Where Have I Been??

Hello friends

Well it is just a silly amount of time since I last blogged so where

have I been??  

I've swapped my crafting tools for gardening tools - 

if you are interested in anything garden/allotment related,

you can find me on Instagram as littlegreenshedallotment

or on YouTube - @LittleGreenShedAllotment

I've just celebrated my one year anniversary of having an allotment plot,

video below.

 Much Love,

It has been a while...

 Hello friends

It has been a while, a long while since I visited you in blogland

and I hope this long overdue post finds you all festive and well.

What a year! 

I'll get all the horrible news out the way first...

It has been a sloooow road to recovery with my new hip and gall bladder removal

 but I feel at last I'm on the right path - 

I've now started driving again and getting around a bit more normally.

The main news and what has occupied me is my boy,

Elliott has unfortunately been very unwell.

Rushed into hospital with sepsis, he spent time in ITU and then moved to a ward.

We are still discovering what could have happened, various thoughts that

three hospitals are arguing out - his brain tumour saying hello again,

a pituitary bleed among other things.  

He came home to stay and thankfully is recovering and due to go

back to work in the New Year.

So all in all - most definitely what a year!! 

And now some nicer stuff that happened this year:

I am typing this from a new office, 

yes, I have a home office now, no longer parked in the dining room.

I'm currently working 4 days a week from home

returning to hybrid working in the office in January.

It took quite a bit of work to get to this, completely re-plastered, painted,

boiler cupboard built.

My new home office when tidy...

 My work colleagues on the other side of the room...

It makes a big difference having these little characters with me during the day,

although I have to say Bella gets a little too enthusiastic on Teams calls.

Oh yes - talking of Bella she didn't want to miss out on drama this year and had

to have an op on her eye - she recovered perfectly 

as opposed to the human recovering from paying the bill!

Mum celebrated a big birthday. 

This was obviously before the snow! 

It was a lovely day.  

Mum, bless her, still has lots of hospital appointments.

What has kept me sane is my tiny garden.

I threw myself into growing, planting and reading about growing and planting.

First time I've grown plants from seeds and plugs,

I'm still learning and trying to remember to make notes so I don't 

make the same mistakes next year.  Monty makes it all look easy.

Solar fairy lights are the way forward everyone, 

if I had a larger garden it would be festooned.

These little ones from Amazon - bargain and lasting very well. 

I invested in a greenhouse, I say "invested" it was £10 - it has 

done me proud and protected plants from all the recent snow,

funny how a small spend can give you a lot of joy.

Once Autumn arrived and then the snow it put pay to my gardening escape 

so I figured it was time for me to finally pick up my crochet hook.

I started the Attic 24 Fireside Blanket which I am enjoying.

The colours are indeed warming on these very dark evenings.

Photo bombed by Bella.

And putting up my tree takes a ridiculous amount of time and yes,

it is wonky again.

Well my friends, it has been nice to sit down and say hello to you all again.

Lots of thanks to those who have been reaching out with messages and emails,

received at a time when they were appreciated far more than you could know.

I want to wish you all a joyous Christmas and the 

happiest and healthiest of New Years.  

I will be back - I promise! 

Much love.

 

Hello friends!

Hello friends

A blog post at last.

The aliens decided to return me, turns out I was a faulty

abduction specimen! 

Joking aside, I have been absent from blogging and social media

for many months, definitely not what I planned.

I've been a bit of boomerang with hospitals, not content with a new hip

I popped back to have my gallbladder whipped out.

I am very much hoping that is my lot for this year and I can

concentrate on getting up and running - literally.

Nurse Bella is exhausted from day and night shifts.

Now, you would think with all this recovery time I would have

done a ton of crochet, sadly not the case as really didn't feel up to it.

I did make a bit of progress with my Battenburg Blanket,

it is a lot of joining and ends.

I've got projects planned so hope to get on with those once
the cro-jo returns.

Big thanks for the emails and messages - very much appreciated.

My family has been on hand to help and lift my spirits.

Elliott turned his hand to gardening,

what used to be Darcy's shelter is now a little bed for pot plants.

An old mirror dressed it up.

And my sister did a lovely tea for the Jubilee and Bella eyed the cake.

So not quite back to the old me but getting there.

I am returning to work on Monday, a phased return for a couple of months

working from home.

I'll be blogging again, not quite returning to the FCD's.

Again, lots of thanks for the lovely wishes.

Take care friends - have a super weekend.

Friday Chat Day

 Hello friends

Apologies for the current erraticness of my blog posts, this hip
business has been far more protracted than I anticipated.

This week I have some photos of the garden to share with you,
Elliott popped out there and took some snaps and these warmed my 
heart, although it is messy the flowers (mainly Clematis, my favourite) 

definitely give it the garden a colour boost.

Kimico Clematis

Super proud of this, it was a tiny struggling thing for two years

and has now found its feet (roots).

Montana Clematis

Most probably the easiest to grow variety and spreads easily.

The metal bench covered in Montana.

I would normally by now have planted a few tomato

plants but decided that I will have to give certain things a miss.

'This time last year' memories keep popping up on my phone

and I realise I've got a lot to do once I am able to.

(I often wonder if those memory jolts are good for you?)

This plant is a rarer variety!

He has taken to sleeping in the tree pot.

As mentioned, Mitchell has now left home
so the ratio of pets to adults is definitely unbalanced.
I feel very loved with the two cats and Bella all vying for my attention.

As you can see Pixel seems very unperturbed. 

Bella is confused.  She gets very excited by any visitors,

she was overjoyed when the postman made a fuss of her this week.

So what else have I been up to?

Well, not a great deal.

I keep thinking - imagine having all this time off work and being able

to get around - I could have done so much.

But I guess that is why it is recuperation time.

Very thankful to the telly - Britbox has been my favourite streaming 

channel by far and Father Brown has been the perfect easy-going viewing.

I have this week felt like doing some crochet so picked up

my battenburg blanket and worked on more squares.

The blanket is going to be 16 squares x 16 squares so a total of 256,

that's a lot of ends!

It is a nice project to pick up whenever I feel like it, I'm very much tortoise as

opposed to hare at the moment.

And that's my news at the moment, a lot of indoors

punctuated with hospital trips and physio.

I will be back soon but until then...

wishing you a sunshiny lovely weekend.

Take care friends.

Friday Chat Day

 Hello friends 

Just stopping by to say hello, haven't forgotten you all but not a FCD this week.

Little setback with recovery but getting there, I'll be back to full blown natter soon.

Take care and enjoy the weekend and Bank Holiday.

Christine xx

Friday Chat Day - I'm back!

Hello friends!

It has been a while! I hope you are all well and enjoying the recent sunshine. 

I've had quite a lot happen over the last month, primarily a new hip. 

Sporting the lovely support stockings in hospital.

I must admit the surgery was a lot more debilitating than I thought it was going to be.  

I naively had visions of being able to run around within a week or so. 

I'm now 5 weeks post surgery and pleased that I can mostly manage on one crutch! 

I am still not able to bend down and I cannot begin to tell you how many times you 

need to reach down and can't! Plug sockets for one example. 

And tiredness, it's like someone hits you with a cricket bat, 

one minute awake the next snoring.  

Slowly reducing pain killers so definitely on the right track.

Bella spent the first few days looking concerned.

The cats less so...

I also imagined I would get tons of crochet done, I've managed to finish one blanket.

This super bright granny square one.

I need to get good photos once I am able to.

Watching telly was something I achieved magnificently. 

Bridgerton on Netflix, all seven Harry Potter films (again), 

Why Didn't They Ask Evans on Britbox, Moon Knight on Disney+ 

and I'm sure there was more. 

Plus my audio books, got through three of those.

 So definitely resting in between setting the alarm for physio, 

so many of you told me how important it is to do the exercises.

In other news whilst I've been hobbling about, my eldest Mitchell 

and his girlfriend have decided to move into a flat. 

Within a few weeks they secured a lovely maisonette in Newington, 

near Sittingbourne and he officially left home.  

I'm now for the first time in my life living alone. 

I confess I privately shed some tears but then scolded myself,  

it's an inevitable milestone and a new chapter and I need to embrace 

the change and the positives, washing will decrease by 80% at least!  

Bella is confused and will need to adapt. The cats are well, cats - mostly indifferent.  

I've still got a little more time before I return to work, thankfully a phased return 

and working from home.  

I'm itching to get into my tiny garden. 

So much is growing and it's terribly scruffy, I'm trying not to look although I did

capture this photo just before my surgery, Cyril and hyacinths.

Big thanks for your lovely comments, emails and Instagram messages, 

I truly appreciated them.  

Take care friends and wishing you a lovely weekend.