It's all about the leaves

It feels like the last few months has been all about watching the changing landscape via the trees and their changing leaf colour - autumn moves slowly in these parts when winter weather holds off, which seems to be becoming the norm these last three or four years. It's now December and although all but one of the photos were taken in November (you know me, always trying to catch up), there are still quite a lot of leaves on the trees even now, albeit the vast majority are on our native oak, Quercus robur. And there are still plenty of flowers about!

Always expect lots of photos of my Liquidambar!

Back of the house.

Leaf mould bins, there is a three year cycle here!

Sycamore leaf.

Now there is more light, the lichen and moss
covered trunks show up more.

Sometimes just one leaf shows out from the crowd.

Or they all look wonderful together.

Smoke Bushes through the Lime leaves.

Butterflies were about regularly until mid November -
one of the last to be seen has been the Red Admiral.

And as always (also one of the first to appear in spring), the Speckled Wood.

Red Admiral again.

Liquidambar leaves again, with an oak leaf or two.

However the Liquidambars can't beat the native oak
with regard to the majesty of the tree itself.

Taken 1st December, the Prunus subhirtella is flowering like crazy,
but it's hard to get a photo of it against grey skies.

And to finish, my friends down the bottom of the garden.

Health Update

A mixed bag of good and bad - however any goods mean a step in the right direction! I had a colonscopy on Wednesday and I'm glad to say that nothing untoward was found, so I don't need to have another one for three years, which is great. To be honest the thing I find the worst about having one is the three days of bland low fibre diet beforehand. I had wondered quite how the laxatives and ensuing violent diarrhoea was going to work with a bag, but in fact it was a lot easier than I remember when I had an anus; there was no burning bum this time! Sort of amusing - after taking the first lot of laxatives the evening before, I fell asleep on the sofa for two hours, only to find upon waking the most enormously full to bursting bag.... phew, thank god the glue stuck, that could have been rather nasty! I told my OH off for letting me sleep so long! I also didn't have that worry about needing the toilet on the drive to the hospital - the previous time I had taken a bucket in the car, I kid you not!!

I'm taking a drug called Lyrica which is often prescribed for neuropathy, but in my case was prescribed for the nerve damage in my buttock and perineal scar area by a doctor who was unaware of my neuropathy (my body is a bit like pass the parcel at the hospital, I'm always being passed from one doc to another as no-one wants to take full responsibility, it seems). Anyhow I'm interested to see if it helps the neuropathy at all. I've had a few days here and there where it seems a bit better than others, and the last three weeks it hasn't actually got any worse. However typing this is a pain because I am having to edit so much.

There is good news though - I am sitting a lot easier, so something is working! Still using my donuts, but sometimes I can sit with just one, and I'm generally more comfortable and can finally sleep on my back again. Whether it is the Lyrica or just time that is working, it doesn't really matter, but it's coincided with taking the drug so I assume it's that which is helping. This is a really big step forward. :-)

But the bad news is that I am still down in the post chemo doldrums. Not sure what to do about that as it's seriously pissing me off! However yesterday as the sun shone all day long I did more than I have done in weeks - as well as wandering around taking photos, cleaning out the chooks and feeding them and the ducks (my old chores which I've taken over again to force me outside), I also spent a couple of hours gardening, and then came in and made scones. That's because Keith had been over to England again to sort through his parents' house, meaning he could hit Tesco again, this time bringing back, amongst other goodies, a tub of clotted cream. Bliss! 

Oh and I have put on a whole stone of weight (14lbs/7 kg) since I was at my thinnest in June/early July!