Easy Pleasures

I've been fighting some kind of bug for a week now, but I think it's got the better of me. It seemed to ease off into the evenings, so I've continued to do my duties at Snape, and honour social engagements. Now I wish I'd given in sooner, accepted offers of help and put my feet up. I'm cancelling work tomorrow, and biding my time for a Snape concert on Sunday. I had to go to Waitrose this morning because the earliest slot for delivery I could get was Saturday and the cupboard was bare. Panadol, Vitamin C and fruit were at the top of my list. I bought a bottle of Metatone too. I have to be well by next Friday. Biggest day of my life, practically. I GOTS to be fit.

Echoing my distress has been poor old Hugo, still wearing his buster collar a week after his eyes got sore. We've been backwards and forwards to the vet and he's put up with all kinds of invasive treatments from injections to drops and pills and cream, not to mention having his eyes flushed out and the lids scraped on several ocasions. He hasn't had a proper walk all week which has suited me, because after several hundred yards I'm exhausted anyway. And it's not as if he didn't cover great distances when he chased hares for three hours last week! We're a sorry pair, and at least one of us has had a glut of treats in an attempt to cheer him up. I like to think he has a rich inner life, as I do, and can think his interesting thoughts as he is confined to barracks. It's hard to tell though. He's not revealing anything to me.

There hasn't been much to cheer about, but the garden has one highlight even despite the horrible weather. After a lush period of productivity and colour until the beginning of July followed by a few weeks of bareness there has been a great flourishing of flowers and everything is looking wonderful again. I dreamed of reaching this point as I struggled with rafts of weeds for the first two years of its existence. It's not perfect, of course it isn't, and it would have benefited from my input over the past week. But I have to say it is looking fabulous and it's a real pleasure to have it to enjoy. As I slowly scan my eyes across the beds and the now healthy lawn, greedily soaking it up, I feel it feeding my soul and my imagination. So these photos are for posterity, and to remind me of how far I have come outside while I wilt indoors.