Purple Dragon

Well, it appears the dreaded lurgy that is spreading round the country like wildfire has really done a number on my MIL.

We thought that it was the flu she had, but it appears to have become pneumonia and she is in the hospital on intravenous antibiotics.

That poor woman. Her health has plagued her for years now, and she doesn't deserve it. The times she has been in hospital at this time of year - if she had a pound for every hour in hospital she could spend the winter in Barbados.

I hope she gets better soon. I hate being so far away from folk we care about - particularly when they are poorly like this. The last thing she needs though is to a) worry about me trogging down there with the kids in tow, in this weather and b) me turning up at her hospital bed with my motley lot. Can you say "stress"?

You know how you see something you hadn't really ever thought of before, and suddenly you can't stop thinking about it, coz you want it so bad?

I want a rocking chair.

Had a nice couple of days break.
It is such a rest to have someone else playing with / watching the kids for once in a while.
The Boy had a sleepover with one of his aunties.
They just got a new puppy - chocolate lab. He's a wee sweetie. Got all my 'puppy broodiness' back in swing. Their DD also has a new puppy - slightly older than this one - and he is a white lab. Cute.

Went to see a good friend of mine and her kids. I really miss her, and I know my boy misses her boy. I keep trying to get her to move up here. Not likely. On the way there, my car ran out of petrol and we discovered it has a 30l tank instead of the 60l one we thought it had. Fortunately it broke down in a safe place, rather than the contraflow we had just passed thru. Whew!

Got home late last night. The house is a pit. I couldn't remember closing the front door, let alone locking it, and spent every spare moment we were away worrying if I had or not. Fortunately I had. I am slowly working my way thru putting away Xmas clothes and toys, finding new places, sorting laundry. Yawn. Same old same old.

Had my Mum up to stay last week and she went home with this nasty flu thing that is going around. She's better now but still a wee bit ick. My MIL got ambulanced into hospital last evening - she has the same ick but it has affected her diabetes and made her very poorly. Poor thing. The times that woman has spent Xmas and New Year in hospital.

I'm going to get blond streaks in my hair. The grey is taking over and I keep dying it brown or red and then the grey seems to appear again within minutes. I'm gonna try a different approach and camoflage it Hopefully that will work. It isn't till I go back down the road that I realise just how much my appearance has taken a back burner. I'm not so shallow that I think it should make that much of a difference, but I feel better if I look better. Maybe I am that shallow. So what? So sue me!

I got 4 eggs this morning when I let the hens out. I'm dead chuffed. Two big uns and two wee uns. The wee uns wont have yolks though. Poor babies need to grow a little more methinks.

I'm pretty gutted. A bloke I know was breeding Scots Greys (which are on the endangered poultry list apparently) and his neighbour got all shitty about the noise from the cockerels and got Environmental Health involved. He had to cull the chaps and it was a real sin. What a bloody waste. I wish I'd have known. I would have rehomed them for him and he could have come to see them whenever he wanted. Not as if I'm short of space! It makes me mad when these folk move to the country and then complain if there is a noise or smell they object to. The country HAS poultry and cockerels that crow in the morning. It has cow manure and pigs and horses on the lanes. Go back to the bloody city, idiot!

This is the bit I hate. The haitus between Xmas and New Year, and the start of 2007.

You are wandering about, can't get on with stuff. Loads of plans. Grr.

Going to visit the inlaws tomorrow and the day after. I hate the drive - 3.5 hours of "are we there yet?" and a numb bum as well.

Why the hell do kids ask "are we there yet?"
My usual reply? "Look out the window - do you see Granny's? When you see Granny's, we're there"

And it is supposed to be getting lighter too. Winter Solstice and all that. Anyone do anything good for the Soltice, as separate from Xmas?

Anyone got any good news years resolutions?

I know I said I was off, but I've made enquiries with The Powers That Be and am awaiting a reply as to the status of this account. Trouble is - I know my way around here, and I have put a lot of effort into getting this the way I want it, and I also know how to change it when I get fed up. I just don't think I can be bothered to change to another blog provider - too lazy is my problem. I must make a new years resolution to stop flying off the handle and making arbitrary decisions that I then regret!

Anyway.

Christmas was good. The kids got spoiled to bits, and the day just flew past. Dinner was a bit naff, but as no one I cook for really cares anyway, I didn't bother getting all that worked up about it.

The thing that struck me mightily was the amount of RUBBISH that is generating by the whole thing. We had no food waste (that is currently simmering on the cooker as I type, for tea tonight) but the cardboard, paper, packaging - ye Gods! - what a lot of stuff!

To start with you have packaging. Cardboard boxes containing dollies, computer programmes, even socks! and within those boxes - polystyrene, plastic etc etc. Now the cardboard can be sent for recycling. However, the rest of it - landfill. My kids won't wait long enough to take the wrapping off nicely, so it was ripped to bits. I can't use it for the rabbits or chicken pen lining. Polystyrene - does *anyone* know how to recycle that stuff? Or reuse it? Plastic - don't get me started on plastic.

So today I made a trip to the local tip with tins and cans for the recycling, cardboard - ditto, plastic bottles - another ditto. The rest of it went in general landfill. My boot and the back seats were stuffed full of junk. Unbelievable.

Well, I kinda sorta offset my wastefulness with laying compost on my veggie plot, and mucking out the rabbits and chickens and composting their stuff as well.

I have been eyeing the playhouse with intent. I reckon I can use it for a livestock house. I am wondering what sort of headroom lapacas need ... I need to convince Himself to lay a concrete floor, but apart from that it is in good condition and the kids don't use it to play in anyway. That and the underfloor is a vermin Hilton. They love it under there. Little do they realise, as each new generation moves in, that the cats can get under there as well

Did I say that we have been planting in the garden? I have put in an oak tree smack in the middle of the front garden. It is only knee high right now, but it will grow, in memory of my Dad. We also have two eating apples and a cooking apple planting in the back garden, behind the house to (try and) protect them from the wind.

Finally, we planted a willow tipi in the front garden as well. It is about 12' across with a wee corridor to get into it. Although I am calling it a tipi, and will continue to do so, imagine the shape of an ingloo - circle with a corridor opening. It looks pretty sad just now, but you wait - come growing time it will grow like bonkers and will be great fun for the kids. The type of willow is also used for coarse basketry, which will be handy because that is a skill I want to recapture. I used to do basketry at school - Mum still has one I believe - and I quite fancy having another shot at it.

Well, this company has pretty much just lost my business. It is demanding that I pay for my bloglists, which as a founder member I was always assured would be free. It won't let me update any of my lists, so I'm quitting.

You know, I can't stand greedy folk!

My Mum has just been on the phone.

She stays in sheltered accommodation - lots of self contained flats.

They have just had a fire there, that was quite bad. Really bad smoke damage for one, several of the tenants hospitalised and a death.

Mum was at the door of the lady who died - the lady was crying for help because she couldn't open her door, but unfortunately Mum couldn't open her door from the outside and by the time help arrived, it was too late.

The cause of the fire? A badly extinguished cigarette dropped into a litter bin.
Smokers - make sure you put your ciggies out properly, eh?

The Imajica - five Dominions, four reconciled and one, the Earth, cut off from them, her inhabitants living in ignorance on the edge of a sea of possibilities, an ocean of mystery and magic. Only a few know of the Imajica, and many of them are frightened, for a shining mystical moment is approaching, a time when the Earth can be reunited with the other four Dominions - a time of Reconciliation.

Racing to capture that moment are three memorable characters : Gentle, a master forger whose own life is a series of lies; Judith, a beautiful woman desired by three powerful men but belonging to none of them; and Pie'oh'pah, a mysterious assassin who deals in love as well as death.

Together they embark on an epic journey through all five Dominions to the very border of the greatest mystery of all : the First Dominion, on the other side of which lies the Holy City of the Unbeheld, where their highest hopes, or their deepest fears, will be realised.

I just finished this. I love Clive Barker. The first one of his I read was Weaveworld, soon followed by this, and his imagination is epic. He can be a wee bit drawn out, but come the end of the book, you understand why he needed to be. I always miss his worlds, when I finish his books.