Camouflage is essential

Snowy did arrive today and look how well camouflaged he was as he came through the grove of orchids into the kitchen.

My initial progress after the hip replacement stalled and I had a lot of pain over the last two weeks. Gradually, it became obvious to me, that most was back pain. Today I went to see the lovely osteopath I saw last year.

She examined me carefully and confirmed that I have a problem around the sacro iliac joint. I've had trouble there many years ago and it has niggled on and off. She thinks that the new gait of the new hip has put some stress on the joint. 

The main problem is because I have such weak gluteal muscles. I've been working on them regularly and I'm going to have to do a lot of work to build up the muscles and to make walking comfortable.

So it's bad news, but there are things that can be done. I had acupuncture today. Despite my medical cynicism, I have hardly any pain this evening. Wonderful.

Tonight was the first night of our village play, A Pack of Lies . It is about the Gordon Lonsdale affair in the 60s. He was a Russian spy. I'm too young to remember anything about this (!!) because I was in primary school. It is a very tense play and was brilliantly acted by our local theatre group. They are amazing.

True, there were a few fluffed lines and some awkward moments. True, not everyone is a first rate actor. None of that mattered as they created an intense atmosphere which was hard to endure.

Some of the themes are as relevant today as they were in the 60s.

The first production starred Judi Dench and Michael Williams and ran for a  year in London. Judi won the Laurence Olivier award as best actress for her performance. We had a husband and wife team in their roles tonight.