Category: operation

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Rain, sewing, recovery

The wet non-summer continues with rain and chilly temperatures closer to autumn.

A gap between the rain showers

We’ve had rain just about every day for months now, and I can’t help watching the blazing summer and terrible droughts and water shortages across the rest of the UK and Europe in despair. Whilst we’re drowning. There has to be a better way to share this. Somehow.

Incoming

Whilst I recover from my operation I’ve been reading books, pottering in the polycrub (which at least provides shelter from the rain) and sewing.

Rainy days

I had a sashiko panel and some threads tucked away in my sewing bag from when we first moved here, so I’ve spent many happy, peaceful hours sewing away.

Sashiko panel

Sashiko is just a running stitch, so it’s repetitive and soothing to do. I’ve finished the main panel now, but need to sew a border and frame to complete it, and to do that I’ll need until we’re in the house and the boxes are unpacked. I’ve got material and a sewing machine in storage that will finish this nicely. This was a progress photo from last week. For now I’ll just pack it away.

Nearly done

The floorboard laying will finish upstairs in the house today, and husband is installing the back-boxes for the sockets in the kitchen this week, so although there’s not much to see, progress still continues. We’re getting there!

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Rain and Junior Gardeners

We have had an incredibly wet couple of months recently, and as I look ahead at the weather forecast for the next week, I see no respite. It really doesn’t feel like summer.

No sun, just back-to-back clouds and rain for the week to come. I’m clutching my mug of coffee and peering out through the rain-smeared caravan windows as I write.

Baby cucumbers at last

Luckily the polycrub remains largely unaffected by the rain. Everything seems to be growing nicely in there, although the lack of warmth and sunshine means that my tomatoes and courgettes are being very slow to set fruit. There are lots of flowers, but only a few tiny fruits so far, despite feeding and shaking to help pollination. More patience is needed as well as more sunshine!

Baby tomatoes

We have youngest stepson staying with us at the moment. I say youngest, he’s 21 😊. Despite being a child of the city, a very definite metro-being, he’s been quite taken by the rituals of watering, pruning, planting and harvesting in the polycrub and has been helping me with this.

Which is a really good thing as it’s a busy time of the year in there and I’m still pretty limited in what I can do since the operation, with no lifting or standing for too long.

Lettuce

He pricked out baby beetroot into pots yesterday and I showed him how to take excess foliage off the tomato plants to redirect energy into the setting fruits. He’s also been building plant stakes to support the trailing plants.

Sitting in there with his music on enjoying the now rather jungle-like environment of climbing greenery, it’s been nice to see him without his nose in his phone or laptop for a bit enjoying the outdoors. Well indoors really, I guess. A polycrub is a sort of halfway house, isn’t it…😊

Who knows, maybe we have another generation of growers in the making…

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Slight deviation from plan

Health is one of those things that we take for granted when we’re young. And because in my mind I’m still probably 29, even though I’m approaching 60, I’m always taken by surprise when it lets me down.

I’ve had to have a hysterectomy, and as I lie here recovering from the operation I know that this definitely wasn’t on the build plan.

Recovery from any type of illness in a caravan is going to be a challenge, but recovery from something that means that you can’t lift, stand too long, or strain in any way is a big one. If ever I wish that we had been in the house already, it’s now. But we’re not, and so we will make the best of it.

I’m grateful that the operation went well, with huge thanks to the doctors and nurses at the hospital in Inverness. Thank goodness for the professionalism of the NHS who have treated and cared for me brilliantly. And I’m very grateful for the love and care of my fabulous husband, family and friends, who have surrounded me with love since my discharge.

As I lie here in the glory of a pair of surgical stockings, looking ruefully at the stomach injections we will have to do later today, I reflect that many people have it worse. At least I have pain relief, a comfy bed, enough to eat and a strong and caring partner. I honestly don’t know how people who are alone or in less comfortable surroundings would get through this.

We will be in the house soon. It feels close enough to be a reality now, so close that I can almost touch it. One thing that the last few years have taught me for certain is that I will never take good health for granted again.

There’s nothing more guaranteed to impact life, let alone a build plan.