New Distractions!

 It was my birthday back in August and it's always a bittersweet time of year for me as usually the Rheumatoid part of my pain is at it's highest point during the summer and although I really do enjoy the company of friends and family I struggle to keep up with it all.

Since starting on Humira I have had a slight improvement in that sort of pain and my bloods have come back as OK but the joints that are already damaged really, really hurt and that's all the time - 24/7...Tramadol and Celebrex help a bit but sometimes the pain switch is turned up to *11* and drugs don't touch that pain, I try to keep busy and distract myself as much as I can. I am (of course) limited by the 15 minute thing*see end of post*

I LOVE chickens and finally family and friends gave in and agreed, indeed INSISTED that they get me some new chickens for my birthday!
I have two VERY old ladies in my flock so we get very few eggs at the moment and as those two ladies have lived twice as long as they are usually expected to I'm probably going to lose them over the winter.

The two hens at the top of this post are Skyline Hybrids and there's a 70% chance of getting blue eggs from them so I was hopeful of getting maybe one that laid blue eggs but *tada* yesterday there were two lovely pale blue eggs in the nest box!

Lovely surprise from Bramble (left) and Rose (right) who are fitting in brilliantly!

Chickens are funny old things and as disease spreads quickly through a flock I persuade the Fella that we HAD to get the new girls from a man over at Little Bealings who had sold me my original old girls and it was well worth the journey as in addition to Bramble and Rose I also chose two younger hens, a Cuckoo Maran and a Wheaten Maran, yet to be named and currently occupying the folk's garden while I sort out their tempory run and house that they will live in until they're a bit bigger...

 It's thanks to my lovely friend Jenny Tidman that all these extra hens are joining us as she and Mr T have helped us out with some extra housing. 

All this was organised before, during and after the many felting workshops that Jenny teaches for me at HH HQ. Until now Rachel did the Wet Felting Workshops and Jenny did the Needle Felting ones but as Rachel is no longer teaching the first of Jenny's Wet Felted Bowl workshops took place last Friday and I made a bowl - I didn't think I'd manage it because my hands have been so bad lately but with after being reassured that I could stop and restart it whenever I wanted I had a go!

With a very gentle approach to the technique I didn't find it as tiring as I'd feared and I think everyone was pleased with what they produced - I will include the finished pics on the shop blog www.halfpennyhome.blogspot.com as they were all still drying when they left with the textile artists!

 It's always interesting to see how many interests 'overlap' and how many things creative people have in common with each other! We tried out a couple of new recipes at the latest Soap Making session and one of them is a gardening soap - a soap specially made for gardeners!

The recipe was adapted from a book I bought at Victoria Bells's bookshop in Framlingham and also gave me the basis of the recipe for the soap below - Calendula and Chamomile which includes Marigold petals from the allotment.

Beautiful!

I've become more and more interested in including plants from the allotment and hedgerows in some of the crafts I enjoy teaching, there is so much to learn about them! We already make our natural dyes from locally grown plants and future workshops will include a Lavender, Lemon and Nettle balm which is supposed to ease inflamed joints...

Nic x

*as RA patients we are constantly told to 'keep moving' 'exercise' 'rest' 'don't stay sitting for too long' 'don't stand for too long' 'rest' 'don't do too much' 'try to do as much as you can' 'rest that knee/foot/ankle/hand' 'don't stop using that knee/foot/ankle/hand' *sigh* I call it the 15 minute thing because if I do anything for longer than that without changing position I have intense pain and stiffness...

Pain management and the art of allotment maintenance...

 I adore food, as I've said before - I love to eat, cook, grow and serve it up to people! Browsing through seed packets and planning what to sow next is one of my favourite things to do and now that we're doing the 5:2 fasting way of eating it's got even more interesting! 

We've been doing the menu planning thing for a while and it has helped reduce waste and save us money, it also shares out the cooking, I can't cook every day - RA makes you constantly choose between cooking a meal, having a bath, washing hair, cleaning a room, shopping, going out with friends...etc. factor in work, blood tests, filling prescriptions, hospital consultations and drug deliveries and you can see that it can be a tiring old business and there's also work!

The 5:2 fits into this well as we do Monday and Wednesday as a fast day, last night we had salmon and a kind of savoury rice using cauliflower which was pretty awesome. He does the food on Wednesdays and Fridays, I do Mondays, Tuesdays (when my folks visit) and Thursdays, ma cooks for us on Sundays! Fella is also in charge of Saturdays...

 The Fella loves a pie in any shape or form and I love making them although he has begged me not to put quite so many courgettes in things this year! 

I didn't grow courgettes last year, or the year before, or the year before...I found a plant marker dated June 2009 at the allotment a while ago and it was for the Welsh (or everlasting) Onions I grew from seed that year, one of the last things I remember doing before I was ill. I'd planted up a fair bit of the plot with fruiting bushes and asparagus when I was fitter and they could look after themselves!

As the likelihood of my actually having RA came to the fore everyone said I should give up my allotment, too much work for me to keep on top of as well as trying to get control of a painful and difficult to treat condition. 

I didn't listen and over the years I HAD to go and feed my chickens, sometimes taking 4 hours or more from waking to leaving the house, the allotment is about a mile away and I used to hope I wouldn't see anyone as their enquiry as to how I was feeling would make not crying because of the pain impossible.

There have also been some funny moments like the time I took codeine and forgot to close the door to the run! Luckily I have some very forgiving, long suffering and nimble allotment neighbours who were excellent chicken catchers!

A combination of generous growers, established fruit bushes and friendly chickens kept my spirits up, and my interest in growing er...going! 

Every year I would order seeds optimistically thinking that this year I would be more in control of the pain and able to actually plant things...the pile of seed packets got bigger and expiry dates passed.

 Last year some good friends of us both took over part of the allotment, about a third of it. This made a huge difference and as they were very enthusiastic due to the fact that they had no garden at home they did overdo it a bit on the courgette and spinach front, hence the courgette ban!

 They farmed the area for around a year before they found a house nearby that has a huge garden! 

I've attempted to keep on top of the part they cleared by changing the way I do things - I don't dig, can't dig and my hands can't grip to weed so I've been covering things with mulch, tarpaulin and by growing squash plants around and between the brasiccas.

Little and often also works for me although recently I have managed a couple of hours down there, a lot of it sitting and resting.

Timing my medication so I am as pain *free as I am ever likely to be and where possible bringing something back each time so I have a reward.

This appears to be working for me thus far, I'm also indebted to one of my knitters who gave me the tip for blackcurrant picking - prune the fruit laden branches and take them home where you can sit comfortably picking away instead of hunching over the bushes!

Genius!

 When I think back to when we were producing Country Crafts I'm not sure how I managed to do it given that I was going through a pretty big flare at the time and although I hurt now from the damage in my joints a flare is how I imagine it feels to be hit by a car or bus! I've had horse riding accidents, been in quite a serious side-on car crash, had a burst appendix and given birth...but none of these come anywhere near it. All I can think is that distraction has gone an awful long way to help me get this far.

 Not plums, potatoes! Blue ones and they stay blue when you cook them...these were the Fella's idea, I had all but given up on the idea of growing anymore spuds but between us we just about managed it. He's become more interested in growing food since we saw tiny cucamelons on television one Sunday morning, I'll do a blogpost all about those gorgeous little babies soon, I promise!

 I'm still sorting out the kitchen since the floor was replaced in the summer, it's a work in progress but as the old one worked well for me and I spend almost all my time in the kitchen - I can't sit on a sofa, too low and I can't get up again without help as my hips and knees lock up, even help hurts as people hold my hands to help me and I feel awful asking them not too...so I stick with the comfy chair with arms and everything I need within reach!

 

 I've been dealing with some major pains in my feet, hips and hands since Saturday so thought I would go over some more positive stuff we've achieved recently as a big distraction!

Thanks for bearing with me, Nx