A slow week...........

Hello there once again.....

Today, the wind stopped howling, and I have spent a happy couple of hours in the garden. Moving things. Inspecting things. Counting emerging flowers. Scattering seeds. Filling a pot with soil........

Garden things. It fills me with such joy to be in the garden that the hurting becomes irrelevant, and I am energised. Well, lets be clear here - there is a lot of sitting under the apple tree and thinking going on too. Just the fact that I can sit there without being either frozen or blown to Siberia, is cause for celebration.

My friend, Glynis's sister, Janine, is going to be winging her way south back home tomorrow, so we all met at our favourite place for tea (Becky? You know the place!) earlier today. That was a delightful interlude, although I do wish Janine would stay. So does Glynis. However, she has a family to return to, as do we all. But dreams are good.

This has been a hurting week, so I have been taking things as easy as I can. This does not come naturally to me, especially when I am itching to get out in the garden. So there has been some progress with the ripple, though not a great deal. Diana has noticed that I fall asleep rapidly when I sit down. I time this perfectly for when the programmes I want to watch begin. Catch up TV is a wonderful thing.

I have been following the awful news from Boston and Texas, and it just breaks my heart to see so many people hurting, coping with loss and physical devastation. It has not been a good week for all those ordinary law-abiding citizens who have had their lives turned upside down. I see that all the entrants of the London Marathon, which takes place this coming Sunday, have been asked to wear black arm bands as a sign of respect for their fellow runners in Boston. And these things are global. One of my aqua friends was in Boston, watching her husband run. He finished an hour before the bombs went off, thankfully. And they are safe.

Going back to the garden, the compost fairy, Jenny, arrived on my doorstep on Wednesday afternoon, with another load of compost for the allotment. I wanted to laugh and cry together, if you know what I mean. I was so thrilled. Receiving with grace is still something I am having to work on. I prefer things to be the other way around, and yet, such generosity is something to celebrate. And I do. She said "You know, I don't know what my car was thinking about, but it just drove me to B&Q and parked in front of the compost!" And we howled with laughter. She is such a dear friend. Diana made her a delicious orange cake which I dropped around later. Another reason to love having my daughter home!

So tomorrow, Jean, Diana and I will head down to the allotment and take the latest raised bed, which was in my garden with pots in it. Why?? It can go down to the allotment. An excellent idea. I will have to work out how to get it into the car, but I am sure I will make a plan. It can sit over our heads if necessary.

I have vivid memories, as does Jean, of my sister buying a huge gazebo for her garden a couple of years ago. It was a bargain. Her car is small, so we unpacked it in the car park, and shoved the poles all over the place. Jean and I got in, and then Marge arranged everything around and over us. I seem to remember having something over my head. But we managed to get home alive and it is a really beautiful gazebo. The raised bed is neither beautiful nor small. But, as I said, we will make a plan. Like we always do. That will bring the tally to 5 beds already. Amazing.

Right. I am now going to make coffee and do a little rippling before I need to put the chicken in the oven. Roast chicken tonight. Yum.