I started as a stylist (so you style whatever is in frame from clothes, furniture, props, food etc) then also trained to be a make up artist. Met a few film stars ! Loads of musicians i ended up doing a lot of work with musicians, actors and authors! weird range of people.

Ah so the background was advertising? Making of ads?

Ooh I bet you could tell a few tales!

Some ads (stills and tv), editorial and features for magazines, promotional stuff like album/book covers, posters and what do you call them you get them at gigs like a magazine full of stuff about the band loads of photos etc.... (forgotten the word!!!)
a whole range of stuff really from articles in magazines to massive hoardings to marketing stuff like actors/authors photographs depending on who i was working with. Photographers tended to specialise in certain areas. So one photographer always did book jackets, someone else did musicians and promo stuff for musicians, someone else did magazines etc etc

I can't think of the word either but I know what you mean

WHat a fascinating career. You must miss it......do you think you will be able to get back to it?

i had a career change in 2000 went back to college and studied Broadcast Journalism worked in radio and print media, and that's what i was doing when i got ill. That career is well ****ed now

I am sorry to hear it. However, you are loads better than you were, and hopefully will be a great deal better in the months to come....who knows?

There's loads of clichés to cover it!! It is what it is will do!!!!
Who knows even the surgeon and other doctors can't say whether this is as good as it gets. I just take it one day at a time

Very wise. Live life in the moment, don't look back, or worry about the future. Be glad about all you CAN do and have. I am sure inner happiness and peace of mind are two of the strongest factors in recovery.

Exactly Twass that's been my motto all the way through.
Trying to find the beauty in life in the most horrendous situations is what has kept me alive thus far!
I'm glad i am able to get out into my wee garden! i just love it. This time last year i couldn't get out of bed and was having daily nurses and all sorts of horrendous things.

That last sentence of yours is sooo true and i knew it before this last long hospital sojourn. I had tested it when hooked up to all the monitors and could make my vitals worse by what i thought about! my heart rate could go faster and eratic missing beats etc my blood pressure higher, my oxygen saturation lower all by what i thought. I made a strategy to cope with all eventualities and stuck to it.

Two things kept me going: keep breathing and look for the loveliness no matter how small.

And there is always loveliness in abundance to those whose eyes and heart are open to it Nature is a great healer and I am not surprised your garden is such a great help to you! Above all give thanks daily for everything, laugh, smile, be happy as much as you can. Don't allow the shit things of life to weigh heavy. Put them in a rainbow bubble and blow them away

This be my philosophy of life.

Well said Twass! It's struggle to do sometimes (as i'm sure you know) but worth it. I get pleasure out of tiny things that most people don't even notice.....as you say nature is a wonderful healer of body and mind
i've got the flowers in now, can't wait for the butterflies and bees to arrive

Oh they'll come. And look about the garden closely.....all sorts of small critturs live out of sight of most folks. I've found two weeny holes in the mud in one corner of the garden, it will be voles or fieldmice or something similar, and I saw a little weasel with one of its kittens in its mouth last year, and I had molehills and bats and loads of bunnies! And owls. Sit out there after dark on the warm summer nights

i love to do that Twass! i really like bats you feel them rather than hear them they are so quiet!!! was just on the phone to my friend in Shetland, we have baby lambs and she has baby seals!!!

Delicious recommendation of the day:
At Lidl they have these things in the freezer section which are spanish, hollowed out oranges filled with orange sorbet. Just had one they are absolutely delicious!!!!

YUM! I love the sound of those. When I was young, desserts on offer in restaurants were limited but sometimes you got hollowed out lemons with lemon sorbet inside them. I shall have to check Lidl out!!!

I'm knackered, I must have coughed all night long....most unlike me to be ill. Daughter wants to meet in town and trawl round the shops as well although not sure the crocky spine is up to that yet. I'm falling to pieces I tell you!!!

do try them they really were lovely, i left one for my mum and she loved it too. i remember those lemony ones too! I also remember being about eight and hollowing out oranges and making a mousse out of orange jelly which when it was half set you'd whip in a tin of carnation.....soudns revolting but i seem to remember thinking it was delicious. it was th 70s thoughthe decade that taste forgot....so ho know i wonder ifi t's worth trying again?!!!

have you managed to go shopping? did you survive? once one thing goes it's like a house of cards....

We went to the seaside instead and sat in the Vegan cafe having falafel wraps and very healthy cakes Now toasting ourselves in front of a roaring fire which is far too hot for me cos I am used to the arcticness of the cottage, but herself is used to centrally heated flat.

awh sounds lovely! haven't been tot the seaside for ages!!
what's a healthy cake like?
did the back cope ok?

I think the back has finally sorted itself! Or very nearly. Thank goodness. Now just got to deal with my duff lungs and the bouts of coughing

The healthy cakes were not quite as sweet as a normal cake, made with gluten free flour, and very tasty! I had an apricot muffin full of chopped apricots and mini twass had a banana and nut cake. We cut them in half and did sharesies.

Oh that's good news!!! well apart from the coughing!

sounds tasty!
i was desperate for something sweet last night my mum had brought some random extra thick double cream round and i didn't know what to do with it so i made scones and had a cream tea about 9pm

There is always room for a cream tea We had squelchy chocolate cake today with a lovely coffee in M&S cafe. I rarely shop in there but they sell such good coffee!!!

Just back from the bluebell woods, where the scent of them is now just heavenly, there are tens of thousands of them!

M&S have some lovely treaty things, can recommend their passionfruit swiss roll
oh my god your bluebells are out already? oh how beautiful there's some amazing photos online of the carpets of bluebells it looks magical.

it's cold here today but was sunny about 7am!
my mint has doubled in size already!

My daughter is drinking all my mint! She loves fresh mint tea. However it grows like nobody's business so will all come back.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/730uhcm2yu..._5641.JPG?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hku031i2zw..._5643.JPG?dl=0

That is about an hour old!

I'd had to start from the beginning with my mint and had planted tiny babies....

oh Twass that's beautiful!
magical!
inhabited by fairies!!!!

That's what we said! As we frolicked about in them I added a second pic ^^

These are literally 5 mins from my front door. Plus my garden is full of them too