Blood, sweat and tears!

My term has finished and now we can really look forward to a long (hot?) summer working on the house at Godre’r Graig! We travelled down last Thursday and set up the caravan again at Waters Meet. We had a couple of very hot sticky nights but then the night temperatures cooled and we were able to get a decent night’s sleep.


This was to be a short visit, but we made a start on the summer jobs – David began putting together the frame for the dry wall lining in our bedroom, and I tackled the rampant brambles (again!) But we also enjoyed our first fruits from the garden – tiny sweet wild strawberries which currently line all the paths in the garden!

Sadly, we had to curtail this trip as my medical surgery team continue to be concerned about my blood sugar levels and whether or not I have type 2 diabetes. The tests have been going on for two years and have been inconclusive so far, but the tests go on. They asked me to provide two further fasting blood samples a week apart, which ran into the time we had planned to be at Brythonfa. I had already intended to travel back to Linton to join with my craft club friends in mounting a display at the annual craft exhibition at Swadfest (our local arts and leisure festival) on Wednesday 1 July, so we arranged the medical appointments around that date.

Blood tests completed, I returned to surgery on Wednesday morning to get the final results – negative, hurray! I must continue to watch my weight and sweet tooth, but otherwise no further action. Great relief! And I’m pleased to report that my weight is slowly coming down in response to my efforts and the increased physical activity around Brythonfa.

The craft exhibition was also a great success – we put on a good show and attracted several potential new members. We also sold some of our handiwork which will boost club funds.

Meanwhile, David decided to tackle a job on the car – replacing worn brake disks and pads. Unfortunately, one of the bolts sheered off as he was replacing the last one on the first wheel, so he had to drill it out and start all over again, which added at least a day to the original estimate, while he tracked down tools and replacement parts to put it right. Then he discovered that the brake fluid pump cylinder had seized (and may have been the cause of the original damage to the brake disk). We are now waiting for the replacement parts to arrive (due Friday). At the moment, we are hoping to get back to the caravan in Wales on Saturday.

It has been very frustrating losing a week of our intended work schedule, but maybe we wouldn’t have got much done in all this heat, and it certainly wasn’t a time to be travelling in hot cars, especially with dogs and cats. We were extremely shocked to hear that two of the Nottinghamshire Police dogs had died in a car outside their police station this week.

So watch this space – we hope to have more positive news from Brythonfa very shortly.