As you know I’ve been up and down this summer, post mastectomy wound infection and all the accompanying physical and psychological sequelae. What has helped me during this spell is of course my family, including the giggling grandson and cuddling granddogs! AND my quite incredible friends and ......flowers.
Some of the highlights so far have been the trips to the caravan in Crail, with fresh crabs, dolphin spotting, bird watching fresh strawberries and some perfect time just gazing at the sea. Oh the East Neuk of Fife is so very special and the Fife accent is that connection to home and childhood. All very healing.
I’ve had very special walks through the Botanics with groups of friends, each time a discovery of new gems about the flowers and plants, often with cake or lovely food a special part of it. It’s a short walk or scoot away but becomes a different world on each visit as plants change and weave colours over the seasons.
Family have visited to walk moonwalks and to celebrate with hen parties. Such fun! And I’ve been to Peebles hydro with the women in the family. What a beautiful spot it is with views from the room that could capture you for hours. Sadly monsoon conditions cut our ability to explore the next day so we just need to go back. Especially as we did try to tackle some of the political challenges ( yes they haven’t passed me by!) and clearly with the current unholy crisis it’s going to take us more than one night to fix it! But my daughter and I managed to fit in a wee shopping trip instead which I loved!
But now the flowers..
Our very special neighbour not only shares a love of dogs but also a love of flowers. She has arrived now more than once with beautiful hanging baskets and training begonias for window boxes and the
My back garden and front step and window boxes have never looked so lush. Another of our wonderful friends took me to a stunning garden centre at Hopetoun House and together we chose a selection of plants with a strong focus on geraniums. She planted them for me on a marathon session and the combined result is simply glorious. A month later she returned with some second hand planters and planted out more flowers. I was overcome!
And the final flower story is our friends who became known as the garden elves helped Andrew take down a large dead bush in our front garden that housed a whole ecosystem with fox visitors included. But their job did not finish there; they then helped us choose a whole range of plants to replace the old bush and we have a totally renewed garden,complete with a bird table. It’s joyous, it really is.
Happily I have recently discovered a bonus for my long suffering family and friends. If they invite me out they get to go free in many venues, as my carer. So another friend invited me along to Marianne and Leonard ( Cohen), a love story. It is revealing, tender and deeply moving. I’ve been playing So long Marianne ever since.
So my summer has been rich and full of love, friendship and flowers and I’m full of gratitude. This blog is a massive thank you to all of you kept me company, who have walked moonwalks, who have sent books for Davie, who have delivered and planted flowers, who have taken me with them to do special things,who have cooked dinners, painted toe nails, the NHS teams who have never let me down, to you who have brought your company and all the family,who have been my rock all along, who have been there for me during this difficult time........ you’ve helped us get through and I/we can’t thank you enough.
