Been a bit quiet…
I am feeling the lockdown hard. I shout at things I shouldn’t and get angry at FB posts. I am someone who has lived in England longer than I was in Scotland, but I wasn’t born in Scotland, far far far from it, but I am inclined to follow the First Minister Nicola as the government in Westminster are handling Covid so badly I have deliberately stayed away from the briefings. #bodybagboris is trending. It’s a hashtag so appropriate as he fails to answer PMQs without lying about the success of their strategy. 60,000 deaths is nowt to be proud of.
It freaks me out that the lockdown is over when our daily death rate is still high but I now feel better if I go for walks into town. Staying at home 24/7 is affecting me, I am not feeling at all positive, I cry at the slimmest plain comment and it is doing me in. Like an email I received two days ago sent me into tailspin. My technology at home is not the same as a place I go to work and I’ve been doing online training before lockdown which seems to operate differently on my computer and I don’t get to print out proof of completing the training… Not ideal, and even less so when I get asked to complete the training as soon as possible two days after the government lifts the work ban. Nothing changes…
And moreover it doesn’t help when we are all trying our best to adapt to this and I am feeling so frustrated by the effect this has had on me. Having been dormant for a while, my MS symptoms seem to be sneaking back out of hiding. Our daily walks are tricky when those are to do with continence. A subject I struggle to talk about with the kids, well with anyone to be honest, and I don’t want to end up not going out for fear this is going to happen. I need to raise it with my MS team when I eventually get an appointment this year. I’m supposed to do regular appointments and blood tests to ensure my medication doesn’t affect my liver. If they put me on 3 monthly appointments to monitor that why is it ok to not see me till September? The virus has now made it less essential somehow- I keep forgetting the tablets and having flushing, not nice, but I’m not even able to raise that with anyone at the moment.
Some things definitely are not helping me to hit the garden… in fact I’m not watering enough. But being fed candy floss by my daughter is raising my blood sugar so life’s not bad again.
What’s in our hedge?
Cutting through the layers of the front hedge, there are peculiar discoveries. What has been planted and what is something that has seeded? There are spiky spindly ones and boy there are multiple fronds of mares tail.
A few Rowans (not Romans auto correct!) have seeded themselves and as our road section has a lot of rowans as part of the garden city plan, that’ll be the reason. If I had known how lovely the roads with cherries look, maybe we’d be living on one of those instead! Things you learn in living in a place…
This is certainly easier to trim with my new gadget, which could have been a birthday present if I’d waited, but I tend to be impulsive like that? I didn’t think it would arrive overnight either? Post and courier delivery is happening quickly again. You just have to pick the right things. Possibly the larger distributors are reacting to the shortage of couriers fastest?
I will keep posting my garden musings as long as there is something I am discovering – like my oldest suggested the front grass needs watered. Hmm another job for the to-do-list!
End of strange Halfterm?
It’s been lovely but I don’t think I want a half term like this again. Can I get a job after this? The hedge has been cut but the amount of rowan saplings is alarming.
The garden bin is out for collection (today) but we can fill it twice over. I have my new trimmers/clippers and I know they will help exterminate! Exterminate! Lots of things I don’t want. The shed conversations are continuing as hubby needs a place to work, but I’m not sure the discussions are coming out in my favoured directions. A big shiny home office is turning out to be not in our budget… well we haven’t finished the second bathroom so that is not surprising! House is getting overlooked despite the things needing plumbed/tiled/painted/floored and needing finished.
Life isn’t easy when you can’t flick a magic wand! Hence my turning back to my plan for working hard as I can this year… hey I never thought I’d be furloughed (and I don’t know whether I have rules for that!) and now being asked medical history for the first time in one job… again MS may put me into a strange category. Who knows?
Charged and raring to GO!
That hand-held hedge trimmer got my oldest into the front and onto the front strip to help me with the hedge! Result! Came ever so quick too! Must hunt for a wheelbarrow in similar ways…
I finished cutting turf where the slabs are to go so I need sand and lime to put down. But the area is far from flat… not buying a roller! And we have soil mountains between the horse chestnut and sycamore. I nearly deadheaded the stripy rose chucking those about. The garden is being reshaped as I write, and whoever inherits it from us is also going to take a journey. (Not that I am in any hurry to shuffle off this earth place.
I am too busy shouting on social media for that. Government suddenly announced dentists can open – to the shock of said dentists – with only a matter of days notice. Seriously? Maybe my oldest can get her brace fixed… we can pick up some cakes today to celebrate! I know!
Rashly ordering gadgets…
My front hedge is starting to look like the individual bushes it is, so I ordered a hedge trimmer. Let’s see whether delivery will be tomorrow? Oh I’ve hexed it now! I even nearly applied for a job, until I realised it was not in Stevenage (the email header lied!) but as a medical editor with six years experience was required I baulked when I realised it was actually in Cambridge. It was three days a week! My ideal! But not if it involves an hour a day of travelling which I can’t/won’t be rushing to do.
The kids are on holiday! Yay! But it’s halfway finished and my husband is still working in the shed. And in case anyone thinks I spent a lot on the trimmers, I did not! This brand was not a household name and it was less by £9… thank you! I know there are all sorts of arguments about buying local but when shops are not open, what you gonna do?
We are still planting stuff and weeding. Next door gave me white cosmos and my gardening magazine (my reward for braving Tesco?) came with acquilegia seeds. Lots to do today and no need to be glum. Even children have spoken to me today!
