This is why I’m on blood pressure medication

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

That’s taken mid-evening, having taken the medication in the morning. Doesn’t really feel to me as though it’s having any long-term effect.

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The lawnmower wants to die

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

After replacing the steering linkage that snapped just a few weeks back, yesterday the ride-on mower failed again. This time, the lifting bracket for the cutting deck has sheared off. It’s not easy to get a photo of whilst it’s in place, so I’ll get one when it has been removed, likely tomorrow.

Unfortunately finding a replacement part seems to be a bit tricky and one that I think might well fit costs £65, so it looks as though the first attempt to fix the issue will be welding the original back together. Still, I’ve not done any welding for ages so it will be fun reminding myself how to do it.

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The drinks are on us…

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

Maybe 😀

I was amused to discover that not only are Curaçao represented at the World Cup this year, but their manager is called Advocaat. I’m just hoping that they also have players on the bench called Armagnac, Sambuca and Tequila who can be brought on late in the game to liven things up a bit when everyone is getting tired.

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The bee inspector cometh

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

After multiple retries due to the weather and medical issues, our bee inspector arrived today to check over my hives for signs of EFB.

She had to do all the heavy lifting unfortunately. By the end I was struggling just to continue standing up (and in fact I had to have a sit down on an empty hive stand for a while). The good news is that my bees are EFB-free. The not-so-great news is that two of the colonies appear to be about to swarm, so I need to get back to them, ideally tomorrow, and split them. I’m not surprised by this, if I’m honest. My beekeeping routine has been pretty chaotic so far this year for reasons that are probably quite clear from my other posts.

The surprising news is that we found a queen with a scrap of red paint left from when I marked her in 2023. She was easy to spot because of the walking frame 😀

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Baby grapes!

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

I dropped by to check on the vines at the weekend. Hopefully this means we’ll get a harvest of some sort.

It does look like a few vines didn’t survive Winter, but overall things aren’t so bad and there are replacements available that could be moved at the end of the year.

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Sewing vegetables

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

Had to take a sneaky photo of these whilst my daughter wasn’t looking. She’s made them to go on the bags and other accessories that she makes from scrap denim that charity shops aren’t able to sell. I’m so impressed 😀

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Believe it or not

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

This is my resting heart rate, early afternoon.

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So many contrails!

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

Almost more contrail than cloud 😀

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More blood pressure stuff

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

This is about the limit of what I can stand at the moment. If my blood pressure goes any lower than this then I really can’t cope. As long as it doesn’t drop too far below 180 systolic then whilst I feel a bit shaky I can usually overcome it. (Note also the high heart rate.)

I’m wondering as well if diet doesn’t play into this somehow. Last week I mainly ate salads for lunch, often with a little cheese and things didn’t feel too bad. However, on Friday in an effort to use up some bacon that I found in the fridge I had BLTs with spicy mayonnaise. Within about half an hour I felt as though I was really struggling.

My understanding is that after eating the body directs more blood flow to the gut whilst contracting arteries elsewhere and causing the heart to beat more strongly. How much blood is redirected seems to be dependent on what is being digested as far as I can see. Quite what the interplay is with drugs that restrict contraction of the arteries and limit the power of the heart I really don’t know. It doesn’t sound like a sensible situation to me, but my understanding could be completely wrong.

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No dig diary, 12th June 2026

Posted on June 15, 2026 by james

Finally got the next compost bay empty today. Just as well, because there’s very little space left in the current one.

I also used some of the water pipe hoops that I cut a couple of days ago so I could temporarily put netting over the sweetcorn plants to prevent the deer eating them without any risk of crushing the plants. They seem to be quite delicate when they’re small.

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