Black dogs and other tales of horror (long....)

So today I want to write about depression and how the public health system here fails to help mental health patients and just ends up marginalising them even more. Disclaimer: yes, I am angry at the failure of the system to actually produce any worthwhile help for depressed people; yes, I also have a rather convoluted alphabet soup of other intertwined issues (OCD, PTSD, anxiety disorder, social phobias, Aspergers and ADHD) but I don't want to go into those today because those are at least acknowledged by the system even though they are not really being addressed despite my repeated requests to do so - but what I am about to write is solely regarding the issue of depression and the failure of the mental health system to correctly diagnose it and take it seriously. And yes, I am writing from personal experience - although mine is far from the only story, I know way too many others who are in similar positions.

Spindles and corsets (and whiskers on kittens....) :P

I have been crazy busy the last couple of weeks - doctor's appointments, medications, making a corset for my eldest daughter for her birthday, and launching my new venture making spindles and handspun yarn.

More late night knitting updates

I am definitely making a habit of posting at ungodly hours - it's 4:30am as I am writing this and I can hear the dawn chorus of magpies warming up ;)

I am still working on Ethan's Tomten jacket - I had to frog the top of the sleeve as I lost a couple of stitches and couldn't find them in the grey yarn, but it's back on track and looking pretty good so far:

Late night knitting and other stories

I seem to be making a habit of posting at ungodly hours - it's 3am here and I'm up, in pain again. My back decided a couple of days ago that it was just NOT going to play ball, and basically it has locked up and gone into spasm. So I have been swallowing painkillers for the last 3 days and struggling to move at all (bending, sitting, standing up from a chair and even walking are excruciatingly painful right now). 

Finally.....

...I have a blog. I resisted starting one for years because - well, truthfully, because I was too lazy to write a blog regularly, and didn't think I had anything interesting to say. Now that I have something to say however, I needed somewhere to say it, and here we are! I will write about all kinds of stuff, but for now I want to start with a quick history lesson in my current situation re transition: