Thursday, February 04, 2021

Five Things for the First Week in February

1. This week has been 'Tinnitus Week  2021' to raise awareness of this sometimes quite debilitating condition. 

 I can't remember when I last heard silence and I can't remember when I suddenly realised that my ears were making noises it just sort of crept up on me.  I'm guessing about six years ago now.  I thought at first it was high blood pressure but it didn't go away.  As I type this post I have what I can only describe as steaming/hissing kettles in my ears, when I go out and about it seems to reduce in scale but the worst aspect is the way loud noises make me anxious and sometimes tearful if they make me jump.  Generally I just 'get on with it' I can ignore it but sometimes it makes me feel fragile and unable to concentrate.  I have my first Covid 19 Vaccination on Monday, I expect the tinnitus will reach high peaks for a couple of days afterwards just as they do after my ordinary flu jabs.  I have to go to a Methodist Church for my jab it was either that or the Scout Hut.  How strange life is!

 

2. The new National Trust handbook arrived in the post early this week.

  I wonder if, when things get back to some kind of normal, we will be able to use it?  I hope so.  I've missed visiting our local National Trust places like Biddulph Grange, Little Moreton Hall and Shugborough.  As well as walks at non National Trust places like Trentham Gardens and Westport Lake.  Paul said to me the other day that he just wanted to visit somewhere interesting and sit drinking a coffee looking at a view, I agreed but also said I wanted to be able to visit a museum or historic house, I do miss being able to do that.

3. A New Be-Ro Book

We've had both of the two older books for years.  The larger one is dropping to pieces.  The blue one I bought from a Be-Ro stand in a supermarket over twenty years ago to replace the larger one,  but both still get used.  Many of the pages of both have been stuck together over the years and when separated parts of recipes have disapeared. It's a good job I know the most popular ones by heart.  I sent for the new one from the Be-Ro website.  It has the old favourites and some new recipes in it too.  The coffee and walnut cake recipe I use each November  to make a cake for a friend's birthday is still inside.  Recipes for Lavender Highlanders and Heart Shaped Lemon Puffs are new.  I'm looking forward to using it.

4. Reading


 I've enjoyed reading  'Down in the Valley' by Laurie Lee.  I loved his descriptions of the countryside of his childhood in the Slad Valley in Gloucestershire. 
 
" Just down here by the stream there used to be a gathering place for us kids from the village to come and play on Summer evenings.  This was where the sheep wash was, a stone bath, cut from stone and a stone bridge"
 
This reminded me of the Derbyshire village I grew up in and the sheep wash down the lane, past the vicarage, over a field and  just into the edge of the daffodil woods.  In the summer, during the long school holidays, we would sit on the stones chatting and laughing and dangling our bare feet in the water which ran in from the brook. 
 
Last week there was a piece on 'Winter Watch' about bird song being local to specific areas as the generations of birds mimicked each other.  We noticed when we first came here there was a particular set of notes that the same blackbirds sang year after year.  Laurie Lee wrote about this in the book.   He returned to the Slad Valley after twenty years away and when he woke on the first morning home he thought he heard a Gloucestershire blackbird, then realised he was in Gloucestershire.
 
"and then, when I was fully awake, I realised it was a Slad blackbird, it was a Gloucestershire blackbird. I had not heard it for twenty years but it was instantly recognisable because they mimic their fathers and mothers."

5. Snowdrops

 

February is the month for Snowdrops.  Last year just before lock down I bought a couple of snowdrop plants and a bright yellow winter aconite from the covered market in Leek.  We planted them togther in a large pot as we've never been able to get them to grow in our heavy clay soil.  The snowdrops have grown again this year and seem to have spread but there is no sign of the aconite which is a shame.  Both flowers remind me of the fact that last February we should have met with my cousin and his wife at Hopton Hall in Derbyshire.  It was heavy snow and the meeting was cancelled.  A month later lock down happened and my cousin had been diagnosed with cancer and undergoing surgery and chemotherapy as well as coping with the pandemic.  Unfortunately he has to undergo more treatment and things don't sound so good.  Snowdrops are I think for most of us a sign of hope so I've added some more photos from a previous visit below.
 
Hopton Hall, Derbyshire,  February 2018
 
 Take care everyone.

28 comments:

  1. I'm sorry about your cousin.

    I've heard of that condition before.

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    1. Thank you William, Tinnitus is a weird thing to have:)

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  2. I really enjoyed your five this morning, you've packed so much into it! I'm sorry to hear about your cousin and your tinnitus. I hope the weather is good for you to go and get your jab, that will be a weight off your mind and hopefully you won't be too badly affected. Of all the things all these lockdowns have stopped, it's getting out and about for a coffee and a scone in a beautiful place is the thing I've missed the most. Bring on those hopeful snowdrops though.🙂

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    1. Thank you, yes, I went on a bit more than I expected once I got started🙂 I hope the snow stays away for Monday as the least bit of snow and the roads here come to a halt. We long to walk on the beach and also to visit a historic place or town and sit and drink coffee - a scone is an edded bonus, of course🙂

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  3. What a fascinating five. I too suffer from tinnitus, ever present but as you say sometimes you are not aware as others. Looking forward to getting my national trust book and being able to travel to sites once again. In September we visited a few gardens but the houses were closed.
    I didn’t know about birds having a local version of their song. How lovely. B x

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    1. Thank you, yes sometimes the hissing is worse than others, I'm aware of it more these last few weeks. Like you I can usually just get on with things and it doesn't bother too much. We noticed a few years ago that each year around May the blackbirds sang using the same few notes at the start, now the 'old man' blackbird with the white neck has gone a few of the others use the same notes in theri song🙂

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  4. A really lovely post Rosie and so cheering to see all those snowdrops. We have just a few in the garden but like you I have lost any aconites I have planted out.

    Suffering from something like tinnitus that never goes away must be truly awful. I do occasionally get a ringing in my ears - no idea if that is the same but even temporarily it is horrid.

    I so miss going out too NT and EH places and gardens, lunches and tea and cake, churches, bookshops. Life has changed so much in the last year and all the things we took for granted have just disappeared. One can but hope that eventually life may slowly get back to normal even if it is a "new normal".

    I don't think I have that book by Laurie Lee so I will investigate as I love his descriptions of the English countryside. One day I would love to go to Slad and also walk part of a Laurie Lee trail. I've been indulging in "comfort reading" at bedtime and are re-reading the first Miss Read Village School book!

    I have my new NT handbook too :) Mum had those Be-ro recipe books but I haven't. Thanks for the tip about the new one I will visit their website.

    Take care and I hope all goes with the vaccination.

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    1. Thank you RR I'm sure you will enjoy the Laurie Lee book I think is was written or spoken and then edited by another person whose name I can't remember quite late in Lee's life as he speaks about his eyes deteriorating. I'd love to visit that area too. Normal seems a long way off at the moment and I think we will all be wary for a long time to come. My mum's Be-Ro book was sepia brown with a girl in a school tunic on the front, I don't know what heppened to it🙂

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  5. Tom has a bunch of sparrow in his ears. He has been to clinics etc but really there is nothing that can be done. He has got used to it over the years, but he's a placid sort of person, I think it would drive me mad. He is also deaf and has what is called 'Hyperacusis' that adds to things. No wonder I have to repeat everthing 3 or 4 times. Patience is required, lol
    Briony
    x

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    1. I've also likened my noises to loads of grasshoppers but more like steaming kettles, everyone seems to hear something different. Hypercausis is a strange thing too, we laugh at some of the things I think people have said rather than what they have really said🙂

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  6. Tinnitus must be so tiring to live with. I'm sorry to hear about your cousin. At times I feel anxious that my cancer will return as I didn't have any symptoms until I had an annual routine scan. It was picked up and I was able to have surgery. This pandemic has disrupted so much of life as we knew it.
    The books I'm reading at the moment are what I call more gentle, familiar reads with descriptions of the English countryside as well as old gardening magazines. I hope the vaccination session goes smoothly for you.

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    1. My cousin lives in Holmesfield a village you may know and is getting wonderful treatment at local hospitals both in the city and local town too. I can understand how you feel about things returning I think I'd be the same. Gentle books about beautiful things are the order of the day to get us through all this, glad you were able to get your vaccinations🙂

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  7. My heart goes out to you suffering from Tinnitus, something that my Father suffers with also. He has days when it is so bad that only lying down will help. So sorry to read about your cousin, not easy to go through at the best of times but worsened with a pandemic going on. A joy to see the snowdrops. Take care.

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    1. Thank you, I'm so sorry your father has tinnitus so badly, I expect it does worsen the older you are, I know of someone in their eighties who not only has the hissing but music too. I think the brain compensates for the lack of hearing. The snowdrops were lovely that year, I expect they are this year too but closed of course at the moment:)

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  8. Oh dear, I'd not realised you suffered from that awful tinnitus & although I don't, I sometimes hear my blood pumping which is annoying, so can't imagine what you must go through. Still not doing much reading except odd reference books & magazines & we just renewed our N.T. membership & I was thinking that we'd love to be able to visit the few places we have here without all the fif-faf that goes with everything we do. Old cookbooks are great & I still use some of my late Mums. Your snowdrops are looking lovely with a promise of warmer weather. Vaccines here are being thought of as a long term project here, as they are worried about the short period of trials. First ones start late February for front line workers only & the most vulnerable, so K & I won't be getting them for quite a while. Hope all goes well. Take care, stay safe & huggles.

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    1. Thank you Susan, it's not somethig I usually mention as I just cope with it but for some people it can be so depressing and affect mental health. Mine seems worse the last couple of weeks for some reason. I will renew our NT membership in the hopes that we will be able to visit some places later this year, perhaps in the Autumn. I must admit I'm nervous about the vaccine but hope once everyone (or those that want it) has been vaccinated, people can return to work and children to their studies. I can't see any of us feeling safe for a long time:)

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  9. I miss visiting museums and historic houses too, and usually we go to Shipton to see the snowdrops and aconites in the churchyard but we can't do that this year either. We had hoped for an outdoor visit to one of the old ruined abbeys near here this week but then we learned that the police have been stopping visitors in Ironbridge who have travelled there from other parts of Telford, and Ironbridge is in Telford, so we decided that we shouldn't risk it. However, we are safe and well at home so we are counting our blessings. I hope you were able to keep that vaccination appointment this morning, there is definitely hope. Take care. x

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    1. Thank you Mrs T. We managed to get to my appointment yesterday it was okay once we were down the hill on the main roads. I was in and out in five minutes, all very well organised. I love Ironbridge and we normally visit every year such a shame you can't get there even though you are so close. Snowdrops always seem so right somehow in churchyards don't they? Take care:)

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  10. A real post of ups and downs, I'm sorry to hear you suffer with Tinnitus and that your cousin isn't doing so good.

    The snowdrops of course are lovely, one side of my garden is filled with green shoots but they've yet to flower! I love the bero book, my mum had the smaller one all the time we were growing up and when I moved out, I ordered my own, it's slightly worse for wear, the cheese straws and yorkshire pud recipes are the best!

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    1. Thank you Pam. My Mum always had a BeRo book - I remember people always made cheese straws for party nibbles, not had one of those for years. My Mum's book was a really old one a sort of sepia and brown colour. Our snowdrops in the pot have stil to open, they are covered in snow at the moment:)

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  11. Hello Rosie,

    We sympathise with your ear problems. It is so wearing living with a condition which does not show any improvement and in these days of isolation it is easy to get very down about such things. Still, it is good that you look for positive distractions and ways of feeling optimistic. making future plans is always good even if some of them never come to fruition. Travelling in the mind is far less hassle than the real thing.

    Snowdrops should have no problem with heavy clay but aconites most probably will. Snowdrops can be slow to multiply but, when they are just over, whilst still in the green, divide them and replant them and you will be amazed at how you can accumulate great clumps far more quickly. Aconites like shade and a more free-draining soil. So, stick with the snowdrops and soon there will be a carpet of them.

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    1. Thank you Jane and Lance for your kind comment, I do try to remain positive but as you say it is harder to do that at the moment. Thank you too for the advice re the snowdrops, I think we will divide them and put some in the garden. I'd love to see a carpet of them under the trees:)

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  12. I got my second Covid 19 Vaccination this week. I was fine after the first, but the second really floored me, couldn't get out of bed for a couple of days. I'm told that it is a good thing. This really is a strange old world. Feel well!!!
    Amalia
    xo

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    1. Thank you Amalia, I was okay immediately after the vaccination but the next day I felt dreadful, tight chest, difficulty taking a deep breath, headache and pain in my neck and between my shoulder blades, a bit better today although now the arm I had the injection in is sore. So sorry you had a reaction to your second dose, hope all is well now. Times are indeed very strange:)

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  13. I have had tinnitus for years, and it is very loud and constant, but I find I only really notice it when I think about it (so it is screaming at me now). It is weird how I can go through a day never noticing it at all then as soon as I casually think of it it suddenly seems deafening (and of course it is literally deafening - I need hearing aids to hear much of any higher frequencies). I think that just not thinking about it and trying to accept it as normality is the key.

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    1. Thank you Andrew, yes I'm the same if I'm out and about in the fresh air concentrating on other things likes noises in the street, cafes woodland sounds etc it fades to the background. At home which I've been - especially over the last few weeks in the bad weather it seems to have reached a higher point than normal. I have hearing aids but stopped using them as again out and about especially in crowded places I could hear conversations across the room rather than those I was joining in with. There are certain pitches of voice I struggle with too. Yes,I agree accpting it is the key:)

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  14. I recall you saying about having tinnitus before Rosie. For a few weeks now I have been hearing an alarm when I go to bed. When I mentioned it to my husband he said he couldn't hear it. It is in my right ear and I cannot shut it out. I am conscious of it when I go to bed and when I wake up. I am hoping that it is just a blocked ear that needs unblocking. The snowdrops look so pretty and delicate even though they are hardy. I am sorry to hear about your cousin Rosie. I hope he gets all the help and care needed. :)

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    1. I hope it is a blocked ear that just needs clearng too Simone. I wouldn't wish tinnitus on anyone, mine isn't so bad and I can genrally live with it but I know some people who really suffer with noises and music too all day. Sometimes when I actually hear say an alarm,I can hear it ages after it has stopped. I hope your's will go away. I love snowdrops. Take care:)

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