Flashes and Floaters

 That's flashes Not Flashers!

A few weeks ago I noticed a new floater in my right eye and then was a bit worried to get flashes in the corner of the same eye. I checked with YD who worked in an opticians for many years and she said best get checked.

So I popped into the Asda opticians in town, went through a whole lot of questions only to be told at the end that they hadn't got a regular optician there at the moment and are referring everyone to the emergency eye phone number (like 111 but for eyes). 

That made me decide to ring  my regular optician where we lived on the coast and where YD worked, at least they would be able to make me an appointment and of course they had all records of eye changes going back years.

I went for a  check -up, all looked OK, nothing really worrying and have to go back for another look next week as the drops needed to do one of the tests require no driving for 2 hours afterwards and I wasn't parked anywhere I could stay that long.

But this leaflet described everything and of course I should have known - it's all down to Old Age!!

Spring Arrives in Books

 In January I wrote a post about Winter Books  and   I've got library books reserved about winter that I'll not get to read until spring but this was a book about Spring that I read last week - while we are still surviving winter.

Simon Barnes - Spring is the Only Season: How it Works, What it Does and Why it Matters.

This book covers every aspect of spring - From birds and butterflies to agriculture and literature , mythology, religion and art.

The library website says..........

Spring is the time of renewal and rebirth, a celebration of the resilience of life. As the year turns, animals and plants that have struggled to survive the winter find new hope and create the next generation. The season has inspired some of humanity's greatest art and many of its most significant religious festivals. Simon Barnes provides a fresh and compelling look at this period of the year. He explains the science of the seasons, which are caused by the planet's 23.5 degree tilt; he also highlights the music, the paintings and the poetry that have tried to capture it.

This took several days to read, there was so much of interest in it  but it comes with a warning...........

However, while the Earth will continue to spin on its tilting axis, he reveals how our impact on the planet is beginning to destroy the natural course of the seasons, and that elements of the beloved spring - from migrating birds to emerging butterflies - are endangered by climate change. But it's not too late. Not yet. We can still make a difference and so continue to enjoy the pleasures of spring. 

One tiny patch of celandines for spring down the road from home

The  other spring book here that I needed to read before spring arrives as it's due back at the library is 'Spring - The Story of a Season' by Michael Morpurgo. (Second of four books commissioned from authors who usually write fiction, the post about the Winter book is HERE )

This book is a look at the arrival of Spring on the farm and land around where Michael and his wife Clare have lived for many years in a remote area between Dartmoor and Exmoor. Here they are now retired to a small cottage but live next to the farms that are part of the charity started by them 'Farms for City Children'. 

Review from Waterstones website

As the weeks pass, we accompany Michael as he watches the lambing on the farm, walks through the bluebell woods, and feeds the birds in his garden in his wellies and dressing gown. He describes dramatic encounters with sparrowhawks, hares and otters, while sharing other magical discoveries, new poems and reminiscences about childhood and springs gone by.

This is an uplifting burst of springtime joy from one of the nation's best loved authors.

Another Spring book 'The Nature of Spring' by Jim Crumley will go back to the library unread - for the second time. It's just too wordy!

A couple of the Winter themed books I have reserved still have long waiting lists, so I might cancel them and make a note to re-reserve next Autumn ready for next Winter. 

Final Food Shop Of February

 This was probably (except for eggs and salad ) my last food shop of February, photographed again for food-shopping-photo fans!

 

Mostly from Aldi but as I needed to go into town I had to spend £5+ at Asda to get my £1 car park cost back.

Frozen sweet potato fries went straight into the freezer. On the work top is a lovely big British savoy cabbage, strong bread flour (this is Aldi's own brand which I mix with Allinsons more expensive flour for a cheaper loaf in the machine). Cheese and onion rolls, self raising flour, spaghetti,  butter, extra mature cheese, coffee, cocoa, castor sugar (Silver Spoon from Asda as it's made from British sugar beet rather than foreign cane and can be very local ). 4 pints milk, fine egg noodles, hidden at the end are six British apples and 5 British pears. And because I went into QD for some cheap beetroot seed to give to BiL there was  a 'junk food' purchase of a packet of Dunkables - which are broken or mis-shaped chocolate biscuits - somehow they  leapt into my hand!

Total spend £27.51.

There is a post in drafts almost finished ready for Friday which will have all the February shopping photos and the % of UPFs and total food spend.......so much to look forward to!!