HUSBANDS - HEALTH BULLETIN 16

Iain continues to make a good recovery from his fall in the house 5 weeks ago. He has one more week to go, well actually 10 days, and then he gets fitted with a brace and should be able to come home. Having been stuck in bed for 5 weeks "of detention" he will be weak but should get his muscle tone and size back through normal activity.

Meanwhile here is a video that Bob and Kate sent me. It is so funny and so true-to-life!

The video is entitled They Should Have Asked My Husband. It is a poem recited by Pam Ayres, an English lady who has been entertaining people with her poetry recitations for 35 years.

Click on this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4oydSZTAns&feature=related

Being an Authority in All Things, Iain is set to become an expert on Sir Francis Drake's voyages. Derek F. gave him a most interesting book about Drake's visit to the west coast of British Columbia. And this was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. More of this anon.


The map below illustrates the current thinking, i.e. he only got part way up the west coast of North America. Why did this fact never come down to us in our history lessons? The story is in this book. (I will get the name when I visit tomorrow.) Actually I think he made it up farther north than I have shown by the yellow arrow. But for now, this shows he made it north of the 49th parallel. Again I will have to clarify this.


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Sir Francis Drake, oil on panel, after an engraving attributed to Jodocus Hondius, c. 1583; in the National Portrait Gallery, London. Archivio I.G.D.A./© DeA Picture Library

Map: www.britannica.com

GARDEN GNOMES

John came over this afternoon to move furniture in preparation for the Visitors' Invasion. And close behind him were 2 little gnomes ...!

The Man in Charge emerged out of the tool shed having picked up my trusty Rooftile Protection Device - read Yellow Hard Hat - on his way through the house. It certainly gave him Go Anywhere Authority.

Now ... which of Grandma's flowers shall I pull up today?

Am I the only one doing any work around here!

Oh-h-h-h boy! Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth!

Well it's been that kind of day.... Like the delivery man said when he came to the door with a parcel for which I had to sign "It's been a jaicket on - jaicket aff kind of day!" (translation for non-Glaswegians: jacket on, jacket off, i.e. showers followed by sunshine followed by showers).

HEALTH BULLETIN NO. 15

Another day, another week. Iain has just over 2 more weeks to go before he gets out of hospital. After visiting him this evening - and supervising his exercises to help maintain his muscle tone - I spent an hour in the garden as it approached dusk. We have visitors arriving in the form of Alastair and Dawn this coming Thursday and then lots of other folk coming the following week for the Big Bash to celebrate Al and Dawn's wedding of one year ago. Really we should have visitors more often ; it's amazing how it sharpens the mind for tidying up!

I noticed that the little sunflower seeds I started off in March are reaching maturity. Here is the first one to flower!

While I was jumping about with the camera I noticed that this flower, or should I say the flower in this position, is the last point to catch the sun before it leaves the garden. This photo shows the flower head catching the last of the sun as the light goes, i.e. 9 o'clock in the evening. There is still light for another hour. As I write it is now 10 o'clock. It is now getting dark; the street lights have come on. This period of twilight or dusk, in Scotland, is called the gloaming.

This is the arty stuff. I Photoshoped this using a cutout filter. I wonder if Marimekko (Finnish fabric designer) gets her design ideas from such exercises?

HEALTH BULLETIN NO. 14

Iain is now coming to the end of Week 4 of 6 and is bearing up well. The orthopaedic surgeon was in and said that the exact date for him ending his 6 weeks in bed to stabilize the 2 cracks in his vertebrae is August 11th. The vertebrae will heal, (as opposed to some things in your body which do not) and so there is no getting round this biological fact.

The plan is to let him get up on that date, fit the brace that is in his bedside locker (see previous post), give him a few days to get used to it, then he can be discharged. I think we are talking August 15th if all goes well.

Meanwhile I am keeping busy back at base-camp. Today, Saturday, I got a phone call from Anne Bennet to say she and John were heading off to Inchinnan to pick raspberries. Did I want to come? Naturally, I dropped everything and off we went.

I'm a berry picker from away back. Most years I manage to find a Pick Your Own farm or garden and get a supply. Normally I make jam; this year I think I will just freeze them.

Once I had my basket full of rasps - very ripe so they mostly fell off in your hand - I headed over to the gooseberry patch. The above photo I took using the camera facility of my iPhone which I just happened to have in my hip pocket.

And no sooner had I arrived back home when my iPhone went off. John sent me this photo. He had been out at Mugdock with 2 cheeky monkeys! (Ishie 3 and 1/2 and Alastair 2 and 1/2).