The Heart of It

 On Wed, 15th March Pete went in for heart surgery.  It turned out to be bigger than had been expected with a quadruple bypass, mitral valve repair and a ligation to try stopping the AF he had very recently been diagnosed with.  The operation lasted between 6-7 hrs and he was in ICU from the Wed straight after until the Friday afternoon when he was transferred to the Cardiac Ward.  The Royal Melbourne Hospital was very good (apart from the food for the patients and the extremely limited car parking available).

We had to be in Melbourne on the Monday as he had preadmission appointments at the hospital the day before surgery - We stayed with our daughter Stacey and SIL John and of course Lucy came with us because of 

her only being 4 mths of age and we felt she was just too young to leave in a kennel.  So we enjoyed the Monday afternoon with Stacey and John taking us out and down to the Dog Beach at Altona where Lucy got to experience her first time at a beach .............. 

I think we all enjoyed it just as much watching all the dogs and talking with so many friendly people down with their dogs all playing.

Jaron flew in on the Thursday morning
which was great to have him there as well.  Jaron could see that Stace and I needed a bit of down time with all that was going on and talked us into going to the Richmond Footy match after we had been to see Pete in the hospital.  

I am sooooo glad he did that - at the time I had my doubts, but wow - it was such a relief to get those couple of hours break as we had a long day in ICU visiting and doing shift changes as only 2 could visit at a time. 

 The match and just having time with Stace and Jaron was great! John was more than happy to stay home (he's not an AFL follower),  and look after Lucy (who was not at all coping with the changes and being left!!)  Gotta say it was a heck of a game and a heck of an experience trying to make our way to the trains afterwards!!  Over 88,000 people were at the match which was held at the very famous MCG.

Buttercup is Stacey's rabbit - Lucy wanted so badly to be able to just play with her - they ended up sitting touching noses through the barricade - Lucy had to go into a crate when nobody was at home to keep and eye - as you might imagine!  Since our visit Buttercup has learnt how to escape from her pen  

Melbourne City - some days it took an hour or more to get to the Hospital (in the middle of the city) due to traffic and up to 2hrs to find a car park one day!!  

So a couple of times we took the train and tram to get in and out 
On the Monday the next week Pete was discharged from hospital - I'm sure he would have been kept longer if he hadn't pushed so hard to let out lol.
Lucy has been keeping a close eye on him - although she was a bit thrown the first couple of days not being able to just jump up and such.  Currently Pete is not allowed to lift more than 2kgs in weight for the first few weeks.  His leg and arms and chest cuts are healing well, and finally the wounds from where the tubes came out of his lungs are healing up - they seemed to take a bit longer. The 4th vein was taken from behind the chest wall to use as the fourth bypass.

It was So nice to wake up Tuesday morning back at home - although it's been pretty much full time nursing care for Pete the first week, in between checking on Dad and seeing to Lucy!  Things are beginning to calm down a little now - Day 11 home from hospital and having got on top of the start of an infection!

Lucy is back to having her daily walks in a place where we both feel a little more safe, and she has been meeting up with some of her doggie friends she sees on our walks - This is Bella, a Groodle and a week younger than Lucy - half the time they are jumping over the top of each other lol

Lucy - now 5 months old 

Since I'm currently not working - I'm trying to keep the cost of living down and hence got back to making my own Laundry Liquid using the ingredients in the photo below.  If you want the recipe you will find it here on my blog - go to the page Laundry and you will find it.  And with that - I'll say goodbye for now.  A big thankyou to those of you who contacted me over the past few weeks :)

A Medical Month

 A quick post - it’s been a rather “interesting “ month or 5/weeks  …… from having Hubbie change GP,s to one we used to use in Wangaratta and on the same day getting an appointment with a specialist we were told Pete appeared to have a couple of cardiac issues that needed some attention - specialist had  him referred and having an Angiogram within 10 days - following which we were told to await a phone call from Royal Melbourne Hospital ……. Long story short we head down to Melbourne tomorrow with preaddmission on Tues and his surgery on Wednesday.  

Needless to say we decided this was not the year to go travelling for our anniversary which we celebrated on 23rd February- 38 years married and 40 yrs together!  We actually had to attend a dental appointment for Pete to have him cleared for surgery!  Don’t think we’ll forget this one!

Lucy is going well and a real little treasure to have around to keep us laughing 🧡 she is 41/2 months old now and has me taking her for a morning walk most days .

The garden produced some good crops of potatoes, tomatoes, corn and rockmelon this year.   I’ll have a bit more time to spend in the garden when we return as I’ve taken a month or two off work while Pete has his operation and we see how the recuperation goes.

Till later this month 

Sharm 

A New Year……. We'd best do a quick catch up!

Seems the best way to catch you up on what's been going on the past couple of months is a quick picture round up ........ But the most exciting for Pete and I was the decision to get a new Puppy ..... Introducing Lucy .....  a little spoodle (X spaniel and poodle) who came to live with us just 2 days before Christmas........  We had thought it would be around March before we found a pup (locally and affordable) so this was most unexpected to us but I'm sure God already had her picked out for us.  She was just 9 wks old at the time and has brought soooo much love and laughter and joy back into our house ....... just what we both needed! 

In early December we had friends from Tassie come to stay a couple of nights and we had a great time catching up and enjoying their 2 Jack Russells who also came with them 

Recently I've managed to finish that 2nd pair of socks I started last year in Feb!

While in November I was busy changing the bathroom curtains and sewing up some new ones for the Kitchen - which are a tad difficult to see in this photo but they have emu's on them

Stacey managed to get up to see us after Christmas and Meet little Lucy!  She is just soooo tiny in these photos but getting a bit bigger now .....

Our youngest Grandson Jax had his first day of high school this week!!!

In November my eldest got me some fat from the Abattoirs and I rendered it down out the back so I could use it to make a more cost effective soap.  Years ago I used tallow and it's blended with oils and has made a beautiful soap that has been shared as gifts to many friends and family - here I had Orange & Spearmint, Lemon Myrtle and a Vanilla & Oats ...... more have been made since then along with a few lip balms and other lotions.  It takes time to render the fat to tallow but I'm pleased to be able to use this free source of what would otherwise be thrown away.

And while our youngest grandchild started highschool this week ...... his brother, our eldest Grandchild Jarryn finished High School in November!  Unfortunately we couldn't afford to make it up to Townsville which was a bit sad, but we are very proud of him.

In late October we had my sister and her family over from New Zealand and it was lovely for Dad to be able to see them all again and great for us all to have some time catching up 

The Garden has produced some beautiful blooms over the seasons and we have been seeing some amazing sunsets !

Little miss Lucy at 9 wks showing her size against Pete's thong!

And this was the best way to get her weight at the time lol ...... Pretty sure she won't sit in the mixing bowl that still any longer!!!  1.6kgs

And it seems reasonable that I should finish the photos with another knitted finish which was done late October or perhaps November??  We were still having some cooler weather then, but it's certainly Hot Summer Days now!!!  Still, I'm looking forward to being able to use this one come Winter ..... the rolled neck actually extends up to come over like a hood

This was just a quick recap of the past few months late Oct through to early / mid January (if you count the first day of high school photo lol).  I've picked up a bit of extra work and the puppy has been keeping me very busy as you might imagine.   I'm hoping that this year can bring me back to blogging a bit more often and it seems like I've been able to find a work around for getting my photos on here which is good.  I've yet to see if I can make comments on other blogs as that was causing me issues which sent me right away from Blogger the past few months!!!  It was just tooo frustrating ...... so we shall see ...........    Till then,

Hugs, Sharm

Whats in a Month ......

 

Between Rain and the huge amounts of water being released from the Hume Weir into the Murray River - towns are being flooded with the River overflowing into low lying areas.  This is the street over from us - aptly called River Road since that's pretty much what it is now - residents here are having to use their back lanes to access their homes!

This is one of the main roads in/out of town - this bridge has flooded over  - it heads to the old bridge that goes over to Whagunyah - as the river has filled the parkland, football grounds, and access to the shire offices, library and numerous other places ..... today when I went past you could see the current is pulling up chunks of road!

The houses along River Road

Meantime the rain has had a wonderful effect on my garden! Hard to believe there was nothing here a year ago when we moved in!  The front yard has been fine, but the back yard has required Pete having to purchase and install a submersible pump to pump out water from the back yard to stop it coming into the house ....... surface water from rain no longer has anywhere to run with things so wet

I'm in the process of knitting another one of Laura Aylors patterns - she currently has a KAL going and if I get it finished by end of month I'll be eligible for a free pattern from her store and have my eye on a blanket pattern

Secret Christmas Crochet going on .......

I was sooooo blessed to be able to pick a bunch of roses from my garden over the weekend to fill a vase! All of these are fragrant roses so they were just beautiful.   God has truly blessed me with filling our gardens with beautiful colour and allowing all my plantings to flourish so well.  Since I first had my children,  I  have always felt closer to God when I'm working in my garden.  I love how the garden is bringing so many types of birds in. 

Picking nice amounts of strawberries from our garden - unfortunately they tend to get eaten before they can be used for anything else lol

I've pulled out my "Down the Rabbit Hole " Quilt and started a big effort to get back working on it.  You might remember back that I started this BOM back in 2017 (before all the moving houses occured) - hopefully it will be finished by the end of Summer

Pete picked up a 2nd hand trailer for a very good price-  it needs some work doing on it so he now has a project to keep him busy.  We sold our other trailer up in Queensland before we moved down here and it will be very handy to have it for carting wood, rather than just the ute.

With all the rain ...... we have frogs again coming to visit the pool - they are only a small type .... apparently just the right size for breakfast for this blue Heron who regularly comes to visit and does the circuit of the pool early in the morning before flying off 

Mid October we had my Stepsister Kathy (Dads other daughter ) together with her hubby and children come over from New Zealand for a visit.  It was a lovely time and good for her to be able to see how well Dad is going and how wonderful his new place is.

Baking goes on most weekends and Pete is usually pretty quick to get to the tray not long after they exit the oven lol ....... These Anzacs were made on Remembrance Day

I'm in desperate need for a few more kitchen hand towels so made this one up and have another couple ready to go shortly.   I'm also needing to make some new aprons!  I'm down to just 3 and I use my aprons every day!!  Many many years ago, I decided to make up my own design as I was finding it hard to get what I wanted ...... a full apron that slips over your head and has a huge big pocket at the front!!!  I have a list of things I'm needing to get sewn or crocheted up over the next couple of months...... once I get the Christmas stuff out the way

This garden is relatively new and it's inside the pool fence.  The yellow rose is a climbing one which will - I hope - grow to give us a bit of a privacy screen from next door when we are in the pool.   

More Rain Coming ..........

We recently joined up the Corowa Fishing Club and this was the presentation night they had a few weeks ago ....... it was held in the Corowa Rowing Club rooms which are now well under water.  Last week the water could be seen half way up the outside of the building but that was prior to the water going over the road where the bridge is!  Luckily they got all the stuff out in time.

As I looked out one of the doors of the rowing club that night, the sun was just going down ...... the River was already up then, but not like it is now ......I couldn't resist snapping this photo!

Kathy, Dad and I

With my nieces and nephews Ollie and Pierre, Mindy and Neomi (Lucy had already flown back to NZ for work), Kathy, myself and Dad.

Finished knitting this vest with some of the yarn I had in my stash ...... I'm not sure I'm keen on the way the colours worked out (thought there would be more pooling rather than striping) and not sure yet if I might end of dying it????  Thoughts anyone??

Pete out working on pumping the water out from the backyard.  This is becoming a regular event at the moment!!

My little nook with my rocking chair ..... taking time out with a cuppa and Anzac and pulling out some of my Amish novels off my bookcase to read again.  This one is by Wanda Brunstetta.

I've also finally gotten around to sewing up a new curtain for the kitchen window,  This material matches in nicely with the kitchen cupboards which you can see in the photo below ..... along with the old curtain I had up.  Would you believe I made that curtain for our kitchen when we lived in Brisbane in Wynnum North back in the 90's!  I've used it in just about every house since then so its had lots of use and is not going to last too much longer lol
And that pretty much wraps up the month since I last posted!  I'm still having blogger problems and now need to use the Ipad to add photos and then write in the comments under the photo  but ..... whatever lol ........ Have a blessed week
Hugs Sharm xo