Glasses and Guitar Lessons

Today involved driving into Lancaster for Pip to collect her glasses.  I don't know how it has happened but in the space of less than a year she has gone from excellent vision to suddenly needing glasses for distance vision.  She has been really good about wearing them and because they have made such a difference the incentive is there to wear them all the time.  I did wonder if she would struggle to wear them with her hearing aids but no, she hasn't complained at all which is good.

In the afternoon whilst I was making pancakes, Dave took her on the bus for her very first guitar lesson.  Unfortunately the trip was marred by a very unhelpful and inconsiderate bus driver for the return journey home.  He allowed Pip on the bus and promptly closed the doors and drove off leaving Dave behind at the bus stop!!  At this point Pip was yelling at him, " You've left my Dad behind,"  to which he replied, " He can get the next bus!!"  She continued to state that she needed to be with her Dad and he finally let her disembark 100 yards down the road.  Once they were together he rang to let me know what had happened and needless to say I jumped in the car to bring them home.  A letter of complaint is currently winging its way to the bus company!

 Buckwheat pancakes.

 Pip hanging out with Dave's Jumbo Folk Guitar whilst he restrings mine in the background; she's concentrating hard!

Shrove Tuesday And Other Stories

 Shrove Tuesday

Purple corn pancakes were the order of the day for our breakfast; very liturgical and very nutritious!  The dried purple corn powder was a gift from our French friend Fred, who came to stay last October to help unpack the house.

 A Broken Scaphoid Bone

We had some unseasonably hot weather recently and it was an opportunity for Pip to meet with some of the local youngsters in our area.  She met with a really lovely group of girls and was enjoying riding her bike and having a race when she collided with another girl and landed awkwardly on her hand.  I initially thought that she had sprained her wrist and so did the usual ice and compression and painkillers.  However it did not work and I was disturbed twice in the night when she was complaining of pain.   So after breakfast off we went the local A&E department and an x-ray confirmed that the scaphoid bone at the base of her thumb/top of her wrist was broken:

 Pip will be wearing this cast for the next five weeks.  She is scheduled to attend an activity weekend courtesy of the National Deaf Children's Society but thankfully she can still attend.  There will be some activities that won't work but there are still plenty of other activities that she can try.  We have also found a fully water proof cast cover which means that she can resume her swimming lessons on a Monday evening,yay!
DH STOP PRESS:-after speaking with the clinic where she had the cast fitted, as they have advised against this activity, it now looks like we will have to cancel it after all!

St David's Day

We remembered St David's Day and made our customary Leek and Potato Soup and Welsh Griddle Cakes:

 Daffodills For St David

Volunteering Saturday

We were all out of the house on Saturday morning and scattered in various directions.  Pip's guide troop ran a pop up cafe from 11am-2pm, so I was able to drop Pip and her dad at the edge of town and they walked/wheeled to the guide hut.  Ben and I volunteered at the Mustard Seed/Wesley's Coffee Lounge.  Dave then met us back at Wesleys for lunch and we enjoyed a yummy baked potato and salad.

I did however have an interesting start to the morning when I realised that I was minus some much needed muffin tins!  Pip's patrol were contributing cakes for their stall, so despite being up at 7:30 to make the cake batter, I was dashing to Barton Grange just before opening time to buy the muffin trays!  Phew :-)

   

 Lent Challenges

As per the last three years we will be doing the 40 Acts challenges and in addition we have also decide to adopt the Lent Plastic Challenge 2019.  For a good while now we have been buying our fruit and vegetables loose and where possible we buy other items in tin and glass.  However it is all to easy to be complacement and so we will be doing our best to be more intentional about our shopping habits.

We completed a food shop this evening and did quite well, we found our favourite washing brand in powder form aswell as a boxed alternative to bleach in a plastic bottle.  I knew that bin liners were going to be troublesome but thankfully found some that were compostable, although I'm really hoping that we won't have to use too many of them.  The young man behind the cheese counter was also very helpful and our purchase was packaged in greaseproof paper :-)

 My last mug of treat tea courtesy from Fred. 

 We will be using up our other supplies of fruit teas that are minus individual wrappings and this should give us time to find plastic free alternatives.  Hoping to document our challenges here on the blog and over on Instagram.