Busy busy bee

I have been busily crocheting away,the offspring are already arguing over who is having which item.

I am pleased to tell you that they like my interpretation of the hexagon cardigan.For some reason I could only take a fuzzy photo of the little blankie for Sam's sensory corner but it does seem to be what she and James want.

Talking of Sam,she had her first scan today,the baby is officially due on Friday the 13th of august,so another little demon in the family,it took them two hours to be able to do the scan,would you believe a 5cm foetus wriggled so much that they took that long to be able to measure it. I happily said to Sam"imagine how hyperactive it will be by age four"

Back to normal moaning.

A little explanation for yesterdays post.I was very down as I had been unable to save my friends hennie when she became ill sunday,I also felt quite guilty as she had asked me several times to look at her and each time she had appeared perfectly fine to me.Still I am not a vet and I did my best for her.So instead of hennie blogging I just had a pathetic day or two.
Yup I have had my self pitying whine and now I am ready to resume my normal moaning..........You lucky readers.

I now have a really good reason not to diet,it seems my enlarged rear end is healthy !
I am busily crocheting a cardi from the book the kids got me for Christmas along with what we call a clever or IQ blankie,it is hexagons in various red,white and black combinations,our Sam has decided they are the most stimulating colours for her baby,I am also making two of these in yellow and green rounds in the way this cardi is done and a rabbit soft toy for Sarah.Talking of crochet,I made a scary toilet roll cover dress for Poppy

when she was born,just to wind my least frills possible daughter up,imagine my delight when Poppy last visited to discover that it was her fave dolls dress and can Nanny make her some smaller knickers,it seems dolls have smaller bums than babies..........
Holy shit,what must the aliens think of us,we have sent into space over one hundred thousand separate postings from craigslist.org.We have sent a doritos ad and the sound of squelching fannies I kid you not !

Ooh look what I found here..a superb example of a loo roll cover if ever I saw one.

I am not having a bad day.

Which bit do you tell the Consultant ?
For those not in the know,I am waiting to see a rheumatologist or somesuch at my local hospital,I have a huge long history of strange goings on with joints and tendons,so where do you start on your first appointment ?
Do I tell him that I had bad back aches when I was a kid and that the doc said I should learn to sit and stand straight (I still remember my Dad clocking me one and telling me to pull my shoulders back,that stopped me complaining) of course the doc hadn't noticed my slight scoliosis or the fact I had exaggerated curves at shoulder and hip height (kyphosis ?)So naturally it was physically impossible for me to improve my posture.Or do I tell him how ridiculously bendy I used to be,I had a very unhealthy Beighton score in my youth 7/9,I have never been a slender person but I could wrap my legs round my neck and do all the thumb to wrist bending and that thing where you hold your hands together one over your shoulder and one up your back and move them to the front without letting go,I could even pray to the devil,well backwards anyway.

I could stand on one leg with one hand on a wall and pull my 'spare'  leg up and tuck my toes into my armpit,I used to lean my elbow on a table to exaggerate the sound then click my thumbs in and out of joint,it made a wonderfully horrifying graunching and popping  sound with which to torture others,my ankles and wrists used to disjoint and pop back in at will,not as bad as bendy girl thank goodness, but fun all the same,now I am stiff,nothing bends,I used to stand with feet six inches apart straight legged and touch my elbows on the floor,now I can barely touch my toes,I play 'which bit today lotto',sometimes I wake and feel fine then halfway downstairs something crunches,back,a leg, an arm, there is just no predicting it,then there are the seriously weird things,I spent six weeks with my little finger sticking out sideways,it would not sit against my ring finger unless I forced it and that hurt.I get cramps in the strangest of places,in the muscles over my ribs,my neck even behind my knee,do I tell him that I often get a burning sensation in my eyes,lots of bruising and a rash when my joints and tendons are really bad ?.............
Okay I have had a whinge,now I feel better except for my back,my knee and my left wrist.........gggrrrr
I have gone from this..........

To this.......

 

in ten years.........

Sigh........

Firstly,that tip of the day..........
If you put hair colour on, then put marmalade on, then realise halfway through everything that..........
a) the water won't be hot in time to rinse your hair
b) your hair and the marmalade will be done at the same time
you are in trouble,so turn boiling fruit off,stoke up fire to heat water as well as turning immersion heater on,then give your hair its quickest rinse ever,turn marmalade back on whilst trying to wrap hair in a towel.
At least I am not the only one who makes things like this see here.

More seriously,we are having a family panic,we have all been worried about youngest and her spotting during pregnancy whilst we thought middling daughter was muddling along just fine.
Middle daughter Sarah went for her 12 week scan Wednesday it threw up some anomalies so they immediately did a nuchal translucency scan,which suggested there was a very high chance of baby having a chromosomal anomaly like Down's syndrome or trisomy 18,well they sent her for a cvs test the next day,which is pretty horrid and carries a risk of miscarriage,she got the results today,her 25th birthday,no extra or missing chromosomes so that rules out all the more common problems,she now has to wait three weeks to find out if there are any translocation errors,insertion or deletion errors in the babies genes,but it looks a lot more promising than it did two days ago.And if all is okay we will know whether we need pink or blue too.
I thought I would make her a yummy cake,an old fashioned butter cream and jam filled birthday cake(her fave).I went to the shop in the village for eggs as my girls have been off lay for weeks,they only had cheap evil eggs,not only will I not buy them, but daughter would rather have a scone than eat anything battery,I went to see my friend who has pet hens but she had already given her spare eggs away.Then last night as I was tucking my girls in for the night what did I find,three perfect eggs in the nest box..........It may be a good omen.

Mumble, mumble.

In the comments on my last post people were joking about burning books to keep warm,well today I saw one worthy of pyromaniac experimentation,on the bookshelf in the house where I work on Tuesdays was a book by the awful poo lady  (sense about science weren't impressed with her either) amongst piles of self help crapola,the only self any of them help, if you ask me, are the pockets of the authors.
On the subject of stuff I find incongruous,everyone is saying that the government have stuffed up over rock salt for roads or rather lack of it,yet they are moaning that we have 'wasted millions' on swine flu vaccine,now call me daft but what would have happened if the flu turned out to be like the 1918 version,the winter were mild and we had bought salt instead of vaccine? Even if 'big pharma' have lobbied governments to buy the vaccines, buying them wasn't an error,at the beginning of the outbreak no one had any idea whether the flu would be mild or have a fifty percent mortality rate.
Tip of the day.........do not attempt to make satsuma and stem ginger marmalade whilst simultaneously colouring your hair.I will tell you that tale tomorrow !

So much for a shiny new year.

My heating is fixed,yay!!
I popped into the village yesterday morning and while buying some wildbird seed I overheard a conversation,part of which went
"well the coal merchant says they can deliver,but the driver says we will be lucky to get some as in his opinion the yard is just about empty"
So I fly,well cycle,

round the village,no-one has coal in,I start ringing farm shops in neighbouring villages,find one with coal in and ring my friend so we can drive out and get some,The drive out was 'interesting' the roads have been gritted,but obviously a lesser amount of grit has been used,so slippy,slippy.After getting home I popped round to a lady I work for,she was out for the day and her lovely Labrador needed letting out for a run and to do his business,oh and to munch on the spilled seed under the bird table.Then home again and I cleaned out the chicken house and filled it with extra bedding,sawdust for the floor and shredded newspaper(I figured that is how tramps insulate themselves) and straw in the nest boxes,a couple of the ex-batts and one of the elderly bantams sleeps in a box rather than on a perch .Then I cleaned the finches cage out.........
A nice lady I know who does hen rescue came round to kindly donate some wheat as treats for the hennies,a lady farmer in the village gives her loads of wheat,seems she is of the old school and thinks that is what chickens eat,I am sure some do,but all the rescued hennies have organic chicken pellets and all sorts of luxurious treats,you really would be surprised at what lovely pets chooks make,ex-batts particularly so,they like a nice cuddle and to eat from your hand etc.
This weather is getting me down now,it was/is very beautiful,but I have spent so much on coal now that I have probably spent the equivalent of up to the end of February's fuel money.The temperature is quite balmy at the moment,the fridge thermometer I have put outside just to torture myself reads exactly 0c,you never know we may actually get above freezing for the first time this week,it isn't doing the aches and pains much good being so cold.
Talking of aches and pains..............I am bloody furious,the doctor rang Friday to apologise,it seems that I haven't yet been referred to the bone doc at the hospital,why you may well ask,considering I thought the referral went out at the end of November,it seems that the receptionist was supposed to contact me with some"administrative questions" then send the letter off,
so I said to the doctor "okay what answers do you need ?"
she replied "I will just put you through to her now"
Guess what the questions were..........which hospital do I prefer and are there any dates I can't do.....so I have waited six effing weeks already and am back at the start of things.

Sod's Law.

My house is cold at the best of times,Grubby will confirm having seen condensation on my kitchen floor,thanks to an extremely humid day and a floor so cold I would swear I was built over an old Indian burial ground a la all the best horror stories.Well obviously it isn't that warm here at the moment(minus 8c last night).So today is the day my heating has broken,the riddler thingy has snapped in the open position,this means the fire is constantly drawing to much air and burning like crazy,which would be fine,but I have been told by the housing association that it has to be cold before they will fix it,so this evening will be spent in bed with two quilts and a sleeping bag.
I phoned the docs surgery today to see when my bone doc appointment is likely to be,only to be told by the receptionist that my doctor will ring and let me know..........The chicky-doodles however are in fine fettle,all big and round and finally fully feathered,I have discovered that Goonie the new hen is like Sid and will munch a mouse if given half a chance it is just a shame that those two hennies won't fit between the bedroom floorboards and the downstairs ceiling,I can hear the little buggers scuttling........

Not Welsh or rare,but yummy.

I had cheats rarebit for lunch.........unlike the real thing it required no roux making or reduction of beer and mustard....in my strange but delish version you put your toast under the grill and whilst it is doing, grate cheese,add a beaten egg, a pinch of dry mustard and a teaspoon of horseradish sauce,mix well, spread on toast and plonk back under the grill till nicely cooked.It is jolly moreish.
Talking of food,when did my offspring turn into a plague of locusts ? If one more of them claims to be eating for triplets I will have to murder them,I even had one claim that she needed the energy as she was trying hard to make me another grandchild(insert rolly eyed gif here) Still I suppose it saved me having to eat all the choccies.......sigh !

Since the last posting I have made two newborn cardis from the new book (bloody kids) one in baby yellow and one in green,I will of course have to make at least another pair the same or arguments are bound to ensue,I have also started on a newborn basket-weave pattern sweater,but despite being good and doing a gauge swatch,I suspect it will be a better fit for Poppy's Barbie doll.
Just as an after-note,it is ruddy cold here...........