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FEBRUARY 2025 This thread currently has 337 views. |
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Elsa Peters |
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Saturday 1st February
February has finally arrived....yes my birthday month along with both children, my mother, my grandmother...it was a familiy tradition to have an Aquarians child. It was never planned but that's the way that it seemed to happen. It was another ghostly foggy morning that broke out of the gloom around eleven but it remained cold all day....well not exactly cold but sixteen degrees out and twenty eight degrees in and I ask you, where would you rather be?
First job this morning was to portion up the food delivered last night and bag it up for the freezer. I now have food for the next few days without much effort from me. The meat and vegetables that were left over from last night got put into the slow cooker with a can of baked beans and that was ready for consumption around four thirty this afternoon. Truth be said, it was ready for any time after two but I've got into the habit of eating a good breakfast and then an early evenng meal to spread out the tablets. I'm ahead of myself.....I poached a couple of eggs for breakfast and was eating it around ten this morning after doing a few chores, including sorting out the meals for the freezer, washing up and putting the containers ready for the pick-up this afternoon. My friend arrived with Zelinger, my neighbour and she came bearing gifts. My Christmas presents to the rest of the village are all packed up in the lounge and no way am I going to break into that area, from the lounge.....the way through is blocked with everything that keeps my life simpler living downstairs. When things are back to normal I'll invite the ladies round and we'll make an event of it. We chatted for a while with my young friend doing the translation to Turkish and I was adding the little bits of Turkish that I know and ten minutes soon turned into forty five and off they went.
I read for quite a while this morning, bought a new book from the internet and had it 'whispered' down to me....so simple these days. It's supposed to be a Viking adventure but on to chapter five and it's about time that it got going. I'm doing well though with Bill Bryson's book although I seem to have been reading it for ever and have only achieved twenty five percent so far...still lots of go, a bit heavy but I'm finding it very interesting. My student's mum phoned at three to tell me that they were on their way and I was surprised to see Yusti my student. She brought the new prescription, fruit and bread and I asked her to check Robo after I'd given it a good clean yesterday. One of the undercarriage clips holding the brush in place was broken before I got it, I'd renewed the sticky tape but we found more and made a good job of it this time. I also remembered that the bulb had gone in te porch, Yusti under direction found the forty watt bulb where I'd directed him, brought it down and changed the old for new and it works and saved me risking a small ladder to get up there. Off they went, the younger son was in Kardjali for football practice and tomorrow he is playing a match over the border in Greece...my little international footballer.
I lit the fire at vice using the half burnt logs from the fireplace and it's not really necessary but it's nice to look at. I've got plenty in for tonight and tomorrow so that's a job off my list for tomorrow, I'm going to have a gentle day. LN.....Reading and resting, there's enough food in the slow cooker for tomorrow so I'll have more time for Mr Bryson......LN
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Elsa Peters |
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Diary Admin
Posts: 6,474
Gender:  Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
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Sunday 2nd February
We had the same ghostly morning but this time it was very damp also. The terrace have more or less dried up but the mist seems to have lingered all day and the hillsides are still a little murky. Damp, miserable and cold and the fire seems to have been influenced by it as well. It seems to have needed more attention than normal. I had a very restless night, a toilet break at one thirty and I was reading until three and again i just seemed to have settled off and I needed the toilet again....it must be something in the water since that's all I'm drinking and I was up and about at six. I made coffee and negotiating the staging posts on the way back to the bedroom where I could place a cup, take a few more paces with my frame and move the cup to the next resting spot and back to bed. I tried to get comfortable, read for a while but it just wasn't happening so I made it to the sofa stopping along the way to get the fire underway.
I seem to have jumped from one thing to another, well not literally. I read for quite some time going between the two books that I have on the go on the Kindle, tried the television but could find nothing I wanted to watch and bored by Netflix selections. I did a couple of Sudoku, got up and made toast for breakfast and set the remaining food in the slow cooker to high and that was going to be four o'clock meal. I remembered to turn it to medium at one so that it wouldn't be so baked on the inside of the dish giving me another problem to contend with. I ate at four fifteen, two slices of bread at the bottom of the dish and the meat stew with backed beans on top of it. Two staging posts later and I was sitting on the sofa with my supper, the fire going well and all was well in my contained world apart from the pain that seems to be changing. I try to have exercise so that I don't seize up solid but have to keep changing my position on the sofa, legs up and legs down otherwise I have a different pain. I think this is going to be a long process.
Got a relief parcel arranged for tomorrow. I raised a flag this morning and on order I have more butter, Nescafe milk coffee sachets, baked beans and mayo that's been outstanding for a while. I have a pot of the locally produced mayo which is absolute rubbish and I should know by now but desparate times, desparate measures....it was the only one available that I hadn't tried. Now back to the sofa, fire going well and I'm going to continue reading 'Gallows Born' bought yesterday, the first book and four in the series. I'm still waiting for it to erupt into a Viking fantasy saga.....maybe tonight. LN......Waiting for Robo to burst into action, the doors to the other rooms are shut, only got the lounge / stairwell curtain to sort out. I wouldn't be able to dig it out if it got stuck under the stairs......LN
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Elsa Peters |
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Diary Admin
Posts: 6,474
Gender:  Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
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Monday 3rd February
Bit of a restless night so I've decided to reshedule my tablets so that I take one later in the evening to see if my nights are any better. I've found that the pain getting out of bed in the morning is really strong and getting around in the morning is painful so tablets are now going to happen around lunctime and around ten at night to see if I can shift the focus. All trial and error but nothing ventured nothing gained so to speak and it might just make things better.
I managed to start the fire very easily, toast for breakfast, load of washing done and put on the airer, few logs in to keep the home fires burning and then I was looking for something to do. I read for a while, realised I needed music in my little life so fired up the PC and had a gentle Barbra Striesand playing in the background while I knocked off a couple of Sudoku and went back to my book. It was now heading for eleven thirty and my friend arrived with my latest order, the shopping was put away and we sat and chatted as to what she'd been up to and what I had. I mentioned that I still hadn't managed to get the garden chair into the bathroom and it suddenly hit me that I had the folding beach chairs in the little house and that they would me much easier and less cumbersome that the old garden chairs. I remembered where they were, we found the key, I explained how to get through the inner door and where the chair was and within five minutes she was back, everything locked away and the chair is now up and positioned in the bathroom and my job tomorrow is to have a shower and wash my hair....it's been a long time coming. Last job I asked her to do was to deposit the rubbish in the container at the bottom of the village and to bring the container back to me so I could start to fill it again. Off she went around one and I was back to my book and the sofa.
I didn't get up to much this afternoon apart from phoning a couple of friends in the UK with the latest update on my state of health and theirs, really just a good old catch-up. They are both long standing female friends, one of them going back over sixty years and in this day and age, not bad. The fire ticked over all afternoon on one log, Robo started up around five thirty and it's just gone back 'home' to the docking station. It's obvioulsy deaf, I told it two or three times that it was time he put himself to bed but it just ignored me. Supper is underway, turkey dippers with potato wedges and real mayo delivered this morning and now I'm getting hungry....it's been a long time since breakfast. Fingers crossed for a better night and morning. LN...I've had a very relaxing day, good company both in person and on the phone......LN |
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Elsa Peters |
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Diary Admin
Posts: 6,474
Gender:  Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
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Tuesday 4th February
Happy birthday Mum, not with us physically but always with me mentally and my daughter was almost born on the same day but I just couldn't hang on to her until the next day. The plan to leave it late in the day to take my overnight tablet really worked. I went out like a light, only had one trip to the little girl's room in the night, read for a while because I didn't go off to sleep easily but when I did it was just after eight when I woke for the second time. I'd slept soundly, and woke up pain free and I'm doing the same tonight. I took my tablet at ten thiis morning and will take this evening's one at ten, twelve hours apart as it should be.
Usual routine but I didn't bother lighting the fire until much later in the afternoon. Poached egg for breakfast and spent the morning tidying my desk but not that it looks much different but I've thrown lots of bits of paper away and copying in notes into a notebook instead of hanging around on scraps of paper. I was intending having a shower and wash my hair but lefrt it until much later in the day, the trouble was the bathtowels were all upstairs and I wasn't sure how I was going to negotiate the journey to the upstairs bathroom without taking the Zimmer with me and I saw catastrophe all the way. I couldn't envisage te handholds so I went through it in my mind and instead took the two small towels with Santa on that I'd had wrapped round the cushions on the sofa and that would have to do and it did. The beach chair was very comfortable, the shampoo and conditioner were all reachable and once settled on the chair I was fine, I'd taken the bung out of the shower outlett so that the water went away quicker, made a baracade with the rubber mat so that the water was channeled into the drain so that there wasn't much water hangina about. I didn't spend long there, shampood and conditioned, onto the Zimmer, onto the dry bathroom mat and complete with two Santas clinging to my frame I headed for the bedroom, grabbed a coverall and went to sit in the sun to dry off. Went back into the bathroom since I'd forgotten my hairbrush, combed it through and let it dry naturally, the hairdryerr was upstairs too.
Listened to music most of the afternoon and read my books currently on the go, still not sure that the Viking fantasy is going to live upt to its writeup but don't think I shall be butint the rest in the series. Robo has just started up so I've had a dash to close doors and draw the curtain between the stairwell and the lounge, I'm in the stairwell listening it going about its business. Not sure what's for supper tonight, nothing in either of the slow cookers, must take something out of the freexer tonight for tomorrow...Iit's so much easier. Looking at the cloud base, not much chance of watching the transit of Venust across the moon, can't even see the moon. LN.....Now to check the fire and settle in for the night, find something for supper and .....relax.....LN
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Elsa Peters |
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Diary Admin
Posts: 6,474
Gender:  Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
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Wednesday 5th February
Not too bad a night last night, I woke up early and it's seemed a really long day. I didn't light the fire I decided to have breakfast first so that I could take my tablet and then set about my day. I was aware in the night of moving my legs around quite a lot in bed and don't think it was the best thing to do. Movement is a novelty at the moment and the walking frame was the best thing invented and my best buy of the season. I cleared out the wood burner, it was very clogged up but then I made the mistake of removing the plate that catches the soon and debris before it ascends to the heavens and my goodness was that a mess. I think it comes about when you have a fire 'ticking over' and I've been doing a lot of that lately so that it's been easier to start in the mornings. I cleared the burning part of it, removed the plate from the top and it was heavier than I though it was and put it down at a funny angle. Not funny amusing, it caught me off guard and I don't think it helped my back in any way and so tonight my sciatic nerve is playing up so roll on bedtime when I can take another painkiller.
I got on with the usual chores, I needed more wood in so put that in a bucket and shunted it into the lounge from the porch and I should have enough to last until the weekend if I'm careful. I think my boy has work all this week so don't really want to bother him. I got some of the soup that I'd been given and put in the freezer out to thaw in the kitchen but it was still rock solid since I didn't light the fire until five tonight. Instead I made tuna mayo, had it with buttered toast and made a bowl of chippies to go with it and there's still enough tuna left for sandwiches tomorrow.
Yes I do feel better but there is still the daily living to contend with....with a woodburner you're always worried about it setting on fire and more probelms I don't need at the moment hence the maintenance this morning. Sometimes these things come at a physical cost and it sure did this morning. Never mind, another day another dollar so to speak.....other than maintenance, it's been reading, Sudoku, television and FreeCell. Temperature didn't get much above five this afternoon and it's already down to zero so it could be another cold night. LN......Healing is such a slow process and I'm not very good at waiting for improvements. .....LN |
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Elsa Peters |
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Diary Admin
Posts: 6,474
Gender:  Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
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Thursday 6th February
Fell asleep on the sofa last night and ended up limping my way to the bedroom. The fire was out and I felt cold so snuggled up and it didn't take long for the sleepy dust to kick in. I woke up at six so not too bad but went straight back to bed after a trip to the loo and managed to sleep until seven thirty so what a bonus. I've not been too good today, I lit the fire this morning but there was no help from the sun in raising the temperature and it's remained outside around one degree all day and inside around eighteen. Unfortunately the effort getting wood inside last night has left me with more pain in my back that I care to think about, the tablets work over night but it depends on the position that I put myself in when I'm sitting or lying on the sofa. I think I'm going to move the high backed chair into the lounge and use that instead of lying about.
I did make beans on toast for breakfast and sat in the kitchen at the table to eat. I also opened a tin of hamburgers with beans and added that to the soupl that had thawed overnight and that went into the slow cooker around twelve and should be ready anytime now. I moved to the table in the stairwell and settle in for a few games of FreeCell and am still on my record run. I've got a ninety-nine percent success rate, completed almost four hundred and only dropped two. I was watching the robins on the terrace attacking the remails of the bread that I put out yesterday. I thought something would be after it in the night but it was still there. One swooped in and was just settling when a bigger one sent it packing and muscled in on the act. It tried pecking it but in the end picked up the crumbs from the terrace surrounding the chunk of bread. A sparrow tried to get in on the act and was soon sent packing, a crow was watching from the pear tree but it was too timid despite its size, they like to stay in the open.
Coffee with biscuits this afternoon so I'm not really hungry but should be in an hour or so. It's getting on for five, I've pre-empted the Robot....I normally jump up to shut up the areas that I don't want it to go into but I've done that already......we all live and learn. I'm going to my bed earlier tonight....I'm a little short of wood and am going to try to speak to my neighbour to see if my lad can pop in in the morning to top up the baskets.....bed is the warmest place if you haven't got a roaring fire going.
It's been trying to snow today, only a few light flakes fell but I certainly don't need that to happen and my student's mum has just let me know that they have a little snow in Djebel. Supper is ready so that's my next task. LN .....And now to make that phone call to get some smaller logs and starter wood in....just in case that snow moves six kilometers to the south of Djebel......LN
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Elsa Peters |
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Diary Admin
Posts: 6,474
Gender:  Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
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Friday 7th February
Up and down in the night but got a few hours of sleep in. It was really cold and again it's going to be the same, it was minus six last night and tonight so far it's minus three point five and only just after ten o'clock. I think today has been a low point, I don't feel good and took my blood pressure and it was up so I'm back on my blood pressure tablets, almost four months without them but needs as needs must. I didn't eat breakfast, not much of an appetite but I made up for it with supper so going to bed on a very full stomach.
I'm now getting bored, the last book that I bought I've more or less finished but I won't be buying the three that follow it. I find the style very laboured, slow, not really a good story line and no comparison to the recent books that I've read especially The Last Kingdom. I can't see the other being made into a series, it almost feels like it's the first book he wrote. I think I've got about three percent left so not enough time for me to form another opinion.
Robin was out and about, attacking old bread and really fluffed up against the cold. Sparrows were out in numbers but not many others were out and about and why would they be. I think if I were a robin I'd find a barn out of the wind at least. Fortunately I watched the inside temperature rise from fourteen degrees to twenty five as the sun took purchase of the sky. I sat at the table in the stairwell and played a few games and listened to music. I was searching on my old 'Book' for Jacque Lousier but to no avail...so I listened to Cleo Lane doing Shakespeare and it's been a long time since I played it. I really should put a few more playlists together.
Emula came round and sorted the wood for me about twelve but forgot to bring one of the basket in the house and I forgot to ask him. I didn't need to light the fire until four this afternoon as the temperature was beginning to fall. My first visitor was the lady from my next door garden and she came with gifts, yogurt that she'd made, potatoes that she'd grown, eggs from her chickens and her company. She'd not been inside the house before and commented on my kitchen units and how well the kitchen was designed. She loved the large windows and how warm the house was and I'd only just lit the fire. Next visitor brought the chicken I'd asked for, more soup and hamburgers in a mushroom sauce that I had for supper tonight. Now I'm the wrong side of the curtain that stops the heat racing up the stairs so I'm not going to linger long...i need to get back to the fire. LN......It's going to be a really cold one, I cn tell......LN
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Elsa Peters |
February 8, 2025, 10:39pm |
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Saturday 8th February
Really cold again today and the temperature has remained below zero most of the day. I had a disturbed night, woke up at four and then went back to sleep until eight and it's been back to back visitors until four this afternoon. This morning I was sorting out the soups that were brought round and putting them into plastic bags in the freezer so that they become the bases for the other meat and chicken that I put into the slow cooker and today a chicken leg went in with a cream soup and I added curry powder to it and it was delicious. This afternoon I had apples and bananas delivered and I have enough wood chopped by my local guy to last me for a few days. He'd been getting in the wood that I'd got from my cut down trees last autumn but the delivered oak is slower to burn and gives off more heat.
The intention was to have a shower and wash my hair which didn't materialise, it's been far too busy for that, after my supper I sat on the sofa after topping up the fire and watched television until I woke up cold, pulled a blanket over me and didn't wake up again until eleven thirty and had forgotten about the shower and the blog. Needs as needs must.....it's very late but this is the best I can do, the fire is out, it's minus four outside and it's time I snuggled down with Eli and got more zzzz's in. I've taken my evening tablet and creamed down with my rebuild cream and now to bed. LN........Sorry no pickies, never got round to taking any today....must try arder tomorrow......LN |
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Elsa Peters |
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Diary Admin
Posts: 6,474
Gender:  Female
Posts Per Day: 1.08
Location: Mobile!
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Sunday 9th February
What a cold start to the day, minus five outside and it's another day of not wanting to go above anything near zero. I had breakfast and decided to light the fire to try to stave off the cold, my first though was to go back to bed but that seemed a little defeatist and managed to light the fire at the first go.....and it's been going ever since. So once the fire was going, I again used the beach chair under the shower and washed myself down, put on my beach robe and moved straight to the fire slipping back into new pj's and dressomg gown, socks and slippers and then got the washing machine into action and the washing is now on the airer drying in the kitchen. I washed up from last night and hen my angel of merci arrived around eleven thirty with a huge banitsa that she'd made from scratch and there was so much white cheese in it and my the size of it, it should last until wednesday. She also brought more wood in for me and filled up another of my green containers and brought it into the conservatory.....and also I have more potatoes.
My second set of visitors brought more medicines from the prescription, a packet of caramel biscuits and Yusti said that they were his favourites and I guess they might become mine. The son had brought his mother, father has gone down with 'something' and in some ways it was best that he didn't come....the last thing I want is something else to contend with. Again I had eggs from chickens and more potatoes so it might be jackets for the rest of the week and I do like jackets with lots of butter. Unfortunately I don't have any yellow cheese but I do have bacon in the freezer and that does go well with jackets. One thing I did manage to do this afternoon when I was quietly sitting on my own was to sign up to BBC Player and this afternoon I listened to a potcast. I've yet to understand what else I can get to hear, it will take a little time but I'm sure I'll be able to get more things going.
I'm not going to linger long this side of the curtain, the other side is much warmer. I'm going to head to the kitchen to find something for supper that's not going to take a lot of effort and then a little Netflix and early night for me since it's the warmest place hidden away in my nest and the extra quilt on. LN....I'm hoping it warms up soon although February is normally the coldest month.....roll on March.....LN
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Elsa Peters |
February 10, 2025, 5:09pm |
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Monday 10th February
Early start, slept OK but I've now decided to give up the tablets. I felt so fuzzy this morning that it sort of went by in a daze. It was so cold this morning, minus eight outside, not so bad inside but the fire was the first thing on the agenda and it went first time. It didn't take long for the hot water to rattle round the radiators taking the edge off the downward plan that mother nature has delivered. There was a front over the mountains and I waited patiently for the sun to come up and when it did, I wondered why I didn't wait before I lit the fire.
I tidied the kitchen, put the washing away, made poached eggs for breakfast and sent a photograph of the eggs on the plate to the garage since they delivered the eggs from their own chickens. I sat at the table in the stairwell in the sun and enjoyed the sun but the outside temperature was very slow to go up the scale but has gone d own already to minus two so looks like we're in for another cold one. I checked the internet for the best cures for sciatica since I believe that's what I'got. the back pain is still there, but the pain is now a shooting pain down the leg which seemed to fit the internet description and that suggests putting ice pack or a bag of peas on the offending area where the cream that I had for the other provides a cool tingle but delivers heat to the area.
This afternoon I enjoyed the sun, read for a while, did Sudoku, thought I should be doing something else but having this nagging pain puts me off searching for wool and crocheting hooks to get started on something else espesially since I didn't have a pattern to work to easily to hand. The hunger bugs are starting to nibble so now I'm going to be lazy and make eggs mayo sandwiches from two eggs that I boiled after making my poached eggs but firstly I'm going to relight the fire, I let it go out when the sun took over. LN Supper, Netflix and early to bed....I have a busy day tomorrow finding things to do......LN |
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My Diary by Elsa Peters (only location)
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