We have Siskins! (and a health update)

I'm back in the land of blog! Where have I been - well we got out for our first camping trip this week, and we were busy over the weekend packing up and organising - the first trip takes more time as you are figuring out where to put things. Anyway I'll tell you all about that in another post, for now it's about birds! Our Swallows are back, so are the Chiffchaffs who are singing their hearts out although I have yet to hear a Blackcap singing here.

What has delighted us in the last few weeks though is to have a different species of bird visiting our feeders! It's not the first time we have seen Siskins in the garden, as they are on my garden bird list, but it's been many a long year and I'm not sure if they ever fed on the feeders before (unlike previous houses where they were regular winter visitors).

Photos are taken through the kitchen window and the birds look different colours depending on the camera and the light conditions.

First of all a couple of females visited for a few days.

Then a male arrived, swiftly followed by another, so we had two of each species here. They were only interested in the fat balls and not the peanuts at all. Fat balls don't make for very pretty photos though!

Both species together have a bit of a barney in the next three photos, which I found quite amusing!

Health Update

I had my six month checkup which this time was an ultrasound of the abdominal/pelvic area and I'm happy to say that all was clear. I was told this by the doctor doing the test and had to wait to receive his written report where it confirms it. On Tuesday I'm seeing my Oncologist and I have to have a blood test for a couple of cancer marker tests, but I can't imagine they will show anything untoward as they never shot way up even when I did have cancer!

I saw my own GP recently as I was fed up with the infection between my buttocks which hadn't got any better since I saw the surgeon about it back in December and took the ABs which hadn't worked. My GP was concerned and said she thought I should see a dermatologist about it, and even phoned the hospital herself to tell them to see me urgently. As luck would have it, I managed to get an appointment the same afternoon as my ultrasound. Well blow me down, if it wasn't an infection at all, but psoriasis!!! Apparently it can flare up after a trauma, and reading about it afterwards it says that if you are predisposed to having psoriasis then things like injury, surgery and emotional stress can all be triggers to set it off. As my mother and her father before her all have/had psoriasis then it's not surprising. 

I also have it on the palms of my hands - this one is pustular and in fact started before I got ill. It then disappeared all the time I wasn't well only to come back again a few months ago. Yet another skin condition that chemo killed off, even though this one was only temporary. I now have some steroid cream which is helping my butt area which is much better, although there's not much improvement with my hands yet.

I also bit the bullet and discussed my depression with my GP who has prescribed me some anti-depressants. I've been taking them for two weeks now and these particular ones are supposed to start working as quickly as a couple of weeks, so we will see if I start jumping for joy any time soon...... I really hope so.

The neuropathy is definitely getting better although it is still doing so very slowly. Typing is improving now so long as I remember to cut my fingernails short! I don't even notice it in my hands a lot of the time. It's also getting a lot easier handling cameras and turning knobs and dials.

I'll leave you with this Speckled Wood which is the most common butterfly here, and who have been out and about this last week when the sun has been shining.