Latest News from Kirkstead Old Mill Cottage B&B Woodhall Spa

Yet another first for me from the world of birds

Oh, Barbara! What have you done?

Do you recall how pleased I was (a month ago) to see Tony planting seeds in the raised bed one morning?  Well, a few days ago I was out there with Reg, discussing how we could raise the netting screens that are intended to stop the birds eating all of the strawberries, when I noticed a few seedlings in the next section that looked rather like young Rosebay Willow Herb, a weed.  So I did no more than gently full them up!  I then observed that they were growing in a somewhat straight line and .....  Yes, you've guessed correctly, they were Tony's very young vegetables, without a label.

I've just read that earlier posting and it looks as if they might have been spinach, so I am going to see if they have recovered, as Reg and I tenderly popped them back into the ground as soon as I realised my error.

Sorry about this, but there's going to be a delay - I'm off to vote, and then I'm being transported to the seaside by some of our family who are here this week, leaving Yvonne to doing the clearing up and Bridget to arrange fresh flowers in all of the rooms.

Good morning to our newest garden resident at Kirkstead in Woodhall Spa

As Tony took delivery of our sausages and bacon from Grasmere Farm, he spotted a flutttering in front of the house, which led to these snaps of a most welcome creature who must have flown from the nest beside the front door this morning.

  How about the hair do!

Yet more broad beans, and our fourth evening meal

The weather here was gorgeous, so we managed to get another section of the raised bed planted up with broad bean seeds during the afternoon.

At 6 pm we were attending Evensong at our dear little St Leonard's Church across the field, and it was great to see so many of our special friends and neighbours there.

We came straight home, so that I could lay the table for our 4th evening meal: avocado & prawn salad, followed by roast pork (with all the trimmings.)  We were again treated to a pavlova decorated with strawberries and kiwis as a dessert.

Over this bank holiday weekend we've had two couples arrive on bikes, travelling north to south, and earlier in the week we had four walkers too.

Tony wakes up in time to enjoy the white Wisteria

It is now over a week since we were advised by Tony's new oncologist that he ought to have a rest from chemotherapy.  We were pleased to see her again yesterday in Lincoln Hospital so that she could give us a fuller explanation as to how she had reached that decision, one that we had initially felt very sad about.  She showed us the film of the recent CT scan, which has shown a growth in the size of the metastases, but suggested that the cancer was progressing slowly.

Anyway, the really good news is that Tony is becoming more alert and definitely less tired.  For the first time in months, he spent most of the day using his laptop computer.  Hurray!

News from the nest box

No more eggs have been laid, so we are assuming that just six will be hatched in due course.

I'm back again - discussing AVASTIN

I sat in front of the computer screen on Thursday evening, longing to write to you all, but too numb to get typing.

On Thursday morning we'd had a visit from one of the local estate agents, whom we greatly respect, with the intention of getting some idea of the value of the Cottage in preparation to raise some cash to use to pay our National Health system to continue giving Tony the drug that we believe has given him an extra year in which to fight his cancer.  The valuer hadn't seen the house for about twelve years and I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say he was astonished at what we had achieved in the past eight.  He felt so stunned that he has gone away to think about what such a unique property could be worth, and will let us know next week.  His reaction left us quite buoyant until ......

We had a telephone call in the afternoon from our new oncologist at Lincoln County Hospital who, having returned from her holiday, had studied all the notes and recent scan results, in order to advise us on what treatment to recommend for Tony.  Basically, she implied that his system is now so toxic that he is on his own from now on!  We knew he had absorbed everything that was available except for a Monoclonal Antibody called Cetaximab, but she believes that the NHS will not pay for this, and it sounds as if we shouldn't bother to pay for it either, as it is so expensive, and any success is only likely to be 50%, AND she tells us it is highly poisonous.

I'm sure you can begin to imagine how we felt, but we're nothing if not resilient AND determined, so we're going to make sure next week that she is aware that we will raise whatever it costs, and that Tony would like to "leave no stones unturned" in order to stay alive as long as possible.  He says he doesn't mind dying, but he doesn't want to leave me.  There's a tear rolling down my face and a big lump in my throat as I record this - it's such a privilege to be loved so much. 

We know that the oncologist is not being callous; she just wants him to enjoy some quality life again, free from a long list of side effects that the chemotherapy and Avastin have produced.  The extreme tiredness is so frustrating (but Tony and Brian won at the bridge club again last week).  Another compensation will be that Tony's hair should regrow.

It's not raining today, so in a few minutes we're going to plant another patch of our raised bed beside the drain with broad beans.  It's great to extend the harvesting season.

Quite a change in six years

I thought this six-year-old photo really shows how much our rear garden has changed.  The photo of Tony that I posted yesterday was cropped, but imagine that his chair is placed just in front of the up-turned orange boat.  

The wisp of smoke on the slope is part of the preparation of ridding the bank of weeds, so that we could grow just grass and daffodils.  At first we also had the bi-annual Evening Primrose there too, but it soon got crowded out.  The display of daffs this year was fantastic, but the higher slope needs to have a white variety added for next year.

 

The raised bed

 

It was great to see Tony in the garden today preparing to sow some spinach seeds.

Experimenting

What do you make of the green text?  I thought I might experiment and use different coloured words for different topics.  Please send your reactions in the comments section. or send an email to me at  barbara@woodhallspa.com

I was delighted to read a comment from Susan Hallam tonight.  She has been able to provide a link to the talk presented by Larry Page of Google, so have a read if you want to find out what inspired me.  I have tried to add a direct link from this page, but my usual way of doing it doesn't seem to have worked, but if you go to the comments on the 7th May, I'm sure it will work.