CA & CTS

It’s been a strange week this week regarding my health. In fact it’s been a hard year all round!

 I was convinced this weekend that I had cardiac problems. The sensations I was having were so strange (I’ll try to describe them another time in detail). They started on Friday and continued regularly – often every second or so if I was moving about – but I tried to pretend that it was all OK and half persuaded myself that I was over-reacting due to the knowledge I had from nursing. I thought I was scaring myself so I didn’t ring up the GP until Monday and then booked in as a normal appointment. I got in two days later but the sensations had stopped that morning – typical! I knew that I still needed to check it as I knew what it was despite trying to tell myself otherwise. If it had been anyone else describing these symptoms to me, I’d have sent them to A&E for an ECG. My GP wasn’t very happy that I’d left it and told me that my diagnosis was right. He also told me that my blood pressure was too high and I should monitor it. He sent me for an ECG that afternoon- which looked normal, thankfully – and told me that if it happened again, I needed to ring as soon as I could to arrange a 24 hour tape so they can monitor it. It’s quite frightening when you think there is something wrong with your heart. I’ve looked after many patients with heart conditions and although I could understand and empathise, it’s not the same as experiencing it. At certain points after I’d made my GP appointment I even half thought that I might have an arrest! How scary is that?!

As I said in another post, I went to see the neurologist almost a fortnight ago about my numbness and pain in my hands and wrists. First of all I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome but not all of the symptoms matched. For instance, the pain and numbness affect my whole hand and often affecting my little finger up to the wrist first before spreading across my hand to the index finger and thumb.  I was sent for a nerve conductivity test to try to find out more. This is where they pass an electrical current through key nerves and measure the output. The sensation is very much like those exercise machines that you can buy but stronger - not pleasant but not painful either. I went today and  off showing normal results but just as she (very nice lady!) was finishing the tests, I threw in abnormal readings. She changed tactics and did further tests and concluded that I had atypical carpal tunnel syndrome. I am being referred back to my GP who will then refer me to someone else. Apparently it’s the fasted way. I’ll keep you posted.

Making a stand…

OK! I’ve looked up info about allotments now and found evidence that the council should be at least looking into providing more allotments (Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908) . If more than 6 electoral registered people are waiting for a plot, they can join together and request a new site. Well, as I said earler, I’m 98th on the list! Who knows how many more are after me. We can’t make any arrangements to write to request a new site as we don’t know each other and I can’t ask for the names of the people on the list for obvious privacy reasons.  To be honest I don’t see why we should have to. The Council know that we’re all on this list, they must also be aware of the Allotment Act. They can see there is a demand for more resources so they should be providing them! Anyway, I’ve emailed my local MP to see what he advises. I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m even thinking of contacting our local press if I get no joy.

Here is a copy of the email:
Dear Mr ***,  

I live in *** and I recently I applied for an allotment.  Today I was informed by *** Council (the Council) that there are 48 plots and I am now 98th on the waiting list.  With so few sites and so many waiting, the likelihood of getting a plot in the foreseeable future is slim.
In the Memorandum by the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions  AL 23) it states that the Local Authorities’ Duties to provide allotments as set out by the Allotments Act 1908 is still valid.
“Where an allotments authority is of the opinion that there is a demand for allotments in its area, section 23 of the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 puts the authority under a duty to provide a sufficient number of allotments and to let them to persons residing in its area who want them.  Representations may be made to the local authority on the need for allotments by any six resident registered electors.”
However, as I have no way of contacting the other people on the waiting list, whom I  assume are registered electors, to request that we submit a representation I cannot continue with any action.  Surely, with a waiting list of this size (16 times the size recommended in the Allotments Act!), the authority should see that there is a demand in this area.  Can you advise me in this matter?
I thank you for your time.

With kind regards,
*** ***

To kill a maple tree…

Today is cold and damp but not so cold that I can’t get outside. There are – as per normal – hundreds of jobs to do and knowing where to start is a nightmare. I decided first of all to move the Japanese maple (Acer palmatum atropurpureum). We’ve had it for several years now and it was planted in a pot. Last year, or maybe the year before, I went to move it to weed around it and found that it was stuck solid. Obviously the roots had grown through the pot. I kept meaning to move it but didn’t get around to it. Then, in October 2007, my elderly neighbour had her shed taken down. In the process the roots of the maple were damaged; the leaves went brown and curled up. So, as it’s already been damaged, I’ve taken  the bull by the horns - or bush by the branches - and tried to dig it out. As you can see by the photo’s the roots were quite substantial and I had to cut some to get it out. It’s now in it’s new pot on a paving slab in case it decides to try it again! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it lives to do so.

I didn’t really know where to put it and the deciding factor ended up being unable to move the pot! So, I had to move the rose that was in the way. I’m not really a rose person as I hate the thorns and I never really did very well with them but this one is different. I love it! It’s a hybrid tea called “Fragrant cloud” and it flowers its socks off all year. In fact I’ve cut yet another bud off it today to try and save it some energy. Here is one person (amongst many) singing it’s praises!I do hate the thorns on it though but the scent is brilliant. Often the scent wafting across the path stops me in my tracks as I walk down the garden and I have to go back and get closer! I really hope I don’t lose this rose. Hmm, I wonder if I can take a cutting now? Anyway, this has now been put into the pot that the maple came out of.

Also today I’ve potted up the raspberry canes (Rubus ideaus) that came from ebay ages ago. I’m not sure if they’re alive or not. There are three Autumn Bliss which have little green shoots at the base (crown?) of the plant but the two Glen Moy have nothing at all.

I’ve also potted up the common Elder (Sambucus nigra) that I want to grow to try the flowers! I might also try making some more wine but the problem with wine-making, although I enjoy it – is that none of us drink very often or very much. My last wine making phase was 4 years ago and all of that is still in demi-johns in the garage. I can’t even remember what they were and I’m sure the labels have gone. There was elderberry, pumpkin or was it marrow? I really can’t remember!

Back to today and I’ve cleared out the side of the greenhouse. In the rush to clear an area for the impromptu shed, everything was piled there and I wanted to clear it again. I’ve had to move the outdoor table and chairs and under neath it I found the outdoor broom I’ve been looking for for weeks! I also found that we’ve broke the plastic lid of the coldframe I’ll need to fix that. I have some old greenhouse glass but I can’t cut it – anyone got any advice on how?

You’ll like it, not a lot (ment…)!

As I said before, I was going to apply for an allotment and I did on the 29th October 2007. The run down site is going to be checked now I’ve told them, although they did say that they were aware of the state of the site. They are writing to the tenants and if they no longer want the plots they will be offered to the next person on the list.

As I hadn’t had any contact from the council (they’re fast enough with a late rent payment!) I rang today to confirm that I was on the list and get an estimate of the waiting times now that they’ve had time to look – they couldn’t say before. I was told that yes, I was on the list and that I was 98th and not likely to be going up any time soon! According to the council website, they have 45 plots at 4 sites in this area (though if the dilapidated site is anything to go by the plots aren’t very big) all of which are taken. The nice site I visited was well maintained and they maintain each others so that no one loses their plot. Some of them are owned by more than one member of the same family and I know to one where the tenant isn’t in the country half the time. So I’m not likely to be getting one for as far ahead as I can see. Who would want to give up their plot now they have one? I know I wouldn’t. But if I’m honest, I don’t think it’s fair that some people have more than one or have someone else maintain their site. Sometimes circumstances mean that you can’t get to your plot for a while I know but if you aren’t even in the country for the majority of the time, it doesn’t seem fair.

Neurologist

Later this afternoon I had my hospital appointment with the neurologist  to see what’s wrong with my wrists. It was a stand in Dr who was probably fantastic but he was Dutch with a heavy accent and we struggled to communicate. He say’s that he agree’s with my previous diagnosis that it is nerve damage – well duh! – and I should go for a nerve conduction test that I should arrange. I did tell him that normally the clinic arrange appointements and referals for patients and not the patient which he accepted as he asked as soon as I went in about my nurse training. I don’t think I did manage to make him understand that I’d taken time out of my studies. In the end I went and got the HCA to arrange my appointment!

Not so lazy after all

I did well today. After my earlier post in which I said I really didn’t want to go out,  I went outside and potted up those sweet peas. I also dug out the conifer hedge, prepared the ground by weeding and adding pelleted chicken manure and planted the grape vine to scramble over the archway. Yesterday’s snow had pretty much gone by lunchtime but it was still cold. I was fine in the greenhouse and by the time I’d been digging outside for a few minutes, I was warm in the garden too! Despite the snow and rain, the area I was digging was bone dry. That area of the garden is normally waterlogged but I assume the hedge has rain shadowed the soil below and taken out any water that came within reaching distance of the roots.

Lazy

I don’t feel like doing anything today but it needs to be done. I’ve been cooking this morning. I’ve made an apple crumble, some chocolate crispie cakes and some bread. I’m experimenting with the bread. I’ve followed the recipe for a 2lb loaf and added a vitamin c tablet. This bread maker turns out thick, yeasty and often hard bread. It said that vitamin c can improve the rise so let’s see.

The sweet peas I experimented with last week are doing well and are desperate to be planted now. I put the sweet peas I planted straight into pots in the greenhouse into the coldframe yesterday. I think I’ll put on coat, gloves scarf etc and brave the greenhouse to pot up these ones. I can’t wait for the new heater to arrive. I know it was expensive and we can’t really afford it but we wont get another like that for that price – its the Bio Green Arizona 2.8kw with thermostat etc. Yes it was an ebay buy again, it cost us less than £100 inc p&p for a £250 heater system that is less than 1 year old. If the receipt is with it, it will still be under warranty for another 2 years!

Brrr…..

As I said last week, it looks like winter is arriving and today I think it’s here. When I got up today it was raining. The guttering I’d put on my shed yesterday was doing it’s job and the water butt was a third full already! I went out to check for leaks and there is water coming in from the front but it was too cold to do anything about it. My fingers were so cold they were hurting and I was only outside for a few minutes. I had to pop in and out throughout the day, and each time my fingers were the same so I limited my ventures outside to necessary only; feed animals, empty compost bin, let dog out… I think today is the first day I haven’t done anything at all in the garden.
Just after lunchtime the rain turned to snow and it was very exciting. We all get excited when it snows though I’ve no idea why! It didn’t last and the rain set in again. By tea time the 55 gallon water butt was almost full and I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was just too cold to go out! Instead we had a toasted tea, made hot drinks and all piled on the sofa to watch the new Harry Potter film – order of the Phoenix. I’m re-reading the books now.
Some time during the evening S went to have a smoke and the snow was drifting down again. The kids were bouncing about with excitement and although I love the snow normally, I was disappointed at all the jobs I could no longer do. I have plans for a new path with weed suppressing fabric (no idea where it’s from; we’ve had it years), slabs (half price in our local Focus) pavers (free from family) and lots of gravel (possibly Wickes). I want to put another window in my shed, I need to find the leak, I should be planting raspberries, the sweet peas should be potted…
Oh so much to do!

Excuse the bin etc (there was no way I was going out there at this time of night in the cold!) but this is the view from the back door right now…

b’day

Well today is my birthday. It wasn’t what you’d call a great day. I had a homemade card of my daughter, nothing off either of my sons and S came back from work with a maccies, ate it standing in the kitchen and then went out to his mate’s house because he’d got a water leak.
I didn’t do much today. I planted up the rest of the bulbs that I could find, including some hyacinths which I think are too late for forcing. I emptied a couple of pots, dividing and replanting a pelargonium and a garden mum which are under the staging in the greenhouse.

Happy birthday me… 40th next year – ain’t that great.

Sweet winter

 

This morning it looks as if winter has arrived; there is a coating of frost on the grass, the puddles have frozen and the air is cold and crisp. I spent the first part of the morning pre-germinating sweet peas. When I sowed some last week I nicked the outer coating of the seed but I don’t like doing that as I think I may damage it. I read elsewhere that you can soak them but this can cause problems too. On the BBC website it says you can pre-germinate them on damp kitchen roll so this is what I’ve done. Sticking with recycling, I’ve used a supermarket cress carton.

Later in the day I decided to re-pot the apple tree. It’s never done very well and in the three years we’ve had it it has produced one apple which the dog pulled off! As an experiment, I have chopped it right down. I would love to produce a double U cordon tree and that is my aim. It needs to bud lower down as it is bare so I’m hoping the harsh treatment encourages this. If not, I’ve not lost anything and will try again with a new maiden next year.

It was nice planting today. I planted the asparagas crowns that have been sitting in a bucket of water for over a week. J and I planted some of the bulbs too. We bought a few packs from Asda but are running very short of pots. We’ve put them in pots that really, are too small but at least they’re in soil!