It's a Baggy life.: July 2017

Monday, 31 July 2017

Baggy reconnected her inner Grrrrrrrrrr! today.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Grey.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 9.
Tears: No.
Overall day: 😠

It was pretty inevitable that Hormonal Hannah would be feeling awful today, after all Baggy has had number one furry at home for the last four weeks, and even though it wasn't exactly an easy four weeks, as he's been so poorly, it was amazing to see him every day. It's hard knowing that now Baggy won't see Calum again until Friday. So guess what she did baggees? Yep, she stayed in bed, finally emerging at noon. She did have a second reason: Baggy feels rubbish. Her throat has been cactus raw for days and her glands in her neck are doing a jolly good impersonation of large grapes, so Clever Bird decided she needed a rest. Actually she had a third reason as well: Baggy had a very restless night! She was up about five times and having really vivid dreams, courtesy of Psychic Ploppo. The main one of which had Clever Bird phoning up her solicitor and letting rip about how she really feels about her total inadequacy! So she only got up at noon because three furries were not impressed that they hadn't been fed or let out, otherwise she could have gone straight back to sleep. But Baggy had to face the day, so first stop, get Furry Mama to take Minty for a walk. He was keen, even if Hannah was feeling sorry for herself.

But the guides about depression are right - getting yourself out and about in the fresh air, definitely does help. Half-an-hour of sunshine and lovely countryside later, Hannah felt strong enough to get Clever Bird to make the phone call she'd dreamt about. As she picked the phone up Baggy's heart rate increased. "Hello, this is Penny S-S, I'd like to leave a message for XX".
"Yes of course."
"Before I start, I need to point out that XX told me that she didn't receive the last message that I left".
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry about that, I'll make sure that she receives it."
"I know you will, believe me I'm not having a go at you".
"Would you like to speak to XX?"
"No thank you, I'm way too annoyed".
"I'm sorry. What is your message?"
"Well, this is the fourth or fifth time that I have been sent legally binding contracts to sign that are incorrect!"
"Oh".
"Would you ask her to spot her deliberate mistake, and send me out the correct ones please?"
"Yes of course. I'm terribly sorry".
"Thank you. Good bye".

Clever Bird hung up and realised that Baggy's hands were shaking like gale-blown leaves! Within five minutes she had a splitting headache and was struggling to breathe properly. More fresh air needed. Furry Mama decided to go back out with Minty Mutt. She went and sat in the garden with him. The first thing he did was lie down in the water that had accumulated on the rubber door mat. She decided to get his pool back out as his foot is pretty much healed.

Watching his antics with the hose, while Baggy got absolutely soaked, calmed her down again. She finally managed to feel proud of Clever Bird for reclaiming Baggy's inner-Grrrr! Sometimes facing fears (avoiding confrontation of any kind, being one of Baggy's biggest), just has to be done. And having been done, gives you a sense of strength and well-being. The alternative, which sorely tempted Freda Fretter, was to not call the solicitor for a few days (Ostrich-style), so as to avoid either a) the confrontation, or worse still, and much more likely b) to have calmed down enough to be all nice and apologetic, as if it was Clever Bird's fault that she was having to point out yet again that the solicitor is totally useless at her job (and getting paid thousands of pounds for it anyway!!)

Day one of being without Calum is almost over, and although comfort food has been eaten, not one tear has been shed. Way to go Baggy...........

Sunday, 30 July 2017

Stormy nights.

Thunderstorms at three this morning equalled Calum receiving the claws raking the side of the bed treatment, which is Minty Mutt's way of saying, "Help. I'm scared. Wake up. Now!" Baggy was already awake having jumped out of her own skin at a flash of lightening. Furry Mama leant across Calum and stroked Minty on the head. It didn't help. "Mum. I'm terrified".
"I know baby, but it's only a storm".
"No, we're under attack."
"Mint, go and lie down", growled a half asleep Calum.
"But I'm scared".
Furry Mama got up and went and lay with Mint on his bed at the foot of her bed. Another flash, followed almost instantly by a loud bang. Baggy's heart rate shot up. Mint whimpered. "Come on sausage, let's go somewhere so that your dad can sleep", said Furry Mama as she took Mint into the spare bedroom. The skies opened. The rain was absolutely torrential. Clever Bird shut the window and the blind. Furry Mama hopped into bed and persuaded Minty to join her. Baggy snuggled up against a large furry, heavy-breathing, shaky German Shepherd (not much different from snuggling up next to a twitchy, snoring husband really, but don't tell him that baggees), and wrapped her arm across him so that she could stroke his tummy. Another flash-and-bang. But at least Mint didn't jump off the bed. Calum appeared. "You okay?"
"Yes, I was going to sit with the mutt".
"He seems okay now. You can go back to bed. I came in here so that we wouldn't disturb you", explained Furry Mama. "Urrrrm, are you dressed?"
"Yes".
"Weird man", thought Baggy before falling straight to sleep.

When she finally got up at 10am Calum was downstairs. "Did you go back to bed?"
"No, I didn't". Very weird man!
Lovely man though. He ran a very aching Baggy a bath, before going back to bed himself.

Baggy decided to take Gloria Gardener back out to the border she was working on yesterday. Of course Clever Bird forgot to get Creative Clara to take any photos of the overgrown jungle that it was before, but here are the afters:

Hidden in the ivy, she found a magnolia tree, a spindly hydrangea.

And a very wonky apple tree.

Clever Bird is not entirely sure how Gloria is going to get rid of the waste.

Big bonfires this week perhaps?...........

Saturday, 29 July 2017

So annoyed!

Apologies baggees. Baggy is down and struggling, so she's been keeping physically active, and had little energy to blog. However, it's all good! At 8.00pm on Thursday she had a phone call from the holiday cottage company asking whether people could stay the next day (yesterday - Friday). Of course she said they could, so yesterday Calum, Baggy and Minty Mutt went over there to help the caretaker by doing the gardening. Last week's guests had written in the Guest Book, the first people to do so. They couldn't have been more complimentary if they'd tried, including putting that they'd be back. Freda Fretter was particularly delighted as she needs reassurance about everything. While the caretaker got on with cleaning and sorting out the cottage, Calum cut hedges and Gloria Gardener weeded. This typical English summer of sunshine and rain, is perfect growing weather for weeds. Over three hours later the garden was looking beautifully loved once more. Poor Calum was all weak and wobbly and Baggy just ached, but at least it was done. Clever Bird settled all her accounts to the end of July. By the time they got home - to a well deserved fish and chips supper - all they wanted to do was chill in front of the telly and go to bed.

Today, The Domestic Goddess was rustled up to try to get the house looking nice once more. Since Calum has been off (for four weeks now), she hasn't really had much of a chance to do her thing. Today, even though Calum was trying to listen to music, she got the vacuum out and went for it. This was partly instigated by the black cloud, and partly by Clever Bird's totally useless solicitor, who has yet again sent a contract and covenants to sign, that are totally wrong! How can such idiot, so-called professionals, justify charging over £200 an hour? But every time, Clever Bird has to point out her errors, and every time it puts Hormonal Hannah into a stressed, anxious, spaced-out meltdown. She always sends these incorrect missives on a Saturday too, so Clever Bird has to get stressed over it until Monday. Then she is too flipping nice to complain. Hopeless. But at least the house benefitted from her angst.

Next, do a test run of putting up the gazebo that Calum bought Creative Clara for her vintage stall at the end of the month. They tried to do it on the back patio, but it was too big. They moved the cars off the drive and put it up on there instead. It's great. They might even end up looking like proper traders!

Then Baggy got side-tracked by Gloria Gardener who decided to tackle the large, totally overgrown border, by the drive. As she was fighting seven years worth of unpruned growth, Calum grabbed himself a garden chair and settled down to watch! It started to rain. Hard. So he moved himself into the garage and carried on watching. "That's proper rain now. I'm getting soaked." said Gloria. A moment later, Calum appeared with a huge sun brolly and held it over Baggy so that Gloria could carry on working. Clever Bird thinks that this was a good thing...........

Thursday, 27 July 2017

Swinging free.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Black.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 7.
Tears: No.
Overall day: 👾

Hormonal Hannah has Baggy sleeping until all hours again, then waking up in a really bad place. When she is awake, she has that sick feeling in her stomach - you know the one baggees? That one you get before taking an exam; speaking in public; doing something that terrifies you. Except that Baggy has no reason for it - it's just there, and that in itself is scary! So it's much easier to go back to sleep and forget about it. But much as she'd like to, Baggy cannot let Hannah stay in bed all day. So instead she keeps her busy!

Stage one: wash Baggy's hair. Stage two: get Furry Mama to take Minty Mutt for a walk. Stage three: have The Domestic Goddess do a bit of a tidy up. Stage four: let Gloria Gardener loose on the very weedy patio. Before continuing, Creative Clara would like to refer you back to stage one baggees. All of the above was undertaken with Baggy's now very long hair loose, as it tried to dry. Remember Charlie Dimmock? She of gardening fame with Alan Titchmarsh. Everything swinging free while she gardened: long blonde hair wafting round her face, and other ample assets, wafting round her t-shirt! Well, today Gloria gave that a whirl. Just the hair bit of the scenario of course - well, kind of. You'll see in a minute. But trying to garden while surrounded by a face of long, in Baggy's case, grey hair, is pretty much impossible - you just can't see what you are doing. Not to mention the fact that the weeds were so copious, but little, that Baggy had to bend right down for Gloria to get them, and Baggy's hair is now so long that it was scraping in the mud. Clever Bird made her stop being so ridiculous and tie it back! Who was she trying to impress anyway, hair wafting free? Calum was in his man shed being creative, and Minty wasn't interested. Then she got too hot, so Clever Bird decided that as there was no one to see, she'd take Baggy's shirt off. So Gloria finished her weeding in her baggy dungarees with just her bra underneath - next step a full Charlie Dimmock? Probably not, although the patio is completely private - well as long as nobody turns up at the side-gate unannounced that is!

Then it decided to pour with rain - very suddenly. Baggy got soaked, but at least her top stayed dry! She still didn't have it on. Indoors to put a jumper on as it was cold. Quick rustle up of a chilli con carne for supper by The Goddess. It stopped raining. Furry Mama took number one a cup of tea in his man shed, and set Gloria back to her weeding. The sun came out. The jumper came off. Back to the bra-look. You'll be happy to hear that there are no photos of this for Clara to post!

Supper eaten. Creative Clara started researching more prices of stock for her shop and stall. The phone rang. Would it be possible for some people to stay in the holiday cottage tomorrow? Of course it would. Thank you again universe..............

https://www.holidaycottages.co.uk/.../suffolk/blossom-cottage

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

Hug a deer!

Deer, donkey, Minty Mutt and husband cuddles, plus cappuccino and cake, enough to make even Hormonal Hannah at peace with the world! The newly opened Reserve at Earsham in Suffolk is very therapeutic..........

Monday, 24 July 2017

It was benign!

Furry Mama walked Minty. Baggy then had to get Billy Bob Jalopy off the drive to take Mint to the vets. Five minutes - ten attempts - two panics and giving-ups, actually switching off the engine and getting out, she finally managed it! "Why take Billy Bob?", Clever Bird can hear you asking baggees. Well because Mint can get into it much more easily than Baggy's car , which requires a ramp and a ton of faffing. Furry Mama felt sick with worry as she walked in, but she needn't have, it was all good news! The removed lump was a benign tumour. YAY! The two chest lumps were fatty ones. YAY! And the one that Freda Fretter was really worried about is probably as a result of trauma - a bit like the breast lump that Baggy found, which is also as a result of trauma. YAY! No more operations required! And his foot is healing so well that the vet took the stitches out. YAY!

Why didn't Creative Clara blog yesterday? Because Freda and Hannah had her so worried about Calum and Minty that she couldn't cope. Silly, because it's all good! Calum has new teeth and is smiling like a Cheshire cat. Mint is well.

Clara has spent the last three hours choosing stock for her new "shop" and pricing it up. And a new booking has come in for the holiday cottage!!!! Clara is feeling good - she may yet be able to earn some proper money. Loving the universe. Thank you..............

Saturday, 22 July 2017

The universe has spoken.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!

Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Grey.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 3.
Tears: No.
Overall day: 💖

Following on from yesterday's "Always look on the bright side" blog, it would seem that Psychic Ploppo has been in tune with the universe! While The Domestic Goddess was painting the front of the house a week or so ago, she got chatting to various people who wandered by. One was a lady with a little rescue dog that she's had just three weeks. Baggy and she yacked - about who knows what? - for ages, while Furry Mama stroked the little dog. Now this happens regularly in the village - typical village life really, depending on your point of view, it's either "Everyone has their nose in everyone else's business", or "People are friendly and care about each other". Baggy goes with the latter view. But she has always been rubbish at remembering people's names. She knows a lot of people in the village from when her Dad lived there and she's just about got their names sussed now. She can remember the names of most of the dogs she's met too, but their owners could be called anything. But for some reason, with this lady, she made a concerted effort to remember her name, as well as her little dog's.

This morning Furry Mama decided that Minty Mutt's and Baggy's mental health need to come before their physical health - or rather, if she doesn't see to their mental health, their physical health is not going to improve. She is not supposed to be walking Minty at all until after his check-up on Monday. However, Clever Bird knows that a) his foot is healing beautifully and b) he's getting stiff and depressed not going out for his walks, as for that matter is Baggy, so today they did a proper walk. On it they bumped into the lady that The Goddess met painting, and her little dog.

Baggy then had to take Hormonal Hannah into town to pick up her prescription. Creative Clara wanted to pop into one of the lovely vintage shops that Baggy had parked next to, just to do a bit of comparative-shopping. She was wandering through in her own little world, and she heard a voice say, "Hello again, you got here quickly" - it was the same little dog lady.
"Oh Hi again".
"You just looking?"
"Yes" said Clara, "just having a mooch".
"Well, that's my section over there."
"Oh right. I've wondered myself about having a little section in a shop like this........"
Long conversation short, there's a space coming up in the vintage shop in September and Creative Clara found herself saying that "she'd love to take it on"!!!
Clearly it was meant to be. The universe has spoken. The little dog lady recommended Clara to the owner. Baggy got all excited - well for about twenty minutes, until Hormonal Hannah and Freda Fretter started to make her doubt Clara's abilities to make it work. But it's a first tiny step towards vintage retail domination! But no really, at least it is the next step towards Baggy earning some money, and getting back into the working world, as she'll have to serve in the shop for at least half a day a week.

Next stop, as Clara wittered on to Calum endlessly about setting up her "shop", Baggy drove Grotty Groom to see her horses. Yay! It's been weeks again. But both Boys were really pleased to see them and even happier to have a lovely groom in the sunshine. Baggy's spirits have lifted considerably, and hopefully she now has a real chance of earning some money. Exciting........

Friday, 21 July 2017

Always look on the bright side of life!

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!

Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Black.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 5.
Tears: Yes.
Overall day: 😕

Creative Clara needs to be truthful with you baggees, Hormonal Hannah has had Baggy in a rubbish place for the last week or so. It's probably justified though. She's finding it a bit much to cope with at the moment.

Poor number one furry is still far from okay. It's almost certainly the two antibiotics that he's on that are making him feel so rough, but he keeps getting very dizzy. And to say that he's cranky....well - the word is stir-crazy. He'll be taking his sixth week off work next week (out of seven), because apart from the fact that he feels pretty grotty, there's no way it would be wise to drive a 44-tonne lump of metal about.
Lack of any proper income because of this, is making Cal feel guilty. And Baggy feel even more guilty that she earns nothing.
Minty Mutt is healing well but Furry Mama is worried about how scared he is getting: of storms, of being left, of nothing in particular.
When Furry Mama went to the vet's on Wednesday to pick up more tramadol and dementia pills for him, the vet asked when she was back for his check up. "Next Monday", said Furry Mama. "Okay, well we can discuss his other lumps then". Now call Freda Fretter a worrywart but if they were fatty lumps, would she not just have said that?
Clever Bird chased her totally useless solicitor ten days ago because she knows that absolutely everything is in place for both land purchases to be completed (so that Cal and Gloria Gardener can finally actually own their own garden), and yet she has nothing (correct) to sign yet! Has she heard a thing back? Has she icky-thump?
Freda Fretter however is quite happy about that, as when it is all completed, the bills will have to be paid. Somehow.
The holiday cottage is doing quite well. It's had its first, very good, review. But it needs a year's worth of bookings to cover the cost of the investment. Freda Fretter can't help panicking that there are not more bookings coming in.

So maybe Baggy's anxiety is rational. But the pesky black cloud is annoying. But on the love everything - life is too short philosophy of life, she is dealing with everything positively and rationally!

Number one needs to be at home resting. Furry Mama is looking after him as best she can. Today she took him over to Bungay, her home town from ten to eighteen years old. She'd heard that it had gone down hill. But actually, although the main high street largely consisted of charity shops (always a bad sign), the town was lovely, with some gorgeous shops and cafés. (Clara forgot her camera, and her phone though!) It was good to get out of the house for a couple of hours.
To earn some extra cash, Clara is taking her little vintage stall to two fairs in August. Calum has bought her a gazebo to cover all weather eventualities for the outdoor market one - of course the cost of it will be any profit gone, but it means that they can do more outdoor fairs in the future. Planning ahead!
Furry Mama and Cal are treating Minty on a daily basis. Little walks. Tasty treats. Steak dinners. New toys. Lots of cuddles. She's looking forward to taking him out and about again very soon.
Worry not about the solicitor. Worry not about the land. Worry not about the cost. It will all come right in the end! Time for Clever Bird to sell some of Clara's bits at auction! First up some Clarice Cliff and Guiness Toucans - that should pay for the gazebo!
Plan lots more vintage fairs.
Have faith in the holiday cottage. It is lovely and will be really cosy in winter. The investment will be covered eventually, but meanwhile it's a sound investment.
Clever Bird knows that there are much worse problems to have! As long as Calum gets better and Minty Mutt can enjoy his twilight years, all the rest is just "stuff", that can be dealt with one way or another.
Time for The Domestic Goddess to track down a few more cans of paint.........

Tuesday, 18 July 2017

Love everything.

Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.

Baggy's daily state!

Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Black.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 3.
Tears: No.
Overall day: 😍

Everything deserves to be loved - animate, inanimate, big small, old, new. If it isn't loved whatever it is will deteriorate for the lack of care, or be left abandoned - in a cupboard, on the street, in a drawer. Either way, this is a bad thing! Take Baggy's house for example, Baggy's dad and step-mum loved it, so they spent a lot of time caring for it, as a result it was immaculate. Even in his eighties, her dad was up a high ladder painting the outside of the house. Her mum looked after the garden, which always looked spectacular. LOVE. Since they moved on to the garden in the sky, their house has been sadly unloved. As many baggees know, the last tenant in the house didn't love it at all, and the estate agents didn't seem to care either, and the lack of love showed. NO LOVE. Baggy and Calum love their house, but have only just been able to focus some attention on it, because all of their attention has been on loving the holiday cottage. Well Baggy is now totally loving her house - it deserves it! LOVE.

When she inherited it, a little over a year ago, it looked terrible - peeling paint, black mould all over ceilings, major damp problems, a totally overgrown garden, filthy curtains and blinds, stained carpets, warped doors, water-damaged cupboards, tumbling down sheds. NO LOVE. Since Baggy and the furries moved in seven months ago, slow progress has been made by the Domestic Goddess and Gloria Gardener on the outside. Now when people walk by, instead of saying, "Oh, I thought this house was empty", "Glad someone's looking after this house now", or "It's a shame the house got into such a mess", they're saying, "What a lovely cottage", or "What's that colour, it's lovely?" LOVE.

This morning: