/rail tickets to go to WriterConUK' - which is the weekend after next!
Things achieved? The enormous rampaging fuchsia at the front of the house is not blocking the pavement any more, I have just taken the hedge-trimmer to it and then taken a boot-full of fuchsia tot he recycling depot. Thing 2? I have made an appointment to have my eyebrows waxed!
Yesterday I had lunch out with Mum in the next village to hers and picked up some cream to have later with the cherry pie she had made. I am local. I know to pick the cartons of cream in the shop fridge labelled 'For Pets. Not Pasteurised. Not sold for human consumption'. Visitors must think the pets in the north of the island are very pampered...
These cartons actually contain thick, thick, farm cream - so thick it stands up on the spoon. This comes to the shop straight from a local prize-winning herd. The owners refuse to send their cream to the dairy to be mixed with everyone else's and pasteurised - they still hand-skim it - but can no longer, officially sell it fresh as fit for human consumption. But those in the know, know that the best cream on the island comes from that one village shop, labelled 'For pets'!
For those who are interested, D-d is having an excellent time in Australia. She rang us up this morning; she had been riding yesterday and taken part in a goat round up. S2C wondered what the people who usually did the job ere called - 'goatboys'?
I think I won - I suggested, especially as she has just been in Argentina, 'Goatchos'.
Pictures this week are simply taken in the hedgerow on my way to Mum's. I love the number of flowers and colours that just grow in the verges.
For a selection
The harebells are in flower - these are growing in the hedge -
I tried to get a close-up, but it was a bit breezy and difficult to get them completely still. This is as good as I got, which is not very -
And thistles - thistles are really rather pretty, I think.
So is the ever-present cow parsley -
deborahw37 has just posted a picture of ripe blackberries - ours are still in bud...And, only about 10 yards further along, were some big daisies - probably self-seeded from a garden somewhere -
Somehow flowers seemed suitable for this week.
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no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 05:34 pm (UTC)I'm amazed by how far ahead our blackberries are and I want some of that cream to go with my crumble!
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Date: 24/07/2011 05:41 pm (UTC)And you can see, now, why I was so amazed that you'd been picking blackberries.
Madrell's cream is glorious - and very, very, good with cherry pie!
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Date: 24/07/2011 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 05:56 pm (UTC)These cartons actually contain thick, thick, farm cream
Yummmm!! That sounds delish.
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Date: 24/07/2011 06:34 pm (UTC)The farm cream is wonderful - so rich that it is a pale golden colour rather than, well, cream coloured!
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Date: 24/07/2011 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 06:41 pm (UTC)The cream doesn't need to have its fat content measured either, as it it is not sold as 'whipping' or 'double' - but the butterfat content is probably over 50% as it is thicker than any double cream I've bought anywhere else - and that needs a minimum of 48% butterfat.
Thistles are really interesting when you look at them close up.
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Date: 24/07/2011 06:25 pm (UTC)And what beautiful photos! *wow*
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Date: 24/07/2011 06:45 pm (UTC)As for the pictures -
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Date: 24/07/2011 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 06:46 pm (UTC)Mind you Mum's dog is partial to a spot of 'pet cream' - preferably with cherry pie.
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Date: 24/07/2011 06:40 pm (UTC)Good luck with the blood :-)
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Date: 24/07/2011 06:48 pm (UTC)And I see you have finished your bigbang story, too - hurrah for us!
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Date: 24/07/2011 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 08:48 pm (UTC)I've got my pictures from my artist - she's been doing them a chapter at a time more or less as I wrote so I won't need to contact them and ask for the artist stuff - but you could do that bit now and I think I'll notify them as soon as I put
Hmm - might be an idea for me to do some author's notes explaining what went before, too, now I think of it...!
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Date: 24/07/2011 09:35 pm (UTC)Yes. (I've actually written about 500 words explaining how the colony came into being and another 500 summarising my first five stories...)
I'd better go and read the FAQs!
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Date: 24/07/2011 07:02 pm (UTC)But the harebells are gorgeous! We call them campanula or bellflower in the US, but they don't grow well here in the Ozarks, alas. Our weather swings are too extreme, I guess.
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Date: 24/07/2011 07:25 pm (UTC)But they are not allowed to cut back the hedgerows in general until 31st August - so the thistles, hogweed, cushag and so on that grow in hedges need to be cut by hand.
The harebells are recovering well in that hedgerow - for a while the hogweed was overwhelming them but then it has been cut back early for the past couple of years and is now under control again.
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Date: 24/07/2011 07:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 07:27 pm (UTC)The thistles will need, by law, to be cut back before the 1st August, to discourage them from setting seed - so they won't get a chance to look pretty for much longer.
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Date: 24/07/2011 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 08:02 pm (UTC)These cartons actually contain thick, thick, farm cream - so thick it stands up on the spoon. This comes to the shop straight from a local prize-winning herd. The owners refuse to send their cream to the dairy to be mixed with everyone else's and pasteurised - they still hand-skim it - but can no longer, officially sell it fresh as fit for human consumption. But those in the know, know that the best cream on the island comes from that one village shop, labelled 'For pets'!
Typical! All that government interference.
So is the ever-present cow parsley
Yup, we call it "Queen Anne's Lace" but it's in all the fields right now, along with Chicory.
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Date: 24/07/2011 10:40 pm (UTC)I just love the way that the farm and the shop took notice of the 'must be pasteurised' ruling - then worked around it!
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Date: 24/07/2011 08:07 pm (UTC)I have the same problem with my twisty, puny veins. I'm sure you know to drink lots of liquids and eat well before going in to give blood, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded.
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Date: 24/07/2011 10:43 pm (UTC)When I do get an appointment at blood clinic at a time that works for me, I'll make sure I am positively over-hydrated!
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Date: 24/07/2011 08:57 pm (UTC)I wish I had that kind of cream here. Two years or so ago, you could buy fresh cream in our delicatessen stores. Now, because they all have to be pasteurized, you can't it anymore, which to my mind is a total shame.
ROTFL Goatchos is a real find. I see D-d is having the trip of a lifetime.
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Date: 24/07/2011 10:47 pm (UTC)It mus have been two or three years ago that the 'all cream must be pasteurised' law came in here, too - I just love the way that the local farmer and local shop have found this way around the rules!
D-d is having a wonderful time. I am really looking forward to seeing her pictures when she gets home. I was rather proud of goatchos...
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Date: 24/07/2011 09:26 pm (UTC)I do hope your daughter has photos of the goat round up!
Lovely flower pics although I think your cowparsley is actually hogweed. I'm currently developing beefy forearms cutting down acres of thistles with an old fashioned hook!
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Date: 24/07/2011 10:53 pm (UTC)I'm hoping for photos of the goat round-up, too.
No - that is definitely cow-parsley - hogweed used to grow badly on that stretch of road - much, much heavier, and the flower heads green not white - ugly stuff.
But the staff of the roads department have been very good about cutting it back before it could seed in the past couple of years and it is almost gone. Which is why the other flowers are getting a chance to grow back; for a few years almost everything was strangled by the hogweed and it is good to see that the other flowers have survived!
Bes of luck with your thistles.
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Date: 24/07/2011 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 09:42 pm (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 24/07/2011 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 25/07/2011 01:29 am (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
who thinks that even the sheep on the Isle of Man were probably celebrating today :-)
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Date: 24/07/2011 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 10:01 pm (UTC)I like the story about the cream - some of our food laws are ridiculous! I blame the EU :>)
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Date: 24/07/2011 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 24/07/2011 10:07 pm (UTC)And it's interesting what you know when you're a local, isn't it? The cream sounds delicious.
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Date: 24/07/2011 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 26/07/2011 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 26/07/2011 07:12 am (UTC)