Our garden

I thought it might be interesting to take a picture of our new garden every month. Not only will we be able to see the progress we've made with planting and growing things but the seasonal changes too.

This was taken in January and shows the pathetic amount of snow we had.

This is February and as you can see we've cleared the veg patch and covered it with black polythene ready for planting when it warms up.

The mud patches are leftover from the removal of the old greenhouse and shed which the council removed before we moved in. I've got a big bag of grass seed to put down so they shouldn't be there much longer.

What happens when you ask males to behave so you can take a sensible picture

This is what happens.

Take two was worse than take one.

Getting better but still goofing around.

Elder Lee just can't help himself.

It only took five shots but we got there in the end.

Anyway the point of taking the picture is that Elder Warner is going home tomorrow. We've had a lot of fun in the time he's been with us and we'll be very sad to see him go.

Medical stuff

I haven't had chance to blog for a while as I've been ill...............again. I got a little cold which went straight onto my chest. I had antibiotics and another long course of steroids, I also started retaining fluid which they think happened because of all the steroids. The infection cleared up but my asthma was still really bad and the fluid retention was getting worse. I went to the doctors and he said I'd have to come back the next morning and he'd make the arrangements to send me back into hospital. I really didn't want to go in again so I phoned my home teachers and asked them to come and give me a blessing. The next morning my breathing was a lot better and the swelling had started to go down so when I went back to the doctors he said I didn't have to go.

I also had my appointment with the consultant the other day. My lung function is up from 43% to 55% which is good but not good enough apparently so I'm trying some new medication on top of what I'm already taking. I was x-rayed again and this time my lungs look completely clear so I don't need to go back for three months.

Levi has now been assessed by the educational psychologist and the speech and language therapist. I got the reports through the other day but I haven't got a clue what any of it means. One minute they seem to be saying there is a problem and one minute they seem to be saying there isn't a problem. It's hard to tell what they mean because everything's written in that special wording that doesn't make sense to anyone except doctors. I suppose I'll just have to wait until June when we see the specialist again.

Out in the garden

For quite some time now (we're talking years not months) I've been trying to get my dad to make me a bird table. I know you can buy them but the ones in the shops all come with a roof and don't look like they'd stay stood up if Levi kicked his football at it.

Every time I ask my dad to make me one he tells me how easy they are to make and how it's just a bit of wood nailed onto a wooden post which is stuck into the ground. I point out that I have no tools, no transport and even if I could get to where they sell wooden posts and bits of wood they probably wouldn't let me on the bus with it as they get really funny about you taking large items on the bus. So I ask him again if he'll make me one and he says yes but then never does.

Well look what I found this week, it's a bird feeding station. We used to get a few birds in Boscombe (mainly magpies and pigeons) but our new garden gets lots of birds. We only put it up 2 days ago. We got nothing on the first day, lots of blue tits on the second day and today we had blue tits, greenfinches and goldfinches.

I've also seen a green woodpecker, blackbirds, robins and a few other birds which I'm not sure what they were.

I also discovered some rosehips. I'm sure they're not supposed to be there as I think I was supposed to cut the roses back or something but as I've never grown flowers before I really haven't got a clue.

A bit of sewing

And I made this for my dad for his birthday.