Discharged!

G'day all!

I've been holding off blogging because I wanted to show you our newly repainted and with various leaking bits fixed bathroom but umm well it was meant to be done over a month ago and yeah....  It is getting there though, so that is good.

So what else do I have to say?

It is now six years since I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  Six years.  I didn't expect to survive one, to be honest, after some family experiences with it.  I had my five year check up a few weeks ago - why five year?  Because they base survivorship off of when you have the operation, and I chose to have chemotherapy first so that I could tell if it was having an effect on the tumour.  Plus I got to be part of a study and got extra tests run because of it.  And because I moved to the States after a couple of years and the timing of various tests got mucked up, the check up that should've been in August got bumped to October and then November and once I believe December.

The end of the day.  It was only about 4pm!

Anyway I had my five year check up - manual exam and bloods and everything looks good!  I am discharged to the Well Woman clinic.

Isn't that nice?  Well Woman clinic.

Just a bit of water running.

Speaking of well, I am much healthier feeling than last I posted.  That wouldn't be hard.  That virus knocked me for six (American translation - knocked me out of the ball park.  Or maybe I was a quarterback that got sacked).  My voice is still pretty crufty, though recovering to some extent.  Can't sing anything other than tenor or low alto parts which is terrible given it is Christmas and I can't sing carols cos I don't know the tenor part (but I can sing the sop part an octave or so down). 

A scrub jay eyeballing the suet feeder

I set up some bird feeding stuff and it has been entertaining me for a good couple of weeks now.  A lot of juncos visit, two scrub jays, the local pair of crows (including Whitewing, so called for her white flight feather), a couple of Bewick's wrens, at least one goldfinch (which still excites me, I don't care if they are common as muck, they aren't common here!), a spotted towhee, various native sparrows...  I am enjoying watching them and getting pics on a big camera.


I've started going to the gym three times a week - DH is going five times a week and getting butchered by a personal trainer.  Admittedly I'm not doing much more than 2-3 miles on a bike and various of my rehab exercises but they are enough to knacker me some days, especially when I've been doing a lot of work in the bathroom.

Light!  If only!

I finished not just one but two lovely knits.  I really need to get shots of one of them - it is hard to get pics of yourself in a cardigan.  However, DH has some time off coming up so I'll get him to get some shots then.


I finished my Doodler.  It is such an amazing concept and pattern and so much knitting!  Soooo much knitting and more ends than I prefer but just look at the end result!   Stephen West is a genius.  And I suspect a bit insane.

The back side (it's hard to tell!)

I love the "suckers" or toes.

Oh I do love to be beside the (sound) side

I really really love the picots, aka suckers/toes

 I went to a quilting class and made some really cool blocks.  They will be cooler when there are more of them but I've had little time for sewing recently.  Can you see the blocks outline circles?  It will be super cool when I make more.  I'll also reference the pattern when I've got a bit more of it done.

Yes, I chose neutrals!  Me!

On the day I shot my Doodler at the beach I also got shots of a couple of quilts that haven't had beauty shots taken of them.

Chemo quilt - you can hardly see the wonk from here!

A quilt I started in Sydney FOUR years ago, finally finished!

You might get the idea from the pictures scattered through here that the weather has been pretty dreary.

One of the very few interesting sunsets

Well you would be right!  We had a lovely week at the end of November (great timing for Thanksgiving) and since then?  Over 250 mm of rain!  One day when I went to the Locks, all of the weir gates were fully open!  You could see daylight between the gates and the water rushing through underneath.  Plus the tide was super high.  I've never seen all the gates fully open before.  An older gent said he hadn't either, and I'm guessing he's lived here a lot longer than me.

Open weir gates

And on days where it hasn't been dumping an inch or two of rain, it's just been pretty dully cloudy.  We haven't even had any of the brilliantly sunny days that we usually get once a week - it's just been rain rain rain, clouds break up a bit for a few hours, then more rain!  It's not been as nice a winter so far as last year, but last year didn't dump enough snow.  This year is making up for it up in the Cascades!

Interesting sky

So apart from that, I've not much to report.  We had a visitor, which was lovely, always nice to catch up with old friends.  Christmas is almost here and I'm not ready, as always.  Haven't even got a tree yet, but that is mostly because the lounge room is still full of stuff for the bathroom, though I guess a lot of stuff can go out now that I'm in final prep before painting.  Hmm, yes, I think clearing stuff out of the lounge room is next on the list, after a bit more painting.

Reindeer!  Or caribou.  Take your pic.

Since I probably won't blog before it, have a Merry Christmas if you do Christmas and if you don't, Happy Holidays!  Wishing you a fab New Year too.

anon!