APRIL JOY: HENNY PENNIES IN THE GARDEN

Introducing henny Fairleys Annie, Lizzie and Moira!! gosh back on my blog after quite a gap as messed up access-  thank you Emily, Joyce and Chris for getting me back in again! I am feeling radiant on steroids and full of energy despite the fact that i am now in final weeks of life after a stay in Western General Hospital almost a month ago. There thanks to radiologists Dr Glancey and Dr Melios  i had a miraculous tiny almost do-it-yourself  drain fitted to my stomach for 36 hours which drained  off 8 and a half litres of protein liquid my cancers have been weeping into my stomach! might put a picture up folks –  gory!!

only downside was that my blood pressure dropped low – it’s low anyway-  so for next 10 days i lay around in bed at home not sure which way up or whether  i was feeling either i was about to faint or be sick – BP  it was 70 80 90 over /// In end i went to the wonderful Marie Curie Hospice for 8 day stay where they stabilised me and now i have a smll permanent drip in my arm  which the district nurses now come here home every day to change via a syringe pump and this keeps me able to function. I have a massive appetite  being on steroids gives me energy and means i hardly need to sleep – i think it is like being on amphetamines!

Family have been here – grandosns Kabe and Theo and their parents –  all the time – and friends from afar and close to home – and lots of great Easter celebrations.  My treat to myself was hens for the garden which i have always wanted. It was fast – i bought a hen coop on line and it arraived two days later. Paul a super efficient young guy who does gardens built it for me; then  went and got hens. They  were given me by lovely generous hen keeper Jane out of Roseeell whose name i found on the internet and who when she heard from me i needed hens quickly  for these final weeks offered me two of hers. Thing was there was some disapproval at tiees in casae it was trying to do too much and Paul’s Dads ‘ a poultry men’ tunred out to be  barn battery Marshalls chunky chicken experience and he told Jane free hens got eaten by foxes… bad karma…

I decided to wait until i had a proepr run and had won people round and that night Jane;s had gone to a wedding leaving her father in law to put hens into coop and he forgot and a fox got them after all- yes thta bad karme … it was April  Fool’s Day next day but this was no joke and Jane was sure if i had taken them Moira and Lizzie would have been still alive.

Still i got a coop and named two of the hens after Moira and Lizzie. The 3rd called  Annie, named by Fran, a neat brown hen,  laid immediately and i get an egg a day. Moira and Lizzie will lay shortly. They love the garden and their house and i let them out to scratch around at least once a day.

The blessings keep coming as yesterday the man from the local Mexican shop Caoba in Stockbridge sold me his own chiminea as he is not expecting any delivery for a month so going to have garden central heating while sit in my blue garden Yemaya house watching the hens!

Meanwhile i am puting all my reveiw tickets into art books – i have collected a pile over time- by no means all – since 1998 ish and am calling the books ‘Just some of the culture i have enojoyed’ or ‘An Edinburgh Woman’s Cultural Life’ or ‘the gigging girl’ – such fun!

Two old friend’s  Simon Frith and another mate Ian Christie are editing a book of my  work bringing together chapters i have written for various publications and journalism for fRoots and Songlines and The Scotsman  which is thrilling  if not a bit egocentric !

I am making codicils to my will concerning my extensive Chile, Cuban, world music and radio archive  and donating them to various people and institutions. The responae on the IASPM list when i asked for advice through up really excellent debate and suggestions.

I am listening every day to a  crazykitsch  Italian record i bought in the market in Carrara in 2010 – Collezione Italiana de Renato Carosone- songs form the 40s and 50s and 60s – gorgeously cheerful and upbeat

hasta pronto anyone who read this thanks for your support always!!