Approaching Autumn

Tomorrow sees us travelling down to the Land of My Fathers for the last week of meteorological summer. Apart from a couple of things we’d like to do we have very little planned.

Don’t expect another blog for a little while.

From Facebook Archives...

27 August 2013

Today's domestic goddess schedule: bath; load washer; dishes; mow lawn; bring in and hang out washing; take blackberries to neighbours as we have lots and lots.

Bess Cavalier  I've got a similar itinerary, including collecting the cat from his holidays. The calendar at work lists this as 'holiday leave'?!

Blackberries? Ours are still green and show no signs of ripening. Captain Cavalier goes and checks them every day - it's about the only job he will do in the garden, pick the blackberries.

Bentonbag  It's what comes of having a wild/neglected garden and a pet entomologist. Also we have a cultivated thornless one (have forgotten the name!) which is the most rampant thing I've met but has thumbsized and very tasty fruit. It's growing next to the fence with the tomato and courgette tubs next to it so it gets all the nutrients that run out of the bottom when we water them. Himself has been picking blackberries from there, and the hedgerows, for a month or so. Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's currant sorbet is simple and works for blackberries too - especially if you add a slug of a friend's home-made blackberry wine.

Darklady  Sounds divine can you spare a few Blackberries for me? x

Bentonbag Come and get 'em - frozen or pick your own.

Darklady  I'll pick my own if you don't mind thanks. Are you still opposite the shops near the Tesco garage. What's the street & number please? x

Bentonbag I'll message you.

Fester says the blackberry is called Loch Ness, which explains the monster fruit.

Drummerman do you want some?  

Blackberries that is ....

Drummerman  Yes please. Would you like any apples?  We've got a bumper crop, although I can't give you crabs this year.

Bentonbag  We've got some lovely red crabs of our own coming along but yes please to your apples too as our Ferretfingers loves the jelly.

A Rare Week

 

On Thursday afternoon I was sitting, knitting, watching a very old Tipping Point on W+1 with Ferretfingers. Thunderthighs came into the room and purposefully sat down beside me with 

"Mu-um can you look at my neck"

Behind his ear, just under the hairline, was a red lump the size of an old penny.

"When did that start?"

"A week ago."

"Does it hurt?"

"Yes."

"When did it start hurting?"

"A week ago."

"Why haven't you shown it to me before?"

"I didn't want you to worry."

FFS!!!

Straight on the phone to the doctors and, God bless the receptionist, I got him an appointment at 11am on Friday morning. So that was knit'n'natter out the window.

The doctor asked the same questions as me as she looked at the now scabby lump.

We shared a horrified mothers-of-sons-together look.

“Next time don’t wait a week to tell someone about it” she said writing out a prescription for Fluoxicillin 4 times daily for 7 days.

He had a dental check up at 1.30 pm, all was well.

Ferretfingers had a dental check up at 9.10 on Thursday morning, all was well with him too

On Thursday afternoon Fester went for a routine medical appointment with his practice nurse.  

He was caught out when she told him she wanted to take a foot pulse.*

"If I'd known I'd have worn cleaner socks."

It's a rare week when a pair of his finds its way into the laundry basket.

The carbuncle burst properly when Thunderthighs had his bath on Friday evening.

I've had the joy of pus wiping and putting/replacing absorbent dressings on his neck, right by the hairline, morning and evening since. It's looking a lot better now.  

Less swollen and pink not fiery red. He can also turn his head a lot more freely.

Thank goodness we had absorbent dressing and micropore tape in the house.  

Older readers will remember the bursa on Fester's right elbow which I also had to do all the cleaning and dressing on because it's impossible to dress your elbow yourself (try it).

Fester went to bed well on Friday night, got up for the loo at 6am, came back to bed shivering and spent the rest of the day there sighing and swearing.  Apart from the odd cup of tea, bowl of thin porridge made with milk and a lump of jam, and refilling his water bottle, he needed little attention.

Mrs Eft has moved to a nearby village and the plan was to go up with the boys on Saturday (yesterday) to help shift boxes and furniture.  Thunderthighs had intended to go up on the bus and meet us at her house.  However, between tending to his neck and recumbent father, time went by and the boys and I ended up going up in the car not long before noon.  My treat was to drive home via the coast, so I could at least see the sea.

After his day of rest Fester was fit enough this morning to take Ferretfingers to the Tynemouth Book Fair whilst I did domestic goddessy things and sat in the sun in the garden watching our family of sparrows and starlings.   He is back lying on the bed listening to the cricket, intermittently going downstairs to prepare tea.

He just came into the office

“You did make it up to Mrs Eft’s yesterday?”

“Yes”

“Thunderthighs went on the bus then?”

 

*Apparently once you reach a certain age they want to check the blood is getting to your extremities.

The End Of Childhood?

 

From Facebook archives…

18 August 2009 at 12:23 ·

Feeling a little sad. 

Thunderthighs has decided that, at 13, his Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends magazines, books and videos are "far too childish" and are to be recycled and/or given to the charity shop. 

I've only just persuaded him that the toys are too valuable to go. 

My baby!!!

Tea Cosies

From Facebook Archives...

17 August 2020 ·

More things to do with knitted squares.  

The husband suggested the Santa and snowman tea cosies might make good woolly hats.  So I've used up some more of the LDNE ladies' squares making these reversible winter caps (4 squares per cap).

Probably best for little girls or those with a small heads. 

No pompom because 

a) I hate pompoms and 

b) they wouldn't be reversible with a pompom attached.

Bess Cavalier  Well you know 90% of men, if left alone in a room with a tea cosy, will try it on!*

Bentonbag  Not just men.  My mother always put the cosy on her head when she poured the tea.  No room on the table and she knew where it was.  I was always surprised when visiting other houses to see that it wasn't common practice.

Mrs Quilt  Should diminish the supply, well.  No Pompoms makes them “Beanies”

 * "Never trust a man, who when left alone with a tea cosy... doesn't try it on." 

 Billy Connolly

The last of the tea cosies was sold at LDNE’s Christmas do last year.

The youngest member of staff came up to the stall, saw the holes for the spout and handle, and asked “Are those woolly hats for animals?”

“No.  They’re tea cosies.”

“Tea cosies?  What’s a tea cosy?”

Knowing he was not the sort of young man to make fun I asked him

“Do you know what a tea pot is?”

“Yes.  My gran’s got one.”

“Well a tea cosy is what you put on a tea pot to keep the tea hot.”