2026 Quick Daily Posts

[richardandtracy]

Had a fun weekend.

MIL is not drinking in the hot weather. She's been taking 5 teaspoons of liquid 3 times a day. We are very concerned that she won't survive the hot spell. Her GP should be visiting today having been booked urgently on Thursday, and the NHS111 was unable to offer anyone sooner, either.

Orianna has anxiety problems & takes a drug to stop/reduce it. She felt she had a migraine coming on and took a strong migraine drug to halt it. The drug, which she'd been prescribed by her GP as being non-interacting, interacted. Had seizures and shakes, uncontrollable dribbling and vomiting and a 10x worse than normal migraine. I dashed over & called an ambulance. They arrived very quickly - and arrived as the worst was fading. Frightening, but hopefully without long term consequences. Anyway Orianna went to bed an hour later and slept from 1pm to 9pm, feeling much better afterwards.

Toby was grumpy due to his confinement in a cage, the hot weather, and the fact he hadn't had all the pain killers he needed because he's become much better at spitting out the tablets.

I was grumpy because of gout in fourteen finger joints, one wrist, one knee, two ankle joints and eight toe joints. I can normally control it with diet, but the hot weather has upset my water intake-sweating balance and I'm not washing as much urea out as usual and it's building up inside me as uric acid crystals. And uric acid is not a good joint lubricant. In fact it's quite painful. There are also no off-prescription gout medications. The last time it got this out of control was 20+ years ago and the gout medication I used then has been withdrawn from the market.

My brother's buying a house in Spain (best place to do it, as he lives & works there). The house is to the west of Madrid. Earlier this year he put a deposit on one house, but the sale dropped through. That house has been burnt to the ground in the latest fires. He put a deposit on another house last month, and that's in the middle of a village that currently has fires raging on 3 of the 4 sides... He's on tenterhooks. He has a chalet 10 miles to the north of the current fires, but some houses in his current village have been burnt out, though his block was untouched. Hopefully there isn't enough fuel left for the fire to return.

As I said, a fun weekend.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Golly, who have you all upset?? What a nasty weekend for you all. Hope the GP gets MIL sorted. She can't do without liquids no matter the temperature. Is she eating?

Poor Orianna! One heck of a way to find out the medications clash. Yellow card?

The arthritis in my fingers hasn't been great this summer, but at least it's not gout. Pulling weeds doesn't help it, of course.

The fires in France and Spain are terrifying. Hope they are able to get on top of them while the weather is vaguely helpful. Of course, what everyone needs is rain. Which we will get from tonight and the next few days at least, which should help put out the peat fires at Nethy Bridge. It's strange going out in a jacket... But I do hope your brother's situation stabilises.

[richardandtracy]

MIL & GP. Hmm yes. I have no news yet, but hope to soon.
MIL's swallow reflex is failing. She's not eaten anything and swallowing liquids makes her cough. She no-longer recognises Tracy - asking Tracy when Tracy's going to come round. I think she now confuses me with my late FIL. It's not a happy situation.

As for the fires in Spain & France, they are horrific. I heard an interview with a firefighter who said the fires are jumping 500 metres. How anyone controls something like that it almost beyond imagination. A million bulldozers is about the least you can imagine to create a mile wide fire break.

Orianna's going to report the interaction in her meds.

I'm sorry about your arthritis. Gout is very similar in it's effects and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. All the best with it.

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Richard I don't know why some people seem to get a triple portion of the world's difficulties, but I hope that the strong bond of love and support within your family helps to make it bearable, and I wish you all the strength, resilience and energy that you need to cope with this next onslaught.

[richardandtracy]

Got some good news in the last 15 minutes - Toby's out of surgery & appears to be OK. We'll collect him for a long-ish recovery at 5:45

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Here's to a speedy recovery for Toby!

[Serinde]

Agreed! Such good news, I feel we need to celebrate in the S&G.

[richardandtracy]

Toby is improving fairly rapidly.
He's a stubborn cat and put some weight on his leg almost immediately. We kept him in his cage until an inspection on Saturday, then let him out into the conservatory & living room for a few hours - with the proviso he did no jumping. Well, he jumped onto the sofa and settled down to rest, purring loudly. This has been repeated daily since. The wound is healing nicely and the poor skinny shaved leg looks even more refined and pared down than a Greyhound's. We've had him take 20 limping steps in a row, which is wonderful to see.

Last night Toby actually got a bit bothered. We had two hedgehogs scruffling around the conservatory, one of which sounded like a bellows or a leaky steam train. Anyway after shutting the door & windows he was a bit more relaxed. I will confess I was surprised at how big they were. Ozzie also dropped a present just outside the cage for Toby to sniff, his catch of a Pygmy Shrew. Naturally, Pygmy Shrews are on the UK Red list of endangered species. Thank. You. Ozzie. And it's not the first Ozzie's caught this year. However there are lots of insects this year and I think the population of Shrews in the garden is growing.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

It all sounds as if improvements are being made daily on the feline front-- which is exactly what one wants to see. So pleased for you all. Pleased someone has hedgehogs, because we no longer seem to -- too much traffic, and they know neither the Green Cross code nor ways to meander through all the gardens, mostly due to Scottish houses up here being surrounded not only by hedging but by stone walls...

Thinking about MIL, too; with hopes that Orianna is also ok. You guys have had a rough time.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Great to hear about the improvement in Toby!

If Ozzie is catching pygmy shrews that easily, it looks like your garden is bucking the national trend; and it was kind of him to try and cheer up his fellow feline.

[richardandtracy]

MIL has done a bounce back. She's recovered a little. Not as good as she was before the start of this dip, but better than she was. A stock market term for it is 'A dead-cat bounce'. A re-bound, just not very high.

Orianna. Yes. She has got better since I had to call the ambulance, but there wasn't a whole lot worse to get by the look of it. She is finding it better to go to the office than stew in anxiety while working at home (something we've been telling her for a bit, separate stressy work from home). That has helped. Seeing people has helped & she has been out to a BTS Concert (Korean pop group) at Tottenham Hotspur football stadium with 65000 other maniacs, which she loved and also attended one of her best friend's wedding. Both of which have put her in a better frame of mind.

She's 'doing-not-bad' even if not wholeheartedly 'doing-good'.

Regards,

Richard

[richardandtracy]

Great to hear about the improvement in Toby!

If Ozzie is catching pygmy shrews that easily, it looks like your garden is bucking the national trend; and it was kind of him to try and cheer up his fellow feline.

I think the garden is doing relatively well. We're putting water out for the birds & animals and lots of cat food that the cats turn their noses up at. None goes to waste. The cats each eat 400-600g of catfood daily, but together they cadge up to an extra 300g off us because they have pleading eyes & know how to use them. And we're soft touches. All the uneaten cat food goes out to feed Robins, Thrushes, Blackbirds, Hedgehogs and possibly a fox late at night. The bank is covered in thigh high grass/straw that I need to cut, and as you walk through, grasshoppers and crickets explode away from your legs like a yellow bow wave. We have many, many butterflies & moths. The hazelnuts are dropping and we can HEAR the Dormice chewing when standing under the Hazel clumps in the nuttery. Another year I'm not going to get any Hazelnuts. Hrrumph.
A hawk of some sort has had two of the six Pigeons that roost in our garden, and we still have the feather heaps in the garden, many of which are being taken as nesting material for a third Sparrow brood.
When we sit in the garden, we never fail to hear rodent type rustling from the undergrowth. Gives the cats something to play with, I suppose.

There are lots of Apples, but few Pears this year. The red & white currants are cropping relatively well, the Black currants, Swiss Chard & Runner Beans are a dead loss, while the gooseberries & Tay/Loganberries self crossed in the garden are cropping magnificently.

We have had no cherries, but then we never do. The birds have them all. Enya has picked a good crop of Sloes and is going to experiment with Sloe Gin this year. The Plums have been great, and finding the Plum Sapling that was fruiting for the first time was wonderful.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Our garden hasn't been dreadfully fruitful either, although better than I thought it would be at the end of June. It was chilly and wet until July and very windy. Not great for French beans... our runners are only now starting to crop, and they will probably come good, but the borlotti beans were blown to pieces and died of cold, poor things. Even the rhubarb struggled. The strawberries (var. Florence) were fine seeing as they are a late cropper anyway, as were the blueberries until someone (not me) put bricks around the bottom of the fruit cages to make sure they didn't get blown over, creating a handy little door for the blackbirds to raid them ALL. I'll get a handful eventually. We have a pumpkin and will have another. The tomatoes have been ok and the cucumber and pepper good, and courgettes odd, but ok, just. Don't mention peas. The apple tree looks good, but the fruits are smaller than usual (water issue). Onions dreadful (cats!) but shallots and leeks good; even got some garlic. Thank goodness I don't have to survive on what I can grow. If I did, there would be NO sparrows in our garden (the pea shoot marauders, despite netting). Perhaps I'll plant a plum tree on dwarf root stock. Still, have dug out excellent crops of chickweed.

[fccs]

I’m glad Orianna and Toby are doing better, and hope MIL continues to improve, and hope your gout is under control. You’ve been hit by a double, triple, or quadruple whammy.

[Mabel Figworthy]

So, partial eclipse. Who did any viewing? DH had glasses left from the 1999 eclipse so we used those. This taught me that watching an eclipse in the safe manner means you don't really see the eclipse, you just see an orange fingernail in a completely black expanse. I was mildly underwhelmed I have to admit. The most impressive thing was a butterfly that sat on our lawn throughout, not moving, and letting me get to within two inches to study it close-up. (click on it for the full-sized version)

[Serinde]

I constructed a little pin-hole camera (very proud of self), and we saw the very beginning. Then the clouds rolled in. Only to clear at about 7.30 when all the shouting was over. Pictures on the news were wonderful, though.

[richardandtracy]

We had supper out in the garden during the eclipse. We were going to see it if it was possible - but the trees in the garden & the steep bank shaded everything. So, it just went a bit dimmer for us. The birds did quieten down a little, but there was no 'cold' like in the previous eclipse and no reduction in the breeze, because it was hot & still all day long anyway.

Tracy found a church site that showed lovely fingernail shapes from the shade of a tree: https://www.satsig.net/uk/eclipse-galle ... wall-4.jpg. IIRC that one or one very similar was taken on a church in Frinsted, not too far away.

Toby's getting better with the cooler weather. We had a really hard time getting him to eat & take tablets on Friday & Saturday. Far too hot. Anyway the collar of shame is off and he can groom himself. Naturally, 15 minutes after taking the collar off and starting grooming, he vomited up a huge fur ball... The joy of cats.

Regards,

Richard

[fccs]

What a cool picture! I’m glad Toby is feeling better…and yes, the joy of cats!!! When Jackson has a hairball, he has to do it (1) on the carpet, never the tile and (2) in at least two places, usually three.

[richardandtracy]

Toby just gets on with it. A couple of heaves and he's done.
Ozzie, on the other hand, groans and howls as if he's dying for a minute or two before starting. He finds some carpet, heaves a bit, runs off to a new spot, heaves some more, howls even more pathetically and then finishes off being sick. He makes so much more fuss & mess than Toby.

Cats, who'd have em?

Regards.

Richard

[Serinde]

I'm visiting a friend in a couple of weeks who has two cats. She asked me if I minded felines, so I reminded her to whom she was speaking... She did say if I left a door open, one of them would consider that an invitation for a sleepover.