One morning last week, as the end of term chaos reached its peak, I tilted my head back all the better to yell something along the lines of “please do hurry up my darlings, we are really rather late”, and my neck went ping!
And that was that.
I’ve been in bed or at the osteopath ever since.
But this morning, all the pulling, pushing, twisting and prodding, not to mention pill-popping, of the past five days has finally worked, and I woke feeling bruised and stiff, but able, at last, to move my head without pain.
Hurrah! The girls and I celebrated with homemade lemonade*.
Interestingly, although I was completely incapacitated, the world continued to turn, and the house appeared to run itself rather efficiently without me. Not sure how I feel about that.
*Home made lemonade – recipes for this abound. We took the peel from four lemons and steeped it in around 1ltr of boiling water along with 100g of caster sugar, for three hours. I then squeezed the juice of the lemons into the pan before straining it all into a jug. The colour you see is entirely natural, the flavour is delicious: not too sweet or sour, but properly lemony. The recipe comes from the River Cottage Family Cook Book.
OK Charlotte- this is getting spooky…I have just made some lemonade- emergency lemonade though so no steeping just frantic stirring (based on the same recipe)…& me & my neck make regular trips to the osteopath…
Very spooky indeed! I feel your pain too, poor you. Hope the speedy version works, the jug I made is nearly finished now, so a speedier method would be good to know about.
Ow! Recent back and neck trouble have made me realise how frail we mere mortals are! Take it slowly, as much as you can.
It was ok,… did the job but not a patch on the intense lemoniness of the steeped method. (Does ‘lemoniness’ count as a real word?)
Hi Charlotte – I love your blog – not sure now which link led me here. Your lemonade looks really cool and refreshing – I could have done with some today in this heat. We have recently inherited a real vintage Lemonade set of jug and (only 5) glasses which was given to my mother in law as a wedding gift in 1951 and I have been looking for a good recipe to try it out. The steeping method seems as if it is the most lemony so might give it a go at the weekend.
Poor you, I hope that total recovery is swift.
Empathising heartily with your neck problems and so glad to hear that it’s on the mend. My favourite summer drink is iced Earl Grey tea with lemon and sugar but I’m afraid that if I make it, it will chase this weather away.
Ooh dear, Charlotte – I hope things are getting better with your neck – not nice! Handy to know the family can get along without you – leaves more time for knitting or reading whilst they gaily get about their business!