Getting better slowly

 This bug or whatever it is seems to be on the way out, I would say I feel about 50% better, the scratchy throat and sore neck glands have gone.  I still feel like I could do with a whole week's worth of sleep in one go, but am not as totally knackered and achy as I was.  I think going upstairs to rest, read and nap has done me good, along with eating small healthy meals with plenty of veg and fresh fruit. 

HH, thank you for the mention of Vit D for the immune system, I'd forgotten about that.  We've taken D throughout the last 2 winters, but then stopped in spring when we were outside more.  I've started taking them again now though.  Thank you to all of you for your lovely comments, as always.

The weather has been so changeable over the past few days, one minute it's sunny, the next it's raining.  We had some thunder yesterday afternoon, although I didn't see any lightning.  It's hard to judge whether to put any washing out on the line.....it's bright sunshine at the moment, but apparently we could have thunderstorms again today.  I don't want to be dashing outside every half hour to bring the washing in, or put it back out again, so today's load will go on the airer upstairs in the front bedroom which gets all the sun.

Husband's been doing more cooking, to help me out - I have to tell him exactly what to do though.  He's doing tea tonight, a mushroom & cheese omelette with new potatoes and beans, nothing he can't easily cope with.  He's making another small raised bed in the back garden - why, I don't know, he's got 2 or 3 that aren't currently being used!  Still, it keeps him occupied....he's always happy when he's building something or other (and it means he's not indoors with the TV on!).  I just wish he would start and finish one job at a time, instead of doing little bits here and there like he always does, nothing ever gets finished that way.  He's got the attention span of a goldfish.

Looks like our neighbour's 70th birthday bbq on Saturday might be rained off, which I can't say I'm upset about.....there are several of his relatives and friends still coming, but we're not going if everyone's going to be inside - too much chance of catching (or spreading!) something.  With husband going to hospital on Monday for his minor foot op, we don't want to run the risk of him coming down with something.  I've kept my distance from him for the past week, so as to try and ensure I don't pass on whatever I've had to him.  It's worked so far, he's fine.

Feeling yuck again

 I got all my jobs done yesterday morning, but it wiped me out.  Early afternoon I went upstairs and slept for an hour, then stayed up there to read for the rest of the afternoon.  Husband cooked tea - ham, egg and chips, I couldn't eat all of it.  Started feeling progressively worse so went to bed early, just before 9 pm I think, and had one of the worst nights ever.  Slept fitfully for about 3 hours or so, then that was that.  Had to come downstairs twice, the first time for Betty, she was standing at the front door woofing around 1 am, I thought there must be an animal or something in the front garden, turned out to be a helicopter flying low somewhere nearby.  Couldn't get back to sleep after that, my throat was very dry and scratchy, crushing headache, neck glands sore again and everything ached.  Had to go downstairs again for another glass of water, I'd drunk all of the one I took upstairs.  Sat in my recliner chair reading, finally dozed off about 4.30 ish then was awake again just after 6.

I've now done 3 Covid tests and all of them were negative, so it's not that.  I think Happy Hooker might be right about us all picking up bugs now most people aren't wearing masks anymore - I've stopped wearing mine, except if the shop is very busy (I always keep one in my bag and we have them in the car) and notice that few people wear masks now.

So today I'm back to feeling like death warmed up.  I'm going to try a week of only doing what's necessary in the mornings, and going upstairs to nap or read every afternoon.  I've not got much of an appetite right now, but will work out a very healthy 7 day meal plan, consisting of wholegrains, nuts/seeds and mostly veg and fruit based meals with some chicken and fish.  Husband says he doesn't mind doing it as well, as long as there's plenty of it (being a man, he's got a much bigger appetite than me).

Husband seems unaffected by whatever I've got - well, so far at least.  Got the neighbour's 70th birthday party on Saturday, whether or not I go remains to be seen.  They're having it in the garden, weather permitting, and there'll be around 20 to 25 people there.

Something going round

 There's clearly some sort of bug or virus going round, I've heard now of several people living locally who have been feeling unwell, although symptoms differ slightly.  Some have had sore throats and coughs and generally feeling under the weather, which goes away eventually but then comes back again after a week or two.  Another has had a sore throat accompanied by a swelling on their neck and gone off their food.  All seem to report feeling really tired.  I've coughed once or twice, that might be hayfever related though, if I'm sneezing with hayfever it gives me a dry throat and occasionally makes me cough.  Over the weekend I felt really unwell, very scratchy throat and my neck glands hurt.  The main problem though for me has been this feeling of total exhaustion which has gone on for a couple of weeks, no matter how much sleep I have.  This morning my throat and sore glands feel a lot better, but I still felt like I could have slept for another few hours.  I didn't though, I've never been one for staying in bed for hours, always seems to me a complete waste of the day.

So I'm taking it that I'm better and have plenty to get on with today, I've already put the washing out on the line - will have to keep an eye on it though as the weather looks decidedly changeable again.  I had to put the washing on again when I got up, we had yet another blimmin power cut during the night and it interrupted the set washing cycle, I didn't know how far the cycle had got so just cancelled it and put it on a short wash.  We have power cuts galore here.....which always strikes me as odd seeing as we live about 2 miles as the crow flies from a big nuclear power station!  Fortunately, they only usually last a minute or two.  The power cut is even odder considering the electric company installed a new generator box thing, poles and cables a couple of weeks ago (it's in the field just behind our house).  Bleeding nuisance having to reset all the clocks and things at least once a week.

I'm also making dog food, and a big bowl of pastry to be portioned up and frozen.  There are loads of home grown new potatoes, I'll do a panful to be put in the fridge for potato salads - I've told husband not to dig any more up just yet, there's so many I'm practically drowning in them.  The yellow courgettes are starting to come thick and fast too - that's the trouble with growing veg, it all seems to come at once (husband's not good with successional sowings) and he does have a habit of bringing tons of it in and then leaving me to deal with this veg mountain.

Hopefully, I'll get all my jobs done this morning (I'm just having a coffee break at the mo) so I can sit upstairs in my recliner chair this afternoon and read.  Home cooked ham, egg and chips for tea tonight, so no work as such.

How far ahead is too far?

 Does anyone else have a problem with social invitations being issued very far in advance?

At the very beginning of January, we were invited to a 70th birthday party that is taking place in July.  Last week, we had a verbal invitation to a wedding - for autumn NEXT YEAR (the actual date hasn't been set yet).  I had actually forgotten about the 70th birthday party until it was mentioned to us again a couple of weeks ago, it's a neighbour so no travelling involved.  The wedding, however, is up in the Midlands - we were told that they want to know numbers to make appropriate arrangements.  

I don't plan things that far ahead - how on earth do we know what we'll be doing so far in advance?  I have no idea whether husband will be in good enough health to drive that far in the latter part of next year - or even whether I'll be in reasonable health, for that matter.  To be brutally honest, as it's so far ahead, the couple concerned might not still be together by then! (one of them has a track record of getting engaged and then splitting from previous partners, although this latest partnership does seem to be a strong one, to be fair).

At the other end of the scale, we know a few people who issue invitations with next to no notice, which kind of makes me feel that they think we have nothing else in our lives and are ready to just go at the drop of a hat.  A happy medium would be nice.

I'm still not feeling 100% - physically that is, mentally I'm alright.  I'm just so very tired all the time, everything is an effort.  I went upstairs to read yesterday afternoon and promptly fell asleep for an hour.  Didn't feel like doing anything elaborate for dinner (actually, I never feel like it lately!), so just put a couple of pork chops and some leftover boiled new potatoes in the air fryer, both chops and spuds came out crispy and gorgeous.  Added some peas and that was dinner, done with no effort, other than smearing the chops with honey and mustard and tossing the spuds in a tiny bit of oil and herbs.  I'm loving the air fryer.

Today I'm doing a large tray of Mediterranean style veg, including yellow courgettes and baby beetroot from the garden, and another large trayful of jacket spuds, so they'll need to go in the big oven, I'm doing enough of both to freeze for several more meals.  I've got a small gammon joint to cook, I might do that in the air fryer rather than boiling it.  Well.....I say that's what I'm doing, that's my intention but whether it actually gets done (by me at least) is another matter.  As well as the overwhelming tiredness, I've now got the beginnings of a scratchy throat and my neck glands feel sore, I think I might do another covid test today, just to check.  So I might end up doing nothing.

Not covid

 When I got up yesterday morning, it was still stiflingly hot indoors, especially upstairs.  However, when we went shopping around 9 am, it was noticeably cooler outside, certainly much cooler than inside the house.  Having most of the windows open all day and a strong breeze blowing did cool the house down a lot by the afternoon.  We had a few very brief showers during the day, but not enough to perk the garden up.

Both the top up shopping and the fuel husband put in the car have gone up again.  It's getting totally ridiculous, as well as concerning - when is it ever going to stop?  I dread to think how much our energy bill and heating oil are going to cost during the coming winter.  Fortunately, we're able to cope alright currently, I don't know how long that will last if prices keep going up the way they are though.

By late afternoon I felt decidedly unwell - in fact I have done for 2 or 3 days.  Covid levels are rising again, apparently, so I did a test - negative thankfully.  I suppose it could just be the heat of the past few days - I don't cope well with heat, and especially humidity, at all.  Or maybe a virus, I don't know.  I went to bed early anyway.  Not feeling much better this morning.

I'd made a meatloaf yesterday, to have with salad and home grown new potatoes for dinner.  I only had a small portion as I didn't feel hungry at all.  Husband pronounced the meatloaf "very nice, very beefy".  It was lamb, mint and apricot actually.....😒

Huh, no rain. And don't talk to me until I've had my coffee!

 Well, no thunderstorms yesterday, not even any rain to speak of during the night.  Thankfully, it's cooler though, although feeling a bit muggy.

Did a wash load overnight, showers are forecast on and off throughout the day.....as the load is bedding and towels and I can't really get all of them dry on the concertina airer, I've put the bedding in the tumble dryer - it's still on the economy rate until 8 am.  One of the advantages of getting up early.

Another early riser advantage is that I normally get half an hour or so to myself first thing before husband gets up......I'm not human until I've had my first coffee, and I like to wake up slowly and in peace.  This morning, as soon as I opened my bedroom door, husband appeared from his room and the first thing he said was "Do you want some beetroot out of the garden?".  I won't tell you what I said.  He's always bright and breezy (and talkative!!  As he is ALL the time....) the minute he wakes up, whereas I'm like a bear with a sore head.  Another good reason for now having separate bedrooms....

I did a quick freezer inventory, menu plan and shopping list yesterday, a small top up shop is needed this morning.  I've done a list of about 12 main meals that we both like but are easy to cook, I'm going to stick to them in future, rather than pondering what to make every day.  Some of the meals we can have as leftovers for another day - e.g. a roasted gammon and veg one day,  ham egg and chips the next, or ham with bubble & squeak if I have enough leftover veg.  Jacket potatoes will feature once or twice a week too, I'll stick to my routine of buying a bagful and baking a whole trayful at a time.  There won't be a lot of cooking at the moment anyway, we'll be having something-and-salad a lot whilst it's so warm.

The air fryer is brilliant, so quick and easy, it'll be in use a lot, certainly more so than the big oven.  Husband cooked bacon and hash browns in it yesterday, with beans done in the microwave, and fried eggs on the stove top.....he could have put the beans in the AF as well, I should have told him to do that really.  It would have made things easier for him.....he's a bit uncoordinated when it comes to cooking several things at once, he gets flustered and confused about which order to do things in.  He managed though, just about.

He brought in the first lot of new potatoes from the garden yesterday, a big colander full, so there'll be potato salad or boiled new spuds simply served with a knob of butter featuring heavily for the next week.  We now have lots of yellow courgettes too, I like them sliced and lightly fried in olive oil with parsley, salt & pepper, or even grated raw in salads.

Bring on the thunderstorms!

 We've come home a day early, got here about 10.15, I've unpacked already.  The past few days it's just been too hot, for both Betty and I - even having the curtains closed against the sun and all windows and both external doors open and the fan going didn't cool the van down sufficiently.  Poor Betty didn't know what to do with herself, she was inside and out constantly, lying down panting continually (I know they do that to try and lower their body temperature and keep cool).  For some reason, she won't lie fully on her cool gel mat, she only puts her head on it....she doesn't like me putting a wrung out wet tea towel on her either, she'll tolerate it for about 30 seconds and then stands up and shakes it off.  She is sensible enough to keep drinking cold water though, I refresh her bowl every couple of hours.  I've tried giving her ice cubes to crunch, she will sometimes crunch them (Jayne I'll try your tip of very diluted chicken stock ice cubes now we're home, I didn't have any at the van).  Oddly enough, the van has been hotter this week than last week, when the temperature was allegedly higher - I'm pretty sure it's been higher this week though.  Must get a thermometer for the van.

Betty's now zonked out on the sofa, I'm not doing anything much today, this heat and humidity drains me and makes me feel so tired and decidedly unwell.  Luckily my bedroom doesn't get the sun until evening, so stays relatively cool, think I'll be having a lie down this afternoon.  We've got the possibility of thunderstorms later, hopefully that might cool things down a bit and freshen the air.  It'll be nice to sleep in a big airy cool bedroom tonight, on a big bed giving both Betty and I plenty of room (although she does tend to start off lying on my legs), rather than the small bedroom in the van which is like an airing cupboard in this heat.

The heat definitely dulls my appetite, especially for hot food.  I'll just have some fruit for lunch - we bought 2 punnets of Cheddar strawberries yesterday (the Cheddar area is famous for strawberries and is luckily just a short drive from the caravan park).  For dinner later I think we'll just have bacon and scrambled egg, husband can do that, I expect he'll want hash browns and beans with his.

We're having at least a fortnight at home now, we've got various things on the calendar for the next couple of weeks.....I'm having my hair cut, Betty's got the groomer's for her bath and nail clipping, husband's going to hospital for his ingrowing toenails to be dealt with, we have a 70th birthday party to go to....there's another couple of things too, which I can't remember off the top of my head.