As soon as the sun shines there I am scrubbing the patio.

And after the clean up it's in the motor to the Potash Garden Centre to stock up on flowers-a-plenty.

And by jiggery jingo have we stocked...

We love the Potash because it's wide and welcoming and bulging with Begonias, Photinia Red Robins and many many more delightful flowers.

And I bought them all. Well not ALL but I've loaded a couple of trollies and spent many of our English pounds.

And all because of an improvement in the weather.

So, after stocking up on all kinds of flowers, I needed to add some quirky bits...

A silver coloured resin hare looking skywards, howling probably.

A green shabby chic three tiered plant holder.

A 30cm high robin infested bird feeder in the shape of an old log.

Big pots.

A ruby coloured dangling wind chime with touches of the East. Nam yehorengekeyo. I do need to unwind sometimes.

Like maybe now for example.

My step-son Mark aka Markie Boy aka Manager aka Top Manager has wrapped his right arm around my stooping shoulders whilst we listen to ENGLAND V. SWITZERLAND. We are already 1 down.

But being eternal optimists we KNOW Southgates boys will and MUST prevail.

Let me rattle off a few lines about my 21 year old shadow...

He is getting a new pair of hips in May.

He has waited eight months and it has been the most excruitiating wait. His dad, my partner, Rob has been like the dog with the bone. And a more ferocious pooch you won't find.

Once he'd sunk his teeth into the NHS he wouldnt, couldn't let go until someone somewhere helped his son to walk again.

Mark collapsed dramatically one day in the kitchen, his hips crumbling due to the after effects of radiotherapy.

After many long hospital visits, heated phone calls, emotional meetings and in a case of desperation last resorts and all that trawling the interweb checking out prices of going private we finally got a result...

The amazing docs at UCLH agreed to proceed with a double hip replacement. Thank you Mr Rajput.

It's been interesting. Devastatingly exhausting trips to London, numerous meetings with anaesthetists, surgeons, orthopaedic fellows and Wednesday's trip to London was particularly tiring on account of a major get together with all the teams involved with Mark's operation and after care.

Mark's Down Syndrome took centre stage during all appointments. Getting Mark's situation across to people is, to say the least, mentally  and physically tiring. Some people just don't get it.

But we did it. We got there. And in a couple of months, Rob, Mark and I will trot up to London to spend a couple of weeks in the caring arms of the guys at UCLH.

England have equalized.

 Back to the garden. Please.

The patio is crammed in a most delicious way with...Lillies, lavendar, miniature roses, pansies, a Forsythia and lots and lots of flowers whose names have left me. Sorry.

It's funny how a little blast of sunshine, a few bob spent on simple blooms and some good news on the family front has lifted my spirits to an almost drug like high.  

I must sign off now because Mark is nudging me kitchenwards and a big Indian takeaway has just arrived.

Feels good blogging again x

 

A corker

I walked with a bounce today not just because the sun shone but because I had something in my heart that money can't buy...Hope. Hope that things/life is on the up.
And so I strolled with an excellent handbag in the crook of my elbow allowing myself the luxury of letting go.
And all my regular readers will know what that means...

1. Carrying mum not only emotionally but sometimes physically as well...I put those dreadful months in the cupboard inside my chokka block head. They're heavy but tucked away.

2. Financial nightmares... not only in the dark wee small hours but during the day when watching films, and, however good the movie, the penny pound gremlins ate at my flesh...But today I kicked back.... A job could be shooting my way...

3. Dad's departure. The worst thing I've ever seen or felt. I don't expect he was pleased either. But he couldn't see us, me and mum that is, he couldn't see what his shuffling away did. For the past 56 years or so he'd done his bit and on that warm July night with a pulsating, rough skinned throat he went away.
I miss him... especially now, as I have some good stuff to talk about. Forever and ever I've yakked to him about everything, from boys to men, from pennies to pounds, from despair to elation...And he always had points to make, some I fought him over but mostly my in-house Solomon was right on the money mate.
Fuck death.


Anyway mateys today I flew from a to b then back to a, no car to carry me, it being in for an MOT. So bussing it with a team of old dears I hopped a ride to Hockley.
The sun was out that's for sure, because there was a positive infestation of buggy pushers, idling chatty workmen, crippled male warriors with bad hands and bronzed women in pink polyester tops with bare arms.

In my first shop I bought a pair of 'sapphire and diamond' ear rings for 50p. Keeping with the pair thing, I bagged a pair of cracking M&S jeans in faded black. £2. I was soooo happy.
Then I popped to the Co-Op for a red pepper and Sweetheart cabbage. The cashier reminded me of a young Margaret Thatcher and the jolly woman in a lemon ensemble behind me told me she had ' a full house for the weekend' ....I suppose that's why her trolley was bending under the weight of cola, toilet tissue and 'reduced' sausage rolls. She had crooked mauve lipped smile. 80 if a day.

Ok.
So far so excellent.
Then came the scary bit. Into the post office for a set of pics, I went in looking like an English Rose or so I thought but when handed the pics I told 'Jack' his camera must have a colour malfunction..I looked like I'd been dipped in creosote.
Still we had a chuckle Jack the Postmaster and I, him saying I had lovely eyes and would I like another bag of Mintoes ( a favourite of mine).
I declined because I'd got what I wanted so left him chattering on like a parrot about Indian summers... he should know.

Back on the bus with old dolls-a plenty, I twiddled with my new ear rings. Imagining them glinting in candlelight or being tugged at by a rough lover.
Dream over I alighted near a pub....
I felt rather pleased with myself and so having a few bob left I ditched the idea of beans on toast and tea and decided instead to have a pint of wallop and bag of crisps.
I would never have done that before but I felt enthused and happy on account of the weather and Hope....

So today has been a dream, didn't do much at all really, nothing I don't usually do.. the alcohol stop being the exception of course...., but I felt optimistic, feeling as if things are changing for the better..
And oh my giddy aunt did that beer taste good upon my upturned English Rose lips...

If I could have one, no let's be greedy, let's ask for two, if I could have two wishes they'd be more days like today and, well, I think you know the other;)