Wednesday 17 February 2010

Our glorious natural world

Yesterday, I woke up, drew the curtains, and saw a heron, half a dozen geese, same again of ducks, a coot and a moorhen (we think - one had a white beak and one a red, were we right?), two rabbits, a handful of squirrels, a mountjack deer (muntjack? Not had my morning coffee yet), and some goldfinches. By the time I'd grabbed the camera, I had a blurry hero , and S managed a deer's rear end.

So, today I was prepared. Camera in hand (and switched on too, be impressed given above-mentioned lack of caffeine), I quietly drew back the bedroom curtains. To be met with this:


The best laid plans...

A nice day yesterday; visiting friends and an instant playmate for Little Fish. Some fabulous hot salt baths which pickled us all nicely, pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, and more playing. Mog less happy, lots of twitching and some very bubbly breathing in the evening. Delayed effects from the previous night's diazepam? Too much pool water? A cold? Pass. We'll take things easy today and see how she goes.

We must have been in the water a long time; Mog's feed pump was still running when I went to bed, and kind friends switched it off for me at 11.30 or so, all without me stirring. Oops. The morning started with seizures, but morning meds and the next feed seem to have calmed things down again. She's now snoring, and Little Fish Is still out for the count. Peaceful mornings, one of the very nicest holiday treats.

We have the important things set out for today - supplies for a cooked breakfast ready and waiting in the 'fridge, soup on standby for lunch, swimming at some point during the day, and I expect the rest will fall into place nicely around that.

Odd to be morning blogging, but nice to be sitting chatting in the evenings.
Tia

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sound idyllic :o)
And you're right about moorhen and coot: Moorhen= red beak; coot=white beak
Have fun today. Catherine x

R said...

The phrase ‘bald as a coot’ being in reference to the little white cap is how I learnt to distinguish them - probably thanks to my dad.

I'm very glad you're having such a good time - I have many fond memories of the same little cabins and forests from my childhood.

Did you bring a hoist with or are you managing without? I now have a tame rentals manager at a big assistive technology company who do hoists, profiling beds and mattresses - not cheap but as I probably weigh four or five Little Fishes and am about as mobile as Mog, not really optional. Bonus is that it doesn't cost any more to borrow a little gantry hoist (tracking hoist on legs) than a mobile one - hurrah! I really hate mobile hoists.

Tia said...

At the moment I still lift both girls; probably shouldn't and our carers don't, but if I don't we don't get cuddles. Impressively, the accessible bedroom here has a very nice profiling bed - the bed rails are a little lethal for Mog but I suppose most people wouldn't want her goldfish bowl bed sides.

Interested in the possibility of hiring gantry hoists - do they deliver to your destination? We looked into them but even folded it would've been a choice between that and the four wheelchairs.

Tia

R said...

Cuddles is easy! I've had two (sadly brief) relationships since I've used a hoist. Option one - hoistee gets put in cuddle location of choice (bed for me, I can't sit on sofas etc.) but squished up against bed rails, and the cuddler hops in next to them. Extra nice if lying on your side so you can talk/see your cuddler properly. Option two, sit down on sofa while hoistee is dangling in midair (keep hold of handset for hoist!) and sit them on your lap. Some undignified wriggling ensues to get the sling out the way and then you're sorted.

My friends are at Hill-Rom, who now own Liko. They deliver and set it up, which takes all of 20 minutes. Not all that cheap but priceless in terms of comfort and safety and ease of general living. I borrow bumpers for the bed rails or bring my own from home.

I'm in awe at your van-squashing-into skills... on anything over a couple of days my Sprinter is near as dammit full with me in my powerchair, manual chair just in case, tilt/recline toilet/shower chair, foldy hoist and approximately fifteen tons of... stuff. Oh, plus a PA, natch. Wouldn't get far without one of them.

Incidentally, I can still drive. Very specialised hand controls next to my joystick, a tiny adapted steering wheel and off I go. No question that LF will be able to when she grows up, eyesight and concentration span permitting. Just in case you were wondering :)

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