August already!

1st August 2018

Wormery or compost bin?

I never thought that might be an option, but my mum is spending another week here and has been pulling up overgrown areas I haven’t touched in the months of our annus horribilus that 2018 became. We now have bags of weeds and they should go somewhere. The leftover wood from the extension has been hidden from the main path.

I really can’t lift anything for six weeks (entire school holidays to most parents) and it’s going to be tough. On a positive note, deadheading those roses has given us double blooms! There are positives in the wizened and dry landscape. And boy do we have bees, I counted ten on the lavender bush yesterday. I got some gardening magazines while in hospital and it’s really inspired me to think the small steps I have taken are part way towards turning the garden into more than a football pitch. We must,however, make it safe, the littlest ended up with a sharp splinter in her foot a couple of days ago but again it’s knowing what to target first.

My hubby has shown an interest in helping me with the tech of my blog, maybe positive change is afoot after all. My surgery has left me tired and uncomfortable but it’s not taken my spirit!

F

A shrivelled up garden!

30th July 2018

Still on a roller coaster!

Two weeks after surgery, and I am getting used to a new reality. I have had some scary moments and some laughs. Family has pulled around me and brought me through the worst times of my life. Surgery is healing but it’s all painful. We’ve just had the hottest weather since UK records began and I’ve tried inside and outside to stay regulated. But it’s hard going and I’ve scared a lot of people, with unexpected reactions to things, and our plans diverging so much.
Outside we have beautiful hot orange calla lilies and wild eryngiums, or thistles, creating new corners to excavate. And the garden needs excavation when I am fit again. For now, I just have to look at what I can’t do...

Surgery with MS is no simple thing. Even the medics were scared by my reaction, and I have a different diagnosis of intolerance no one predicted. Opioids are quite dangerous but for me they were a game changer. Never again! I have absolutely no tolerance for them and it nearly didn’t get sorted. Then in later discussion, you find a family intolerance and it all makes sense.

It’s two weeks now and it all still hurts but patience willing, recovery is going to happen. Summer holidays see the desertion of the UK for far-flung destinations. I wish that was us, but I’m being patient. The kids have been following a job chart so I’ll be broke by next week. My mum has been a star, feeding us and chivvying me into my new normality for now.

I forgot to say, the greenhouse was blown over, causing great consternation - largely missed by me - and the drought was followed by a day of rain, so much more like the summer holidays of old than the 32 degrees. We have to look at the garden again and think of how it can work. Not a quick fix, but a life work! Gulp!