My left foot.

Here it is.... Yuk. Pretty grotesque, huh? This was taken at 3pm yesterday about 24hrs after the fall. Well, I say fall, but really it was more like a jump as I bailed out before i fell. I was exercising Bob, as Jonathan is away on holiday, and we had been out for about an hour and a half. It was hot and the flies were awful, not to mention the fact that we went out alone and went on a new route....oh deary me. All it took was a pigeon to fly out of the hedge while we were trotting on the grass verge, Bob took a side step, stumbled, I lost one stirrup and then he bolted!! We were only aboutt 5 minutes from the field so I guessed he wouldn't stop until he got there, so I figured I would be better to jump off at canter than fall at gallop on a bend with a car there. So off i jumped. Landed on my left foot, heard the crack noise and then fell backwards and hit my head on the road. Bob went off like a rocket without me on top to slow him down and i managed to get up on my feet and hobble back towards the field, turning my foot over again on the uneven road surface on the way. OUCH!!

So, cup of tea and bucket of cold water later, it had swollen up an was excruciatingly painful so I got a lift home (and a carry into the house!!!) and then off to A & E we went. I couldn't put any weight on it so I was doing an embarrassing kind of hop into the hospital, but was not once offered a wheelchair or crutches to assist me. They sat me in a chair with my leg hanging and no ice and then made me hobble my way to x ray. The tears were rolling by then and a nurse had the sense to lift up the foot and put some ice on it. 'Its ok, only a sprain' says the doctor whilst walking past and 'just a tubi grip and off you go!'. Gee thanks. It took half an hour to get that, and I had to ask!!! No painkillers and i had to beg for the crutches.

Then yesterday it started to go blue and purple, and over the top of my foot too. It probably didn't help that i had to keep on my feet and looking after William. Up and down the stairs and out down the garden. But today I have managed to get the day in bed. Possibly a little late but I'm not entirely sure of the diagnosis.....think the noise i heard on impact was a tearing ligament and the swelling over my foot indicates a fracture possibly. Ugh. I will leave it for a few days to give it a chance to improve before i make a fuss.

This is the last straw in a line of disasters.

First the laptop a couple of weeks ago. Then the goats last weekend. I won't go into detail, but it seems that we have some things growing in and around our garden that makes it unsuitable for goat keeping. I am totally gutted and still raw from the experience, so it has made me more determined to find a field to rent somewhere or something. During last week I candled the eggs in the incubator and as only one was fertile I had to make the decision to turn it off, as I can't justify the cost for just one possible chick which could then turn out to be a cockerel anyway. Then on Sunday morning our little duck squeezed through the fence into next doors garden, and their dog got hold of it and killed it.

So all in all it has been a very streesful few weeks. My thanks to Joe, Hannah and Sam for being there when I needed them and my apologies to those that I have failed to do my best by. My brain hasn't really been very with it.

On a positive note though, I went to an open afternoon at our village nursery and was pleasantly surprised. I don't really like pre school etc any more than i like school, in fact probably more so , but in my quest to find some time for David on a One to One basis, it could be a short term solution. William seemed to like it and once he found his feet he payed with the other children and didn't worry about where I was. It is a very small nursery, only 12 children I think and he has a place for 3 afternoons when it is vey low key and relaxing/laid back. Well, we will try it and see. William has been enjoying going to play at Sam's house and the last few times he has been, we have had no tears at all!!! So maybe he is more like Tom after all.

At this point I will add a couple of pictures that I took before the run of bad luck when i was still feeling enthusiastic about things. Who else would take photos like these?!!!

And what is that one all about? Me thinks my camera is on its way out....just to add to the list of woes!!!!

So today is a River Cottage day and maybe a little bit of the Good Life in order to restore my enthusiasm and dreams for the future. Maybe even a browse through some of my back issues of Country Smallholding and Permaculture.

Time to go now, the Ibuprofen are calling me!