Starting to do things as a family again
Starting to do things as a family again

Getting back to ‘normal’ family life and shopping for food and supplies after which I take a long walk for relaxation, noting the worms and hedgehogs out after the rain,  as the miners’ and dock workers’ strikes spread to the ferries

Diana is up with Daniella first thing and so brings up the morning drinks for the first time since the birth. A much better day. She is no longer in pain and the swelling and inflammation of her right breast have both receded. This morning’s visiting midwife (the fourth different one since the visits started!) agreed the improvement and the discontinuance of the dehydration tablets. Diana had managed to continue feeding throughout, supplementing the breast milk with a little soya bean milk, but mainly expressing her sore breast with an Egnell breast pump and saving the milk.

We go out together as a family for lunch to The Happy Eater, which is a great variety and treat for Diana having been confined inside for so long. Daniel and I had already done most of the shopping in Biggleswade, getting two more bags of layers pellets for the ducks at the same time. Also the farmer at Brook Farm in Paxton had let us have a bale of straw for 60p to give them new bedding. In view of the cereal progress, he plans to start harvesting in a week or two which is just as well as his straw barn is nearly empty. He also keeps ducks for fun and has two Khaki Campbell Drakes and a lot of Aylesbury ducks, incubating the eggs each year.

The rain comes in some volume this afternoon and, after tea, I dead-head the roses and clear up a large amount of fallen petals. In late evening I walk by the river and then over to Priory Park through the woody footpath and round the perimeter to where Rowley House is now replaced by the Rowley Road housing estate. The hedgehogs are out to look for worms on the short mown grass and the air is clean. Back home to the news and my bedtime Bournvita, going to bed late again at 11.00pm which is becoming a habit.

News today of the government getting more worried and outspoken on the miners and docks strikes. The passenger ferries are now being brought in with Dover planned to stop all traffic from Monday.