Just Life

It's New Year's Eve, so a goodbye to 2016 and a huge Hello to 2017, I love New Year's Eve. The chance to have a brand, spankingly new year to dream to plan and to be happy.  I am hoping for new medication to make living with my awful disease easier. I have Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD), which is Lupus, Scleroderma, Raynaud's, Sjorgen's and Polymiositis all wrapped up in one huge hurty package.  Some people with MCTD don't have all these and some have it at different levels, trust me to get the lot and at times it is pretty bad.  To top that, I have Fibromyalgia, degenerative Arthritis in my spine after a car accident and Bechet's Disease. Phew, no wonder I get knackered so much. All these diseases have inflammation, fatigue and pain as a symptom.  For me, the inflammation causes swelling around my joints, my connective tissue is hard, bit like it should be a chamois leather mine is like a dried up chamois leather, so stiffness and yet more god d

It is 3 days before Christmas, the house is decorated, the tree is all sparkly with lights, baubles and my old Venetian chandelier, which I have used as drops to catch the light. Atop the tree sits Pamela, she has sat on every tree since as long as I can remember and I am 59. Pamela has new wings, but has lost an arm over the years. Yet she still sits there in charge of the tree and all that is on it. I love that she has seen all the Christmases of my youth, the excitement of me and my brother Trevor getting up at 4 in the morning, excited to see the few gifts my parents could afford and very happy to get a pillowcase full. I used to love the felt tip pens, the pencils, the colouring in books, the plastic dolls that one year had one that could walk and talk. The three wheelers then bicycles and the stocking with tangerine, selection box, chocolate coins in their little net bags and sweet tobacco sweets. One year a doll's house, that I loved, complete with little lights and fu

I love this picture of Maggie and Jones on the beach at Hopeman, it is my favourite place to blow away the cobwebs, each fish and chips and watch dolphins. Yes, we have dolphins on the Moray Coast, they can be found at tide turn in the summertime as they make their way to Spey Bay to munch on fish. The sea around here is so alive with whales, dolphins, seals and of course people. I am never shocked to see people with their blue bodies take to the water at the first sign of sunshine, even at just 14 degrees the sea was full of people splashing about, shivering, but happy.  Hardy people these Northern Scots as the sea is usually freezing, though I am told Moray is warmed by the Gulf stream, it also has its own micro climate, due to its location. The map on the weather programme will show ice, snow, rain, yet there is usually a little gap where we live that manages to escape the worse of it. It makes for a beautiful place, mountains and forests, woods and beaches, lochs and rivers an

The Cappieshill, the ancient barrow mound across the road from my gate. Welcome to a blog about my life, my home, my pets, my hobbies, my learning to live a new life with an autoimmune disease and about Just Life. I am Brenda, I live with my husband Paul, our two chocolate Labrador dogs, maggie or Madam Madpants, Mister Jones Esquire, The Mister our F4 Savannah cat, Ralph the rooster and his women. We live rurally in a beautiful part of NE Scotland, we are both Welsh, but love and call this place home. I aim to post often, hope you find it interesting enough to follow, feedback, comment and come back again and again.