Haemochromatosis

A little over ten years ago two of my relatives were diagnosed with haemochromatosis, have you heard of it? It is a genetic blood disorder also known as "iron overload disorder". It was suggested that all members of the family be tested and when my results came back I discovered that I didn't have haemochromatosis I do however have two of the genes that cause it which puts me in the medium-risk category for iron overload. A few months ago, I had started to feel extremely tired, thinking that I might be anemic I had a blood test done, turns out rather than my iron levels being low they were in fact way too high. 

The only treatment for women past childbearing years, which I am, is to become a "therapeutic blood donor", so once a month, for three months that's exactly what I became. My last blood donation was a couple of weeks ago and I'm due to have a blood test next week to see if having blood taken has worked in lowering my iron levels, hopefully, they will be okay and from now on I will only have to give blood every three months instead of monthly. 

High irons levels may not sound like a bad thing, but left untreated it can lead to some major health issues such as cirrhosis of the liver, diabetes and congestive heart failure. People most at risk for haemochromatosis are those of Northern European descent, if you would like to know more about it this website, has some very good information.

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The Week That Was

Apparently, I'm no good with writing a blog post every day so here is what my week looked like instead. I'm hoping that once I get back into the habit of writing again, writing on a daily basis will become easier.

Monday - A Rainy Morning
I woke up to rain this morning which put the kibosh on the plans I had to work in the vegetable garden today not that I mind, there has been so little rain through winter, which is our wet season, that I'll take all the rain we can get, and there are always things to do in the house and that's just what I did. 

The rain cleared in the afternoon and I went for a walk. I'm trying to make this a part of my daily routine as my second youngest daughter is getting married next April and she has asked me to give her away, as you can imagine I was absolutely thrilled that she asked me and I want to look the best I can for her big day.

Tuesday - An Appointment and a Visit to the Library
I had an appointment in town this morning, which ended up being a waste of time, I did walk there and back so I got my walk over and done with early.

While I was out I paid a visit to the library and picked up some books, I love to read and try to read for at least an hour a day and on average I read a book a week.

I've just finished reading The Magnificent Mrs. Mayhew, by Milly Johnson and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

The trip into town wasn't a complete waste of my time as I saw this family of ducks on the way there. There are usually a lot of ducks and ducklings around at this time of year but due to the lack of rain, we've had just over half of our normal rainfall this year, the river is basically dry except for a few large puddles, not ideal conditions for raising a family in.

I've sown a lot of seed this year and for the most part they are germinating well I did notice though that not all of the bean seeds have germinated so I've had to sow more, I think the problem was too much water and they rotted away, I've resown and hopefully will see some germination in the next ten days or so. 

The beans that have germinated are doing well and are more than ready to go into the ground something I'm hoping to get done this coming weekend.

Wednesday - Hablar Espanol?
I've always wanted to learn another language so when Spanish lessons were offered at the local community house I signed up for them, not long into my second year of learning the language my teacher was offered a job, so Spanish lessons were put on the back burner. A few weeks ago I heard that my teacher was available again and I signed up for lessons straight away. I don't know that I will ever need to use Spanish but they say that learning a different language is good for your brain so I have nothing to lose.

Thursday - Too Hot to Work Outside
A very warm day today with the temperature reaching 30°C and very windy as well so I spent the day inside catching up on some housework, dusting, cleaning windows and vacuuming which since I bought my Dyson is no longer the chore it once was.

Friday - A Day in the City
 I took the train into the city with my daughter, I don't enjoy going into Adelaide (or any city for that matter) too crowded, too noisy, but I needed some art supplies and it was cheaper to travel into the city to buy them, then to order online and pay shipping costs.  

While I was in the city my daughter and I decided to do some clothes shopping, I don't often shop for clothes and I had forgotten how unforgiving dressing room mirrors are. I knew I had put on weight,  but seeing myself in the mirror was a bit of a shock so I've decided that along with walking on a regular basis I would start intermittent fasting as well. I currently weigh 74.3kg (163.8lbs) and for my height, 175 cms (5' 81/2") that means I am 5kg (11lb) overweight, my goal is to lose between 5 - 8kgs. 

Here are some photos I took while wandering around Rundle Mall. It's hard to take a photo without people in it when there is an endless stream of humanity going in both directions but I did my best.

Augusta - one of the four mall pigs on a day out in the city.

Truffles and Horatio 

Oliver

 

The Spheres - more commonly known as the Mall's Balls

There are always buskers in Rundle Mall and these guys were really good. the elderly gentleman wasn't part of the act, just a regular visitor to the mall who loves to dance with the different buskers who are performing.

I spotted this artwork on our way to afternoon tea at San Churro, one of many pieces of street art that can be found in the Adelaide CBD.

Saturday - The Weather Can't Make Up Its Mind
I was so tired from walking around the city yesterday that last night I went to bed at 10.30pm which is something that doesn't happen often, I slept very well, and woke up at 7.00am but didn't actually get up until 8 o'clock. When I opened the curtains I found that it had rained overnight, 12mm all up, wonderful for the gardens but it's now too wet for me to plant the beans out, so I think a lazy day is in order. One thing I am hoping to get done today is getting these beauties hung up. I walked past the shop this picture was hanging in for two weeks before deciding to buy it. I don't often buy big items like this but I knew if I didn't buy it I would regret it so home it came. I love birds, especially our Australian natives so I know this will be hanging on my wall for many years to come.

Sunday - The Beans Are Planted
Well, at least some of them were. It was a strange day weather-wise, grey and overcast, then the sun would come out, then it would get windy and start raining and after being rained on a few times I gave up and called it a day. The beans that did get planted are the variety "Painted Lady", also known as seven-year bean and I've planted them on an arch so they won't be disturbed, the arch is not the best quality so I hope it doesn't collapse, I've tied it to the fence for some extra support.

I've tied the arch to the fence in the hope that it will keep it in place.

The beans were starting to get a little pot bound

Painted Lady beans, I planted three on each side of the arch, it should look lovely once they start to flower.

 That's it, that was my week, how was yours?

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This Weekend

Hello everyone, it's been a while, I know, and I'm sorry about that, life just got in the way but I'm back now and I'm hoping to write a blog post every day, it won't be anything of monumental importance just me and my everyday life. To start off here is what I got up to over the weekend.

Friday, September 13th
I slept in this morning, which is unusual for me as I normally wake up between 6.30 and 7.30 most mornings. It's a beautiful day outside, the sun is shining and the temperature will reach 21°C perfect for some outdoor work. 

The fish in my fish pond (it is an old zinc bathtub) are suffering from some type of fungal infection and I have lost half of my fish despite my best efforts so first up today I need to empty half of the water out of the pond, refill it with rainwater and then add some more fungal medication, hopefully that will fix the problem and I won't lose any more fish. 

It hasn't rained here for a while and the gardens are dry so I also needed to put the sprinkler on the vegetable garden which is looking very healthy but producing slowly it needs to hurry up and grow as it won't be long before I will need to start planting out my summer crops. 

As spring is in the air I fertilised all the pot plants, (I have a lot so this took quite a long time), and the fruit bushes, I gave the orange trees a drink of Epsom salts as they are looking a bit yellow, they are covered in flowers at the moment so I am hoping for a good crop of oranges from them.

Saturday, September 14th
There is a large area outside my backdoor that is all concrete so to soften its appearance a bit I have lots of pot plants there, but there were far too many small pots which made the area look very untidy so I decided to consolidate some of the smaller plants into larger pots and I got rid of any that had died or that weren't growing as well as it should. 

Before all this happened though I went for a walk to my local Aldi store for some groceries, I then met my daughter and we went plant shopping which is one of our favourite things to do which is how I ended up with so many pot plants, I've banned myself from buying anything but annuals and vegetable plants from now on. I came home with a punnet of Alyssum, one of pansies, another of dahlias and a clary sage plant which is for the flower garden in the veggie patch.

I also got my housemate to help me hang some plant hangers that my daughters had bought me for Mothers day last year. It took a few hours but it looks so much better now and I'm happy with it which is the main thing.  

The pot of dirt in the background has Calla lillies planted in it and they are just starting to emerge.

Sunday, September 15th
It was meant to be a day of relaxation and doing only those things that I wanted to do but I discovered that I have lost the art of relaxation and instead of enjoying the day I ended up feeling cranky and of sorts. I did get some photos loaded onto my phone and iPad to upload to my two Instagram accounts which I guess was better than nothing. If you would like to check out my Instagram accounts you can find them here and here.

Until tomorrow, Jan.

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