A Brave Trip To The Dentist

 It's absolutely freezing here right know, it's the kind of weather where you just want to snuggle up under a warm blanket and stay indoors.  There was no way that I was going to venture outside unless I had to and as for driving my car in these icy conditions that was a definite no. So I had a dilemma because I had an appointment with the dental hygienist at 9am, there was no way that I was going to cancel.

I ventured to the dentist last week, for the first time in three years thanks to my lovely generous sons birthday gift (see previous post) It's amazing how differently they treat you when you are paying for private dental treatment, money certainly talks, you get an appointment almost immediately, more time is taken and each step is explained in detail, I have never had a more thorough dental checkup.

I was lucky, to my surprise I don't need any fillings, however I have two crowns and a bridge that needs replacing, not urgently but in the near future and a hygienist visit was a must.

On the morning in question I wrapped up warm and donned my new winter boots purchased in a sale at the end of the season last year...

and I bravely walked to the Dental Surgery, those boots are amazing I didn't slip on the ice once and when I got going I quite enjoyed the walk.

I was dreading the hygienist visit and I was a little embarrassed that my teeth were in such a state, past trips to the hygienist have been painful and have left my teeth quiveringly sensitive for days afterwards, have you ever had the pressure washer thing blasted into your mouth? the last time I had that my whole mouth was left numb, sore and tingling, my poor old teeth can't stand such an aggressive approach.

I needn't have worried, the hygienist was lovely, she didn't jump back in shock when she saw the state of my teeth but calmly reassured me and got on with the job of ridding my teeth of all the plaque build up and then polishing all the stains away and not a pressure washer in sight (that costs more apparently, but they can keep it haha) I can't say it was particularly pleasant but it's didn't hurt and it was all over in a matter of twenty minutes, I was even presented with toothpaste dental floss samples.

I came out of the dentists into the freezing still early morning air with a sense of great relief and do you know after being cooped up indoors I really didn't want to go straight home so I took the long way....

along the promenade

and then a walk along the beach almost totally deserted...

Those steps were treacherous I clung to the rails as I slowly made my assent, firstly because of the ice and secondly because I'm so out of condition I was breathless before I got even half way up!

At this stage I needed a coffee and had planned to have a coffee in the lovely coffee shop at the top of those steps but unfortunately it was closed so I crossed over the road and made my way through the woods...

I didn't take many photo's because I had to take my gloves off to take a photo and it was far too cold. 

I then settled at home with a nice cuppa coffee but not before I looking in the mirror at my sparkly clean teeth, they look almost white again and there's not a stain in sight.😊

A few Grumbles, Crochet and A Lovely Walk

The Weather

The weather in my part of the world continues to disappoint, yes it is a little warmer but for the past few days we have had strong winds which makes it feel decidedly cooler. It always seems to be windy these days, I prefer the rain to wind any day. 

The Fence

My fence which was damaged during the storms earlier this year has been repaired at last, it has taken over five months to find someone to repair it and although he has inserted the posts he hasn't been back to finish it off, he has left planks of wood and his spirit level! wedged against the fence to prevent it moving while the concrete sets.

 It also needs screws inserted from my neighbours side. It seems like you have to chase everything up these days, I know how it'll go I'll call him to remind him to come and finish off, he'll give me a day then I'll have to text or call him the day before and on the actual day to remind him and still there will be no guarantee that he'll return. On the bright side at least the posts are in and if he doesn't turn up I'm sure my neighbour will be able to insert a few screws.

The Garage Door

I have an up and over type of garage door and I find it very hard to open, I've had problems ever since I moved into this house, either it jams half way or it just won't open at all. I have cleaned it and oiled it several times but it makes no difference. One day it will open no bother and the next it just sticks, added to which it needs painting again. So I decided to get a new electric garage door with a remote, out came the fella that supplies these doors,  he was charm itself very friendly and never stopped chatting, he took ages measuring up and said it will take three to four weeks. Now two months later there's still no sign of the door, I have called him several times and he always says it'll be at the end of next week, well here we are at the end of yet another next week and still no sign of the door. 🤦

That's it no more grumbles and thank you for letting me get that lot off my chest now onto nicer things.

The Walk

I go to a Lip reading class every Tuesday morning and now that the weather is better (apart from the wind) I walk to the Town Hall where it's held.  It's about a 30 - 40 minute walk depending on which route you take and just lately I have taken the longer route through the woods.

It's beautiful seeing the bright green lushness of the new Spring growth, I try to drink it in because I know the colours will soon change and that bright green will fade.  The walk takes me past the area where they felled the tree's back in 2020.  I'm pleased to see that they haven't as yet built anything on the land although holiday lodges were predicted, time will tell if that does happen but for now it's lovely to see the wild flower meadow instead of this...

Comfrey in abundance, red campion and bluebells....

Rapeseed in the distance

The English bluebells are beautiful this year

Through the woods and onto the road, past the field of the rapeseed shining bright yellow in the sunshine...

Past the rail crossing

It's lovely to see the trees have come back to life and are showing off their new green foliage'

You must admit it's a very pleasant walk indeed.

Crochet

I have finished the bunting which is being made to commemorate the queens platinum jubilee.  Both the knitting and the crochet u3a groups are making some and it will eventually adorn the train station.  This is my contribution it's 15 triangles wide and I quite enjoyed making it, I used Lucy's bunting pattern which you can find here, it's super quick and easy. I will show more photos once it's in situ at the station.

Remember the pattern Azul I showed you in my last post well I did succumb as you knew I would and I bought it.  I have made a swatch with one of the tiles just to get an idea of size and tension...

There are 72 different tiles in the pattern so you can pick and choose which ones you would like to use for your project. They are very easy and straight forward and I would say that this is the perfect pattern for anyone wishing to try out Mosaic Crochet.  These tiles are very much in vogue at the moment and I love the fantastic choice of designs that are available in the pattern. 

Click below for the pattern

AZUL

There is also some embroidery going on, a bit of a late start for the birth flower of the month Lily of The Valley

I will be sewing this and deciding on which project to make with the Azul pattern, I have a baby blanket to finish off too so lots to keep me busy. 

Have a great weekend and take care until next time.😘😘

 

A Bit Of this And That

 Hello! I hope that all of you that celebrated had a lovely Easter.  I ate far too much chocolate and I still have plenty in the house, I am a total chocoholic I envy those of you who who can eat just one piece and then put the rest away until later, how do you do that? I have decided that things are going to have to change around here I need to get a grip on my out of control habit of eating cakes biscuits and chocolate, the more I eat the more I crave. 

 I admit it I am addicted to sugar, there always seems to be an excuse, first it was Christmas, then I was ill and I felt I deserved a treat, then Mothers Day, then I thought I'll stop after after Easter and now I'm thinking I'll just eat all the chocolate first and then I'll be good.

I have decided I'm going to have a sugar free May, I know that there is lots of sugar hidden in the foods we buy but one needs to be sensible and not go over the top, what I mean by sugar free is no biscuits, cakes or chocolate and believe me it will be hard because I am met with temptation at every turn but I will resist says she with fingers crossed. 🤞

Join me if you like lets do it together no sugar in May.  I'm going to weigh myself at the start of the month and then again at the end and lets see if I can loose a few pounds. 

I have been walking more just to get try and get my fitness levels up and the weather has been better so no excuses.  I say better here on the North East coast we always seem to have a very cool breeze which means it is always a few degrees colder than it is inland. 

Seaham Lighthouse in the distance built in 1905 hoping to get renovated sometime this summer, it gets an awful battering from the north sea and even though it's painted nearly every year it now needs some serious TLC

The plaques give information about the mining industry, this is actually on the site of one of the three coal mines that were in use before 1990.

And there far in the distance just above the roof tops l spied these lovely cloud formations and just had to take a photo.

This is the sky outside my conservatory at 7am one morning last week I stood absolutely transfixed watching these seagulls, they were flying in a formation which lasted for about 20 minutes right above me, as if they were putting on a show just for me.  I didn't realise that seagulls did this they are such huge birds I didn't think they would be capable of putting on such a graceful and beautiful show. It quite made my day. 

It was impossible for me to capture the sheer scale, this is just a snippet there were literally hundreds of them, this was when I realised that a camera would have been better than a phone and that I should have paid more attention to what they taught in my photography class. 

On the craft front the daisy's are done, I really enjoyed stitching those, at this rate my walls are going to be covered with my little embroideries. I do love daisy's they are such a happy flower and come in all sorts of shapes and colours. 

Birth Flower For April The daisy

I am almost finished my bubbles blanket, here is a sneak peek, just two more bubbles to go this weekend I will be doing the border and hopefully finishing it off, then I will be ready to start something new, oh the excitement. 

I have to show you two more things that have excited me this week...

The first is more inspiration from the crochet crowd, this time for Tunisian crochet, I have tried it before as you can see here, but this is in a different class altogether...

The timeless Tunisian Blanket, the pattern is there already but there will be video tutorials happening beginning on the 28th April and yes I will be looking in to see what it's all about and deciding if this is something I would enjoy making.  You can find the introduction here.

The second thing is a new mosaic crochet pattern from one of my favourite designers Tinna Thorudottir Thorvaldar

 

AZUL

There are 36 different tile patterns and even more coming to be added later. I haven't bought it yet but you know that I will. 😀

Leaving you with a picture of this beautiful freesia, I planted lots of bulbs but this is the only one that has flowered, I must plant more of these for next year...

Take care until next time😘😘

Linking with 

Kathy's Slow Stitching Sunday

Handmade Monday

A Bit Of Garden Chat and Other News

 I'm quite restricted about what I can grow in my garden because the soil quality is so poor.  I have heavy clay soil and very little of it, when I dig down I'm lucky if I find a spades depth of top soil before I hit hard clay, bricks and rocks underneath. I have also got trees on the rear outside boundary of my property and the roots have spread a good distance into my garden so they make digging any sort of substantial  flower bed impossible.

I had great plans for this corner, I intended to dig a corner bed, I had it measured out and had even bought the edging for it.  When I tried to dig however I was met with hard thick roots far too difficult for me to deal with and so I had to compromise.  I have found that unless you have unlimited cash or a strong man at your disposal compromise is key.

All of these plants are in containers, the conifer at the back is in a planter and I'm hoping that the roots will be able to penetrate down through the mangle of tree roots underneath. The fatsia is planted in a trug, after reading Linda's post about open bottomed pots it gave me the idea of cutting out the base of the trug which was cracked anyway and planting the fatsia in that and hopefully the roots will find a way. One advantage of having pots is that they can be changed around to give each plant a spot in the limelight.

As you can see I am letting my lawn grow and I love the clover, I used to cut the grass every week to ten days or so and now I'm leaving it for three weeks, it's lovely to see the bees flitting from flower to flower. Can you see the flower spikes on the cordyline? They are very pretty when they first open and the scent fills the garden it's quite powerful and the bees love it. I remove the spike as soon as it has stopped flowering as the plant looks very tired and looses lots of it's leaves, unfortunately I can't reach those at the back so I have only managed to remove one this year.

It's amazing how quickly the garden changes even from day to day at this time of year. This is my garden today, the pictures above were taken a week ago. Can you see the purple clover next to the little apple tree? I left it to grow and cut around it when I did cut the grass, I'm going to see if I can add clusters of wild flowers into the lawn for next year.  The apple tree has only a few apples this year it's usually laden but it means that the apples will be bigger and they usually taste lovely.

The three stone tortoises have had a make over this year as they were looking very tired, I painted them with acrylic paint and then varnished them to protect them from the elements, and waiting in the wings....

The rabbit family, I'm trying to decide which colours to paint them, all suggestions welcomed. 

This is the third year that little pot of yellow pansies has flowered, I think they look lovely with the hosta as a backdrop.

This morning finds the sweet peas crying out to be picked, the orange lilies shining in the background  and my tumberlina tomatoes ripening quite nicely I should have a harvest very soon.

A little posy of flowers from my garden

In other news

• I lost a hearing aid! it's so easy to loose them when wearing a mask, every time you take your mask off the hearing aid comes out too so you have to be so careful, obviously I wasn't careful enough this time, but luckily I didn't have long to wait for a replacement and it was free but next time I'll have to pay £75 I hope that there won't be a next time!
• I still haven't got my refund for the treadmill! it wasn't on my credit card statement again this month, I have been in touch with them and they have asked for statement evidence which I have given them. I await a reply.
• I have been to Manchester with my daughter to visit my nephew and his family, it was lovely to see them and we stayed in a nice hotel overnight it had an amazing view if the city, it looks quite drab in the photo as it was a dull cloudy day. It's amazing how going away even for a short break does you the world of good especially if you can connect with loved ones.

• For yesterdays walk, Baz and I took the train to Seaton Carew which is about a 25 minute ride away and walked along the promenade back to Hartlepool, we stopped half way for coffee in a lovely café right on the sea front and then continued on to Hartlepool where we had lunch of fish n chips, not exactly healthy when the whole purpose of the walk was supposed to help us keep fit! we had a walk around Hartlepool Marina and then took the train back home clocking 18,450 steps not bad at all I think. 

The weather has been lovely of late cloudy but nice and warm long may it continue! I hope that you all have a lovely weekend. 

This And That

This week has gone so fast I have to think back to try and remember what I have done each day, nothing of great interest it has to be said. 

The u3a website was down for a few days and it was literally a nightmare to try and get it up and running again, it involved trying to get in touch with the person who had set the website up in the beginning in order to get access to the account area so that I could update a payment card, I needed the card details from the treasurer a simple thing you would think but no, the people involved were on holiday, there were a lot of emails going back and forth before it was sorted.

 The weather wasn't that great on Wednesday which is my long walk day, the solution was to go and visit the MetroCentre, my friend Baz has never been there before which I find amazing really the place was opened in 1986 and it's not that far away. 

I wasn't going to shop I'm not really a great shopper if I need something then I will go search for it but I won't shop just for the sake of it, dare I say it ...it bores me! I went there purely for the exercise because that place is huge, I lie because I was also going for coffee and lunch any excursion is only worth embarking upon if there is coffee and maybe food in the offing. 

All objectives were achieved, coffee was drank, lunch was eaten AND we walked over 10,000 steps without getting wet, Baz saw the place for the first time I asked him what he thought his reply....it's huge!! I don't think he will be bothered about going again. Having to wear a mask all day wasn't great either but we were indoors and they are the rules.

Last weeks walk was in Herrington Country Park which is just a 10 minute drive away from me and The Penshaw Monument is just over the road.

It's hard to believe this park sits on what was previously Herrington coal mine which closed in 1985, work on the park began in 1996.

The park itself is lovely to walk around and is skirted by plentiful wooded area's to get lost in should the mood take. 

We came upon this beautiful cemetery, some of the gravestones date back to 1854.

We eventually crossed over the road but not to walk up to the monument, I have done so in the past and it's a very steep climb I'm not sure this much older body would manage it now but I will try it sometime maybe at the start of the walk when I have more energy.

It was to sit in the café garden and have that much deserved coffee, you can just see the monument in the background as you sit there

 

I can't believe it's July already my favourite month of the year is June and it's gone,  I'm always sad when June has ended because it's the start of fresh new summer growth and the promise of  warm summer days, all things seem possible, by the time July arrives half of the year is over already.

Last month for the first time in too many years to count I didn't pick up a hook or a knitting needle, it felt so strange not to have some project to work on but I'm not in the mood, my mojo has gone right out of the window nothing seems to be inspiring me. We will see what July will bring.

I have however kept up with my personal challenge of completing a month of my cross-stitch 12 days of Christmas each month, only three more months to go!

Have a great week.