Catch Up Time

As I said you'd have to forgive me if this blog doesn't get updated regularly!    I've had a bad couple of weeks, too much sitting on the pity pot instead of getting on with it.  It all goes back to the three monthly check which is looming large on the horizon.  Must try to find a better way of dealing with this.

But .. I went to superb flower arranging demonstration presented by a very talented and funny lady called Sandy.  She created a sort of driftwood/ sea type display which I won when one of my raffle tickets was drawn. How wonderful was that.  I think it's about time I enrolled at flower arranging because I'm so jealous of people who can create such wonderful things.

My son and eldest child hit his 18th year last week and we've had some fun, meals out, worrying about him going to town and nightclubbing for the first time, rolling in at 3.47 and 28 seconds!  Not that I was clock watching you understand.  It amuses me no end that my kids are so surprised when we tell them of our clubbing days or should that be nights.  It's so shocking that mum and dad ever had any fun and dare I say got drunk!!!  And that's only the half of it - if only they knew.  Now I'm getting everything together for his family party which we're having on  bank holiday Sunday.  This will allow for all those who have some distance to travel, plenty of  time to get back for work on Tuesday. We're hoping for a warm, dry day so that my beloved can do his thing with the barbecue.  I've got to make a cake for him - not a fruit cake but a chocolate cake with lots of sweets on top the sort he had when he as about 5!  That's nice and easy for me though unless I have a better idea in between.

We went for a great walk on Sunday afternoon - along the canal and back through the woods; carpeted with glorious bluebells and the stench - sorry - fragrance of wild garlic.  We even saw swallows - the first of  the year and this lifted my spirits.  Fred the springer went for his first swim in the canal after getting in a bit of a tizz about the ducks who dared sit on the tow path.  His face was a picture when he eventually found right way up and discovered he could swim.  Unfortunately I didn't have the camera because my beloved got a good old soaking as he pulled said Fred out of said canal.  Oh what fun we had....  Here's Fred, clean, dry and back on Terra firma! I can't believe how much he's grown over the last couple of months but I think he is rather splendid.

I promised a photo of the windmill palm in my older posts (I've done so many now!)  Here it is:

and it is a magnificent specimen.  Just hope it's as hardy as they say but I'll have to wrap it up warm in the winter just in case.  I'm pleased to say that a lot of the plants I was worried about, are now showing signs of life which is a relief.  The garden is beginning to look good again, all the work my beloved has done recently is giving me so much pleasure.

I did plant my potatoes and am remembering to water them - perhaps I'll try some radish too.

I found out last week that one of my daughters has to have surgery to correct a curvature of the spine.  It's a big op about five hours in surgery, followed by a couple of days in the high dependency unit and then six weeks off school.  She's really okay about it but I'm feeling quite worried.  It will probably be in the next 4 - 9 months so I've time to get used to the idea.  We've also got to decide a cut off time because she has GCSEs in 2010/2011 and can't afford to miss these!

I'm also going back to work on a staggered basis - starting tomorrow and this is making me so anxious that I'm keeping myself manically busy today to keep my mind off it. I've got to get back on the bike, so hard hat in place, stabilisers at the ready off I go.

Off to clean the oven....