Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Because of my recent shoulder surgery, I haven’t been into the garden for a few weeks. But this weekend I made some progress. I pruned the overhanging vegetation from the fence line (not too much, thank goodness, as I keep it pretty much under control — otherwise doing the perimeter of an acre would be a nightmare); shredded the hard cuttings and put the mulch back on to the garden; and binned the rest (the shredder doesn’t like palm fronds). That was Saturday.

Today (Sunday) it was time to tackle the vege garden where I’d noticed that the spinach plants (Swiss chard and rainbow chard) had transformed themselves into Triffids! They’d all gone to flower and had sprouted up to fence height (6 ft). I removed the flower heads and binned them (I have ENOUGH spinach plants that pop up from nowhere — I sure don’t want more!), then I cut all the leaves off the remaining stalks and threw them over the shredded paper I’d put down on the soil in the vege garden. Hopefully the slaters, soil bacteria and fungi will do their job and break down the paper and the leaves, helping the soil for whatever gets planted or pops up next.

Meantime, the potato plants that sprouted all over winter and that I thought had finished producing (they all died off) have started sprouting again, so it looks like I’ll have a continual crop of potatoes (not that we eat many).

There’s nothing like springtime to turn those ‘ugly duckling’ strappy nondescript plants in your garden into beautiful swans — in this case, Kangaroo Paws. As we’ve only been in this house since February, I didn’t know what sort of Kangaroo Paws we had. I had recognised some of the ugly strappy plants as being ‘roo paws, but until they flowered recently, I had no idea how many varieties had been planted by the previ0us owners. Kangaroo Paws come in all sorts of colours (yellow, orange, red, red and green, green, and I think I’ve seen some black ones in the front garden), and we seem to have most of them!

Here are a few just from ONE of our back garden beds.

What is it with me and fire?

Last night I was preparing an Indian curry for dinner. One of the last stages before serving was to put two refrigerated Naan breads in the toaster to heat through and crisp up slightly — something I’ve done plenty of times before. I’d used the toaster only a day ago and the bread got burnt with the setting on below 1 (next one down was ‘Defrost’; highest is 6) and I’d had to press the Cancel button to eject the toast and stop it ‘cooking’ any more. I’d forgotten about that…

So there I was. Standing at the stove top ([2] in the picture below), stirring the curry, with my back to the appliance hutch where the toaster with the Naan bread was (1). The bowls, the hot rice, etc. were on the counter to the side of the stove top (3), ready for me to serve up. I’d called my husband a few minutes earlier.

He came into the living area and immediately smelt burning and saw that the whole ceiling was covered in about 30 cm of smoke, and that the toaster was spewing out smoke at a rapid rate! I hadn’t smelt it or seen it — I *had* noticed a slight burning smell and thought it was the curry. I had totally forgotten about the Naan bread, which was now almost totally black and nearly on fire.

I immediately spun around on my husband’s shout, hit the Cancel button on the toaster, and closed the appliance hutch door to about 90% of the way down. I got my husband to shut the doors to the hallways so that the smoke alarms wouldn’t go off. Then we opened every door and window in the area to try to disperse the smoke. We even had a pedestal fan on for some time, moving it around to try to get it to shift the smoke out of the kitchen/living/dining areas. Even several hours later, the smoke smell was very noticeable, as it was when we got up this morning. We’ve had everything open fully today to try to get rid of the smell (it’s been raining a lot but there’s been no wind or breeze to speak of, which is hampering our efforts to disperse the smell).

The toaster is history — I suspect that its thermostat is gone and the mechanism it uses to pop up the toast when it’s ready has failed too… which was why the Naan bread burnt in the first place. There are scorch marks on the toaster, so I suspect it was only moments away from catching on fire and perhaps causing an electrical fire. I really don’t want to think too much about that….

I called the Sunbeam Customer Service people this morning to see if it was a known issue. I knew the toaster was out of warranty (I bought it in 2003, so while it was old-ish it wasn’t ancient by any means), but was curious to find out if this thermostat/temperature regulator failure was a known issue. The lady I spoke to there said she hadn’t heard of it.

Guess I’ll be in the market for a new toaster this weekend… And a Lotto ticket!

Oh, and the new toaster will be going on to the counter top when I need to use it, not the appliance hutch where I can’t see it.

Update: New toaster purchased and unpacked. Not used yet.

I had surgery on my left shoulder last Wednesday — an Arthroscopic Subacromial Decompression (ASAD), with a something called a ‘Capsular Release’. Basically, the surgeon scraped away some of the bone in my shoulder so that the tendon could move freely.

The operation was in the afternoon and I spent Wednesday night in the hospital in a fog of anaesthesia and pain killers. I was still a bit wonky and woozy on Thursday, but by mid-morning I was able to shower myself (with minimal assistance) and they sent me home in the afternoon with LOTS of strong drugs.

The anaesthetist told me in no uncertain terms that I was going to be in a LOT of pain afterwards and that I had to take the drugs whenever I felt the first twinges of pain and not be brave! He gave me a nerve block prior to putting me under. That nerve block was an interesting experience!!! My whole left chest area went into uncontrollable spasms until he hit the right nerve, when my left upper arm went into the spasms. A very weird experience.

When I woke up, I had a little pain pump (like a grenade) hanging out of my shoulder — it stayed in for two days delivering small amounts of local anaesthetic to the wound site. The hospital gave me all sorts of pain killers and checked my vitals every hour initially, pulling that back to every two then four hours during Wednesday night.

I was in reasonable discomfort on Thursday, and still woozy every so often. They had me wear a sling, which helped a lot. My husband picked me up on Thursday afternoon and we made our way home.

I actually felt pretty good — until I took some of the drugs that were equivalent to Panadol Forte. They knocked me around and I got really woozy fairly soon after taking them (they also give you really bad constipation!).

After a day at home, the pain wasn’t too bad (despite all the warnings from the anaesthetist and a friend who has had the same operation), so I stopped taking the Panadol Forte — they really were quite debilitating. I was still taking the strong anti-inflammatories (Oruvail) and the slow release pain killers (OxyContin, a morphine-based drug), and I still had the little grenade in my arm delivering the local anaesthetic. Oh, and the laxative tablets from the pharmacist didn’t work… I took two at 4pm Friday, another two at 10pm, a further two on Saturday morning with no result…

On Friday afternoon, my husband pulled out the now-empty grenade. And on Saturday, after I realized that the pain was very manageable, I stopped taking the OxyContin. By Sunday it was obvious that the anti-inflammatories were causing me really bad stomach cramps (they were the only drug left so it had to be them!), and again, the shoulder pain was diminishing rapidly, so I took myself off the anti-inflammatories on Sunday night.

I spent the days after surgery doing not a lot. I read, I slept, I watched some movies I’d recorded a while ago, I worked on a jigsaw. I hardly turned on the computer, I didn’t touch the sewing machine, and I definitely didn’t go into the garden!

Gradually, the pain has diminished to the point where I’m only wearing the sling to bed and for a few hours during the day. I’m doing all the exercises that the physio gave me to do when she visited me in hospital. And I can handle meal preparation, with only a small amount of assistance from my husband when I need to reach up.

No, I’m not pushing myself and ‘being brave’. Seriously, the pain isn’t too bad — it’s just a tad worse than I’d been putting up with for the past two years or so. Very bearable. I can feel my range of movement improving with the exercises, so here’s hoping that continues to improve with time. After all, it’s only been 6 days since I had my surgery.

I had expected that I’d be in a lot of pain and have a very limited range of movement for some weeks, if not months, after this surgery. To say I’m delighted with the results so far, would be an understatement.

Oh, and I returned to work today, putting in a full day.

So far, so good…

Update: The same night I wrote this piece, I had a bit of pain — enough to take an OxyContin before going to bed, then another + an anti-inflammatory the next morning. Felt good the rest of the day, though slightly woozy for a short time after one or both kicked in.

Update 1 November 2010: I stopped taking pain meds a few days ago and am now on anti-inflammatories only when I feel they are required. I also stopped wearing a sling to bed on Friday night and have hardly worn it around the house at all for some days now. I visited the surgeon this morning and he’s given me to all clear to ride my bike, drive my car, remove the sling etc. And he has referred me to the physio for more exercises to keep the shoulder mobile. He also explained what he saw and did when he was inside my shoulder. And his assistant removed all my dressings — those three incisions he made sure are small! All in all, I’m feeling pretty darned good!

Update 9 November 2010: Big day today! I was able to do up my bra from behind this morning! Not quite as easily as I used to, for sure, but I did get it done up. And I could hug my tall husband around the neck with BOTH arms when he got up this morning too. I’m still doing my physio exercises three times a day, and while some days I have a few more twinges than others, overall I know my range of movement is getting better all the time. I’m still taking one anti-inflammatory a day and will continue to do so until I finish the course (about another week).

Update August 2013: Well, three years on and I don’t even recall the pain after the op (seriously, it was no big deal after the first few days), nor the pain prior to the op. My range of movement is as good as it ever was (bearing in mind range of movement can diminish as we age), and I can do all the things I could do before I started getting the pain in around 2008 or so. So the op was a success!

Update November 2015: Five years on, and you’d never know I had surgery on my left shoulder — it has full range of movement. However, in the past 12 months my upper right arm has exhibited the same pain as the left one did in the months prior to the operation. I’ve had bursa injections, done physio, had acupuncture done by the physio, etc. Everything has given only temporary relief (from a couple of hours to a couple of days [the injection]). I’ve also been on anti-inflammatories for several months. So it was back to the orthopedic surgeon who did my left shoulder, and yes, I have to have the same procedure done on the right shoulder. I’m booked in for surgery the week before Christmas. Here’s hoping it’s as successful as the left shoulder operation I have five years’ ago. As an aside, as a very right-dominant person, it’s been interesting training myself to use my left hand for daily activities in preparation for not having the use of my right arm after the operation. I started off learning to use a computer mouse with my left hand. It was very awkward initially, but after persevering I’m pretty good now, so much so that I’ve only used my left hand for mousing for several months. Next was learning to wipe my bum with my left hand — not for the faint-hearted, that’s for sure, but again with perseverance, practice, and patience, that’s do-able too… I won’t elaborate!

This little beastie (about 2 inches/5 cm long) came wandering past our back door late this morning, heading towards the driveway. I took some photos of him/her, and my husband told me he thought it was a mole cricket. The article and photo on Wikipedia confirmed its identity, but this beastie sure wasn’t nocturnal! And if it only lives on the eastern side of Australia, (as shown on the map in the Wikipedia article) then it was an awfully long way from home as I live in Western Australia!

Click a small image to show it full size.

On my drive into town, I pass a couple of paddocks that usually have HEAPS of kangaroos in them. When we went for a bike ride the other day, we rode as far as the ‘kangaroo paddocks’, and I took a few photos. There weren’t as many around as there often are, but I got a couple of photos anyway. Some of the females have large joeys in their pouches (like the one in the first picture looking at me), so it will be interesting to see them after they emerge.

Before the heavy rain set in this afternoon, I wandered out with some secateurs to see what the fine weather of the past two weeks has brought out in the garden (other than weeds!). The kangaroo paws and other native plants are close to flowering, and some others were already in their prime.

Here’s a taste.

It’s almost spring (spring officially starts on 1 September in Australia) and the paddocks are still green and the skies are clear. The animals I see on my drive into town are everywhere — this morning there were hundreds of black swans on the estuary; the paddocks were populated with lots of horses, cows, sheep, even a camel; there were wild ducks, pink and grey galahs, white egrets, pelicans, ring-necked parrots, willy wagtails, magpies,etc. either on or close to the estuary. And kangaroos — lots of kangaroos (they were too far back to take photos of, but I’ll try another time when they are much closer to the road).

I took my camera with me this morning when I drove into town, and was able to get some shots of the swans and some of the other animals, as well as the peaceful drive I take every few days when I ‘pop into town’.

Click on a thumbnail picture to see it in full size.

Monday’s are normally my day off. I usually catch up on accounts, make  appointments for that day, do shopping, write blog posts, etc. Well, today was like many other Mondays — I had a chiropractor’s appointment, did some shopping, called in to a solar energy place in town to ask about photovoltaic systems, came home, paid bills etc. Then, as it was such a GORGEOUS winter’s day (with a Spring feel to it), my husband suggested we go for a drive. Anywhere. Just out of the house for a few hours.

My brain was numb and I couldn’t think where to go for a while. Then I suggested we drive inland to Harvey, a small town close to where I grew up, then loop around back to where we live. Off we went. When we got to Harvey, we decided to cross the main highway and head up to Harvey Dam. I hadn’t been there in decades and my last memory of Harvey Dam was the time it cracked and was threatening the town of Harvey in the 1964 (?) floods.

They rebuilt the dam in 2002 (I didn’t know that), and what a pretty spot it is! We walked across the top of the dam wall and I took some pictures of the scenery, the picnic area below, the spillway, and some gorgeous large purple flowers near the picnic area.

Our little jaunt this afternoon was a pleasant break from the computer! I can see us returning for a picnic, BooBoo! 😉

Who’s there? Magpies, that’s who!

So there I was, sitting at the  breakfast table reading Saturday’s paper at leisure in the quiet of a gorgeous winter’s morning. Sun shining. Birds singing. Husband still asleep.

I hear a knock on glass. I look behind me and to the side of me (I’m surrounded by two large sliding glass doors). No-one there. I get up, go to the hallway and check the front door — no-one there either. I go to the back/laundry door. Nope. No-one there either. But I can still hear knocking. Now that I’m in the passage near the laundry I can tell it’s close. So I walk into my sewing room and lo and behold I find three magpies  pecking away at the window! Cheeky things.

I think they could see their reflections, and were perhaps attacking them. The sewing room window faces north and at this time of the year it’s getting quite a bit of direct sun. There’s sunblock tinting on the window, so giving it a mirror-like finish on the outside. At first I thought they were going for insects, but the tapping of their beaks on the window — not in the nooks and crannies where insects like to hide — makes me think they were reacting to their reflections.

This morning (Sunday), they were back again at the same window!