One week and one day later.

I haven't had much worth writing about on here lately. MIL has been taken to hospital twice in two weeks with chest pains, but on her right side, so the medicos figured it wasn't her heart causing the pain. They finally did some Xrays and discovered she'd fractured a rib. Wouldn't you think that an Xray would be the first thing to do on someone with osteoporosis who told them it hurt when she coughed or laughed? Anyway, she's been looked after in hospital and is going back to the hostel today. I'll be visiting her later this morning to make sure she has settled back in her room okay, and I'll give her a manicure treatment too. She loves having her nails painted!

Ken's sister is quite ill with the current virus that is flattening people all over Melbourne lately. So I cooked vegie soup for tea last night and took what remained over to her. I make my own chicken stock (no stock cubes), and bought a bag of chopped fresh vegies at the supermarket. To this I added a can of crushed tomatoes and a can of canellini beans, some garlic and chopped onion. Simmered for half an hour and served it up with crusty toast. Ken said "Why don't you make real soup? This is only water and vegetables". I asked what he considered real soup to be, and he said "Tomato soup, like the canned one".

When he'd finished his bowl of my soup, I didn't offer a second one, even though I had another bowl myself. I just took his bowl to the sink and rinsed it without a word. Then I tipped the rest of the soup into a container and dropped it off at his sister's house later on. She'd told me some time ago that she loves homemade soup when she's not well, but of course who can be bothered making soup when you are feeling lousy? A couple of hours later, Ken said he was hungry, so I said "go make yourself some toast. I'm not cooking anything else for you tonight"!

What else is new? Nothing really. Chooks are not laying much at the moment, but it has been very cold, and we are told they tend to 'go off the lay' in winter. We are still getting kookaburras in our back yard most days, looking for food, but not as many as a few months ago. I'm hoping it is because they have found other food sources, and not because they've been killed or poisoned. The Corellas and Galahs are still coming down to the feeder in droves, and last weekend we have a flock of Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos land in the gum trees and feed for some time. This is most unusual here; they are rarely seen around here, usually flying over without stopping. Their food sources must be scarce.