Storm Gerrit...

Has delivered nature's paddling pool at the bottom of the garden.  

In the twelve years we've been here there's been lots of episodes of heavy rainfall but never had a paddling pool courtesy of Mother Nature at the bottom of the garden before.  There's a similar massive puddle at the golf net!  A fair few of our new plants are under there, mainly ferns and hostas.  I am keeping everything crossed that they survive.

Didn't have the best end to the day yesterday as went to bed in agony from another flare up of the pain in my side, the same pain I had in October when the out of hours GP diagnosed possible kidney stones.  I've had the same pain on and off but this is the first time it was as bad as it was when it started.

Managed to get a face to face appointment with one of our GPs this morning.  Talked her through the three types of abdominal pain I've been experiencing over recent months.  She was hoping the results of the CT scan of my kidneys would be in but they weren't.  Not surprised as the scan was only done last Friday.  After a long chat, she has been very thorough in her investigations and arranged for an array of diagnostic tests.  I did ponder if my gall bladder could be the cause of some of my pain and she says if the result of my renal scan is clear, further investigations will take place, so that thought is on the back burner for now.  She's also prescribed different painkillers and they have helped today as the ache was still lingering.

It wasn't fun having to go out into Storm Gerrit late morning.  The wind howling and the rain battering down!  Cartoon rain!  We cancelled Alan's swim so Vickie could head home an hour early as the flooding on roads was awful.  David did manage to take Lola out for a walk when the rain eased a little but he abandoned his plan to take her round the golf course as the path was flooded, and stayed on the pavements instead.  She was happy with that.  Lots of sniffing to do. 

Got a sad message this morning from Lynne, a woman I've become friendly with on a Golden Retriever FB group.  We started chatting when I fell in love with her stunning GR Hunter.  We met her and her husband and Hunter (and the rest of her doggy family) when we holidayed in Northumberland in 2019.  Hunter saw the vet last week after Lynne found a hard lump on his front right leg and the vet took samples from around the lump.  She got the results today and there are some cancerous cells present.  Another lump has come up on his left leg and samples have been taken from that too. I am so worried for him (and Lynne) He's only 5!  

So, other than that it's been another laid back day.  It was only when my head turned to think of dinner that I realised I had planned to make a slow cooked lamb bhoona but I completely forgot!  Oh well that will be tomorrow's dinner.

This evening we are having another crime drama night.  This time it's the Christmas episode of Vera.  Might open a bag of popcorn!  :-))

Oh one wee bit of good news.  We bought a doggy weighing scale and weighed Lola.  She was 28.6 kgs when the vet weighed her on 8th December, she's now 29.1 kgs, so her increased food intake is working.  Once she reaches 30 kgs we will reduce her food back to previous levels for a couple of weeks and see how that goes.  She's certainly enjoying her increased amount of food!  :D