🦞Lockdown friends still together🦞

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The film I don't want to miss Cherry is Paper Portraits about the people who worked in the paper mills.

I daresay you have already tried everything to keep yourself safe in bed!

I wonder how Gubbins is enjoying her travels. It all sounds magical! Grandmafrench thanks for coming to our rescue and explaining where these places are.

I'm glad you've had such an interesting day Doodle. Especially your laughs with your new old friend!

My big achievement today was getting dressed all by myself 👏 Socks were hard and I've put in an order for sockaid. A gadget to help to get a sock on

I wish that you didn't have pain Kaimoana. 😔

Sending hugs and cwtches.

*Grandmafrench how lovely to hear from you. Do hope your DH is doing well with his new knee. How nice to be near a beach for walks. I love the sea.
I have fond memories of our library when I was young. My brother used to take me every week in the early evening and I loved being there. I fondly remember the ladies who used to sush! If anyone made a noise or look sternly over the top of their glasses. I loved the quiet to browse. Todays libraries seem full or noise, chatter and running children. Mind you ours now has a really nice cafe so that’s a plus. Take care of yourselves and keep well.*
Ixion your library sounds like mine. I love to see children catering and playing and getting into books but I wish we still had the quiet area
Cherry how funny (well not for you) that you had all those coincidences with the various topics we were talking about. Don’t suppose being sick like that was very nice.
Glad you feel a bit easier today.
please take care on those stairs and don’t run before you can walk as they say
I remember those days of district nurse, phlebotomists Ot and random repair men, window cleaners etc. All managing to arrive at roughly the same time and causing chaos.
Church was lovely thanks. It always is. Sometimes sad but I love it there. The people are so kind and nice and we all get on so well.
i spent a good 40 minutes talking to a lovely lady in her 90s who told me all about her children and grandchildren. Sadly she had lost both her husband and one of her sons so we shared some stories but had some laughs. Her humour was still in tact.
Kaimoana I’m so sorry you are in such pain. Is there nothing that can be done? If the physio can help are there pain relieving injections? With pain in the spine there’s not much relief sitting or standing. Does the hot water bottle help?
Please be careful with the hot water bottle I worry about you burning yourself. Do you have any protective gloves?
Well the family are certainly getting around. I didn’t know they were going to France. A certain young lady will be well travelled for someone her age.
Grammaretto I’m glad you are having visitors to keep an eye on you and help a bit. I hope you get to see the film but please be careful you don’t damage things. Is it very painful still?
It’s certainly cold where you are. We’ve had a lot of sun today but it’s still bitterly cold.
Take care all

Good Evening Lobstar Ladies

I know how you all are, I think, and I'm hoping like mad that all injuries, surgeries, recoveries, sadness, viruses, worries - and any other nasties which seemed to be happening far too often in 2024 - will now reduce/clear off forever and leave you all upright, in good spirits and one day soon, filled with laughter again. Following your wonderful thread has made me quite sad too often recently (and I've not been immune myself from the fickle finger of fate), so let fingers be crossed from now on for better things and a very Happy New Year to you and yours.

In response to Kaimoana's request for a tour guide, I am pleased to confirm from my many years in Normandy, that the Gubbins Tour Group's photos are indeed of le Mont St Michel (which I love, love, love) and a peaceful inner courtyard in the Abbaye there. The street photo is of La Grande Rue (Main Street, or High Street if you like). I bet they loved their visit. The weather is probably not very kind at present but at least it limits the vast numbers of visitors who normally flock to St Michel, especially in warmer weather, when those little streets can be a bit of a squash for 21st century mortals (even small Normans).

You also need to be a bit mountain-goatey and fit to climb right to the top, but it's totally fascinating to look down on a fully functioning tiny community with such wonderful medieval buildings and in such a spectacular and unspoilt place. I particularly love that it's the Benedictine twin of St Michael's Mount in Cornwall and pre-dates William the Conqueror's invasion at Hastings - which with my maths makes it pretty old indeed, and so atmospheric.

Aren't libraries wonderful places? For all sorts of stuff now, but I recall that at 12 years of age, it was the place that my best friend and I raced to almost every day after school - to return and borrow, to reserve special things we wanted to read and, most of all, to chat to the wonderful Children's Librarian and help sort, replace, stamp the books and learn all about the index systems. Just the smell of the building and the books used to give me such a good feeling and I'm forever grateful for the love of reading that my times in the local library gave me.

After a hard (half) afternoon's attempts to post a small parcel to England, (no kidding) DH and I (together with The Dog) repaired to a sunny beach where Dog frolicked and DH proudly walked on flat sand in 16degrees, just a month after his knee replacement. See, it's not just in England that everyone is trading new limbs for old!
Get well and strong soon, all of you, and please take care of yourselves.
Hugs from French France x

I'm okay, thanks Grammaretto. It's good to know that reassured by the district nurse you are, reasonably, too. My leg has been considerably to my mind anyway swollen and painful, especially my knee. Only in the last two days have I noticed some improvement except for after the physio exercises.
What is the film you are hoping to see on Saturday? Typical that the lift is broken 😤, would you have to climb more than one flight of stairs? I've surprised myself with stairs, one step at a time has been easier than I thought but I don't want to risk walking up them as I usually would just yet. The thought of trying was worse than the actuality. I hope you find they're not as hard as you think and that you do manage to go on Saturday 🤞.

You, my lobStar friends, never cease to amaze me with the diverse nature of conversations in the space of a day or two. This time it's projectile vomiting, libraries and St Michael's Mount. What a mixture 😁. How can I possibly join in on this chat 🤔.. Well, when I was admitted to the Older Person's Assessment Unit before being transferred to a ward 24 hours later after breaking my hip I'm embarrassed to say that I vomited the full length of the bed. A short while later the hospital librarian came round with a trolley offering books and magazines to read. A gentleman in the bed across from me chose a magazine which had a photo of Penzance okay, not exactly St Michael's Mount on the front. A bit random?Perhaps I should've changed the subject again.

It was a bit like Piccadilly Circus here earlier today again. The nurse arrived to take yet more bloods and do her obs. Then the prearranged gas engineer arrived, to service the boiler, as she was leaving and moments later two OTs visited. They were here for what felt like ages pondering over how to help prevent me falling out of bed. Needless to say that's unresolved 🤐.

Sorry to hear that your hip and spine give you such grief Kaimoana, is there really nothing else that can be done to help?

How was church, Doodle?

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You are certainly getting very different care for your hip grammaretto.
I didn't have any home visits at all.
I had a dressing on releast from hosp and had to go to the doctor 2 days later to make sure nothing was amiss.
Three days after that a hosp visit for removal of stitches.

Physio was up to me as per an illustrated sheet - but I was diligent

I have far more pain in my hips and spine right now than I had when my titanium one as fitted and physio can't fix it. .

Libraries are being sucked into the black hole of the Internet.
Downloading of everything is increasing and our new generations have never had the inestimable joy and comfort of settling down with a good book and losing oneself in that world.
Kindle doesn't cut it but it's all they know.

Making good strides it seems Cherry, good to hear, you'll soon be racing around like Grammaretto

I've been sitting here far longer than is comfortable so I better hobble to the kitchen to renew my hottie.

That dog has been barking for hours poor thing (why don't dogs get sore throats and lose their voices?) and the boy over the fence at the other side must have become as sick of it as I, so put on LOUD rock music to drown it out.
I am wearing super-sound-cancelling earplugs as the only way to stay sane but I can feel his music as it rattles the windows.

The family are in France it seems.
Perhaps GrandmaFrench recognises the beautiful little street?

St Michel I know as St Michael's Mount in Cornwall was designed to be like it.
The arches are in an (unnamed) monastery where I would give a great deal to be this very minute

Are any libraries safe from Council cuts?
Ours is periodically under threat though it would be mad to close it.
Like yours ixion so much goes on there. Also it's joined to the swimming pool, leisure centre and the High School.

Nurse changed the bandage and reassured me that the symptoms were normal healing process. "It's a serious operation"

I had more visitors who fed me, helped me make soup, chatted to me, lit the fire and gritted the icy path.

I'm determined to go to see the premiere of the film, partly shot here.
It's to be on Saturday in the Town Hall but I've just heard that the lift is broken and it's upstairs. I'll need to practice stairs.

Very cold here minus 6° . Brr.

How are you Cherry? And Kaimoana?

So sorry to hear you are still unwell, Kaimoana- you are missed! Take care of yourself and cheerfully accept any offers of help going. I think Jeeves is quite busy with the requests from the Hip People, who, I suspect, must be going down with Cabin Fever. Be patient, he will be with you. ✈️.

Did your District Nurse visit as planned, Grammaretto? For how long do you have your DIY injections? I do hope you got your leg checked out - it sounded quite concerning.

Is it a big mental leap, Cherry, from frame to two sticks? How did it go? You have no snow along your lane? I see Our Team is Under New Management. About time too. Onwards and upwards?

All this talk of libraries is both interesting and timely.
Only this week I see that my childhood library is to be sold, there not having been sufficient money raised to save it.
It is/was one of many erected in mid Victorian times, Carnegie-style, by a rich benefactor.
It was, to a small child at least, cathedral-like in its size and ambience. Adults to the left, strictly off limits to children, with a reading room comprising a range of newspapers displayed lectern style with a large strip of wood down the centre to fix it firmly in place! Everything was in dark oak, hushed tones throughout. I remember the reverse of the date stamp leaf, exhorting families in contact with chickenpox or measles to report to the librarian who would remove returned books for decontamination...
A far cry from our local one today, where attempts at researching local history are interspersed with the Parent and Baby Group serenading us with The Wheels on the Bus, or shouts of I want that piece of Lego from the After School Club.

I don't think libraries in my day were supposed to be fun.

Doodle - the library is SUCH a nice place to be - and our little café also has lovely staff

Notspaghetti I know I shouldn’t but I did have to laugh at the thought of your daughter being sick like a rogue hosepipe.
I love going to our library. It looks out over a fountain and has a really nice cafe with lots of food options and is run by a very friendly man who greets every customer like a long lost friend.
Oh Kaimoana sorry you’re not feeling great, hope you’re on the mend soon.
Grammaretto and Cherry, I too am hoping you’re both making good progress and are feeling more comfortable

Oh Kaimoana, that's my fault! Apologies. I do hope you are feeling a bit better today and have had some positive news of the wanderers - they can't still be in Bath surely?

And how is the lovely M'lani doing? Is she still there?

I have heard a lot on the radio this week about fish. We, as a country, are eating less farmed salmon (at last) but have apparently moved over to trout! I don't quite get why as surely they are farmed as well! Is your selling or trout law an old one and what/where does it come from?

Thinking of you.... And apologies for lowering the tone!

Kaimoana 😂🤣
Apologies for lowering the tone.

Good to hear you're able to walk up the lane now Cherry. Progress!
I wish it was warm enough to get outside. Something to look forward to.
My NZ son, on holiday somewhere in the North Island in a broken down Campervan, is wondering how they
are going to get home.

Hopefully the health visitor will come here today. I began to think I was developing a blood clot as the operated leg has swollen and aches.
But it's no worse this morning so probably normal healing.

Isn't it easy to have morbid thoughts in the middle of the night!

Jeeves! Breakfast please. I must be getting better, my appetite is coming back.

I was beginning to feel just a few threads better then I came here and read graphic descriptiona of vomiting......oooops, excuse me, must dash....

Cherry and Grammaretto I do hope that you are steadily recovering. I think that the physio, though grim, will pay dividends in due course.

It's good that they can take blood at home. It saves an uncomfortable journey. 👍

Doodle, I do like having a little café in the library. I wish we had one when my children were small. Ours is fairly basic but looks out over a lovely grassy parkland with a children's play area off to the side. It's so nice to see young mums sitting out in the summer with busy little ones enjoying the library and the outdoors.
I think if more people experienced the joy of a decent library we would have better literacy altogether. And I think you learn a lot about other people when you read.
📚

Our second child was born in America and the library there didn't have a café but it opened at evenings and weekends. It was very busy with families on a Sunday and dads on a Saturday when lots of people brought their little ones into the warm in winter and into the cool in the heat!

Projectile vomiting is grim
And alarming!

Some children are good at being sick and seem to be aware of their bodies. My oldest daughter seemed to always get to the loo or manage to be sick in a basin after a short period of feeling "uncomfortable"

This was so unlike my fourth child who was somethingof a "wild vomiter". She would wind herself up into a state of panic and trauma ahead of the act crying and shrieking with apprehension and then she would suddenly leap up and run about vomiting everywhere as though she was a hosepipe that someone had let go of!

Needless to say I used to dread her feeling sick... even now the thought of the endless cleaning up makes me exhausted!

Her siblings now joke about it with her... I can't believe she would do it now!

Notspaghetti i do like the sound of your colour of paints. Perhaps you could try a bit here and there to see what you like best. Hope you can obtain a suitable door. I think we’re all interested in your shed. How I’d love to come to a shed warming. 😊*
Grammaretto your baby story brought back memories to me too. When my younger son was a baby his older brother picked up some bug or other and believe me we had projectile vomiting. All along the hall carpet up the stairs. he wasn’t much use then either.
Hope the health visitor is much more use.
How are you feeling at the moment. Is it very painful? Hope you’re taking it easy and not overdoing things
Cherry please will you too be careful. I’d like to wrap you both up in cotton wool
Hope the physio and OT were of help. Are you feeling a bit more mobile?
Today I’ve just been to the library with a friend for lunch then some food shopping. Tomorrow is church in the morning which I’m looking forward to,*
Kaimoana I hope you’re ok. Wondering how the folks in the UK are doing now the snows arrived.
Keep thinking about you and little Gubbins. I hope things work out better for you both,

I think I have shed envy NotSpaghetti!. I think it's really lovely 😻. I think a framed and braced door will look good, 💯%.

Crikey Grammaretto, you were brave to venture out in the snow so soon after your op'!. I haven't even braved the concrete steps that lead up from my house to the street yet 😬. Fortunately I can walk up the lane, so far with a frame but will try two sticks tomorrow. Walking down it is fun 🤣. Go easy Grammaretto. I hope your home visit from your health visitor is a good one tomorrow.

I had my first and last outpatient's appointment at the fracture clinic yesterday. Took all afternoon for a minute's dressing check and discharge, I'm going to have a lovely wonky scar 😂. Today was my first home physio and OT visit and the nurse arrived whilst they were here to take bloods. The exercises 😱 ! She said something about ballet movements, I nearly fainted 🤣. I wasn't too bad at gymnastics at school eons ago, but contortion? She's left me with an exercise sheet.

I hope you are okay Kaimoana 💐.
In fact I hope the rest of the lobStars are all okay too. What have you been up to today Doodle?

It would be a good pottery studio Grammaretto I think. Yes.
I wondered vaguely about moving a loom down there - but that would still mean I need a shed for the garden things!
And it would mean my weaving stuff was then in 4 rooms 😬

Ofcourse your shed is a pottery studio NotSpag! 😂😃 Everyone should have one.

It's very nice. We used to buy from reclaim yards too. Such fun.

At last I am to get a home visit from a health visitor! On Wednesday.

It reminds me of when we took DS1 home from hospital and suddenly we had to pretend to know how to look after a baby.
He vomited with such force that I was convinced he had projectile vomiting I had read about the condition
So I dispatched DH to a phone box to call the clinic.
At last we had an elderly HV knock on the door.
I wasn't on their radar apparently.
She said the baby was hungry. Where was I getting my information? From my baby book. Throw your books away, said she.
We'll give him a bottle. I didn't have a bottle. She proceeded to mix up a concoction in a cup and fed him formula with a teaspoon. He stopped crying. She smiled and left.

He promptly vomited it all up. 😫 🤢
She never came back.

Naughtyneine - I was pleased to see you are recovering somewhat and to see CherryCezzy posting at last too.
Thinking of you too Kaimoana - and your little family. I hope things are sorted soon so you know where you are so to speak.

It is very cold here even with the heating on. Keep warm friends. 🔥

So pleased you enjoyed the panto Doodle. And that there wasn't a disaster in the snow Grammaretto. Wow, you are doing SO well with your new ironmongery!

WARNING
This is tedious to anyone not interested in my shed project! 🤣 so just skip on past me. Apologies

So, yes Ixion I have four old doors but unfortunately they are all inside ones, and I've been advised to not try to use them outside even if painted well... so no, sadly.
I do also have one old shed door but it isn't any use - too big and needs work anyway. I've been goggling and put a request on freecycle.org and checked gumtree and ebay but can't find an old outside one cheap enough, that is local enough
My nearest two reclaimers don't have anything suitable either - I should have found a door and built the shed round it like we did the window, I suppose! However, given that the window isn't 1890s and that it's too big for a victorian shed anyway I'll probably buy a traditional style braced - or framed and braced - which I've seen locally at builders suppliers... - or my builder will make one - though that would probably cost much the same in the end.

I have some nice dark blue/green Sadolin "Superdec" paint which will dry in a few hours so may well use that as it's the sort that can go on without an undercoat. The shed next door (that probably used to be the loo) has black woodwork so I could go black... but I also have white and a pale melony/lime shade in the Sadolin 😎....as well as the aforementioned dark kingfishery blue/green
Ha ha... getting carried away now. Am suddenly thinking RED... 🤔 - but i know I should settle on a paint I already have which is obviously no further cost and much more sensible.

If I think too hard I'll be moving in! I am so ridiculously excited about it. If you have read this far thanks for your patience.
PS It isn't perfect and I've already found some things I'd change if I was starting again 🤣 - but nevertheless 💃🏿💃🏿💃🏿💃🏿

Notspaghetti it’s certainly a lovely shed. Would make a nice little cosy room for one. Love the window and the look of it. Hope your patio is done in time for spring

Grammaretto lovely daffodils. Such sunny flowers. They’re out early, So Venus was looking down on you then.
Youve got a lot of snow. Hope you’re being careful.
Oh just read your last post and you’ve been out in the snow. Please be careful we don’t want you in hospital again
Jan I can’t say I’m a pantomime person either. Having said that I enjoyed yesterdays. It was nice to be out with so many friends and we all had a good laugh together.
NFK very sensible to stay in when the weather is bad. Have you got snow, we had a small amount yesterday but it got rained away quite quickly,
Dils sister is still in Norfolk. She has had her op and hopefully will be able to get home soon.
Cherry hope you’re coping ok. Please be careful. No acrobatics. Hope your outpatient appointment goes well and you get answers to those questions.
Naughtyneine glad you are feeling more like yourself. Hope you’re feeling much better
Ixion labels are always on the left. Who has taken it upon themselves to change this tradition.
Loved the story of the bitter lemon 🤣
Im glad I went to the panto yesterday. I did have a good time. Down in the dumps today as is often the case.
Kaimoana we are all hoping things go well for your DS and also things will resolve themselves with your DIL. Hope you get some good news soon

Nice!
What colour are you painting the fascia boards? Do you have a vintage door to go on? We used to love visiting reclamation yards (or scrap yards, as my DF would say*) where all the doors would be lined up on their long edges and you would just work through them until you found the ideal one.

*My father would always show mock horror at what he saw as modernisms.
Newly wed, I proudly showed him a packet of wild flower seeds I was going to scatter over my pocket handkerchief sized lawn.
He laughed. Saw you coming, then?
🤪

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Here are some shed photos. I'd intended to share them a week or so ago. They were taken when I went to check on it after the windy weather. It had survived. 👍 It's hard to get a decent photo as it's behind a greenhouse ... which will eventually move forward. It's a narrow garden with two deep beds and an enormous bay tree where I'd have to stand to get a better shot.

The "patio" is not as grand as people imagine. It's just a slabbed area in a bit of a suntrap (when that reappears). I will enjoy lolling there though once the building materials are all gone and the weather is good.

I had to rush back to the local reclaim yard today to get some "eaves" (half) tiles. I hadn't even thought about it but obviously you need 2 layers at the very bottom as you do everywhere else! My builders said "oh don't bother we can use all these odds and ends up that don't match including some modern ones that came from..." (??) 😱 eeek...
Anyway, they didn't break the bank at 78p each and now, if you are picky you can look at the underside of the overhang and be delighted that everything is old and equally worn.

The window came from someone who lives near my daughter and who was having an extension. It used to be her kitchen window. They have done quite a bit today but it's too dark for photos.