Saturday 17th to Thursday 22nd April

Some nice warm and sunny weather. Time to get out and about. Time for some painful walks 😖 and for some funny animal pics 🐐🐂

An early evening walk

I took myself out one afternoon for a visit to The Old Shed. I treated myself to a cuppa and a brownie and soaked up the sunshine.

A nice wander around and a visit to the goats.

Another evening walk

This cow really didn’t like the idea of us walking through his field, he stood right on the footpath and was not budging. We gave him a wide berth but while we were passing a couple more of his friends had joined him and were trotting towards us 😱 Thankfully they stopped as we had nowhere to go to escape! I didn’t enjoy that part of the walk too much 🏃‍♀️

In another field we met some more inquisitive cows, but this time thankfully we were safely behind a hedge!

Peek-a-boo!

Monday 12th to Friday 16th April

12th April – places have started to open up a bit more – gyms and non essential shops are allowed to open now, amongst other things. And we can also now go and have a meal and drinks outside a pub or restaurant. So of course the weather decided to have some fun with us, we woke up to quite a covering of snow and it was cold 🥶

It still would have been nice to go though as it did then become a sunny afternoon and evening.

Hairdressers could also open. So first day in her new job for Robyn.

Good luck ‘business woman’! 💇‍♀️

My first night out in ages was at The Scenic Supper. It was just brilliant! Thank you for taking me Leah 😍

Kingcumber Smash 🍹

Rhubarb, Ginger Curd, Meringue & Rhubarb Sorbet

The picture doesn’t do it justice. And my words to describe it won’t either! All of the different tastes in this dessert were quite AMAZING 🤩 I just don’t know what else to say! Simply delicious 😋

My tummy was very full for the whole of the next day!

The sunflower seeds are in, all ready for our competition 🌻🌻🌻

Thursday 1st to Sunday 11th April

Happy Easter 🐣

Despite the forecast, the weather over the Easter Weekend wasn’t too bad. Easter Sunday even turned out to be hot 🌞 and then believe it or not, the next day, Easter Monday, we did actually have some snow ❄️ Then cold all week, with further snow showers, not enough to settle though.

Thank you for this pic Leah 😍 My lovely Buzz in the April snow ❄️

(A bit of a difference to the weather this time last year, we had some lovely warm and sunny days then.)

A chance for a walk around Bourton-on-the-Water. A different route and a footpath that led me to see this!

Our Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh died. He was 99. They were married for over 73 years.

‘He will be remembered not only as the longest serving consort but perhaps also as the most gaffe-prone one.’

One of his most notorious jokes came around 30 years ago, when he is alleged to have told the German media “In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, to contribute something to solving overpopulation”.

😱

Talking about marriage, to end on a brighter note –

Tuesday 23rd to Wednesday 31st March

23rd March 2020 –

A year ago since the first lockdown 😱

I have had 132 days off of work in that year due to Covid (I work part-time).

Back to 2021 –

29th March – we are allowed to meet outside in groups of up to 6 people, outdoor sports are allowed along with some other restrictions lifting and 31st March – shielding ends 😱

At least we now have the vaccines to try and help us out of this pandemic.

🙄🤣

Things seem to have come full circle.

First daughter in first lockdown, last daughter in last lockdown (well, maybe 🤔)

And at the end of March 2020 I had just bought myself a pressure washer and was going to start doing my garden. I’m just starting to do it all over again now, minus the fish tank!

I had a little helper this time 🐌

Monday 15th to Monday 22nd March

17th March 2020 –

My first day of not working due to Covid.

My first walk, of goodness knows how many 🚶‍♀️

And from my post on that day – “And just to let you know how my very first day is going so far, I made myself a nice mug of tea earlier, sat down to drink it and it was stone cold. It seems I hadn’t even boiled the kettle first!”

Back to 2021 –

I don’t take sugar in my coffee, but this is just cool, I’d love to try it ☕️

And so to continue with the ‘drinks’ theme!

We had a little trip out to a local farm to try out their fresh milkshake. It’s very popular right now, there was a bit of a queue! It was freezing and my poor old back doesn’t like standing still 😖

But there was a lovely sky to look at.

When it was eventually our turn, I chose Rolo flavour. (It actually reminds me of Baileys Irish Cream).

Here I am at the milk vending machine. Sorry for the hooded photo, but I was frozen 🥶

Something tells me that we’ll be going back for more 😋

Tuesday 9th to Sunday 14th March

What to do on a warm and sunny Tuesday when you’re feeling a bit fed up?

Why not plant some pine cones 🤯

1. Go to the woods, get a pine cone.

2. Put the pine cone in a pot, so that most of it stands out.

3. Give it a small amount of water every day, as excess water will make the pine cone rot.

4. After some time, a tiny tree will appear.

5. Congratulations, they just started oxygen production and you have a piece of forest in your own home.

When I went back and read some of the comments (yes I probably should have done that first) it seems people are saying that this actually won’t work! It’s a scam!

Oh well, I’ve given it a go now 🙃 so I’ll wait and see …

So after that waste of my time 🙄 I was then a bit unwell on Friday 🤮!

But I did have a nice Mother’s Day to finish off the week 🙂

#spoilt

Friday 5th to Monday 8th March

We inherited this fish tank (fish included!) with the house.

As you can see, it doesn’t particularly look too wonderful any more and it was now leaking. Time for it to go 👋

Leah caught the fish and off we went, walking down the road with the fish in our bucket! delivering them to a friend who already has a nice big pond in their garden.

They were lovely looking fish! 🐠🐡 I was actually really sad to see them go.

After LOTS of hard work (look out for the pics on my Photos page) it now looks like this.

Obviously I did not do all of the demolition myself, I was cleaner upper, but I did have a little go 😀

But I’m now left with this!

I didn’t realise just how difficult and expensive it is to try and get rid of waste from your own garden. I’ve tried to give it away to people I know for building rubble! I’ve been out in my garden weighing a concrete block! so that I could work out the cost of taking all of them to the tip, I’ve found out the price to hire a skip … 🤯

In other news, I finally completed my jigsaw puzzle, it’s only taken about two months! But it was a really fun one to do.

Saturday 27th February to Thursday 4th March

SIX years 😱💪

And now February’s turned into March. This year is starting to go by in a flash again.

At the start of March 2015 it seems that I was just starting to wake up after a long time asleep in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Things were tough, and I was about to become a bit of a crazy lady!

In March 2021 I’m spending my time shielding at home thanks to Covid. I’m well, but I’m still crazy!

Not what I really thought I’d be doing once I got my new liver. If only I could take my new liver with me and go off and see the world 🌎 …

I’m afraid the best I can do is a little virtual visit to The Model Village in Bourton-on-the-Water, which as you can see was taken in the snow ⛄️

I do like a little trip out to Bourton-on-the-Water, it’s a very popular place when the weather is warm and sunny.

Here is The Kingsbridge Inn within The Model Village.

And there’s my real life photo of it. This was taken on a warm summer’s evening trip out for fish and chips by the river.

Sunday 21st to Friday 26th February

First of all I must just show you all of my lovely birthday flowers 💐

And now, yes its that time of the year again, we go back to 2015.

On 21st February I got a phone call from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham to say they had a liver for me.

To the hospital we all went. After various tests and waiting to see if the new liver was a match, I was eventually wheeled down to theatre at 4.10am. I don’t remember feeling scared. And thats the last I knew about this week of the year. I don’t think I woke up again until March!

Goodness me, when I read back I realise just what tough a time I had put my family through. I’m sorry 😢

The next day they found out that my first liver transplant was failing and the hospital had 72 hours to find me another.

Robyn had looked after my phone during all of this time. She used to send me text messages 😍 even though she knew that I obviously wasn’t going to be reading them.

The relief they must have felt.

Anyway, I made it through it all somehow, and now back to 2021, I’m still around to drive everyone mad.

A windy couple of days, where you would have found me (despite my bad back) in my garden trying to find a way to keep my fence post up with some string! I do seem to have some crazy ideas and do some mad stuff but at least I try 😏

We then had some nice warm and sunny weather days.

So there was a nice little trip to the tip to clear just some of my rubbish that I seem to like to collect!

Thursday 18th to Saturday 20th February

Happy lockdown Birthday to me 🎁🎂

I am lucky that I have Robyn and Leah to spoil me.

Here I am as a little girl with my mum Betty and my nan Edith 😍

I SO miss them. Two special ladies. I can now only imagine just how amazing it would be to be able to go and have a cup of tea with them, the stories we could tell each other (they both know nothing about my transplant journey) and all the memories that we could share 😰😰😰

And just so that we end things on a brighter note –

😂