Scoliosis, surgeons and medicine

The human body is an amazing thing and the things that medicine has achieved to enhance human life is remarkable. For me personally just starting with bones, look at how up until the breakthrough of the Harrington rod, anyone who suffered from scoliosis (like I did) depending on their curvature severity might have ended up with a spine that curved like this one....

Looking round the Royal College of Surgeons museum was fascinating and inspiring.

Thank goodness for advancement in medicine.





 

Happy Birthday Dee

Sending you lots of pretty flowers and blue skies

along with our love

Now vastly inappropriate, but also extremely funny, I saw this over at Leigh vs Laundry (who I just love) and I know this will appeal to my sister too and make her laugh, so enjoy....

Street Life...

Street photography is definitely an art, and one really hard to do for so many reasons, but the sun was shining and Dexter, Anders and I took Marvin and Carly for a walk through the city centre as Anders was keen to do this so.... 

 let the catwalk begin....

Sashay....

Makes me think of Roxy Music!

and turn

Indie wouldn't talk so they brought in ....
Ze Specialist!

Elves walk among us

Time traveller from the 80's

Village Idiot gets into my shot!

Bedtime rituals....

Dexter and I have a bedtime ritual which we do every night and he takes it very seriously! It all started out of saying (yep, like the Walton family if you are old enough to remember, or with the re-runs (echem, echem) in my case!!!) "Goodnight Dexter love you with all my heart" and him saying it back to me or vice versa!

This bedtime ritual has now become a game!  The "I love you" ritual moved on a pace, to me saying "I love you to infinity and beyond times infinity and beyond" to which Dexter would shout "rip" or "new chapter" or "rub" (we say that but in the US you will say erase!), or "new series", before getting to the end because it meant he could start saying it to me and beating me to the end so as to prove that he loved me the most!  His bedtime ritual is spent with us competing who is going to get to the end of the "I love you" statement first and therefore be the one who loves the other the most!

As you can imagine, it can also involve thinking of distractions too, like me giving him pumpy kisses on his tummy, or tickling him, or giving kisses on his neck which he finds really funny too and we have such a giggle doing this. All of the excitement and energy which goes on is like a last minute blast of energy which results in him being really happy and enjoying one big cuddle before the sandman comes along.  He goes to sleep knowing he is one very loved little boy by both me and his Daddy and that is something that I want him always to know.

Dexter however is one sharp young boy, clearly he had been thinking about this and the other day, he found a way to top this. He said he loved me from before he was born and when he was still in heaven waiting to be born and before I even met Daddy or the dinosaurs roamed the earth!  That would take some topping!

Rituals was this weeks prompt.

Winter turns to spring and everything suddenly changes!

On grey and rainy day you use an umbrella!

and maybe have a coffee in a coffee shop and watch life as it walks by in front of you!

Greener on the other side of life

Lads

It was cold outside but the sky was reflected in the counter!

Runaway

Everyday life as it walks on by, each frame with a different tale attached

Panda

The thing with the Rolleiflex (I found from the first spool I took below) is you need to keep it steady, but when you are first getting used to it that can be tricky!  That said, this was of a ships porthole and I thought getting a shot where it looked like double vision was a bit like a drunken sailor!

Drunken Sailor

Then there is still life

 or still life with people!

Carly and Dexter the cat, are they life or furry?

Then spring came back in full force!

the sky change from grey to bright blue

Prompts were sky, life, blurred, everyday and furry

Transition

Change is all around just now, yet things are also still the same.

The sky was a beautiful shade of grey with bursts of light reflecting through the cloud matter calling as though to warn of rain but reassure that after there will be sunshine. It is the sort of day where you usually find beautiful rainbows, bursting with vibrant colour.

The bare and twisted branches of the trees I think are really pretty which you don't notice when they are covered in leaves.

They have been around for years, not maybe as long as the houses that line the riverbank which were built in the 1800 and is where Anders and I first lived together in a lovely flat which he and my step father lovingly restored together for Anders and I to move into just before we got married.  

We have long since moved out of that first flat, but they still stand strong, and despite the change, they remain the same, like the trees, and the river that flow past they are a constant and a reminder that life goes on.

There are now snowdrops along the riverbank. They are the first sign of spring, but also according to some people symbolise death. In a way I can see that, the end of winter. 

Snowdrops also symbolise purity and hope in the language of flowers, although are thought to be unlucky to bring indoors, tempting though they might appear.

My step-father seems to be getting a lot worse, and it is not unexpected as he is in his 80's, has many things wrong with him in addition to having dementia. He is dazed and confused and this saddens me and I know he needs to be in a home with people who will look after him and give him the care he needs 24/7, but his real kids don't want to accept that. Change however is coming, and yet some things will also stay the same.