Without an apology… more cornflowers!
These appear to be in abundance in my wildflower/cutting flower patch. There is also a variety selection of poppies but they are not out yet. You may remember that I mixed together half used seed packets from last year, which were from www.higgledygarden.com along with some other odds and ends. I scattered these over the raised bed and just waited to see what happened, and this is what it looks like at the moment. The Penstemon “Pensham Laura” are in a separate little bed at the front of the raised bed and were from www.crocus.co.uk
Because it was a mix there was no sorting out of heights so the Cosmos, Marigolds, Calendula and Californian poppies are tucked in amongst the exceptionally tall cornflowers.
I know I used the cornflowers last week for Friday Flowers but they were macros, this is what they look like all together, with a frothy edging of Gypsophila.
As this is intended to be full of flowers to cut and bring indoors, check out this little posy.
A chemo update:
I started my chemotherapy regime yesterday, Thursday 11 July. It will be 12 x 2 weekly sessions and all being well with nothing postponed due to ill effects, the last one will be 12 December, a date marked in colour on the calendar.
Day one is a visit to the Day Unit at the local hospital for an IV infusion which should take 2 to 3 hours. Unfortunately this first chemo fell on a date when no one was able to come with me. This was no great issue because I soon realised this was something I wanted to do on my own and then I would know the ropes. Friends have the next dates in their diaries so I will have company in the future. It also gave me the opportunity to have a jolly good cry on arrival, something I could do easily without having to be brave and cheerful all the time.
When I am very nervous my hands go cold and this affected the veins in my arms. Despite warming my left arm with a heated pad and several abortive attempts they had to resort to plunging my arms in hot water for 1o minutes. Eventually they found a vein to insert the cannula and we were off. Its peculiar stuff, Oxaliplatin, the main side effect being peripheral neuropathy and it kicked in quite fast. I had cramp on and off in my hand and the skin on my arm was (and still is) very tender to touch. People assure me this wears off after a few days, until the next time, when it can take longer. I left the hospital with enough anti-sickness medications of one kind or another to stock a chemist, plus my chemo tablets, Capecitabine, to be taken twice a day for 9 days. I have 5 free chemo days and return to the hospital on 25 July for session 2. It won’t be long before I am in single figures, as my youngest daughter cheerfully told me last night.
I soon discovered how peripheral neuropathy can affect you. On returning home I took milk out of the fridge and it felt like taking ice cubes out of the freezer. This is clearly why everything and everyone in the know suggests having oven gloves by the fridge. The second discovery was that drinking anything cold feels as though you are drinking pins, so it’s warm or hot drinks from now. This chemo lark is a learning curve and breaking habits of a life time. I found out this morning, not to drink the last of a cup of tea because it has probably gone cold and the drinking pins effect cuts in.
So far, so good though. It is early days but I am not going to sit around waiting for side effects. I am feeling slightly nauseous at the moment but that could be because it’s lunchtime and I am hungry, so I am off for some lunch.
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