A frustrating month

 

I returned from Mum’s at the beginning of October, as she seemed to be recovering quite well from her bout of Covid, and I had a couple of appointments booked for that week that I didn’t want to cancel.

At some point during the week I became aware of a persistent, background headache that neither Paracetamol nor Ibuprofen seemed to touch, and tremendous tiredness. I decided to ignore it, as best I could, and carry on as normally as possible, especially as I had a 10-day farm sit booked for the couple at Dundry. Luckily, most of the work is concentrated at the beginning and end of the day, with letting out the poultry, topping up food and water containers and then shutting them in again at night, so I was able to rest during the middle of the day. And, boy, did I need to rest! I cleaned out one of the poultry houses one morning and had to go and have a lie down in the afternoon!

I had promised to have a go at tackling the overgrown fruit cage while I was there so, over a period of a couple of days, I cut out old loganberry and blackberry canes, tied in the new ones, which had ramped off through the other fruit bushes and out through the netting above the fruit cage, tied in the autumn fruiting raspberries and severely pruned half of the gooseberry, red- and black-currant bushes. I left half of them in their overgrown state a) because I ran out of steam and b) because I suddenly panicked that Sally would never forgive me if she had no fruit next year! (I needn’t have worried, because she wants me to back at some point and do the rest!)

The fruit cage before ...

... and after

On Thursday, Russell, their handyman, came and trimmed the sides of the hugely overgrown Leylandii hedge. This, combined with my prunings, made an impressive heap of bonfire material which I just had to get rid of before Sally came home – cue one enormous fire that burned for two days!

My favourite occupation!

It was a good'un!

All the animals behaved themselves (and stayed alive – always good!) and the two elderly cats, who are now 19+, finally seemed to accept me, after 12 years, and both came and curled up next to me one evening. Teo, the young tabby, who is incredibly affectionate to Sally and follows her around everywhere, kept me very much at paw’s length, but did deign to come and keep me company when I was sorting the fruit cage. He liked to use the top netting as a hammock and would occasionally dab me on the head through the holes! I couldn’t decide whether this was affection or not.

Smartie at 19+

Teo in his 'hammock'

Once back from the farm sit my sister, Lynda, and her hubbie, Paul, came down from Sheffield for a few days. I couldn’t put them up in the house, as I would have liked to have done, because my lodgers are still here, so they brought their camper van and stayed on a very nice site at the bottom of the Tor. The weather wasn’t great, so all of the things I thought we might do – climbing the Tor, nice walks around Glastonbury – didn’t happen. However, we did go to Wells Cathedral on one day and saw Gaia – a travelling sculpture of the world, which was hanging in the nave and occupying most of the space.

Gaia in Wells Cathedral

On the Friday evening we met up with Jeni and Hutch in a pub in Glastonbury, before going for a meal in The Crown (where I went during my birthday week). The pub was full of pirates, goths and witchy type people and I couldn’t work out if there was some special ’do’ on or whether it was just a normal night out in Glastonbury – to be honest, I think it was the latter! Again, the food was delicious and we got to try most of the starter dishes as three of us opted for the ‘any three starters as a main course’ option, which we then shared between us.

On the Saturday morning we drove over to Shepton Mallet so that they could see Jeni’s new home, too, and then we wandered round into the town for coffee and cake. I realised how much I would like to move back to Shepton at some point when, in the course of only a few yards, I met three people I knew who would have loved to chat, and the guys in the Cheeky Bean café also know me from my market days. I’d almost forgotten what a very friendly place Shepton is – if you smile at complete strangers there, they are far more likely to smile back and have a quick word than just about anywhere else I have been.

Later on in the day, once the rain had stopped, we drove over to the RSPB reserve on the levels to see if we could see the starling murmuration. It’s still quite early in the season, but they reckoned there were already 30,000 starlings roosting in the reeds each night. That figure will rise to 300,000 by January! I have no photos of the starlings as the rain started again just as they were massing and they all dived into the reeds quite quickly with only a short display first. However, we did see egrets, swans, various ducks and a marsh harrier so were pleased we’d made the effort to go.

Six weeks on from my positive Covid test I still have the headache and feel really tired, so last week I went to see a cranial osteopath that I have been visiting for the last 20+ years, on and off. Luckily, he thinks he will be able to help me over the next couple of weeks and then, as long as I pace myself a bit, I should be back to ‘normal’. The actual Covid infection was hardly anything but the fatigue afterwards has been very frustrating – there is only so much TV I can bear to watch, and only so many pairs of socks and wristwarmers I can knit. 

Shepton Mallet Sunday Market

I had a stall at the Shepton Sunday Market last week and managed to sell a few things, and I have another couple of markets booked before Christmas, so may get rid of a few more. I help the couple who run the Sunday market by turning up early and stewarding, which involves standing by a barrier, greeting the stallholders as they arrive and directing them to their allocated pitches. Once everyone is in I can set up my own stall  and get ready for the day. There is always live entertainment throughout the day, showcasing local talent, and the first act of the day played my sort of music, including a couple of Fairport Convention songs. However, the biggest surprise came when he announced that he would play a song by an Irish singer-song writer, Jonathan Kelly. Many, many years ago when I was in my last year at school, I'd gone to stay with my sister at Bristol University and we'd been to a concert in the Student Union featuring The Strawbs, with support act, Jonathan Kelly. My sister bought his record and I then taped it and took it with me when I went off to college, and I still have it. Consequently, I know all of the words to all of the songs, so happily sat at my stall singing away. At the end of his set, I wandered over for a chat, as I have never met anyone else who has ever heard of Jonathan Kelly. It turns out we saw him on the same concert tour back in 1972! Unfortunately, he didn't know any more songs off the album to play but has promised to learn my favourite for when he comes back in March 2023! For any of you that have read my blogs from the start, this song, Sligo Fair, was the one I sang at an open mic night in Lee Bay, Devon about 12 years ago!

Some of my wares