The Cybergarden - Midwinter Edition

[shodatin]

Hope this is Post No. 1001 equivalent, having just used up the thousandth space and feel I shouldn't ask Madmouse to organise the next one again.

Have just looked into summerhouse to check fire is burning gently, tray of [brew} organised by upward to turn into one's favourite hot drink of the moment is standing ready for visitors, along with a few pounds of chocolates from huge box sent by DSis. (Before DB eats any more today)

It's usually tianc, upward and hob who remember to be hospitable and also remember to send good wishes to previous visitors, including said madmouse and mouselet, kizzie and family, NanaNina, Butterpie and another name which eludes me just now, but am hoping you'll find your way to this new part of the Cybergarden
and continue visiting in the New Year, along with hob's time-travelling cat Her Felinity and her welcome associate ndt (next-door's-tom), who visit us quite often, bringing gifts of when they remember, instead of the usual dead rodents which they know are unwelcome in the cybergarden.

Have just had lovely large lunch, plus Skype visit from rest of relatives, so will have a little potter round RL garden, hoping all is well and welcoming now in cybergarden's summerhouse.

Noo shodatin < wouldn't have swanned off without saying something - having memory problems wih PPC again so internet was frozen . Had long visit with MIL etc & loads of errands ( non saintly )

Everything crossed for your car today < ndt hops up for a bout of adoration to take your mind off the worry >

Agree about this being a unique & supportive group where people very much do care . Thinking of you , upwardxx

Sorry for tormenting you into continuing / escalating your fight ,Nilgiri < HF nuzzles adoringly > Very proud of your comments on other thread , presenting excellent sources of info etc

Am horrified I was joking weakly about borehole & had no idea how important the small holding is to your family's future ( hmm ,did I think people toil in the hot sun just as a hobby ) the inequalities in our world ...
< HF summons all her feline powers to try to calibrate time machine forward to a time when it be afforded > Is there anything we can do to start helping the fundraising ?

Thank you for sharing your glorious surprise snowdrops with us , shodatin , how beautiful

Thank you , MIL comfortable in cheerful but cramped & busy nursing home ... family estrangement atm due to her neglect , but FIL being a lot nicer so we hope was part of strategy to demand free care as he says , rather than intentional cruelty ...thank you all so much for support

House inspection ( finally) iIn a few days - still frantic so had best bustle < sets out further s and tightly -lidded tin of wholemeal hot cross buns >

Did someone say ?

Have just lost post, after forgetting to press "post" of course, and have even forgotten what I wrote! Just wanted to mention I'm not ignoring other gardeners, just having a few senior moments.
Nuisance having a house inspection hob, and you always want everything to look perfect, of course, which is difficult while actively living in the house, and am sure the agent realises this. Not keeping any coal in the bath are you? Not acquired another two dozen cats, I suppose, or having wild parties with bonfires in garden alternate nights? These are probably the things they're looking out for, so please don't worry about inspection.

Oh you poor thing with lost post , & many sympathies on memory lapses

You have made me laugh kind shodatin , but it is an absolute pit despite about 3 months of spring cleaning . Agent is foul and reports back most unfairly to landlady - really scatred I'll cause us to be evicted ( sought - after area ) , without references / deposit returned

Ah yes Nilgiri , swanning in graciously is the correct action . Thank you for tending our fire , and hope you're having a bearable day in terms of stress < feels doubtful > Please try to treat yourself to some frivolity during these tough timesif you haveen't the energy to bsocialise in RL

Thinking of you upward , hoping meds are helping and that you can see plenty of hope if treatment not going to plan just yet . Hope you feel truly listened to by staff .

HF very amusing defending territory up on neighbours' roo earlier

Hope we all have a relaxing evening
< plans to invite lovely cybergardeners round for wild party with bonfire & some of our homemade fireworks >

< dozes off happily dreaming of extra cats >

Hob, I refuse to believe the place is too bad if you've been cleaning and tidying for three months, but it's a real shame if you think the agent's unreasonable. Do you know anyone else who knows landlady, I wonder? If you knew she was reasonable, there would be little to worry about (and she wouldn't like the agent either). Most property-owners just want a quiet life and enough money to pay the bills, and I assume she's agreed the money so won't be looking for new tenants.
Wish I'd seen both cats today, so amusing just being natural.

I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up to date. It's 5 weeks as of today. Maybe it would have been shorter if I'd gone in sooner. Still increasing the meds, maybe home in a couple of weeks, but no fixed date although I am much better...still would rather be at home though!

Whilst I haven't been reading, I have been keeping all in my thoughts.

Lovely to hear from you upward, and am so pleased that you're feeling better. Can well believe that it's five weeks, but had no idea when you went in that it would be so very long. As meds are still being increased, I think you can look forward to feeling even better, even though you'd rather be at home. It will be worth it, and am sure you're through the worst now. Thankyou for the update - it's really good news.

So good to see you upward and am so sorry its been such a long wait for you so far . It's totally understandable that you dreaded going in , but with the new medication I agree with shodatin you'll feel better still & will hopefully never have remotely such an ordeal again .

Thank you so much for your determination to encourage me & persuade me out of my fretting , shodatin - I certainly haven't felt alone with the task in recent months Really hope your car has turned out to be reparable < crosses fingers >

Ah , funny you should say that a lovely elderly gentleman who passes our house was so pleased that a tenant finally persisted with the concrete-filled front garden & stuck some flowers in the porch that he rang the landlady to tell her we were making it pretty That was a couple of years ago now though & am sure we can credit him with not having been kicked out at the time ... he remembers this house from the 50s when his little daughter used to visit her little friend , current l -lady

Hope Nilgiri is wrapped in a rug watching the bats swoop round our cybergarden and is not too troubled by current concerns < frets >

Very peaceful night to us all

Really good to hear from you, Upward. Sorry it's looking like a little longer still, but very very good news that you're heading in the right direction. Have some from the cybergarden, as still cold and grey outside.

Not that it sounds grey in shodatin and hob's gardens! Such colourful talk of poppies, and blooms in a hopeless concrete garden! Your house agent does sound a pain, hob, but I think s has it bang on that the landlady actually just wants a steady rent, and you've done so much cleaning and tidying it must be sparkling by now.

I had a landlord who used to carp and whinge that I owned too many books or other belongings. I think he did it for the sheer pleasure of exercising his superiority over we wormlike beings who were not solid property-owning burghers. He certainly wouldn't have injured his financial take by actually evicting anyone.

shodatin so sorry I x-posted with you last night! You must have felt all unanswered, and there was I sitting typing next to you in the summerhouse, so to speak. Hm, I do hope your car is going to oblige and behave itself. Another small win in the Battle of the Objects definitely needed.

I'm fine and not too stressed at least today, so please don't fret over me. This thread is helping me do a bit each day, and validates me doing it. It's quite astonishing how much difference a little moral support makes...

And hob please don't be at all about joking about DSis's farming - you really are very lovely and generous. But I'm truly exasperated with her for making a bad business decision to turn down a smaller plot with water for a larger one she can't actually cultivate. In fact I keep writing and deleting rants about it. Best not actually posted, in the end, as they could be quite outing - and anyway, they stoke my annoyance rather than safely venting it. Hey ho. It will all come out in the wash, one way or another.

Waves goodnight after dormousing, noticing cats still cross.

Oh joy at "cross cats" , hope we're not too bleary after prolonged noisy felinity , so well described by Nilgiri
Hope you have some good news about car , shodatin and thank you and Nilgiri for incredibly perceptive & helpful advice which has massively encouraged me .

Thank you for kindness over my massive misreading of your DSis' situation , Nilgiri. I guess it's best to rethink sending those comments but wish I had a business knowledge which could suggest somehing ( am sure you & DP now your stuff )- is the plot still saleable ?
I don't image the sums would add up if DSis were to sell a half share / shares , and certainly not possible to offer returns of several years of successful cropsto potential investor as water situation so dreadful .
I'm sure you've thought up & researched many ideas so will hope very hard for some possibility to open up . Wish we could help even a little ... meantime HF & ndt have gone over there in the time machine to investigate plot & bask in warmth .

So pleased our prodding with fiery tridents support is helping you r work , and hope ou're able to look out onto RL garden when resting

California poppies are one of the few things which grow in dark stony front garden ( you very kindly offered to send me some seeds last year ,shodatin but nd neighbour had given us gave us some )
< sets outs and tin of wholemeal muffins & fruit
< off to scrub at coal marks >

Morning all - how I hate these late starts! Not only dormousing to middle of night, but forgetting to put on alarm for civilised waking time, so half of this winter's day has gone before I'm dressed - it's stressful.

Having had a moan for what is nobody's fault but my own, am hoping that others have a better day, particularly hob with seemingly endless cleaning plus worry about home, I do sympathise, and hope you feel that this time your best will be good enough. Like to think of elderly gentleman praising your gardening, and he'd probably be upset if he thought you might have to leave, so try-not-to-worry.
Have finally got a direct email from my friend in nursing home, which is wonderful for us after so long with limited contact, and have sent her a Youtube "share" of the cat getting cross with the printer (another cat-owner until very recently, and had as many as four at once).

Oh what a difficult time you're having shodatin with the extra sleeping . I know how frustrating it is & do find one then becomes caught in a cycle of trying to do missed chores & then missing ut leisure time , which adds to the glumness.
Perhaps you could take some Berocca or multivits & minerals if the GP says they are safe with your medication ? If I recall correctly , you were saving up mentioning the bruising you sometimes get on arms ... could be worth checking blood counts etc in case you've become sligtly anaemic .

Thank you so , so much for your loveliness about the house panic . I know it's incredibly odd how someone still pretty mobile with non disabled partner can get into such a mess but if you saw the place you'd see the problem ! 'Tis definitely a problem of organisation , not of effort . Dh has learnt how to organise very efficiently but just can't teach me effectively He is a saint who would never dream of reproaching me for it . but I'm letting him down as lease in sole earner's name < back to scrubbing >

What fabuous , magnificent news that your friend managed a complete email ! < pops our cybergarden non alcoholic champagne >
I hope you will have many enjoyable conversations now, including about animals , when friend has recovered from mourning her days of active servitude to felines < glows at person willing to care for four cats >

upward's magic all round , and hoping she & Nilgiri are able to relax awhile in relatively warm cybergarden

Thanks a lot hob, for kind understanding and suggestion of Berocca - which I went back to this week.
Have I ever mentioned man I knew with wife and two teenage children, all three dyslexic, who had to do all the tidying at home, because none of them could manage it due to dyslexic condition? I'd never heard of this before (and teased him about messy teenagers, of course), but he tells me it's a recognised side-effect - so I was wondering if this is anything like the problem you say you have with
housework? He no longer blamed any of them, just felt it was a bit unfair sometimes, which is understandable. Do you ever feel that you have any compensatory qualities?
(Probably don't nag about chores more than once).

Ooh, came in to make a magic and there's already one on the stove! Bliss!

Hi Nilgiri, good to see you here. Am just having another glass of non-alcoholic champagne, celebrating email from friend of about 40 years and wondering why people who have better health and fewer years can't manage to make a similar effort - am really pleased about this, really proud of friend and wish she could join us in this super summerhouse. Cheers! Have one of hob's wholemeal scones with fruit, a small, healthy snack I'm not going to share with animal visitors.
(Adds another small log to stove, shares spare rugs and hopes stars are visible for a few hours.)

What a fine word , flumph . Hope you've 're enjoying the stars after a decent day , Nilgiri

Sorry for long gaps- managed inexpert ceiling painting

So good to see your friend , as you say , making such a huge & worthwhile effort , shodatin.
Yes thank you , you revolutionised my understanding of my difficulties by mentioning that family , & it's been easier to research coping strategies - will help me eventually get a diagnosis .

Thank you for making me think in terms of compensatory qualities , kind fFriend !
I do feel better thinking that the way my brain is disorganised enables me to enjoy the illusion of thinking of several things at once & to take in more nonsense information than many , even when unwell, which I feel guilty aboutwhen I see others on our thread struggling even to read ... This has compensated for loss of cognitive abilities over the years , as can still absorb info about obsessions even when I can't understand it properly

Me me me all day long , sorry . Hope your tiredness eases a bit very soon , shodatinand that we're all feeling relatively well today .

< HF looks winsomely at shodatin's snack > < beagle presses nose to glass & gazes in >

Just crept outside with smallest scone to share between HF and beagle (who must have heard tin opening from his home), because hob made me feel really mean by not sharing....
Had forgotten I'd mentioned family of three-out-of-four dyslexics, and wonder how many more times have repeated self - sorry about that, but am glad it's been useful. Maybe brain is working overtime as compensation - sounds really useful now and should be even more so as time goes on and rest of us get slower.
Had quite a good day, thankyou, apart from email from friend, Thai friend has sent me Facebook message saying we're friends ( hope she understands it better than I do and is not expecting a reply}, have rescued best varnishing brush which I'd left forgotten and uncleaned for a week and am in final phase of making liquid soap (friend's birthday soon) from internet recipe, and it looks and smells good, which is a relief as I guessed lemon-peel in muslin bag for scent.
Hope everyone else has had a good day (and that Nilgiri still has feet up).

That's amazing about your friend's email, shodatin! Next thing you know, she'll be a Silver Surfer and teaching the rest of us how to use FB (not sure, but think "FB friend" means you can see each other's private pages or something). There's a spare mug in the summerhouse, you know, should she wish to join us...

And I think you're being bullied by that hound and his confederate! Just when you thought you'd escaped being staff to a beagle...

Fascinating what you guys are saying about organisation and brain function.

hob, sounds like you've been incredibly productive today. Painting ceilings is not an easy job! Hope refreshing the place like that makes it brighter to live in as well as being a nod towards agents/landladies.

Upward, hope you've had as good a day as possible too.

Well past bedtime here. Sleep well all...zzz.

Forgot the goodnight wave - remember thinking must put out light now, and must have done so, but meant to congratulate hob on horrible ceiling job, worst-ever, almost, apart from cleaning up after pets.
Being staff to beagle was never onerous actually Nilgiri, as theyre so independant, but being responsible for one was certainly difficult - DH used to say it had turned his hair grey.
(Have to finish here, someone is chanting advertisements from laptop, and I swear I didn't do anything - stopped now, v. mysterious)

Sorry about that, nothing new showed on screen, just someone trying to sell something, maybe an odd radio signal?
Thanks for info on Facebook Nilgiri. People do send me pages of news sometimes, but it's never any interesting news - "Soandso likes suchandsuch" (Highway code on one occasion) which makes me wonder if some friends are not understanding it either. Seems I informed friends that I liked Paypal, well, am left speechless.

Thank you for being so welcoming to newbie friend, but am unsure how long she gets on the computer at present, and apart from teaching me gardening and DIY, friend is also beagle animal enthusiast. (Can't do strikeouts). Making extra espressos and s, and Nilgiri, you can have my wholemeal scone share this time, will share with animals again tomorrow (seems fair)

I feel so mean for bringing the greedy animals to your attention 'twwas I who bullied you! You are already the most generous animal carer in the cybergarden . I know just what your DH meant by the responsiblility of unredictable hound ( am still laughing at Nilgiri's DP having always "known his place in th e natural order" relative to his parents' beagle )

Oooh , a lemony haze from your soapmaking , shodatin . Amazingly productive day fon your part & and am guffawing at friends "liking" the Highway Code & Paypal - , though you're all more advanced than I am .

I still don't feel safe enough about security settings to join to look on even dearest friend's page & have had to seek advice from the younger generation - still unconvinced that someone nasty wouldn't be able to find me from first name & town , on my v sociable friend's friends lists .

Am enjoying seeing my DM receiving & resending endless joke emails as she ussd to be really lonely & now has cheap & lower -effort way to socialize as she slows down a bit physically .
Am hoping speech to text software has improved lately as so many people can't use keyboard ( hang on , some can manage smarthphone keyboards , joy )

Sorry , still catching up with all the posts , but enjoying them greatly

s all round, with many thoughts for upward as she increases dosage towards ffuller health

Thank you all for support with house - back to it < HF brings bunch of primroses for shodatin >

Am very impressed with primroses from HF, having received other flowers in the past am no longer suspicious about bribery for wholemeal scones, so thankyou very much, and please call in tomorrow with wandering beagle to have small pieces of scone...
Really glad about your DM hob, enjoying cyberworld socialising although limited physically - I feel the same!
Pats on back to you for painting ceiling, and hope there are no more planned for this year, must be a relief that it's over (and I hope agent is impressed).
Just noticed few more snowdrops out under my hedge, so am off to bring some indoors where I can see detail.

< deafening purrs at shodatin's invitation >

Thank you , just a smidgeon of ceiling painting left & portion of walls . Am terrifyingly still , but Dh made time earlier to help further .

Am so excited at the way the net is helping connect people with limitations . Often have to pinch myself to believe it's so easy to communicate.

Hope Nilgiri and upward are having some relief from effortful days - so hope you're not too woozy from dosage increase , upward

Oooh I think the green of a snowdrop's stalk seems different to other plants , brighter < books eye test >

s or comforting soup

Am so pleased that most of your painting has been finished hob, and it must have been a really big job, even with help from DH - people are not designed to have their heads back (or arms up either). Of course, once you've started, it has to be finished, or one has small, clean patch showing up the grubbier whole.

Internet has made such a difference to me already, and came at the time when I needed something new. Am hoping that a couple of older friends might change their minds about getting on line, now my friend has managed it while living in a residential home and recovering from strokes. I don't have enough time to do everything I';d like to do, and could easily occupy myself with laptop for twice as long (with less dormousing, of course).

Hope everyone else has dormousing under control, and am wishing upward more benefits with increased dose.