25.05.2026

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  Monday 25th 57F/14C [7.30] Bright sunshine all day. Max 22F. S-SW winds.

 Up at 6.20 after a fairly quiet night. Woke to coughing and discomfort. Tried adding cushions under my pillow. Hopeless! Had breakfast and my nose started streaming. So now I'm a mixer tap with noisy plumbing! No sign of bleeding from the offending nostril. So treatment was probably worth the agony it caused me. 

 14.20 72F/22C. Explosive coughs and sneezes have continued. Often resulting in dizziness. This is a known symptom. Where low blood pressure is exacerbated by changing pressure in the lungs. I feel awful!

 

 

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24.05.2026 It's snot the coughing...

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  Sunday 24th 52F/11C [6.00] Bright with sunshine forecast. Peaking at 20C at 16.00.

 Up at 5.45am after a dreadful night. I propped myself upright in bed from 4-5am. To stop the incessant coughing of burning wetness in my chest. It wasn't comfortable with only a single pillow for padding.

 I lay down again but it started all over again. So I soon got up. I have been panting breathlessly all night. I haven't dared to remove the nose plug yet. What if it starts gushing at the weekend?

 There is a major outbreak of what google Lens is calling a stinging nettle. At first I thought it was a kind of mint but now believe it may be a dead nettle.  None have flowered yet.

 13.30 Sunny and breezy. No lunch. The nose slug self ejected during an involuntary sneeze. I continue to cough repeatedly. Which hurts and makes me feel dizzy. 

 17.00 I had a marmalade roll and cup of tea.

 19.00 I couldn't face dinner. I went back to bed. Slumped and propped up against the pillow. A spoonful of honey seemed to ease the coughing. 

 

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23.05.2026 Parole.

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  Saturday 23rd 60F/15.6C  [7.40] Bright. Mostly sunny. Peaking at 23C/74F this afternoon. Winds modest. Gusting to 8-9m/s. 69F 21C in the room thanks to the heat pump yesterday evening. Greenhouse at 60F/16C.

 Up at 7.00 after a busy night at the fire bucket. Back home at the keyboard. After three days of typing complete nonsense on my phone. No ill effects from my enforced absence. Nothing leaking that shouldn't. My nose was pretending to drip last night but thankfully remains sealed. Thanks to the insertion of a plug. Which I am loathe to remove until it falls out of its own accord. Home treatment for a blood bath doesn't fall under my visitor's work permit. Nor her job description. 

 Talking of whom,: My voluntary baby sitter has been very busy. Weeding my late wife's flower bed. Vacuuming upstairs and down. Whether it needed  it or not. Following installation of  a heat pump and two, new doors in quick succession. All three requiring masonry work. With the attendant dust and rubble. She has cleaned the kitchen and bathroom to levels I once thought impossible. The windows no longer sport the cobwebs. Which have long provided much of the period detail and authenticity of Chez Hovel.

 The little roof for the outside heat pump unit arrived quickly in the post. The top of the outdoor case was already becoming unsightly thanks to leaf and flower drop. I am currently excused lifting and other excessive use of force. So fitting is a job to pencil in for next week.  

 12.30 75-80F/24-25C. Sunny and humid. I fitted a sports wrist support to drive into the village. A backlog of emergency shopping to do. Plus three new kinds of tablets. I was excused all load bearing capacity. As my babysitter attentively shepherded me around the supermarket aisles. I am most definitely not firing on all cylinders today. Being rather breathless and fuzzy.  

 13.00 I felt weird. Pressure behind my eyes and my sight went clouded and bright. After a ten minute lie down I sat up for five minutes: My blood pressure was a ridiculously low 86/60! Instead of 120/80. Or often much higher. A cup of tea has restored me to a man barely alive. 

 14.00 I can manage lunch now. 

 During the afternoon I have developed a man cold, influenza or Covid. According to taste.  

 Dinner was chicken, broccoli and chips. Prepared by my babysitter. Once a professional cook. It was delicious. Hopefully not my Last Supper.

 

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