The Ocean Is Calling

Yesterday my sister was pottering around my front garden, completing jobs and planning the new flower beds.
The dogs knowing someone was there was restless and woke me early not long after I had gone to bed.
Tired but needing something to do, I washed up, cleaned the kitchen and retrieved a parcel from the back door. The parcel was a poster frame I had ordered and I hung the Art Deco poster I had bought from America the other night
It looks good behind my arm chair
Pleased with myself I went to bed and tried to sleep again but to no avail
Subsequently I'm tired now, and it's going on three am .....only five hours to go before hometime

I have a sore throat too
But no temperature 

Desert Island Discs

We played Desert Island Discs at work

The other nurses I worked with have never heard of the radio 4 programme

I felt old explaining the concept 

Here are my eight Discs 

The great Diana Damrau belting out the Queen Of The Night Aria 

From Mozart's The Magic Flute

I saw the performance at the New York Met on a magical evening

which took my breath away

1992

Sheffield, drunk with three friends 

Singing and dancing to this on the roof of Weston Park Hospital 

Salad days

This song is synonymous with my best friend, Nuala

My constant of. 31 years 

 Well I have to have at least one classic movie theme 

Moon river has it all.

This version is by Lea Selonga who took the original lead in Miss Saigon

Another set of lovely memories of old friends from musical theatre

This ticks a few boxes

My Liverpool heritage ( Mother and grandparents- who adored this hymn)

Hillsborough where I lived for many very happy years

And My home town of Sheffield 

Still dear in my heart

 

This was playing constantly on the radio when I had to take my 

First dog Finlay back and forward to the animal hospital before he died 

The song and his death broke my heart

 

my overall favourite song sung by my own choir 

Beautiful 

A Spanish / Jewish lullaby 

Durme Durme 

And finally a song that underlines optimism 

Hope , moving forward, and the importance of humour 

What's yours

Basil

The rain finally came early doors and the air was warm and moist and not humid when we ventured down the lane as the burnt greenery of the fields and gardens took their first deep gulp of water.
I had bought several pots of growing basil yesterday and had placed the herbs on the old pine set of bedroom drawers so that they could perfume my bed space after I returned to bed
The smell of basil for me is synonymous with salad lunches and bright sunshine

I'm on nights tonight. I'm working a set of three then after that a set of five
Night shift means more pay.
I have the car brakes, my annual nurse registration payment of 120£ and the dog walker to pay for
I'm not complaining.....I have a job to go to.

The racist news from America lies heavy on my heart today
Boris' statement that he is now going to take control of the covid fight is even more troubling
Almost 10 weeks without rain feels like a metaphore for false positivity
Reality hidden away, just a little , behind bright sun and summer clothes.

Burnt Bonce

I met two friends today.

I met them in separate meets
one in a garden
The other outside Theatr Clwyd 

I burnt my head in the hot sun at the theatre and
I have to say I travelled a little longer than my allotted but suggested 5 miles
(14.9 miles to be exact)
But in Wales driving 5 miles gets you nowhere.
Literally nowhere

Having no coffee room to go to , it was initially strange meeting my friend on the long grass outside the theatre. Theatr Clwyd looked fallorn
Unused and unloved and silent. My friend and I lay in the grass like schoolboys and swapped stories whilst watching the sky.
We were suddenly boys in the school yard and not 50 something men
Talking while watching the clouds amble by.


Tonight was our 10 th Weekly choir meet on Zoom
This week was more like group therapy with the choir sharing " lockdown" photographs of each of our lives with a discussion of each.
Jamie , sans his 1940s RAF moustache has done a sterling job organising it all
Such is the talent of the wartime forces

 I've been uncharacteristically gay this evening
Moisturiser on face, moisturiser booties on my feet ( thank you Wendy and Alun), and several bulldog covered naps which cooled a hot forehead

The weather is said to break tomorrow....
It's time for rain

Trolls

My sister's homemade birthday card me in PPE !

Yesterday I foolishly took on a particularly nasty troll and a blogger who enabled the troll to vent her bile .
This was on another blog, so it wasn't my fight
But sometimes you have to say what you know is right.
Especially if you consider the blogger, an old friend

The troll turned her venom on me and foolishly I reacted
The first rule of psychiatric nurse training!
Never engage with a mean drunk!

The troll delighted in reminding me that I was now living alone
Mental illness sharpening the presence of a half hidden wound
And amid other insults I finally left her to vomit her bile alone

I've not had a lonely birthday
Lots of cards and gifts from the get go.
Villager Heulwen left a cake with a ribbon on it. Hattie ,a mug with Mary's photo on it and the Velvet Voiced Linda called down with a bottle wine from her and her hubby
The Randa girls brought a hand delivered card and school gossip
A lily and goodies from Wendy and Alun
And Mrs Trellis left a mars bar wrapped in a napkin!
( it melted before I could open the wrapper)

I spoke to friends Nigel in Manchester and Nu in London and missed a call from AM in Phily
And my oldest friend Nia called filled with warmth from Australia .
Last night was filled with giggles with Sheffield Jane and Colin in Liverpool
But Nia's  made me tear up when goodbyes came around again.

I caught up with family at tea time.
Gifts of cheerful geranium in terracotta pots, homemade cushions, bespoke gin and a pair of tracksuit bottoms to replace the ones Dorothy ripped the arse out of , but ones I still wear.

Facebook friends said hello, more emails, blog best wishes and messages too this afternoon. I even reminded my nephew it was my birthday by text and he promised me a review of the Korean disaster movies I sent him

A lonely birthday?

Naw!

The troll got it wrong

Birfday

I slept in today,
And am now still sat at the trusty kitchen table with my bucket of coffee waiting for the postman who always drops my post last in the village
Thank you all for your thoughts, cards, calls, gifts and notes.
I'm very humbled by everyone's best wishes
Everyone who understands my irritation of nice over kindness
Well today, I've experienced everything kind!!!!!
( apart from one troll on another blog tee hee)
Special thanks to CAZ who sent me the above lino print of Dorothy) 
It perfectly captures her brittleness! 


I will be going to my twin sister's house later today with gifts and my own tea in a thermos

The Scent Of Honeysuckle

Yesterday one  of the sisters on our local intensive care unit sent me a photo of the staff accepting Mrs Trellis' sponsored walk monies.
She asked me to forward it on which I will do
I will probably frame it for her also.
A nice momento for the kitchen wall.

Siri? What day is it today?
Sunday! Crikey ...it's the last day of May today !!!
It's June 1st tomorrow ....

I'm making a tomato, papaya, salmon and mozzarella salad for lunch
The ones I used to love in Sitges
But I've forgotton the fucking basil !
Bollocks

I wasn't going to blog today but my sister in law just video messaged me worried that I had not blogged for a few days .( she had not refreshed her Going Gently page )
At least if I ever succumb to a serious illness , I will always be found by a worried relative or friend before the dogs start eating my face off!

That's the down side of blogging sometimes.
Everyone seems to know  your news but you don't always know theirs
A one way mirror of sorts.

Lockdown changes here tomorrow and I will go and see my sister  to give her my birthday gifts.
I think it's going to be as hot as it is here today so we shall sit in her garden and I shall drink tea out of my own cup and saucer, and made by me in my sturdy thermos!

How different we do things?

I can't tell you how glorious it is here
Right in this one small moment of time
I have the front door of the cottage open and the sun is heating the honeysuckle flowers that adorns the front of Bwthyn y llan so that the whole house is filled with the scent of a June birthday!

The intensity of the fragrance cannot be described, it's so strong and heady
The carpet needs a hoover, Winnie has kicked around three of the fifteen scatter cushions in temper as she waits for her lunch and Albert needs a feeding .
I haven't made my bed yet
And there are dishes to wash up
Oh and all of the plants on the patio need watering after which underpants need fetching from their sunning places on the garden shrubs

But the cottage is full of honeysuckle , and I'm not moving for a few more moments yet!!

Awakenings equinox

Last night , just before bed the five of us walked slowly over to the field to sit in the last 

Rays of the sun

I found this piece of music recently and listened to it on my headphones as the dogs 

Slipped into comfortable lumps at my side and lap.

Albert tiptoed amid the bodies to sit

And typical of his breed, he narrowed his eyes towards the sunset