Clematis, Weird Wednesday, Thankful Thursday

 

Because the weather in April was so mixed and unreliable, I left my trellis "under cover" (fiber cloth) all month. When I finally removed it on 30th April, I found my clematis in bloom! Only a few flowers, though - with a lot of bare branches in between, after the past harsh winter. I think when it has ceased flowering, probably time to cut back the whole plant and see if I can start over once again from one or two green shoots at the very bottom... (I've done that before. (The origin of the plant I still have is one I had on the balcony at my previous flat - and this summer it will be 16 years since I moved!) 

Sometimes I wish I could do the same with myself! ;-) Yesterday (1st May) I woke up feeling dizzy and unwell, with no real clue why. It reminded me of a vertigo attack back in January 2023, which also came from "nowhere" - but at the same time a bit different, and seemed more connected to neck pain this time (my neck being a "weak spot" since way back). Perhaps I had just been lying in some weird position. On the other hand, I also felt kind of nauseous, with a slightly upset stomach as well, so maybe something I'd eaten? (But what?) 

The only thing that stood clear was that in spite of another beautiful and warm spring day outdoors, for me it would be a day best spent at home resting, close to bed and bathroom... 

Going with the theory that it may be to do with my neck, I took out my TENS unit, which I havn't been using much lately, but for many years (after an accident) used daily. For anyone who may not know, TENS stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and is a method of pain relief involving a mild electrical current, and the machine is a small, battery-operated device that has leads connected to sticky pads called electrodes. After two 30 min rounds with that (with an hour or two in between) I actually did feel better. (Not sure that really says anything about what was the cause in the first place, though.) I still didn't feel hungry but decided I probably had better eat something anyway, so I made pancakes (four small ones) and ate two of those with apple sauce for lunch. In the afternoon I felt okay enough to sit for a while at the computer and put in a blog post. That was just about all I did that day, though. Fell asleep for a while in my TV chair in the afternoon. Gave myself another TENS treatment. Had two more pancakes for supper and went to bed early.

And this morning I woke up feeling pretty much "normal" - enough to go ahead with today's chores, including changing the sheets on my bed, cleaning the bathroom, and doing three loads of laundry in the afternoon (in our common laundry room in the basement). Also back to normal intake of food.

Someone else referred to the "Thankful Thursday" theme on their blog today - which made me ponder about the fact that normally, when I can, I book the laundry room for Wednesday afternoons. This week, because Wednesday was 1st May, and a holiday, I had booked it for Thursday. (We're allowed to book it also on holidays now, but out of old habit I still usually avoid doing that.) Anyway - this week I'm "weirdly" thankful that I had not planned to do laundry on Wednesday, because if I had, I wouldn't have been well enough to go through with it. Whereas today, I was!

Tomorrow I'm having a "truckload" of groceries delivered around noon, so hoping I'll still be feeling up to dealing with that. (At least delivery means I don't need to go anywhere! But it does still involve quite a lot of bending and lifting...) 

Probably better be off to bed now!

Blackout, Thanksgiving and Advent

 

 

While we don't celebrate the American Thanksgiving in Sweden, for some reason we have in later years still imported Black Friday - which this year turned into Black Week. (Whether in spite of or because of the corona virus may be debated; as at the same time, the government and the health authorities keep telling us to keep distance and stay away from shopping centers...)

For my own part, I was hit by another kind of blackout on Wednesday, when all of a sudden my cable TV/internet/phone quit working. I had been watching something on Play TV in the afternoon, without problem, but then when I tried to switch back to regular TV, everything just froze. I tried the standard trick of restarting things; but that did not help. I had a TV emergency number written down and called to check if there was a general problem. Nope, there wasn't. They arrived at the theory that the fault might be in the power adapter to my my cable box; which it was too late to do anything about that day. I then also realized that oops, if the fault was with the cable box, I also had no internet...

I survived, of course: after all, I still had electricity, and FM radio, and my mobile phone (but with limited data, as I use a cash card). I could even have watched films on DVD if I had wanted to, as the problem was not in the TV itself. Being without both TV and internet at the same time still made me feel oddly disconnected from the rest of the world, though! I don't think that's actually happened before, except perhaps during some power outage (which rarely last long in the city). Usually if I've had internet problems, that has not involved the TV channels; or vice versa.

I was a bit worried that I wouldn't get it fixed before the weekend, but luckily it got sorted out  the next day. They phoned in the early afternoon and said I could pick up a new power adapter at a place within walking distance from where I live. So I did; and when I got back home and plugged that in, all went smoothly back to normal. So... I had my own kind of Thanksgiving Thursday, celebrating being reconnected to the World again! 

I've also done my usual decorating for 1st Advent Sunday - even though Advent celebrations, like everything else, will be a bit different this year. As no congregations larger than 8 people are allowed at the moment, the usual live church services and concerts are cancelled. But, now being back online again, there will be various digital alternatives... (And with Blackout Wednesday fresh in memory, I might try to make use of that!)

Thankful Thursday - Wood Anemones

In the village where I lived in my childhood (from age 5 onward), we could walk straight out into woodland from our own garden. (And it was pretty much the same where my grandparents lived, back then.)

Where I live now, there is no proper woodland within easy walking distance - only some small left-over patches of it here and there. Today, I went to one of those left-over spots to check on one of the most important signs of spring: Wood anemones!

Anemone nemorosa - Wood anemone

Below is the same photo as the first one, unedited... (You can see that civilization is not far off!) I'm thankful for the possibilities offered by the camera + digital editing to just focus on beauty and cut out the rest, sometimes! ;)

Thankful Thursday

Sometimes we need: a safe nest, strong protective walls and boundaries, but also some gates (possibilities) kept open... 

Thoughts from a walk the other day around an old cemetery close to where I live - another good place for me to go walking without risk of running into too many people. I also find it quite a good place to meditate about Life and count my blessings, though. (Like, all the possibilities nowadays to keep in touch with others even in times of isolation...)

Heat Wave

It’s too hot just now to do any serious blogging.

Yesterday we went from rather pleasantly warm/hot to clammy, headachy hot. The indoors temperature rose to above 26° (79°F) which I’ve come to recognize as my “limit”. Above that I get irritable and grumpy!

(That does not mean I never get irritable below 26°C. Above 26° it’s more predictable, though!)

Living in a town flat, evenings also tend to get very noisy when everyone keeps their balcony doors and windows open because of the heat.

One of the major things to irritate me is people who seem to think they “own the world” (like playing their music as loud as if they had no neighbours for miles around). And one of the things that mystify me is why people seem to want ther music four times as loud in summer compared to winter, anyway.

I shut my balcony door and windows when going to bed (if not before), but when I wake up later in the night (as I invariably do) I open up to let some cool night air in. This night I got a few hours exhausted sleep after midnight, then was awake 3:30-7:30, then fell asleep again and slept until 10. Well, I guess I should be thankful (and I am!) that at least I’m free to do that… It makes an odd start to the day though.

The day did not get better when I turned on the computer and found trouble with my Yahoo email. My emails are there but I can’t open them. It must be their server as the same thing happens on the phone app.

Nothing much I can do except wait and trust that they’re working on it, I suppose!

In the meantime, I’ll have to go into town for a while after lunch, and I suppose I might as well stick to that plan; as it will be hot at home anyway.

But I’m not going stay in town until evening…

The photo is from two Thursdays ago. On Thursdays in July the shops in the town centre are open later than usual, and then there are free concerts in the square. A tradition since many years, and very popular. Often the square and the streets nearby are packed with people during the concerts. As I’m not fond of crowds and very loud music, I’m not in the habit of attending, though. This photo was taken in the late afternoon and I bet the girls sitting by the fence below the stage were already “queuing” for a good place.

One thing for which I’m truly thankful (especially on summer Thursday nights) is that I do not live in one of the buildings right next to the town square! In fact, I live just far away enough from the town centre not to be bothered by these events. Just now I keep my fingers crossed that the noisy neighbours will be going, though! (i.e. not stay home and play their own music)

 

Thankful Thursday

Coming home from grocery shopping in town today, I stepped into the lift, pressed the button to my floor, and… all the buttons started to blink like a crazy Christmas display.

And the lift stood still – with doors closed…

Luckily when I pressed the door-opening button, that one did work, and I was able to step out again. Phew!

And as I don’t live any higher than the 2nd floor and it’s not my legs that are troubling me (but my shoulder), it’s hardly worth mentioning. Except to say I’m thankful I did not get stuck inside the lift!

When I got up to my flat I phoned the lift maintenance service straight away; and a man came round about two hours later and fixed it (and when he was done he rang my doorbell and told me). Hopefully they’d have come sooner if someone had been stuck inside.

To my knowledge, that’s never happened while I’ve lived here though. The few times I’ve noticed the lift stuck it’s always been empty and stuck on one floor rather than between floors.

Still… When I take the lift down to the basement in winter (to the laundry or storage rooms), I always put on a warm jacket and proper shoes, and bring my mobile… Just in case!

All in all, it’s not been the best week on the technology front. They seem to have sorted out the broadband now though – “fingers crossed”… (Remains to be seen if it will stand the pressure of everyone spending the holidays playing with their new computers and games.)

I’ve completely forgotten where I took this photo (back in May. I found it just now when I was looking through my archives for something else…)