I gotta Feeling

The blackthorn is in flower and look at the black sky beyond. We had a sudden sharp shower in the middle of a rather lovely warm day last weekend. By the way, in case I ever remember … Blackthorn blossoms before its leaves start to show, whereas hawthorn flowers after its leaves have emerged.

Here are the seedlings. 1 week after sowing, the redcurrant tomatoes and most of the lark sweetcorn had germinated; the courgette emerged a couple of days later. We wrapped them in fleece and they’re now in the polytunnel, getting over the shock of the move.

Zinnia Forecast were sown into window sill modules on 23rd March and those seedlings look like cress so they’re also protected in the polytunnel. I’ve sown Penstemon into modules. They’re a bit more tricksy and need to germinate at 4° before being brought back into the warmth. They’re on our cold doorstep, no sign of life yet.

I’ve been logging into work really early (before 6:30am 🥱) and then we can have a couple of hours on the plot after work - that’s the plan but it doesn’t always work out. We’ve lit the chiminea but a cold wind has meant we’ve had to cut visits short. Jamie is suffering some bad neuropathic pain down his left side, he’s on pills but we hope the warm weather will soon arrive which may encourage a bit more movement.

Jamie started a bit of weeding of the garlic and the plants definitely look happier now, especially with a bit of added garlic fertiliser. Luckily we’ve had a little rain after the photos were taken; the ground is surprisingly dry after our drenching Winter. The area beside them will be for the potatoes in a few weeks, so that’s on the list for clearing soon!

We reclaimed some pallet collars which make excellent raised beds. This will be for some shallots. After not moving for a few months I’m finding the exercise to be quite <erm> challenging! But allotment visits are definitely good for mental well-being.

I popped up to unzip the polytunnel the other day and I really wanted to stay. Look how many birds were singing during a 30second recording! So beautiful.

Our broad beans really didn’t enjoy our Winter this year, so we’ve popped seeds directly into the soil to fill the gaps.

Ok, I realise there are more gaps than plants at the moment! But there are flowers, so hopefully we’ll achieve a bit of succession harvesting…

And finally. Some PSB is appearing! Such a slow harvest, but I do think it’s worth the wait. There are more florets than that!

And now I think I’d better go up to open the polytunnel. It’s been a cold night but bright sunshine will now be heating those little seedlings up too much. Hoping to catch a glimpse of the partial solar eclipse later. It does look beautiful out there, but I gotta feeling it’s going to be cold!

Black Eyed Peas give us the song title - dance around, keep warm!

Start the Healing

After losing February - details here - we’re ready to start now. Looking on the bright side, at least we were out of action through a dreadfully wet month so we probably didn’t miss that much plot-time. It’s been great to have a few short visits to the plot during this warm start to March.

These anemones are the only colour on the plot so far. We were pleasantly surprised that the weeds haven’t grown too wild in our absence. The leeks haven’t grown either, which is rather disappointing, so we’ll probably pull them quite soon but there may be a few worth harvesting.

There are a few signs of Spring in the hedge, but it’s still early. The new growth on the sedum is appearing at the base of last year’s stems. I’ll chop the old stems off at our next visit. A little bit of weeding needed in that pot too - maybe Jamie can do that to help his rehabilitation (I’m not sure I’ll get away with that suggestion too often 😉)

Yesterday (8th March) we sowed the following and they’re under the grow-light in the hallway:

5 x Redcurrant Tomatoes (several seeds per pot)

20 x Lark Sweetcorn (in root trainers)

1x All Green Bush courgette

Hoping for better germination of the sweetcorn than we had last year, but we’ve started early just in case. If everything grows well we’ll move it to the polytunnel and can offer some additional frost protection if needed. It is feeling very Springlike, with lovely misty mornings and the birds are very active.

The weather is meant to go cold again, but this lovely gift parcel from Cousin Jen includes fingerless mittens which will be most useful and the seeds for scattering should provide a bitof extra colour to our flower bed. What a lovely treat to find when we returned home from an exhausting A&E day, when we discovered Jamie has a chest infection 🙁  Lucky I have a few more days of leave already booked.

Korn provide the song title.

February Came and Went

February disappeared in a whirl of wind and rain - it wasn’t allotment weather but we weren’t available anyway….

3rd Feb: I was working from home when I heard Jamie drop something three times in the bedroom. I wondered what he was up to, so went through. That was the start of the nightmare. I couldn’t understand what he was saying and then I saw that his left side was paralysed. It was very clear that he was having a stroke so I knew to act fast. I called 999 - the first time I’ve ever had to - within 20 minutes the ambulance arrived.

After some initial tests the ambulance whisked us off to the Great Western Hospital in Swindon. In A&E there was a crowd of hospital staff asking Jamie questions and I had to answer most of them, as he couldn’t talk/think clearly.

Jamie was wheeled off for scans to see what had occurred. They determined that he had a blood clot on the right-hand side of his brain - an ischaemic stroke. The doctor advised of the treatments available, highlighting the worst case scenarios - I suppose it’s better to be forewarned, but it was extremely scary. We had to agree to the clot-busting medicine being pumped into Jamie’s arm. This thrombolysis can cause further brain damage for some patients but how could we refuse something that might clear the clot? They quickly started pumping the drug into him. Some time later staff crowded round to check whether Jamie could swallow and, thank goodness, he was able to.

After close monitoring it was decided to send him to the Hyper Acute Stroke Unit at Bristol’s Southmead Hospital. Six blurry hours after the 999 call Jamie was in surgery having a thrombectomy to remove as much of the clot as possible. We were informed of even more frightening possible effects of this surgery but we agreed that doing nothing wasn’t an option. While Jamie was in surgery I wandered the hospital corridors and attempted sleep in various communal areas. It’s a 10 year old hospital, beautifully designed, with lots of space, but not a great place to spend a night -  however our car was 60 miles away at home… I was waiting for a call from the surgery team after 10:30pm. They were long anxious hours - the worst night ever.

4th Feb: At 3:30am I finally received the call to say that most of the clot had been removed. Jamie was in recovery and I could go to see him. On the surgical ward the surgeon spoke to me and again warned that they couldn’t determine how much brain damage (ugh, that phrase) had been caused. I didn’t know what condition he’d be in so I couldn’t have been more relieved when he opened his eyes and actually spoke to me. I wasn’t allowed to stay long so left him to sleep. So grateful to my nephew and sister for collecting me at about 9am and taking me home, to sleep. 

Later that day I was being advised by my worried family that I should rest and stay home. We didn’t know how Jamie was or if he was conscious but I knew I had to see him so I drove back to Bristol in the evening. After such a terrible previous day, it was a very positive visit. Jamie was pretty chirpy and eating. Though he was dropping off to sleep mid-sentence, the nurses were already talking about him starting his recovery exercises!  I visited each day and, although confused, Jamie was talking and enjoying the food at Bristol.

6th Feb: Jamie was moved back to Swindon’s Great Western Hospital to the Hyper Acute Stroke ward. Just 20 minutes from home so it was great that I could visit him twice a day and work from home between visits. His speech and movement were improving at every visit. The nurses were moving him to the chair to eat and I chopped his food so he could eat, otherwise he ended up wearing most of his food! The doctors were confident of a full recovery in time.

A week after the stroke he took his first steps using the Zimmer frame and nearly ran off down the ward - I heard the physiotherapist shouting ‘Stop Jamie!’ 😊

14th February Jamie was moved to Reading’s Royal Berkshire Hospital for his final rehabilitation before he could be sent home. The therapists spent time working on his strength and movement along with speech and occupational therapy. They got him to make a cup of coffee and he was regularly doing a couple of miles on an exercise bike. 

19th February and he was walking with a stick. The therapists worked with him daily which was exhausting but improvements continued and he even practiced some walking in the gym without a stick, but his balance isn’t very good.

26th February: Jamie came home with me, a week earlier than expected. A day after our 37th anniversary, but still a celebration ❤️

So Jamie’s now under the care of the Early Supported Discharge (ESD) unit - thank goodness for the protection of our NHS. They’ll offer care and rehabilitation for up to six weeks. We’ve had four different therapists and a nurse to visit, along with deliveries of support equipment for ease of washing, etc. 

The cause of the stroke isn’t yet known but we are expecting some test results to help with that. The best thing is that he’s home and continuing to progress slowly but surely. With medication, exercise, care and a reasonable Spring and Summer we expect a return to full health. 💜