another month over

Well what  a month this has been.  I lost and almost found my knitting mojo which is the most worrying thing of the month... without my knitting and the relaxation it gives me, as well as the sense of acheivement I feel when I finish or master something tricky.  I feel very lost... however the reasons for the loss of mojo is understandable... I have had the worst time with Gallstones, resulting in numerous seperate visits to Dunoon Hospital...The staff are awesome so kind quick and understanding and most visits were over in half an hour with me jagged and in a lot less pain by the time I left... One was a bit longer but they got the pain in control eventually thank goodness.... I did have one admittance to Inverclyde hospital for a stay of 4 days and spent the whole time morphined out of my mind...not so good but the consultant insists that my operation is brought forward so heres hoping I am not still waiting to end of July...

I have had an endoscope... this procedure is not one I will ever repeat, I was unfortunate that my overal ill health meant my veins were not viable so after numerous attempts to insert a canular for sedation even my feet... I had the procedure with out sedation, never again... you are told you can ask for it to stop by raising your hands...erm nope.... because I was vomiting continuously through out I had my hands and legs held to enable the poor doctor the opportunity to do it... thank goodness he managed and I know they cant do anything else when they cant sedate but for me the whole experience made me feel very voilated... I burst various blood vessels in my face and looked dreadful and felt dreadful for 3 days, I am now day four and feeling very tired and still weepy but happy its over and it proved that it was Gallstones and not an ulcer that was making me this ill....


I received this morning the wonderful news that my pre op appointment is 15th May so that should mean my op will be very soon afterwards... hopefully

However although my life has been dominated by health issues there has been lots of lovely things too.... where to start .........no idea so in no particular order here is some of the great things of this month..

Milton is almost dry, she has her windows and almost all her doors fitted... the view from the front through the house and out her french doors at the back is awesome and made rob and I very happy yesterday when we went to look.. the sun was streaming in the velux roof windows and has made a huge difference to the whole feeling of Milton... she really is going to be a wonderful healthy happy home very soon..  Here are some pictures we took yesterday

look at those smashing french doors woo hoo, also we need to move all that garden which is sitting too high so work parties needed very soon for soil moving....

the view up the garden a bit its much more open than it was with all the big trees gone from next door on the right as looking we never could see the loch before the fire 

A wee picture of the upstairs dormas and the veluxs showing how much light is going into Milton now gorgeous it will most certainly be...


more ...... good things tomorrow as its now time for my gaelic class which starts back tonight....

dashes out the door................................

Where does the time go

okay this is a wee up date.... as you know from previous post I was away in the land of Sassenachs for a lovely wee break... The break carried on with visits with lots of great friends and ended the week with a wonderful get to gether with the apprentice boys.... This is my wee nick name for Robs best friends through his apprenticeship at Rolls Royce.  There where Rob, Terry, Mike and Craig in the begining... now they all have families and we are a bigger family group.  I loved seeing them all and how the children have grown.  We came home the next morning and it was hard leaving them all. Then we are back here and as we came over the hill before Greenock well my heart swelled and I was happy to be back home.  Milton isnt ready yet but thats ok she will be very soon...

Great weekend

Wow what absolute fun this weekend had been. The old skool nats weekend sadly is now over but is definitely one to be repeated.

On guestimating it's been 10 years since the old crew have been together and though there was the odd missing face enough where able to come so a good time was expected.

It says something wonderful that a group of people can meet again like this after so long and such a lot of life passing and still be just exactly the same. It felt like it was only last week end that we had been assembling in lady bower carpark to start a ride. Ok sine if us were unwell and enable to ride but that didn't matter at all.

So the long lane lane was negotiated past guard geese, spotty pigs, and milking cows. And other bunkhouses and pondside was reached. The exploring begun. First a very basic but well appointed kitchen with 3 fridges and two ovens. They knew beer was important then. Lol talking beer loch fynne brewery dud us proud and not a glass was wasted.

Next the bathrooms small check , leak abit check, but two one ladies one mens luxury then check.

Lounge/eating area long comfortable benches with loads of tables and chairs in bench formation ideal.

Upstairs to the two bedrooms one sleeping 6 in very substantial wooden bunk beds, the border family room. Ideal. Then our room 8 bunks 2 couples and the palmer men and Karl perfect. Lol look on steve's face when he realised he had forgotten jarmies was priceless but Jane and I pointed out we had seen more if him over the years at the end of a wet muddy ride when all hop around taking wet cycling clothes off and tea shirt and pants were mist acceptable as bed wear lol. Dud any if us sleep well in these hard lumpy beds no definatly not so perhaps we could acknowledge the passing of years with those tired faces each morning and the various sharp intakes if breaths as we all tried to stretch the kinks out of our poor backs each morning but we were there and having fun and our ageing bodies can wait till the weekend is over.

Friday evening was filled with laughter and a visit from Jeremy and annetta who only live in the hope valley next hill over. And malc and julia and kids who were staying a week in the peaks so felt a b&b served them better. Again I have to mention what super human beings these guys all are here we are meeting after 10 years we all have spread out around the worlds 4 corners some have got married some have had children some have done both but all came together as one loving band of friends and new members were gathered in and part if it all instantly how special are you all. :)

Saturday morning and all us well butty jim had his butties and the snow was on the tops but it wasn't raining and they set off. Genoveva kiddies and I off to the train station at bandied to meet Jeremy and annetta for a wee train ride and then the lovely walk along the river back to hathersage great fun wee Daniel walked/ran his and all our legs off and was awesome at two he made me tired just watching. Isabella was charming and inquisitive and a pleasure to spend the day with. Us adults just wandered along having chats chasing the children and hung out. Annetta and Jeremy brought supplies for a wee picnic and well it was a perfect day. We did miss train back and I was rather Unwell 4 hours later but a sit in a bench cuddling a sleeping Daniel with Jeremy and Isabella keeping me entertained while geno and neeta went to the David mellor cafe and requested bread and ham and juice fir me so I could take my pills and the order was restored the next train came and we were back at bamford for tea and cake just as the riders got there after a great ride out. All perfectly timed of course.

The cakes made by annetta I believe were out of thus world I know the cherry fat free flan made for me on the Friday was stunning and the peach made for Saturday was equally awesome so can only image how tasty the beetroot chocolate, carrot cake and coffee yogurt choc cake was. The guys ate and ate so they must have passed muster especially as they followed the traditional hope valley w.I. Ladies cakes of the past. Well done netta and heart felt thanks from all for sharing your baking skills with us all.

Sat eve was take away fish and chips from bradwell ( I had venison roll) though the body made it's self felt and I went up to bed to lie though in pain enveloped by the live and laughter from down stairs. Thanks all........

Sunday to be continued when next get signal ............

I hab a dold

This is the latest wee bug in my life....... The Cold Virus




I have got the cold as the say around here.... in my past we used to say you had caught a cold as if you wanted to actually have a cold...

The cold has a good job it floats around and allows you to catch it and then depending on who you are it manifests itself to cause you the most inconvenience... for me a cold means that I have mucus, I am not someone who ever has much mucus.... unlike my gorgeous hubby or his mum they both have to blow their noses all day every day.  I probably have to blow my nose once in a week if that honest I just dont produce mucus except when I have a cold, so for me it seems such a pain to suddenly have to go around with boxes of tissues and having a streaming nose... I mean what is that all about.....

So okay I have the cold and it is the start of our week down south typical I hear you all say and yes I suppose it should be annoying and frustrating but well a cold doesnt care about whether it is convenient or not so I have upped my vitamin C and lots of fluids and hope to shake it off very soon......

I hope that you all have a good Easter and remember a minute on the lips is a lifetime on your hips..... my hips love my lips.

ramblings, Excitement and memories

Had a lovely morning at Once a sheep my Local yarn shop.  The were some different faces because it is the school holidays now and the Wednesday morning regulars mostly have children so they don't get chance to come but the lovely ladies who are teachers get the chance to come so that's great for me to catch up with some of the girls I usually only see on spin Saturdays or Guild days...


Clyde Coast Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers group, a very newly formed guild of like minded ladies who live along the Clyde coast...



So how has life been for me.... Well the pain of my gall stones are yukky and had a wee visit to Hospital last night so no sleep for me and lots of meds again.... still not settled this evening again... erm cant go back tonight honest I cant.



Mum came round to help me with some company this afternoon and we had a right wee laugh about the daftness of me getting her to make me a cuppa because I had wet fingernails lol madness.... Nails are lovely deep brownish red... will try get photos...







Only other things managed today was to finish the back on the Debbie Bliss bow jacket, start the sleeves...









And then cast on the bow crop top/shrug in lace weight purple a beautiful gift from my spoiler in the last Diana Gabaldon outlander swap on Ravelry.... [www.ravelry.com]..

Now Ravelry is the best on line media forum for knitters spinners and weavers and well it must be one of the most influential tools for the latest resurgence in the creative fibre arts with its thousands of patterns lots are free and also forums with interested parties from people who like to knit socks to those who are fans of particular books or authors...

With Ravelry and youtube well your every crafting question will be answered..... I learnt so many techniques from watching youtube videos and well with out Ravelry I would never have knit so many cool things over the last 4 years..

Today I also managed to get all the ironing done with the intention of doing the packing for going off to England on Friday morning... Ironing done but as to packing well not really its almost all sorted just some final touches needed late tomorrow evening..

I am excited about my wee trip back down south of the border as it will involve a reunion of the old school Nats (nottingham all terrain Cycling club) and well cant really wait to spend some quality time with Genoveva Butty Jim, Jeremy and Annetta, the palmer men, Karl of gnome fame, Paul and Jane to name only a few... Malc and Julie and kids too Mr Fisk ok ok I shall stop listing everyone who most of you dont know and probably dont care who they are.... I do big time...

  Some of the mottly crew back in the day....


Mr Palmer was a real gent to ride with he would always drop back down the formation and come along side me (on back of tandem mountain bike) and crack jokes and generally make me feel amazing for biking with the club....

Jeremy well He is Jeremy the wonderful slightly excentric amazingly amusing great pal and best man extradinar of ours and his wonderfully bright fun wife who makes such amazing bread she could win prizes internationally.

 Genoveva and Butty jim and wee ones are  flying in from the States they have been over for a couple of years and we miss them so much.  Genoveva is incrediably elegant and sophisticated and Jim is famous not only for his cooking but his ability to produce the most perfectly formed sandwiches from absolutely nowhere while on a bike ride with not a sandwich squashed or even slightly smudged....The gang have always believed that his mum would go around the route the night before and place the sandwiches in strategic places in a stealth like way.... one to be admired of course because biking and butties well they go to gether like strawberry's and cream...... along with lovely tea rooms and big pieces of cake.. nom nom

Mr Dexter the time warp king and stuntman on wheels who is a talented bike builder with Cotic and Jane another amazingly stylish and elegant lady who can go and ride hard with the boys but come off the hillside with good makeup and no helmet hair a total mystery for me those skills.  Make up ends up down my cheeks by half way up the first climb out of the carpark so is never worn anymore and well helmet hair is also a given for me.  Not only while biking but now after a session skiing I find that I am not the envy of anyone when the helmets removed and my hair is plastered to my scalp and well looks like its been through a storm...lol

Here is Paul with his long hair still



Karl of gnome fame is well some one who we havent seen in 10years but his gnome is the only wedding present we have left after the fire and that was because I had taken him to see some other gnomes at wee Emilidh's house (Emily Calcraft my gorgeous granddaughter). Karl the gnome is due back this summer when Milton is fit for habitation again..

Malc and Julie well Malc is often on line in the early mornings so we have had a chat or two before his day starts and Julie we have met twice at Fort William when we are passing and they have come up for some fun and riding up here....
Young Mr Palmer is yetiboy and a thouroughly nice man who is bonkers about yeti bikes and well when I first met him he was a wee lad who was good on his bike... well hes a grown up now and still good on his bike....lol dont you hate the fit ones....lol

Mr Fisk is a great guy who I personally havent met that often but Rob has always spoke of highly so who I am hoping to get to know well this weekend....

There are one or two of the old crew not able to join us but we will endeavour to catch up with Big Mark, Clive Jo and Elaine this year if they make a trip up to Glen tress etc...

So this is the wee group of friends we are lucky enough to be catching up with for the weekend, before a trip down to Nottingham and visit to Janet's for the week and more catching up with friends how lucky are we.... its been a long time since we made it down to England and this reunion is a really fantastic start to a weeks holiday....

Not all of us for various reasons are going to be able to actually pedal a bike but that doesnt mean we wont be having fun trust me when we all get together well Hathersage residents might just wonder what and who they have let into their pretty village....








Well it is late ops early in the morning of April 5th 2012, my pain killers are keeping the pain to a level 6 at the moment which is a bit sore for sleeping however I think it must be time for a wee bit of knitting and a podcast listen...

Hope you have enjoyed my ramblings and memories.

small steps

Hi all, well resisted posting a blog on April 1st and pleased I did because it was a funny day and I needed all my wits about me and not spreading them over the page for your perusal...

So went to see a Photographic Exhibition at Dunoon Burgh Hall... it was some works by Robert Mapplethorpe an artist who not only did sculpture but mainly black and white portrait photographs... his work at the Burgh Hall was definitely interesting and the new exhibition room with all the temperature control stuff was most impressive... Would I have any of his work on the wall at Milton probably not though the light and shade he captured on the muscular torso of one of his works may just sway me lol



only kidding but the light and shade in his work was phenomenal and made me realise how bad at taking photos I really am...



So after the exhibition went down to Milton to see how she was getting on and well if I am honest I was a bit disappointed the roof is only slated at the back so far which I had hoped it would be finished now its been 3 weeks since they started slating....The windows are not in and well she isnt water tight yet... my wee garden is desimated and I knew it would be but will all the bulbs and flowers around me coming out I| was hoping Miltons would have braved it but sadly they are flattened, stood on and pallets of building stuff all over them...

The new bit of wall which effectivly halves the size of our downstairs and main bathroom is up and though this was out of our control it did make the room seem very small and that was a bit of a blow... they gave us the dimentions for the shower tray etc and we bought as adviced but it didnt look like they would marry together correctly so time will tell....And I know that sometimes things look real small but when got into they are fine but I think seeing the wall cutting off the rest of the area that was to be our bathroom made it so final and visable instead of imagined...

Still next door has had to cull 4 big trees due to high winds so we have a much better view of Holy Loch from up the garden so can now see myself up at the top of the garden sitting and knitting... well once the garden is reclaimed... my goodness mother nature doesnt need long to run amok does she... Hope all who have offered gardening help meant it.... There is no way i will be reclaiming it this summer with this operation to take place in the middle of proceedings....

So left Milton with a bit of a heavy heart made all the worse because they had left 4 de humidifiers going but no one had gone in to empty buckets and all four were over flowing all over the flooring again and some of the insulation was sitting in pools of water.... as I say not a good day to have popped in....Still phone calls made this morning to explain why we broke into our own house and set about emptying water buckets...


My lovely hubby had a photography course in Glasgow for the evening so he dropped me off at Xscape for my free skiing hour... a reward for passing my level 4 from the centre... this was to be a totally solo session, no kind rob to help me do up the hard to do/hefty ski boots or more to the point to help me pull them off when over... And no instructor to give me guidance or courage...So I went in booked to start at 6 o'clock and had a quick change and got set up...

At first it was my prudent decision to go only half way up the hill on the poma or button tow.... I found by 4 wee trips down again I had my ski legs and decided to be brave and go all the way up.  The young snowboarders saw my hesitation and were so encouraging and kind and I had a real laugh and joke with them.... I can truly say that not all my skiing was graceful or even in total control but it was great fun and the hour flew by... it was 5 to the hour so the last tow up for me and I knew I was getting tired but still made the daft decision to go to the top... well I set off okish and was doing ok quite controlled and even a wee bit elegant for me anyway.... I should just like to point out that in my 3 lessons I have had I have never fallen over and the one attempt at getting up from a prone position was not pretty and needed the help of the instructor...So you can guess what's coming................... I know I was tired and I should have known better.... but

Well I was avoiding a ski class and ventured over to the far side above one of the snowboard / ski jump areas.... seeing I didn't have enough space and time to turn before the jump I foolishly decided to go across the top and turn down the other side.... Big Mistake past the jump its a narrow gulley and steep............  and well turned in and turned sidewards thinking side of jump would stop me............ bigger mistake sandy's ski's just climb the slope and are about to launch me up and off the blinking jump talk about panic I fell down deliberately and disappeared into the gully... silence nope no one saw me and so that's good.............. 5 mins later when I am still trying to get up again..................10 mins later and I finally got my ski's near enough my bottom so my hand could try and release the binding and no strength.... I was just about to have to heave my self up the slope on my side and start shouting a wee HHHHHHHHEEEEEEEELLLLLLLPPPPPP When the binding gave and I was without one ski... which tried to make a bid for freedom but no way ho say was that going to happen...I managed to get up using the ski as a pole and after one attempt with my left thigh disappearing into the chopped up snow I was upright with one ski on and one ski off.... now how do I get the blasted ski on ............ in a deep gulley with two different angles of slope away from me..... yep I promptly side stepped down the gully onto the main slope till I found a levelish area... quickly plonked ski onto slope rammed my boot in and took off down the now nicely gentle slope pretending I was meant to be doing all that before... so I got of the slope a full 20 mins late but alive and having had my first ever fall.... it wasn't elegant but by gum it was a damn site better than if I had launched myself off that ski jump.....lol  

Upstairs sitting with a nice warm cuppa tea it all seemed so easy again but I have to admit to taking wee sleek-it looks at the offending jump and noting not to take that route again.... lesson well and truly learned...lol


Here is a quick wee video of me on my second lesson

The rest of my evening was uneventful with chats with young boarders and also some wee neds who liked the look of my knitting and in fact had a nice wee story to tell about their Granny knitting them jumpers for Christmas when they were wee.... they were only 16/17 LOL....Then Rob arriving to pick me up and make a quick dash for the 9.30 ferry...

Dinner was a quick foreman Grill chicken breast with a jacket potato and some mean chilli chutney... who needs lashings of butter I ask you..


And so my wonderful hubby doesn't feel left out here is Rob on his 3 rd lesson he looks more elegant for sure