Another day at the Seaside

My second seaside trip this year, again to Great Yarmouth in Nofolk, with my daughter and grandchildren. We played Crazy Golf, ate ice creams and visited the Pleasure beach. They played in the bubbles; I took the photographs.

 

A Day at the Seaside - Great Yarmouth

Today I went to the seaside, Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, with my daughter and grandchildren. The beach was practically deserted, but the Pleasure Beach was busy and we spent a long time there.

Great Spotted Woodpeckers

We went to Cambridge today and I took lots of pictures but in the end I decided to include this one showing an adult male Great Spotter Woodpecker on the right and a Juvenile on the left.

Coeliac Awareness Week

This is coeliac awareness week and I do not do anything special this week that I do not do any other week. I am always asking about gluten-free food whichever restaurant or establishment that it visit. The coeliac UK page can be found here. If you require specific information about awareness week click here.

On Monday of this week I visited Marks and Spencer in Cambridge and discovered that they had brought back onto their shelves the chocolate and cherry cake, which appeared two years ago and vanished almost immediately. I along with many others complained and it seems that they listened; see their website  for further information.

Yesterday I visited Scotsdales Garden Centre and also visited their Sunflower café, details can be found here. I looked at their menu and decided that it would be the inevitable jacket potato again. However, the server asked if it was gluten-free food I was looking for, the cottage pie and vegetables and chicken balti with rice and a poppadom were both gluten-free, so again someone has been listening to my complaints; see here.

John Lewis, at least the brassiere staff in Cambridge, are also knowledgeable about gluten-free foods and as well as items on their main menu they now offer two types of sandwiches. These are egg and salad and prawn and salad; they are made from Genius bread. They can be purchased in the self-service café or in their brassiere; see here for more information.

Although I have not yet got around to purchasing anything from the Glu-10-3 Cake Company, I have it on good authority that their cakes are wonderful.

I think I have covered awareness week very well, especially as I do it all year round.

A Wet Day

It has been raining all morning and it does not look like stopping, there were a lot of snails rampaging about the garden. In fact there must have been at least a hundred on the old fennel stalks alone.

 

I am not keen on snails, but I was surprised by the variety of snail shell patterns and body colours of the snails. I suspect that they will soon find their way to the front garden where the hostas grow and to the vegetable patch; perhaps they will not survive there very long.

I have ordered, from Sutton’s Seeds, four more fruit trees for the garden, an apple, pear, plum and cherry, they come with a free Queen Elizabeth rose bush.

Today’s Weather

Raining all day and quite cold, temperatures not even getting up to ten degrees Celsius.

Addenbrookes Visit

Today was an Addenbrookes hospital day to see a rheumatologist for my hip and back pain. The consultant believes, as do we that there are two problems.

We already knew the diagnosis for the hip pain, which was diagnosed earlier as Tendonitis of the Bursa in both hips. Physiotherapy and ultrasound had been tried for three years, but this was clearly not working and the problem was getting worse; evidence suggests that this is often not successful.

They gave me two steroid injections, one in each hip, of Methotrexate which may or may not work, with a review in three months. If these do work they may have to be repeated, if they do not work I will be referred back to my original consultant who may remove one or both bursa.

As to the back problem, an appointment will be sent for an MRI scan to check for damage to the spine; I shall not look forward to that, but it has to be done.

After that we looked at tumble dryers, as ours has broken after thirty years. Then as it was lunch time we went to Scotsdales Garden Centre. Their prices have increased a little, but the standard of food yesterday was also very much better. They even had a pudding I could eat, meringue, raspberries, blueberries and cream.

Today’s Weather

Typical April showers.

We have a Pond again.

After the torrential rain yesterday, we awoke to find we had a pond; this is a natural pond which goes up and down with the water table. It becomes a wild flower garden in the summer with a lot of Water Mint growing in it; a haven for wildlife including Red Soldier Beetles, insects and butterflies. The pictures below show the pond as it is today and as it was yesterday.

I took several pictures of the Mallards which were at times fighting over the one female, but this picture shows, I think, which one she has chosen.  

In previous years, once there is a pond, we get a lot of wildlife visiting; often a pair of Moorhens bring their babies to the garden. In the past we have also had ducks and ducklings, usually Mallards, but occasionally other species; sometimes a heron will visit, but as there are no fish it soon loses interest.  

Today’s Weather

After the torrential rain of yesterday, today is slightly warmer and the sun shone intermittently.

Researching Family Trees and Geocaching

No studying today, I thought I would have a day off and I have been working on my family tree. To be more exact my son-in-laws family tree. I am trying to tie up someone from the 1908 London Olympic Games who won a gold medal for rowing. My gut feeling is that there is a connection I just cannot find it. One lead I have is for one of his ancestors who had four wives.

I have also been looking at Geocaching as I hope to do some of this during the summer, maybe with my grandchildren in the holidays if they are interested.

Today’s Weather

Torrential rain during the morning, cold and windy. The wind is so strong that it is blowing the blossom off the trees. The natural pond is still dry so although it has rained a lot, we still need a lot more.

A Soup and Study Day

A cold, wet day again today so I made Leek and Potato soup for lunch. With a Warburton’s gluten-free roll this made a hot and filling lunch which did not contain too many calories. I have found Warburton’s gluten-free bread and rolls to be the best that you can buy, even though they are not the cheapest.

I really wanted to work on my Family Tree today predominantly using Ancestry and Find my Past, but I had to continue to study K260 with the Open University. This module is not quite as I expected it to be, but we are already up to week twelve of thirty-four so one-third of the module completed. One assignment completed, two more to do and an End of Module project to complete. What shall I study next?

I checked out Saga’s medical insurance this morning as it looks better than what we already have; I will have to read the small print to make sure before changing. I also got a quote from them for my car insurance, which is a lot less than I am currently paying; again I need to read the small print, but I have until September to do that.

Today’s Weather

Wet and cold, temperatures around about eight degrees Celsius.

St George's Day

A red rose for St George’s Day. Roses do not bloom in my garden in April so until I looked it up I did not know why the rose should be the emblem, although it is our national flower. However, the 23 April, AD 303, is supposedly the day he died, according to the Julian calendar, this corresponds to 6 May for the Gregorian calendar. It was raining and cold this morning and when I briefly looked outside I could not find any dragons to photograph, something he is supposed to have slain.

Traditionally a red rose, our national flower, is worn in the buttonhole today, so here we have an artificial red rose for St George’s Day.

Unfortunately we do not celebrate St George’s day with fireworks or holidays, although Scouts and Guides parade through the streets and attend special services at their local church on the nearest Sunday to 23 April.

Today’s Weather

Wet and cold