What are you all up to

Thank you David, that’s very helpful 👍 I’ll show this to the wife 🙂

Thanks for the tip WN - however, I know Ellerburn extremely well and it is, indeed, a beautiful spot.  I used to go picking-up on the shoot (with Tony that we went out to lunch with) and three of the drives were around there. Indeed, one of them is in that field just behind the church and it was often necessary to nip over the wall into the churchyard to recover birds from there! Sadly, neither he nor I are fit enough to do it anymore.

A trip up to the Port of Ness Beach yesterday with our daughter and family.  Stopped off at the Wobbly Dog Cafe on the way.  It'll be interesting to see what happens to this little cafe...  the owner is retiring and moving to East Anglia to be close to family.  The new owners take over at the beginning of September.

The weather was good for our walk on the beach, although a little on the cold side.  Gave my daugher, S-in-Law, and grandson the chance to climb some rocks... 😀

David

Hi Freddy, hope you don’t mind me jumping in on your comment but I had my hip replacement 2 and a half years ago (when I was 71) and it was great.  Well, as David said there are inconveniences but mostly helped by occupational health equipment - raised toilet seat and support surrounds etc.  We bought some blocks to raise a chair and used extra cushions for other things.  2 weeks after my operation we had our son and family, with our 3 year old granddaughter, stay with us for a couple of months so it was difficult to rest but maybe that was a good thing as it got me going pretty quickly!  I was walking with elbow crutches after 2 days with only a little discomfort.  It seems to be a fairly common operation these days with few issues, as long as you follow the rules I suppose, and do the (fairly simple) physio.  Now I have no problems, or discomfort from that hip.  Sadly I can’t say the same for the other side!!  

Heddlo makes some good points about the pre-op arrangements in the house. I know all hospitals are different but I had a meeting at the hospital pre-op to discuss what was needed, all the things that Heddlo mentioned. Apparently what is important that when sitting your upper thigh is straight rather than dipping down which requires a higher sitting position be it a chair or bed. One of the biggest fears immediately post op is the risk of dislocation but the hospital should go through this with you. It takes a while for all the muscles and ligaments to reknit after the op. One of the reasons  regular exercise is important post op.

David

“Hi Freddy, hope you don’t mind me jumping in on your comment”

Not at all, quite the opposite heddlo. Thanks very much for your post, which I’ve shown to the wife 👍

We arrived at our current site (Harrogate Caravan Park - the one next to the farm shop) yesterday. Nice site with easy access and at a good price, £28 pn. Visited Harlow Carr today. Very nice as one would expect from an RHS establishment. We didn’t get to see all of it, but spent a nice couple of hours walking around. A pity there wasn’t a Japanese garden, I do like a Japanese garden 🙂 As always happens, we ended up buying a plant, a Campsis, for £33 😐 The plan is to rip out a climbing rose and a clematis, both of which haven’t thrived at all, and replace with the Campsis.

Another busy morning, we washed down the front and the back of the house and downstairs windows. All looking neat now. We hibernate in August to miss the Devon crowds so a good time for all of these chores. Also we have a family party here next week, it’s a Big birthday for OH in the middle of September, he kept saying he didn’t want a fuss and two of our granddaughters will be back at Uni then so we are having an early smallish celebration at home. Also a handy time as all the family will be here then for my nephews wedding the following weekend. I’ll be making all the food for our party at the end of the week and freezing it. Decided to buy the birthday cake though. Really hoping for a nice day weather wise so that we can all sit out in the garden. After the wedding we are off to the caravan for a break. I really can’t wait, so looking forward to it.

Finished lopping the overgrown Hawthorne bush at the rear of the garden yesterday and today. Right arm now sore from holding the long strimmer. Just have an overgrown Holly bush that we deliberately let grow to replace a gap between ourselves and Armageddon next door. We were a bit shocked the other day after returning home from our weekend away. The person who might be buying the property has had the windows cleaned. First time in 6 years!

Lovely photos DSB. Beautiful place but weather incoming as they say.

Hope to be at Harlow ourselves next month. Nice photos as well Freddy.

WN, the sale of next door to you must have gone through rather quickly, as it doesn't seem so long ago when the council men invaded the property!

Grand photos, David, hope that the forthcoming winds and rain bypass you. More good photos from Freddy too.

We moved down to our last site of this trip, another new NoE one. It was dry while we packed up, and when we arrived on site, but ran through a shower over Shap, and again from mid afternoon for a while, along with quite strong winds, but it is dry at the moment. Forecast is not at all promising for tomorrow, unfortunately, nor for the bank holiday weekend up here near the Lakes.