holyoutlaw

I am definitely feeling better, like I no longer have to keep pushing a massive boulder uphill. Hurrah!



This morning we went into town to do errands, slowly because the tendons are still recovering from the new boots, but we walked over 2km. Our visit coincided with Daventry's very first Food Festival and, somewhat to our surprise, it wasn't a bad event. There were at least four stalls offering locally brewed craft beers and ciders, so we came home with half a dozen different ciders. We would have bought some samosas and onion bhajis, but we were a little too early. The leaflet we were given for the (relatively new) health food store, has convinced me I've been missing out on something good, so I shall visit that next week.

I deposited the majority of my collection of fabulous shoes at one of the charity shops. It was a sad moment, but I'm hoping I'll stop missing them now they are no longer sitting forlornly on a shelf being all unwearable at me. On the upside, I found that with a 3/4 orthotic, rather than a full length one, I can wear more of the old shoes than anticipated (though, inevitably, the more boring part of the collection).

Our lunch was all planned around the giant, homegrown potatoes J gave me on Thursday. They are big enough that we only needed one between two, and we decided that baking would be the best way to enjoy its unadulterated potatoey deliciousness. We had a couple of different salads too and, oh yes, we might have opened one of those ciders to go with it. Omnomnom.



This afternoon I made havregrynskugler as recommended on twitter by Sofie Hagen. The recipe is dead simple - essentially it's chocolate buttercream with oats. I'm not a fan of buttercream, but the oats (and the Amaretto di Saronno I added) make these satisfyingly chewy balls of chocolatey goodness.

I had a lovely day yesterday. It was grey and gloomy, and intermittently torrential, but I drove over to meet my dyeclass friend and then go to Compton Verney to their - about to end if you're in the area and are interested - exhibition, Seurat to Riley: The Art of Perception. It was perfect viewing for us, providing inspiration and insight for our printing and J's weaving.
We took our time there, because of my tendons and J's damaged foot, and had tea before we started and lunch after looking round. And then more tea. And we took advantage of the free bus service from the gallery back to the car park. We also talked and talked and talked some more.
It was a bit of a risk going out for the day because it was the first day of my new medication, so I was still suffering from the fatigue that is presumed to be an effect of the old medication, while the impact of the new drug is an unknown quantity. J is, fortunately, well-informed and thoughtful, so between us we managed my tiredness and made sure no plummeting blood sugar levels occurred. And I was still safe to drive home at the end of the day.



Lazy photo of the day - zoomed from the car, without stopping and getting out.

Today has been rather lovely too. For a start it's beautifully sunny, so I have the doors open and washing drying outside.
Son of Boilerman turned up as promised around 8:30am and fixed my boiler whilst being chatty and delightful. While he did that, I pottered around gently and did things that needed doing, but without any frantic plan, which was rather nice.
And then I spotted the chap across the road who had been recommended to me as a potential gardener. So we looked around my jungle, agreed an hourly rate, and I now have a gardener. It seems like a perfect arrangement, as he lives a couple of doors away, is self-employed, and can just pop round when convenient for him. He's quite excited about clearing things back and then formulating a plan, and seems open to encouraging me to get involved.
Then the veg man arrived and once more, as his last delivery, I got to accept lots of free leftovers. It's not as epic as The Week of 18 Avocados, but I've got quite a lot of extra salad stuff, and a small mint mountain (a mint foothill). He turned up just as I was eating blue cheese on toast and thinking that it needed something fresh to complement it - pears and figs will do nicely, thank you.
I was supposed to let Percy out for a wander in his back garden around noon, but I failed at opening the back door. (Inadequate training.) So we went for a short stroll instead. On the way we met Ida, the tiny, super-enthusiatic dog who considers Percy to be her boyfriend. Much licking occurred. Everyone seemed very satisfied by this. On the way back I helped a delivery guy to find the right house and he was enthusiastically appreciative. (No licking occurred.)

In drug news, the new medication is definitely reducing my blood sugar. It's lower today than it has been for about a year. (It might be too effective, but we'll see.) I read up on the side effects of the old drug, pioglitazone, and it looks as though it may well be responsible for my peripheral oedema and weight gain as well as extreme fatigue. I wondered why I was getting oedema when the weather is cool, and obviously I blamed myself for the weight thing.
I don't usually read the side effects info. I used to, but concluded that the lists of possibilities are too all-encompassing to be useful and vague enough to make me paranoid. Now I wonder if that was a mistake, so I've read all the possible side effects of the new drug, alogliptin, which is basically all the same things as the old drug, plus a few more. Hopefully I won't experience any of them this time.
None of the side effects mentioned tendinopathy, but the timing fits...and one of the known side effects is an increase in broken bones, so that might not be wild speculation?

And now I have a whole sunny afternoon to myself with absolutely nothing on the Should Do list and many delightful ideas on the Could Do list.