Allotment Adventures: No work this week

Posted on January 22, 2020 by nicdempsey

This weekend was the best weather we’ve had in ages, but we didn’t work on the plot due to Ma’s head injury and having visitors. I did get the bird feeders filled up but that’s about it!

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Staying in, the joys of January

Posted on January 21, 2020 by nicdempsey

Although I loathe January as a month, now we are over halfway through, I was reflecting on whether it had any good points and had to admit that it’s always a good time for the flat and appreciating my space.After the bustle of December, the break that comes at Christmas allows me to spend more time in my flat. That combined with taking down the tree and all the tidying that entails, means that I notice things I need to do and have the time to do so the space becomes more manageable, and tidier.I enjoy the space more because being outside is grim and I need to find space for new things that were Christmas presents. In fact, if I had to spend January, in my house, it really would be lovely. As it is, I have to leave occasionally and that makes me love my cosy space even more!

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Monday Miscellany: January sickness…

Posted on January 20, 2020 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!January is not a good month for the Dempsey’s. For the last couple of years, Ma and I always get sick in January. I thought that I’d escaped this year but on Wednesday night had another episode of fever and being sick. That’s four straight months, so it’s time to go to the doctor’s and get it checked out. First available appointment is February 10th!

Ma had a tooth out on Monday, and the recovery has been more painful than expected, she caught a cold and then on Saturday night, she tripped in Northfields Avenue on the way to mine and got a nasty cut to her head. She’s ok but the cut wouldn’t stop bleeding so off to urgent care we went (me in my cozy pyjamas!). Two and a bit hours later, she had two stitches and some glue on the cut and that stopped the bleeding. I am very lucky to have a community of people here that help, Dionne for telling Ma that she had to go to hospital and Kathy for coming and picking us and taking us home (which was absolutely above and beyond with everything she has going on right now!)I’m also feeling really grateful for the NHS for stitching Ma up and that we didn’t have to worry about the cost of it. The Urgent Care Unit is privately run for the NHS and while it was great, I’m not sure we all truly understand how much of the NHS is already run by private companies and how much more it will be if the US get their way in a trade deal (and they absolutely will).

Other than that chunk of Saturday night, the weekend was lovely. Jo is in the country and brought Deborah over to see the plot. Deborah who says she isn’t cooking much nowadays make a cake, isn’t it beautiful?It’s not something I would say to her face (she’d tell me I was being ridiculous) but the Gauld kitchen and the way that she and Jo cook is one of the influences on my own cooking life and the reason I first tried my hand at baking bread!

This week, I intend not to be sick, to book a smear test (it might be TMI but we need to be open about the importance of them!) and check to see if I have an in date tetanus booster and if not to arrange one. I need to have a barnstorming week at work too, there’s just a lot to do so I really need to get my head down and get some stuff off the ‘to-do’ list.

 

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Friday Links: I was sick again!

Posted on January 17, 2020 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! I’ve been busy and sick this week so I haven’t read much and there aren’t many links…

Ireland’s controversial centenaries are exposing the divides deepened by Brexit

The agony of weekend loneliness: ‘I won’t speak to another human until Monday’

Remainers aren’t going to vanish on 31 January. We fight on, sure of our cause. I’m not sure that I will fight on, but I know that what I won’t do is be quiet. I’ve had it with Brexiteers, telling me it’s going to be fine when I can patently see it isn’t or that we need to be more patriotic, it puts me in mind of the G.K. Chesterton quote “My country, right or wrong,” is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.” Of course it’s my country but that doesn’t mean I agree with every one of its actions. So here it is, they voted for it, they got a majority and they are going to have to own the results, if it’s not sunlight uplands, those who voted to remain, get to say so. We get to point out that it didn’t work, that we were right and they were wrong and they will need to own that wrongness. But when it comes to it, I bet they won’t remember that this was what they wanted, it’ll be someone else’s fault that it’s all gone wrong.

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Allotment Adventures: Halfway there

Posted on January 15, 2020 by nicdempsey

I think we surprised ourselves this weekend.

We have both the larger squash beds built and got the paths in. I dug the area over, Ma did so much weeding and then because there was wood chip (ex Christmas trees) we sorted out the paths. We did consider making a bigger bed but then decided that the big wider path would work for potato buckets.

We have a ton of stuff still to do but we now have half of the new half more or less sorted with a structure in place.

The only other thing we did was buy new bird feeders for the new half.

The things in bold are what we need to work on next week, there will be some actual gardening happening.

  • Dig over and weed the area the second squash bed is going.
  • Build the second squash bed
  • Cut the blue pipe to the right size
  • Sow some more broad beans and cover the bed with netting
  • Pull up the chard and cover that bed
  • Use the various collected bricks around the plot to mark out the space where my bulbs are next to the herb bed.
  • Move the boysenberry
  • Split the autumn raspberry bed into two.
  • Sow sweet peas
  • Learn about transplanting roses
  • Order and install the first three long beds next to the fruit beds
  • Paint the shed
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What I’ve Read – November and December 2019

Posted on January 14, 2020 by nicdempsey

The end of the year was tricky and I completely dropped the ball on what I read, so here is most of it!

Shadowmagic – John Lenahan

Prince of Hazel and Oak – John Lenahan

Sons of Macha – John Lenahan

These were on my TBR list, they were easy and quite lovely to read.

When Did You Last See Your Father – Jodi Taylor

I have a Jodi Taylor problem, I seem to love everything she writes.

Eggnog Makes Her Easy – Erin Nicholas

This was a quick easy novella but I didn’t much care for it. It’s a culture thing.

Why Is Nothing Ever Simple – Jodi Taylor

Why isn’t it? I’m looking forward to the next full length St Mary’s but this was a delightful Christmas Day read.

Christmas Past – Jodi Taylor

See above..

Someone to Remember – Mary Balogh

I’m a bit cross. You don’t get many older romance heroines and I think this one deserved more than an novella.

Sword of Kings – Bernard Cornwell

I’m determined to see this series through, I am loving that Uhtred gets beaten occasionally on account of him being so old..

The Queen of Nothing – Holly Black

I loved this, I loved the whole series, I pretty much love all of Holly Black’s novels for slightly older readers. I loved Jude and I loved how this turned out!

A Single Thread – Tracy Chevalier

This is a subject I have a lot of personal sympathy with and I enjoyed it and the idea of found family but I really did find the ‘romance’ ridiculous and I found the ending unrealistic.

The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England – Ian Mortimer

This was a birthday present from Jo and I really enjoyed it. If you’re interested in the subject this is a great entry into the era..

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Monday Miscellany: Great for January

Posted on January 13, 2020 by nicdempsey

Happy MondayGuys last week was hard. We gradually have more light in January but in London at least the mornings are darker for a while and sunrise is right about 8am at this point in the month. I have to be at the station at 8am (at the absolute outside) so I’m leaving the house about 7:40am and the street lamps are still on and it still sucks, it always sucks…

So after two weeks of waking up about 7:50am and getting out of bed at about 8:15am, this week of needing to be out of bed at 6-ish is not at all fun. I have felt behind and struggling with work, like most of the office working world, I spend most of the first half of the week trying to find my brain. The week ended well though, I had my year of end appraisal, which was much better than I expected (I wasn’t expecting it to be bad but there was a bunch of really lovely feedback) and I do enjoy what I’m doing, so for this month at least I just need to hang on to that and power through until it gets lighter.

Other things this week, Ma and I saw Little Women, I had a good weekend and I’m ready for the week.

So for January, things are pretty good…

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Sunday Music: Nobody to Blame – Chris Stapleton

Posted on January 12, 2020 by nicdempsey

Tomorrow is my parents wedding anniversary. This seemed appropriate, as it does every time I think about my parents marriage.

Ma did tear up her wedding photos, shortly after the honeymoon, they had to get them reprinted..

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Recommendations: Angus Castus

Posted on January 11, 2020 by nicdempsey

Although I’ve been aware of it for a little while, last year peri-menopause really started to kick me in the bum, my PMT has been horrendous and my period has been somewhat erratic, some have been perfectly normal, some have lasted for 15 days, so it was time to go and visit the GP.Apparently 46 is on the early side but Ma was about this age when she started HRT so probably not that unusual in her family. We don’t know about the grandma’s who died at 49 and 51 respectively, although over Christmas one of my cousins on my Dad’s side mentioned a history of early menopause in the family so who knows?

We talked about HRT, I’m keen to avoid it not because I have a problem with the idea of it but I’m worried that it could make my migraines worse (when I was on the pill, they were horrendous). Given my age she suggested I tried taking a herbal supplement called Angus Castus. She was really clear that there had been no studies that said it was good for menopausal or peri-menopausal women but that there were studies that proved it was effective for PMT and that women who had taken it had reported that it seemed also to help with their menopausal symptoms. She said to give it three months and if I was still having issues to come back to her.

Angus Castus is also known as the Chasteberry and is a popular herbal supplement said to help loads of stuff (PMT, menstrual disorders, infertility, acne, menopause and nursing difficulties), apparently researchers believe that it works by decreasing the levels of the hormone prolactin and that helps rebalance other hormones including estrogen and progesterone, which in turn reduces PMT symptoms.

I’ve given it three months and it’s definitely helped my PMT. I’m much less emotional and bad tempered I don’t have sore breasts for two weeks before my period and just not having those things helps loads. I’ve also noticed my bleeding is lighter. However, if anything, my hormonal chin ache got much worse for a bit, it’s a little bit better but that could also be because I’m currently experimenting with retinol to see if that will help before I go back to the GP and explain that I need something for the chin spots, I didn’t have a spotty chin when I was a teenager, I’m damned if I’ll put up with them now!

I’m taking (Natures Aid PremEeze Agnus Castus and the recommendation is two a day but started with one at night and found that that works well for me, although I’ll increase the dose if I notice that the PMT gets bad again.

Honestly, I can’t believe the difference it’s made.

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Friday Links: The World is Still on Fire

Posted on January 10, 2020 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! It’s 202o and the world is on fire, quite literally in Australia and the Amazon.

Meghan and Harry’s story is quite the drama, but it’s no abdication crisis. Marina Hyde on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. I’ve been saying for ages that it’s him not his wife. Harry has always had an unrealistic view of his mother and the misfortune to have a selfish, emotionally distant father. He seems to me to be emotionally frozen as a 12 year old and his family life and boarding school won’t have helped any. Typical for his class, he’s not used to being questioned or criticised and has no understanding of how to handle it. Overall, it seems to me that marriage and a baby and the press treatment of his family, has triggered a mental health crisis which coupled a wife who doesn’t understand the Royal Family very well either as ‘the Firm’ or as an actual family who are emotionally repressed and fucked up (and no blame there, it’s hard). So the best thing to do would be to withdraw but I read that statement as a way to try and keep the family bit of the family while not being in the business and as for independent income, he has a 7 million quid trust fund, he’s not going to starve.

What is private equity, and why is it killing everything you love?. Rampant capitalism is not a force for good. Ever

The Tories now face a dilemma: change, or lose your new voters

In 2020, Skip Your Resolutions—Embrace a Vice.

Brace yourself: the next phase of Brexit is going to get messy. Going to get messy. Yes, everyone who voted against it, knows it will. I hope I’m wrong but I think I’m right and this is going to be a complete disaster…

Germany’s abortion law: made by the Nazis, upheld by today’s right. It really feels like the whole world is going backwards

‘Like sending bees to war’: the deadly truth behind your almond-milk obsession. I’m interested. I’m trying really hard to garden with more care, but it’s really hard to work out what to do for the best. My allotment neighbour is getting bees, which is good news for me!

The case against otters: necrophiliac, serial-killing fur monsters of the sea. Add this to the list of the many things I didn’t know about wildlife

Don’t glaze over. This statistic holds the key to UK prosperity. 10 years ago I was earning what I earn now. Over the decade I’ve had 3 jobs and some temp work. Please don’t misunderstand me, I know how fortunate I’ve been but that’s my point. I’ve worked hard to get jobs, I’ve worked hard at them but in terms of money, I have less than I did 10 years ago. The money I’ve earned hasn’t changed, but my rent has increased, my utility bills are bigger, my travel costs larger. So why should I feel pro-active or be productive at work. Most people like me are struggling and as I’ve said, I’m lucky and I happen to really enjoy my job but make no mistake people work to live not the other way around, and their productivity has gone down because they don’t get rewarded for good, productive work, they get more of the same.  We need a massive re-think in this country and we’re not going to get one and working people, the ones without family money behind them are going to get comprehensively shafted and for the most part, they chose to…

A tale of two cities: London’s rich and poor in Tower Hamlets. We should be ashamed…

“We are living in a touristic prison”: Palestinians on life in the holy city of Bethlehem. It’s a ghetto and I don’t understand how you could, as a Christian, go on a pilgrimage to somewhere and not do anything about the oppression the people that live there, live under.

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