llywela | Entries tagged with a day in the life

I've not been around much lately. For this blog, that's not such an unusual thing, but even in my other online hangouts I've been much less present over the last six months or so than I used to be. There's just been a lot going on.

The main thing is that my dad was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer last September, after a long summer of shuffling back and fore between various different doctors for a battery of tests. He's on hormone therapy and doing well, the oncologist is optimistic that he still has a few years left in him, but it is a terminal diagnosis and as such came as a bit of a hammer blow. We're still coming to terms with it.

In Other News, it's been just over a year now since I got my allotment (a year and a week, to be precise!).

It's been a strange sort of year, in many ways, and I find it disheartening sometimes to look at other allotments on social media and see how much more they seem to have achieved in the same timescale, so I have to remind myself that those are influencer allotmenters who all have much more resource than I do - they are working their allotments in pairs or as extended family groups, they have greater financial resources as well as manpower, easy access to transport, and admit to receiving lots of freebies from suppliers in exchange for a shoutout on social media. I don't have any of that, so everything I've achieved has been done by myself, by hand, mostly on foot, in stolen moments when my time isn't taken up with other responsibilities - and when I think about it like that, I think I'm doing okay, really.

My plot has gone from this (photo taken the day I first got the key and installed my lockbox for tools, ready to get started):

To this (photo taken last week):

Not bad, if I do say so myself. I've got leeks ready to harvest as and when they are needed, garlic and shallots overwintering and doing well, overwintering seedlings coming on in the greenhouse, fruit trees neatly pruned, thicket of self-seeded saplings all chopped down, the overgrowth has been tamed, new compost bays built, and new growing beds set up ready to be uncovered for planting.

(The plot behind mine is completely abandoned, though, mine ends just behind the black box and green bin you can see in the photo, so I'm going to have to make an effort to keep clear space between that and my plot this year, now that I've unearthed the row of blackcurrant bushes at the back of my plot from all the brambles coming over from behind.)

It's been another mild winter, mind, so let's all keep our fingers crossed we don't experience another Slugageddon like last year!

And then, all of a sudden, I have an allotment!

I put my name on the waiting list about a year ago, but honestly thought it would take longer than this. Six months ago I had an email asking if I wanted to stay on the waiting list, and was told I was at #59, so again thought it would take years.

Then last week I had an email offering me a plot!

I went for a viewing this morning and picked the least overgrown of the smaller plots on offer (I am not ambitious enough for a big one). Signed some papers. Paid my deposit and received a gate key in exchange. And voila! The plot is mine. A birthday present to myself.

It has been neglected for a long time by the looks of it, so it is going to take a lot of work before it will be ready for planting, but I'm already making plans.

Job the first: cut back overgrown fruit bushes along the path because they are very in the way when trying to get past
Job the second: remove the remains of a collapsed greenhouse with grass growing all over it
Job the third: start removing grass from the beds and begin digging them over, one small area at a time

I've already bought a lockbox to keep on site and a new garden spade to store in it. Additional supplies will be added, a bit at a time.

The project begins...

we had a bit of drama yesterday afternoon and evening when the lock on my Nan's front door failed, locking her in and her carers out

context: Nan had a stroke back in January. She is living at home again now, but has carers going in four times a day to get her meals, do the washing, see to all her needs; she cannot manage alone

so yesterday. The morning carer got in and out okay. Then the lunchtime carer couldn't get in, the lock had failed. My dad went out to look at it. Two out of three uncles went out to look at it (the third is on holiday, or he'd have been there too). They all failed to get inside. One of the uncles went away and came back with fish and chips from the local chippy, which they posted through the letterbox, so that Nan had something to eat.

a locksmith was called. The locksmith failed to get inside. Hours were passing. The lock stubbornly resisted all efforts. Dad went off and fetched a sandwich, which was posted through the letterbox for Nan to have for her tea.

the locksmith decided that he needed to be inside the flat to fix the lock. This was a problem since, as discussed, everyone was locked out and it is a first floor flat. A ladder was produced. The locksmith climbed up the ladder to the window. Nan managed to get the window open, which was probably the most physical exertion she's had all year.

the locksmith climbed in through the window - and got the door open at last! Seven hours! It took seven hours, start to finish, before it was all resolved.

Long story short, my Nan now has a new lock on her front door!

Had a lovely week in Devon last week with the whole family - parents, siblings (and in-laws), nieces, nephew, the whole shebang. We stayed in a big converted barn on a flower farm - the flower farm in relatively new hands and looking a bit neglected, sadly, but still lovely. We could have lived without all the flies and wasps of mid-August, but had a great time hanging out together and sightseeing around and about.

It was a Monday to Monday holiday, unusually, so after arriving home on Monday I headed off to the cattery to collect Poppy, and while I was there, the lady who runs the cattery (Angharad) asked if I knew anyone who wanted a kitten. It turned out that at the end of last week, they'd got up one morning to find that someone had dumped four kittens (approx. 5-6 months old) in a taped up bag and bin by the side of the road at the bottom of their driveway - there isn't even a pavement there and it is a busy road, so it was a horribly dangerous position for the poor little things to be in.
a taped up bin and carrier bag left at the bottom of a driveway, alongside an empty road

a taped up bin and carrier bag left at the bottom of a driveway, alongside an empty road

Two of the kittens, from the bag, were slightly injured and were taken in by the local Cats Protection League, but they didn't have room for all four, so the cattery had kept the other two, who were in good health, and were looking to rehome them. Both girls, we think, although not 100% sure.

Well, as it happened, my sister C and my parents had promised the Oldest Niece a kitten for her 8th birthday next month (how is she that old already?!?!?!), to live with Niece and my parents at their house. C had made a tentative arrangement to take a kitten from one of her flatmate's colleagues, but it wasn't definite. When I told her about these abandoned kittens, that was that, we were having one.

I spent most of yesterday morning on the phone to the cattery to discuss our interest in the kittens, and made an appointment to go and see them at 6.30. C and her flatmate K both came with me, with Dad. One look was all it took, and that was that - both kittens came home with us! One has been given to Niece as an early birthday present, to live with her at Mum and Dad's house. She has named it Emerald, because it has lovely green eyes:

And C and K have taken in the second kitten, which they have named Midnight:

Both kittens have had a good first night and first day in their new homes, and are settling already. Welcome to the family, fur babies!

Big Sis and her family have been here for the weekend, because it was our uncle's memorial service yesterday - it's been over two months since he died, but because he was cremated for transport home to the UK having died on holiday, there was no rush, so my aunt waited until she felt able to cope with it. A nice service, standing room only, full of family and friends sharing happy memories. I almost managed not to cry, but then they mentioned my cousin who died over twenty years ago, and that set me off. That, and seeing the widow of another cousin, who died two years ago, who made the effort to bring her kids to the other side of the country to pay their respects - none of us were able to get to her husband's funeral, due to covid.

This afternoon Sis and I went to see our Nan in hospital, where she is recovering from a stroke, and Nan just took one look at Sis and burst into tears, she was so happy, because she knows Sis lives too far away to visit easily so wasn't expecting to see her.

Nan was a lot more alert this afternoon than she was last time I saw her. Speech is still a struggle, but it is better than it was. She knew my name. She pulled a few other names out of the bag too, although she couldn't necessarily pin them on the right person. She has got the phrase 'I love you' down pat and says it over and over. We Facetimed a few people so she could talk to them, too, and she was thrilled.

She is not eating, though. Not getting on with hospital food at all. She pulls a face like an eight-year-old just at the thought of it. They gave her a bowl of chicken pasta. She has never eaten pasta in her life. The sauce is made with sweet peppers, which she hates. I coaxed her to eat a few mouthfuls, because her chart said she hadn't eaten in at least two days, but she hated it - and had to be fed, because she was struggling to get the food into her mouth anyway. Trifle for pudding went down better, and we got her to eat two small cakes and drink a glass of milk, she was clearly hungry, just really hates the food. Sis persuaded the kitchen to give us a menu for the week so we could select specific food she might eat, rather than them just giving her whatever is default every time - one of my uncles has done the same thing previously, but you can only do a week at a time. The nurses, who were all lovely, did say that she can ask for something different at any time - but her stroke affected speech and language. She just doesn't have the ability to explain what she does or doesn't like, or to tell anyone if she is hungry, or to describe what she wants.

So she is improving, but still a big worry.

I went back into work this week after the Christmas break, and my boss made the mistake of asking 'how was your Christmas?' Hoo-boy. Because honestly, it was rubbish.

So I told her everything that happened. That my uncle died on Christmas Eve (Christmas Day in New Zealand, where he was on holiday). That my little sister came down with covid on Christmas Day. That I had to go to a funeral mid-week (for an old lady from my church). About Alfie's sudden decline and death, my poor boy (she's a cat person herself, she gets it). That New Year's Day involved a trip to A&E because the Littlest Niece (aged 5) had pushed a bead into her ear...

Boss listened to the tale of woe and immediately told me to book a long weekend off, so I have.

Goodbye to my little Alfie cat, I'm sorry we couldn't make you well again. The noisiest, chattiest little cat ever, he always sounded as if he was announcing the end of the world when all he was really trying to say was 'when's dinner? I'm starving.'

He's been under the weather for quite some time - every time he's seen the vet for at least the last three years, I've always said, 'there's something wrong with his digestion,' but examination and blood tests even as recently as September failed to shed any light. His decline over the last week or two was abrupt and rapid, and a scan yesterday finally revealed a cancer of the gut, aggressive and advanced, so we made the decision to let him go peacefully. But he kept his fighting spirit right till the end - with a red blood count so low the vet was amazed he could even lift his head, as soon as he was brought into the family room to say goodbye, he jumped up and headed straight for the sink to play with the water!

My niece is already distraught. She came with me to the vet last night and was so very brave.

I was there when Alfie was born, rubbing his chest to help him take his first breath, and I was there to stroke his back as he fell asleep for the last time.

Rest in peace, Alfie. We all loved you so much.

This has not been a good festive season.

Two years after all staff were switched to homeworking thanks to covid, our building officially reopened this week, so I've been working on site every day as part of the building management team, being on hand to welcome everyone back, show them the new layout and re-arranged facilities and whatnot. Everything is different and yet everything is also exactly the same. Weird how that goes. We are going to be doing hybrid working from now on, a combination of working on site and at home, so everything is now designed to facilitate that.

This morning at 8.15am our data centre manager arrived declaring that we should all brace ourselves because he was feeling so peaceful and optimistic that something catastrophic was bound to happen

At 8.45am the fire alarm went off!

It was a false alarm, but I hold the DCM entirely responsible! He jinxed us!

Homeworking was so much more peaceful...

(Also, it turned out I am the only fire warden on site today, so that was fun)

Dad has now tested positive as well. Hopefully his triple vax will protect him from the worst.

Also, in the last week and a half:
1) My next-door neighbour had a massive heart attack and died (rest in piece, Carol, I will miss our chats about gardening and I will keep an eye on Dennis for you)
2) The Ugandan boy my church has been sponsoring for the past decade was attacked in the street and died of his injuries (he was just a kid! And he'd been doing so well. I'm gutted for him and his family)
3) One of my dad's cousins died very suddenly from sepsis - last weekend she was posting on Facebook, this weekend she is gone, barely 50

They say these things always come in threes, so I'm really hoping that's it now.

Crossposts: https://llywela13.livejournal.com/587848.html

The wall is built. The rubble is gone. The patio has been repaired. The lane door has been replaced, and they've even left a gap for hedgehogs at the bottom like I asked. Folks, I think the builders might actually be finished! Now all I have to do is replant half the garden, but that'll be a job for the end of next week, when I have a few days off work.

And then I'll turn my attention to the lawn, but that will be a longer term project!

(I feel I should add for the record that that is not my cat at the bottom of the 3rd picture there. That is Molly, who lives next door but spends a lot of time in my garden because she hates the puppy her family adopted last summer!)

Crossposts: https://llywela13.livejournal.com/585136.html

Garden is as ready as it is going to get for the builders to start work tomorrow (landlady said she would be in touch to confirm ETA but hasn't been, so I guess they could turn up at any time). Refugee plants and their temporary pots have been squeezed in everywhere I could find room - crowded onto the patio, jammed in down the alley at the side of the house, squished in out the front, and all tucked up in the topmost corner of the lawn. I haven't had to farm any out to my parents, which is good, although depending on what the builders say when they get here, that could still happen. I'm hoping they won't need that corner of the lawn for their gear and materials!

Work should take about a week or so, I'm told. And then my Garden Recovery Plan (Phase 1) can swing into action!

The Garden Recovery Plan (Phase 1) goes like this:

Step 1: Mow the lawn and trim the edges, flipping heck, I am desperate to do this, it has been an entire season!
Step 2: Dig over the stricken flower bed to loosen up soil compacted by builders' boots and remove any lingering rubble. Also remove weeds that've been taking advantage.
Step 3: Add a layer of fresh (peat free) top soil.
Step 4: Add a layer of (peat free) compost, to give everything a needed boost after all the trauma.
Step 5: Be prepared for next door's cat to consider this an open invitation to make use of this enormous new litter tray with merry abandon.
Step 6: Have fun trying to decide which plant should go where, since I have this opportunity to redesign.
Step 7: Re-plant upward of 150~200 plants in the ground at long last!
Step 8: Water everything in thoroughly.
Step 9: Breathe a sigh of relief.
Step 10: Sweep down the patio and re-arrange permanent pots, now that they no longer have to share space with all the refugees. Some of these are still living with the damage of the wall collapsing on top of them, so there may be some re-potting to do at this stage. At least, having emptied so many (begged, borrowed and bought) pots back into the ground, I will have plenty to choose from!
Step 11: Collapse in a heap and congratulate myself on a job well done.
Step 12: Start thinking about Garden Recovery Plan (Phase 2), which is all about the devastated lawn and contains rather more native wildflowers than it does grass...

Crossposts: https://llywela13.livejournal.com/584916.html

After a cold, cold April and the endless rains of May, it doesn't really feel like we've had a spring this year, but I know that summer must be on the way now, because my next door neighbour - the lawyer - is back to holding highly confidential phone calls in the garden, where I can hear every word

I now know so very much about an employee dispute they've got going on at his firm!

Crossposts: https://llywela13.livejournal.com/584456.html

So...this happened in the gales last night:

That's my main herbacious border under that lot! Half the pots on my patio smashed to bits. My clematis, hebe, roses, penstemon, the beautiful thalictrums and aquilegia, alchemilla and day lilies, brand new bedding plants and wallflower just planted last week, daffodils that were just about to bloom, baby foxgloves and hollyhock, the oregano and knapweed that the bees loved so much...

Words can't describe how gutted I am. The landlady is coming out later to assess and talk party wall responsibility with the neighbour. She'll have to arrange a builder to remove the rubble and rebuild the wall. And only then will I be able to even think about what can be salvaged. :(

ETA I've been totting up the damage...

Pots destroyed on patio:
2 x fuchsia
1 x penstemon
1 x standard rose
2 x lavender
1 x wisteria
1 x clematis
1 x everlasting pea
2 x geranium
1 x garlic
1 x mint

Plants in the garden crushed underneath all that rubble include:
Roses (bush & climbing)
Hebe
Penstemon
Erysimum Bowle's Mauve
Fuchsia
Valerian
Ceanothus
Thalictrum
Knapweed
Verbena
Day lilies
Oregano
Rosemary
Melissa
Polemonium
Primroses
Achillea
Alchemilla
Aquilegia
Dicentra
Foxgloves
Hollyhock
Geranium
Geum
Heuchera
Tiarella
Feverfew
Sedum
Dianthus
Lawn chamomile
Forget-me-not
Tulips
Daffodils
Bluebells
Crocuses
Fritillary
Lysimachia
Helichrysum
Bellis...
And the ivy, of course. I confess I wanted to get rid of all the ivy off that wall, but I wasn't planning to throw the whole wall out with it!

Also damaged / destroyed:
Hanging basket
Multiple plant supports
Bug house
Rotary washing line

That's...a pretty hefty swathe of destruction for one storm to cause in one garden!

Crossposts: https://llywela13.livejournal.com/583832.html

Well. It's been, what - two weeks since my last entry. How the state of the world has changed in that time. How is everyone coping with life under pandemic lockdown?

I am into my second week working from home - and that happened, quite literally, overnight. It's...an adjustment. But my garden, at least, is seeing the benefit of it.

Now that I'm not allowed to mix with anyone outside my own household, I am very glad to have my cats for company! Waiting to see how Layla-May takes the news that she can't have her usual sleepover this weekend - she will be heartbroken, I already know that, so thank heaven for video-chatting. She has been with me every single weekend for almost two years now, much-needed respite for my parents, so it is a massive break in routine. But her mother, my Small Sis, has moved back home for the duration - she hasn't lived at home in almost two years, so that too is a big change. She has been living in Barry with the friend she won't come out and admit is her girlfriend; K has stayed in Barry to look after her dad, who is disabled, so the separation is going to be tough for them, but C couldn't face the thought of not seeing her daughter for weeks, so that's a good sign, given her parental track record. And it does give my mum at least a little bit of support, although C's idea of being helpful and motherly is extremely limited (she thinks she is doing well if she sits in the same room as L for a couple of hours, even if all she did was play on her phone the whole time brushing off all requests to play).

My cousin's wedding has had to be cancelled, and we are all devastated - he and his partner in particular. That last celebration was the one thing keeping them going. G is deteriorating fast now, already beginning to lose the power of speech. I don't know how much longer he will last, but if he passes during this crisis, we won't even be able to attend his funeral. It is all so horrible.

This morning my elderly neighbour was taken into hospital with symptoms - she only came out on Saturday, so if she does have the virus, chances are she picked it up in hospital. I really hope it is a false alarm. She is over 70, disabled, and has multiple underlying health conditions already, so wouldn't stand much chance if it is the virus. And looking after her is the only thing keeping her husband going since they lost their daughter last year, so I fear for Dennis if anything happens to Carol.

What a terrible thing it is to live in a time of plague. I am already no longer watching TV in the same way. Almost everything I watch these days, I'm like, "Stop breathing on each other, do you want to die? Too many people gathered together! Don't go into the pub, that's dangerous! Why would you waste toilet paper like that?" And so on!

One of my cousins is a junior doctor at a big hospital in London and they are already overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis. She keeps phoning all the elderly relatives to instill the fear of Covid-19 in them. Her mother, my frailest aunt, is in hospital again after a fall last week, and we are all wretched with worry because it doesn't feel like there is anywhere safe for her to go just now - she's not safe on her own at home, she's not safe in hospital...

Stay inside, people, and keep yourselves and your loved ones safe. Take care, all.

Crossposts: https://llywela13.livejournal.com/579870.html

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Lle Llywela

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Entries tagged with a day in the life

an update

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new family fur babies!

2023 has been a bit rough so far

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it never rains but it pours

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life in the time of plague

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February 2025

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