Weekend Update!

Last week was horrible – went to work on Monday and did something at work which resulted in me doing my back in, but didn't realise how much until Tuesday afternoon. Woke up Tuesday morning feel seriously dizzy and not able to go to work. Later on that day, my back was so painful I could hardly walk and on Wednesday I couldn't walk upright – the pain was really bad, the worst back pains I have ever had and couldn't even put my socks on. I was also experiencing severe pins and needles in both my hands on and off for several days. I phoned the surgery and got a call back from a nurse, who advised me to take Voltarol (that I had in the house) and Paracetamol to relieve the pain and to keep moving, but to sign myself off work for a week. Moving was easier said than done, especially when laying flat felt more comfortable! It was quite frightening to be honest, as I have never had pains like these in my back before – I was not able to stand upright properly until Friday. The Voltarol definitely helped, but I felt very drugged up and slept alot. Since I arrived home from work on Monday evening, I didn't go out of my front door at all until Saturday morning.

Over the weekend I sold the piano (at last) – to a very nice lady in Burnham Market (still to be collected though), I've also sold a Norwegian Jumper (that was sitting on the top shelf of my parent's airing cupboard for years), a first edition 'Dictionary of Entomology' and received a big fat refund/compensation cheque from BT (from my parent's house). My back was still painful over the weekend, but minor compared to last week. Had to finish sorting through paperwork at Holme and started the dreaded shredding process – so exciting!

I didn't get time to go birding sadly, as too many other things to sort out. Birders who have enjoyed the comfort of using my mother's cushions in the hides at Holme Marsh Reserve NWT, will be pleased to know that I have added three more comfortable cushions to hide 1 and 2! Could I kindly request that people pile up the cushions on the single chair in each hide when they have finished, rather than leaving them on the bench seat, from where they generally end up falling onto the dirty hide floor. My mother used to remove the cushions, handwash them and return them, but I'm not that dedicated!

I popped into The White Horse pub at Holme this afternoon, just to ask how the cat was doing. My sisters and I had been worried, as we had not seen the cat in mother's garden at all and this either mean't it had settled in to its new home or something more sinister! I was hugely relieved to hear from a young lad in the pub that 'Misty' has settled in well and 'rules the roost' and seems to like spending time with her brother. I had a tear in my eye as I walked out of the pub, such a relief! Thank goodness we made the right decision.

It looks incredibly bare outside mother's house after the massive buddleia cull and part of me regrets doing it, but as I said last week, somebody would have done it eventually anyway. Every time I return to the property, an immense sadness envelops me – every item we sell or take out, is another memory erased. Apart from a Robin, I didn't see a single bird in the garden today and all because there is no one there to feed them anymore – its almost haunting.

The house is probably going up for sale soon. I don't want to sell it really, but there isn't much choice. I'm the only one that could just about buy my sisters out (from selling my house), but my mortgage would be much bigger than my current one and I wouldn't have any pennies to do the house up (trust me it needs sorting!), plus I don't really want all that added pressure/financial burden at my age. Besides the fact that I don't think I could live in it emotionally – I think the sadness would continue and I can't see me ever feeling any different in that house. The biggest thing that frustrates me, is that it is highly likely that it will be sold to a second home owner and like most of the houses in the road and in fact the village, will stand empty for most of the year and lets be honest, the chances of them being naturalists are probably nil. The house will be extended and the garden will be destroyed and replaced by decking, concrete, pots and barbecue area. Any naturalists/birders/ornithologists out there, who would like to buy a two bed house (that needs alot of work doing) but has an amazing organic wildlife garden for the last fifty years, please email your interest! It will save us the estate agents fees if we sell it privately!!!