that's just, like, your opinion, da-ge

Well, found a lump at about 4am this morning and lay awake until 7am when I could get up. Then I phoned 111. They said they could help me get antibiotics if it looked like it was an infection and thus mastitis, but if I was worried about cancer that required a GP referral, so they couldn't do anything except encourage me to talk to the GP on Monday.

With that on my mind DH and I went to help Son plant some trees at his nature reserve. (I say 'his' because he is on the committee that helps run it.) Planted a bunch of hawthorn, dog rose and dogwood plug plants, each with its own supporting stick, and a plastic deer protector around it. The sun was bright and warm, though the wind was cold, and the birds were singing in the hedges. So after that I felt a lot better and decided not to bother worrying about it, because worrying doesn't help.

DH is now serving behind the bar at the church beer festival. I am looking forward to lunch tomorrow, when we are meeting up with Son, Daughter and Son-in-Law for lunch in honour of Mothering Sunday. Lunch out will probably muck up my diet for this week, but whatever. I'll have a salad and a mint tea, and that will have to do.

Not much going on with me, but it's been a while since I've posted and I know that if I don't make an effort I'll go silent again, maybe for another year :) So:

• As promised, an announcement that The Boat of Small Mysteries is out in paperback. Though I only pressed the button yesterday so it may take some time to work it's way through to the shops.

• Louise's belly dance class are now in full preparatory panic mode for the Cambridge hafla on the 11th of April. Next week we do the dress rehearsal for the group veil choreography which we are putting on there. I'm not getting on well with the veil - I get it stuck on my hair, or step on it. Even when I don't do that, I can't make the turns fast enough to keep up with the rest of the class, though it's quite a slow and elegant dance. Eh, this is what I get for trying to dance when I am naturally unathletic. Nevertheless we persist.

• Louise's veil dance is set to Rumeli Hisarı nın Yapılışı Which bears out my point about her always finding the best music.

• I am also doing my Fos solo at the Cambridge hafla, so I have started practicing that again, and have completely revamped the outfit that goes with it. I must practice putting the outfit on also, because it involves body glitter and fake nails, neither of which I have experience with.

• I'm at the end of week 10 of the 12 week low calorie diet I am on, and although I will have lost 3 stone (42lb) by the end of it, I still have a good 3 stone left to go, and I am afraid that if I loosen my grip even slightly it will all come back on and more. Still, this diet has been true to its word so far, so I'll trust it as I move to the next stage (intermittent fasting instead of permanent fasting.)

• My fear that I would lose so much weight before April that I wouldn't be able to wear the dress I bought at Christmas for the hafla in April has not been borne out. The dress is stretchy, and I had a lot to lose!

• Health-wise, I have been feeling less sluggish. The permanent pain in my hands and feet has eased - thank God! I find it easier to stand up and sit down, and much easier to get in and out of the car. I can also fasten my seatbelt without taking off my coat, which is just a factor of cars being too small, rather than my health, but is still an improvement in my day to day life in the winter.

5. How many local birds can you name?

• Robin
• Blue tit
• Great tit
• Crows
• Rooks
• Jackdaws
• Magpies
• Pigeon
• Wood dove
• Collared dove
• Blackbird
• Starling
• Wren
• Red kite (a kind of hawk)
• Buzzard

A tiny little wren lives in our garden and scurries around our fences. He is my favourite. But the family of blackbirds, and the robin who comes down to greet me when I go out are also my favourites. The rest of them are passing through, but the wren, robin and blackbirds live here with me.

On very bad news: my belly dance teacher, Elizabeth, popped over to the Middle East to get some dancing in during the half term holiday, and she is now trapped there thanks to the war. We suggested she find the embassy and let them know she's there but that's all we've heard, so none of us know what's happening beyond that. Some prayers for her safety would not come amiss if anyone reading this has a prayer list :(

On slightly better news, DH and I are having a heat pump put in, to run our central heating, instead of the gas boiler we previously had. And when I say 'we're having a heat pump put in' I mean right now. One engineer is outside drilling something. One is putting sticky back plastic over our carpets to protect them, prior to checking which radiators need to be replaced.

(Apparently we need larger radiators because the water coming from the heat pump will be at a lower temperature than that coming from a boiler, so we'll need a larger surface area of radiator to provide equivalent heating.)

We were keen to get a heat pump because we are with an electricity provider who get all their electricity from renewables (mostly wind farms around here.) That way, once we swap our gas hob for an electric one, we will be freed from fossil fuel use except for the cars. (They're on the plan too, but second hand electric cars are not yet as available as we need, and who can afford a new car?)

I'm very impressed with our electricity people so far (Octopus Electric.) They said they'd be here by 8am and they were here at 8.10am. (In contrast to the scaffolding people who said they'd be here yesterday and never turned up at all.)

They're putting protectors on our carpeting where they intend to walk. They say it will take them three days to install the heat pump system, but we'll only have one day without heating. And they have given us three fan heaters to keep us warm on that one day, and told us we can keep them afterward.

It'll be hard to go back to a system where you have to heat up the hot water tank in order to have hot water, (rather than the current system where the boiler heats the water on demand.) But we're doing our bit for the planet, so that will have to be the consolation :)