Time of year?

Well Mike has got to go for a chest x-ray tomorrow to see if the antibiotics did there job and to check there is something else causing the cough. Ironically it would seem that just like two years ago, he may now be going down with a sinus infection. He sounds a bit funny when he talks, (I know he always sounds a bit strange in the head but that's why I love him) and it reminds me of when he was ill and in hospital for weeks and weeks back in 2010. On that occasion he was admitted on May 7 after a couple of weeks of being off colour and then a week of gradually going downhill until he was so ill he couldn't swallow or even speak clearly.

It has got me thinking that may be it is caused by a reaction to a certain type of pollen. Is it a particular tree that flowers the end of April? Or is it simply coincidence or bad luck?

Polite answers will be gratefully received.

21st Garden - April

I nipped out while it was still sunny and my porridge was cooking and took my photos. Even as I type, the sky is clouding over.


Aubergines



Blackcurrant

Butternut Squash

Chillies

Courgettes

Onions (oh and weeds)

Pea (plus weeds)



Potatoes (what do you mean "where"?)

Raspberries

Rhubarb

Strawberries

Tomatoes

Zucchini

The beetroot, carrots and swedes are too hard to identify yet, may be next month.







Oh no!

While I was busy washing up a parcel arrived.

Mike took it into the lounge and started opening it, well he got Toni to.

Can you tell what it is yet?

I'm not impressed with the service! Aren't they supposed to lose it at the depot only to find it six months later after irate phone calls and threats of legal action?

April showers, more like an Arctic monsoon!

Firstly an update on Mike. He is feeling much better than he did on Saturday. He is still coughing, but it's not as painful as it was. Of course he seems to cough more at night, waking yours truly, although it may simply be that I have no choice but to listen to him then. ;-)

As some of you will know, the weather has taken a turn for the worse here. Ironically the second they announced that the area is officially in a drought, the heavens opened and we had first the typical April showers (that bring the flowers that bloom in May) followed by constant rain with the odd hailstone episode and strong winds. I'm not a happy bunny, it's wrecking my garden!



As you can see Toni's bunny isn't very happy either.

 I did have some good news on Saturday though, my ironing board collapsed and is now unusable (hooray!) Even better is the fact Mike has been too ill to take me to buy a new one (double hooray!) Unfortunately he decided to go online and order one yesterday (boooooo!!) Fingers crossed it takes a couple of weeks to arrive, by then Mike will have fished his shirts out of the pile and worn them any way.

Now don't laugh at him Toni.

Mature love is bitter-sweet.

When Mike and I met the joy I felt at being given a second chance at love was immeasurable. The thought that I wouldn’t get old alone but had found my soul mate with whom I would grow old was so wonderful that I accepted the lost years of memories not shared and imagined we would create our own.

For a couple of years we did create a few memories. We visited Lake Como and saw Nick Hancock on the ferry, travelling past George Clooney’s mansion as we went down to Como for the day. Another day we got the bus down but couldn’t find where to get back on it when it was time to go back to the hotel and ended up getting a ferry which was going to the next village up. We had to walk back in the pouring rain, passing a house with 101 on it when none of the other houses had numbers. We still reckon it was Nick Hancock’s. We visited St Moritz where even the bin men wear white overalls that are spotless and the public toilets have Andrex puppies on a roll toilet paper.

We had a holiday in Turkey when whatever our mode of transport, we seemed doomed. The plane we were supposed to fly out on had a problem with its engine and we were transferred to another airport. Eventually after a seven hour delay we were on our way. When we arrived in Turkey in the early hours the coach we were being transferred on had a tyre blow out and we spent hours going in the wrong direction so the driver could get it repaired. The boat tripped we booked visited only two of the islands on the schedule as the sea was too rough and so the Turkish passengers on board kicked up a stink and got us all our money back. We just had to stand there open mouthed and watch. We visited the mud bath and sulphur spring at Dalyan which miraculously healed the mosquito bites instantly. I just wish I could have bottled it and brought it home.

In 2008 we had a break at Lake Garda and I broke my camera. Mike suggested we take the cable car up to the top of Monte Baldo. I spent the whole trip with my eyes closed, I’m scared of heights. When we got the top Mike beckoned me over to have a look at the scenery. Not a good idea. I became extremely dizzy, slipped on the rocks and fortunately fell as I turned away, breaking my camera and bruising both my ego and my knees.

Our last holiday abroad was a return to Turkey. It was during that holiday that I first realised that all was not well with Mike. He just didn’t have the same “get up and go”, preferring a sun bed by the pool to trips. We did go snorkelling in the famous Blue Lagoon though and spent hours following a small octopus around.

Today I feel a tad robbed. I realise I’m not alone. Sometimes it is hard to live with the knowledge that you have missed out on what feels like a lifetime of memories. I guess we’ll just have to make the best of the ones we have yet to make.

To bed or not to bed?

I had hoped my next blog entry would be the cheerful "look how gorgeous my garden is" type or may be "look what I made isn't it / he / she fantastic". Instead it's the grumbling sort. Mike has yet another chest infection (if the truth be told I think it is the same one that has been around all winter, but Mike doesn't agree.) So after a fitful night's sleep it was off to the emergency doctor's at nine this morning to get a course of antibiotics. All pretty normal in this fab world of myeloma.

Now when I'm ill I tend to lounge on the sofa with a blanket and potter back and forth to the kitchen with occasional assistance from anyone who is passing, but Mike takes to the bed and has me running up and downstairs, which would be fine if I wasn't also not feeling my best (I somehow managed to inflict sneeze deafness and dizziness upon myself!) and if when I provided the requested refreshment he actually drank it. That's another thing, when I'm ill I still eat and drink, I was told by my mommy that I needed the energy to fight the infection, Mike does neither.

So a question to all you lovely blog readers, what do you and your loved ones do when they get ill?

Love you all. x