Patients Are Clogging Up A&E With Hiccups

That headline sounded so silly on the BBC News Website last week. Then I dug deeper and discovered that too many hospitals are struggling with patients expecting the emergency department to deal with niggling issues, who really ought to seek help elsewhere. A spokesman for NHS England said "We are under siege from hiccups and ingrowing toenails"- across England, in the six months between Nov 24 and March 25, an average of twenty people a day  turned up at A&E because they had problems with an ingrown toenail. Such foot issues don't happen accidentally or become an overnight emergency.

It is utterly selfish, in my opinion, to take up the medic's time with that when there are other people with broken limbs, serious cuts, or genuine breathing issues waiting to see a Doctor.
I read the headline, and ranted to Bob, who listened patiently, then asked "and did the BBC spell it properly?"
I knew immediately what he meant - is it hic-cup or hic-cough?
At school, we were taught cough but lately the generally accepted spelling is cup. I had to go and look it up. Here's what I found
In old English [1500s] the word hiccup was - allegedly- just ahead of hiccough in books, the two spellings appeared around the same time. However, many people thought the hic was a sort of cough, so that gave the second spelling. Furthermore, people long before Tudor times, had blamed this malady on the elves, and called it ælfsogoða  which means elf's cough. 

Here's the little Elf-On-The-Shelf I made in Dorset- how convenient to blame him if I get the hiccoughs!
I have been suffering with a sore throat and tickly cough for a few days, and completely lost my voice on Saturday Morning. Bob went without me to help put up the Christmas Decorations at church. 
He came back and said his back was aching badly. We'd planned to go to the Village Carols in the Parish Church at 6pm. "Let's stay home, darling" I whispered tenderly "After all, you can't sit, and I can't sing"
"But you couldn't sing even before you lost your voice..." he replied [altogether a bit too quickly, if you ask me!]
You may have been a good Santa last Tuesday, but the elf is still watching you, Bob!!!

It Is As If Infancy

 ...Were The Whole of Incarnation

One time of the year
the new-born child is everywhere,
planted in madonnas’ arms
hay mows, stables, in palaces or farms,
or quaintly, under snowed gables,
gothic angular or baroque plump,
naked or elaborately swathed,
encircled by Della Robbia wreaths,
garnished with whimsical
partridges and pears, drummers and drums,
lit by oversize stars, partnered with lambs,
peace doves, sugar plums,
bells, plastic camels in sets of three
as if these were what we needed
for eternity.

But Jesus the Man is not to be seen.
There are some who are wary, these days,
of beards and sandalled feet.

Yet if we celebrate, let it be
that He has invaded our lives with purpose,
striding over our picturesque traditions,
our shallow sentiment, overturning our cash registers,
wielding His peace like a sword,
rescuing us into reality, demanding much more
than the milk and the softness and the mother warmth
of the baby in the storefront crèche,
(only the Man would ask all, of each of us)
reaching out always, urgently, with strong
effective love
(only the Man would give His life and live
again for love of us).

Oh come, let us adore Him—Christ—the Lord

This thought provoking poem was written by Luci Shaw, the gifted American Christian poet who died this week aged 96. She lived in Bellingham, Washington State [which is also where my dear friend J. lives] Maybe she rest in peace and rise in glory.

My Tree - The Twelfth Picture

10am, December 5th.  Bright sunshine, weather cold... and still recognisably My Tree.

Over the weekend I shall make a grand collage of all the pictures. 

What next?

Should I continue with this tree or spend December looking for one to 'adopt' for 2026? This one has worked so well in terms of location

What do you think?

Dots And Dashes Deciphered

I struggled for inspiration for my November TwoByTwo patch. I seemed to be so busy doing other sewing jobs - chiefly the Shed aprons. It was satisfying to work on this ZeroWaste project, using up the offcuts from Mandi's company. But even though I worked out a very efficient way of interlocking and cutting the pieces, I had quite a few rectangles left, sort of A5 size. Too big to discard, but what to do with them?
Pencil cases or make up bags seemed a good idea [for after Christmas] Then I decided I could use one to make a couple of 'stitch sampler' patches.

Using the white stripes I worked different embroidery stitches across the piece, working with two strands of DMC embroidery floss in shades of blue.

• blanket
• herringbone
• feather
• open cretan
• running stitch/French Knot
• laced running
• wheatear
• cross
• split stitch [two colours]

I wanted to acknowledge that this was something I had done for the Shed Project - but I didn't want to add lettering - doing Quarry Bank in September had been difficult. Then it occurred to me, I did not need to add lettering as such. On Remembrance Day I had been thinking of Mum and her codebreaking at Bletchley Park. So I chose a contrast red thread [to match the tags on the aprons] and using running stitch and French knots, I stitched

-  .... .  ... .... . -..  which is T H E  S H E D in Morse code!
As far as the Christmas patch goes, at the moment I am stuck, so saying

... --- ...  [S O S] 

Both Good And Difficult Memories

November is a month full of remembering -

On the 1st it is All Saints Day - remembering the saints who have died

The 2nd is All Souls Day - remembering all others who have died

The 11th -Remembrance/Armistice Day for those who died in wars

And for me personally, cousin Gill born 8.11.56, died 14.11.21

Her Mum, Auntie Peggy had her birthday on 17th

Kirsten described it as 'good and difficult memories all mixed together'

She is absolutely right. Here is her November 2x2 patch

Stitched on a blue cotton print is a red felt poppy. The centre is black satin stitch with black pistils around it. And the edge is cleverly defined by two lines of black stem stitch which make the flower stand out. 

My flower has a circle of stem stitch and a second of chain to define its place on the blue field of daisies.

The combination of the bright red for blood, the black for sorrow made these flowers of Flanders Field a good symbol of remembrance

But in these cold winter months there is warmth and brightness to lift our spirits. This is already one of my favourite patches. Two colours of thread, two different fabrics - so simple yet so effective when put together like this.

My patch will be appearing tomorrow

Ho Ho Ho....

Here is Santa, setting off at 10am to go to the Little Acorns Toddler Group. I was driving, as it was safer-  he had his wellies on, and also he was wearing his 'computer glasses' which are fine for screen work, but no good for distance or driving. I turned into the road to Foulsham, the village where our chapel is. "Road Ahead Closed" said the sign. 

I ignored it and kept driving [the last two times the closure has been the other end of the village, so we could still get to chapel] But found the closure was just further down the road. Diversion of about 3 miles brought us back to a spot about 100yds from where we were before. Never mind, we still got there in good time. Bob entered by a side door, into the Vestry without being seen by the children. He was locked in, to prevent discovery by toddlers, and given a plate of party food and a bottle of PVA GLUE [his moustache had fallen off!] Two chairs were set out in the chapel, his Little Helper [me] went in with the jingle bells, and got the children to call out for Santa.

Some children were a little unsure, but one darling little boy came and stood patiently next to Santa as each parcel was retrieved and the name read out. In the way of these things, this child's gift was the last one to come out of the sack! The youngest recipient was barely three weeks old. It was good to hear so many children saying Thankyou when they got their parcel. Ann and Amanda had put a lot of thought into the gifts. Then there was a time for photo opportunities.

All went really well, and Crystal, our minister's wife, put on her bubble machine to add to the festive atmosphere.

The diversion was still there on the way back, but we got home safely and had a busy day doing odd jobs around the house/workshop. I was glad when he took the beard off though...

Oh Christmas Tree...

The girls were fantastic on Saturday evening, helping to decorate the tree. Bob erected the tree whilst we sorted everything on the coffee table, into groups: round, wooden, soft, china, big, tiny, bells, angels etc.  Rosie stood on the sofa, I stood on the stool, and Jess handed us items to hang. Then Bob put the angel on top. We have three new decorations this year: The tiny bead angel  I made at craft group, a keyring which Ro and Liz bought back from Copenhagen in the spring, and a red plastic star. 

I think I may change the gilt chain on the Little Mermaid for some pretty ribbon. 

The star is just a red plastic one about 4cm across. It came from Wastesmiths in Great Yarmouth.  It is made from recycled plastic. Do check out their website. I was very impressed with their team I when met them in October. We cannot realistically expect to live in a world without plastic-  but we can do our best to deal with it responsibly. Rosie told me on Saturday that only 10%  of plastic which could be recycled is recycled. She also asked me to explain why I have a plastic Christmas tree, and not a real one! We do have a couple of real trees [OK, shrubs] outside the front door. We've decorated them with red "berry" lights. [Saved from the staircase garland - which went to a CS when we moved to a bungalow]

They look very festive, don't you think? When do you dec9rate your tree?