Catching Up

How absolutely blooming marvellous to have a Skype session with Graham and Gail this morning. It’s been a while since we chatted face-to-face and so we had a lot to talk about – not least about their rather exotic holiday on Christmas Island to celebrate Gail’s 70th birthday in April. It sounds like they had a really good time. And they deserved it after the horrible year they’d had.

They both looked really well and were on top form, so the two hours we spent nattering away was a real delight. We only said our goodbyes because it was getting late their end and they had to be up early the next morning. Here’s to the next time!!

We were both up early this morning, not only because we were going to be talking to G & G but because the Electrician Cometh. We were having a Smart meter fitted. I was half expecting some sucking of teeth and shaking of his head when he saw where the mains is situated, but John, being the amazing man that he is, had spent a good few hours creating a safe cabinet for the electrics the other day, so it was all hunky-dory and the electrician just got on with it. He had been and gone before our Skype session and we can now see how much electricity we are using – how good/scary is that?

After lunch, I felt a bit neither here nor there and a little bit melancholy, thinking of things past. So I went outside and pottered in the garden for a while. The tidying up of the hedge soothed my soul and I felt better for having breathed in the oxygen and the scents generated by the garden.

John, meanwhile, was getting on with the cake. And it’s going to be good. His work so far is very promising. “I’m ready for the cake board now,” he said, “if you can find it for me, please?” Ha! Find it? A new name for Hunt the Thimble?

When I cleared the dining room, I was pretty good at making a little list of where things had been stored. But the cake boards? Apparently I had omitted to record where those were. I checked in the cupboard in the Main Guest Room, rummaging in the boxes there. Nope. I sought them in the boxes in the Attic Room. Nope. How about the boxes above the cupboards in the kitchen? Nope – not there either.

I did find them in the end. Under the stairs, in a box in which I’d chucked the very last few bits out of the dining room cabinet. No record made of what was in the box or where I was storing it…… no wonder it took ages to find the darned thing!!

This evening, we sprawled in our chairs and rested our weary bodies. John was feeling exhausted having expended lots of energy thinking about the cake and then actually creating the vision; and I was just plain being lazy.

As I took the bins out this evening, though, and turned back towards the house, I felt grateful that we have such beauty in our lives, such as these wonderful pink roses – grace, happiness and gentleness.

They reminded me of the beginning of Lockdown when we stood under the roses waving to family and friends at the end of the path, socially-distanced, but full of energy to face what may come. Who knew then, the impact that ‘shielding’ would have on us?

Take care everyone. God bless.