Val’s Comments (group member since Aug 28, 2019)

Val’s comments from the Beyond Zon group.

Glad to hear your grandson is on the mend P. As everyone has said - oh, the benefits of youth. Meanwhile I am falling apart at the seams. I was supposed to have an x-ray on my wrist plus follow up with the orthopaedic department today but I had to postpone it till next Friday because I was feeling so crook in myself. Been off-colour since Monday lunchtime, alternating hot and cold, wanting to do nothing but sleep, plus nausea. Thankfully I suspected it might be cellulitis (which put me in hospital for a week some years ago) and immediately began taking antibiotics. I was feeling a bit better yesterday but my daughter insisted on taking me to her doctor today, and boy was I glad she did because overnight my right knee to ankle has swollen up, rock hard, hot, red, painful and covered in what looks like a rash. The doctor immediately diagnosed cellulitis and gave me an even stronger antibiotic which I have to take four times a day. I've got 48 hours to see some improvement otherwise it's back to hospital for intravenous antibiotics. On the plus side, I'm no longer sleepy, nauseous or fluctuating hot/cold. I always thought cellulitis was caused by a cut or graze but apparently, as you get older, your skin thins and infection can penetrate more easily. So, all you oldies out there, get smothering yourselves with moisturiser!

Christmas cake made and turned out. There was once a time when I'd bake it in July or August. These days I'm lucky to get it done by the week of Christmas so I'm feeling a bit smug that it's done. Still got to do marzipan and royal icing of course. None of my children/grandchildren even like Christmas cake, or mince pies, what's wrong with them???? Still, more for me. I've also wrapped all the grandkids' presents, bar 3 which are in transit and will hopefully arrive before Christmas. Now I've just got to find somewhere to hide them as we'll be a full house at Christmas.

P - your new wardrobe sounds fabulous. I am very jealous!

Hi all, hope you're keeping warm and not too inconvenienced by snow and rain. Another hot day here again but I managed a couple of hours worth of weeding before the sky turned ominous and thunder began booming. We did get quite a downpour, but thankfully no hail which tends to block our downpipes and cause water to overflow the gutters and sometimes escape through the fascia boards and inside the windows in one room. Thankfully it only happens once in a blue moon but that once is enough! The rain has stopped now and it's much cooler. The next couple of days should be pleasantly cool - about 20 degrees.

Our home weather gauge showed the temperature as 36 degrees today. It's nearly midnight now and still 26 degrees. I've got the front and back doors open (apart from the screen doors to keep out mozzies, moths, etc) in hopes of getting a bit of through breeze. Warm again the next couple of days but hopefully cooling down a bit over the weekend before it warms up again.

Isabella wrote: "Val, are the gum nuts like coconuts, that can do a damage to someone they hit, or are they a hazard underfoot?c..."

I'm not particularly familiar with conkers but I should think our gumnuts resemble a decent conker. And because they're round, they're ideal for causing a fall at worst or rolling your ankle at best. They're not even particularly good for composting as they take forever to break down. But it's surprising how many people will come and collect them by the bucket load (unfortunately not enough to make a lot of difference). They can look quite nice, if you've got a bunch or with some leaves attached, spray painted in silver or gold as a Christmas decoration.

Baked apples! Yummy! Quite warm today - 26 degrees I think. We spent a couple of hours in the garden. The first bit was spent clearing the footpath to the side of our house. It really comes under the aegis of the body corporate that runs the 6 units next door to us but the garden service they've employed does just so much and no more. So the gazanias and African daisies spread over the footpath making it difficult for people in wheelchairs, with prams, etc. Plus the huge gum trees planted on the nature strip (verge) drop gumnuts which are a hazard to any walker. So, from time to time, we think it's our civic duty to clear it. The rest of the time was spent clearing our driveway. With just the one car, we don't park it all the way up. But all the family will be coming to us on Boxing Day this year. And we live a few minutes walk from "the biggest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere" (a place I avoid like the plague) so that means when the Boxing Day sales kick off, every man and woman and their dogs will be looking for parking in our street. So, in an effort to get four cars in our driveway, we needed to cut back a lot of climbing roses, African daisies and assorted other plants. A couple of hours in the sun was more than enough though!

Isabella - I was round at a friend's home the other day. Like yourself, she is a keen gardener and also very crafty (in the best sense of the word). Her garden always amazes me - lush lawns, heaps of colourful and unusual flowering plants and vegetables to feed an army. She was complaining about her Queen Anne's Lace - she's not too keen on it self-seeding everywhere. No word of a lie, her plants were over 7 feet tall!!! Higher than her lemon tree. I've never seen such specimens before. There was no chance of her dead-heading the flowers. If she wants to get rid of them she'll have to cut them off at the knees. That's what a lot of rain interspersed with sunny days will give you.

I can hardly believe it's November 26th and we still have the heater on at nights. Days haven't been too bad - a bit cloudy, a bit of drizzle, but the nights have been cold. It's supposed to be 29 on Wednesday. I'll believe it when I see it.

Hi folks, sorry I've been out of touch for a while - all my fault. First off, I hope all is well with Duke and his family. Secondly, all sympathy to you P (for having family moving back in), Mrs P (for her unnecessary wait in trying conditions) and your grandson (for his horrible injuries). I've been battling with my broken wrist for just over 4 weeks now and it is a right royal pain, so I can only just imagine how incapacitated he must be with an ankle, a wrist and probably assorted other aches and pains. I was very fortunate with my hospital experience. Although I have private health insurance and I told everyone that when asked, I went through the public system at a local hospital - I was seen to, x-rayed and put into a half cast within an hour (Monday afternoon). The on-call orthopaedic specialist came in from his home, explained that I would be covid tested then operated on within 48 hours. I was sent home with Endone tablets and received two phone calls at home from the surgeon who would be doing the op (I've now got a permanent metal plate). Because the hospital I attended had covid patients, all orthopaedic surgery was detoured to a nearby private hospital. I checked in there on Wednesday, had the op and stayed overnight in a private room with a huge bathroom. The menu was like a 4 star hotel. I had a salmon fillet on a bed of mashed potato and broccolini - and there was a choice of no less than TEN desserts! I saw the surgeon again on Thursday morning prior to discharge (with more Endone tablets). I was given a follow up appointment at outpatients two weeks later when the half cast was removed in favour of a splint and I've now received two more appointments on Dec 9th for another x-ray and an assessment by the orthopaedic team. And it hasn't cost me a cent to date. The wrist is still a bit swollen and very tender and I'm not all that confident with it - not sure how I'm going to go driving in my manual car cos it's my left wrist. But fingers crossed. So you all have my sympathy for the delays you have had to endure. I hope it gets sorted quick and that he's young enough to make a speedy recovery.

We've had beautiful spring weather today and looks like it's set to continue through the week. Tuesday is a public holiday for the Melbourne Cup - the only country in the world i believe that has a holiday for a horse race. Tomorrow I have my annual mammogram and while any of the family would down tools and drive me if I asked, I feel I need to do what I can on my own so I'm going to take the bus to the hospital. Not a big thing I know but there's only one bus that will get me there on time so fingers crossed I don't miss the 9.42! Lots of kids dressed up for trick or treating tonight. We put a big bucket of sweeties and chocolates at the bottom of the driveway and it soon got cleaned out.

So much for getting a decent night's sleep last night! Gale force winds put paid to that. Mr H and I were up at 3.00am moving pot plants and securing doors and windows. Loads of trees down all over the city and about a third of homes are still without power. We had two power cuts but luckily the didn't last long. Still trying to find stuff strewn all over the garden.

theDuke wrote: "That reminds me...i need to send my brother copies of my photos, and was trying to do this via email, but there's a maximum data capacity of 25Mbs with gmail. I've got about 200Mbs worth to send to him! Anybody know of a way of doing this one single file, without having to send dribs and drabs through lots of emails? ..."

I used to use Dropbox and found that worked well but that was ages ago and I don't know if terms and conditions have changed much. I've also found Gmail seems to allow easier photo distribution than the internet service I use. I usually send about 10 photos at a time. Wouldn't the easiest way be to put them on a memory stick and mail that to him?

Loving the photos Duke. I've got as far as watching video 2 but may save the rest for tomorrow night. Got out of hospital today and what with waking at 3.30am, 4.40am and then giving up, it's been a long day, and doing everything with one hand is very, very slow.!

Qashqai 68 wrote: "Thank you P, I’m a bit late clocking on. I was clearing out my top pocket on my shooting jacket, and I found a £10.00 note wrapped around a petrol receipt dated 2019. 😃 Good afternoon all...."

I was watching our local version of Letters and Numbers on telly a couple of night's back and David Astle, the dictionary expert, was talking about words that don't exist but should. His best suggestion was "jackpocket" for money you find unexpectedly in a pocket, but I see on his website, someone else has come up with "handkerching"

It was a lovely day here and same forecast for tomorrow - 26 degrees. But we might get showers in the evening and a cooler weekend. Our Lockdown 6.0 (this one has lasted 77 days) will end at midnight tonight although many restrictions will remain in place - masks compulsory indoors and out, retail remains closed, cafes/restaurants can have 20 patrons indoors and 50 outdoors, hairdressers can have a maximum 5 clients on the premises at any one time and there's a cap of 10 visitors per day to your home. All these eased restrictions are for fully vaccinated people only. Luckily Mr H. and I have been sufficiently tech-savvy to manage linking our vaccination status to the QR check-in system on our smart phones. Unless we get that big green tick and our name showing on the screen, we won't be allowed anywhere.

So we've got daughter No. 2, husband and 2 boys coming over Sunday for the day and daughter No. 1, husband, and 2 children coming over later the same day and staying overnight. I am all set to have a couple of days of cooking and baking in their honour.

Today I got my tomato seedlings potted into larger containers, dug some blood and bone into the bed where they will end up, planted out the peppermint pelargonium which has been going berserk in its pot and took cuttings of same to eventually give to the three kids now that they all have decent size gardens and are showing a bit of interest in what is planted in them. Gardening will take a back seat for the next few days. Next week I'm going to be busy with such exciting visits as the podiatrist, the doctor (cyst removal hopefully) and hurrah, hurrah, the hairdresser!!

Mr H decided ceilings in the living room, dining room, entrance, passageway and bathroom needed re-painting. He did all the painting - I got to move all the furniture and take down paintings etc. After two days, I'm shattered. I'm too old for this lark!

Isabella wrote: "Fingers crossed for you tomatoes, Val (and the cyst). ..."

The doc says he will cut it out but he's away next week and it has to be a longer appointment with the practice nurse in attendance (it's a local anaesthetic only). So I'll be back on the 27th to get it excised - hopefully for good.

We had a lot of rain overnight and today's a bit gloomy still. I've got the heating on which I rarely do of a morning - currently 13 degrees with a forecast top of 15. My tomato seeds are still safe indoors. So far I've had five Rouge de Marmande sprout (they're about 3 cm high) and two Cocktail Cherry. It remains to be seen whether I can successfully transfer them to bigger pots, then outdoors and finally into the ground. I'm off to the doc this arvo to see if I can get him to remove a cyst which is annoying me. Happy days!

Hope you are all as well as can be expected and that Duke is enjoying his well-deserved holiday. We had a lovely day today - about 22 degrees - but I was stuck inside minding our 2 year old grand-daughter and her 2 month old brother while my daughter had a medical appointment. It's exhausting!

It was cold overnight and it's cold again now (almost 8.00pm, fading light outside) - the downside of clear skies.

As far as we can tell, we've had no ill effects from the earthquake of a couple of weeks ago except that we had a lot of rainwater on the back verandah. Mr H thought some of the guttering seals might have been shaken and stretched so he got us on the roof to seal them on the inside and then did the corresponding joins on the outside. So far, so good.