Came and went in a flash

Georgie's ashes came back. I was expecting the usual plastic tub with ashes in a plastic bag and instead we got this. How lovely. Bit of choker. We were both dabbing our eyes and clearing our throats when we saw that. 

The Victoria plum tree has ripened a bit too quick for my liking so I’ve managed to put several pounds of those in the freezer, halved and stoned them then laid out flat on trays. Makes then easier to bag up and take a few out of the time for my breakfast. I’ve also been picking raspberries again for the second time this year:  both the autumn and summer raspberries have flushed again but they’re not really making it into the freezer, we're using them as I pick them. The blackberries have just started to come on and I've picked the first batch, so I'm hoping to get a few pounds into the freezer, and the Bramley apples trees are dropping their fruit, so some of those will be peeled, sliced and frozen soon. And of course, there's tomatoes.

My GP appointment didn’t quite go as planned. Although I’ve been asked to go and get a blood test to see if I have anaemia, there is a national shortage of blood vials at the moment and so I have to wait until after the 17th of September to book a blood test. For now only the emergency cases will be seen, which is fair enough, but for me I can’t wait that long to see what’s gone wrong and to get an idea of what is needed to make me better. So I have put myself on a bit of an DIY treatment plan. 

I've made the assumption that this probably is anaemia, as it starting after donating blood is too much of a coincidence. I have doubled my iron supplements and take one pill morning and evening, chasing them down with orange juice - you need vitamin c for efficient iron absorption as it keeps the iron in a format it can be most easily absorbed. As the seat of most vitamin and mineral absorption is the gut, I need to help it absorb well so I’m drinking half a glass of kefir and a glass of kombucha every day, which are putting vital cultures into my digestive in case they have become depleted. I’ve also got back on the exercise bike to help get the blood and oxygen through my body. My aim is that by the time I get to the 17th of September I may not need to have a blood test at all and can ring my GP and cancel it. I can see the benefits already, my eyes are no longer sore, gritty and red-rimmed and I don't feel so exhausted each morning but I'm still falling asleep in the afternoons.

I've been doing lots of annoying admin every day, from reading meters to sorting out broken IT, just normal life stuff that has to be done but for some reason there seems to be a lot of it this week. Every day this week there's 5-6 things on my list that have to be sorted to keep our lives ticking over. Just writing this I've realised I need to book the sweep to do the chimney, have the boiler serviced and get the septic tank emptied so I've added them to the lengthy list. 

I did a bit of charity shopping in the week at a nearby town for a bit of a change when I had a half day and found a few things, including this Royal Doulton plate called 'Holy Cow', which was one of a set produced as part of its folk series. I couldn't resist. I don't normally like that kind of thing, but I loved the Amish feel to it. At the same time I popped into a local Sainsbury’s and picked up some yellow sticker bargains for the freezer, mostly marinated chicken breasts. 

Then I went to a car boot sale on Sunday morning and managed to find a Peter Porter puzzle for £2, two copper picture frames for £1, a book on festive food from around the world for £1 and another book on art nouveau posters for 50p. 

Bargain of the day though had to be this William Morris duvet cover and pillowcase set for £1.50, which I'm going to make into a light bedspread for the spare room. This room has a bit of a Victorian style and strong colour scheme, but the bedspreads I’ve seen are far, far too expensive so I’ve been looking out for something to turn into one and this will do nicely. 

So Sunday was treat night; pizza, cider, a couple of films from amazon prime and the new puzzle, much to the delight of Baldrick and Missy, who have taken over puzzle rights from Georgie. But unlike Georgie I can get them off quite quickly by blowing on them. If I had done that to Georgie he would have beaten me up. 

I actually finished the puzzle last night, there was so many colours and features in it that matching them up was fairly easy, but I'm not starting another one. I'm going to take a break from puzzling for a week, do some reading and make some new curtains for the kitchen. 

I decided on an apple green gingham in the end (the picture makes it look sage green but it's not); blue didn't match with anything else in the kitchen and while light grey did match it just looked drab so apple green it was. I bought four metres for about £22 including postage and by chance found a complete extendable curtain pole set in the tool barn, all still sealed, which I think I got at a charity shop a couple of years ago. I'm going to keep it simple and do a cafe-style rod heading, as that's just folding and one line of stitches.

 Hopefully, by this time next week they'll be done and up!