Pain in the bum news, lots of visitors and beautiful weather

First the moany bit.  The last weeks weren't so good from a news point of view.  I was booked in for a colonoscopy and immediately afterwards received the verdict from the consultant, subject to biopsy results, that I had anal cancer.  I didn't need the results, I had felt that there was more to the very uncomfortable feeling I had than just a polyp.  I returned for the results with my oldest son who was visiting Brittany with friends.  The biospsies confirmed cancer of the anus.  I was told that depending on the depth of the tumour I would be treated by radiotherapy or by surgery, the latter almost certainly resulting in a permanent poo bag.  I had already been booked in for an echoendoscopie and an MRI.

On Thursday last I had the echoendoscopie (ultrasound up the bum) and afterwards the operator said that the tumour appeared to be only 5-6mm deep and that if the MRI confirmed this dimension then I might well get away with radiotherapy and not surgery. The MRI will be done this coming Wednesday, 1 July and the results will be told to me, with the suggested treatment, on 3 July when I return to Guingamp Polyclinic.  

Meantime I seem to have had a problem with my chest.  Initially I had thought I'd received an electric shock while lying on my ribcage fixing the pond pump.  Two days later the pain was bad in my last rib and I thought I may have cracked it.  Later my breathing became more difficult and I got radiating pain from the sternum area.  When I related all this to the consultant dealing with my cancer decided to send me to Guingamp hospital for a CT scan.  I had this on Friday last and it seems that there was nothing to untoward to see so that is good news.  Certainly my breathing is easier now and it only hurts when I lie on my front.

My oldest son, Matthew, and three friends have been to stay.   Their visit overlapped with a visit from my friend, June, and we were lucky to have incredibly good weather so we spent lots of time in the garden talking and drinking.

This was one evening at the Pizzeria in St Nicolas du Pélem.

This is our last lunch together in Roscoff before the boys caught the boat back to Plymouth.  

Here are Lesley, Fraser, Matthew and Brett on the long bridge at Roscoff - we had a lovely few days.

The garden has been lovely this month

This is a trough I bought from friends who were leaving Brittany.  I filled it with bedding plants from B&Q which I brought back with me in April, and some herbs at the far end.  It is huge and took 375 litres of compost!













Poppies outside my sitting room window

I've been collecting lots of seed heads for me to sow and for friends who always ask when they see how beautiful the poppies are here.

Roses on the pergola by the pond.  They aren't climbing so I have to tie them into the post.

On Thursday, June and I drove up to Dinard Airport stopping in the morning at Lamballe for the market and lunch.

Then we spent the afternoon on the promenade at Dinard, people watching, having a glass of wine and deliciously cool icecreams.  It was a gloriously hot, sunny day and a lovely way to make a journey day into something nice.

A tiny, tiny bird who I found on the ground outside the utility cottage.  It seemed unhurt but died about ten minutes later.  I'm not sure what type of bird it was.

My first Workaway of the summer, Leyslie from Las Vegas, but with French and US nationality, arrived at Guingamp station on Friday and is now working clearing nettles in the animal areas.  Hard work in this very hot weather - most days are now reaching almost 30°C and very little in the way of a cooling breeze.  Apparently next week will be heatwave weather so watering will become a priority.   When Leyslie leaves I have a couple of Irish Workaways arriving for ten days, so lots of help in the next few weeks.

Three things I like:

1.  The written and verbal support I have received from friends who know about my current health situation.

2.   The incredible wall to wall blue skies and very hot sunshine which I am enjoying while reading books.

3.   Having so many visits from friends and family this month.

Summer has arrived - bring it on!

Apart from an appalling four day visit from an incredibly irritating and boring man I met on an internet dating site, you know who you are, these last few weeks have been good.   I have had lovely visits too, thank goodness, from two lots of friends, Carole and Geoff and then Les and Roy. 

The garden, the veggie patch and polytunnel are all producing well and I can’t stop taking photos.  

The poppies outside my sitting room window have been gorgeous although the stiff breeze earlier this evening has scattered scarlet petals over the terrace.  

My geese have laid so well this year, or perhaps I should say, my goose, as I was told I was buying two geese but believe I may have a gander.  I have sold lots of goose eggs but finally allowed them to keep three and these are being covered by the goose so perhaps I may go up to the barn one day and find three goslings – fingers crossed.   One of my bantam hens has been a surrogate to three eggs and they hatched  about two weeks ago.

The ducks too have never laid so many eggs.  I am inundated - so  I designed and ordered two signs which I have placed at the top of the lane and opposite my house to encourage customers to buy from the honesty shelf I have at the front of the house.  

Yesterday, a Breton chap, who comes through the village twice a week on the way to his gardening job, came into the garden asking about goose eggs.  I only had two from two weeks ago which I wouldn’t sell as they aren’t fresh, but he insisted saying he loved them.  Today a Breton woman who has a horse in training in the village came to buy both duck and hen eggs and my first customers, only ten minutes after I put up the shelf, were French walkers who bought half a dozen hen egg.  None of them could understand the honesty system but seemed to approve once I’d explained it.

My Land Rover has been costing me a lot of money having repairs done.  A new power steering pump, radiator and door hinge have been necessary and the rear windscreen washer and service are still to be done in July.  There is a Land Rover garage an hour away over at La Chèze, run by an Englishman where I’ll get all work done now that I’ve lost my worker back to the UK.  

Luckily their building borders a lake so it's possible to have a lovely walk and sit and read by the water.

Onto medical matters now and it seems that I have another operation in the pipeline.  I have had rectal bleeding for a couple of months.  Two weeks ago I saw my GP and two days later had a consultant appointment.  After a very uncomfortable examination he said he’d found a polyp which would need to be removed in surgery.  I am going into the Clinic at Guingamp to have a colonoscopy on Monday when he will see whether there is anything further untoward to deal with at the same time.

A couple of weekends ago I attended Part 1 of a Beekeeping Course.  Luckily this is held only about 10 minutes from home so not a huge effort required to go.  I was re-enthused and have already received my bee suit, hat, veil and gloves from Simon the Beekeeper in the UK ready for Part 2 on 14 June.  There were about eleven people on the course and all were very friendly.  

I do hope that I shall be able to get a hive set up before the end of this year so that I am ready to go next year without delay.

 

More friends arrive from the UK next week and they are closely followed by another friend and my oldest son and three of his friends too so it will be a busy month.  Almost no bookings for the cottages yet this year – perhaps it’s just a slow start.

On Wednesday, a friend, Sally, had an impromptu birthday barbeque.  She lives about an hour from me.  I drove over and it was a beautiful warm, sunny evening, absolutely perfect for alfresco eating, well worth the drive.

It’s been a lovely sunny couple of days and I’ve enjoyed lying out in the sunshine reading and napping!

Three things I like:

1.    Good friends visiting and catching up.

2.    The prompt French healthcare I’ve received.

3.    The pretty filly and mare in the field behind me.

Early May Days in St André

They say that as you get older time passes faster and I think that must be what's happening - it seems like only yesterday that I wrote the last entry on this blog yet it was twelve days ago.

It's been a difficult month for the family as my oldest son moved into his first house and my daughter and grandson moved into a rented flat.  I hope they will all settle down happily.

At the very end of last month I joined a new Book Group - the previous group I had attended finished last Autumn.  We had been reading The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton and the five of us had quite a good discussion about it. 

I already knew two of the members but two were new to me and we all seemed to get on well - the next meeting will be at my house when we will discuss How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran.  Meantime I   answered an advert for free books and got about 300-400!  Some were not my bag so I readvertised them immediately and the following day the three grocery boxes were collected by another happy reader along with empty jars for her to make pickles etc.

Amongst the books was one recommended to me only a couple days before - Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.  

It has only just over 200 pages and I read it out in the garden in the sunshine we've had this week.  It's about a Professor with a terminal illness who is visited by an old student on Tuesday afternoons and how his view of things changes as his life ebbs away.  One paragraph in particular took me back to sitting with my father as he died in hospital and reading it reduced me to sobbing as I found it so moving. 

 

For One More Day is another book in those I collected which is by the same author and I have just started that.  I hope I can collect all of his writings as I really enjoy his style.

I couldn't go to Writers' Group this month as I had fencers here, surrounding my raised veggie beds so that I could let the sheep graze in a larger area without eating my produce.  A friend's son who is waiting to join army training came and did lots of heavy work for me and while he was working I sowed seeds and cleared beds ready for planting once the danger of frost has passed.   Here in Brittany it is customary not to put out tender plants until after tomorrow, 13 May, when the Ice Saints days have passed. 

    

This is a name given to St. Mamertus, St. Pancras, and St. Servatius in France and other European countries. They are so named because their feast days fall on the days of 11, 12 and 13 May respectively, known as "the black-thorn winter".

My runner bean plants are already about 30cm high and looking strong and ready to be placed in their deep dug, composted, bed to climb up the wires on their frame.

Back at the beginning of April I met up for the first time in 39 years with my bridesmaid from 1966.  One the places we went to was Le Pelinec in Canihuel for dinner.   We're booked in again for this coming Friday evening.  This was our first meal there.

 Unbelievably, yesterday she and her husband were able to be here again having had to make a trip back to the UK for a family funeral.  We had organised them being here to stay on Friday but the weather was so lovely yesterday that they came over and we sat talking endlessly in the sunshine in the garden before going to the Auberge de Guerledan for dinner.   I wish they lived here permanently, they're very good company. 

My lovely goats, Basil and Betsy have left St André.  They were getting older and I was worried that when one died I would have to buy in another for company for the remaining goat. 

 Also grass is in short supply with the sheep and new lambs.  A woman who already had sheep came and picked them up a couple of weeks ago - I miss them.

I am awaiting the hatching of several eggs being sat on by a little grey bantam hen in the barn.  If I am right the chicks should be arriving in the next 1-3 days - I can't wait.

The garden is looking beautiful with everything growing so fast and coming into flower.

 This apple blossom is in my neighbour’s garden as is the stream full of watercress which I pick regularly.

On Sunday and this morning my cats brought in a different swallow they had caught.  Each time I was able to release it after about twenty minutes of lying still in my warm hands and it flew away strongly.

Three things I like:

1.   Being able to read outside in the warm sunshine.

2.   The amazing growth that has happened with the plants in my garden and veggie patch.

3.   Spending time with good friends.

Catching up with April's happenings

I know I haven't written for ages but I was more than a little disheartened by the loss of my rabbits and then the loss of my chicks whilst in their own house and run in the old rabbit area.  Presumably the same predator took both lots of animals and I will no longer have animals in the garden run.

I visited Cornwall at the beginning of April, stayed with family and friends and celebrated my 68th birthday several times while I was there.  It was great catching up with family and friends.  My granddaughter, Mia, has now got a pretty wide vocabulary and it was lovely hearing her talking.  Here she is with her Daddy.

My grandson seems to have shot up in height again and is a lovely lad. I spent one afternoon first walking up on the top of St Austell with him, his Mum and friend, Philippa

and later down in Charlestown overlooking the harbour and beach.  Here is Libby with Charlie.

We seemed to find our way to the local, Rashleigh Arms, several times but I also arrived at the Polgooth Inn with my son, Matthew and friend, Brett, for a late lunch in the sunshine.

While I was away my New Zealand house/pet carers were looking after things in St André. Brett was a three times sheep shearing champion in NZ and took care of my five adult sheep.  As we have no electricity on the field each sheep had to be transported in the back of the Land Rover to the garage where their fleeces were removed with electric sheep shears which I had, luckily, bought second hand last year.  

I don't think the blades were the sharpest but I took them back to the UK with me and had them sharpened there ready for next year.   Maybe I'll be lucky and Brett and Di will be around this part of Europe when shearing time comes around next year.

We travelled up for a day on the north coast on Easter Monday where there was a display of ceramic pigs promoted by the artists and pig breeders.  

The day started out with quite a stiff breeze but got much, much hotter and while Brett and Di went for a walk in the afternoon I sat sunbathing with my Kindle on the beach.

The following day we went down to the south coast around Benodet and Concarneau.

The garden changed so much in the six days I was away.  It was very hot and the wisteria and tulips were all out to welcome me home.  

The cats accompanied me on my first trip up to the field to see the animals.  Always good to come home.

I have just finished reading this book by Nick Thorpe which I enjoyed.

On my way to collect a friend's son to work for me I saw this "pilgrim" walking down from Brittany all the way to Santiago de Campostele in Spain.  I stopped the car and spoke to him for a few minutes - I hope the weather is kind to them both.

Three things I like:

1.  Coming home, the Land Rover laden with 500 litres of compost to start the growing season here.

2.  Having my New Zealand house/pet carers from homecarers.com, who were such lovely people.

3.  Doing the first egg collection of the day on the morning of my return.