Tuesday 1 October 2013

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...

No comments:

Post a Comment