And Breathe

 

My head is a great deal better today. I can think again!  There's still a little 'thickness', and a bit of pain at the head/spine area, I'm feeling good.  I've been looking at foods high in magnesium and realised I don't eat many of them. 

In addition to my horse-pills, I'll be increasing my intake of Mg-rich foods. My breakfast of  granola and natural yogurt can be enhanced by tossing in some roasted cashews and pumpkin seeds. Instead of a couple of clementines mid-afternoon, I'll have a banana.  Salmon will be  a more frequent item on the menu, as will spinach. These changes, along with supplements should hopefully start to rectify the problem.

This morning I learned one of the other symptoms of magnesium deficiency is high blood pressure. An increase in Mg may well help my BP to be A OK once more. 

Crash!

 

I forgot to take my horse-pill until I was almost asleep last night. My body would not co-operate, and would not rise from my partial slumber to trundle down the stairs to get the magnesium. This was a big, big, BIG mistake.

Today I am suffering. It's migraine time, and I can function at a superficial level. I won't be making that mistake again!

Tulips, Snowdrops and Bluebells

 

Whilst out walking Ava, I saw the most wonderful display of white tulips. I have decided to have white tulips, snowdrop and bluebells in my garden next year. It will be lovely to have a little patch of white and green, then followed by a riot of summer colour.

One place to buy white bluebells is at Farmer Gracy.

Even Happier

 

Wheeeee!  No headaches what so ever! I'm delighted!

Happy!

 

I am happy!  

The migraine has gone, but there is still a bit of low frequency throbbing from the tension headache. I'm feeling happy, and sunny, and so much better.

At work, I was speaking to a colleague who is a former nurse. I'd mentioned how much better I was feeling. I didn't think the magnesium tablet could have kicked in already, but that the placebo effect was wonderful. She explained magnesium can be processed very quickly, and she would expect the benefits to be from the Mg, and not placebo. Surprised and delighted, was I.

Head and Finger

A muscle at the base of middle finger decided it didn't like its normal position and spasmed. It took a fair bit of massage to get it back into its proper place. Then in the afternoon, a migraine started, and the finger decided to go its own way again. I'd been having tension headaches off and on last week.

Muscle spasms can be caused by a lack of magnesium. Coeliacs can have problems getting a proper about of essential minerals because of crappy gut absorption doodahs.

I started thinking, 'Perhaps I need some magnesium.' Then a stray memory waved at me from a distance - migraines and tension headaches can also have something to do with magnesium.

I've taken a huge horse-pill of magnesium. Hopefully it might make things a little better.

Covid and Luftwaffe to Blame

 

There have been delays to the new ferry terminal. As can be expected, when there are delays, there are also price increases. Covid is certainly a very understandable reason for delays. I was a little perplexed by the Luftwaffe also being to blame. After digging a little deeper, a few unexploded World War II bombs were found. Yup, a bomb or two can definitely cause delays.

Favourite Things

 

• Hugs from favourite people, especially when they haven't been hugged in a long time
• Blue skies and wispy, white, skudding clouds
• White chocolate
• Warm spring days
• Walks on the beach
• Bacon sandwiches
• Learning new things, be they words, languages, skills, recipes...
• Having people over to our home
• Crafting
• Writing
• Singing silly songs
• Getting just the right spot on the dog so she makes really derpy faces

Wild Flower Gardening

 

I've been inspired by councils and other authorities deciding to ditch grass verges and instead have wild flower meadow strips instead.

The Beloved and I have removed weeds from a flower bed. We've planted pansies, and I've sown poppies and a wild flower seed mix. The bed is looking better than it did this morning, and hopefully, it will be in bloom in a few weeks times. I'm fully expecting the pansies to be overshadowed by the taller wild flowers, but they will be pretty until they start growing.

Next year, I'm hoping to plant a cottage garden. The aim is to have riot of colour, with very little maintenance.

Fabulous Day

We've had a lovely day today. In the morning, there was Shut Up and Write. Afterwards, we sat and chatted for a while. Then the Beloved, the Offspring, Ava the dog, Magdalena and I sauntered around to the Creperie. 

The food was wonderful. Three of us had variations on goat's cheese galettes. The lovely Livia asked if Ava might like a cheese and ham galette. We assured her this would be most welcome. Livia was a little sad when Ava didn't tuck into it right away. I broke it into pieces, and saw the steam escaping. Too hot for a pooch.   When Livia returned, Ava's plate was clean, and she licked her lips at her. I explained this meant she was thanking the chef for a delicious meal.

This is most definitely somewhere we need to visit again.

Crosh Cuirn

The information here has been edited from a description of a Crosh Cuirn at the Manx Museum. I'll be including a mention of a crosh cuirn in the story of Honey Hill Farm.

A crosh cuirn is a traditional Manx protective charm, often hung above doorways to prevent evil spirits from entering homes on May eve. It is a wooden cross, made from twigs of mountain ash (rowan) bound together with sheep's wool gathered from the hedgerows. The rowan tree was seen as having magical powers which made it a powerful charm against evil spirits, but only if broken by hand and not cut with a knife.

Traditionally at May eve (the beginning of summer and end of winter), crosh cuirns would be placed over the doors of cottages and cowsheds to stop evil spirits from entering. They would also be tied to the tails of cattle, to stop the cattle being bewitched. 

Most people no longer believe in ill-spirits and witches being about on May eve, but many still put up crosh cuirns every year. It is probably fair to say that they are now seen as a symbol of Manx cultural identity, rather than anything else.

Re-starting 100 Days

 

The 100 Days challenge slipped by un-noticed. My mind was focused on re-opening the shop, getting the VAT returns in, stock taking and other end of financial year stuff. 

I don't know how many days I had managed to do, but it definitely made a difference. In the past, I might well have thrown up my hands and said "Another project on which I failed to deliver." Whilst it is true, there are no real consequences to stumbling in the 100 Days. It just delays the completion of the book. Another reaction might have been that if I couldn't do it perfectly first time, then I never would, and it would be best to give up.  But not this time. This time, I'm simply going to say the previous attempt was a practise, and now I'm ready to go.

The first of May, the first day of summer, is the first day of my 100 Days. 

I Am Relieved

We've just heard the Government press briefing. Despite a few new cases of Covid, and one of unknown source, we are not heading back into lockdown. Ninety four percent of the most vulnerable people have been vaccinated, and seventy percent of adults have received at least one vaccination.

I'm so relieved!  

I'm also relieved money is flowing into the business account. On Saturday morning, I'll need to take a trip to the bank to deposit money.

We're reached a lovely number. Seventy percent of adults have received their first vaccination. This figure has been reached before the younger adults have been invited to book appointments. I very much hope the figure continues to grow, and as many as are able to receive, do.

100 Days of Writing

That's 7 days of writing done. The goal is a minimum of 10 minutes each day. It's not turning out that way. The least amount of time I have spent is 25 minutes. Most days, it's closer to an hour.

My pen is making marks on paper, very little, probably none of it, is finished prose. I'm doing research, fleshing out characters, plotting the timeline, adding dates, and dreaming up new ideas. 

When I was only writing on a Saturday, it felt rather disjointed, and I'd have to cudgel my brain into remembering where I had reached. It's much less effort this way, and of course, progress is being made at a much quicker rate.

Buttons!

Over the weekend, the Beloved and I have counted loads of buttons from the shop. Between us, it came in at 8 hours of work.  I've seen buttons I didn't know we had.  But I'm now a little sick of buttons.

A Trip to the Beach

It was glorious. The sun was shining, the water was so blue, and all my cares melted away. I love going for walks beside the sea. 

There might also have been an ice cream too. 

Maternity Care

I hadn't quite realised how often The Jane would feature in my story. The Jane Crookalll Maternity Unit opened in 1939, and then closed in 1992. Maternity services moved a little way along the road to Nobles Hospital. It moved again in 2003 when the new Nobles Hospital was build.

There was a statue of a stork on the roof of The Jane. The rumour was if you turned and saw the stork when you were leaving, you would be back within the year.

If a mother needed a C-section, she was moved to Nobles Hospital for the operation. In my mind this equated with loading the mother onto a trolley and pushing her along the road. Apparently, they used to use ambulances for patient transfers.

The Protagonist's Parents

The goal was to write, research, and plan the novel for at least 10 minutes for the next 100 days. This evening's '10 minutes' lasted 70!

Yesterday and today, I've been writing out character sheets for the protagonist's parents. A while back, I had realised I'd fallen into the Disney trap - kill off the parents to make it easier for the protagonist to move unencumbered. Instead, the parents are working half way around the world. They love their daughter, and are in regular contact.

The 100 Day Project

The 100 Day Project is a free, global art project. The idea is simple: choose a creative project, do it every day for 100 days, and share your process online.

Most people started on the 8th of January this year. I'm starting today.

My plan is to commit to a minimum of 10 minutes of work on my novel each day for 100 days. This should propel it along a bit further than just 1 hour on a Saturday.

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That's my first day done. Whilst waiting for dinner to be cook, I started working on the character of the protagonist's dad. He is Dr Richard James Quayle. Tomorrow is the turn of the protagonist' mam, Susan Quayle, nee Cowin.