13/04/2009

Getting Better...

To everyone: a big Thank You for sending nice words and positive vibes in my direction. I hope you all had a very good and sunny Easter weekend. At least it was perfect in Blenheim! Good time to make some walks and pictures - as you can see the autumn colors have started to appear.


So, a short update: I am still not very mobile but am better at managing my pain, so hopefully I will be able to fully recover in a few weeks. So, what do I do during the days that I can mainly spend only in and around the house? I cannot sit for longer than 15 minutes so going somewhere or even driving to work is not possible. Don’t I get bored? I have surprised myself after one week that I just found my way around it. I have read a huge amount of books and watched a lot of movies the last few weeks. I also did some study work, but since I cannot sit for a long period, this was not a lot. Hopefully I can pick that up soon.

The big advantage is that we have a nice long summer around here. Nearly all days have been sunny, so I could read in the garden on my sun bed and go for some walks, which is part of my ‘therapy’ as well as some exercises for my back. The annoying thing, however, is that I cannot be part of the harvest/vintage but still hear the harvesting machines and trucks full of grapes going past the house, day and night. Below a picture of some grapes that are still netted to protect from bird damage. These grapes will be harvested soon.


My short term goal is to be able to drive the car to work, which is a 30 minutes drive and be able to look around and do some basic stuff in the laboratory. Another goal is to try to start writing some assignments for school, so that at least I will pass the theoretical part of this semester.


Yesterday I was surprised by a visit from two friends from Wellington to Blenheim. We had lunch together and it was great to catch up. This was a good test for me to sit for a longer period. Although I couldn’t do a lot anymore the rest of the day it was really nice to go somewhere again with friends.

So, I hope you all are well and will write again when something happens around here.

Cheers,
Anita

2 comments:

Hanneke said...

Hi Anita,

Seems you are coping well, reading books on the sun bed ;o) Now can you explain to me why we see the rose bushes in the vineyard, is it just for the pretty roses, or do they attract bugs that would otherwise end up on the vines?

Anita Overgaauw said...

Good question Hanneke! They have been planted to see the damage of the bugs before it could be seen on the vines and so to know when to start spraying against it. However, it didn't really seem to be working and these days the roses are planted mainly because it looks pretty!
They can however cause some troubles when managing the vineyard since nets can get stuck etc.

Anita