Friday, July 25, 2008

Packing - Blood level haywire - Excited !

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Picture 1 is one of Jill's day lilies and only she can say if the colour reproduction is about right. From your description earlier Jill, I had expected a deeper red.

Picture 2, Y says, could be a helianthemum ? (rock rose) but it's difficult to judge the size of the plant without the customary 50p piece.

My blood-test (INR) this morning showed a level way too high at 5.1 (it should be 2.5) which means my blood is too thin and the clinic worry about the risk of internal bleeding. Spending time in Hospital has had this effect previously. Anyway, my warfarin dosage has been adjusted and I need another test on the Monday after return from holiday. She was happy for me to go away but to keep an eye on any excessive bruising or bleeding.

We've nearly done our packing and the Coach company's luggage restrictions have caused us to pare down to essentials. Good for us and not so much for people to lug about (is that why it's called lug-gage I wonder ?)

Picture 3 is a bit of our Rowan in the rear garden. Self-set and very robust, and the berries in the early morning sun are a joy. The tree's old name of Mountain Ash used to conjure up trekking in exotic mountain ranges......... Rowan conjures up nothing except the name of our Doctor.

Picture 4 is another 'go' at our ancient Clematis. We are happy that it is a Jackmanii but there are named varieties within the group and although we saw a similar one at Powis there were no gardeners on duty to ask.

This time I am happy with the colour. The ambient light was good which gave me a reasoanable chance.

David rang to see how we were and to wish us a good holiday. They also go away tomorrow with Helen's Mum and Dad to Majorca. Everybody is OK.

Tracy rang similarly, to check that we are OK. and also tomorrow Steve and family move from caravanning in Swanage to Hotel in Jersey.

Comments..... You must all excuse my brevity, but I need to go to bed soon.

Jill ..... Thank you for your good wishes. The horse and cart thingy at Osborne sounds good fun.

Bungus ..... Thanks for the 'matters medical and dental' update. So many things are 'not what they were'.

Re your query about 'air to water heat pumps'. I don't even understand what you are talking about. Maybe Reg will.

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Quotation time .............. This appeals ..........

"There is no reciprocity. Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters"


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Have a nice weekend. I'm not sure when the next blog-post will appear. We are being picked up at 6.45am and are both excited to be going on holiday.




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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What Yvonne thinks may be helianthemum SHOULD be called 'poached egg plant' because that is what it looks like.
'Poached egg plant' is one of things I have had many failures with; others include runner beans, onions, kohlrabi and women.

Sorry to hear about your sky high blood levels. You will just have to avoid 'faighting', even of a Sat'd'y neet.

I find it difficult to imagine you with bare essentials. Please post a picture.

Rowans are very decorative but I was surprised to see one in berry. These things sometimes happen without one noticing.
Don't worry about colour accuracy because they vary almost from yellow to maroon.

The 'jackmanii' looks on the purple side, to me, but, as you say, there are several varities. I think you said yours has a long history so I suppose it is likely to be a pretty original sort.

Of course I shall excuse your brevity.
It is an excuse I have quite often had to make myself.

I forgot to tell you:
I was making a sort of experimental rhubarb chutney the other day. The recipe called for the boiling of a pint of brown sugar with 1/4 pint of wine vinegar. This produces toffee.
I made the mistake of licking the spoon, which immediately stuck to my top lip.
There is a funny side to this which I have so far failed to appreciate.

Just in case you may be interested. A heat pump works like a fridge in reverse, ie, it takes the heat from the air (or more commonly the ground) and uses it to raise the temperature of water. The cost of electricity used is far outweighed by the heat obtained. It is an expansion in reverse of the canvas bucket or 'chatti' (unglazed pot) used for cooling water.
I remember first seeing this idea mentioned in a 1950s magazine, the idea being not only to obtain cheap hot water but also to provide a cold store or walk-in fridge*. It seemed to me a good idea then and appeals even more now with the price of fuel likely to rise fiercely.
Although there are several manufacturers / installers with websites, none of them seem prepared to provide the info I require. Don't you find it a more and more frequently recurring experience, this trying to sell and then being reluctant to ease the process?

* On 'Corrie' last night, someone mentioned a 'walk-in' shower.
"How else do you get into a shower?" asked Kirky.
(I know! but I still found it funny).

Nice quote.
I have cut out the middle 'men'. I love our chinchilla.

Anonymous said...

At the suggestion of an old acquaintance, I googled my own name to discover that I appear to be a better photographer than even I believed myself to be.

Quotes:

1) (Sean Penn as reported by The Observer)
"A stunningly beautiful 22-year-old girl approached jack Nicholson and asked,
"Would you like to dance?"
"Wrong verb," he growled.

2) (WC Fields)
"A man's got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink."

Anonymous said...

I hope your tongue and your taste buds have recovered....

We have a rowan tree, but the berries are still green.

The 'day lily' has buds that are drk red, it is still quite dark when the flowers open, but then gradually fades to pale pink. No, that white poppy-looking flower is not poached egg plant, the flowers are on a sort of shrub, grows about five foot high and the flowers are about eight inches across. To me it resembles those oriental poppies, but not in leaves or stalk. Petals are very soft and silky, like a poppy, and the golden centres attract all sorts of insects, beetles and the like.

Far too hot for my liking, it's 29 in London apparently, and it is a horrid humid sticky heat, with low grey clouds. I wish I was at the seaside, like our blogmeister....

Anonymous said...

Thanks Jill for confirming my thoughts about the rowan. Perhaps, like RG, his likes to gt an early start.

So the plant still has no name?
I did not think that it actually is 'poached egg' (which will not grow in our garden) simply that it looks like poached eggs.

I do not like very hot weather either, but agree that it is worse in city conditions and that a sea breeze is welcome, although it brings with it a greater risk of sunburn.
However, apart from a hospital trip last Thursday, when the driver kept all his windows closed and did not switch on his air-con until we were just a a few miles from home, I have been fine for the last week, mostly just sitting outside in the shade, until Sunday when it did get just that bit too much.
Cooler here this Mon morn though.