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.
This year most of that work is at the back on the new half. In December we demolished a shed, had a massive bonfire, dug up the loganberries and taken the frame holding them up down, we had already created a compost and a work area but over the last couple of weeks, we’ve moved the pallets up to the back to be used for storage and demarcation of the area.
We’ve also built our first bed, and have the wood for the next one! It will look much better when it has soil and plants in it but I’m still really happy with it. We will have to dig over and weed the area the second bed is going on. I know that we could just cover with cardboard and top up with compost but the weeds at the back of the plot are many and mostly couch grass and it’s been walked on loads as we’ve cleared the shed and moved things around. So I’m going to dig it over and do an initial weed with Ma following behind and that should sort the worst of it!
We also tidied the shed, because a tidy shed keeps Ma happy!
Shifting everything to the back of the plot gives us a clear space to the side of the shed. My eventual goal is still to make a sitting area and to put up some guttering and have a water butt but that may be next winter’s work! Right now, the shed needs a paint but all of our energy is going to setting up beds on the new half.
In terms of growing, the chard didn’t do well this year and Ma and I have made the decision to pull it up and something got into the broad beans and had a feast, some plants are still standing so I’m going to re sow in the gaps and net them to keep out the critters!
Fortunately, the kale has been amazing and we have loads. I took down a couple of the plants this weekend and put the languishing purple sprouting in the gaps. If they give us anything it will be a miracle but they’d only have gone on the compost if I hadn’t put them!
We also got some other work done. We covered four beds for the winter, moved two gooseberry bushes, dug up the loganberries and pulled down the frame. The plot feels like a whole plot again.
We were going to try and save the loganberries but they were old and in rough shape so up they came and down came the rusting metal frame. We’ve left one frame up right at the back of the plot, which in a change of plan, will support the boysenberry. All the advice I’ve had about the boysenberry is that it needs room and the width of the allotment, and I really don’t want to cut the plot in half again so it’s going at the back with the roses and the mint. At the back, is the ‘work area’ and eventually a temporary greenhouse and the compost area.
There were two gooseberry bushes on the new half which I moved. I really wasn’t sure how best to do this, so I cut the bushes back, dug them up as best I could and plonked them in the new bed. The soil in that bed is pretty good and later when we get some, I’ll cover that bed with woodchip, which my soft fruit really seems to love. I don’t expect much from them this year, but assuming they live, they should do well the year after, which is when I’ll move (finally) the ones on my plot. They won’t move far, just away from the edge of the plot and into the bed right next to them. And then hopefully in four years time, we’ll have four fully productive gooseberry bushes that we can effectively cage to say nothing of the extra rhubarb plants, I want to put in the vacant gooseberry space! Allotmenting is a long game..
We cut back the autumn raspberries, and when I move the boysenberry to the back of the plot, I’m going to move some of those into the spare bed. The three planned fruit beds will be ordered in January, so I need to think about whats going in there, I might wait for the spring when Wilko and Morrisons start selling fruit plants and see what they have! Before that I need to sort out my two planned flower beds either side of the new raised beds. I’ve got one planted up with flower bulbs that were given to me but there is already a rose and lemon balm on the other side so I may just leave it and sow some annuals there in spring or plant some herbs I don’t have, part of me still wants a camomile lawn but that might never happen!
In short, the plot feels like we have a plan and it’ll be sorted very soon, but there is lots of work still to do to have the new half ready for spring…
We cleared the allotment, had a haircut and saw Knives Out. It was busy, I had a very early night last night.
Nic Dempsey 