Month: February 2021

The Secret Life Of Bees*

Posted on by waternymph88

Wake up at 8.30am – maybe because I went to bed at 8.45pm last night. It’s Sunday so no exercise class so I talk to Hannah, Suzy and Ben – the Sunday morning chat crew. Also talk to Mary.

Then go for a walk round the block with Mum, followed by watching Hermione Lee talking about her new Tom Stoppard biography with Mark Damazer for Jewish Book Week. It is a shame not to attend lovely Kings Place but it is convenient to watch it on our television.

After lunch, sit in the garden with Mum and Fluffball. Fluffball chases bees 🐝 but doesn’t catch any. There’s a bit of a breeze and it blows his fluff around.

Meditate and sleep. Wake up and have coffee ☕️ and a baked apple 🍏 and lemon 🍋 squash. Watch an episode of Inside The Zoo. Am enjoying it So Much. It’s on BBC2 so you can watch it on the iPlayer.

Back in bed resting now. Tonight it will be quiche for supper.

Fluffball hasn’t visited me this afternoon because he is sleeping on the spotty sofa.

Happy Sunday everyone!

*2001. By Sue Monk Kidd. Historical fiction novel set in 1964.

Court No. 1 The Old Bailey*

Posted on by waternymph88

We watch an episode of Rumpole last night, which we love.

Wake up this morning and do Barre. Then chat with my teacher and chums.

Sit outside in the garden. Fluffball chases, but doesn’t catch, a bumblebee. The purple crocuses are out and so are some of the baby irises.

Have lunch, meditate and sleep. Wake up and have coffee ☕️, a baked apple 🍏 and some lemon 🍋 squash. Chat with a friend.

Check the reviews of In Bloom on Amazon. There are now seventeen reviews. So, please keep them coming. Whenever I feel a bit sad I look at my reviews and feel better.

Pick up Fluffball and take him into my room where he is now lying on my bed:

He’s such a precious angel. I love him to pieces. Am squashed into one corner of the bed because he needs to stretch out.

Supper tonight will be vegetable curry.

I’m going to read Court No. 1 The Old Bailey by Thomas Grant when I’ve posted this. Have a bit of nausea and left hip flexor and right lower back Still Hurt.

Happy Saturday everyone!

*2019. By Thomas Grant. The trials and scandals that shocked Modern Britain.

The Saffron Crocus*

Posted on by waternymph88

Astrology course last night is on Houses Seven to Twelve. I love Astrology So Much and manage to stay awake all the way through, which is good.

Wake up and do Pilates. Have pulled my hip flexor on my left leg and hurt my lower back on my right side, so have a band of pain round my whole body. Take some extra morphine.

Sit in the garden with Mum. It is warm, crocuses have come up and we watch our birds on their feeders.

Have lunch, meditate and sleep. Wake up and have coffee ☕️, lemon 🍋 squash and a baked apple 🍏.

We talk to brother in Abroad for an hour.

Now it’s 5.47pm and am back in bed. I have fluffy company:

I am going to read Richard Swatton’s book From Symbol To Substance. We don’t actually have homework from Richard’s Monday class but have already done this and next week’s homework for my Thursday class.

Fluffball has turned round:

Tonight supper will be vegetarian chilli 🌶 and rice 🍚 and cauliflower. Not sure yet what we will watch this evening.

Happy Friday everyone!

*2014. By Alison McMahan. Historical Murder mystery novel set in Venice in 1643.

Unforgotten*

Posted on by waternymph88

So we start watching Unforgotten last night which is good. Go to bed at 8.45pm and sleep till Mum wakes me up at 9.30am.

Work really hard at Personal Training, despite the fact that I have hurt my left hip flexor and my right lower back, so feel a ring of pain around my whole body. Have an extra dose of morphine.

Have lunch, meditate and sleep. Wake up and finish reading The Thursday Murder Club. Then watch Inside The Zoo – the new series about Edinburgh Zoo. It’s on the iPlayer I’m sure. Mum cuts me up some pineapple 🍍.

Just have another coffee ☕️ as I need to stay awake for my Astrology Course this evening which will be on Houses Seven to Twelve.

Fluffball has been in and out as usual today. He is now sleeping on the spotty sofa.

Tonight supper will be vegetarian chilli, rice and broccoli 🥦.

Happy Thursday everyone!

*2015. Television series – crime fiction. Stars Nicola Walker, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Lewis Reeves and Jordan Long. Written by Chris Lang. Directed by Andy Wilson.

A Death At The White Camellia Orphanage*

Posted on by waternymph88

I’m squeezed on one side of my bed because Fluffball is on the other side:

The first camellia flower is open:

Here is the new flowerbed:

Wake up this morning and work hard at Barre. Chat to my teacher and friends. Then go for a drive with Mum through Shenley and up to Sopwell and back.

Have lunch and then talk to my psychiatrist Dr Stein. He is pleased that mood hasn’t dropped but wants me to start going out for walks to combat the fatigue.

Meditate and sleep. Wake up and read fifty pages of my Astrology textbook. Am pleased with myself as that is this week and next week’s homework.

Now I’m going to post this and then I’m eager to return to The Tuesday Murder Club.

In exciting news: my audiobook is finally out on Audible. I’m so happy about this as I put so much work into narrating the book myself.

Tonight supper will be artichokes and bread and cheese. There is a new series of one of our favourite programmes – Unforgotten – so we will watch that after supper.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

*2012. By Marly Youmans. Novel.

From Symbol To Substance*

Posted on by waternymph88

Last night’s Symbolic Doorways course is wonderful. Richard Swatton our teacher has a grey beard and moustache and is great fun, a wonderful teacher and a very unusual character.

I think the closer I get to The End, the more fascinated I am by doorways and thresholds: perhaps I want to think that I will be able to slip between the two worlds. We do a couple of psychic exercises and I’m able to do them. Also: I manage to stay awake till 9.30pm which is good. I discover that I purchased Richard Swatton’s book From Symbol To Substance after I heard his talk at the Astrology Conference so that’s good.

Wake up and do Pilates. Then it’s off to chemo where I read The Thursday Murder Club which I am loving – it’s So Clever and Funny.

Come home, meditate and sleep. Wake up at five o’clock and Mum helps me with my bath. Wash my hair.

Am back in bed writing this. Haven’t yet had a visit from my Fluffball but here he is, outside the kitchen door:

Supper will be spaghetti 🍝 and then Dad is playing chess ♟ and I will watch a Midsomer Murders with Mum.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

*2012. By Richard Swatton. Training the astrological intuition.

The Thursday Murder Club*

Posted on by waternymph88

I am borrowing Mum’s copy of The Thursday Murder Club and am going to start reading it as soon as I’ve posted this.

Work hard at Barre this morning and then chat to my teacher and a friend. Go for a small drive with Mum to Letchmore Heath and back.

Have lunch and then start watching the Mixed Doubles Final which is Matthew Ebden and Samantha Stosur vs Barbora Krejcikova and Rajeev Ram.

Meditate and sleep. Wake up and have coffee ☕️, lemon 🍋 squash and a baked apple and finish watching the tennis. Rajeev and Barbora win in straight sets. Barbora has now won the title three years running.

Fluffball is sleeping in his bed with his legs sticking out. Maybe he will wake up and come to my room.

I have my Symbolic Doorways: Astrology and Intuition course starting at seven o’clock to which I’m looking forward. Not sure quite how I will be able to stay awake till nine thirty though. This is what I hate about this constant fatigue: I can’t even stay awake for things I really want to do. Still: I will do my best.

Chemo tomorrow – ugh.

Happy Monday everyone!

*2020. By Richard Osman. Crime thriller novel.

In The Heat Of The Night*

Posted on by waternymph88

Wake up at eight o’clock and have breakfast. Chat to Mary. Chat to Hannah then Suzy.

My lovely Pilates chum visits at eleven o’clock and it’s warm enough to sit in the garden for an hour. It’s great to see her.

Have lunch and then drive to parental chums in Stanmore to pick up some mimosa:

Come back and have a sleep but wake up after an hour.

Watch the Men’s Doubles Final. Sadly Joe and Rajeev are beaten in straight sets by Dodig and Polasek. They play really well, much better than the 6 – 3, 6 – 3 score line suggests.

Now I’m back in bed writing this and I have fluffy company:

I am enjoying our new routine where Fluffball comes to lie in bed with me in the early evening. He’s my precious angel. Have squeezed my legs on one side of him.

Last night we start watching In The Heat Of The Night which am really enjoying.

I’m So Tired due to not enough sleep last night and this afternoon. Hopefully will sleep well tonight. Back hurts a lot today so I have a couple of extra doses of morphine and Mum gives me some nurofen for my headache.

Supper will be Thai soup again which is one of my favourites.

Happy Sunday everyone!

*1967. Feature film. Stars Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates and Lee Grant. Directed by Norman Jewison. Screenplay by Stirling Silliphant, based on the novel by John Ball.

Leopard’s Prey*

Posted on by waternymph88

Fluffball makes himself comfortable on my bed. It’s So Good to have his special company.

Wake up this morning and finish The Drowning Girl. Really recommend it.

Fluffball dashes up a tree this morning, but makes it down on his own. Phew 😅.

Work hard at Barre in my leopard 🐆 leggings and chat to my teacher and chums afterwards. Go for a drive with Mum through Shenley and up to Sopwell and back past the donkeys. It’s a sunny day and nowhere near as cold as it has been: about fourteen degrees.

Have lunch and watch a bit of Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares vs Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

Meditate and sleep. Wake up and have coffee ☕️, lemon 🍋 squash and a baked apple 🍏. Watch the rest of the doubles with Mum. Ram and Salisbury win and will defend their title.

Have an extra dose of morphine as back hurts.

Tonight it’s Thai fish soup for the parentals and Thai Quorn soup for me.

Speak to Ben who is reading the book and hopes his character will become more sympathetic. I assure him that as Tanya and Ben become closer, his character will indeed be improved.

I feel vindicated in spending all that money on the book to bring it into being now that it has readers and five star reviews. More readers and reviews are welcome of course.

It’s 5.38pm and it’s getting dark. I’m glad that I’m snuggled up with my precious angel Fluffball.

Happy Saturday everyone!

*2013. By Christine Feehan. Occult fiction novel.

The Drowning Girl*

Posted on by waternymph88

Last night in my Astrology Course we do the first Six Houses. It is fascinating.

Do Pilates this morning and work hard. Then to the cancer hospital 🏥 for blood tests. I persuade them to procure me some extra blood if I need it.

Emilia the nurse calls up to say that my blood results are OK to go ahead with chemo on Monday and I don’t need a transfusion. So that’s good.

Meditate and sleep. Wake up and read a bit of The Drowning Girl which I’m enjoying.

Start watching Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares vs Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury but don’t feel well so decide to have bath.

Fluffball comes in to help me with my bath. He sits up on the side: just as he used to when he was a kitten. I am So Lucky to have my precious angel. He can tell that I’m not well at the moment so is going out of his way to give me special extra attention.

Now I’m going to read some more of The Drowning Girl in bed and wait for supper.

Supper will be artichokes followed by bread 🍞 and cheese 🧀.

Happy Friday everyone!

*2009. By Margaret Leroy. Psychological thriller.