Libera Me

Today might be the best day I've had for a long time.I'm feeling utterly jubilant! After my horrible experience of being bitten half to death the night before last, I finally googled to see what kind of brute could have feasted so luxuriously on my flesh. Bed bugs. That's what came up as the definitive solution, and immediately shattered my world. Or in the words of the journalistic headline we always longed to use: Shock!  Horror! Crisis! And so followed a day of frenzied activity when I hauled my mattress into the garden, threw my duvet and pillows into the car to take to the dry cleaners, and proceeded to wash all of my bed linen, plus pyjamas. I spring cleaned the bedroom, emptied the two boxes under the bed where I store clothes and spare bedding, and pondered the terrible efforts I'd have to go to in addition to these to eradicate the beasts.

Last night, still feeling sick, I moved into another room where a howling wind and loose slate forced me to put in ear plugs. So I was deeply asleep when the same itchiness recurring in the same place on my legs jolted me awake, and a quick inspection showed the horrible weals and blisters again. What fresh hell was this? Knowing they would probably be gone by morning, I photographed them. Over breakfast, eaten like the condemned man choking on his lobster thermidor, I remembered the tick I found on my foot just over a month ago, and so I looked up the symptoms of Lyme Disease again and couldn't rule it out. Only one thing for it, a visit to the doctors. I took my camera and showed him the ghastly welts and waited for his sentence: death, or extreme house cleaning. It was neither. I have urtocaria, better known as hives. Hives! I have hives! I don't have to sterilise my house, or dispose of all my belongings. The carpet can stay. The mattress can come back upstairs. I can return to my cosy bedroom. It's caused by the heat, or maybe an allergic reaction to something in the garden. Who knows? Who cares? Not me. I'm re-born, a new woman.

This miracle wasn't the only one this morning. I had run out of coffee capsules for my Nespresso machine, and had delayed reordering. They'll arrive today, but too late for my daily fix. I double checked in the cupboard, and found a Ristretto capsule, one of the extra strong ones my sister brings for her own use when she stays. I got my coffee, and celebrated with two ginger and chocolate biscuits. It really doesn't get much better than this. As I always say, my needs are modest.

My first cherries, nearly half a pound

Hugo hauled all these covers and cushions into place for his added comfort

Hives on my leg

More hives! Hah!