Whoever said the woods are quiet is a liar!

I was in the woods yesterday and I was amazed at how noisy they were! It is quieter indoors, LOL! Between the sounds of dogs barking and playing, people talking, children having fun and all of the birds singing, chirping and cooing I was glad to get home, hehe.

The birds were the loudest! I heard crows, magpies, wood pigeons and about six more that I couldn't identify. When I'd walked a few hundred yards into the trees, though, the sound of the birds was all I could hear... and it was beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even though I was only there for about 30 minutes (I was killing time waiting for Dad to attend a hospital appointment, and rather than just sitting in the car park twiddling my thumbs, I took a five minute drive up the road with my camera and took far too many photos, LOL!)

The sunlight through the leafless trees was lovely, and it wasn't cold either, I was able to walk around with my light coat undone. I walked over the crunchy leaves from last year and I felt kind of re-energised, even after such a short time.

So glad I went when I did, as on the way out about 50-100 guys from the local Army barracks came jogging into the woods for their cross-country exercise... the shouting and "encouragement" they were shouting to each other (basically swearing at each other lol) would have totally spoilt my visit, but as I was leaving anyway I found it amusing rather than annoying.

Hopefully when I've had time to have a good look at the pictures I took I'll edit this post and add a couple in.


Edited to add: Picture link.

Flickr photos.

And here a few of the photos I took:

Yay!

Sissy and Pingu are away from the house until tomorrow afternoon! I know I shouldn't feel like doing the happy dance, but I do. The house feels so much lighter when they are gone (or should that be when he is gone).

At the moment he has a chest infection and a cough that always has him bringing stuff up from his lungs when he finishes. I know he can't help it, but just hearing him bringing up phlegm makes me want to throw up! He did it when he came in early today and I had just made myself a ham sandwich - as I went to bite it he finished coughing... I thought I was going to heave and I couldn't even start my sandwich until he had left the house. Had I been eating when he had finished coughing I just know that I would have been physically sick!! I'm determined to not get another cold, so am using Vicks First Defence nasal spray... weird stuff (and a bit stinging if you inhale it too deeply, which of course I did on my first attempt). It's a thin gel stuff that you spray up your nose - it traps the cold virus, then renders it inactivate and you either blow your nose to get rid of it or sniff up and swallow it... sounds gross, but it works, and if it lessens the length of the cold (or better yet, stops it in its tracks as the box says it can do) it will be worth it.

The weather has taken a turn for the worst here... the temperature is plummeting and the sky is turning a leaden grey colour, which is bad. I heard on the news last week that the north of the country is going to have snow from today, and that is could spread south until we might get it nearer the weekend. My right wrist has been aching for two days (my left upper arm, too), always a sign of bad/cold weather... and I'm hoping that it is not an omen of weather to come!

Update

Well, so much has happened.

1) Angel-boy's face is almost healed. The visit to the vets went well, I was in and out within 15 minutes. The abscess was not very big at all (so glad I didn't wait) and there was virtually nothing in it, so it was easy to drain. The only evidence of it now is a small scab and a large area of shaved face (which is funny), though fortunately he didn't lose any whiskers.

2) My job isn't as bad as I though it was... we had a visit from an Ofsted woman today and although it wasn't the best, the situation is not so bad that we have to cease looking after kids (which I was worried about). There is so much to do now, and I'm hoping that the courses we are waiting to start will help to sort it out. I think our positive attitudes and the fact that we acknowledged that we did things wrong and are prepared to change... it went a long way admitting we made mistakes in the past and we are determined to change for the future. We still have to have an inspection sometime in the near future, but I'll try and worry about that later.

We don't have to go on an eight week course, now... just the four courses that we are missing. I felt better when I found out about that. The supervisor of the woman that came to see us agreed that it was insulting to make us attend the same courses as someone new to the job. Also, after reading the stuff she left for almost a solid week (in between actually looking for the kids, which I have to admit Mum has done more of than I have... I seem to handle the paperwork better and she better handle the kids, so it all works out well for us in the end, lol) I was able to talk to the Ofsted woman and not sound like a total idiot. I seem to read the stuff and then pass that knowledge along to Mum as she is not a great reader and I am an avid reader. I was even able to correct the woman about the main abuse catergories (she said five, I said four - and I was right, lol).


Anyway... I am gradually calming down now after seeming to have lived on a knife-edge for the past week. Hopefully I'll get a better night's sleep tonight... I tend not to worry as long as I know where I stand, plus, I have most of next week off, so I'll get a bit of holiday time (at worst I am working only two days, Wednesday and Friday, but hopefully the kids' Dad is trying to get the Friday off). Fingers crossed (also, without the kids here I can get out and get some outing risk assessments so that I can take them places once they come back, lol).

My cat has a massive lump on his face!!

Well,  maybe massive is a strong word, large swelling would be more accurate, lol.

Sissy noticed it at about 10pm last night. After talking to some people about it it seems to be an abscess of some kind, so I have to take him to the vets. Never had a cat have something like this before... I just hope I can find the right letter so that we can take him to the PDSA... I hate to think how much a private vet would cost *eek*

He doesn't seem too bothered... he's fast asleep on my bed... typical Angel-boy!

***edited to add at 15.10: I have an appointment at our local private vets at 4.30pm today... the PDSA couldn't see him until Monday, and as the time for it was 3.15, and Mum would have had to go to fill in the paperwork I couldn't have taken her by car as the kids are still here then. That means having to get a bus, in the middle of the summer holidays, to a fairly rough place, with a scared cat in a pet carrier... I don't think so! His treatment could cost up to £100... but it's worth it to get the infection sorted rather than leave it growing for two more days. I'll just not have any spending money this month... he's worth every penny, though - I love that little guy***

It's pouring with rain here, and it's calming me down nicely - thank you Mother Nature. I needed calming after Sissy going off on one again this morning regarding my attitude to my work (and its more complex nature now). Fortunately we don't have to do that full eight day course starting in November... but we do have to do four modules over four Saturdays starting at the end of September instead! Oh well... I suppose it's better to get it our of the way. I am dreading it, though.

Sissy tried to goad me into an argument, but I wouldn't be goaded and in the finish I ignored her completely, saying that the reason I was not speaking to her was because she had made me angry and rather than say nasty hurtful things to her I was choosing to not say anything at all! She hated that, but in the end she apologised to me (I never to her... after all, she started it by giving out her opinion when I didn't ask for it!!) She said I was being childish in ignoring her, until I explained that I was actually being an adult and not lashing out her just because I could. She shut up then... even then I still had to retreat into my room for about 30 minutes and put some earplugs in, just so that I could have some peace and quiet and restore my sense of calm.

It's raining here... again

It seems to have done nothing but rain here all day. Apart from a brief flash of sunshine earlier (and I do mean brief) all it's done is be gloomy and rain. I don't mind really... rain always seems to calm me down and chill me out (not that I need much of either lately... feeling ill is sapping all of my strength anyway, lol!)

Finally...

... the road works outside the door should be gone by tomorrow. They are still on the road, further up the hill, so hopefully I should be able to park outside the house, which is just as well as Dad has a hospital appointment tomorrow at 1.30pm.

Did nothing all weekend, which was rather nice, if I'm honest, LOL!

Just watched The Vicar of Dibley, and I totally love that programme... I would love to be her... if I had my choice of alternate realities to live in, I'd be Geraldine Granger.

Oh dear... revisited

Kyah is leaving, too... we were given our one months' official notice by her Mum about five minutes ago.

I really am not all that sorry... it'll be a stretch, money-wise, but the other kids are so much calmer without her here, plus I have to keep taking her home every night, and it's not my responsibility to take the kids home, that should be up to the parents. I wouldn't mind, but there is always an eighteen year old that is perfectly capable of coming and getting her (as she is the one that opens the door to us when I take her back)... but I still have to take her home in the car, or somehow get her there on the bus (and she lives about a quarter of a mile from any buses and with the buses not running up the hill, and seeing as Kyah is a nightmare, using the bus is not a very good option).

Anyway... I feel calmer now that I know where we stand. We can start advertising for other kids now... fingers crossed we get some takers :)

I went upstairs atfter I wrote the entry below this one...

... and I cried my eyes out. I cried so much that in the end I cried myself to sleep. Silly, I know, but I couldn't stop myself.

I do feel better now, but I have a feeling that it wouldn't take much to make me feel sad again.

Anyway... roll on tomorrow (or later today, I should say). I just really hope that Dad is not going to try and come with us, but I have a nasty feeling that he will! The stubborn old git just will not accept his limitations! That would look really good, wouldn't it, we are going to try and get a car for a man that cannot walk more than 300 yards, and the stubborn old git is going to try (and no doubt knacker himself in the process) by coming with us, thereby seemingly degating the claim that makes us eligible for the car in the first place! That only makes logical sense in my father's brain, hehe.

I'm hoping that he'll still be asleep when we leave, but knowing him, he'll be awake.

I am talking to him now, and using my (hopefully successful) powers of persuasion to get him to stay here... fingers crossed with that one... I'd probably have more luck trying to change a piece of cheese into a diamond! LOL!

I think I may have gotten through to him (although it will probably have made no difference come the morning... I may just have to get the pickaxe handle ready and give him a whop on the noggin with it if he tries to come with us! If you hear a man scream in pain, that'll be my Dad ;) )

I feel so tired

My eyes are stinging and feel as if they are lined with carpet, they feel raw. Maybe because I didn't get much sleep last night, about four hours by the time I did everything that I wanted to do around the house, washed my hair and hung up the washing to dry (plus I was watching some Inspector Morse and I got kind of engrossed in it, LOL!)

I don't think that I'm going to be late to bed tonight, Mum has to go to the fracture clinic at 9.40 tomorrow morning, and I'm hoping that her elbow is just sprained or bruised and not broken in any way. She's full of aches and pains today, which is only to be expected in the circumstances. Her nose is quite swollen, but the redness is fading and she has a lovely black (left) eye.

For some reason I seem to have an annoying tic in my left eye, probably a stress thing, I often get it, I also need some new glasses (which I'm hoping to get in the new year when I get paid... thirteen weeks now and still nothing **fumes**).


I had an idea about a tattoo last night, the wartime phrase "Keep Calm and Carry On"... it perfectly describes the way I deal with things. Sometimes I can appear a little too calm for some people. I un-nerve Sissy sometimes with the way I handle situations, as I refuse to get in a flap and worry about things that may not be worth worrying about... but I have to handle things that way or else I'll just go completely to pieces and be of no use to anyone at all. Maybe I'm just too old before my time, or maybe I've just come to the conclusion that there is very little point in worrying about things as it gets you nowhere and can actually end up doing more harm than good. I'm often reminded of a phrase that I've seen about the 'net "Everything will be alright in the end, if it's not alright, it's not the end!"