Bird bath activities

Through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and fight restored. —Helen Keller, writer (1880–1968)


Received my blood results and was very disappointed. White cell and platelet counts were quite low and liver enzymes high. Have emailed Dr Jacob to see if this will affect my liver procedure and if I should retest next week to see if there is any improvement. She has already replied but not sure if she has given general advice as they could not open the document with the test results. In any case she said my white count needed to be greater than 3, which it is at 3.5 and haemoglobin greater than 9, which it is at 12. She said liver enzymes can be elevated but not how much and I am not sure if she saw my actual results. I have resent attachment as a word document instead of the pdf so hopefully they can open it and respond again with advice.

The rest of yesterday, after the long walk, was pretty restful. Lots of workmen at the house with the pool being built and there are still deliveries of furniture and rugs as the house is still so new and not fully settled in yet. Watched the movie 'Burn after Reading'. Definitely not as good as 'Fargo' but kept us entertained for a bit. Not very uplifting.

What is uplifting is watching the passing parade of birds and squirrels at the bird bath. It is really busy most of the morning then it goes quiet for most of the rest of the day although there are still some bird visits. There is a humming bird feeder in the small tree above the bird bath and the hummers come for feeds pretty regularly as well. They are amazing to watch, when the sun hits their colourful plumage it takes your breath away.

Apart from the walk the other highlight of the day was going for a ride on the quad with my sister, Paula. It was a reasonably cool evening and there was still a little bit of sunset colour in the sky when we set off. Basically did the same trip as the walk but had to go along the road a bit to get to a place where we could get the quad on to the trail. Was scary in parts but fun. At the beginning of the trail we saw, at just above eye level, a thing flying along that we first thought was a bat but then realised it was a beetle. Got a view like in those nature movies where they film birds in flight and it feels like you are flying right next to them. Also saw quite a few Night Hawks. Their wing movements are a bit like bats and they tend to sit on the trail so got to see them quite close up.

It was dad's 87th birthday so we skyped mum and dad. Unfortunately they couldn't get the sound to work on their end so we combined the skype with a phone call. They were just about to go out for a nice lunch on the river at 'Mum's Restaurant' with a couple of friends. Heard this morning they had a lovely time. Would have liked to have been there in person to help celebrate but I am going to miss both my parents birthdays this year. I will be there in spirit.




Survive and thrive!