Monday 5 March 2018

The BEAST from the EAST in Essex

After a week of awful weather (see photos below) today we woke up to normal weather for the time of year. Essex is normally one of the driest areas in the country - we hardly ever have sustained snow and what we get is usually turned to slush in a matter of hours because it is a wet snow. But NOT this year!!
 
This was Day One of the "Beast from the East".

And Day Two! It got deeper and deeper!
 
I never did get round to covering the patio furniture last winter! OOPS!
My Bill (or is it Ben?) acting as part of the Queen's Guard in his busby!

Finally (after 3 days of snowfall) the snow was beginning to clear. "Weed" and my small Tete a Tete narcissus pot have survived being buried under 6-8" of snow! Spring is coming after all!

The snow arrived on Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning. Typical! Mike was due to go for his gastroscopy that afternoon. But about 9.30am the hospital rang to see if he was still aiming to come. He said yes - provided we could move the car!! So after telling us that several people had cancelled because of the weather, they told him to get in and he'd be seen earlier. So we dressed for the weather - boots, scarves, gloves, hats etc took mobile phones, wallet and a broom and headed out to the car. Since we bought the Yeti we cannot get it into the garage (won't fit under the roll-up door!) so after brushing off enough to open a door, Mike sat inside with the blowers working to help clear the ice from the windscreen, while I used the broom to sweep all the snow off the rest of the vehicle! We got him to hospital about 10am, and he was there until just after 3.30pm. They discovered a second stricture just above the stent, but have dilated that and since then he has begun to eat properly again. He even had his first roast dinner yesterday in two months! This week he has an appointment with the stoma nurse on Wednesday (and we have to get blood tests done), and then on Friday we have another appointment with the oncology team. Maybe we will find out when they intend to start any chemotherapy.

Meanwhile I'm still taking the medication which was prescribed for me. So far the only side effect has been hot flushes! But they have been quite useful in the last few days to keep me warm in bed! I hope to hear sometime this week about the MRI they took of my spine. We have been almost like hermits over the last few weeks, spending plenty of time in PJ's, but as I seem to be severely lacking in energy, I'm not bothered too much by that! Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I'm going to interview a gardener who will keep my meagre patch under control. I never got to grips with it at the end of last year and so it needs a real good going over now. I don't have the energy to even consider doing that, so - I'm going to employ a gardener!!

We were going to head to our van in Caister for the opening weekend of the season, but the snow took care of that! Haven put some photos up on Facebook advising people not to go. Not only the roads were blocked, but the water pipes leading into each van were frozen, so no-one had water to flush toilets or use as drinking water! 
The main building this week. 

 
The entrance to the beach boardwalk!

Same entrance in summer! 
So hopefully we are going to try and get down there this weekend. We need to open it up and air it out after being closed up for 4 months. 

I did a happy dance as I managed to finish the first page of my HAED Storykeep - Magical Arrival by Anne Stokes. I'm stitching it on 18ct Aida and will probably finish it as a wallhanging for next Christmas. 
 PAGE FINISH!!!

I got so carried away with the fact I could see the top of his head, that I carried on stitching him! I can now see the outline of almost his whole head. 

Anyway, better go and sort out a few more threads! As any stitcher will understand - there are always threads which need bobbinating and fabric which needs measuring. One day I'll get round to doing a bit more on my Hawaiian quilt top - so watch this space for that! 

Until then - take care
Sandie