Month: February 2024

 

Annabell is still in hospital in Quorn, about 75 miles from here. Which is, as I said before, 150 miles round trip each visit. My doctor is slightly concerned about me, so I have been for blood tests and on Monday he wants me to go for an ECG. I know not why – the blood tests were good, and I am fine. I expect he is just being cautious. If I can get that done in the early morning I can still get to Quorn to visit.  I went to visit on Thursday since the blood teste were on Wednesday, my usual day for going north. Not the best of days to be travelling – temp. here 41c – temp.  Port Augusta 44c and temp. in Quorn, 45c. The hospital was nice and cool, and I have a good A/C in the car although as happened last time – the car sitting in the sun all day made for an uncomfortable drive until the A/C  took over.

Annabell has not really improved a great day. Yes, there is some improvement, but not as much as I would have hoped. For a few days I was very concerned in that when asked directly who I was, she said she didn’t know. Asked if she knew my name, she said no.   This set bells ringing in my head, but they went quiet yesterday when the boys were up with her. They held the telephone next to her with the speaker on and she spoke to me to for a few moments., so my fears were set aside. I will be up there myself today.

The Pichi Richi pass is not my  favourite  place to drive but I am starting to get the feel of it. I still can’t go whizzing through like a local, but I manage to keep a fair

speed and the good thing are the frequent areas cut out of the rock for slower cars like me to pull in and let the quicker cars pass. Despite all that I do have a favourite area of the pass – the long straight road at the other side and there is my most loved sign.  Having said all that, the Pichi Richi Pass is   22 klms. long. Not great by Rocky Mountain standards but it’s still a trial. I think I did mention before that there is an easier way though and that’s through Horricks Pass but it would mean adding a further 80- klms to the journey and I feel it’s long enough as it is.

Going back to temperatures – as I said it was in the mid – high 40s and a bit of the warm side. Then the cool change came in overnight and today I took Benji out for his walk at 6am as usual. I had to cut the walk short because I only had light clothes on and I was freezing. The temp. today is a mere 18c this morning rising to about 26c this afternoon – nice for driving today. However, this is not called a windy place for nothing and as well as the low temperature, the cold high wind was bighting, so we gave up trying to walk against it, and I was cold, so we came home. The other reason is that this street is lined with Eucalyptus trees which have killed one and injured two people more this week in Adelaide and I didn’t like the way the wind was pushing the branches around. With these trees there is no warning, and they can just drop branches. That’s what happened to the lady in the park – she was walking, sat down for a rest and the branch came down and she was killed.  It took the emergency servi9ce to basically cut her out from under it so that gives you an idea of how big the branch was.  Another incident was a near miss and the third one was hit and required hospital treatment. There is an investigation underway to determine whether or not the trees should be part of the parkland. The tree in question that killed the visitor, had been inspected by Council three months ago and was said to be fine. And generally, they are fine – in the bush where they belong not in an urban area. But they are plentiful, cheap and don’t use much water so councils like them as do countries that want to regrow areas that have been over  harvested. Me – I don’t like them, messy things that. drop toxic leaves and shed bark which makes lovely fuel source in a fire.

Question: How can a Scottish person tell when it’s summer?

Answer: The rain is warm.

Visiting Annabell at Quorn is 150 miles round trip, so three times a week- which is what I do – means that I am covering 450+ miles

a week. Given the cost of fuel, added to the Respite Hospital Fees I can only keep that up for so long. The boys go up as often as they can, given work commitments.  The whole idea of Quorn rather than Port Augusta, was that if anything happened Quorn is right next to the hospital and problems can be attended to. She became very sick, and her blood reading shot up to a dangerous 22 and her test showed an excessive amount of Sulphur in her blood. Well, Quorn is not equipped with equipment or specialists to attend to this kind of concern, so the nearest major hospital was notified, and Annabell was moved there. The closest major hospital is Port Augusta!! Everything is slightly chaotic at the moment and although I cannot find things I have written, I have the feeling that I have told you all this already. She stayed in Port Augusta and the specialists there re-started the insulin injections., which the doctors at Whyalla had stopped. She is now back in Quorn and her blood reading today was 12 – not great but better than what it was.

There has been some improvement but there is still a long way to go. I was with her today and fed her lunch, which she finished – great!  I did talk to her but her responses were correct, but response times were slow. By that I mean that I made a comment. and she responded but it took a bit of time before she did respond. A dear friend in Glasgow sends a letter every week and I take that up with me and read it to her and when I can I try to get comments from her. Most of the time she sleeps. Sometimes I arrive and she is asleep and remains so for all of my visit. I sit and read.  As I tell people she may not know I am there – but I do!

Benji still misses her and each time I come home; he greets me then goes to the door to look for Annabell.  I found out recently that some laws have changed, and it is now possible to take a dog to Quorn – in fact some of the tourist facilities are being advertised as       ” Pet Friendly”. So when the weather is very much cooler ( 41c today – 45c tomorrow with 46c in Port Augusta and Quorn), I will get Benji in the car and we will go North. We have not been out for walks because the ground is just too hot for his paws. Well I tell a lie, we did go out yesterday, but it was almost 8:30 and it was quite dark when we finished our walk.  There are two trees. Look at the first one and try to enlarge the second one which was taken a few minutes later. Interesting.

Benji and I have changed our walk a little. Still the same time and mostly the same area, we just changed the last section a little. The

photograph of the tree was taken just down from my house and across the road. We seem to have an abundance of Galah in the area recently. We have always had a number of Magpie in the area, but with no “suitable” trees to build nests, there is very little in the way of swooping. Further don in Parfitt Street, it is all suitable trees and watch out for swooping Magpies!! I am sort of not popular right at the moment. I took the opportunity of the free day to go shopping.  The Benji was not a happy pup – daddy going out without him. I would have loved to take him with me but to do so would have been criminal not to mention dangerous. It is 45c out there but slightly higher than forecast because there is a North Wind coming off the desert. What that means is that leaving the car windows open would have been a waste of time because the hot wind would have pushed up the temperature in the car, even with the windows open. Anyway, a cool change is forecast for this evening and, according to the forecast for tomorrow the area will have a mid – to high 20s+c, so that won’t be too bad for driving to Quorn. The white flowers are nice, but I am not sure of what they are called.

Patience is a virtue and I regret to say it is a virtue I have in short supply – although I am trying. As Annabell used to say ” Yes, dear, you are very trying.”   My reason for mentioning this is to ask you to be patient. I do read all your posts and when I can, I will respond.

Writing this is the longest I have been on the computer for a while. I’m just so blooming tired these days.