The good news and the bad news

Firstly the good news as we always prefer good news to bad news don't we? The recent rain has really had an impact on the purple African Daisy that I grew from a cutting I brought back from Mt.Isa. My friend Barb wanted a cutting and I have been trying to get one to take so I have planted another one today and hopefully this one will grow. The plant is looking a lot more healthy for some reason. Perhaps it doesn't like the town water. I did find out its name as my daughter remembered it  and told me and it had a Biblical ring to it ...like Jerusalem or Mt.Zion or something like that but I have forgotten once again but whatever its name it is very pretty. So Barb, hang in there :-)

Well it isn't quite this colour as I did a bit of editing ....just because. 

 THIS is what it actually looks like. I would love to put it in the ground but the chooks would dig it up in five minutes. I think they will have to go as they are too destructive and the chook pen isn't happening at the moment. I have lost a lot of my calendulas that I use for infusing for soapmaking and I am not happy about that.

Another thing I am not happy about is the fact that I have to go back to the skin clinic tomorrow and have more sliced out of my nose :-( The receptionist there rang me very late on Monday afternoon and said that the doctor wanted to see me again to discuss further treatment as the results showed I had an unusual skin cancer. Just as she said that the phone went dead and I mean really dead. There was no ring tone .....nothing! So I tried to ring back on my Optus mobile in case it was a Telstra problem but still couldn't get through. Apparently they are with iiNet and the whole Queensland network was out until 7pm. I gave up trying to get through and spent the rest of the night searching online for publications on 'Getting your affairs in order' which really opens up a can of worms as you can imagine so I then looked up a few funeral places as I knew when our mum died that we had a government publication from somewhere about what to do about organising finances etc. prior to death and so on. Not that I was being negative or anything. LOL! I still didn't find the publication though.

A search online for unusual types of skin cancer brought up Basal Cell Carcinomas, Squamous Cell Carcinomas and Melanoma. Well I was hoping it wasn't Melanoma but the invasive Squamous Cell Carcinoma didn't sound too good either as I had watched a few RPA episodes and one of patients had that. I also hoped that it wasn't the BCC on my nose that was the problem rather the one on my back.

Long story short it was my nose and the doctor wants to go deeper tomorrow to make sure she gets it all and if she doesn't then it will require plastic surgery which will be interesting considering as we have no medical cover and are on a pension. It is a bit of a BCC and Squamous Cell Carninoma hence the 'unusual' title. Anyway, I would appreciate it if those of you who pray could keep me in mind as I am feeling like a bit of a wuss at the thought of having another lot of needles put into my already sore wound as the local anaesthetic needles were the worst part of the procedure. However, I have some friends who have undergone surgery and chemo who have gone through much worse so I will be keeping them in mind when the needles go in.

 To distract myself and also to use up the tamarillos that were falling to the ground from the tree that grew up in the compost heap I made a version of Indian Spiced Tamarillo Chutney that I made a while back. This time though I replaced the 1 cup sugar with 1 1/2 cups dextrose to see how it would turn out and it is actually quite nice.  I can see some bubbles in the photo which I didn't notice before but I am a bit rusty in the preserving department since giving up sugar and forgot that you need to get rid of them. You can find the recipe using sugar here if you have some tamarillos growing at your place or try the dextrose version which won't last all that long of course so will have to be kept in the fridge and eaten within a couple of weeks which won't be a problem around here.

So once again I would appreciate your prayers for tomorrow. I will end up once again looking like something out of the Elephant Man movie as a huge dressing is put on my nose which has to stay on for two days and then I will start getting a black eye again and if I go out I get strange looks as I presume that  people wonder if I have been in a DV dispute so it is easier to stay home and stare at the wall and listen to the ringing in my ears.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.