I had a bath this morning!  More information than you need, perhaps, but it was thanks to the arrival in the post yesterday of a Limbo.  It works! It’s wonderful! So thank you to Fearghal and Liz O’Neill for recommending this.  I then managed to get myself downstairs (we live upstairs) and along to the store for milk and a paper, all by myself. And back again, of course.  It’s these little things that mark the daily improvement and reassure me that I will not be like this for ever!  I have also started working on the mountain of seabed samples that are currently cluttering up the back yard although I can only sit for a certain length of time at the microscope with my foot down before said limb demands to be raised above hip height for a while.  It is definitely not possible to work at the microscope with my foot in the air.  Progress on the sample front is slow, but at least it has begun.

Meanwhile, having cancelled all my fieldwork for June, I am having to think about when I am going to be fit enough to walk distances over peat bogs and boulders.  I have 2 weeks fieldwork in Shetland at the start of August which I am anxious not to give to someone else, but am somewhat sceptical about the chances of my foot being fit for purpose by then.  As a self-employed biologist, fieldwork during the summer is always a big earner and I rely on at least one field contract a year to write up over the winter.  On the bright side, at least my tax bill should be less next year.  And I’m sure, with global warming in mind, we shouldn’t be planning any expensive (or even cheap) foreign holidays.  Mmm.  Bit too worthy for me, that.

Grandma went home early this morning so I’m on my own again during the day.  My sister and my mother-in-law between them sorted us out, cleaned the house  and eroded the laundry mountain to sandy beach proportions. Can we keep it clean and tidy?  A tall order, I suspect!  My husband’s impending trip to Libya this weekend has been postponed again, to my relief.  I had been wondering how we were going to get GP1 to a squash match in Edinburgh and GP2 to a swim meet at Prestonpans on Saturday morning and then sort out the bits & pieces needed for the school French trip next week.  OH had been wondering if he could just feed us all lots on Friday and then leave us to starve for the next few days.  In fact, I can still cook; it’s the shopping that’s more of a problem but there’s always Tesco Direct.  GP1 can still go to Edinburgh on the train on Saturday but at least we can get him to the station.  Cutting out one driver for several weeks has a major impact on extra mural activities!