Laurel and... hardly there anymore

Yes, sorry about the title. It amused me and then I couldn't get it out of my mind so I just had to use it.  And in case you're wondering how this related to my usual Thursday gardening post, bear with me...

On Monday we had the gardeners in for some tree work, and our Laurel had some attention. It's a large tree - or it was in any case - and while we have it cut fairly regularly, each time you cut a tree it just grows a bit more. So it is always increasing its size, and that's been the case with our tree. It's grown so much that it almost half covers our stone circle, we know this because only half of it gets wet in the rain!

So it was time for some drastic action.  Here's the before shot, looking up our garden:

On the right you can see the trees we had pollarded back in November 2014, and how much they've grown since then.

And here's the after shot:

Doesn't it open the garden up?

I hadn't realised how much the Laurel was dominating the end of our garden, until it had gone. We can see the pear that's in blossom now and it feels so much lighter in that part of the garden too.

It was a severe cut on purpose to control its size, it's a plucky little thing and will grow back although it will look a little bald for a while I think.

And can you spot the saw the gardeners left by mistake?  

They'll be needing to come back and retrieve that one themselves!  Luckily they're due back at some point to give our non-fruiting large cherry tree some similar treatment. 

And of course, all of that greenery had to go somewhere...

And in our case it filled the rear part of our garden, and started to edge down towards the house too before it was carried through the house and formed a pile under our front window.

I'd moved my car and it made a change to have a different view for a while...

It wasn't long before this was loaded into the back of their van - completely filling it - and they were sweeping our drive and we were off out on a Bank Holiday bike ride!

I'm sure that the non-fruiting cherry tree is looking on smugly, but little does it know...

The tremor seems to be back...

I noticed it a few weeks ago and thought perhaps I was imagining it, so thought nothing more of it. But then there were a few palpitations too, which couldn't be excused by walking up the stairs at work quickly or a cycling up (what I call) a hill. And I resolved to make a doctor's appointment as ignoring it wasn't working.

Of course, so far I haven't and it hasn't gone away of its own accord. But now I will.

It's been a while since I was diagnosed with Graves Disease and hyper-thyroidism at the end of 2012 and I'd hoped it'd had gone. With regular blood tests and daily medication it was managed and my TS4 and TS3 were brought back into the normal range. There was a chance that it would return after the medication had stabilised it and as you'd expect I've got a spreadsheet charting its progress. Well I wouldn't be me if I didn't!

Recently though I started to notice it. I noticed it in the photos I took with my phone, they seemed more blurry than before, or some of them at least and cleaning the lens - well it was worth a try - didn't make them any better.  I've noticed it too when I'm hungry, because then it gets worse.

It's funny though, I didn't notice these in 2012 or before and it took quite a bit before I went to the doctors, and then for another reason entirely. Luckily there were enough symptoms for my doctor to suspect my thyroid and to send me straight to the hospital on New Year's Eve for a blood test gone 5pm, yes you can imagine how popular we were when we arrived.

At Grand Designs Live this weekend it was noticeable again and not just by me. As we sat down to enjoy our hot dogs and half-pint of for me Meantime Yakima Red and for MOH a Meantime Pale Ale, MOH could easily see the tremor.  

And true to form the first photos I took were blurry, see what I mean: 

BLURRY BEER: THE PHOTO I DIDN'T POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Yesterday too while making some coffee it was there again and after asking if I was putting it on, MOH likened me to Mrs Overall. Clearly there's nothing wrong with Mrs Overall - she's a very funny lady - but let's be honest it's not something I'm aspiring too right now.

So this week I'll be joining the telephone queue at the doctor's surgery in search of an appointment to find out if it's really back and what that means.  No doubt there'll be blood tests to check what's going on with my TS4, TS3 and TSH. Hopefully that won't be off the scale like it was in 2012 and hopefully the tremor will stop for good with treatment this time, if it is really back.

I'll let you know how it goes.

What I've read lately: Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

You'll remember that I had a new book delivered recently, and that it came with a miniature of Southern Comfort - which as first impressions go is a pretty good one.  I hoped that I'd reach the part of the book that needed a stiff drink at an appropriate time, and so far I've not needed to pour myself a drink, well not yet anyway.

The other thing that struck me about this book when it arrived was its size. It's on the larger side of the paperbacks and is quite thick too, and I think initially this put me off.  It does fit into my handbag, but with a driving commute I've found it hard to really get into this book.  What I have read has been good and I want to carry on reading it, but for me this will be a slower read than the books I've read recently.  I'm not sure why, but I know I want to understand the story.

Unusually the front cover doesn't include the book's title, but instead "The hunt for Edith Hind starts here" is given prominence with the title relegated to the spine and the rear cover.  I found this confusing initially too - I've a simple mind, clearly - and while I like the cover image, I think I prefer to have the title there in its more traditional place.

I think one of the reasons I've struggled to really get into this book is that it shares a main character - Edith - with the listening book I have in the car. Both are young adults approaching marriage but their lives couldn't be more different. Edith, in this book is reported missing and once you get to this part the title of the book is obvious.  I think the vast difference between the two Edith's lives have also hindered my ability to become immersed in this story.

It's well written and I think I will enjoy the story, I've heard that others have said they'd read this in a couple of days. Right now this book hasn't grabbed me and got me hooked, but I'm more than willing for that to happen. 

As usual I won't share the ending of the book, usually that's to avoid spoiling the story, but in this case it's because I really don't know what that'll be.  I know this sounds like a negative review of the book, but I don't mean for it to be. I'm going to continue to read this book because already I care about some of the characters - Manon, the detective on the case who it seems is unlucky in love but is clear that the first 72 hours in a case are crucial, and Miriam, Edith's mother who early in the book lifts the Le Creuset onto the draining board and wonders why people rave about them when they are almost un-lift-able - and because I want to know more of what happened.  

And if I'll need that Southern Comfort.

Update:  As I thought, a train ride to and from Birmingham last Saturday was a good opportunity to spend some time with this book.  There was a twist that you expect from thriller books and at one point I considered part of it.  Not the other though.  

I hadn't remembered to take the miniature of Southern Comfort with me, so I've still got that for another day!  It is a good book - and once I'd got into it, I wanted to finish it.  I didn't quite manage that on my journey back, but while MOH cooked dinner that night I put my nose back into the book and finished it.  

Thanks to Mumsnet and Borough Press for providing  a copy of Missing, Presumed in return for an honest review.