Moving less

Steps… The last few days I’ve kept my phone with me and measured how far I walked throughout the day. Over the week since I pulled my calf muscle I have stumbled and ambled about and managed to walk around five thousand steps a day… Not today. I’ve had more pain in my leg and I was so tired I fell asleep for the first time properly in a week. I didn’t fully wale up fully at about 1pm today.

Being injured is a bit like house arrest. No images to take photos of. No sunsets, if I hadn’t been doodling I would not have any art to show. I’ve got things to do but I can’t. I was going to go to a portrait workshop today but I didn’t dare risk it. There is a problem with petrol supplies and it’s affecting all transport so I might not have been able to get a taxi.

So, life continues to be painful but hopefully things will get better soon. X

I’m still aching

When you pull a muscle don’t expect it to heal overnight. You can expect discomfort for several days or a few weeks. You start doing things, then, ouch, you over stretch or twist or lift your foot or knee up a little too quickly and that band of pain clamps on your leg again.

Don’t expect to sleep well. If you can’t get upstairs you could be limited to sleeping in an armchair or on a settee or sofa. My cats are most disgruntled that I’m sleeping in their warm spot.

Don’t expect to be able to do the shopping. If a friend helps that’s a godsend. If your partner does it, we’ll don’t expect what’s on the list. As long as he’s happy…. In any case it will be all over soon. My patience has been stretched to a twanging, tight rope, ready to snap!

Mending leg

I want to get back out again!

I’m still stuck downstairs in our little house but I have managed to get painkillers and pain relief gel from my doctors. Hopefully I will be upstairs soon but I tried the bottom step today. Hurts too much. Computer is upstairs…I still can’t do my college work. I’m not moaning but….. I’m getting more and more tired and fed up. The cat escaping didn’t help!

Doctors

You used to be able to ring the doctors and get an appointment. It was simple. Not so much these days….

My calf muscle is still causing a lot of pain after pulling it on Sunday. So after another night of no sleep I tried ringing my GP (General practitioner) this morning but I couldn’t get through. So I rang the NHS 111 number (non emergency) and they did an assessment. They said they would tell the doctors (GP) that I needed to be seen within 2 hours. They said ring surgery and tell them I had spoken to 111, the surgery would see a referral on their computer, so I did. But the surgery said 111 is only for out of hours cases? That I should always ring the surgery in opening times. I explained that I only rang them because I couldn’t get through. Then Dr’s said they hadn’t had a referral from 111! So I explained I hadn’t slept properly for three days. The receptionist suggested going to a walk in centre. I’m afraid I burst into tears so she said she would get the on call Dr to ring me. Then a few minutes later she rang back, as my leg isn’t swollen the Dr has prescribed cocodamol and ibuprofen gel. If it gets worse I have to ring back. I’ve got to persuade hubby to collect them from the pharmacy later. I’m more tired than anything else now….

Life above 50°

Can we survive global warming? As the world joins in a conference about it this November, reports continue about wildfires, carbon dioxide and methane emissions and damage to our natural environment.

Big business still seems to want to expand their production. Buy more stuff… Sell more cars… But using energy and resources is not going to help.

If temperatures go higher the worry is that there will be a runaway greenhouse effect. The result is a degradation of our environment. Water shortages, increased air pollution, damage to the health of not just us, but the whole planet. We are currently using more resources than the planet can provide.

I think humans can be incredibly generous, thoughtful, considerate. We can work together to stop the damage. Not in the future, but now. I do hope we realise that before it’s too late.

Lobster

Random inflated lobster seen three years ago at Shipley in North Yorkshire. It was a giant of the species. I think there was a food festival on? But as Shipley is well inland I don’t think it was from a fishing fleet!

I love the two wheel cart it sits on, presumably to move it around? Would it have been in a parade of giant shellfish? I don’t know… Crabs moving sideways, Oysters opening and closing, massive pearls shining in the sun.

Bright red, ike a post box. It must represent a cooked lobster… Poor thing…

Missing photos?!

I just had to delete photos from my blog because I got to 99.7% full! I’ve got it down to 97.8%…what should I do?

Every time I post a photo now I make sure it’s on medium or thumbnail to save space.

I’ve tried to take photos off that were early on in my blog and that were not very good. But I don’t really like to do that. Anyway if you find a blog post missing a photo you know why. X

Old roses

Autumn is coming,

the roses are fading.

Blue sky has mackerel clouds.

Sea breezes are cooler

laden with moisture.

Soon it will be

‘the season of mist’s

and mellow fruitfulness’

that some forgotten poet

(forgotten by me)

once wrote about.

Beauty and the Beast

watch the petals fade and fall….

Will they catch them

before it’s too late?

Glass star

Small pieces of coloured glass embedded in diamond shaped clear glass which is joined at the centre to form a star. This is an example of fused glass which my hubby made at a workshop a couple of years ago. This summer it’s been outside in the garden but I will bring it back in and hang it in a window when the weather starts to get frosty. I don’t know whether it would break in the cold but I would like to keep it safe. Its about the pleasure of making things and the memories of the friendly people who were there that adds to the experience. Made in a group led by Angela Ashton. Glass artist.