More Light And Shade

The “highlight” of my day, if you can call it that, was a visit to the dentist to have a tooth that was beyond hope taken out. 

It turned out to be more difficult than anticipated when, after a bit of initial tugging, the tooth broke quite spectacularly into several pieces with a large part of it landing in the back of my throat. Like Lonnie Donnegan’s chewing gum, I managed to catch it, though perhaps before it got near my tonsils, and cough it back up again.

Unfortunately, a small bit of tooth and a large bit of root remained stubbornly attached to the gum and bone and required far more drilling, digging and pulling than either I or the dentist would have liked (he didn’t quite have to put his foot on my chest while I clung desperately to the chair but I thought it was going to come to that!) before the shard finally gave up the fight. The dental  nurse kept an admirably straight face throughout the whole farce! If I hadn’t been so closely involved, with a mouthful of dental hardware, I’d have found it funny. Suffice to say, my mouth is feeling a little sore tonight.

Anyway, this afternoon Tess and I managed a short walk (short was all either of us could manage) where, following on from yesterday, I kept an eye out for more light and shade. The winter sun was imparting a fine glow to this old gatepost and its clinging ivy.