Hi, I thought I would say hello to everyone on this lovely sunny day - I hope it is the same where you are!
I'm doing the usual things - a bit of pottering in the garden (lots of lovely roses out, the smell is glorious!) and e-bay selling and buying, then going to a concert in Chester tonight - Bach which is my favourite. It's going to be a quiet few weeks for me now as my closest friend is away for most of the next month and my other friend will be away two of the weeks so I will have little social contact and need to try not to become so depressed again.
I hope you are all enjoying the weekend. Doing anything nice?
Hi Sue, bit cloudy here on the Isle Of Wight. Just pottering here too.
Just had week off with the family - bit stressful at times. Had quite a good week.
Just sinking in that Im not going back to work on Monday. Makes me feel a bit bad.
Trying to plan the week with a few jobs like cleaning car and planting containers but also going to the gym, bike ride and swimming.
Im a bit cross as I heard yesterday that my ESA isnt going up since I stopped work. I thought it would. Also when I was paid yesterday from work, I was only paid up until the 23rd not 31st as expected.
Oh well I wont rush back to work at the moment. I plan to rest aswell. If i can get away with it.
I was thinking about you this week wondering how you were getting on with work finishing and half term etc. I didn't think it would sink in this week but it will of course on Monday when you don't have to go into work. I hope the weather will be good for you next week and good that you have things planned. Take a bit of time to look after yourself and ease the stress. Did you get any further with looking for a dog? He/she would be good company. I posted a photograph of Oscar, did you see him?
Sorry about the ESA that is annoying. It also looks as though your work were pulling a bit of a fast one with when you left.
Thanks for the message. What you up to this evening. Im watching tv with my family but cant relax. Although Im trying to be positive about not working, really feeling quite fed up.
Still looking for the right dog. Didnt see the picture of your dog. Love to see it.
Sorry you are fed up about work, it is understandable to feel that way, even though you were finding it quite stressful. I hope your family aren't putting pressure on you about finding another job ASAP. It must be difficult though with the ESA not being revised. The photo of my dog is in the post from 6 days ago, title was wishing everyone a good bank holiday.
The tv is on with a not very good Nicholas cage film, my other half and dog are asleep on the other sofa and I'm surfing.
Sarah x
Hi David
Yes do enjoy the rest, once you are back to work you won't have the same time to relax and it is a good time of year to be off! Sounds lovely, keeping yourself fit and living by the sea. Sorry about the money, you will probably find it hard not having an income as well as missing the work.
You must be at your concert now, hope you are enjoying it.
I've taken the puppy out and have been pottering in the garden as well. Lots of tidying up and the mock orange is out so keep stopping to smell that. Good on you for selling on ebay, I just end up buying! Good intentions which never quite follow through.
Hopefully the next month will have good weather and you can distract yourself slightly in the sunshine in the garden. I take the radio out with me and listen to radio 4 or 4 extra. It is company for me if I'm not up to going out.
Yes, the concert was absolutely great! It was a group of people who are lead soloists with Manchester Camerata who are excellent and they played by favourite Bach's double violin concerto blissfully. It was a lovely evening - the only downer is that I was extremely careful what I ate yesterday and counted calories exactly but gained weight. Grrr.
I envy you having a puppy, I'd love a golden retriever but with the 4 cats and full garden as well as a disabled husband it's perhaps not realistic. I looked yesterday at dogs available at the rescue centres locally but mostly they were pit bull terriers or crosses of that breed and I find them really ugly though some people like them I know. What breed is your puppy - do you have a photo?
Mock orange - I LOVE that smell. We have one but it's right at the back of an overplanted border, though we do have lots of perfumed roses out now, too many perhaps!
Yes I'm going out into our front garden this morning to do some tidying up, but I've found since a very traumatic fall four years ago that I don't envy working in the garden the way I did, somehow I always feel a bit lost and sad. It obviously triggered childhood vulnerabilities as I used to spend hours out there. I have never taken the radio into the garden! I don't know why really, I suppose since we put the house on the market years ago I have not felt at home here enough to forget about the world around us...
I do sound depressed don't I! It only struck me as I was writing how negative I am feeling. I do feel close to tears this morning though I don't know exactly why, perhaps I slept badly and am tired.
You know, I do find it difficult that we all have usernames as well as our own names - I see the usernames and don't relate them to the people I talk with. I wonder whether anyone else finds that?
I want to thank you! I said I haven't wanted to work in the garden since having the fall but this morning spent 3 hours cutting back most of the perennial geraniums that were invading everywhere and then went to the garden centre and bought a whole load of plants to replace them. Having watered them I now have to spend the next few days removing the geranium roots and planting the new roses, fuschias, peonies and penstemons which will look lovely! Saying to you must have shifted something so thank you.
Today it was gorgeous for most of the day until mid-afternoon when it looked really stormy though it hasn't rained. What have you been doing today?
Good for you. I do get a sense of satisfaction from doing something in the garden. I put in some sweet peas, horseradish and nemesia into pots. I will go and buy some more plants today and brackets for some hanging baskets. I am growing trailing tomatoes as the puppy eats everything. I went out for a walk with dog, partner, father, stepmother and their two dogs. Last night I went on slug watch at 11pm with a torch. Sorry about the fall, was it in the garden? Enjoy getting those roots.
Oh that sounds lovely, having relations around to walk with and with dogs! Yes, the fall was in the garden, but in the front which is quite large and steeply terraced - 7ft head first, bounced onto a wall fracturing some ribs, then splattered onto the path below. My husband saw me fall and thought there would be major damage but luckily not though it did trigger fibromyalgia which causes me a lot of pain at times.
Yes, I will get as many roots out as I can and hopefully that will help, the rest I will have to cut back before any of the flowers turn to seed.
Oh Sue were you on a ladder or did you lose your footing? It was very fortunate that you didn't break more than your ribs. Keep to the back garden as that looks pretty level. I put some more french climbing beans in today and some nasturtium and sweet peas.
No not up a ladder, the garden is terraced and I was cutting back very large shrubs, threw lengthy cuttings onto the path only threw myself as well! I had done too much and was over-tired, plus I have since discovered that I get benign vertigo and feel dizzy easily which won't have helped. Yes, the back is absolutely level apart from a small area that is raised and enclosed with sleepers. Our yellow plum is there along with other plants underneath.
Well... this morning I dug out a whole area of those geraniums - they are thugs! Their roots are strong and spread so it was backbreaking work to clear a relatively small area - but I did it and planted two gorgeous old roses and some of the penstemons and fuschias. Tomorrow I am going swimming which should help my joints to recover, and if the weather improves I will finish clearing and planting the rest of that area on Wednesday. Then I will start on other areas where the geraniums have just been cut back. I need to think what to plant in those areas before going to the garden centre - a lovely excuse!
French beans - we used to grow them when my husband was able to garden, now we've replaced the veg garden with blackcurrants and put a Victoria plum in the centre so really that area takes little work and we get lots of lovely fruit. I love nasturtiums and sweet peas, both are favourites of mine. Do you eat the nasturtium leaves? They are lovely chopped in salads. Also are they perfumed sweet peas, the old fashioned ones? I tried to get some of those yesterday but our garden centre didn't have any, only the modern ones which have showier flowers but no smell!
It's nice chatting about gardening, shame those of us who have similar interests don't all live near and we could have coffee mornings in our respective gardens!
As David says I love pottering around. Did you have a good weekend? I saw you mention that you were going to plant up some pots for your terrace. I have put some vanilla scented nemesia in pots this weekend. I'm also waging war on slugs...
Yes, I was thinking of you when writing the above to Sarah. What's your garden like, and did you do much in it over the weekend?
I've given up doing annual pots and baskets, now I buy hardy fuschias which flower madly in our garden and look really blowsy and gorgeous. Then in large pots I have agapanthus and also ferns seem to self-seed so when they do that into pots I keep them as they are pretty. I also have a big pot full of herbs every summer so we pick those for cooking, and in winter have pots of bulbs which I replace each year and put the old ones into the garden if the slugs haven't got them and if I can find any room!
Sue that sounds like you had a right green splurge.
I also went to Garden Centre and bought so nice Pots as need to repot my Lavender. Bought soil etc. so now today, I need to get cracking on my balcony and do the work.
I live in Apartment but I love my balcony and make it my sanctuary and place to read or sew.
Sue it's nice to have things to do, your garden sounds gorgeous . I'm glad that your in good form .
Hi Sue oh I was sad that you were feeling down. I know from earlier
Posts that you wanted to move , but in the meantime try and just
Enjoy where you live, although I can understand your frustration.
Your concert sounds lovely, I played Violin since childhood and was in the school Orchestra as first violinist. I loved it, recently I gave my two violins to my good friends child Rachel who is learning
It now. I don't have children but wanted the Violins to be used, and
I was sad to give them away but glad that they may be handed down to Rachel ( only 11) and her children. One was an antique and I know I could have sold it but prefer to give it to my friend.
Sue if I had the space here I would have a piano but I don't, I love
Classical music and often put on Mahler and do my housework and cry , I feel it helps me. Then I put on Cello Music or other stuff.
Yes, we do want to move - before we are too old to manage our big house financially - but we have taken the house right off the market and now I am enjoying house and garden again!
The concert was wonderful! Giovanni Guzzo was lead violinist and has just been appointed professor at the Royal Academy of Music - their youngest ever - and he makes an incredibly beautiful sound. He is Venezuelan and plays with such passion too, lots of beams and sensitive expressions.
Oh lucky you, playing the violin - but fancy giving your violins away, wouldn't you want to play again now as an adult? I came home from the concert on Saturday and decided I really would like to try the cello - at 64 years old - as it's the instrument I most readily follow the tunes, the bass line. I can understand you enjoying knowing a friend's child will play your violins.
I have a piano, a modern Yamaha - I prefer older ones but the last one we had was difficult to keep in tune whereas this one hold's it's tune really well and hasn't had to be tuned in five years! I sometimes practice but then don't for months on end. I can't play well, I only had about 12 lessons though the teacher said it was nothing far short of a miracle when I played Fur Elise as it's Grade 5 - though I didn't play it at all well! I can still play it with a real struggle now as a result of not practicing. I wonder whether I would practice the cello - anyway we can't afford one so would have to get one on the rental scheme which the music shop in Manchester offers....
I think I would curl up and die if I felt I would never hear music again - my favourite is Bach and Handel but I enjoy a wide range of other music too and Classic fm is on most days. I adore music!
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Christmas can be a lonely time....
Hello Everyone!
Weekend blues 
Happy Christmas to ALL :-)
