Free

DH finally had a clear test on Friday, and another on Saturday.  I didn't test clear until Sunday, and then Monday confirmed it.     We were able to collect Miss Teen on Monday for the evening.

We're both still tired, which may be the clock change as much as anything.   We tested again on Tuesday as DH and Miss Teen had a 'thing' to go to.  We got Miss Teen to do a test as well.  All still clear.

The weather is now quite cold, and I'm missing the gentle warmth of last week.  It really helped to have the warm weather as it meant we could have doors and windows open to change the air in the house.    I'm chilly enough (with a jumper on) to consider turning the heating back on.

I collected Izzy's ashes yesterday,  and we put her and Wash in the same box (separated of course).   I've missed her a lot this week. The kittens are lovely, but aren't always ready for a cuddle like she was.  Mind you, she was not a cuddle sponge in her youth either, so I have hope for the future.

Miss Teen and I have an evening out to the theatre on Friday,  we're meeting DSD and DGD.   I'm lookinh forward to it (but I'm soooooooo tiiiiiiiiiired).

No end in sight for Flockdown. The indications are it's still some weeks before the girls can go free.  We're still buying vegetables so they can have "greens" every day. The grass is growing, but it isn't keeping up with their hungry beaks. 

Rheumatology told my GP they didn't think they could help.    I had an unexpected call with one of the practice doctors, to discuss what to do next.   The upshot was that I had an Xray on my neck yesterday.  One of the local hospitals has a walk in service, and it worked really well.   I asked if they could do it wile I was ying down, as the problem mainly occurs then.  Apparently they don't need to do that, so the xray was done standing.   I'm not hopeful that it will show anything, but you never know.  I have more blood tests booked for next week, and then there will be another GP appointment to work out what to do next.

While we were isolating we decided to try one of my parents jigsaw puzzles, one of the ones which they hadn't gt round to doing so couldn't be sure it was complete.  There are a few in the pile.  DH picked one, and it's a bit of a dull picture (imho) and with very muted colours.  It's called  Bombardment of Algiers  based on a famous painting,  and it's taking forever.  It's 3000 pieces, and at this rate it's going to be a year or more before we're done.  

We used all our trays and a load of baking tins for the sorted pieces. It was ridiculous.  Moving them was a logistical nightmare, and it was bounf to end in ears.

I ended up buying some stacking fast food trays (fab service from Cater Speed who lived up to their name) to use. At least they stack neatly into each other

I did manage to conect a little group to the top right corner the oher day, and I did a dance around the kitchen to celebrate.

 

Years ago we were whizzes at jigsaws.   Now we're hopeless!  I can see us giving up on this,  but I'd like to get it done,

 

 

longer than expected

DH tested positive for Covid.  

With the self isolation being 5 days,  we thought he'd be OK by day 6.  He wasn't.  He was still postive, and still unwell. It's been 11 days so far.   

I tested positive a few days after he did.  There's no point me testing again until either I feel better, or he tests negative.

It is dragging on.  I'm so tired.

We had a card and a letter from the Vet today, expressing sympathy about Izzy.  I cried. We cried.

Spring

It's been a beautiful balmy Spring day today.  It almost made me wish we'd waited a couple of days, so izzy could have gone out and enjoyed the sunshine.    We didn't, though, so I shut that train of thought down. Apart from writing it here, of couse.

I opened the bedroom windows to let the fresh air in.  Then the kitchen windows and door. The living room windows.   The hall window.  The downstairs toilet.  The lobby.   All day we've had gentle fresh air coming in.

I pent about an hour trying to do some deeper cleaning in the kitchen.  It started with me trying to sort out the at food cupboard (Izzy had different food to the kittens, her choice).  Then I had to clean all the cupboard fronts. And the inside bits of the dishwasher that the dishwasher cleaner thing doesn't reach.

And then I started batch cooking.   It takes hours, but it then provides us with many, many meals,  and is (overall) much less hassle than cooking separately.  There's less mess to clear up (as I only have to clear up once),  there's slightly less washing up (most of the stuff is used and reused). 

 It's also a good way to use a whole load of onions, carrots, mushrooms, garlic, leek, whatever, all at once.  I defrosted all the meat,  which means I won't stop part way through, even when  get fed up.  Which I do. Every time.    But afterwards, I always look back and think it was the right thing to do. 

I started with mutton mince for Shepherds Pie,  and I've got 5 pairs of meals from that, plus extra gravy. While that started to simmer, I made diced mutton, for tonight and some leftover to freeze.  I pressure cooked some Cypress potatoes which I'm going to put in the airfyer tonight.   (I'm a bit concerned that my Greengrocer thins that Cypress potatoes are the "any potatoes as long as they are floury not waxy" option).

As soon as that was on,  I started the bolognese.  I normally start with this as it takes the longest,  but the mince was not defrosted, and it was in biodegradable boxes so I couldn't put them in a water bath to speed them up.    I did it on the stove in the pressure cooker pot, and then I put the pot into the Instant Pot on slow cook. I'm not sure how masny meals that will produce, but I'd estimate 10-12  pairs of meals. Finally,  again started late because it hadn't fuly defrosted,  I made beef casserole using  shin of beef.  That needs slow cooking, so its on the hob at the moment on a low heat (in my spare pressure cooker pot). That'll probably be 4 pairs of meals or so. 

I was going to do chilli as well, I cheat and use Spice Entice,  so it normally only takes about 30 minutes.I hadn't got the meat out, I wanted to make sure I had enough of everything first.   However,  a couple of the onions I had delivered by the greengrocer yesterday were not good, so it's just as well I hadn't defrosted the meat for that.  

I was also going to make cottage pie (or Teviot pie...mmm suet pastry) filling as well,  but I didn't think I'd have enough vegetables.  I was right.  I also don't think I'd have the energy.

It's starting to cool nw so I need to go round and shut all the windows.

I hope it's cleared out the air.

Adieu, Izzy

It's finally happened.

Today we had Isobelle put to sleep.

I phoned yesterday to make the appointment,  her usual vet is away until the 28th.   I said I'd phone back.  DH and I discussed it and decided that it couldn't wait until the usual Vet's return, so we went ahead and booked.

I phoned them this morning to let them know that I was bringing her in to be put to sleep, and that I'd wait in the car until they were ready for us.

It didn't go as well as it might have done. 

It's done now, and she's at peace. I hope.   

I hope that Washburn and Maddie were there to welcome her and to show her around.

It was the right thing to do, but it still hurts.

She was such a lovely loon. My precious polydactyl.

Egg Dance

An egg!

At last!

It's been a long winter, and the Girls have been ver late coming back into lay.    I've got 4 Girls  (Poppy, Katie, Phyllis and Fleur) who are old enough to not be laying at all and, franky, I'd rather they didn't.  It takes a lot out of them, and I'd rather they stopped laying and enjoyed their henopause.

I have 4 girls (Violet, Elizabeth, Bott, and Astrid) who I'd expect to be coming back into lay at some point.  Yesterday's egg was from V, E or B, I'm not sure who.    Fay, well, she is somewhere in between.  It definitely wasn't hers.

I think it might be Bott.  I seem to remember she laid very pointy eggs... but this is the first egg after a long break, so I guess it could be from one of the others.

Of course I did the egg dance.   It was almost as exciting as a proper first egg.

 

Getting Jiggy

Where has the time gone?!

The neck pain and headaches got worse.  I went back to the Physio to see if she could give me some additional exercises to try,  and she pinpointed the source of the problem immediately. Well, she said "This is where the problem is ", pressed  the middle-ish of my shoulder,  and I said "Ow". Or words to that effect.

She explained why. I asked questions about my symptoms, and she gave reasonable sounding answers.   I left, happy that she was probably right, with a new set of additonal exercises.

They've made a difference.    In the last week (?) the ectopic heart beat and palpitations have also diminished, which is a great help.    I'm still waking up many times a night as I turn over,  but it's now only "painful" rather than "excruciating",   and the lack of palpitations/ectopic means that I can sleep on my right side and back for a while before problems start. Previously it took less than 2 minutes to go from "OK" to "move move move".

Towards the middle of February, before the new exercises had made much difference,  I risked going to my parents overnight.    The sleeping was about the same as at home.  My lovely brother (DB) drove me there in his people carrier,    and the plan was for us to bring back all my parents jigsaw puzzles, one brand of them anyway,  to be sold for them.   

Part way through stacking them, we decided to take a pic of them.

We managed to get about 270 puzzles in the people carrier, and we couldn't fit anymore in. The drive back was slow.  As usual, we listened to many episodes of our favoutie radio sitcom, Cabin Pressure.  I can't coun the number of times I've listened to the episodes, they still crack me up.   I love Roger Allam's silky voice. 

We stacked the puzzles in my hallway when I got home,  and then I did some sorting.  And over the next few days, re-sorting.   I started with a spreadsheet for the puzzles,  and I photographed each individual puzzle with the box open.    I then had to rename each image to match the manufacturer reference number.    I tried a few options for sharing the pics, and I bought some fabulous watermarking software, Umark,  which has been a godsend.  I bought removable labels, and wrote a unique refence number for each puzzle. 

As I grouped together various puzzle series,  I moved them to the summerhouse, where we'd cleared space on surfaces to stack them.    It took several goes to get things properly sorted and labelled,  and then cross checked with the spreadsheet and with the photographs.

I've been busy selling them, and 125 have gone so far, including a whole load to the US.  Working with that individual was great as I found limitations to the tools available and there was only one person I was dealing with.   My handwriting on the labels, although relatively neat,  was not as clear as it could have been.  

I ended up teaching myself to use Access so I could link the lines in my spreadsheet to the photos and then provide various reports both for me and for the recipients.  I've been able to provide detailed packing information for the individual in the US.  

At this point I realised that the watermarking software was able to watermark the photos with the image name (which is the manufacturers reference number), and also my own reference number.    It's no good relying on  the manufacturers reference number because (a) it's too easy to transpose digits, (b) the manufacturer has reused the reference numbers on occasion (c) I have multiples of the same puzzle. 

I ended up renumbering the remaining puzzles, and printing labels.  I've continued using my spreadsheet as the main tool (it's quick and easy to add columns and manipulate data as I lern begter ways to do things) and I've linked it to Access to do any reporting.

Now when someone asks for a several puzzles, quoting my puzzle reference numbers,  I can use my Access to generate a with-picture confirmation report to make sure the puzzles I'm picking from the pile are the correct ones. 

I'm in a much better position now to manage things, and I know how I'd do things if I did this again!