Welcome

I have decided to write this blog as a record of the journey that I find myself on. This journey seems to be a series of calamitous events, held together by gaffer tape and bits of chewing gum and blue tack! I seem to drift from one disastrous event to another, with only blind panic, good friends, a bit of luck and the determination not to get sucked under, to keep me going...

To explain: I have suffered from painful joints for many years, which I had always assumed was arthritis; brought about by a youth of skating, skiing, rock climbing and trapeze. However, during my thirties the pain intensified leaving me unable to climb the stairs in the house on occasion (a pain, as both the bathroom and my bedroom reside there). Various x-rays and blood tests revealed no joint damage, however, antinuclear tests proved positive and revealed a systemic autoimmune condition, which is 'probably' multiple connective tissue disorder. Basically, this means that my immune system has decided to attack the connective tissue within my body. This, combined with a long standing battle with clinical depression, a seemingly indifferent NHS, Social Services and Benefits Agency leave me wondering why I get out of bed in the morning!

Two of the reasons I get up are my boys; my first born Gee is a typical teenage lad, communicating through a series of grunts and poorly spelled Facebook updates, he is a handsome, intelligent and at times witty young man, who has had to cope with the loss of his father in the last year. He is mature and caring, but rebels against me by having chav dress sense and a taste in dub-step. Nothing winds him up more than grooving along to his music...or being a bit punk/goth in front of his peers. My youngest boy Dude (not his real name, anymore than Gee's is) is pre-teen and has undiagnosed learning disabilities. Until he was 6, he had a diagnosis of autism. This was then downgraded, after it was decided that he had more empathy & communication skills than was usual for autism, to a social and communication delay that he would grow out of.  He didn't, and whilst he has a vocabulary that the average thirty year old would be proud of he has all the social skills and ability to cope with other people as your average labrador puppy. When not suffering from acute anxiety over real or imagined issues, he is charming, innocent and guiless (much to his brother's annoyence when they are up to no good), with a grin to lighten anybodies heart. He is currently undergoing reassesment with the local CAMHS team and awaiting reassesment from the educational psychologist.

We all live in a dilapidated Georgian villa, perched on a cliff, overlooking an estuary in West Cornwall. It was in a somewhat 'unloved' condition when we moved into it, thirteen years ago but over the subsequent years its dilapidation has been added to by a series of 'gentlemen friends' who have enthusiastically demolished parts of it, jerry rigged make do fixes and then got bored of it, before disappearing into the sunset, normally after running up horrific debts in my name. Part of this blog, then will be my continuing adventures in property restoration with no budget, alongside my attempts to use various crafts and foraging expeditions to not only brighten our environment, adddress Christmas, birthdays etc and survive daily life. Make do and mend doesn't even come close!

My other major interest is horticulture and when I moved to Cornwall from the midlands I left behind a career in Youth and Community work and started to train to be a gardener. Whilst my illness has cut short that career, I intend to, slowly but surely, transform the wilderness around me (slightly overgrown garden) into a productive vegetable and fruit garden, combined with sub-tropical garden paradise.

I don't intend this journey to be in anyway miserable or depressing, I don't like to wallow in self-pity, please feel free to electronically slap me if that happens. Please feel free to comment, share ideas and/or ask questions...I will always do my best to get back to you