741.6092

741.6092 is the Dewey Decimal number of the book I've just finished but  it's wrong because 741 is the classification number for drawing and although this book is by a lady who is a fabric designer and illustrator it's actually a memoir of her very strange upbringing in Vermont during the 1970s. I have no idea where I heard about it, perhaps on someones blog? but the library had a copy.

 The author is Heather Ross and it's called 'How to Catch a Frog and other stories of family, love, dysfunction, survival and DIY'. It was an enjoyable read about a two sisters growing up in the country, how their life was shaped by poverty and the mother who couldn't cope, letting them run wild to swim and play. Funny but sad with some craft  and DIY ideas thrown in.Worth a read. But I think it should be in the biographies at 920ROS to make it more accessible.

 Yesterday we went to hospital for Col's pre-chemo blood test which will happen before each session of chemotherapy. We also saw the MacMillan nurse who advises about benefits and she said depending on how poorly Col is as the sessions progress will determine if we can get a benefit called PIP and if he is unwell then I will also be able to claim carers benefit. That's as well as the £73 a week support allowance. None of these are means tested.

I feel really embarrassed  about comments and  bad about making Sheila cry when reading yesterdays post. We are quite matter of fact about the whole cancer thing because of the amount of cancer in both our families, the diagnoses was a relief and not a surprise because it meant treatment would start.And I always have my hair short, so no sacrifice necessary! Regarding our daughter's ovarian cancer at age 18. It was spotted and treated very quickly, we hardly had time to worry, after surgery she had chemo but only as a just-in-case measure. It was an unusual type of cancer and as she was so young  had all the junior doctors in to see her, making notes for their studies. Her case was also written up for a medical journal. Although she lost some hair she was never ill before or after the treatment and had very few days off work. She will be 29 this November and is fit and well.

Many thanks for all the supportive comments

Back tomorrow.........probably
Sue

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

It's a fact - people having chemotherapy usually have hair loss.
In preparation, last week I cut Col's hair with the number 2 comb and yesterday went all over again with no comb. Just in time, as he found he could grab hold of bits and pull them out.
To keep him company he then cut my hair with the 4 comb - not quite as short but short enough!

Looking at the colour of the hair on the floor you would think we had  been shearing a badger!

Our youngest daughter had ovarian cancer when she was 18. She lost most of her hair and wore a scarf for the duration. When her hair came back it was darker, thicker and curlier than it had been before. If Col's hair comes back thicker and darker he will be well pleased!

Back Tomorrow, I guess
Sue

Old Things and Bird Watching

We don't have any antiques in our house, just one or two old things (plus me and him of course!)

This is my favourite

 It's just a small chest of drawers about 7 inches tall that I've had forever. I don't know where it came from but I believe it was made by someone in the family before I was around. All I remember is using it for plastic dolls cutlery when me and my sister played house. Sometime much later I remember buying and fixing the little brass knobs as before that the only way to get the drawers open was to tip them out. The key is even older and it came from the very old wattle and daub cottage we renovated in 1983. The key lives in the drawers along with random foreign and old coins, fuses and picture hooks.It deserves being used for something better.

Here's something much younger. This little fella crashed into the window as I stood here making a cuppa. It clung on - stunned - long enough for me to go and get my camera and take this picture.

I'm surprised we didn't have more crashes because our neighbour is away, her feeders must be empty and all the blue tits in Knodishall are round at our place eating us out of house and home!

Col didn't sit outside to do the RSPB Garden Bird watch as he did in 2015 but watched from 3 different windows and over the hour saw 

Blue tit 30+

Great Tit 30+

Coal Tit 2

Longtail Tit 6

Greenfinch 2

Chaffinch 12

Goldfinch 9

 Redpoll 2

Blackbird 8

Field fare 2

Wren 6

Robin 4

Dunnock 2

Green Woodpecker 1

Greater Spotted woodpecker 3

Collard Dove 2

Pigeon 6

Jay 1

Magpie 2

Kestrel 1

Sparrow hawk 1

Pheasant 1

Jackdaw 2

Rook 2

Carrion Crow 6

Today the garden is much quieter so our neighbour must be home and has re-filled all her feeders.

Welcome to SusanRD and Christine Grant who have pushed the follower numbers up to 336, thank you for comments yesterday and welcome back to Bridget and Julee two favourite bloggers who've been AWOL for months!

Back again ASAP
Sue

January - An expensive month

I do hope we don't have too many months like this one or the savings won't last a year, let alone until pension time.The money has zoomed out of the bank in all directions

Car Tax

MOT

New Mattress

New shoes

Electric bill 

Dehumidifier

Frying pan

Flea stuff and wormer for the cat

Bird feed
not forgetting the £2.99 for a new washing up bowl!

as well as the normal things like council tax, water and diesel. On the plus side the food bill was well down and my personal spending amounted to £2 for a bunch of flowers and £3.49 for 3 books.

Thankfully we now have 2 months without Council Tax and water and then we'll have moved, although the Council Tax in Ipswich will be the same as here - crazy considering the difference in size. In fact all our bills will be more in Ipswich which makes me wonder why we are moving!

 But we wanted to leave the garden looking like this

Summer 2013

rather than the completely overgrown wreck that we found when we moved here. We wanted to leave a campsite that could be taken on as a going concern and a house that was in good decorative order. It would have been difficult, even impossible, with Col's illness for us to do all the things that need doing when you own 5 acres  - and there's no way I could keep everything going on my own.
So we will squeeze ourselves into the little bungalow, get Colin well again and then decide "what next?" 

February will be better month on the expenses front. I'm having another no spend month - except food and diesel - like I tried last November, to make up for January I need February to extra frugal.

The form I mentioned yesterday wasn't too bad at all because at question 4 it said "do you have cancer?" and then  " if yes, you do not need to fill in the rest of this form except the last page". Col said "Oh yes I remember the Macmillan lady on the phone saying that!" So we just need to take the form to hospital with us next week to get the back page filled in by the right person and it can be sent. Good.We have a special ticket for cheap parking at the hospital - £3 for 10 visits which is better than £1 an hour and Col will get free prescriptions although he had a pre-payment card anyway because of the heart medications. So that's all that sorted.

I've just tuned into Andy M in the Australian tennis final and Oh Dear he's just lost the first set 6-1. Fingers crossed for rapid improvement!

(Edited in to say - just heard the sad news that Sir Terry Wogan has died age 77. I listened to him in the mornings way, way back in the 80s, he had such a good relationship with his listeners.)

Back Tomorrow - Probably but not definitely
Sue

How one book leads to another

Toward the end of last year I read My Life In Houses by Margaret Forster.    I'd not read any of Forster's books before but it had  popped up on my Amazon suggested reading list because I'd looked up Angela Thirkell's - Three Houses.  A couple of people suggested her other autobiography "Hidden Lives", which I ordered  and picked up from the library van. Now I've just finished and enjoyed that - though it's not a particularly happy memoir - and thought perhaps I should check out her fiction even though I assumed they were a bit too literary for my taste but 'Diary of an Ordinary Woman'  sounded interesting. Now here's the weird bit ................. I went to Leiston this morning for milk and to check out the new EACH charity shop, in fact I went round all 5 charity shops we now have and found nothing I wanted/needed at all. So heading back to Co-op, passed the hardware shop which has a basket of  (usually tatty) second-hand books outside with a SCF collecting box attached, and there, sticking up in the top was Margaret Forster - Diary of an Ordinary Woman. How odd is that! needless to say I popped 50p in the collecting box and the book into my bag!

It's sods law  that the day after I posted  Cols doctors note form thing off to an office up north, attaching a stamp (to apply for any benefit he might be entitled to) we then get a letter in the post containing a pre-paid envelope for us to use? Damn - my efficiency cost me 54p!!
 But before that note could have possibly got to the right place we had a letter to say he is eligible for £73 a week -  that's good but in another letter on the same day, we had a giant form to fill in and return which says if you don't return it you won't get the £73 a week!
In all the 34 years Col worked for the County Council he only twice had more than a week off work and we never claimed a thing when he was self-employed and unable to work due to the heart problems. So it will be quite an 'adventure' claiming anything - but I fear not in a good way!

Thank you for all the comments yesterday

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The end of another week

How does it get round to Friday so quickly and why did it take longer to get to the end of the week when I was at school? ( don't answer that as I know it's an age thing!).

Nothing of any note to post about really.
 I've packed a couple more boxes, put another book and some tea plates in the charity shop bag. Which reminds me, Thanks for charity shop comments. I did know that most charity shops operate the one day rule so that items have to go out on the shelves for a day before volunteers can buy them and I also know that most volunteers are nice people but I can only say what I hear - in two charity shops in Woodbridge the other day I heard ladies moaning about their manager and the 2 ladies who work on Tuesdays in Leiston Hospice shop are always bitching about someone and rarely pause to say Thank You when you take in a donation. The EACH ( East Anglian Childrens Hospice) shop opens in Leiston today. I thought about biking down to see what they had in but it's blowing a gale, quite chilly and I wanted to listen to Andy Murray's semi-final from the Australian Open. I need milk tomorrow so I'll go and have a look then.

We had a lovely card and letter in the post yesterday from a penfriend who reads this blog. Her husband was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma 23 years ago, had chemotherapy and was declared completely clear 10 years later and is still well. That's the sort of letter that cheers up a grey day. So thank you SW in Birmingham for the letter and the gift. Much appreciated.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Thrifty Thursday and a not much news day

Yesterday after posting I decided it was time for a new header. It took me an age to remember how to change the picture, I should have made a note as I went along. The blog is heading towards 3 years old and this is my 3rd different header. Thank you to everyone who said they liked it, it's from a postcard.( probably copyrighted - whoops! but I'll do a new one once we've moved house). While typing this I was wondering how many of the blogs I read were around 3 years ago and it's quite a few, but many more are newer writers.

Thank you also for comments yesterday.
In reply :-
 I think Bovey Belle is right about some people getting the best picks in charity shops, I've often thought it would be good to volunteer in one but then sometimes  hear the volunteers talking and they are usually gossiping about the manager or the other volunteers. The Hospice shop in Leiston is the worst for this, there are two women who work there who are always saying quite nasty things about people they know. Not a nice atmosphere to work in.
The reason we have quite large bird feeders is because Col bought some mesh and made them years ago. We wanted some that were quite weighty and wouldn't blow about in the wind. The bottoms are jar lids wired on and the tops are whatever he could find to fit over.
Our son is a lovely fella, drove us nuts as a child as he spent his whole time tormenting his older and younger sisters!The job he has at the moment - working on old World War II USAF bases - is so perfect for him as he did his dissertation for his Archaeology degree on almost the very same subject. I think in a way he would still like to be just digging up interesting things! but there's not much of a living to be made in that sort of archaeology job.

Thrifty Thursday Thoughts - not many
 Cut an inch off the bottom of a pair of Col's trousers and turned them up to stop them getting grubby. They were from a charity shop and I've been getting around to this job for about a year!
Free heat and hot water as usual
Home made bread as usual.
Used our own beetroot, leeks and apples from store.
Reading library books for free
Celery soup from the outside stalks of a very poor quality head of celery.
I gave Col a free hair cut!

I see  Google Friend Connect is doing funny things again. 3 new people - welcome Carolyn, triplebc and Nessas crafty place but numbers are down by 4. Odd.


Back Tomorrow
Sue