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Mystery and Moaning

Rosie and Jim Discover Snow

Rosie and Jim give their Verdict of Snow


Here on the Wirral peninsula we've had 2" of snow. Our dogs hadn't seen snow before, and so they were eager to explore the garden. They soon changed their minds, especially little Rosie who rapidly scurried off back to bed.

The knitted patchwork blanket in the second photo was a bargain find. The wool it's made from would have cost far more than I paid for the finished item. No sooner had I brought it home and stretched it out on the living room carpet to take a better look than the dogs had claimed it as their own, settling down on it and preparing to snooze. They were quite disgruntled when I put it through the laundry rather than just hand it over to them there and then.

On Monday 15th January, I returned to my day job after having been on sick leave for five weeks, having developed a horrible chest infection. I've never been so ill before in my entire life. I've lost almost  stone in weight due to running a temperature and being off food - everything tasted of aluminium or cardboard. Or of Covonia... For three weeks I had to sleep sitting up, as I could not lie down without choking. I coughed so much that I injured the tissues around my ribs, so they were very painful and felt crunchy, as if my ribs were moving around not properly connected to anything.

Anyway, while my voice is still croaky I'm much better. Richard said I sound like a dalek with laryngitis.

I must say that Richard was wonderful while I was ill, showing the best side of himself as he did his utmost to look after me. One evening I happened to mention that I fancied something sharp, like  tangerine. The very next day he came home after work with two bags of them.

Incidentally, I've not seen a doctor. I've only spoken to them over the phone. This resulted in "sore throat" being given as a reason for absence on my sick/fit form. There has been absolutely no sore throat, though. The doctor invented that symptom, and yet forgot about my suggestion of chest infection and probably bronchitis, (and as I work in health care, and have done since 2010, I am perfectly capable of recognising these). Only during the week before I returned to work, while arranging a final sick/fit note over the phone, did a doctor ask if I needed to see a doctor - pointless, as by then I was clearly on the mend!

Anyway, to other topics:-

I've begun a new sketching project, aiming to do one rapid sketch (of anything that catches my attention) each day and then make these into a little video to share what I've done. Two or three years ago I ran a similar project. It's largely just for fun, and for a little sketching exercise. Keep an eye on my YouTube channel for the forthcoming videos.

So what else is new? Not much, actually, due to having been ill. Xmas came and went, and I hardly noticed. When I left work, the Xmas trees were up. When I returned to work, they'd all been taken down already. My colleague had to run all the planned events single-handedly, which is no mean feat.

Snowdrops are coming up in our garden.  A while ago, when I was walking home from work, I found a spring bulb left on  garden wall. I took pity on it and brought it home, then planted it in an empty pot. Is it a daffodil? Is it a tulip? Watch this space for news of our Mystery Bulb.






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Location: Wirral, UK

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