Emerges, Briefly, Blinking. Retreats with a view to hibernation.

 Well, you don't need me to tell you what a strange, worrying, frustrating year this has been.

Having had a near fatal asthma attack when I was younger (fitter, etc.), I had made the decision to effectively lockdown in February, ahead of the likelihood of Covid 19 getting a foothold via people returning from Half Term jollies abroad.  I wasn't far wrong, was I?  

I briefly emerged in March, when I was called into the GP surgery for the practice nurse to give me an asthma check-up & advice session in what turned out to be the week before lockdown.  At which point my decision to retreat to my home & garden was vindicated.

Howard worked through much of lockdown, as he was deemed a key worker (with a lanyard to prove it).  As well as his usual responsibilities including delivering prescription meds to vulnerable housebound residents, he also helped Waltham Forest council with the setting up of food parcel delivery services to high risk shielding households, which he continued with until the promised extra government funding to the council to cover this was not forthcoming so they ran out of funds to cover the wages for his work.  He was on furlough for only a few weeks, going back to his usual duties from early July, and has been even busier than he was before lockdown.

All was going swimmingly for me,  spending a few yours every day in the garden & greenhouse, sowing seeds & potting on seedlings for all of Spring & into early Summer, then I had a setback - the remaining GP at the surgery decided to do a telephone review of my health, & prescribed something for the nerve pain I suffered in my damaged knee, which was waking me up in the early morning on a regular basis.  Turned out that what she prescribed me was pretty strong and had alarming potential side effects.  Yes, I was no longer woken around 4am by pulsing, stabbing pains in my knee, but I also lost much of the remaining strength in that leg - it felt as if the muscles had melted away. As I was to discover, loss of balance was a common side effect, and within a couple of days on the tablets, I had experienced three bad falls, leaving me with painful & bruised back & ribs.  So I put in an urgent call to the GP, whose response was for me to stop taking the tablets immediately, and to call the physio department at the hospital for additional help.

Well, this turned out to be the most positive move in improving my mobility in a long time, thanks to the excellent physiotherapist I've been assigned.  While the main focus has been on building strength in my leg & especially the support structure around my knee, his positivity & encouragement has had a huge impact too.  Plus he's taken my problems seriously - even taking action to get me referred to a lymphodema clinic.  I've been struggling with swollen feet & legs, especially in hot weather, for a few years, plus random skin problems in affected areas, but was told it's something that seems to affect older women & not much could be done (& to prop legs up above hips when possible, if practical).  Well, the physio took one look at my legs in the Summer heat, was shocked nothing had been done for me, and resolved to find ways to help as it was impacting my mobility.  I feel listened to & vindicated.

Still not fully steady on my feet to risk the garden or allotment on my own, so I've had to leave that in Howard's hands for a while.  I know it's been an erratic year for many gardeners, and our allotment seems to have been discovered by at least one Muntjac deer, but what has survived has provided an adequate return for our efforts.  We did well for salad leaves during the Summer, and our potatoes, onions, garlic & shallots are still in use.  Had a better crop of beetroot than other years, early peas were good & Swiss chard as reliable as ever.  It's also been a stunning year for apples, especially our cooking apple tree.  The unblemished ones have been wrapped to store, and the damaged ones have been turned into apple puree or stewed to go with all sorts of meals.

With the Equinox, the weather seemed to switch to Autumn mode, & the colour of the leaves on the trees I can see from my window began to change.  The Field Maples I can see from my window always come into their own at this time of year, firstly darkening to a deep blue-green, and right now are a rich burgundy in hue.  It does also prompt me that it's time to get onion, garlic & shallots ordered & started for next year, along with sowing broad beans & making a new bin to gather this year's leaf mould.  Any normal year, the alliums, plus flower bulbs & a fair stash of packets of seeds for the coming year would have been acquired at the Malvern Autumn show, along with exploring another few Herefordshire villages where ancestors I'd discovered in my family tree research, but that has been put on hold, along with so much else.

Hopefully the continued physio exercises & any other therapies I have in the next few months with give me the strength & mobility to, when safe, get out again & enjoy nature, and pretty soon get back to working in the garden & at the allotment.