Spring tides

At certain times of year the tides are high and low enough to change the whole appearance of the beach at Seaton Carew. The submerged forest starts to emerge for short periods.


It's the remains of fens and a birch and alder forest in a peat bed from 8000 years ago when there was still a land bridge from England to Europe.

These posts, however, are the remnants of the supports of some drainage pipework from the 20th Century rather than anything foresty from the Mesolithic. Does make me think of Flag Fen, though.

Happy Mothers' Day

A cold and blustery day after yesterday's sunshine. Had to wear a hat when we went for our walk this morning. Managed to find increasing patches of colour in the garden, though.



My next photographic mission is to capture the woodpecker who has started visiting J's feeding station. Every time I creak onto the deck to try to snap him, he shoots off like a dart.


My gift from j today was a tidy room. I have been nagging him for such a long time to decontaminate his bedroom and now it is done. I'm content. Doesn't take much now, does it?

Considering a decision

I'm on the fence about the whole surgery thing.

When I told j, my son about it he was really enthusiastic: 'Go for it', 'I'd have it done tomorrow!'

He's not fat. He used to be but still thinks he is. I've managed to mess him up too.

My husband, J, says I should do what I want. Thing is, it isn't what I want, but what I seem to need. It seems so extreme.

I've been tossing it around in my head. I think the problem stems from the fact that I had been thinking that surgery - especially NHS surgery, here in England - was only for people whose issues were much bigger than mine and I didn't want to accept that I am in the same place as them.

I've asked my GP to refer me, but am still thinking about it.

In the spring...

...a young frog’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

(I don't suppose Tennyson will mind too much)



Our pond isjust one big frog orgy at the moment.


14 degrees this morning!
Walked through Cowpen Marsh this morning and took my fleece off!


The water birds are all starting to pair up and the swans are gathering nesting materials. It definitely feels springy.

Health issues discussed, look away now

I'm wary that this is turning into a catalogue of health issues. An update anyway:

I haven't managed to lower my blood pressure by relaxation, exercising and wrestling with my diet, so I've now started to take some medication to help reduce it. I also had a chat with the partner I'm now seeing at my GP surgery and have started to take Orlistat to help with the weight loss. I must say, the side effects read as very glamourous.

She also asked me if I wanted her to refer me for gastric band surgery, which is done on the NHS in the next Health Authority.
I must admit, the idea floored me at first. It just seemed so far out there.

I've been doing some research. This is what they do:


Some of the resources I've been looking at.
UK Gastric Band
Living with a lap band
Gwen's WLS Blog
WLSInfo

We're going to discuss it some more at my next appointment.
In the meantime....

More monkey business

I succumbed and wound this into a ball.




Then I cast on for another pair of Monkeys.

My bad...

Where did February go?

I can't believe it's the end of the month already! Where did it go?

My month was swallowed up by work and illness, I'm afraid. My half-term holiday brought a chest infection, sinus infection, minor gynae surgery and pleurisy - which I thought was a medieval, or Victorian at the latest, disease. Alas, it's alive and well and living on Teesside.

I recovered enough to go back to work at the start of the new half term...



J and I visited the newly opened RSPB bird sanctuary at Saltholme. It looks like it will be really wonderful in a year, when all the walks are open and the landscaping naturalises a bit more. It's amazing how quickly things start to look like they have been growing there for ever.



These two certainly approve and are voting with their flippers.


Some very sad news: my new nephew died before his birth. My brother and his wife are devastated, naturally.

Not snowed under

We had a little snow. Not like most of the country. Here in the frozen North East we have been, largely, problem-free. My school has been without closure (awww!!!!) and the roads have been passable.

Our parish church

We're very fortunate to have an amazing building to house the church to whose parish our school belongs. St Hilda's Church was built in the 12th century on the site of an abbey established by St Aidan, from Lindisfarne, in the 600s.



My class and I had a private tour this week, thanks to some wonderful volunteers who took immense time and trouble to explain, to the children, the features of a building they take for granted. You mean everyone doesn't get to use a medieval building for concerts and celoebrations whenever they feel like it?

I'm nithered

from this morning's walk in the snow down at the Tees estuary. And I had my vest on. (English vest, not American vest).


My right ear is still tingling. I really need to make a hat with better ear protection. (As if I need an excuse, but anyway...) The car told us it was 3 degrees as we drove away, but there was no way on earth that reflected the wind-chill factor down there. I was really thankful of my cowl. J says he'll have one for tucking his chin into, but he can't stand polo necks so I'm not sure how I'll make that work.


We seem to have quite a colony of curlews down there now. We saw at least ten, this morning, pottering around in the grass. Also saw some birds I think may be smew but, according to my bird book, it's unlikely, this far north.


J wasn't bothered by the cold. Nothing gets through his Irwin.

Is this the most boring knit ever?

Clapotis.





It's starting to look like one now, but I'm bored!



I want to knit socks...



...or some other small, instantly gratifying project.

Light at the end

I can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm trying to slow down, while simultaneously trying to catch up with all the things on my 'to do' list and get on top of my job again.

This week I've been forced to slow down a little at the start of my day as a consequence of the contraflow section on the A689 road into Hartlepool. I sat there for 25 minutes, fuming and adding to my stress on Monday. Tuesday I took a different route and went up the main road into the top of the town. I used to drive this road everyday for my last job and I had forgotten how much I hated it.
Wednesday, I saw the light and went out through Seal Sands and along the coast. It's alonger drive, but takes me through the new Saltholme RSPB reserve

and Greatham Beck, where the seals live.

Then it's through Seaton Carew, past the newly restored art deco bus station and along the seafront to the Headland.

A nice start to a day when it isn't essential to arrive really early.

*****

Streamlined the 'to do' list into a 'to do this week or Monday' list. I put lots of things in the bin, delegated the things that were appropriate towards other people and spent yesterday working towards the surface of my desk.

Walking back to happiness

We've been trying to get a daily walk in again. I know that it helps to reduce my blood pressure and helps me unwind. Needed to be well wrapped up this morning around Hartlepool Marina.

Inside looking out.

I've been looking at some personality tests. No, not the kind I used to cheat at in Cosmopolitan when I was in my 20s, but this kind of thing: Jung Typology Test

Your Type is
INTJ
Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging
Strength of the preferences %

44 25 1 67

This means I am:

• moderately expressed introvert
  
• moderately expressed intuitive personality
  
• slightly expressed thinking personality
  
• distinctively expressed judging personality

No real surprises there. Explains why I don't like parties and don't socialise much. Apparently I'm in the same sort of bracket as Hilary Clinton and Stephen Hawking. Who knew?

Introversion aside, I haven't been feeling too good lately. Just don't seem to have been able to shake the lurgy from before Christmas. I'm tired all the time and feel really run down. I'm anaemic and my blood pressure is elevated. I've been feeling quite feel stressed much of the time and feel easilly overwhelmed. My hormones are misbehaving too, so I'm having some gynae treatment and hopefully that will help.
It got so bad that I took three days off work last week, mostly because I was frightened by the scale of my blood pressure issues. I'm trying to tackle it all by resting when I need to, by eating well and getting some exercise. Hopefully, things will start to turn a corner soon.

Currently on the needles:

Unpattern top-down sweater for me. Making this in Marble, but not really enjoying it. Having got past the arm holes, I'm going to finish it.

Clapotis in Noro Kureyon Sock for me. I finally succumbed to the clapotis virus.





Currently on my bedside table:
Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett.


I love the Lancre witches.

Through the roof

Was at my GP's surgery for a minor gynae procedure this morning. Not very pleasant but not terribly traumatic. Had my BP checked afterwards:
230/170

Very traumatic.

Went home to lie down and think about it. I have to go back and get it checked regulary.

Knitting up the miles

As I mentioned, I'm trying to reduce my stash this year. Yesterday I dug some yarn out from one of the storeage boxes in the wardrobe. It was at the bottom, naturally. I'd almost forgotten about it, which means I need to look my stash in the eye rather more often.

Anyway, thanks to the technical features of Ravelry, I was able to work out, this morning over a cup of tea, how much yarn I got through in 2008.



13259.6m or 13.26km. For those of us who still speak in old money, that's 14500.87 yards or 8 and a quarter miles of yarn knitted up in 2008. I'm quietly impressed with myself.

If I can manage a similar yardage this year and avoid adding significantly to the stash (you will notice I don't say 'knit only from stash'...)it should chip away at it.

Welcome 2009

Happy New Year!



Like many people, we had a quiet night at home last night. Even j stayed in with us and then found most of his friends online just after midnight, so even the young were staying home.

If I could have been anywhere, I would have been at the Elton John Red Piano party at the O2. We watched bits of it on TV this morning and the £675 ticket experience, including being able to go onstage and gather around the piano, looked great. Lots of the party-goers were older than us and I saw some lovely sparkly cardis. Kate Thornton summed it up when she commented on how civilised it was that the ladies took their handbags with them when they 'invaded' the stage. 60 is definitely the new 40 and long may it remain.

It's freezing here - minus 2 degrees, according to the car sensor. J and I went for a walk round the marina this morning, but my nose started to freeze up so we came home for lattes. I cast on my third item for the Great Stash Down of 2009. I'm counting these two baby kimonos, finished off on New Year's Eve.





They are for the baby daughter of a colleague. The baby is due on January 15th, so I'm uncharacteristically ahead of myself. I will add some embellishment to the pink one and make some hats and booties to go with them.

My latest cast on is this cardigan. It will eat up all the bulky yarn in my stash and leave almost a whole storeage box empty.

You may have worked out, by now, that I have resolved to reduce my stash this year. It's part of a general thriftiness that I am trying to adopt. I am ashamed of the amount of food I throw away each week, uncooked. We eat too many processed and ready made things too. I am aiming to make some gradual changes to all of this waste. I will be very trendy too. Thrifty is the new black.

A little whinge, just ignore me.

I'm more than a little weary of this cough now. I'd like it to go away thanks. Don't have any energy for anything. I had planned lots of bracing walks by the sea during this holiday, but I just feel so tired and my chest and shoulders ache all the time. Neither J nor I sleep for more than two hours at a time at night because of it.
I'm not allowed to moan about it at home without someoneelse chiming in with a competetive set of symptoms, so I'm just getting rid of the whinging here. Ignore me, please.

Secret Santa

We had a Secret Santa on the Ravelry UKarma Swaps group. I was well and truly spoiled by Caroline.



That's a skein of Malabrigo in the background. I love it, but my favourite thing is the purple project bag.

Thank you Caroline!

Merry Boxing Day

Boxing Day and I'm setting aside a little time to catch up here.(I don't blog anything like as often as I should or would like to. I spend time on Ravelry organising my knitting and the rest of my online leisure time working on my family tree,making the most of the Ancestry subscription that came with Family Tree Maker.)

The boys are killing Nazi Zombies (you couldn't make it up) and I've just put some jacket potatoes, a favourite comfort food, in the oven.

It's been a quiet Christmas, excepting the sound of Call of Duty 5 gunfire and coughing. j and I have had lurgy and J has come close a couple of times only to have it subside at the last moment. I'm a bit peeved as I had a 'flu jab at Asda. J qualified for one from our GP. Mine must have been a second rate, 'value' jab.



Our Christmas goody shopping included stocks of paracetamol, Sudafed (day and night)and soft, mansize balm-impregnated tissues. The epidemic of lurgy has made the news quite regularly lately. It's made watching the last couple of episodes of Survivors a bit uncomfortable, I must admit.

We wrapped up and headed out to the beach this morning, but forgot about the Hartlepool Lions Club Boxing Day Dip. We couldn't get a parking spot and the roads were madness, so we turned around and headed back home for a warm spot on the sofa and a spectacular losing streak on the Boxing Day racing.