WOYWW 621 - Inquest time is nigh

 So I honestly can't remember if I shared this news with you lovely peeps or not, but well,  as the title may well indicate we have an inquest into the cause of Sharon's passing, the date of said inquest is/was yesterday (Tuesday 27th April 2021).

So no desks to share this week, in its place, I will share a picture or two instead, I hope you all don't mind? 

 I am writing this post on Tuesday and have it scheduled as I normally do (as long as I remember its Wednesday) and to think I Teach IT ha ha and forget the days of the week.

So, the elephant in the room is well, the elephant in the room isn't it? 
~
A part of the process when someone with such a complex history as our Shaz who was undergoing treatment even if palliative towards the end which is what the last chemo was.
None of us know if this will help give us closure but what we did know is it needed to take place. 
On a personal note I was unsure if I was going to be back to square one with all the what-ifs all over again? 

 After all, my wonderful Wifelet passed a little over 10 weeks ago now (I know right, it feels like a week or two at most) so a lot of suppressed emotions are boiling all over again 😩. 

The paperwork that the coroner's office sent out  about a week of Sharon's passing included some stressful content to go through, time lines to remember to be able to build a picture, details to re-live, questions and concerns to raise etc all of which I did parallel to arranging Sharon's funeral only to be told that it will only be to decide on some very specific outcomes.

This is not me fishing for virtual hugs, I am sure you all know me better than that, it really is just the fact of the matter x

So the inquest is set out to ascertain the following

Who 
Where
When
Why (this is the only part they were undecided on)

But that is all done now, 

Sharon's passing is registered as a complication of the treatment she was receiving, sepsis, which was  brought about as a side effect of chemotherapy for her now very aggressive cancer, it was explained far more elegantly than that. 
Cancer is a natural occurrence, a mutation that occurs when cells replicate some are more aggressive than others as was the case with Sharon's, at the end there was simply no treatment that could cure or slow it down, slowly at first but then rather rapidly towards the end it took over until it won.

Anyway let's lighten the mood with a gratuitous picture of our Shaz doing something else she loved, Road trips and Coffee, taken in 2015 on one of our road trips, this was taken in Margate

By the time you see this, this chapter will be behind us, and we all need to try to move on, 

That is how it is supposed to work right?

I came out of the inquest with very mixed emotions, wounds that had started to heal, while now a little smaller had just had the scab ripped back off, so I am kind off broken again!

Baby steps Doug,

Baby steps

 Changing the subject now 

The garden is now clear, not quite the blank canvas yet, but with the help of my brother Rob who popped round on Sunday it is very almost there. 

Saturday I felt rough, guessing it was either the Covid jab from the day before or I have been overdoing it a weeeeee bit ripping the ivy down on Friday right after getting stabbed in the arm, possibly the later or maybe a combination of the two? 

I am so not used to this manual labour malarkey!

After all, the heaviest thing someone working in IT lifts up is a piece of hardware or their cup of coffee.

So I have some fence panels to repair and some more rubbish to move, the rubble in the foreground will be eaten up by the concrete base and footings, this week will mainly the the design/planning time and no doubt a lot of reflection.

I even came across some pictures from back in 2004 from when that part of the garden looked really  nice, we were younger and fitter back then, we kind of all were ha ha

         Let me know if you want to see one of them?

So that was more of a WOYPW - What’s On Your Plate Wednesday which sounds more like a Facebook post showing off the meal you are about to eat than anything craft related, but, I digress again.

 So for the real thing head over to our Julia's Stamping ground and share yours  for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday  

 
Which just leaves... and finally...

WOYWW 620 - Jungle, what Jungle ?

 Well its that time of the week again, and boy do I ache, so what have I been upto this week, well pretty much more of the same, I have been taming the wildlife garden over the weekend (not really, I have been beating the overgrown jungle into submission) and also I have been doing some more practice with the engraving and well work.

So for my desk this week, will be just that . the 

So For those curious, we have an old router , a cisco switch, a mini patch panel, a cable tester, a toner/probe, a cable map tester, continuity tester and you can also see both cameras in the shot, the overhead one and the one I address the students with when I am demoing/teaching at this desk.

So the garden

Shaz will be laughing at this because she knows what i say when it comes to gardening, the tedious side like weeding I really don't enjoy.

Does anyone enjoy weeding? is that a thing?

I digress again,  the standard joke is that "I don't do dirt"
I dislike having dirty fingernails or getting bitten by mozzies (don't see the appeal to it) don't get me wrong I am more than capable of it , I just wouldn't choose to do it as a job, or hobby, etc.

So let me remind you of what the 150ft garden looks at the bottom of it, this is the same picture as I shared last week.


Now, I work at a desk all day, I drive everywhere and the heaviest thing I lift is shopping bags, and yes I bend my knees, you only have one back.

So when I started this two weekends back, I sort of had an idea of what the outcome should be.

But!

My life!!!

Am I sore this week, the journey is one born out of  blood sweat and tears, but it is also very much a labour of love and apologies...

The latter due to some of the plants Sharon wanted to keep are just not possible. 

I did move a variegated holly bush and cut right down some climbing roses that may come back. 
But the rather large elder was far too far gone (back left of the original picture), as was a rather spindly magnolia that was more dead than alive (not really visible right in the original image picture. 

These will simply be replaced at some point, I need to draw up a plan and map stuff out, but essentially a summer house will be at the bottom and a low maintenance memorial garden in front of it.

So this weekend coming will be removing the rubbish, taking stock of the condition of the fence, and replace panels if needed, remove the ivy from it and maybe make a start on treating it then draw up a plan as I will have a blank canvas.

To give you context as to the length of the garden those steps you see next to the shed and the tarpaulin sheet protecting the cement mixer, that is roughly the midpoint, so to run power down to the summer house wont be cheap either.


The shed will of course go as the tools will go into the summer house as I will partition it off.

As for the engraving, well that is getting there too, I resorted to using a head mounted magnifier to bring me a little closer to the work piece which really helps

Oh and I get my first jab this friday lunch time, better late than never right? 

anyway...

So thats my desk and garden for this week, head over to our Julia's Stamping ground and share what you may have been working on.  

Cheeky picture of Shaz and I waiting t see Guns N' Roses

That just leaves the and finally...

WOYWW 618 - the hublets desk

 Well its that time of the week again, and I very almost didn't blog as I haven't done any paper crafting at all. What I have been doing instead is working, working towards my career as an IT teacher, so my desk this week is just that, my desk, but not the one you have seen before I don't think, you see, I have an additional desk that I use for demos, where I show students tech, what the stuff is and how it works, they will typically get an areal view from an overhead camera out of shot bringing in the camera for close ups. 

The view behind the image is unfinished decorating from a couple of years ago for the hall and stairs I never got round to finishing. 

The desk is set up for this mornings class, we are about to go over networking hence the cables and things laid out to hand. This stuff will get swapped out for the evenings class as we going over hardware with them. So yes, two classes, one at 09:30 -12:30 and then 18:00 until 21:00 it is keeping me busy again and i feel its what I need right now.

But, while it has not been used for that I have put it to good use, we have had a dremel for many years, what I didn't own was the long flexible shaft for the extra control, nor did I have the stand the dremel is suspended from.

The reason I made the purchase is of course who else could I entrust in the correcting of  the mistake on Sharon's urn? 

So that cup you see in the image is what I have been practicing on, it dawned on me as I was lay in bed (mithering) as you do, and had a eureka moment, that lettering in white would be ideal to practice on.

The cup was destined for the bin as the one side of the handle had came away.

So I am learning to engrave (still not quite happy with it but I have a lot of time to perfect it) I can't actually see that well extremely close up. 

You would think being long sighted and short sighted would cancel each other out?

I digress...

So I feel another purchase is on the cards, a hands free magnifier for that super intricate stuff 

The metallic sharpies I have had for years but I feel the tip is too fat, (the artist that made the mistake is sending one over and I have had a partial refund and apology) I have come to the conclusion that the ink they used was the gold and not the bronze.

So no paper crafting as yet, I am not sure when I will have the time either as I need/wanted to work on the garden so I can do a memorial garden. We had planned a while ago to sort the bottom of the garden (the jungle) so that we could sit down there and just relax.

Believe it or not this are the same area a few hours and many scratches later, all that shrubbery (love that word...Shrubbery) was mostly bramble, it all got shredded not burnt, in fact anything that was live did, only the dry stuff got incinerated.


At the very bottom of the garden will go a rather large workshop/summerhouse/shed with a large pathed area in front of it and a nice water feature.
or at least that is the plan.

Anyway that is it from me, its late and I need to get to bed (yes I am typing this the night before) don't we all?

So thats my desk, do head over to our Julia's Stamping ground and share yours for Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday  

Random pic of the bird, this from 2014 Kos

So that just leaves the and finally..