Hay stack

This morning I took my Mum my granddaughter and mums dog to the vets to have the made to measure American splint fitted to mums dogs front leg, the dog was so good and let them do it several times before having a short walk in it. For the next few weeks she will build up to wearing her prosthetic more and more until she is wearing it all day.
My hay arrived today too,

it smells lovely and the bales are nice and heavy, I have a small barn at my disposal and together with the 'help' of Rafi I got it stacked and away before any rain could get to it.
When I say Rafi helped, I mean he stood on every bale to inspect it for mice and rabbits sadly for him there were none, he did find a couple of very big spiders which he had as an evening snack.

Gutted!

When your best friend sends you a message saying she has seen some one so you think she has traveled all the way down south from up north. Then she sends you a photo of a van with that persons name on it, a coincidence and funny but still a bit gutted that she hasn't come down to stay!
Miss ya Northern Bird!

Two Different Doctors

 

TWO PATIENTS LIMP INTO TWO DIFFERENT MEDICAL CLINICS WITH THE SAME COMPLAINT....... Both have trouble walking and appear to require a hip replacement. The FIRST patient is examined within the hour, is xrayed the same day and has a time booked for surgery the following week.     THE SECOND SEES HIS FAMILY DOCTOR AFTER WAITING 3 WEEKS FOR AN APPOINTMENT, THEN WAITS 8 WEEKS TO SEE A SPECIALIST, THEN GETS AN X-RAY, WHICH ISN'T REVIEWED FOR ANOTHER WEEK AND FINALLY HAS HIS SURGERY SCHEDULED FOR 6 MONTHS FROM THEN. Why the different treatment for the two patients?   The FIRST is a Golden Retriever. The SECOND is a Senior Citizen.

Time to breath

Ahh my last shift of the set done and dusted, now I have some time off, not that it isn't busy.
sometimes I wish I didn't fill my diary so full... Take today for instance, I finished my shift at 06:30 and got home, managed to take my granddaughter to school and vote at the poling station come back home and get a couple of hours sleep before going down to the stables to wait for the vet to come and give Mouse her inoculations, then go home then go back to the school collect Flower, back to the stables for the farrier then home for some dinner before being able to relax properly, 1 down, 5 to go! Hmm, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Spring Forward...

Oh the joy!!! An hour less sleep tonight! Don't forget to change the clocks tonight.

North to north

Today is the Northern Birds last day down here, she is going home this evening. We went to church this morning then had a relaxed lunch of cheese, pickled onions, chutney, salad and ciabatta bread. then having put Mouse to bed, Litlun and I took the Northern Bird to London to catch her train home... Well it wasn't quite that easy for her, we got her to the train station on time but then there was a chemical fire somewhere close to the railway lines which held the train up... she ended up being about an hour late home. We missed you as soon as you went Hun, looking forward to the next visit, either you back here or me to you. Take care.

Marley

Today I was going to blog about the walk I took with the dog in the most amazing bluebell woods I have ever seen. But, ( I was always told you couldn't start a sentence with "but" so I am going to!) But, today I had a phone call from my husband who told me he had bumped into one of our friends during the course of his work and that her dog had died. She had a full of life 10 month old black Labrador, he was into every thing and full of fun. We had taken him for walks together in the fields where she lives and I know he will be very sadly missed. He had managed to get to some slug pellets, apparently just one or two can be fatal to a dog! Sadly in this case they were. Whilst on the subject of slugs, these also can cause problems for dogs as they carry lung worm which can also be fatal to dogs. It seems you can't win sometimes. Three years ago we lost our Jack Russell to an adder bite, according to the vet 50% of dogs are killed by the venom of adders and sadly 50% of dogs are also allergic to the anti venom, yet another can't win situation! Today's blog is posted in memory of Marley and Milo. RIP my little friends.

WEDNESDAY 13TH MAY

Today is the first anniversary of my Uncles death, and I remember this time last year vividly, my thoughts are with my Aunt and Cousin and their family.
Today is also Mouses 2nd Birthday, so all in all its a mixed sort of a day!

Midweek special!

Or in other words, here are Tuesday and Wednesday's blogs.
Yesterday, I had a lie in wahoo, then it was off to court again, on yet another sunny day, for the long term weather report, I finish jury service on Friday, so it will chuck it down with rain up until Monday when I am back at work!
We were in and out of the court room like a fiddlers elbow yesterday, and at Lunch time, myself and one of the other Jury members went and sat outside to have our lunch, Beth who works nearby came and had lunch with us, then it was back to the court room.
My Husband picked me up in the car afterwards, and I prepared dinner, Irish of course, then, He and Lit'lun went off to church to prepare for the Taize style service that he had prepared as part of his course, I put the dog in the car and took her to a park that we don't usually go to and probably wont again seeing as she was mauled by a huge black Labrador called Alfie, and no this time that is the correct name! Name and shame, this dog ran at her from the other side of the park, en route to her he knocked a girl off her bike! Its owner tried to say it was my dogs fault as she hadn't been to the park before so his dog hadn't met her!! Don't push me mate, I was ready to call the police, and had the girl been injured I would have, my dog was right by my side, she had no contact with the cyclist and the first she knew of the other dog was when it landed on her!
We had a quick wander else where then went to the church to support my husband, it was a nice service and he had put lots of effort into it.
Once home we had dinner and a pint of Guinness, well it is St Patrick's day after all.
Today, I got up and went straight out to do the horses before heading off to court, I walked this morning as my husband had to stay in for the gas people who are changing the gas meter over today. We again spent the whole of a lovely day inside a dull court room, having lunch in the same place again but this time with out Beth.
When I got home after the short walk from the court, there was a man under the stairs! not often you find one of them, and I don't mind telling you I don't want to find another one if this one is anything to go by!! He told me that he would not be able to reattach the gas through the new meter as we had in our house somewhere a gas leak, a small one but a leak none the less! Oh what joy how much was this going to cost, he said we had to get a gas plumber in to find and fix the leak. Fortunately my husband works with one, so while I went and rushed around doing the horses, he spoke to him and got him to come out.
By the time I had got home from the stables we had a now non leaking gas hob, and a gas supply again.
I was able to cook tonight's dinner which was North American Jambalaya,
followed by good old bread and butter pudding!

North, South divide!

Divide?? Maybe it should read separate. :-(
This Morning the Northern bird went home, she left at 09.50am.
Thank you for my scarf and all the other presents you brought down for us, but mostly thank you for coming down, I really enjoyed the few days you were here for and hope you weren't too bored.

Have a safe journey, see you in May all being well. xx

Down

Today I dropped lit'lun off at school before going to do the horses, after doing them I picked mum up again and we went to my station to drop off my paramedic application form, I have submitted it but don't know what I am doing at the moment.
I got some more horse feed while I was up there then came home collected the hoglet and drove down to the stables again, the boss and her two girls came over to meet her in the car before I brought the horses in and went round to mums, Hoglet ran around downstairs exploring before I came home again, my husband had already left for work, he had cooked dinner for himself and Lit'lun, so when Beth came in I cooked dinner for just the two of us, only omelet and potato wedges, with beans.
All the time I felt myself getting more and more down, so down in fact that I rang my husband at work, he was busy but rang me back.
I hate this feeling.

Not a lot.

Today I booked sick.
I still keep replaying yesterdays job.
This morning I had to go and pick up my mums car as my husband is going to uni on a study weekend and his car is completely off the road so he has to take mine.
When I got back and he had gone, I got a welfare phone call from one of the officers just to see how I was.
My husband then rang to say he had arrived safely.

After dinner I finished the inside of twiglets vivarium and put her in it. She had a wander round then went to bed under her new hedgehog igloo.
It has been rather a sombre day.

Snow Angel

The Blonde bird sent me this photo yesterday, and I had to post it. This is Mouses first attempt at a snow angel.

Orchids and Amaryllis

My husband has a knack with orchids and over the past few years both the plants he has have produced lovely displays of blooms. My Mum on the other hand always manages to get good results with amaryllis. Here are a couple of pictures of this years blooms.

Twiglet

A while ago I deleted a post about an African Pygmy Hedgehog who was 5 days old but was going to be joining our family. Unfortunately this little mite didn't survive. I have now been offered a little girl hog. She is five weeks old, and we have decided to call her Twiglet. Hopefully we should have her home by the end of February.

Inauguration

Today was my first shift back at work since before being ill, and they did a vehicle change so we have a naff old ambulance till ours has had its MOT.
I was working with Roy today, we only had 4 jobs the rest was cover, first job was an elderly male who had fallen over and just needed a hand getting up. Then we had a three car RTA. Three ambulances, a car 2 fire trucks, 6 police cars and a helicopter! we were there some time, it was quite an impact, I think there were some very lucky people there today!
We got back to base and had our meal break just in time to see Barack Obama becoming the 44th President of the USA. I hope he does well. What ever happens I can say I know where I was when the history of America's first African American President was Inaugurated.
We were then sent to a lady who fell over in the bathroom of the nursing home she lives in and managed to break both bones of her lower left leg! Open fractures too (bone sticking out!) once she was safely in hospital it was off to a doctors surgery to a thirty stone man with central chest pain! hmm what did I say before about being over weight?!
Home again, so a few moments down time with the kids before reading myself to sleep.

Christian Unity

Yesterday saw the start of the week long Prayer for Christian unity.
This picture seems to say it well.

Decisions?!

I am wondering, not wandering, hehe, if I should have a new years resolution. I don't drink to excess, or smoke at all, I am easy on the chocolate and dieting at the moment? The burning question is what if anything should I do or not do as a new years resolution?? (Answers on a postcard to.....) Maybe I should be nicer to my drunk patients at work? but I may be planning a career move! Maybe I should be a better housewife (hoover and dust and all that more often!) Maybe I should just be...... oh I know, I should stop swearing, oh hang on isn't a resolution something you should at least have a faint chance of managing?? Oh I give up, for now anyway........

Snowflakes

Every Ambulance station in our service has a Chaplain, our station Chaplain is Father Bob, he comes to the station and has a cuppa with which ever crew is on duty, and will ask how other members of the station are if he hasn't seen them for a while, we offered to take him out on the ambulance with us to jobs (3rd manning) and he took up the offer and has been to several jobs with different crews.
Father Bob is very easy to chat to, whether you are Christian or not.
Today when I got to work there was a box on the table together with a note from him, the note said something like please take a snowflake and put it on your Christmas tree, to remind you of Gods works. (this is probably not quite what he wrote as so much has happened since I read the note) The note went on to say that using a special type of magnifying machine this snowflake is a copy of a real one using several techniques.
As soon as I got home I showed my husband, found a thin gold thread and hung the snowflake on the Christmas tree.
It is very delicate and so pretty that your eye is immediately drawn to it.
Thank you Father Bob, I hope you have a peaceful and Blessed Christmas.

On the Eleventh day of Christmas