I was out picking today and on my way home about lunchtime when I saw Gord driving up the hill towards town as I came down the other way. I had told him I'd be back in a couple of hours which had stretched a bit and told him to be ready to come to the farm straight away when I got back. My plan was to take my foliage to the farm and go see Lib again after ringing her to see firstly if she could come home, and if not did she need anything.
Seeing Gord had meant one of two things. Either he was just going up to the shops for something or Lib had rang and he'd gone to Berwick to bring her home. There was a note on the kitchen bench telling me the latter was so. I had some more soup for lunch and got busy vaccuuming, dusting, and squeak cleaning the kitchen and making up the bed with fresh sheets.
I had just finished telling Pip that Lib was coming home and I'd leave her there to welcome her home when the front door opened and Lib's voice was heard. Pip rushed to greet her with great excitement, I'm sure she knew Lib was sick and in hospital all those times she had to wait in the car while I visited. I'm sure dogs understand far more what we say to them than we realize.
Lib finally got to open her birthday presents and she was keen to have roast lamb for dinner, her and Gord had stopped on the way home to buy a leg. I took my foliage to the farm and came straight back. Lib put the roast on and I had a bath and came out to a roaring fire and a lovely dinner.
Let's hope for a better run from here. One more chemo session next week, and with luck we'll get through with no more chest infection.
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
A Brush with Beauty
Yesterday was a strange day for me. I have been a little off form for a few days and now have an irritating cough and head cold symptoms. Maybe it's the same bug Lib caught and Gord has. Last week was huge one way or another, and Friday I had extra to pick and by the weekend I was knackered. Lib is still in hospital, a week now, having antibiotic drip every six hours till the neutrophil levels returns to 1 and she can go home. They were down to 0.1 when she went in, then hovered on 0.2 for a couple of days, and yesterday they had got up to 0.5. Google just told me normal level is 2.5 - 7.5. The chemotherapy knocks most of the white blood cells out while it is doing the same to cancer cells. As the chemo wears off or is gradually out of the system the white blood cells begin to regenerate. In the meantime the patient is vulnerable to infection which is what happened to Lib.
She says it's like being in prison stuck there, not that she has any beef with the hospital or the nursing. It is clean and efficient and the food is good, but it is so boring and she has little interest in TV and even reading is not appealing to her. It's like being caged she says.
Saturday I made use of the fair weather to do some weed spraying for a couple of people, then visited Lib. Sunday I mucked about with firewood and dug out an Aloe cactus and moved it for my friend ViIma. I didn't go to the hospital Sunday, Lib said stay home and have a day off from driving. I lit the fire and watched the footy.
I didn't do much work yesterday. There were 5 punnets of broad bean flowers ordered by the herb people and I went out to Margheurita's about lunchtime to pick them. While there I mulched the bed of garlic by breaking up a bale of straw I'd left on the ground last week when I weeded the garlic. I'd hoped Marg would have done this already but the weather has not been good up until the last couple of days. There were three bunches of lemon myrtle ordered also and that was all I did for the day.
When I drove home from Margheurita's I pulled into my parking bay behind our house looked across toward our clothesline to see the washing in the bright sunshine and gentle breeze and I noticed a large number of little birds on the grass nibbling at it. I couldn't make out what they were so I carefully got out of the van leaving Pip in the back and very slowly walked towards them. I got about half way when a number of them alarmed and flew off, so I stopped dead still. The others continued feeding and I could see they were red browed finches, also called firetails. The ones that had taken flight returned and I reckon there were at least 50 of them. As they fed they came closer and closer to me. They kept coming and soon there were ten or so all around my feet. They were eating tiny little grass seeds which normally you'd not even notice. While I watched quite astounded three more were splashing in the bird bath about fifteen feet away. I couldn't stand there all day as I still had to pick the lemon myrtle and get it and the broad bean flowers to the farm, so I got moving and they all took off.
While I was hanging out the washing earlier a grey thrush sang it's joy and there were spinebills flitting and feeding in the camellias, the acrobatic grey fantails were catching insects, and a butcher bird and yellow robin watched everything. Such beautiful creatures, just a walk out the back door. It makes all the political guffawing seem so irrelevant. Melbourne's population may have reached 5 million but fortunately when I'm in my little patch it may as well not exist. (Except I can't block out the noise from all the motorbikes that travel Launching Place Road on weekends when the weather is good. An unbelievable din. Nutter.)
I went inside and put some soup on the stove. The previous evening I'd made a veggie soup thinking Lib was coming home yesterday but she'd told me by message that she's be in a couple of more days. The soup recipe came from the oncology people who sent an email so I'd bought ingredients Friday eg kale cauli zuchini leek, and with the usual carrot and onions always in the house, a tin of diced tomatoes, and broccolli and parsley from our garden I got chopping, and added some green beans and pumpkin too. The soup was great. Lucky I made a big pot, hopefully there'll be some left when Lib comes home, or I can make more I suppose.
After dropping off at the farm Gord and I went to the hospital to see Lib. She seemed a bit brighter. She's longing to come home. I took her a few cards and small presents that were here for her birthday. Our presents for her are still here at home unopened.
She says it's like being in prison stuck there, not that she has any beef with the hospital or the nursing. It is clean and efficient and the food is good, but it is so boring and she has little interest in TV and even reading is not appealing to her. It's like being caged she says.
Saturday I made use of the fair weather to do some weed spraying for a couple of people, then visited Lib. Sunday I mucked about with firewood and dug out an Aloe cactus and moved it for my friend ViIma. I didn't go to the hospital Sunday, Lib said stay home and have a day off from driving. I lit the fire and watched the footy.
I didn't do much work yesterday. There were 5 punnets of broad bean flowers ordered by the herb people and I went out to Margheurita's about lunchtime to pick them. While there I mulched the bed of garlic by breaking up a bale of straw I'd left on the ground last week when I weeded the garlic. I'd hoped Marg would have done this already but the weather has not been good up until the last couple of days. There were three bunches of lemon myrtle ordered also and that was all I did for the day.
When I drove home from Margheurita's I pulled into my parking bay behind our house looked across toward our clothesline to see the washing in the bright sunshine and gentle breeze and I noticed a large number of little birds on the grass nibbling at it. I couldn't make out what they were so I carefully got out of the van leaving Pip in the back and very slowly walked towards them. I got about half way when a number of them alarmed and flew off, so I stopped dead still. The others continued feeding and I could see they were red browed finches, also called firetails. The ones that had taken flight returned and I reckon there were at least 50 of them. As they fed they came closer and closer to me. They kept coming and soon there were ten or so all around my feet. They were eating tiny little grass seeds which normally you'd not even notice. While I watched quite astounded three more were splashing in the bird bath about fifteen feet away. I couldn't stand there all day as I still had to pick the lemon myrtle and get it and the broad bean flowers to the farm, so I got moving and they all took off.
While I was hanging out the washing earlier a grey thrush sang it's joy and there were spinebills flitting and feeding in the camellias, the acrobatic grey fantails were catching insects, and a butcher bird and yellow robin watched everything. Such beautiful creatures, just a walk out the back door. It makes all the political guffawing seem so irrelevant. Melbourne's population may have reached 5 million but fortunately when I'm in my little patch it may as well not exist. (Except I can't block out the noise from all the motorbikes that travel Launching Place Road on weekends when the weather is good. An unbelievable din. Nutter.)
I went inside and put some soup on the stove. The previous evening I'd made a veggie soup thinking Lib was coming home yesterday but she'd told me by message that she's be in a couple of more days. The soup recipe came from the oncology people who sent an email so I'd bought ingredients Friday eg kale cauli zuchini leek, and with the usual carrot and onions always in the house, a tin of diced tomatoes, and broccolli and parsley from our garden I got chopping, and added some green beans and pumpkin too. The soup was great. Lucky I made a big pot, hopefully there'll be some left when Lib comes home, or I can make more I suppose.
After dropping off at the farm Gord and I went to the hospital to see Lib. She seemed a bit brighter. She's longing to come home. I took her a few cards and small presents that were here for her birthday. Our presents for her are still here at home unopened.
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Grateful I Am
The weather last weekend was cold and wet and it has continued through Monday and Tuesday. I have had the open fire going in the evenings to warm the lougeroom and lift the spirits of the those nearby, which it has done well through this difficult and testing winter of 2018, a long, cold and windy one, which will be remembered for Lib's breast cancer and the accompanying disruption of normal life.
Actually I didn't light the fire last night. Lib is in hospital being treated with antibiotic drip for a chest infection which flared up on the weekend and resulted in a fever Monday night. We had been advised by the oncologist before the chemo began that risk of infection was greater because the chemo messes with the immune system. If a fever came with temperature at a certain level we were advised to go to outpatients at the hospital pronto. This we did yesterday morning. I left Lib about midday after they had taken blood samples for tests and she was having the drip administered, and went to the farm to do some picking. Lib rang me on my mobile saying she was being admitted so I went back after I knocked off with a book I bought at the newsagent. She was OK but a bit tired of the whole business. She was very hungry and as she hadn't eaten all day, and she had a craving for McDonalds and sent me off to get some which I smuggled back in. They'd brought her dinner when I got back but she had only picked at it. She has been like this on the chemo, wanting various foods almost like a craving, but then not able to eat much when it comes.
By the time I got home it was 7pm and the fire not set as we'd left early so it was not worth mucking about with a fire just for me and Gord, especially as we weren't going to be sitting in the lounge much. So that was I think the third time only since early May that we have not lit the fire. I have gone through a power of firewood and I can't believe my luck that at the start of winter I had more good dry firewood under cover than I have ever had. It was the generosity of three good friends that made this so and I'm so grateful to them.
My friend Marghuerita, where I grow broad beans, garlic, pumpkins and a few flowers and pick some foliage, was having a clean up round her house and offered me some old sawn timber that was in her way, so each time I went out there last summer and autumn I'd take a little chainsaw and stick some in the van to take home. Then she was getting rid of her old delapidated cattle yards and there was some good firewood in the rails and posts. She nagged me to take more all the time and it was a bit of a nuisance but boy was I glad I did.
My friends Pat and Mal moved from Gembrook about a year ago and bought a couple of acres at Narrewarren Nth. The garden was a bit overgrown and they set too cutting stuff out. They had no need of the firewood having gas heating so they offered the wood to me. Gord and I called in a number of times with the trailer and picked up there when we did our little shopping excursions to Fountain Gate. It has been so helpful, and there was even good kindling from old cedar boards from an old shed they demolished.
My friend Sue Jarvis in Gembrook has a wonderful garden, a veritable arboretum, where I pick foilage useful to me, and in return Gord helps her a couple of hours a week most weeks weeding or mulching. He's on my employ for this work but helps Sue, and as the winter approached and there was not much for me to pick Sue offered me the wood that had been lying here and there, and old poles she had used as edging but no longer wanted, all good dry firewood. So it was easy to get and already cut into manageable pieces or lengths. I will actually have wood left over when it eventually warms up. And Gord has kept helping Sue through the winter. Good all round.
So I have been lucky that in our focus on Lib's operation and chemo, I've had no worry of a shortage of firewood. I am grateful to my wonderful friends.
I'm grateful for many things. My friend Maria has made cakes for me to take to Lib, Lib's friends and workmates have been wonderful with gifts, offers of help and visits, and all the words of encouragement and prayers have been hugely appreciated by us.
On the weekend in all that foul weather, both days, I went outside with a wheelbarrow full of trees and shrubs and planted them in strategic places. Most of these plants I have raised from cutting or seed, they all have special meaning to me. I have planted quite a bit at the farm too lately. It's a joyous thing for me to plant trees. I am grateful to God or the Universe, or however it has come to be, that I have been granted custodianship of a small part of Earth, while I'm fit and able to do my bit for it. I'm constantly delighted by the beauty in my garden and at the farm, weeds and work not done and all, and the wonderful birdlife that abounds. And driving around this beautiful district and visiting other gardens and admiring the trees gives me big reason to be grateful.
Actually I didn't light the fire last night. Lib is in hospital being treated with antibiotic drip for a chest infection which flared up on the weekend and resulted in a fever Monday night. We had been advised by the oncologist before the chemo began that risk of infection was greater because the chemo messes with the immune system. If a fever came with temperature at a certain level we were advised to go to outpatients at the hospital pronto. This we did yesterday morning. I left Lib about midday after they had taken blood samples for tests and she was having the drip administered, and went to the farm to do some picking. Lib rang me on my mobile saying she was being admitted so I went back after I knocked off with a book I bought at the newsagent. She was OK but a bit tired of the whole business. She was very hungry and as she hadn't eaten all day, and she had a craving for McDonalds and sent me off to get some which I smuggled back in. They'd brought her dinner when I got back but she had only picked at it. She has been like this on the chemo, wanting various foods almost like a craving, but then not able to eat much when it comes.
By the time I got home it was 7pm and the fire not set as we'd left early so it was not worth mucking about with a fire just for me and Gord, especially as we weren't going to be sitting in the lounge much. So that was I think the third time only since early May that we have not lit the fire. I have gone through a power of firewood and I can't believe my luck that at the start of winter I had more good dry firewood under cover than I have ever had. It was the generosity of three good friends that made this so and I'm so grateful to them.
My friend Marghuerita, where I grow broad beans, garlic, pumpkins and a few flowers and pick some foliage, was having a clean up round her house and offered me some old sawn timber that was in her way, so each time I went out there last summer and autumn I'd take a little chainsaw and stick some in the van to take home. Then she was getting rid of her old delapidated cattle yards and there was some good firewood in the rails and posts. She nagged me to take more all the time and it was a bit of a nuisance but boy was I glad I did.
My friends Pat and Mal moved from Gembrook about a year ago and bought a couple of acres at Narrewarren Nth. The garden was a bit overgrown and they set too cutting stuff out. They had no need of the firewood having gas heating so they offered the wood to me. Gord and I called in a number of times with the trailer and picked up there when we did our little shopping excursions to Fountain Gate. It has been so helpful, and there was even good kindling from old cedar boards from an old shed they demolished.
My friend Sue Jarvis in Gembrook has a wonderful garden, a veritable arboretum, where I pick foilage useful to me, and in return Gord helps her a couple of hours a week most weeks weeding or mulching. He's on my employ for this work but helps Sue, and as the winter approached and there was not much for me to pick Sue offered me the wood that had been lying here and there, and old poles she had used as edging but no longer wanted, all good dry firewood. So it was easy to get and already cut into manageable pieces or lengths. I will actually have wood left over when it eventually warms up. And Gord has kept helping Sue through the winter. Good all round.
So I have been lucky that in our focus on Lib's operation and chemo, I've had no worry of a shortage of firewood. I am grateful to my wonderful friends.
I'm grateful for many things. My friend Maria has made cakes for me to take to Lib, Lib's friends and workmates have been wonderful with gifts, offers of help and visits, and all the words of encouragement and prayers have been hugely appreciated by us.
On the weekend in all that foul weather, both days, I went outside with a wheelbarrow full of trees and shrubs and planted them in strategic places. Most of these plants I have raised from cutting or seed, they all have special meaning to me. I have planted quite a bit at the farm too lately. It's a joyous thing for me to plant trees. I am grateful to God or the Universe, or however it has come to be, that I have been granted custodianship of a small part of Earth, while I'm fit and able to do my bit for it. I'm constantly delighted by the beauty in my garden and at the farm, weeds and work not done and all, and the wonderful birdlife that abounds. And driving around this beautiful district and visiting other gardens and admiring the trees gives me big reason to be grateful.
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Nick Cave
I just saw Nick Cave on Rave on the ABC.
Not my cup of tea. The music and style if you can get my drift.
But. We have a little in common. Yes. He lived for a time in Wangaratta at a time in his youth. He was at school with Lib. They were friends. Lib says she recalls walking home with him hand in hand.
It doesn't stop there. Nick Cave later went to Caulfield Grammar. So did I. He was expelled so I believe. So was I.
Strange hey.
Not my cup of tea. The music and style if you can get my drift.
But. We have a little in common. Yes. He lived for a time in Wangaratta at a time in his youth. He was at school with Lib. They were friends. Lib says she recalls walking home with him hand in hand.
It doesn't stop there. Nick Cave later went to Caulfield Grammar. So did I. He was expelled so I believe. So was I.
Strange hey.
Sunday, August 05, 2018
Good Old Ralphie
It looks like Ricky ralph is going to do me again in the footy tipping. He is, currently at the completion of round 20, twelve ahead of me. He and Gord are level pegging on 120, followed by myself on 108, with Lib sadly trailing at the rear on 79.
I do not yet concede, there are 27 games to go, with 27 opportunities to peg back 12, that would be 4 each round. Mathematically possible, but logically not likely. I would need to pick some roughies and get nearly 27 right.
But it is not all gloom. Ralphie picked the sweep and got 9 from 9 in round 20. Luckily I put $5 on his tips (as I do for all of us each week) and my collect was $311 for the 9 multibet.
Three weeks to go to see out August and the home and away season. My tip for the premiership is Geelong, Ralphie's team, who tonight sit in 9th position. Let's just say the vibes tell me Geelong has all the firepower and just needs a few things to fall their way. And I'd be happy to see it. That Patrick Dangerfield is a champion player and bloke, Ablett is as good a player as I've ever seen (his drop off at 34 is real but I expect the champion will respond in September) and Selwood is just a great player able to produce when needed. And they have a gaggle of good young fellows ready to fire. Kelly's beauty and Jack Henry looks like becoming a real star.
I expect August to be a hard slog workwise. July was very tough with strong cold wind testing my endurance. I have surprised myself with my efficiency, not flinching, at home or work, and I feel fit and strong and up for it. Lib is halfway through her chemo, two sessions to go, finishing in September to be followed by three weeks of daily radiation. We are getting there. She's a brave soul, a fantastic lady loved by so many. We are so grateful for all the best wishes and encouragement from so many people.
I do not yet concede, there are 27 games to go, with 27 opportunities to peg back 12, that would be 4 each round. Mathematically possible, but logically not likely. I would need to pick some roughies and get nearly 27 right.
But it is not all gloom. Ralphie picked the sweep and got 9 from 9 in round 20. Luckily I put $5 on his tips (as I do for all of us each week) and my collect was $311 for the 9 multibet.
Three weeks to go to see out August and the home and away season. My tip for the premiership is Geelong, Ralphie's team, who tonight sit in 9th position. Let's just say the vibes tell me Geelong has all the firepower and just needs a few things to fall their way. And I'd be happy to see it. That Patrick Dangerfield is a champion player and bloke, Ablett is as good a player as I've ever seen (his drop off at 34 is real but I expect the champion will respond in September) and Selwood is just a great player able to produce when needed. And they have a gaggle of good young fellows ready to fire. Kelly's beauty and Jack Henry looks like becoming a real star.
I expect August to be a hard slog workwise. July was very tough with strong cold wind testing my endurance. I have surprised myself with my efficiency, not flinching, at home or work, and I feel fit and strong and up for it. Lib is halfway through her chemo, two sessions to go, finishing in September to be followed by three weeks of daily radiation. We are getting there. She's a brave soul, a fantastic lady loved by so many. We are so grateful for all the best wishes and encouragement from so many people.
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