Our family dog died while we were on holiday last week. He had been ill for a couple of weeks before we went, and he had only been discharged from pet hospital five days prior to us leaving. I had to take him for a check-up on the morning before we set off to the Solway Coast, our location for a peaceful week away.
I think he wanted to go on his own terms. When he first got admitted to the pet hospital, the vet advised us to euthanise our boy because he was seriously ill and didnāt seem able to fight the infection or inflammation that he had contracted. He decided otherwise, however, and made a seemingly miraculous recovery.
#MummyMonday In Memoriam for a beloved family dog
Not the Holiday we Expected
We took him on holiday as planned, but it was a long week with sleepless nights as we nursed him, and stressful days as we tried to coax him to eat through a syringe. He was very weak, and he was ready to leave this world, but he did get one last visit to the beach, one last paddle in the sea, and one last family day trip on a steam train, which is something he loved to do.
This week my family and I are in mourning. We have been looking at photos and videos, remembering all our special times with Baxter. He was a brilliant dog. He came to us from a local rescue centre in Stoke-on-Trent and had been found in North Wales. Nobody wanted to consider him because he looked scruffy, but on that fateful day, my mum told me to come and look at a dog that stole her heart. Although she already had a dog at home that didnāt like company, she told me if I didnāt take this big bundle of fur home with me, then she would. He was so gentle, quiet and cuddly that I couldnāt refuse.
Baxter changed our lives for the better
Baxter came home, and our lives were forever changed for the better. Now the house is too quiet, the garden feels empty, and I miss my boy following me everywhere as I do my chores. He used to sit pressed against my legs while I worked on my laptop, or he would watch me from the sofa. He would sit in his basket in the kitchen while I washed dishes and sorted laundry, and he was always there to catch bits of food that dropped when I prepared meals. Our doggy dustbin is no more.
We will always remember him, and when the time is right, we will open our hearts to another homeless dog who needs a family. Baxter will guide us. Farewell my gorgeous boy. Go and play with your animal friends over the rainbow bridge. We will always love you.
LGBT werewolf fantasy story “It’s Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels)” by Catherine Green
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This week my family and I are holidaying on the beautiful Solway Coast in Cumbria. We always bring our dog on family holidays, and we like to explore new places, new areas in the UK that we havenāt yet discovered.
#MummyMonday Vitamin Sea Family Holidays in the UK
Vitamin Sea: Refreshing Family Holidays in the UK
Last year it was Northumberland, the year before it was Norfolk. This time we chose somewhere a little closer to home, straight up the M6 motorway, not quite as far as Scotland. We can see the Scottish coastline across the bay, which is gorgeous, and the small town we are staying in is perfect for a quiet getaway.
Our dog is recovering from life-threatening illness just over a week ago and has only been home from hospital for a week, so it was lucky we had chosen a nice, quiet place for our holiday. My father-in-law has a brain injury and is disabled, so we are always mindful that he needs somewhere less crowded when we go away.
And I just needed a break! All I want is some time to relax on the beach, read my book, and allow our children to play in the sand and paddle in the sea. Delightful!
Excerpt from Eye of the Tiger (A Redcliffe Novel) by Catherine Green
Download your FREE copy of LGBT fantasy short story Itās Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels) and meet the werewolves of Cornwall, England.Ā Ā Click here.Ā
I joined the social network for A Chronic Voice earlier this year because I needed to find people who understand what life is like with chronic pain. Today I have written a post using the August link-up prompts, to show my experience of living with a chronic pain disorder.
Click here to find other blog posts from fellow chronic pain sufferers, or #spoonies as we call ourselves online.
5 Ways to Understand my Chronic Pain Condition
5 Ways to Understand my Chronic Pain Condition
I have a congenital eye disorder, with a couple of related disorders, and my days always begin with an assessment of how my eyes feel when I wake up. Are they dry this morning? Has my overnight eye ointment soaked in completely, or is there a greasy residue around my eyes? Do I have stabbing pains from eyelashes that are turning in and scratching my corneas? Do I need to use my tweezers and remove ingrowing eyelashes? Do I need more eyedrops, an eye bath, or simply to clean my glasses a bit more? Thatās a lot of questions early in the morning, and yet that is my routine, albeit something I have never consciously considered. Here are 5 ways to understand my chronic pain condition:
1, Capturing ā I wanted to share photos of myself with symptoms of Lymphodoema Distichiasis (ingrowing eyelashes). I have endured many surgical procedures throughout my life, most of them before I was 16 years old. Back then my parents didnāt take photos of me wearing eye patches and bandages, because of course all they wanted was for their little girl to feel better and for the pain to stop. I tried to take a few selfies about ten years ago, but since the development of smart phone technology, my surgeries have dropped off because the doctors cannot do any more for me. For now, here is a photo from my most invasive eye surgery, eyelid rotation, that I had in 2008:
Patient recovering from eyelid rotation surgery
2, Financing ā I dread to think how much I have cost the NHS over recent years. Throughout my childhood I received expensive medical treatment through a private healthcare company funded through my dadās job. He worked for JCB, a famous agricultural vehicle manufacturer, and they offered family healthcare that came in very useful for both me and my brother, who has the same congenital eye condition. But when I reached the age of 16, the healthcare company decided that since my condition was now labelled āchronic,ā they could no longer fund my treatment, and so they sent me back to the NHS. At this stage in my treatment, there is no money to fund research for such a rare health condition, and since it is not life threatening and I am not likely to go blind from it, I am pushed to the background of priorities. I have learned to manage the pain by myself through a combination of lubricating ointments, gels and eyedrops, meditation and diet management.
3, Controlling ā Now there is a loaded word! I cannot control my eye condition. I can try to manage it. I know that if I go to bed without using overnight eye ointment, I will wake up in pain the next morning. I know that if I donāt get enough sleep, I will suffer the next day because my eyes will be dry, sore and gritty. I have no control over the growth of eyelashes on the inside of my eyelids, and as much as the NHS and the private medical teams tried to stop them from growing again, nothing worked. They are hair follicles, when all is said and done, and I suppose only the most drastic of treatments would stop them from growing.
4, Exchanging ā Do I wish I could exchange this painful and chronic eye condition? Yes! I wish I knew what it was like to have healthy eyes that could see clearly and not be hurt by bright light, white clouds, or flashes of colour. I wish I could have healthy eyes that allowed me to write for longer, where I didnāt have to take a break regularly to pour in the eyedrops. But then I would not like to exchange my eye condition for some of the other chronic pain conditions that I witness in my family and friends. I have exchanged my attitude towards my eye condition. I have it, it is a part of me, and I must learn to live with it as cheerfully as possible.
5, Motivating ā I wonder sometimes if I bordered on mild depression as a teenager partly due to my chronic eye condition. For all my regular hospital visits and my 12+ surgeries throughout childhood, the doctors and my parents never made a fuss about me. They acted like everything was normal and that I should just carry on as if nothing had happened. They wouldnāt have understood the level of pain I felt, and I couldnāt articulate it. Back then, in the 1990s, people didnāt talk about mental health, and so I could not understand all of these extreme and upsetting emotions I felt. I couldnāt wear lots of make-up like my teenage friends, because it hurt my eyes. I had to wear thick, horrible glasses to correct my vision. But that changed as I grew older, and technology improved. I learned to be thankful for my glasses that enabled me to see almost the same as someone with 100% vision. I learned to live with my chronic pain condition.
Chronic Voice blog link-up for August
Ā Download your FREE copy of LGBT fantasy short story Itās Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels) and meet the werewolves of Cornwall, England.Ā Ā Click here.Ā
We are going on holiday! The school summer holidays are flying by at a frightening speed, and last week we had a huge drama when our dog almost died.
It was the worst weekend I have had in a very long time. He got admitted to the pet hospital on the Thursday, and by Friday lunchtime the vet advised me to let him go, we had to euthanize him. He is not quite thirteen years old (we think), and he is a crossbreed, a former stray, and a very healthy dog.
#MummyMonday Vitamin Sea Family Holidays in the UK
We are Going on a Family Holiday!
We werenāt ready to let him go, but he was in a bad way. My husband and I broke the news to our children, returned to the hospital later that day preparing to say goodbye to our boy, only to see him walk into the room wagging his tail, albeit a little shakily. Heās a fighter! Now he is back home, and it will take time to rebuild his strength and clear out his body of the inflammation or infection that caused so much trouble, but he is coming on holiday with us. Itās a miracle!
See you later, alligatorā¦ we are off to the beach!
#MummyMonday Baxter and Mummy.
Did you enjoy this article? Download your FREE copy of LGBT fantasy short story Itās Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels) and meet the werewolves of Cornwall, England.Ā Ā Click here.Ā
Meditation is a wonderful tool for self-care. Years ago, before I learned about this powerful healing practice, I thought meditation was something that wouldnāt work for me. I didnāt know how to meditate. I couldnāt sit still for more than five minutes without my mind wandering, and I certainly did not receive any fantastic revelations or journeying to other dimensions that I had heard about from professional practitioners. I was reluctant to try it.
But when I did finally sit down and do a guided meditation, it felt wonderful. I was relaxed, peaceful, rested. I didnāt need to have any exciting experiences. I just needed to switch off from the stress of daily life for twenty minutes and allow my mind to rest.
How Does Meditation Work for Me
How Does Meditation Work for Me?
Over the years I have adapted my meditation practice so that I can do quick exercises for deep breathing when I need to calm down, or so that I can keep myself in check when the children are running riot. I donāt need to sit for forty-five minutes every day to meditate, because now is not my time for that. Perhaps when I am older and have less demands for care and attention from my family, I might be able to, but now I do meditation my way, and it works for me.
Do you practice meditation? How did you learn to meditate? It is something that I assumed would be easy to do, but it takes a lot of practice and dedication. It also takes perseverance. I asked my husband to meditate with me once, a long time ago, but because he couldnāt settle into the process, he decided that it wasnāt for him and he hasnāt tried it since. And that is absolutely fine. Our bodies will tell us when we need to slow down, when we need to listen, when we need to try something new. Even if we just play some relaxing music and simply sit still, we are meditating. We can allow all of those thoughts and emotions and feelings to run wild, we can allow them to pass through our minds, and we can let go of being busy, just for a short time. It will help. It is a work in progress.
LGBT werewolf fantasy story “It’s Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels)” by Catherine Green
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We are about halfway through the school summer holiday, and today has begun in a rather stressful manner. Our dog was sick yesterday and continued doing it through the night, so I was scrubbing floors both when I went to bed and when I woke up.
My children have been arguing and upsetting each other, so my six-year-old spent a good half hour crying for no apparent reason, while my eight-year-old stomped around the house being grumpy. And all because we added a new device to Wi-Fi, and everything else crashed! I need to relax, because I can feel a bubble of stress building in my chest, and soon I will start shouting and stomping.
How to Relax in a WiFi Connected World
How to Relax in a WiFi Connected World
I cannot just step away and start a meditation for twenty minutes, which is the recommended response to stress. If I leave the room, my children will follow, and they keep talking to me when I try to concentrate. I can take deep breaths, I can drink my coffee (not recommended by holistic practitioners, but a necessity for me at this point), and probably my best solution would be to step away from the devices and take my children for a walk. But then the problem will still be there when we return. This is the conundrum of a connected society. I love the freedom of using Wi-Fi to work from home and to chat to friends that live far away. But when it stops working, I get stressed, and so do my children. We have grown to rely on this technology, and to expect it as a service just like our running water and central heating at home.
Part of me says that this is an unhealthy attitude, and that I shouldnāt allow something so petty to upset me. But I have built my career online, and I need it to work. I need my children to have a couple of hours on their devices so that I can work in peace, and I balanced that by inviting their friends to our house for a playdate yesterday, spending time in the garden and away from devices. But even thinking about how to balance screen time with old-fashioned play time causes stress. We canāt win! How do you balance your life and wellbeing in a Wi-Fi connected world?
LGBT fantasy novel set in Manchester, England. “Return of the Vampire Hunter” by Catherine Green.
Did you enjoy this article? Download your FREE copy of LGBT fantasy short story Itās Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels) and meet the werewolves of Cornwall, England.Ā Ā Click here.Ā
What do you know about pagan festivals? Perhaps you think they involve dancing naked around a bonfire at midnight? That’s not exactly accurate, but if it works for you then go for it!
Read my article to see why you should celebrate pagan festivals and what makes them so fun.
5 Reasons to Celebrate Pagan Festivals
5 Reasons to Celebrate Pagan Festivals
1, Pagan festivals break up the year into smaller sections, so we always have a fun celebration to prepare for. This month it is Lammas, or Lughnasadh, the first harvest festival.
2, Pagan festivals usually involve lots of dancing and merriment, and who doesnāt love the opportunity to meet up with friends, have a good catch up, and dance the night away? If dancing isnāt your thing, you can sit on the sidelines and observe the party, or chat to other people. You need never be alone
3, I mentioned the party element of pagan celebrations, but did I mention the food? Each festival revolves around having a drink (traditionally mead, but whatever you prefer is fine), and eating lots of home cooked food. āCakes and aleā is a traditional reference to pagan festivals, because we usually bake cakes and bread, and either brew our own ale, or drink wine and other alcoholic beverages. Yummy!
4, The harvest festival has a bigger meaning in the sense of community and society. We celebrate first harvest and give thanks to Mother Earth, and her gods and goddesses, for once again creating delicious food that will keep us healthy and strong. We share our bounty with those less fortunate, and the harvest festival has become a big annual event here in the UK, with Christian churches collecting food produce to hand out to the poor and those who need help.
5, Finally, and this is a much more personal reason, we celebrate our very own birthday girl, our little Lammas baby, Georgina! She turns 6 this week, and I have been busy organizing gifts, tidying our home for visitors, inviting guests for her birthday party, and helping her count down to the big dayā¦ Happy Birthday, my gorgeous girl! Mummy, Daddy, Elliot, Baxter and Lizzie love you very much.
5 Reasons Pagan Festivals
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We are the World BlogFest (#WATWB) focuses on positive stories no matter where theyāre found. It is all about spreading peace and humanity on social media. All participants post on the last Friday of the month, sharing a positive news story that contributes to making our world a happier, safer, and better place to live.
I was a little late discovering this blog hop, so Iām posting my story today, on the last Monday of the month. Itās in my diary now, I promise! You can find more about #WATWB over on the Damyanti Writes blog.
#MummyMonday One Small Family Doing Our Bit for #Recycling #WATWB
One Small Family Doing Our Bit
As I said in the title, we are just one small family, from a small town, doing our bit for the environment. My husband is a Chartered Waste Manager and his profession is all about environmental waste management. He quite literally lives and breathes it (he specialises in compost production). For our part, my children and I leave him to do his work, and we tolerate the awful smells that permeate his clothes, his car, and his skinā¦ but I digress.
My focus has been on making small changes in the home to improve our impact on the wider world. I am trying to cut down on our consumption of disposable plastics. My children and I drink from reusable bottles rather than buying them when we go out and about. I use a travel mug for my coffee on long journeys, and I take a flask when we are on daytrips and outings. I recently bought a set of aluminium drinking straws for the children, which are very pretty. No more disposable plastic straws for us!
And my latest triumph is making the switch from disposable plastic toothbrushes to bamboo ones. I bought a family pack of bamboo toothbrushes that have nylon bristles and are fully biodegradable. They also came with a box of bamboo cotton buds which I hadnāt seen before, but which will be very useful. My next challenge is switching to a more eco-friendly shaving regime and continuing to avoid buying products with unnecessary plastic packaging from our local supermarkets.
How are you making the small changes at home? Remember, we can do our part to make the world a better place. It all helps.
#FreeforallFriday The Eco Edit at English Heritage Shop
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Do you love vampires? Are you fascinated by the mythology of these creatures, who present as human but can cause so much death and destruction?
Read my excerpt from a new LGBT fantasy book in my Redcliffe novels series set in Cornwall, England.
LGBT fantasy book series set in Cornwall. “Heart of the Vampire (The Redcliffe Novels)” #5 by Catherine Green.
How to Love a Vampire
I studied vampires in popular culture for my bachelorās degree at university many years ago, and that brought me to the point of writing my first vampire novel, Love Hurts (A Redcliffe Novel).
I am now writing the sixth and final book in the series, and my vampires have battled with hunters, werewolves, witches and their own kind. To love a vampire is to enter a world of danger. Part of their allure is the promise of magic and power, but truthfully vampires exist only to feed. They can feed on more than human blood, but feed they must, and when they donāt, the consequences can be very dangerous.
Excerpt from “Heart of the Vampire (A Redcliffe Novel)”
Here is an excerpt from book 5 in the Redcliffe novels series, Heart of the Vampire:
āYou have to feed, Jack,ā I insisted, āAnd you cannot use me. We tried that before and you almost killed me, remember?ā
āYou found a way to survive,ā my vampire replied gruffly.
I laughed, but it was not amusement that brought such a reaction.
āI survived,ā I said, emphasizing the word, ābecause of your brother. Danny saved me. He sacrificed his wolves so that I could claw back some human strength. Maybe thatās what caused thisā¦ā I gestured to the empty space on the bed behind me, āthing with Suri.ā
āPerhaps,ā Jack replied quietly, āBut the point is, you survived.ā
LGBT werewolf fantasy story “It’s Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels)” by Catherine Green
Download your FREE copy of LGBT fantasy short story Itās Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels) and meet the werewolves of Cornwall, England.Ā Ā Click here.Ā
Are you happily married? Have you experienced a happy marriage that broke down, or are you currently working on your marriage?
Join the discussion about how to make your marriage work as I share my experiences at SpookyMrsGreen.com.
How to Make Your Marriage Work
How to Make Your Marriage Work
I am somewhere between happily married and working on the marriage right now. It happens. My husband and I are two very independent people trying to fulfil our needs, and sometimes we disagree. He also has mental health challenges, namely anxiety and depression, and when the demons arise, boy do they cause trouble. I am a child of divorce, and so I was absolutely determined that when I got married it would be forever. I talked at length with my husband about this and he agreed, because while his parents are not divorced, they have come very close in the past. Both my husband and I agree that we must always fight for our marriage, no matter what happens. We accept that sometimes we both make mistakes, say the wrong thing, behave unkindly to each other.
We are only Human
We are only human. We are not perfect. I can be flighty and overly optimistic, whereas my husband is sometimes so realistic about our situation that it makes me feel depressed. Right now we are at odds because he is succumbing to his demons. I donāt know what goes on inside his brain, but I feel it is a very dark place, and I wouldnāt like to get inside it. But then it might help me clear a few things up. He refuses to communicate when he is in these moods. He shuts himself away at work and avoids dealing with our problems.
Try not to affect the children
I donāt want it to affect our children, but I am mindful that I say a lot of mean things about their dad, random throwaway comments, and I need to stop doing that. He is a brilliant father, and I want both him and our children to flourish together. But I also need him to recognise the part he has to play in our marriage. I feel neglected and put upon, the classic downtrodden housewife. And I am not that person. I am a strong-willed, intelligent woman who just needs a little help around the house, a few holidays here and there, and a break from the drudgery of housework and childcare. Is that so much to ask?
LGBT werewolf fantasy story “It’s Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels)” by Catherine Green
Download your FREE copy of LGBT fantasy short story Itās Complicated (The Redcliffe Novels) and meet the werewolves of Cornwall, England. Click here.
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