That's that done

 The clothes culling yesterday went pretty much as I expected.  It took me half an hour to do my wardrobe and chest of drawers, then another hour to help husband with his....honestly, he's so indecisive and cannot seem to work out what to keep and what to throw out.  The things I suggested he chuck included a shirt and smart pair of trousers that he'd last worn to his daughter's wedding - about 18 years ago.  He's put on a fair bit of weight since then, so there's no way they'd still fit him.  He also still had some uniform from his last job - he retired 7 or 8 years ago!  How those things managed to make it here when we moved house 2 1/2 years ago I don't know, I can only assume that when I asked him to pack only the clothes he wore and discard any others, he didn't hear me or just couldn't be bothered.  Anyway, it's done now, between us we've filled 3 1/2 bin bags for the charity shop.  

I've just realised neither of us went through our shoe collection, so that's a job for another day.  I also need to go through the bedding and towels......we certainly have too many towels, I'm sure the dog charity shop will be glad of them.

So this morning we'll be taking the bin bags of clothes to one of the charity shops (whichever one we can park outside), and I also want to look through a couple of them....not for more clothes(!!) but for DVDs for husband to watch on holiday.

Husband's sister messaged me yesterday to say she's awaiting an appointment with oncology to discuss having chemotherapy, I'm sure her husband and daughter will be relieved that she's now considering it.  Although she's still saying she's not made up her mind for definite yet, which is fair enough.

Still good....but today might not be

 It's now been 2 whole weeks of calm - well, as calm as it gets in our household! - with no arguments or aggravations, although I do feel like the rug is going to be pulled out from under my feet at any time.  Today, though, is going to be a bit fraught....more on that later.

Whilst it has been a good couple of weeks, there are one or two things that husband does which do irritate me, although I've been making a big effort not to let it get to me.  No. 1 - when I've asked husband to do something like emptying the kitchen bin (a job which he has always done, although now I have to actually ask him to do it), if the neighbours are out in their car port husband will heave a big sigh and with an air of martyrdom say "Just doing my chores".  Chores plural - as if it's not just the one job I've asked him to do, but he's got a great big long (imaginary) list of jobs!  The other thing is to do with meals.....now, as long as I've known husband he's always had a very good appetite and has happily eaten literally anything I've put in front of him, he's never been a fussy eater and will eat pretty much anything.  Except now he doesn't.  Whilst I know tastes change over time - hence why I now almost never eat meat - husband will now say he doesn't like something he's always eaten before and that we normally eat regularly, like the frittata we had a couple of days ago.  He has taken to making complaints about the meal nearly every day.....it's too spicy, or not spicy enough!, he'd rather have had potatoes than pasta, he wanted gravy not a sauce, he doesn't like sweetcorn (having previously enjoyed it for years).  The list of complaints goes on and on.  Now, considering I cook almost everything from scratch and try to ensure he gets something meaty or with meat on the side (whereas I eat mostly vegetarian), I now find myself thinking what's the point of me cooking for him if he's just going to complain all the time?  Why don't I just let him buy and cook his own food?  He'd soon get fed up with that!  Besides, whenever he cooks steak or chops, which he likes the most and I let him cook them as I really dislike the smell of meat cooking nowadays, he always wants to fry them at a blisteringly high heat which means that fat gets splashed liberally everywhere.  And of course he doesn't clean it up.  

Some months ago, we did try buying a load of ready meals for him, I let him choose his own.  Well, that didn't work out - he either didn't like the taste of them or they weren't big enough portions.  I'm not in favour of buying ready meals anyway, too many UPFs and unknown ingredients.  So he'll just have to do what he's always done, and be happy to eat what I cook for him.  Or cook his own. 

As for why today is going to be a trying one......I've said that we are both sorting out our wardrobes today, we both have acquired too many clothes.  Husband isn't keen, he's already complaining about it and says he wears everything.....erm no he doesn't, not by a long way.  In fact he only wears the same few items over and over again, as they're the first things he grabs in the morning, being the last (and nearest) things that were put (thrown) back into his wardrobe/shelves after being washed and dried.  I've told him it should be easy - anything he hasn't worn in a year or more, or he doesn't like, or doesn't fit him anymore (he's put on nearly a stone over the past few months through inactivity) he can put in the charity shop bag.  But I know he'll be moaning like mad and calling me in every 5 minutes to ask if he should keep something!

One huge good thing today - the garage have just rung to say the car has actually passed the MOT!!  Hallelujah!  There are a couple of minor things (not MOT failures) that will need sorting within the next few months, so husband told them to go ahead and do them whilst they've got the car.  Wonderful.  Whilst I really don't know how much longer husband will be driving, as the psychologist who did his initial cognitive tests a few weeks ago (it was May I think) said in her opinion husband is OK to carry on driving at the moment, I'm satisfied with that, so it makes sense to get the work done on the car.  I must say though, it's one thing to make a judgement of being a safe driver based on asking a few questions in an office, it's not the same as being sat beside him in the car!  Whilst I do have some concerns about his driving, I wouldn't allow him to carry on if I thought he was a danger to himself or others.

Right, I've prevaricated long enough - on with the clothes culling!

Sshhh, don't say it

 Life is jogging along quite nicely right now.  I'm almost loath to say it, as our daily life seems to be like a house of cards that can, and often does, topple over at any minute.  So fingers crossed!  Betty's back to her normal self, and husband is noticeably less unsteady on his feet - he's hardly lost his balance or stumbled at all this past week, so it looks like the locum GP lowering one of his BP tablets has worked.  His BP is more or less back up to normal - well, not quite normal as such, it's still a bit on the low side, but is normal for him, whereas when we went to the doctor's it was really very low indeed.  He hasn't had any angina pain - well, he says he hasn't but he's not always entirely truthful about that - nor has he shown any other worrying signs, which is good.  His short term memory remains atrocious but I don't think that's going to change.  He does seem to be less inclined to do things nowadays, I've noticed he's not showing much interest in doing anything in the garden, nor has he started any of his madcap DIY projects outside.  He also agreed straight away when I said I don't want us growing so much produce next year.  He's been spending more time just watching TV - well, dozing in his recliner chair in front of the TV which is playing away merrily to itself.  But then he is 75, so it's not really surprising.  And, the best thing of all as far as I'm concerned, he's been a lot less argumentative and confrontational lately.  I hope it lasts.

I've more or less finished my cardigan, other than sewing in the yarn ends and threading some shirring elastic through the cuffs, which have come out a bit bigger than I was expecting.  Once I've done that I'll put a photo on here.

I need to go through my yarn stash tomorrow to see if I have enough of one colour/weight to make the jumper I want to do next.  I also need to do a wardrobe and chest of drawers cull, they're bursting at the seams.  The box of bedding under my bed is too full as well.  I need to adopt the 'one new item in, one old one out' practice!

Planning for the holiday

 Betty's back to normal now, these sicky episodes of hers (which the vet says are simply gastric upsets caused by her having a more sensitive stomach as she gets older) seem to follow a pattern and last just a couple of days.  She's usually sick a few times (it was 3x on Tuesday), isn't interested in eating and just mopes around looking very sorry for herself.  Then, and it seems to happen quite suddenly, she's back to her normal self, quite lively - well, as lively as she gets nowadays - and is usually very hungry.  That happened yesterday, when I got up it was clear she was feeling a lot better and was immediately wanting feeding.  We took her out with us in the car when we went shopping, as I wanted to keep an eye on her rather than leaving her home alone, I went into the stores on my own leaving husband in the car with her.  She was absolutely fine.  

I bought a new dog bed - well, a soft fluffy mattress to go in her big solid plastic bed in the lounge, to take with us when we go on holiday (we're not taking the plastic bed, just the mattress).  I also got a couple of toys for her, again for the holiday, these and the bed are put away until we go.  I've been getting a few things for our holiday....new lightweight dressing gowns for both of us, a new cross body bag for me, we've both got new shoes.  I picked up some toiletries and a new washbag.  I've got a couple of new books - well, new to me second hand ones - which I must not start on before we go!  I need to get some DVDs for husband to watch.  I'm really into crocheting again, I've already picked out my next project, which will be a jumper, I think I have enough of the appropriate yarn in my stash.  I also have a couple of needle punching kits I bought ages ago, I'll probably take one of those.....so I'll have plenty to keep me occupied whilst we're away.  And of course we've got a few trips out planned, to Wells and Clarks outlet village for a start.  We might go to Glastonbury too, we've been there before a few times several years ago (we once saw the actor Nicolas Cage there, crossing the road - he has a home there....or did).  You see some strange sights in Glastonbury, there are several shops selling things for witches and warlocks, spell books, healing crystals and the like - most of which are heavily geared towards tourists I think.  People dress very unconventionally there, anything goes!  It's certainly an experience, my sister when we took her there described it as the most pagan place she'd ever been! 😂

I've already told husband I'm not intending to do much cooking whilst we're there - I'll take a couple of home cooked meals with us for the first couple of days, then we'll go food shopping.  We'll be getting good quality ready meals (the store's Finest or Taste the Difference ranges) and a pizza or two, with some easy to prep veggies or salad stuff.  We'll also eat out for lunch a couple of times or have a takeaway or two.  I want a rest from cooking for the week.

Less produce next year

 Having taken a few doses of painkillers the last day or two, my shoulder is much better today, I've already finished crocheting the cardigan cuffs this morning.  I'll start on the edging today, more or less making it up as I go along.  Betty's having a sicky day, so I won't be going anywhere, she's already been sick a couple of times this morning but is now peacefully sleeping beside me in her bed.

Light rain showers again this morning - at this rate the grass will be greening up!  Husband brought in another big bowlful of tomatoes, I've no plans for doing anything with them at the moment so have simply bagged them up and put them in the freezer, to make pasta sauce or soup with at a later date.  More courgettes are also ready to come in, so I'll probably roast another trayful for freezing this afternoon.

We've - well, I've - decided that next year we will definitely be growing less produce....husband is getting to the stage where he's less able or keen to look after the growing veggies, and I don't want to be inundated with tons of produce to deal with all at once.  We'll just be growing 6 types of veg - tomatoes, mini cucumbers, courgettes, potatoes, carrots and leeks.  The tomatoes are so useful so I don't mind lots of them, we eat a lot of cucumbers mainly at lunchtimes.  Courgettes we both love and are easy and quick to prep and cook and are quite versatile.  Fresh new potatoes and carrots are lovely, growing the potatoes in bags means we can harvest just one lot at a time, and pull just a few carrots as and when we need them.  Leeks last for ages in the soil so again we can just pull a couple at a time.  

We won't be growing French or runner beans again, husband planted so many, more than twice the quantity I'd asked for, which meant we were absolutely inundated with them this summer, I've frozen several bags full and we've given loads and loads away.  I'm not even that fond of French beans, to be perfectly honest!  The same with beetroot - something I'm not a huge lover of.  No strawberries from now on either - I do love strawberries but husband just doesn't keep them properly covered with fleece or netting, so they get eaten to death by birds, slugs and woodlice.  Besides, there's plenty of British strawberries in the shops which taste perfectly nice.  It is hard though to get husband to understand that we don't need (or want) to grow the vast quantities of veg that he's been used to growing in previous years, because there's only the two of us, we're getting older and more infirm and there's only so much we can cope with.

Rain at last, and oh the pain

 We've actually had rain this morning - not heavy, but gentle steady rain for a couple of hours, it's stopped now.  Hopefully it will have done the garden some good.  It feels quite fresh now after the rain, but according to the weatherman yesterday it's going to feel humid later on.

I had to get up in the night and take more painkillers, and more when I got up this morning, my shoulder was absolute agony.  I think it's because I've been chopping a load more veggies, and doing quite a lot of crocheting the past few days.  I'm doing the cuffs on my cardi now, I had to watch a couple of youtube videos first as it's been many years since I last did crochet ribbing and had forgotten how to do it.  It was a bit tricky to start with but I soon got the hang of it, I've completed one cuff and am halfway through the other.  However, I think I'll give it a rest for a day or two, to give my shoulder a chance to recover.

I'm pretty pleased with this cardigan so far, it's been such a long time since I made a garment for myself, I've mainly done baby blankets, shawls, scarves, hats and the odd baby matinee jacket for the past few years.  The cardi isn't perfect, there are a couple of mistakes, but they're not really visible and I'm sure I'll be the only one who knows about them, no-one else will notice unless I point them out.  The main body of the cardi is from a pattern by a lovely youtuber I follow, her channel is called AC Crochets, she's a very pretty young woman who is a prolific crocheter and gives very clear instructions - she crochets so fast and with very long false nails, I don't know how she does it!  I wasn't keen on the cuffs and edging she's done on this particular garment though, so I've taken the cuffs off another channel (sorry I can't remember the name of the lady).  The edging I'll just make up as I go along, doing my own thing, I've done so many blanket edgings over the years so it'll be easy to do.  I will put photos on of the finished article.

Thank you for all the comments on my last post, I'll definitely be stopping the pet insurance in January when it's up for renewal.  My baby is lying gently snoring in her bed beside me right now, I can't imagine what life will be like once she's gone, I couldn't bear to think of life without a dog, and without my beautiful Betty specifically, she brings me so much joy and makes me laugh every day.

A philosophical mood

 Finally, finally, it's quite a bit cooler out, a pleasantly warm 24 deg with an even more pleasant light cooling breeze.  However - we can smell smoke.....it's not a fire anywhere near us thankfully, but it's all over our local FB pages, apparently, it's coming from the wildfires in South Wales, the breeze coming from the north is blowing the smoke our way.  If we can smell the smoke here in Somerset, across the 10 miles or so of the Bristol channel, how much more awful it must be where the fires are - terrifying.  Having had a house fire years ago (I was 13 at the time) which was thankfully confined to the kitchen and part of the hallway, I cannot imagine how utterly dreadful it must be to lose one's entire home and belongings in a fire.  Not to mention the destruction of so many acres of land, and I can't even bear to think about the poor animals and birds lost in the fire.  I don't think any people have lost their lives due to the wildfires, I hope not.  And food is going to be so much more expensive (as if it isn't costly enough already) as a result of these wildfires and the heatwaves destroying the crops and animal feed.  It does make me appreciate even more just how fortunate we are to have a lovely home, space to grow produce, enough money to buy the food we can't grow, to have reasonably good health (even if it's not perfect) and to live in a civilised part of the world.  I hope any of my readers who live near one of the danger areas are safe and well.

I'm in a philosophical mood today.

I've decided that when Betty's pet insurance is next up for renewal (January), I'm going to cancel it.  Since she turned 7 years old (she'll be 10 at the end of October) her insurance premium has shot up each year, seems the insurance companies class dogs as Seniors once they reach 7, thus being more susceptible to illness.  I dread to think what the premium will jump to once she's 10.  Already I've found out that the insurance company will not now cover certain things because of her age, so it seems a bit pointless to keep paying increasing premiums for less and less cover.  Instead I'll be putting money away in a savings account to pay for treatment, I've already started actually so there'll be a good little lump sum come January.  I've also come to a decision that if she becomes very unwell with a serious illness or, God forbid, a nasty accident, either of which requiring lots of hugely expensive treatment which may only prolong her life for a short while, then I must seriously consider whether it would be right to try and keep her going, if it were only for my sake.  Of course I don't want her to die, she's my baby and I love her to bits, but the reality is she is going to die in the probably not too distant future (average life span for her two breeds is between 8 and 12 years).  And I don't want to try keeping her alive with expensive, invasive or unpleasant (for her) treatment if it's not going to significantly benefit her.  I just hope I'll be strong enough to do what's best for my beloved Betty when the time comes.

Obviously husband will have a say in this too, but I must consider the possibility that he may not be capable mentally to make such a decision, so it may well rest solely on my shoulders.

Now I must do something to cheer myself up!!

Nice lunch, more noise, cooling

 Well, it wasn't significantly cooler yesterday, we were still melting, the car thermometer showed 30 deg on our way back from lunch out.  It was a very nice lunch, I had chicken caesar salad whilst husband had haddock, chips and mushy peas.  We had egg on toast for a simple little supper later.

Neighbour Mr X and his brother have been working on the barn conversion themselves this week, so it's been intermittently noisy.  I don't think either of them are builders, they jointly own a motorbike shop I think, but they do seem to be 'have a go' types.  Mr X was telling husband yesterday that they've had a structural engineer in to examine the barn as apparently there's rather a large crack in the gable end wall.  The engineer said it needs rectifying as a matter of urgency, else the wall (plus the roof and other walls I imagine) is in danger of falling down.  He apparently told Mr X and brother what they need to do, so they've been doing it.  I hope for their sakes (and the sakes of any future guests, as it will be a holiday home when completed) that they'll have the engineer back to check on the work in due course!  No sign of any new 'proper' builders yet.

We haven't really been that much affected by the noise this week, as it's been too hot to sit out in the garden anyway.  We've had all the windows open, but with the noise of our fans which are going all day, the banging and machinery noises from next door aren't too intrusive.

The weather people are saying the temperatures will drop from today and for the next week, to what we should have for this time of year.....I do hope so, I need some energy back!  Plus I need to finish sewing (crocheting) up the cardigan, before getting on with the cuffs and edging.

A non-event

 We didn't bother buying safety glasses for the eclipse, which was just as well as it turned out.  Although it was still blisteringly hot with blue skies early yesterday evening, there was quite a lot of cloud too which obscured the sun, so nothing of the eclipse could be seen from here anyway.  And it didn't even really get dark....just a sort of strange grey colour, and even that was brief.  So it was all a bit of a non-event here.  The only thing affected was Betty, she became quite whiny, anxious and restless for about 10 minutes.  Incidentally, why so many thousands of people left it till yesterday afternoon to queue up to try and buy the glasses I don't know, it's not like it wasn't advertised enough before!

This 5th heatwave is draining all the energy out of me, I've had no desire to do pretty much anything except sit in front of the fan in my room, reading a book.  I've begun sewing - well, crocheting actually - the pieces of my cardigan together but can't do much of that at a time, it's been so hot and humid that my fingers get too sticky to hold the yarn.  Thankfully it's forecast to be a few degrees cooler today.

Plants in our garden, both flowers and veggies, are really suffering, despite husband watering them - no hosepipe ban here yet, although our water company texted to say save water else we'll be introducing a ban.  Everything is dying off or shrivelling up in the heat, our tomato and cucumber plants are wilting, some of the perennial flowers have simply stopped flowering altogether.  The garden looks so colourless, brown and drab, makes me feel quite sad.  I know it'll all pick up once we have a decent amount of rain.

We're going out for lunch today at my instigation, I think we both need to get out of the house (and the doldrums).  

Look away if you're a bit sensitive about health symptoms!

 It's been quite a busy couple of weeks, what with health appointments, a couple of unexpected landlord maintenance visits and family visitors.  That has meant that my low-fodmap diet had gone off track, resulting in a return of some of my IBS symptoms.  The diet needs a lot of thinking about and has to be stuck to quite rigidly, which isn't very easy to do when we have unexpected appointments and visitors.  So yesterday evening I went through my books and the Fodmap app I have on my phone, reacquainting myself with the 'can eat' and 'definitely can't eat' rules.  I'm pretty much having to start on the Stage 1 Restriction phase again, to clear my system of the problem foods I've gone off track and eaten recently.  Ah well, at least I know the diet works, having already done around 4 weeks of the first phase and eliminated most of the IBS symptoms.  Hopefully, I can get through the Restriction phase and start on a few Reintroductions before we go on holiday.  

So far I've been able to work out that wheat and gluten are a major problem for my insides, as are onions and garlic, these things are - for me anyway - the biggest cause of my IBS problems.  I have a mild oral allergy, things like citrus fruits, apples and tomatoes make my lips and tongue kind of 'fizz', for want of a better explanation.....this is manageable though, the 'fizzing' effect (and sometimes some mild swelling) only last an hour, it's just slightly uncomfortable rather than debilitating.  The wheat/gluten and onion/garlic though cause me major gut problems.....pain, bloating and the runs, not easy to ignore or live with - having to stay within quick and easy reach of a toilet isn't really conducive to normal daily life!  I also get aching joints and muscles after I've eaten a lot of carby foods - I think that's probably wheat/gluten related as well, and/or due to the high levels of sugars in some carby foods.  My lactose intolerance isn't really that much of a problem.....some people have gut issues with it, I don't, it's a sinus and mucus thing for me, I get sinusitis, a blocked and/or drippy nose and PND (post nasal drip), which makes me cough or do a lot of throat clearing.  This post is all a bit graphic and distasteful, sorry about that!  

I guess I'm just writing things down to remind myself of the effects certain foods have on me, and therefore why I shouldn't eat them if I want to stay healthy.  

Blogger is still being a pain in the bum, so many of the regular blogs I read aren't appearing on my daily blog reading list - including my own!

Nothing much going on, thankfully

I feel like I've had more than enough excitement and stuff going on, could do with a couple of weeks of nothing much!

I did our monthly budget yesterday (bit late but I was distracted by other things earlier in the week), then a freezer inventory, meal plan for 10 days and a small top up shopping list.  I plan on eating out of the freezer for the next couple of weeks, it's quite full and I need to make space for yet more garden veggies.  Tomorrow I have dog food to make, a trayful of courgettes to roast and freeze, and a large panful of tomato, chilli and onion pasta sauce to make, portion up and freeze.  Another carrier bagful of oversized courgettes and cucumbers, along with some more tomatoes, to take to the zoo as well.  

I've suggested husband goes to the barbers tomorrow for a hair and beard cut, he's looking like Santa Claus again.  In a couple of weeks I shall want a haircut too.  I've noticed my hair - and skin come to that - has got much drier as I've got older....another of the joys of ageing.  

Another heatwave forecast this week, it's already just about too hot for Betty and I but will be even hotter for the next few days.  Looks like we've just got to get used to this 'new normal' from now on.

Nothing else to report.

Waiting....

 The few days with husband's bro and sil and their young grandchild went pretty well.  Unfortunately, sil received a phone call on their first day here when we were all out at lunch, giving her some distressing news, which was upsetting.  One thing I will say - although the grandchild (a 6 y.o. girl) was a perfectly nice kid, I'm quite glad we don't have hyperactive young grandchildren who seem to be constantly on the go all day long, are very bouncy and never stop talking!  (It's quite enough having husband to cope with).  They spent one day riding the steam train, just coming to us for supper later on.  And then yesterday they went to Porlock Weir, taking husband with them whilst I stayed home with Betty, who is showing signs of ageing more and more.  That meant husband had quality time with his brother, I knew he was being looked after, and I had a few hours respite at home, so good for all of us.  This morning they're leaving early for home so we said goodbye yesterday evening, after supper at their holiday place.  We shared meal hosting duties, I did no cooking, simply buying buffet type food with a few minor easy additions here.  I even bought scones rather than making them!

It's been lovely to see them and I know they've had a good time, but I do rather hope we don't have any more visitors before our holiday - I need some quiet time to get my head together.  Our next scheduled visitors will be in early November.

Last Monday we had the normal monthly phone call from husband's key worker.  To be frank, I don't really see the point of this phone call, it serves very little purpose from our point of view, even husband says so.  They say it's to support us whilst we're waiting for his appointment for the in-depth testing for dementia.  Well, it's virtually the same conversation every time - the lady, who seems perfectly nice (well, going by her voice, we've never actually met her), starts off by asking "How are you?" in a very slow and earnest manner, as if husband is already deep in the throes of dementia.  Her next question is always "And how's your memory been?" - to which husband always immediately replies "Fine!" whilst I answer "No it isn't!".  Upon which husband laughs and says "I don't know what she's talking about - who are you again?!" in his usual jokey way, which he thinks is hilarious....the key worker always chuckles politely.  Whilst I'm just silently sighing and rolling my eyes.  Two things I wasn't happy about this time - I asked about husband's brain scan results, again - last time the key worker said they'd not had them, they weren't supposed to give them out in any case but she'd try and come up with a way to give us the results, as I'd said we really want to know.  Well, she said this time they definitely won't be letting us know until we attend the testing appointment, it's their policy.  Hmmm.  And on the subject of the appointment - we were first told (by her) that there's a backlog and we won't get the appointment until December.  Now she says it'll be January!  So it almost seems like we're never going to be any nearer this further testing appointment if they keep pushing it back (and thus no nearer receiving the brain scan results, which aren't on his NHS app either, I've checked).  And in the meantime, husband's condition is slowly getting worse, by a little each week, and we're still left in total limbo.  It's no wonder I'm finding it harder and harder to cope.  It's so bloody frustrating.  They referred us to the Alzheimer's society a month ago, but they also have a backlog!

Almost nervous breakdown time

 We'd literally just got back from shopping this morning (a small top up shop) when husband's brother and sister in law phoned to tell us they're coming down for 4 days.  Arriving this coming Wednesday.  And they're bringing a grandchild aged 6, who we've not seen before.  They're not staying with us but at a local caravan park, they are wanting to spend lots of time with us though.  Pity they didn't tell us before we went shopping.....I'll have to go again now.  This is typical of them, they never give us much notice - they even turned up on the doorstep one time last year completely out of the blue, no notice at all.  It's a bit disconcerting I think having surprise visitors, especially if one is left thinking 'oh no, I haven't got anything much to feed them, or enough milk for teas/coffees, or only one teabag left!'.

Husband was talking to them whilst I was putting the shopping away, so I only heard snippets of what he was telling them and he, of course, forgets anything that he's told.  When he came off the phone he did say that he'd told them how to get to the caravan park (they've got satnav but husband does like to give directions)....however, the road he told them to use has actually been closed to traffic for the past couple of years, due to subsidence!  He also told them that we'll meet them for lunch at the farm park near where they're staying on the day they arrive.....the trouble with that is that there are extensive ongoing roadworks on the way there, which we didn't know about and got stuck in when husband's sister and niece were here recently, there were several diversions in place but not clearly signposted and it was absolute chaos.  The roadworks will be ongoing for several weeks yet apparently, so I'm not at all keen to go through that again.  So I've had to message them back to correct what husband told them.

I never get consulted about things like this, I'm just informed about it, and then left to deal with it all and make appropriate plans.  Whilst it is nice to see family - and it's nearly always husband's family - I do find it very tiring, both physically and mentally, it's extra work on top of all the everyday life stuff I have to cope with anyway.  This will be the 5th lot of family visitors we've had so far this year.

To be perfectly honest, I am finding things are getting on top of me lately, especially with the worry of husband's newest health problems.  And all that bloody veg he's kept bringing in armfuls of and simply dumping it all on the kitchen table has added to the irritation - yes it's nice to have free homegrown food when people are starving elsewhere, I do know that.  But I'm the one who has to deal with it all.  Oh, we took 2 carrier bags full to the zoo this morning.

So now I've got 2 days to gather my thoughts, do some food and day out planning, go shopping again and do some extra housework/tidying up.  As well as supervising husband when he's doing his BP readings and making sure he's taking only half the dose of his ACE inhibitor, like the GP said (he's already got it wrong once, yesterday he took the full dose of that and only half the dose of a different tablet, I have to watch him like a hawk).  Well, one of those days is going to be a 'me' day - I'll take the bus into town, go and find a quiet spot on or near the beach (well, relatively quiet, it is holiday time after all) and just sit and people- or wave-watch for a couple of hours.  By myself.

More health worries

 Lovely day today, sunny and pleasantly warm with a nice breeze to dry the washing.  Still no rain - although, actually, we did have a few spots the day before yesterday, and I do mean literally just a few spots over the course of about 20 seconds, and then it was gone again, with no sign that it had happened at all.  Another nice week forecast, at least it's not blisteringly hot although will apparently be very warm tomorrow and Monday.

Having said we had no medical appointments on the calendar for this week or next, a rarity, we did end up having 2 GP appointments - well, husband did, which I obviously accompanied him to.  Just as well I did.  I've noticed husband's losing his balance and stumbling around even more than usual lately, so mentioned it to the GP, who was a locum we've not seen before and therefore knew nothing about husband's medical history.  Despite having it on the screen in front of him, he kept asking husband to elaborate on his conditions and medications, which husband was unable to do so I had to answer for him.  He checked husband's BP which was very low, which I'd guessed was probably the reason for his unsteadiness.  He suggested halving the dose of one of husband's meds, an ACE inhibitor, then doing a week of BP readings at home and taking them in to the surgery, marked for the GP's urgent attention.  I'm always a bit anxious when one of the GPs suggests altering husband's meds - GPs aren't cardiac specialists.  When you have heart failure you're on a lot of medication, which is all prescribed and finely tuned by the cardiologist.  Lowering one of his BP meds could possibly have ramifications for the control of his heart failure, so it's a bit like walking a tightrope.  I shall have to watch husband (even more) closely for the next week or 2, if there are any changes or worries I'll have to ask the GP to discuss things with husband's cardio team, or possibly even refer him back there (he was discharged from cardiology back to the care of the GP over a year ago).  Meanwhile, he's being referred to physio for his back problems, and of course we're still awaiting the results of his brain scan and the further in-depth tests appointment for the possible dementia.  If it's not one thing it's another.

My worry about husband's balance issues is that he'll end up hurting one of us - he's always stumbling and knocking into the dog, or a doorway or chair, or me - he's almost sent me flying a couple of times, if I hadn't grabbed the doorframe or table for support I'd have been on the floor.  Neither of us wants broken bones at our ages.  I have suggested that he think about using a cane or even a walking frame, but he absolutely won't hear of it.  Totally stubborn as always, he just won't be told.  Well if I end up on the floor with a broken hip or collarbone, and thus obviously unable to do anything around the house for a few weeks, then he'll only have himself to blame.

Podding the last of the overgrown French beans took ages, they're nowhere near as easy to pod as peas, in fact my fingers were sore after an hour.  Still, it yielded a small panful of beans, half of which looked like flageolets, the older ones more like haricot beans.  I boiled them up, cooled and then froze them, enough for about 5 or 6 meals altogether, so worth doing I suppose.  I shall be roasting another trayful of courgettes tomorrow, making another panful of tomato pasta sauce and boiling or roasting a load of beetroots.  Still a load of carrots in one of the raised beds but at least they don't have to be pulled all at once, just when we need them.  We have tons of little yellow cherry toms, which aren't all that tasty to be honest.  There's also still 4 or 5 bags of potatoes to be harvested.  We've got probably a couple of dozen mini (torpedoes!) cucumbers and a couple of courgettes that were hiding and are now marrows - neither of us is very keen on marrow - so will be taking a bagful of produce to the zoo tomorrow.

I've finished the first sleeve of my cardi and have just started on the second one, it's easier to crochet now that the weather's not so blisteringly hot.