Busy Summer Days

I can hardly believe that Summer is almost over. The longed for days, when we were knee deep in snow, are now making way for Autumn and then we'll be into Winter again! I have had a busy time lately and when I got to wondering what exactly have I been doing over the past 6 to 8 weeks I realised just how much I have achieved.

I have not been much into blogging it is true and have just about managed to "keep in touch" with most of you, only posting for ABC Wednesday for weeks now.

At the moment I am suffering with a gum infection and have been in quite a lot of pain. I thought at first it must be an abscess but my dentist assured me, after taking an X-ray, that my teeth are in fine shape and that it is a "just" an infection. I have now been on antibiotics for nearly 2 weeks. No pain as such now, but still a fairly sizeable swelling on the roof of my mouth. So first thing on Monday I shall have to contact the dentist again for further advice!

My mother, who is now 88, has been complaining of numbness in the right side of her head and was referred to a specialist in care for the elderly - a lovely man, who was most kind, considerate and thorough. He gave her a really good examination, covering all aspects, taking X-rays, blood tests, an ECG and sending her for two CT Scans. We get the results of all these tests tomorrow. I feel that there is nothing seriously wrong with her and that it is old age taking its toll. He did say to us that he feels that the numb feeling in her head could be due to a trapped nerve in her neck. He also said that she is in very good shape for 88. On Monday we will know for sure.

Our 6 year old grand-daughter came to stay with us for a few days, the first time she had been away from Mummy and Daddy (her parents are divorced so she is used to being apart from one or the other but had never been away from both of them). She was as good as gold, even on the day when she was definitely unwell and could hardly wait to get to bed. We all enjoyed it and when I mentioned to daughter that if she would like us to have her at half-term it would be OK, she replied that Imogen had already asked when she could come again. The only problem we had was that the weather was cloudy and cold and we only made it to the beach once (we live less than 50 yards away).

Fruit and vegetables have done well this year and everyone seems to have a surplus of everything. I took advantage of this last week and managed to make a batch of sweet piccalilli and also chutney. No strawberry jam though!










A very sprightly family friend celebrated her 90th birthday in August and decided to throw a party for her family, a few friends and neighbours. Asking us what we thought about the idea, we wholeheartedly agreed it was a great plan and I volunteered to make her birthday cake. So that was another task to be accomplished.



On top of all of that, I decided I wanted to redecorate our bedroom. Now I am not one to change for change's sake but I had never been happy with the decor since we moved in last October. Husband agreed to help with repainting the walls and I undertook to do the wallpapering. We kept the same colour (eau de nil) and we are both very pleased with the result. Strangely though, it makes the room look bigger!



Next week I shall be going to spend a few days with my daughter in Stratford upon Avon, returning next Monday and then the following Thursday husband and I are off to spend a week with friends in Spain. It's all go!