Little words of wisdom

 

The traveller has returned.....

 

image from Clipart Library

  Actually, I've been back for 2 1/2 weeks now, but what with one thing and another just haven't had the energy to do any blogging!

We had a somewhat eventful journey on the way down and, thankfully, a slightly less eventful one back ~ with a somewhat scary hiccup the day after we got to my Mum and Dad's!

I mentioned in my previous post that the weather forecast wasn't good for the 26th November, the day we were due to travel.  In the end, after having sat at Kirkwall Airport for three hours listening to announcement-after-announcement cancelling flights, finally it was our turn to be cancelled and the airport was shut by about 1pm, I believe.  Loganair were able to get us booked onto another flight the next morning, this time to Edinburgh instead of our original flight to Aberdeen, the thought being that if flights to Luton were cancelled we could get the train into London more easily.  So Beverly and I got the airport bus back into town, and battled against the wind for the short walk to her flat ~ there was no point in me going home just for the one night.  Originally, we would only have had about a three wait at Aberdeen for our connecting onward flight so by the time all this had happened we were too late to cancel that flight *sigh*  

As it turned out, courtesy of Storm Arwen, the trains weren't running on the East Coast either so we had to book an onward flight to Luton, leaving us with an eight hour wait at Edinburgh Airport ~ which was why our original plan had been to travel via Aberdeen.  Starbucks became our new home for the day!  Thankfully both our flights went smoothly and we didn't have to wait for a taxi at Luton, but it was about 10.40pm when we finally got to my parents' home.  Mum, who had been discharged from hospital that day, was fast asleep in bed, and after some tea and toast (neither of us eat well when we travel) we went to bed too.

The next morning (Sunday), we realised that Mum wasn't at all well and called for an ambulance.  She was very pale and breathless, and it was obvious that she was in more distress than "just" her COPD.  The paramedics were brilliant and gave her a thorough examination.  They could hear fluid in her lungs and thought that she might have a clot or infection.  She did start to look a little better once they had her on oxygen, and off she went to hospital again.  To cut a long story short, Mum spent a week in the Acute Assessment Unit where it was determined that thankfully she didn't have any clots, but did have a lung infection.  She finally came home again, complete with oxygen, in the early evening of the following Saturday.

 Beverly and I had travelled down to help around the house whilst Mum was recuperating from her surgery, and although being back in hospital wasn't the best scenario, at least she was still recovering from the op.  We spent the week spring-cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and stocking the freezer with some homemade ready-meals so Mum and Dad wouldn't have to do so much cooking when we came back home again.

Despite the slight set-back with the lung infection, Mum's actual surgery went well.  She has to have a biopsy in January and further treatment following that.  It seems that 2022 could be another year of medical worries but we'll just have to cross those bridges if/when we get to them.  

Beverly went on to spend a couple of days with her friend, as planned, then went to Hitchin on the 8th.  I decided to stay an extra day with Mum and Dad and joined her on the 9th.  I was a little worried as I had started to get a dry throat and slight cough, so did a lateral flow before I left to make sure that I was okay.  It was negative, which was a relief ~ mind you, the furthest I'd been from the house in the 10 days or so I'd been there was to walk to the dustbin 😉 Having said that, Dad had been out most days to get his newspaper or bits and pieces from the supermarket, so I think that I must have picked up what turned out to be a rotten cold from him!

Thankfully, although Dad did get a cold too, he wasn't too bad and didn't have the cough.  Plainly I just don't have the resistance to the germs from "down south" these days 😄  I'm amazed that I didn't pass it on to Beverly as we shared a room on the Thursday night and travelled home together, although we were wearing masks to travel of course.  We'd been hoping to meet up with Sam for dinner on the Thursday evening but unfortunately he wasn't too well, so we only saw him briefly.  I also didn't have time to meet up with the friends I haven't seen for a couple of years now, but on reflection it was probably for the best as I wouldn't have wanted to pass on my cold to them as well.

We were slightly early leaving Luton, so had to do another circuit when we got to Aberdeen as there wasn't space for us to land.  We got ourselves a drink and a sandwich, then settled down for the three hour wait for our flight to Kirkwall ~ only for it to be delayed by a further hour as there was a problem with the plane!  In the end a flight from Edinburgh was diverted to pick us up, but we did make up some time and finally got home early evening.  It certainly felt like another long and tiring day!

By the time I got to bed I was feeling pretty lousy, and was very cold and shivery.  The cough and cold really kicked in, and of course I was doing lateral flow tests for the next few days just in case it was Covid.  Thankfully the tests kept coming up negative but I passed the bugs on to poor Adrian, and we spent a good couple of weeks feeling pretty bloody awful.  We are both very much better now, although we do still have slight coughs ~ it really has been a horrible cold 😩  

Still, onwards and upwards as they say!   

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)       

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas

xxxxx

 

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)       

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)       

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)       

Little words of wisdom

 

Peace...

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)       

Think of us tomorrow...

image from Clipart Library

...especially as the weather forecast isn't good 😟  I very much doubt that neither Beverly nor I will be looking as jolly as the folk in this picture!  Still, I guess an hour in a plane is a better option at this time of year than six hours or so on the ferry 😨  Beverly ~ aka Little Miss Organised ~ is already packed; meanwhile, I've only got as far as taking my suitcase upstairs LOL  With staying at Mum and Dad's for most of the time we're down south, thankfully we don't need to take so many changes of clothing with us as we can do some washing before we move on to Hitchin for the last couple of days.

I was very pleased to get a letter re my booster jab before going away, especially as the appointment was for yesterday.  So I trotted over to Kirkwall ~ well, actually, I caught the bus LOL ~ and got it done.  I'd had the AstraZeneca vaccinations but the booster was the Pfizer/BioNTech.  You have to wait for 15 minutes at the vaccination centre after the jab, otherwise I think I would have been in time to get the next bus home.  Still, I was able to kill a bit of time by window shopping and activating my new debit card at the cashpoint; I also saw Beverly on her way to her guitar lesson, so chatted to her for a few minutes too.

I somehow managed to forget my phone, not that I needed it thankfully, and it brought home to me how dependant we are on our mobiles ~ especially as far as I'm concerned because the only number I can actually remember is our landline!  Every one else's is stored in my phone, I can't even remember my own mobile number!

I doubt very much that I will be posting over the next couple of weeks or so (no change there, Sharon, I hear you all muttering 😉) but will have more photos of the guest bedroom to share when I get back.  Mark has finished the painting and has done such a lovely job of it ~ we're so pleased 😊  Shug will probably be able to come out whilst I'm away to put the cupboard doors back on, and hopefully Ian will have done the electrics too.  Then it's just a case of waiting for the carpet to be laid and getting the bed ordered.  I think we've decided, realistically, that a 4'6" bed will be best for the space available, but I would still like to do a final measurement with the bedside cabinets and the other furniture in place before going to get it ordered.

Hopefully see you back here in a couple of weeks or so!

Little words of wisdom

 

Guest bedroom...part two

 

As I said in my previous bedroom post, work at St Abbs never seems to go without a hitch.  Our decorator finally came back to us to say that he couldn't, after all, now do the work.  He was very apologetic and to give him his due, he was able to arrange for his brother to step in.  So although we lost a few weeks, at least Bruce was kind enough to take the work on for which we are very grateful 😊

While we were waiting to find out what the score was, Adrian occupied himself with breaking up all that lovely dry lath into suitable size pieces to use as kindling.  We've got enough to keep us going for a good couple of years or more ~ hopefully until we've added enough to the 'ole coffers to get the next room tackled 😉

 By this point, as you can see, Bruce had done all the taping and filling of the joints, and his son Mark got the ceiling and walls primed ready for Shug to get on with the rest of the woodwork.

As well as trying to figure out the best layout for the furniture, we also had to decide where to have a cupboard built.  In the end, beside the door seemed the most sensible option as it's something of a "wasted" space really. 

We had thought about buying a wardrobe (although it wouldn't match the furniture we already have, which is still in excellent condition so we didn't want to replace it) but nothing off-the-peg would really make the best use of the space available.  We decided to ask Shug to build one instead ~ we are so pleased with what he's done.  We'll be able to use the side and top shelves for storage (something that is in very short supply in St Abbs) and our guests will have space to hang their clothes in the rest of the cupboard.  Beverly is already planning what she will be leaving here for when she stays over 😄

As in the upstairs bathroom, we decided to have the window recess lined with tongue and groove panels, something that we intend to do in all the rooms as we work our way around the house.  

Personally, I think it looks so much nicer than having wallpaper (or even painted walls) in the recess, especially with it being separated by the moulding that goes round the outer edge.

This window recess isn't quite the same as that in the bathroom because it gives on to a flat wall.  Shug replicated the panel on the left-hand side, with a cut-out section around the odd little triangular window that is a feature of all the upstairs recesses.

He then got all the woodwork in place and the room really started to come together.

All the woodwork, including the built-in cupboard on the other side of the room and the tongue and groove round the window, will be painted white.  Being partly in the roof-space and having coomb ceilings, the rooms upstairs don't get a lot of daylight; hopefully having the window recess painted white will help to bounce a little more light into the bedroom.

Although the room didn't have a picture-rail, we decided to have it installed.  Again, it's a look we really like and as an added bonus we can, of course, hang our pictures from it rather than making too many holes in our lovely new walls! 

We've gone for a sort of hybrid of how both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms have been painted.  The bedroom ceiling, including the coombs, will be painted white right down to the picture rail, with the same shade of blue (Barrow, from Lakeland Paints) as that in the downstairs bathroom and utility.  Blue is my favourite colour and this is such a pretty, soft shade; it will be interesting to see if it looks differently in the bedroom than it does in the bathroom.   

Although you can't see it in this photograph, the side of the cupboard has been clad with tongue and groove, as have the doors.  The little triangle in the top section is fixed in place; the door to its left will be hinged so that it opens upwards.  The hanging section will have two doors; the shelved area will have one door, with a separate lift-out piece for the top triangular section (which will be held in place with magnets).

Mark is now back again getting all the painting done so I'll have more photos to share in due course 😊

Peace...

 

www.allposters.co.uk

Father, Mother, God,

Thank you for your presence during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

Thank you for your presence during the bright and sunny days.

For then we can share that which we have with those who have less.

And thank you for your presence during the Holy Days.

For then we are able to celebrate you and our families and our friends

For those who have no voice, we ask you to speak.

For those who feel unworthy, we ask you to pour your love out in waterfalls of tenderness.

For those who live in pain, we ask you to bathe them in the river of your healing.

For those who are lonely, we ask you to keep them company.

For those who are depressed, we ask you to shower upon them the light of hope.

Dear Creator, You, the borderless sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the world that which we need most.....PEACE.

Maya Angelou

(4th April 1928 - 28th May 2014)       

Guest bedroom...at last!

 That's the view from our guest bedroom window, looking out over Scapa Flow towards the Southern Isles.  At night the lights of the oil terminal on Flotta twinkle in the darkness, which I realise doesn't sound in the least bit alluring but they do look pretty from a distance!

Work on the guest bedroom had been due to start in the spring of 2020 but, of course, that all got knocked on the head by Covid.  To be honest it didn't matter too much as obviously we didn't even see Beverly for quite some time, let alone have any visitors from further afield.  By the time restrictions had eased, all the tradesmen had masses of work to catch up with so that delayed things further.  Then because of the family stuff going on, we decided to postpone the work ourselves for a while but finally our lovely joiner, Shug, was able to get started in September.  And I do really mean that about Shug; he is a super chap, very obliging, reassuring (bearing in mind that work often does not run smoothly in St Abbs!) and full of useful suggestions. 

Once we knew when Shug was going to make a start we had to set-to and clear out the room... 

...which had basically become a dumping-ground for all and sundry.  The "stuff" from the room is now languishing in the dining room and my craft room, with the chests of drawers in our bedroom and chairs stacked in the upstairs bathroom!  No doubt some things will be put aside for the charity shop in due course, but for now I've decided to leave the keep-it-or-get-rid-of-it decisions until the room is ready to have things put back.  

(By the way, for a while you may well notice a mixture of watermarks on the photographs in posts here on the new blog.  This is simply down to when I've finally got round to sorting through the photos taken over the last few months, with some done before the name change and some after 😉)

This is why it's going to take a good number of years to work round the house, both from a monetary and a time point of view.  Each room needs to be stripped right back to the stonework (a horrible dusty job) so that we can put in additional plug sockets and add insulation.  So in the meantime we've decided to just live with the rooms as they are until we can have the job done properly.

Each of the original four rooms in the house has a fireplace, all of which have been ripped out and boarded-over at some point.  When we moved in all the chimney-pots had been sealed with lead caps, so as you can imagine, there was no air-circulation and lots of dampness.  This side of the house was particularly bad as the chimney had had its flashing "repaired" with roofing felt!  Replacing the roof and repairing the chimneys (which included fitting new pots with ventilated caps) was one of our first priorities, which cost us a lot more than we had anticipated, which is why it's going to take us so much longer to update the inside of St Abbs.  Although it was an unwelcome shock to our purse, the work was well worth doing; as you can see, although the plaster was shot to pieces, the lath dried out beautifully once there was the proper air circulation.  

The wall was pretty gunky over here and water had got into the original plug socket to the left of the fireplace, making it unusable.  As you can see our electrician, Ian, has now put in wiring for plenty of sockets.

  The cable hanging down on the left of the photograph is for the TV we have in the dining room, which is beneath the bedroom.  Ian also put in an additional ceiling light fixture for the dining room; for some reason, the fitting in there is way over to one side which didn't light the room very well at all.  We debated on whether to simply have it moved to the centre of the ceiling, but in the end decided to go with two lights as the room has a sort of alcove area at the back; having a pair of lights illuminates the room so much better than one would, wherever it was positioned. 

As you can see, the rooms upstairs are set partly in the roof space.

Here you can see that Shug has started to frame out the room.  We didn't have the ceiling taken down, it was much simpler (and far less messy!) for Shug to put up a framework over the top of it for the new plasterboard panels.

It was good to see the insulation going in...

...and the plasterboard going up.

What a difference, eh!

Shug left the internal walls as they were, simply putting new plasterboard over the top.

When the house was built, it would have basically been a rather large two-up, two-down with all the rooms being a similar size.  I'm not sure if originally the area between the two bedrooms would have simply been a large landing or if there would have been some kind of box-room. At some point during the house's history, though, some floor space from this bedroom was taken to either create the odd little room between the bedrooms or make what was there larger.  Whilst we have been able to make good use of it to create an upstairs bathroom, the guest bedroom itself was left with quite a chunk of usable space removed.  You wouldn't believe the amount of measuring and planning we've done, trying to wrap our heads around the best way to set out the furniture!   

Shug got the room to this point but couldn't progress any further, i.e. getting the woodwork put in place, until the walls and ceilings had had all the joints taped and filled.  And that point, my friends, is where we sat for about a month because we had a slight hiccup with the decorator.....

2021: another bumpy year

 

image from Clipart Library

It's odd, really, that I've struggled so much more this year than I did in 2020.  Perhaps, like so many folk, it's the cumulative effect of still being in the midst of Covid and all that that entails?  It's also been much more worrying, for all my family, due to various illnesses cropping up this year for both family members and friends.  

Dad was taken back into hospital in May with severe abdominal pain, which turned out to be an incarcerated hernia for which he had to have surgery.  We were all very worried as he's no spring chicken (he turned 85 this year) but he got over the surgery only to be taken back into hospital again in July, which turned out to be pancreatitis.  He was very poorly and it's taken him some little while to recover. 

Adrian and I travelled south in August to meet up with my sister.  It was rather a last-minute arrangement and I must admit that I found the travelling very stressful, especially with the face mask restrictions having been lifted in England.  We travelled by the overnight ferry to Aberdeen and from there by train, with an overnight stop in Newcastle as I struggle somewhat with my back if I have to spend long hours sitting on a train.  We hadn't been off Orkney for a couple of years, so the crowds of people everywhere was equally stressful!  We've been pretty cocooned up here, although Covid cases have been rising again recently.    

We spent a couple of days at my sister's ~ it was so good to see them "in the flesh" again rather than just on Zoom 😍 Then we all went on to Hitchin, where we decided to base ourselves, so that we could spend time with Mum and Dad and help them with various things that needed doing.  It was equally as good to see my parents and spend time with them, but I was a little shocked at how frail Dad seemed to be.  I don't know why, really, after all he is in his mid-eighties and had had a few months of being very poorly.  I suppose no matter how old you are, it's always hard to see your parents aging too.  

We spent the last couple of days of our visit south just in Hitchin so that we could catch up with Sam, who we also hadn't seen for a couple of years.  We didn't want to risk meeting up with him whilst we were still going back and forth to my parents.  Although we did indeed see him, we had a little scare in that one of his colleagues tested positive so it was a flurry of testing for all of us ~ thankfully, our results were all negative.  Coming home we had to make two overnight stops, one in Perth and the other in Thurso, as ScotRail were on strike....as I said, a very stressful trip south indeed and we were very pleased to get back home again!

Having said all that, I am making another trip south next Friday, this time with Beverly.  We are in the midst of having work done in the guest bedroom and whilst we would be perfectly happy to let the guys have a key, it's better for Adrian to stay home in case anything crops up!  Mum is having surgery on the 26th, so Beverly and I are going down to help out round the house for 12 days or so whilst she recovers.  This time, though, we are flying which I confess I am not looking forward to in the slightest 😟  Still needs must, not least because whilst Beverly wants to see her grandparents and brother, she is primarily coming with me because I am nervous about doing the journey on my own ~ and I think I feel a tad better about flying than she does about going on the ferry!  So we will be flying from Kirkwall to Aberdeen, with about a three hour wait to then get the onward flight down to Luton.

I shall be staying with my parents until the 8th December, whilst Beverly is hoping to spend a couple of days prior to that with her friend.  We are then both going on to Hitchin so we can see Sam, and I'm also hoping to catch up with my friend Olive if she will be around 😊  We then fly back from Luton on the 10th and hopefully should be landing in Kirkwall about 6.30pm.

2021 has turned out to be a pretty bumpy year and there is still a lot of ongoing "medical" stuff.  Whilst I admit that I can't help but worry about everyone concerned, nevertheless I am trying to stay positive that all will be well.