Herb garden in progress

I have wanted a herb garden for so long! Unfortunately we have a small garden and a traditional, as I view it, herb garden is not possible so I have had to improvise.

I bought some plants and seeds and started them growing in small pots. They have now started to get big enough to pot on.

I got my grandchildren to help, they painted some pots for me and a jolly good job they did too. My young grandson got a dibber and made holes in some soil in a long trough and we repotted some herbs into that. He tucked the soil round them and then told everyone they had to be quiet as the bubbas were asleep! We have quite a few small baby plants as he calls them in the garden and he won't let people forget they are there. The paintings here are done by the older two grandchildren.

I wanted to grow lettuce too so my husband bought some guttering which we filled with soil and added the lettuce plants and fitted it at an angle to allow for drainage.

I might not have the fanciest garden but I am happy. I have sage, tarragon, basil, thyme, lemon verbona, parsley, chives, rosemary and some others. Gradually I am building up the variety and I look forward to using them in cooking, teas and as medicinal herbs too.

I think getting the children involved is good as they learn such a lot about where foods come from if they have access to a garden. My children did as children and my younger daughter did her Brownie Guide badge in gardening through having a patch of her own.

It is sad that children think all food comes from a supermarket even in this day and age. Luckily the three grandchildren we have here in France live in a very rural community and they are aware of where food comes from. I know my other two grandchildren in the UK will also grow up knowing too, it is just sad that some children don't have the experiences that teach them that food is grown, harvested, sold and then is taken to shops to sell.

I desperately want to eliminate artificial flavourings and preservatives from my diet and growing my own food as much as possible, allowing for the small space we have. Buying fresh food to make meals from scratch goes a long way to knowing what you are putting in your body. Autoimmune diseases are horrid things and the food you eat, whilst not curing you, can help to eliminate some of the symptoms that are suffered.

Should we fight or just go with the flow?

I have had it said to me and read that having rheumatoid arthritis means you are fighting every day.

To a certain extent that is true and it isn't easy being in pain, having stiffness and being so tired all the time. But fighting can be tiring too. The more energy you put into fighting takes away the energy you need just to get through the day.

The energy needed to just get out of bed is an enormous amount then washing or showering if, like me, you can't manage a bath. After that you have to use a bit more energy to get dressed even if you get help. Breakfast for me is porridge which gives me a long lasting energy boost and I eat this with natural yogurt followed by a herbal tea and then my tablets. I cannot rush any of this and need help from my husband to manage them. If I need to go shopping he has to stow the wheelchair in the car, find the shopping bags, draw up a shopping list and get me from the house into the car. By the time I get there and am settled I am exhausted. At our destination he has to find a place to park at our local supermarket as they have had the car park up for a few weeks now and if the two remaining disabled parking places have been taken then he has to park on an end of a row if possible so the chair will get down beside the car. Nothing is more frustrating for me is finding a non disabled driver parked in a disabled space when I am struggling to get into my car when there is insufficient room to get the car near it.

The real battle begins when we get into a shop; any shop. Invariably the aisle I need to get to is blocked by someone stacking the shelves and the wheelchair, with attached trolley, is too large to get by. Then there are the displays dotted around the stores ripe for a wheelchair and trolley to knock down. It is really stressful when you negotiate an aisle only to find you can't get out the other end as a display is parked in your way. And the pillars in the supermarkets near here are erected at the end of aisles too and I can honestly say that it is really, really painful when you have to struggle to negotiate around the pillar into an aisle and you catch the wheels and jar your back, neck and hips. Smaller shops are worse still they are so packed full of stock there is no room for a wheelchair user to get round. But it isn't just wheelchair users people using walkers, crutches and walking sticks are hampered by thoughtless shop keepers and management.

But should we fight to live daily? Or is it better to just look on it as a minor hiccup and laugh it off? I am of the opinion that we should fight for our rights and endeavour to get all shops disabled friendly. But of course this is tiring and a long, gruelling battle. If we just accept things cannot change or will not change then we are giving the impression that we not worth anything better.

When people say that things can't be that bad and really arthritis is just a pain and they get pains too, they are not understanding what people with chronic illnesses and diseases have to cope with all day, every day. Chronic illness is a daily battle to get through the 24 hours of every day and when you get to bed at night pain can and will keep you awake.

Being laid back and accepting whatever life throws at you is a wonderful concept but when you have a daily fight to just live wouldn't it be wonderful if the rest of the world made it just a little bit easier?