14 Years

It was a cold weekend - very cold nights with the temperature falling to -6.8° on Saturday night. We got up early (well, not that early but it felt it!) and walked up to the allotment to open the polytunnel door. 

It's always nice walking through Hungerford on a sunny morning as everyone says "Good morning!" to each other.

And it was so pleasant when we got to site that we just sat by the wildlife plot listening to the birds for a while. The little pond had ice on it on Sunday morning so I'm not surprised the tadpoles stayed low in the pond until the water started to warm up.

Of course, each evening we have to go back to the plot to shut the polytunnel down for the night. Rain threatened, but I'm pleased to say we didn't get a soaking. The site is nicely active at the moment with new and returning plotholders trying to get everything prepared for sowing.

The Delikata mangetout have all germinated. I'll let them grow quite a lot taller before planting them outside, otherwise the pigeons will decimate them - like they do every year. I really need to fix up some better protection but that can make it difficult to pick the pods - oh, decisions, decisions! Some of the PSB and brussels sprouts have also germinated, but sadly some of the tagetes got frostbite even inside the inner polytunnel.

On Sunday I managed to clear and dig the old seating area which had rotten wooden decking over weed suppressant - and a lot of weed growth. It looks like such a small area, but honestly, it was exhausting! That's where I'm putting the three lovely (bearded?) irises that Ivan gave us. They should spread well, he got 23 plants from his one original! They need (something like) 7 hours of sunshine on their rhizomes so mustn't be planted deep, which is why they will have pride of place at the front of the plot.

 

And today's post is remembering 5th April 2008 - a date when someone else's kindness provided me with a new lease of life. This daily cocktail of pills helps to keep my transplant working and my heart healthy so I can get plenty more years from my donated kidney.

Thankyou to all the donors and relatives of donors who choose to opt-in so that their body can help others should the worst happen.The song is provided by Guns n Roses

Thankyou

This weekend marks the thirteenth year of my kidney transplant. This was me at one of my earliest dialysis sessions - you can see the dialysis machine is connected through Tesio lines through my chest - before the fistula was created in my arm.

I was connected to that machine for 4hours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for nearly 4 years cleaning my blood as my kidneys weren’t able to. Fluid restriction (~1litre per day), tiredness and no appetite were the hardest part of kidney failure for me but I made some good friends whilst on dialysis and continued working throughout (albeit not very efficiently). I couldn’t have been more happy when my 3rd call for a transplant was confirmed as a match and it continues to serve me very well at about 30% efficiency.

Thankyou seems too small a word for such a generous gesture as an organ donation. The system is now opt-out in England, which I’m not a supporter of; I prefer to think of it as a generous gift, rather than Government-led. However, with more than 4000 people currently waiting for a transplant please make sure your family knows your wish, should the worst happen.

It Doesnt Make it Alright

We had another delivery from our allotment - thanks again Neal!

As well as our first broad beans and strawberries there was another huge supply of rhubarb - our mammoth plant just keeps on giving! (Photo from last year).

The top photo in this post is the marvellous combination of strawberries and rhubarb to make a most delicious sauce, using this recipe (even I probably didn't really need a recipe for this!)

The sauce has provided us with a tasty filling for breakfast pancakes, a topping for ice cream and even as a jam for scones. What a great combination of fruits which happen to harvest at the same time.

There's been a lot of growing activity in the flat this week. The micro-greens have shot up.

The 2 courgettes both germinated quickly.

And the peppers and tomato plants have flowers. Hopefully we'll get some of the rain that is threatened tomorrow, then Jamie may be able to get a spade into the ground!

Lockdown has been reduced somewhat, even for the 'clinically extremely vulnerable'. I'm not going to change my behaviour much, but may not feel guilty by getting a bit of sunshine outside now. The NHS website suggests adding vitamin D to the drugs regime - We already started doing that a couple of weeks ago.

The Specials provide the song. I love the Two-Tone message of the eighties. Sadly racism is as rife as ever with the shocking news from America where racist police were literally dismissed for murder, rather than being arrested - now corrected, but no wonder people are raging. And in our country, this Government delaying the results of the review into why BAME (black and minority ethnics) appear to be more critically affected by Covid-19.

Sorry about this rant, but I read something recently that was really upsetting and want to show my support against racism. Black lives matter; all life matters.

Why Do I Keep Counting?

I'm celebrating 12 years of my transplant this weekend. I rewarded myself this week by dying my hair purple - that's an excuse really.

Making the most of our sunny window

20 days home but I did have a trip out last week... I had to have a blood test. To be honest the hospital in Swindon was the last place I wanted to visit! But I was very pleased that I was the only patient in the waiting room - unheard of, it's often standing room only. And my kidney results remain stable, so now I'm in lockdown again.

Covid-19

A few weeks/months stuck at home are better than years on dialysis or death, so I'll try not to moan. I'd also prefer to be sitting here than working in a hospital - thank goodness nurses and other carers don't feel that way!

When I'm not working there has been a lot of HAHA email traffic. As advised by our local police and Council we agreed to ban driving to the site and, because a committee member needs to unlock/sanitise the gates and locks/lock up, the site is only open between 10am and 6pm. The measures were an attempt to reduce the numbers and time spent on the site - we don't want our site appearing like some other communal spaces where people are appearing so ignorant.

Measures in place on site

We've been disappointed by the reactions of some of our usually lovely plotholders. I kind of understand not heeding the STAY AT HOME advice, because we were told that allotment visits are fine, but staying all day and not wearing gloves? Really?! I wonder if those same people are joining in with the 'clap for carers' on Thursday evenings..!  Of course most plotholders appreciate the difficult position the committee are in; we don't want to be away from our plots but imagine how we'll feel if a plotholder gets seriously ill, or worse.

Moving on... We ordered a veg box from a local supplier 'Ethel's Pies'. It's a good mix of vegetables and will extend our food supplies so Jamie doesn't need to venture out so often. He's mostly going to our small Co-Op and managing to get some veggie items that we haven't used before. The Vegetarian Butcher uses some rather unappealing names but these two soya-based products are delicious. We had a tasty Sweet and sour dish and a delicious curry using the What the Cluck.

And this Vivera plant-based bacon became part of a scrumptious cheesy pasta meal.

Stay safe everyone and enjoy the great song provided by The Killers.

Money

4 April 2019 marked my 11 year kidney transplant anniversary. On that day last year I started collecting 10pence pieces to donate to the Six Counties Kidney Patients Association, the charity that looks after patients covered by the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust .

10pence pieces to mark the 10 year anniversary, but I soon realised that they're quite hard to come by these days. Even manipulating purchases to ensure I'd get a 10p in my change I only had about £3 after a few weeks. So I publicised my donation plan at work and 10pences started arriving at my desk.

My friends and family have also been collecting and 10pences dropped through my letterbox, in our allotment polytunnel and cash equivalents via bank transfer.

 Jamie and I counted them up at the weekend and I collected a pile more from my Great-Nephew, courtesy of my sister, niece and their friends and workmates, though I know a few more are due to be delivered.

We sorted through, checking for any fancy coins and we found these. Each worth about £3 each, so we added that value to the collection (and kept the coins).

P for Postbox and V for village

A tomato plant!

We also had a few foreign coins and coins of different denomination, so we added that value to the collection too and the foreign coins are going to a local animal charity, Trindledown Farm, along with some old french francs that we have.

The total in 10pence pieces... £162.10
And, after bagging up for the bank...

GRAND TOTAL .... £205.00!

❤️THANKYOU TO EVERYONE WHO KINDLY HELPED❤️

And the fabulous title song for this post is provided by Pink Floyd xx

Missing

Jamie carved a fab pumpkin for the Marsh Lane gate and also one for us on Halloween.

We had a lovely meal of roasted squash on black rice with black truffle grated on top. We bought the truffle home from holiday, but were disappointed that it didn't seem to have any of the flavour we expected - never mind, at least we know not to spend a lot of money on it in the future! The squash was our Crown Prince and that has lovely flavour - even better (not so sweet) than the Festival I would say.

Now it's November and we achieved a few things on the plot yesterday. It was reasonably warm and quite a few plotholders were on site. We planted up our flower bulbs in big pots

I bought some wallflowers which were on sale, so I got about 30 for £4, I thought that was a bargain, so planted them up along the edge of the plot to cheer it up from March - May (well, that's what the labels say).

I also planted some by the pond at the same time as doing some weeding and getting rid of some of the Californian Poppies which are everywhere!

Jamie dug through the raised bed so that we could plant garlic in it. I left it late to buy it and ended up buying these ones from Waitrose. I think it's a bit naughty to plant shop-bought but hope that because they're from Scotland they'll grow ok. I managed to get 15 good cloves with a few left over to eat too.

The broad beans have grown well, we don't really want them much taller than that.  They're under the cloche net to protect them from the worst of the weather. It'll be nice if we actually get to eat some early broad beans next year!

This is my two celeriac - they've grown well in the old recycle bin. I want to make soup with them, but have to finish off the Crown Prince squash first.

I'm roasting the Crown Prince with sage at the moment, with the skin on. The skin definitely provides most of the flavour and is perfectly soft enough to eat. Look at how pretty it looked in the roasting tray. I've added a bit of chilli powder now it's on the hob. (I've just remembered I meant to add an onion, but I don't think it will be missed as the squash is so tasty)

So this is the last month of Autumn and there are masses of berries on the hedge - does it mean it'll be a hard Winter?

 

We always used to say that, but we'll see... We've already had a week or frosty cold weather, but it's warmed up again now and just a bit wet.

We found one last interesting thing before we left the allotment - a bagful of 10p pieces for my "10 Year Transplant Anniversary Fund" for the Six Counties Kidney Patients Association. People are so generous! Thank you to whoever left it for me! I look forward to doing the big count-up in April!

So today's song...is about the fact that garlic was missing from the garden centres, Wilkos and even Marks & Spencer. But I really hope it's not missing from our plot next year!

Always Something There to Remind Me

10 years ago this week I had my kidney transplant - I try not to go on about it too much, but I figure 10 years of a much-improved life is worth a highlight. My pills keep my kidney and the rest of my body working and working together.

There are a lot of pills, but they're just part of the daily routine so no problem - and if it keeps me away from dialysis for a few more years I'll be very happy to keep on taking them. To mark my 10th anniversary I'm saving up all my 10 pence pieces to give to the Six Counties Kidney Patients Association in a years time. And, since mentioning it on Facebook, I've had so many generous offers from friends and family that I think I'll need a bigger collection pot!

As a kidney patient under the Oxford Churchill Hospital I am extremely well looked after. I have a blood test every 3 months (more if I feel that I need something checked out) and can look up my own results within a couple of days using PatientView - it's brilliant. Then the following week I see my consultant to discuss my results, how I'm feeling, any issues and whether my pills need altering. It's a very smooth system, for me.

Thank goodness for our NHS! Where would we (I) be without it? Well I can guess, and it's not a happy place and I wouldn't have a lovely allotment to play about on!

Please support the NHS and sign up for organ donation if you can - thanks for reading.

Song title courtesy of various people but I couldn't find a good video, so here's a Sandie Shaw version...