Blessings and Surprises

I am lucky that I can count my blessings. They are many and one of the blessings that I have is the friendship of people from afar, who I have never met in person, as well as people who I can give a hug to, who I see regularly.

The person who sent me this tag in a special packet from overseas will know who they are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity.

I know that I am surrounded by love and friendship.

Photos copyright: Maggie May

As well as the blessings of friends who have been persistently praying for me and sending positive vibes and wishing me well, there are the blessings of the unexpected happenings.

I had thought that the pots of tulips that my friend, Squirrel gave me last Christmas, had nearly come to an end. The tulips were all a lovely shade of pink and just recently, bright orange ones appeared. Just as I thought they were the last ones to break through, some almost black ones appeared too.

Today is election day in Britain. I wonder what surprises might be in store for us when the votes are counted. I wonder if it will be a surprise?

The unexpected is always happening. Life is full of surprises.

A not so brilliant surprise was this egg that was left on my path by Mr Fox, who I haven't seen for a good while and I had thought he might have died of mange because of the sorry state he was in. Obviously he or another fox still comes to my garden and deposits eggs at random. This time there was just an empty shell.

The blackbird decided against nesting in my tall shrub, even though she /he had started to build a nest. It really wasn't the safest place to raise a family. However, the male comes regularly into my garden and gathers worms for his family. Now how does he manage to drape half a dozen worms in his mouth so neatly? You would think that when he opened his mouth to pick the last one up, that the rest would fall out. That never happens.

The Scent of Violas

Photo Copyright: Maggie May

What could be more heavenly than the scent of violas wafting around me on a warm Spring day?

It now seems well worth the effort of planting them on in containers before the winter started.

The skies continue to be silent and it seems strange not to see any vapour trails slicing through the blue sky.

I ought to be grateful that I have no family trapped in Japan.

We take air travel for granted. It is all part and parcel of our modern life.

All it takes is for a volcano and a cloud of ash to change our whole life pattern and to cause absolute chaos everywhere.

We are having beautiful weather right now. It is just the correct temperature for me, neither too hot nor too cold. I would like it to stay like this all through the year.

My energy levels came back quite quickly after my last chemo and the itching stopped on the 6th day.

I have spent some time chopping shrubs back in the garden and generally tidying up.

There have been a few casualties during the hard winter. I lost my Japanese Maple and a small Cordyline, probably because they were in pots in a draughty place.

My Tamarisk shrub has been severely cut back but is slowly recovering. I thought it was dead until I saw the tiny new shoots springing to life. It is normally full of beautiful pink fronds by now.

Just before Christmas, during a visit to my friend, Squirrel, It was so cold and I was a bit dismayed when she insisted that I took three pots containing earth, but planted with bulbs, back home with me. They were wrapped up with tinsel but they were so heavy. The car was parked a long way off and it seemed a burden to carry them.

I sound so ungrateful, don't I?

Anyway, I am glad that she did give them to me, because..... look at the wonderful bulbs that emerged.

School has gone back and on picking up my granddaughters yesterday, I was asked by the After School Club, "When are you coming back? We need you."

Gulp.......I need more time to recover. To restore my body from the onslaught it has under gone during the last five months.

I want to forget about the hard times, I just want to be free to be me. I don't feel I need any pressure right now. I want to be normal again, between scans, anyway.

Is that too much to ask?