X-ray time, Face to Face appointment

So grateful they managed to get me in at such short notice. Only 7 people per day as a face to face so I’m extremely lucky for sure.

Had a good time set in the afternoon, so we could set off at leisure.

Upon arriving I had to remove my own mask, and put on a medical one, hand sanitise and walk up to the department I needed.

Most seats have been removed, only around 8 seats available in waiting room for x-ray.

In preparation of an x-ray I wore leggings so I don’t have to strip off, making sure I have no metal anywhere where they are xraying, that way I’m loads faster for them. Literally a min or two.

This time they used a metal ball between my legs, not sure why. Maybe it’s something to do with hip calibration?

This helps explain it Here

Fast as anything x-ray was done, and I just needed to speak to the consultant.

Down at this waiting room, there’s around 20 seats but only around 6 patients, and plenty of space between seats.

Sadly not my surgeon, but someone I felt comfortable we, we assessed the ROM range of movement (lack of it) Hip really painful at this point.

Xray showed some narrowing or the joint space, clearly indicating arthritis, but an MRI is needed to confirm, along with CT Scan. Then I can confirm and go on the waiting list.

Feeling very relieved and immensely grateful the ball is rolling, and I’ve had a head start too.

Emergency Hip Appointment

A few days ago I shared some news of my week in Boscastle, and how the walk in Tintagel I felt and heard my Left hip crack, and hurt the rest of the holiday.

Well following this I had upped the painkillers to fulfil my holiday and with the thinking once home I could totally rest the hip, I even resigned myself to buying a new right handed walking stick. But with all the extra conservative measures, it cracked again at home and caused tears and pain levels like no other!!

So I had to ring, to beg to plead for an earlier appointment if possible (thinking I could not love like this until Feb 2021 when I was scheduled to go) And thankfully the most wonderful Secretary heard me out, and managed to wriggle me in a cancellation spot for the 20th Nov.

Here’s the new walking stick, it’s got a moulded handle for my right hand, to try and protect my hand arthritis. And of course it’s funky as you may as well get one that suits your personality too.

Home time But first…

We woke up super early, packed and loaded up the car and checked out of our lovely weeks home.

Instead of going straight onto the road, we popped to Boscastle for that last pasty (I swear no one makes them as good as this shop)

St Nectans Glen is our mission today, not the paid part as we don’t fancy it, but the woods to it is all free. Only a quick walk, as we have a long drive home.

Cairns are built in the stream, a spiritual place for a lot of people. I wash and cleanse my chakra bracelet again.

Nearly didn’t get up again, stupid hip playing up.

We found a log with money hammered into it, so paid our fairies some silver as it’s tradition.

Once we reached the part that goes to the paid section, we retraced our steps back to the car.

All in all I’ve loved this holiday, definitely felt odd at times, and sad, not having the gathering, drummers and dancers, having no restaurants open or pubs it did spoil some aspects of it.

Now home to try and recover this awful awful hip.

Port Quinn Walks

In our penultimate day, we’ve took a day of walking that is further up the coast from the Rumps.

In fact you can see it in the distance. Weather much calmer and warmer too.

Cute little castle that you can stay in is here, totally isolated and looks amazing too.

We found mine shafts and caves.

Bit scary in places. Thankfully they had some fencing around.

Hip is getting much worse, and I’m taking a lot more painkillers than I had originally planned. But I’m hoping it will settle once we are home.

Our little cottage was glowing in the glorious sunshine.

What a welcome home!! Now it’s time to start packing, we have to leave in the morning. Forever grateful we managed to stay the whole holiday while the lockdown came down earlier.

The Rumps Walk

Another windy day, but we don’t really mind, as honestly it makes us giggle, and have so much fun all day.

This time we are doing a walk called The Rumps.

Wrapped up well and wearing the right clothes, it makes the weather all the more exciting and interesting. Had to start using a walking pole following Tintagel incident.

Stunning views and some lovely people we met along the way. Waves crashing and spraying, it was amazingly exhilarating.

I could really imagine living here and having this on my doorstep, but I also know it’s not that practical, and it’s just a dream, but a girl can dream.

We were totally blessed with another double rainbow, this is the reward for having slightly drizzly rain and glorious sunshine.

Rocky Valley Spiritual Walk

Continuing on our Boscastle holiday, we took the option of walking Rocky Valley, though the wind was around 85kmph so windy in fact it blew me to the floor a couple of times, I clearly can’t brace well with my weak hips!!

A few noticeable changes to the bridge this year, this time we didn’t have to step in the river to get to the step.

we cleansed our matching chakra bracelets in the roaring river, to cleanse and envoke the energies and properties of the water element. The Air element ever present, Water all around is, the Earth showing us how amazing cliffs and coastline can be, while Fire kept is warm under the weaker autumnal sun.

We saw the labyrinth carvings there, horrid mud but needs must, to touch them and try to visualise the 4000 thousand years they have seen.

Strange to think of the era’s, the people the world’s changes in all that time, blessed to be able to visit something so historical and meaningful.

Even though the weather made me pretty scared as my vertigo also causes anxiety, the views were amazing and dramatic. I can see how romantic novels are inspired from such coastlines.

We were even blessed with a double rainbow for a few minutes, such a beauty to behold. Felt like we had had every type of weather on this day. Even treated to sea foam and spray all over us at times.

Not being wet enough and only a short walk, we went back to Boscastle to enjoy the harbour.

The energies raised today with the Elements made this our most spiritual and emotive day. Sheer divinity.

Tintagel Walk Hippie Woes

Woke up on our Boscastle break away to rumours of a second lockdown, and we are on our second full day on holiday.

So now we have an uneasy feeling of what are we meant to do? Pack up and leave? Stay? Rules are unsure around holidays, So it’s 1st Nov and time to kick off this Sunday with a lovely walk at Tintagel.

We walked down to the beach and the cave of the Merlin legend. With hindsight I shouldn’t of done it. But as ever you feel like it’s holiday and you want to see and experience everything. So off we went down so many many steps.

Once down I shrugged off worries about getting back up again, and went to see the roaring sea, and waterfall.

Before this photo, the roaring sea roared so much I got soaked, from mid calf downwards, so totally wet feet. Must be a tradition now, this happened last year in Port Isaac!!

Off to the cave, Rich explored more inside than I did, I just hovered just inside the front.

The climb back up the steps was the MOST painful thing I’ve ever done, I can’t describe it enough, it felt like my left hip had snapped. Total bone on bone grinding and crunching, it was horrific and had it been quieter I think I would of sobbed.

Once up, we took stock and it was then I decided I can’t do this anymore, I need a new walking stick and a shed load of painkillers.

Did tinge the day with a bit of sadness.

But we saw some donkeys, and the scenery really does feed the soul and spirit. I did however avoid a field of cows as they intimidate me so much.

Had an incredible day and we rounded it off with painting pumpkins.

Boscastle Minster Samhain Day

Up early, not bright eyed and bushy tailed,but a breakfast of pancakes and bacon sets us up for the day.

The plan is to visit Joan Whytte to honour the ancestors, pave a walk from Boscastle up to the Minster, woods and hills where she is buried in a secret area. We went last year so it’s feels like a pilgrimage.

Who is Joan Wytte?

Original text by Cecil Williamson:

‘You are looking at the mortal remains of Joan Wytte of Bodmin, Cornwall, a witch known in her day as the fighting fairy woman of Bodmin, Joan Wytte was born in Bodmin in 1775 and she died in 1813 from bronchial pneumonia in Bodmin jail, aged 38.

Town records of 1524 list a John Wytte as being a weaver and yarn twister. By 1780 to 1790 weaving and yarn spinning had gone into a decline, and a Wytte of back street, now Pool Street, Bodmin, was listed as a “tawner” that is maker of white leather, a trade for which Bodmin by then had become renowned.

This white leather of finest quality was in demand for ladies’ and gentlemen’s gloves, gauntlets, boots and shoes etc.

This skeleton has been submitted to inspection by a home office forensic expert the report states that the skeleton is that of a female person, aged about 38. That she was a heavy tobacco smoker and used a clay pipe. Her diet included a large consumption of stone ground flour. That in stature she was a small, short person, undernourished and very slim.

Her arms were long for her height and her hands slender with bird-like claw fingers. The body does not show any sign of arthritis, but the bones are exceptional in that they show two things.

One that the water supply source used by the Wytte household was exceptionally rich in natural fluoride, the other that the bones show that she was in long contact with kaolin or china clay.

The report concluded by pointing to the huge abscess cavity in the right wisdom tooth. It is of interest to know that James Chappel, governor of Bodmin jail from 1780 to 1827 stated in an interview with the press that, “yes, I admit that we have had women that we could not tame, but never a man,” poor Joan Wytte, she must have endured considerable pain over a long period from the abscess under her wisdom tooth. As the home office expert said, anyone with a thing like that would certainly be bad tempered and aggressive, which would account for her being dubbed, when one also takes into account the smallness of her body, “the fighting fairy woman of Bodmin” and it was her fighting spirit that landed her in jail.

For many years she was used in Bodmin jail as a parlor tricks and entertainment, and then onto the Witchcraft Museum where she was displayed outside.

Thankfully modern day witches and the curator of the museum at the time in 1998 buried her in a secret area, and put no longer abused on her headstone.

It was a hard walk for me, the old hip issues rearing their head up again. But pain aside, the day was deeply emotive, and reflective too.

Though Boscastle felt wrong with no drummers, no dark Morris dancers and pagans as far as the eyes can see. However we did the exact walk, and watched the sun go down, with our hearts and minds thinking of the past and future.

Boscastle Break Away

On the 30th October it was the start of our week long getaway. We had booked it last year as it was for the Dark Gathering, but alas due to the virus that had been cancelled.

But as we could still travel, we opted for a self contained holiday, instead choosing to do walks and take in some much needed time away from social media and news.

We checked in at 4pm and after a long day of traveling we simply settled in and relaxed with pizza we had brought down and some movies on the horror channel.

It’s a tiny cottage called The Nest, and it’s around 25mins drive from Boscastle. So snug and cosy and best of all it has a log fire too.

We settled down and put music on, ate pizza and decorated the cottage to be all Samhain themed.

On with the disco lights and the alcohol came out play too in syringe themed shots.

All in all we are extremely happy to be here, and didn’t stay up too late as we had plans for sightseeing the following day. Feels good to be back.

Witch Fire On the Levels by David Hodges

#ADGIFTED in return of a view but all thoughts and opinions are my own, I chose the genre to read, so I enjoy the reviewing.

Witch Fire on the Levels (Kate Hamblin #8) by David Hodges

MEET DETECTIVE KATE HAMBLIN IN THIS BESTSELLING SERIES FROM A FORMER POLICE OFFICER.

BEHIND ANCIENT SUPERSTITIONS, SOMETHING EVEN SCARIER MAY LIE.

A terrified young woman runs out into the path of Detective Kate’s car. The unidentified woman is fleeing something very strange on the misty marshes. She ends up in a coma.

Meanwhile Kate investigates alleged witch Lilith, a local woman who lives in an isolated old shack. She has been accused of vandalising a church. But Lilith has disappeared. In her hovel, Kate discovers hemlock and two sinister ragdolls pierced with pins.

One resembles police officer Eddie West and the other vicar Jacob Truly.

What happens next frightens the life out of the local community, but Kate believes that the criminals are closer to home than prime suspect Lilith. What’s really going on?

DISCOVER A BREATH-TAKING NEW SERIES OF MYSTERIES THAT YOU WON’T WANT TO PUT DOWN

Perfect for fans of Rachel Abbott, Robert Bryndza, Mel Sherratt, Angela Marsons, Colin Dexter, or Ruth Rendell.

THE DETECTIVES
Kate is a feisty, young police detective, with a dynamic approach to her job. She is plucky and tenacious, but prone to being impetuous and headstrong, which often lands her in tight spots and does not exactly endear her to her crusty boss, DI Ted Roscoe.

In stark contrast to Kate, her detective partner, Hayden, is an overweight, untidy ex-public schoolboy, with a pompous, laid-back attitude, which drives her to distraction. But he is also highly intelligent, with a keen, analytical mind and a practical, reasoned approach to everything, which, with a prevailing wind, can sometimes act as a brake on his partner’s more impulsive actions.

THE SETTING
A patchwork of fields, peat moor and marshland, dotted with picturesque villages and criss-crossed by man-made irrigation ditches or rhynes, the Somerset Levels covers an area of about 160,000 acres between the Mendips and Quantock Hills, in the County of Somerset. Sparsely populated outside the local towns of Bridgwater, Glastonbury and Street and prone to flooding, it is a haven for wild life, a wild, secret place with an atmospheric brooding stillness, which creeps into the very soul; a place where the booming call of a bittern or the beating of an owl’s wings in the mist is bound to fire the imagination of any self-respecting crime novelist, whose thoughts will invariably turn to . . . murder.

THE AUTHOR

A former police superintendent, with thirty years’ service. Since ‘turning to crime’, he has received critical media acclaim, including a welcome accolade from Inspector Morse’s creator, the late great, Colin Dexter, and he is now a prolific novelist with eleven published crime novels and an autobiography on his police career to his credit. His previous police experience has enabled him to provide a gritty realism to his thrillers and his Somerset Murder Series, featuring feisty female detective, Kate, and her partner, Hayden, has gone from strength to strength, attracting interest in the United States as well as in the UK.

DETECTIVE KATE HAMBLIN MYSTERY SERIES
Book 1: MURDER ON THE LEVELS
Book 2: REVENGE ON THE LEVELS
Book 3: FEAR ON THE LEVELS
Book 4: KILLER ON THE LEVELS
Book 5: SECRETS ON THE LEVELS
Book 6: DEATH ON THE LEVELS
Book 7: POISON ON THE LEVELS
Book 8: WITCH FIRE ON THE LEVELS

MY REVIEW

Glastonbury and (Boscastle) are my spiritual home, my heart soars when I’m there, and for Glastonbury it’s full of like minded people, so the book drew me in being set there. Witches and murder it’s like this was written for me!!

A new author again for me, so I have no previous knowledge of the characters or the series, nore the writing style of the author.

From the first off you can tell there is personal experience within the police career, it shines through the writing.

A perfect quick read that I loved, could easily look and read more of them. While I’m still in spooky season mode I thoroughly enjoyed it.