I'm Going to be a Grandma!!!

OK, the title says it all really : )

In 6 months time my eldest daughter is going to be a mother!! My little baby daughter is going to have a baby - I can hardly believe it. Where did those 27 years go? She and her husband are delighted...I am so happy for them!!!

Eldest DD got married last September, My younger DD gets married this June, and July brings a grandchild into the family. In 12 months I will have gained 2 wonderful sons and a grandchild.

Now, where did I put those baby patterns????????

PS The flowers are for you all to share in these Winter months XXXX

Alive Again!!

I think I'm going to survive!!! Well, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I really did feel dreadful for a while there. I didn't know such pain existed outside childbirth. I'm on the mend and ready to pick up my knitting needles again after 3 weeks. I have found a lovely scarf pattern in sock yarn weight and I just need some nice inspiring yarn to get me going..................

DH and DS have been wonderful, feeding me when I could eat and making me drinks and doing the housework. I think they deserve Mutley Medals : )

Oh, and I have lost over a stone in 3 weeks. Not that I would recommend illness as a diet method, but every cloud has a silver lining!!!

Kidney Stones & Hospitals

I spent last night in hospital with renal colic. I had never heard of renal colic (kidney stones) before and its all been a bit of a shock.

It started Tues morning when I got out of bed, stood up, and was immediatley doubled up with incredible pain in my back and side on my right. I sort of yelped a bit and tried to walk around as I thought I had twisted a muscle or something.

During the next hour it got worse and wouldnt go away. Paracetamol didnt touch it and it was just as bad as labour pain but without the waves coming and going. DH insisted on ringing the surgery and told them about it and they gave me an emergency appointment for 5pm!!!! I dont know how I survived that long. I couldnt stand or sit or move for more than a few seconds at a time. Nothing helped.

At 5pm we got to the surgery, with me crying in pain, and had to wait another hour to see the doctor. She gave me some ibuprofen and said she though I might have a bowel obstruction and needed a scan, so she wrote a letter for A & E and DH took me to the hospital.

We got to the hospital at 7pm, the ibuprofen wasnt even denting the pain. I saw the triage nurse 20 mins later and she gave me some co-codamol which took the edge off it. I then had to sit in the waiting room, kneeling on the floor doubled over, until 10.30pm. During all this time I wasnt allowed to even sip water in case they had to operate. Then I went into a cubicle for a blood test etc and sat there waiting again.


About 12 am they admitted me to an observation ward and gave me some voltarol in the end where my mouth isnt (grin) and it worked wonderfully well. No pain at last. I could have given birth to twins with no pain relief and sufferred less!!! After taking an X-ray they decided it was a Kidney stone working its way down and discharged me with some pain relief at 1.30am.

I have to go back Thursday at 8.15am for an ultrasound scan so they can see whats actually going on. I feel a wreck and just couldnt believe how long everything took and how long I was left in pain.

The staff on the ground were, as always, superb. They were rushed off their feet and still had time/energy to be kind and gentle. They just needed more staff.

Unfortunately the oral voltarol made me sick so I'm back to hot water bottles and pain again. Its not as bad now so I hope this stone has passed through OK.

Oh, and I also had a water infection so the antibiotics should kick in soon to and that will help with the pain.

Sorry this is so long, but I just feel like I have been to hell and back. I didnt know such pain existed outside childbirth, nor did I realise that pain killers dont always work. I just needed to write this down and get it out of my system : (

I Miss Woolworths : (

Today we started the ritual of Getting Down The Christmas Decorations and the all important Test Of The Lights. The lights didn't work........so then starts the ritual of Testing Each Light and Checking The Fuses...lots of grunting and clucking noises from DH...still no joy. It seems several of our lights need new bulbs.


Off we go trawling around ASDA to look for new bulbs, but our local one doesn't sell bulbs. They do, however, sell Christmas Tree light sets at 100 lights of £4 so, after a hasty discussion, we think that maybe it might be easier to just start afresh with new lights......BUT our ASDA only sells sets of white lights, not the pretty coloured ones we have had at home for 10+ years so.......


Off to the local electrical shop who sells bulbs, lots of bulbs for lots of types of Christmas Tree lights, but not our obsolete ones. Nor can we find anywhere local where they sell pretty strings of coloured lights for indoor use, or those foil decorations for hanging from the ceiling.......When Woolies were around I was guaranteed to find every ornament and light I wanted in any shape or form : (

So we are improvising with Holly from the allotment, and Ivy from the back of our garden.



Bah Humbug!!!!

Secrets......

Its that time of the year when I have loads of knitting to show, but cant do it because the recipients may see them here or on Ravelry......

Roll on January!!!

Something Old...Something New.......

Something Old and wrecked....


Some thing shiny and new and not borrowed and definately Airforce Blue!!!!

New tree and new-ish tree

We needed an new apple tree for our allotment. There was an open day at Ryton Organic centre last month and they were doing an apple tasting and showing lots of organic trees, so we went.

After much munching - purely for research purposes - we settled on a lovely eating apple called Red Devil. We picked it up a few days a go, and have now planted it:
It wont be ready to produce eatable fruit for a couple of years, but they are worth waiting for and we are keeping a heritage variety going at the same time.

Last year we bought a heritage crab apple tree. It is still very small, but, as you can see below, it has started to produce fruit already!!

I love our allotment : )