Thursday, June 25, 2020

Colourful Days

The garden is looking yellow at the moment.


Rose of Sharon

Hypericum

Verbascum

Lady's Mantle or Alchemilla Mollis

Vegetables from a local farm shop, we also got bananas and potatoes.  I had to go out in the car on Tuesday the first time since 23rd March, exactly three months.  The surgery finally caught up with me for my annual check up and asked me to fetch both blood test and blood pressure forms. I had to knock at the door and wait and the receptionist brought my forms to me.  We decided to give the car a little run around and popped into the farm shop which had a good one way system, hand sanitisers and only two people allowed in the shop at a time.  I have to visit the blood clinic on Monday so have my mask and gloves ready.


Herbs - Thyme and Sage in a pot outside the kitchen door.


Basil in a pot on the kitchen window sill.

Strawberries - we just had too many so I decided to make jam.


Trouble is I decided to make the jam on the hottest day of this week if not this month.

I used up most of the Strawberries and the last pack of last year's frozen apples from the freezer.


Red Fox - we have three cubs visit with their parents.  Usually this cub comes with Dad.  It's a curious little thing.  I've no idea if it is male or female but we can recognise it as it is the only one of the three cubs to have a white tip to its tail.


All for now, have a good weekend everyone and stay safe and well.

24 comments:

  1. Good luck with the blood tests. Bet it was lovely to wander around the veg shop again. Our local one is perfect too with not to many people and a one way system. Lovely yellow flowers in your garden :)

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    1. I hadn't been in a shop since 23rd March or in the car either although it had been taken down to the local shop a few times when it was raining otherwise we walk. I'm loving the yellow flowers at the moment:)

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  2. Yellow flouers in your garden look lovely. Your local farm shop sounds very well organised. The Strawberry jam looks delicious - it sounds as though you have had loads of strawberries :) Love the little fox cub. Good lUck with the blood test. The receptionist reminded me I was overdue one when I phoned to try and leave repeat prescription over the phone (they don't anymore you have to shove it through their letterbox!). Interestingly the doctors still don't seem to be seeing patients but doing telephone consultations only. Have a good weekend and stay safe and well.

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    1. The shop was well organised and was selling lots of vegetables you can't get from the local Co-op and fresher too. We have had loads of strawberries and I didn't want to waste them. Hopefully the jam will taste okay. When Paul had his blood test follow up yesterday it was a nure who saw him and he had to go to the cottage hospital and not the surgery, all very strange isn't it? My cousin who is undergoing chemotheraphy and also a friend who has on going problems with heart and lungs get regular phone calls and/or a zoom face to face with their doctors which is reassuring I guess doctors have been working hard behind the scenes but it is hard if you want to see one urgently. I love to see the little cubs especially the one I took the photos of as it has such a character. Have a good weekend:)

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    2. I checked our local farm shop out after seeing your post. They seem to be taking good precautions. Only 6 customers at a time (it is quite large), social distancing marks, screens by tills and contactless payment etc. Still not ready to go but maybe soon. Yes things re GP's are strange. My daughter's friend's husband had to have an urgent back operation (quite serious) a few weeks ago and they are not faring very well. She has to dress the wounds for her husband as no district nurses and he is in a lot of pain and has no use in one arm and she is finding it impossible to get advice or even speak to anyone at the hospital :( Brian is due to go for a non urgent ear scan next month at a major hospital and I really hope he decides to postpone it. We've also been chased twice for a gas boiler service and in the end put it off until August!!! ps I am sure your jam will be delicious. Have a good weekend Rosie :)

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    3. Your farm shop sounds a lot larger than ours. The one we visited is really a large wooden shed with one green house and an area for plants just off the road between Wedgwood and the Dougie Mac hospice. We'd seen it but never ventured there before as I thought it was mainly meat which we don't eat but I was wrong and we will certainly return as I don't want to go to large supermarkets. Hopefully some of the vegetables we have in the netted cage will produce soon as well. Your daughter's friend's situation sounds awful in contrast our neighbour who has MS has four visits a day from carers since she broke her ankle but I suppose they are different to nurses? But after a serious operation you'd think there would be far more help and advice. I can't remember when our boiler is due to be checked over it's usually late summer I think. I hope your husband's ear problem can be sorted without too much worry, everything seems twice as bad in this present cliamate doesn't it? I'm going to makescones to test the jam. Take care and stay safe:)

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  3. Beautiful. It must have seemed quite strange to go out again after such a long time but very refreshing too. It's a wonder the car started! Good luck with the blood test, it sounds like the doctors are getting back to normal and are all organised. How colourful the fruit and veg are, it's a shame to eat it! 😊

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    1. The car had been taken out a few times round to the local shop when it was too wet to walk it's just that I hadn't been in it for three months or in a shop either. It was quite strange to be aout and about a few miles from the house and yet nothing seemed to have changed - except worse road works!! Most of the veg have been, although we still have the mango to eat:)

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  4. Very colourful indeed! We've just enjoyed vegetable soup made from home grown. The greens and courgettes were added so it looked good as well as being tasty. Soon we'll lift some new potatoes and hope there'll be a good crop. We continue to enjoy the strawberries fresh and look forward to more as they ripen. Looking around at the flowers the colours are mostly pink and white with dots of orange and red from the marigolds and pelargoniums. Hope all goes well with the tests. All our physio follow ups are done by telephone. Blood, breathing and my hospital screening ones are still on hold. Take care. Have an enjoyable weekend.

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    1. Your soup sounds delicious, it's always good to lift the first potatoes, I hope you have a good crop. The tests are just routine, annual ones, I think they are catching up on a backlog now thngs are slightly easier, I should have had the check up late last year. We have an area of pinks, blues and purples in the garden too mostly hardy geraniums and a few roses, the hydrangeas are still green buds. Have a good weekend:)

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  5. What charming portraits of the young fox! My planters look very pink this year as I had to make do with what plants I could get hold of this year.

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    1. It has been a case of make do with what you can get this year hasn't it? Luckliy we'd bought vegetable seeds in February, potato sets too. We had some flower seeds left from previous years but they have been hit and miss. The young foxes are great fun to watch either in the half light of dusk or on the wildlife camera when we remember to put it out:)

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  6. I like lots of yellow in the garden! Your herbs are looking good. I have a few basil plants scattered around my garden but they are getting eaten at the moment. I bet your strawberry/apple jam will taste delightful Rosie. Your fox has a lovely face. We discovered two cubs sleeping in a small space between the greenhouse and our neighbours fence. One little cub had a staring out competition with me and I eventually won! Have a lovely weekend. x

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    1. The yellow was quite vibrant in the heat and the herbs are doing well this year. I must make some scones over the weekend so we can test the jam. I love that little fox, so cute at the moment. I never know which ones stay around and which have to move on to a new territory. How lovely to find the little cubs, it obviously wasn't too scared of you. Have a good weekend:)

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  7. Beautiful plants in a glorious shade of yellow and such fun to see the fox. Hope all goes well with the blood tests. A joy to see the herb pots, I have started to dry some of ours ready for the Winter season.

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    1. Just routine tests, they caught up with me, I was hoping they wouldn't:) It's great to have the foxes visit the garden and feel safe enough, although wary, to sit and relax for a while:)

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  8. I wish I knew where companies are getting their pump action hand sanitisers from. I can get small bottles to carry round with me but until the pandemic would have the pump ones around the house - now I can't work out where to get them. The supermarkets and Boots only seem to sell the little ones.

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    1. I know what you mean about the bigger ones they had them in the opticians when I had an appointment in March just before lockdown. I would think that they are far more useful and better value than the small ones. We had a small one in the car and a small one in the bathroom both half empty and couldn't get anymore. Can your Doctor's surgery help you obtain some as it is vital you keep any infections at bay? Take care:)

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    2. Thereby hangs another curious tale . . . my GP was closed down by the local health commissioning board because it was too expensive and all the patients were allocated to new practices. The practice I was added to has decided to relate to people solely on-line and I've had a message to say they don't know how they are going to give me a series of injections I am needing to replace my childhood immunities because they aren't opening their doors. If they can't give the injections I doubt they'd be up to sorting hand gel!

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    3. Oh dear, Lucy how worrying for you, a lot of these changes don't seem to be for the benefit of the patients even if they are meant to be. Our surgery was supposed to be merging with several others into a bigger one but it hasn't happened yet. It has lost a few doctors to retirement and others are coming up to that age it makes me wonder if we will eventually be transferred to other practices too. I hope they find a safe way to give the injections you need and you are right hand gel even though vital for some of their patients won't be one of their priorities.

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  9. A lovely colourful post! Hope your appointment went smoothly today.

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    1. Thank you Louise, it took longer to get to the clinic through the road works than it did to don my mask, walk in and get called for the tests:)

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  10. Must be so nice to be out and about after all this time. It is good that you are being careful, we were released a few weeks ago and our numbers our seriously spiking. Your jam looks lovely!
    Amalia
    xo

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    1. Still not too keen on going further afield so no supermarkets or high stret shops other than the small local one for essentials, we have localised spikes again here too. Lots of rhubarb still in the garden so more jam may be on the way:)

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