Shoshiplatypus

What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

I am continuing to work on the tiny carpets.

The second tiny carpet, for the back of the first needle book, is now completed.

Here are the two, side by side.

All that remains now is to outline them and fill the gap between them (the spine of the needle book) with black cross stitch. I have begun work on this.

Mulling things over, I thought it might be more interesting and less repetitive to do different designs on the other two books, rather than making them all the same. I have therefore designed the first tiny carpet for the second book.

This is the original Pinterest image I found, as inspiration for the first one.

This is my design on graph paper. As before, I have had to lose quite a bit of detail, working at such a small scale. As you can see, I haven’t bothered to colour in all the dark blue background. I thought the design would be easier to follow if I did not.

I thought this was quite a fun design, with the little figures and quirky birds on it.

Kitties

It’s Lily who steals the show this week, but first, here’s a photo of Ruby with our hare garden ornament.

My hubby tried to engage them in a bit of play with the birdie toy. Ruby didn’t make an appearance until the end, and Lily was her usual self – a lazy lump! Ruby will often leap up into the air after the toy, but Lily prefers lying on her back, waving her paws in the air, and hanging on to it when she can grab it. It was rather a hot day for a lot of vigorous activity though.

An interesting new sleeping place for Lily. Note the tail hanging down.

Finally, Lily doing her shameless hussy act, exposing absolutely everything.

She has the softest fur you could imagine.

Food

No recipe this week. I did try a new chickpea salad recipe, but didn’t think it was any great shakes, so I shan’t be making it again. I have cooked a big pot of curried parsnip soup to replenish freezer stocks, and made repeats of favourite recipes this week, so nothing new I’m afraid.

Nutrition

This week I came across the most wonderful testimony of what half a lifetime of whole-food plant-based living can do for you.

Dr. Ellsworth Wareham was 98 when he was interviewed in this video. He has now died, aged 104. He was a cardiothoracic surgeon, and he retired when he was 95 years of age. The reason he gives, in this interview, is that he felt it was time to spend more time with his family, and in another recording I watched of him, he said that he felt that if his patients realised how old he was, they might lose confidence in him! He felt he was quite capable of continuing. At 98, there was no mouldering away for him, in a care home with no quality of life remaining; he was still active and fully mentally alert, and enjoying life to the full. I think this is a brilliant testimony!

Around the world, there are several regions known as Blue Zones. These are places where there is a disproportionately large number of centenarians, also active and enjoying life. What they share in common is their regional or community diet which is almost exclusively whole-food plant-based. These Blue Zones include Ikaria in Greece; Okinawa, an island in Japan; the Ogliastra Region of Sardinia; Loma Linda in California; and the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. The Loma Linda group is interesting, being in the USA which is in general notorious for the deleterious effects of the standard Western diet. This community consists of a large group of Seventh Day Adventists. This religious group are vegetarian, and do not smoke or drink, and believe in healthy exercise. They also live very happy lives, being strongly family and community oriented, balancing the working week with a strict day of rest, and they believe in giving back to society – all practices which have been proved to contribute to good health and long life. Numerous studies have been conducted into the lifestyle and health of Seventh Day Adventists in California, going back to the 1960s, which bear out the truth of the reasons for their longevity. Being a distinct group of genetically diverse individuals, they make an ideal cohort for nutritional studies.

At 67 years of age, is Shoshi now approaching middle age? Lol!

An interesting fact – at this week’s weigh-in, my hubby now weighs 1 lb less than I weighed at my maximum! That fact takes a bit of getting used to. At his Slimming World Zoom session yesterday, he called me in to say hi to everyone, and the leader gave me a list of recipes she wants from me!! Although he attends the meetings and is registered with this organisation, he isn’t actually following their diet plan at all – he’s simply eating what I give him, which is whole-food plant-based, although there are a few areas of common ground (they generally have the same views on calorie density, although they do include eggs, which seems pretty illogical to me, being so high in saturated fat and cholesterol). He has now reached his original target weight, which we all agreed was too high, but it was at least an achievable goal. The leader agreed that he had more to lose, but that shouldn’t be a problem as long as he continues as he has been doing.

Health Update

On Monday I had a phone call from the Bladder and Bowel Service in Newton Abbot. They had had my letter, and said that if they were to give me a bladder scan, I would have to start with them as a new patient, which would mean I would have to complete their questionnaire and bladder diary. I pointed out that the Zoe, the physio, had sent a detailed referral and that all she wanted was the scan, so that she could see what was going on. I said that I did not want to start all over again with a new team, because I was part-way through my treatment with Zoe, and was happy to continue with her. The woman told me that Newton Abbot was under a different NHS trust and nothing to do with Torbay, and I would have to register with them as a new patient if I was to have the scan, because she said, “We don’t do scans willy nilly.” She came across as a real job’s worth type that couldn’t think beyond the standard paperwork. Looney tunes. I came off the phone feeling frustrated, impotent and annoyed.

I immediately emailed Zoe to tell her what had happened. I pointed out that since the Bladder and Bowel Service served several trusts, there should be seamless communication and interaction between them. I told her that I really didn’t want to start all over again with someone else, and suggested that perhaps as what she was doing with me was starting to bear fruit, maybe the scan wasn’t essential after all. She replied that she was sorry I had got caught up in the machinations of the NHS, and agreed that while the scan might have been useful, it might actually cause more problems than it solved at this stage in my treatment. She suggested that I contact them again and tell them not to go ahead with the referral, and that we would continue as we have been doing, and if at some future time it became necessary to have the scan, she could re-refer me. This is fine by me, and she wants me to make another appointment with her for four to six weeks’ time to see how I am getting on with the two-hourly voiding.

I’m definitely noticing an improvement in that I can very often tell that there is something to “go” after two hours, so something must be happening. My bladder is probably starting to shrink back to a more normal size now that I am not allowing it to stretch because it’s too full. She is hoping that I will develop new sensory pathways so that I can detect when I need to go at regular intervals like everyone else. She did tell me that I may not ever develop full sensation, and I might always have to make a conscious effort to go regularly even if I can’t feel it, but I shan’t mind that. In time, she said we may be able to extend the period from 2 to 2 1/2 hours between visits.

Anyway, I am very pleased that I don’t have to go through all that business with Newton Abbot. I really do think they could organise things a little better in the NHS at times! This sort of thing creates a great deal of extra work, it’s inefficient, and provides more opportunity for breakdowns in communication.

Clothes

Shoshi’s all in black this week! I bought the trousers recently on Ebay, and the top is a sheer chiffon sleeveless top with beadwork on the front, worn over a sleeveless black Fruit of the Loom T-shirt. I bought the top many years ago in a charity shop. The Indian jewellery (necklace and earring set) were an el-cheapo Ebay job. Maroon socks to top it off (or should I say bottom it off?) this time.

The cardigan is by Forever Amano and my hubby bought it for me at an Indian festival several years ago at Dartington. If you click the link you can see a full image of it – I have to say it was considerably less expensive than the list price there! I am thinking of knitting something similar in wool if I can work out how to make the flared lower part. The colours and textures are gorgeous, but it is only cotton and not that warm. I had a couple of friends visit last week for coffee in the garden and one of them said that if I popped off before she did, would I leave it to her in my will!!!

Here’s a close up showing the beadwork and the necklace.

Have a great creative week, everybody.

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