I am home

Don’t ask me what day it is. I wouldn’t have a clue. Don’t ask me how long I’ve been back home. I’ve got a vague idea it’s a couple of days but I couldn’t guarantee it. I can recall the feeling one had, in those pre-retirement days, upon returning to work after a fortnight’s holiday. The slight disorientation and the catching up. But that was as nothing compared to arriving back home after three months away. All sorts of minor changes and breakdowns have occurred in my absence. I’m having to get used to the desktop computer again. It is my preferred computer but that doesn’t alter the strangeness of using it after such a long time on the laptop. Now where has the Delete button gone? And why is the screen a funny shape? And it cannot be serious when it tells me I’ve filled the hard drive with all my new photos... Can it?

There’s housework to be done; there are DIY jobs needing attention; there is enough paperwork to create a substantial bonfire; and the garden has disappeared...

I managed to get out between downpours for a brief trip around it this afternoon. The sun shone and the birds sang and I could even see a tiny bit of sky between the nursing home and the patio. But the plants have gone berserk. Willowherbs have adopted one border. Cow Parsley another and Nettles have taken over a third. Hedges have spread until they almost meet in the middle and the ponds are hidden under blankets of duckweed. There is about six weeks of hard work ahead of me just to get the garden recognizable as a planted entity rather than a plot of wasteland. Here and there a flower can be seen poking out of the greenery and some of them are the new plants I put in this Spring which is quite exciting.

Hopefully I’ll be out again if the rain stops and I’ll show you a photo or two. In the meantime I’d better make a list – or two – or three...



P.S. I am very grateful for everybody’s good wishes after my feeling extra ill over the last week. I’d like to be able to report that I’m fighting fit but... However, I’m almost back to my version of normal apart from my angina hitting me quite hard since I’ve been home. A couple of months of living without stairs did not prepare me for running up and down them back home.