It's been a while since I last posted anything.
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| Sand Crocus, Dawlish Warren |
We finally got away on holiday to Devon and Cornwall, to National Trust cottages booked for the previous Spring and held over because of Covid. The day before leaving I read up about a small flower I'd seen in Galicia and in Crete - a sand crocus - and realised it would be the perfect time to see it at Dawlish, one of two places it grows in in the UK, so our first day was not spent on Dartmoor but on the south coast. Then the heat wave hit and the moor was full of people embracing a beautiful Spring weekend away from the pandemic. We only got onto the moor ourselves later in the week when the weather had changed. We had a couple of walks but my partner tires easily now, being under chemotherapy. A skirt and top came out for one afternoon in the garden, but there wasn't the impetus to dress more. We then went onto Cornwall. I was meant to be walking part of the West Coast Path but, instead, we had a couple of shorter walks, and an afternoon's dressing. Then back home to continue the therapy and the regular round of hospital appointments.
We had arranged to start sorting through my partner's apartment - for years I had not been 'allowed' to visit as she is a hoarder and was embarrassed at the state of her living conditions. So it was that a 8-yd skip was procured and the clearing, with the aid of her sisters, began. Her flat was, and remains, a nightmare. One example: she would assiduously clean milk bottles and the like for recycling and then let them pile up around the furniture; another: she had a subscription to a weekly magazine and there were years of it, piled up, unopened. The skip was filled in one weekend and we expect to need at least one more. About this time my facial dermatitis worsened, so much so that we had to cancel a trip to see a concert that I had been really keen on. We don't know if there is a connection with the state of the apartment.
But, there was great news from the oncologist - following a scan, P was showing no signs of cancer and, despite the earlier problems with the bowel which had caused the treatment to start with chemo-, the scan showed that she could have radiotherapy in September.
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Walmer Castle
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Sheffield Park
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A French flickr friend, Nadia, planned to visit England and, notwithstanding everything which was making life rather difficult, I agreed to show her places, including a trip to Brighton. On the first afternoon we went to Walmer Castle.
We had hoped to meet another friend, Jane, at Sheffield Park, but she was ill. We did, however, meet Sue in Brighton and had a fine couple of hours with her, wandering the lanes. It was a fine couple of days and the weather was superb.
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Brighton, North Laine Bazaar
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