Meanwhile...

Anyway, so I had it in my mind to write a follow-up to the last post, called 'Garden Garden' about our love for and delight in the gardens we have made, the closest thing to children we have had together, but the more I thought about it without actually sitting down and doing it, the more ambitious and sweeping it became (much like the gardens themselves did, come to think of it), and what my meagre readership (lookship?) demands is news and photos of my darling, not conceptual art nor tales of horticultural derring-do: so...

The first eight or ten days after C got home from the hospital were magical, as the blissy weekend described in the last post turned into a week or more of sweet unseasonality, with the pleasures of spring and summer colliding in a kaleidoscope of sun-kissed colours and textures, and we spent all our time outside. A day or two into her convalesence, C was to be found in the time-honoured pose of several generations of her female line, with her arse appearing from a flowerbed.

 Her determination to eradicate all traces of dandelions from the beds, along with her decision to get some wear out of previously saved-for-best outfits – as well as favourites from her youth, once grown out of, into which she now slips sylphily – has made for some lovely sights in the garden.

Sadly, though, she finds it increasingly difficult not to overdo it, so she feels exhausted and has to take to her bed: she has also recently had problems with sickness associated with bending or twisting her body, and it's almost a blessing that the rain has set in: the dandelions certainly think so. Despite the decline in the weather, on the use it or lose it principle, she still takes Kez out every day for a stately totter down the lane and into the Millennium Green, albeit rarely much further: but that's down to the dog, 14 yesterday and still a source of much joy (as well as an inexhaustible well of stinky farts) to us both, rather than any lack of will to enjoy the countryside on C's part.

a walk in the woods

You will feed me - look deep into my eyes and relax – you will get me kibble...
Hypnodog rides again

With the weather poor, and C struggling to accomodate a new regime of painkillers while still maintaining a semblance of consciousness for the majority of the day, we've been spending a lot of time in the bedroom. This is no bad place to be, with views of wildlife through the window

Roe deer grazing under the old oaks at the top of the hill: C's ashes will be buried under one of these
venerable beauties – the oaks, not the ungulates

and no shortage of flowers inside:

spring stalwarts – never knowlingly undervased at our house

thank you Susan

Oh, and last  weekend,  we went into Crediton to visit the farmer's market and in the space of 20-30 minutes, no less than 10 people, mostly strangers, complimented C on how well and gorgeous she was looking, which of course she was...