Late summer

It is a sunny day today with little wind. During the past week there have been a couple of dull days with a cold feel and we have had the woodburner on in the evening as I still feel the cold. Raymond went into the woods behind us and collected some wood ready for the winter season. On the opposite side of the road, the woods are owned by a neighbour who is also happy for us to remove the fallen wood. Many of the trees are birch which burn well. Although they are not good woods for wild flowers in spring, in the autumn they are full of amazing varieties of fungi including fly agaric (the red ones with the white spots) and chanterelles.

I haven’t had much sleep during the past week and yesterday evening I was sick. However, after that sheer tiredness overtook me and I slept. When deprived of sleep for any length of time it is so wonderfully refreshing to have a real sleep. I am annoyed at being sick as I haven’t been sick for a little while. It has nothing to do with any food I have eaten, just part of the post transplant recovery process. It was particularly galling because Raymond cooked a lovely brown trout he had caught. The flesh was lighter than the rainbow trout we usually have, and was very delicate.

I am very excited today. Jonathan is working in Southampton tomorrow so has decided to come down tonight and stay overnight. He had already planned to be with us on Friday night, Saturday and most of Sunday but this is a real bonus. Fortunately, Raymond gets equally excited and it is a joy we can share. On Saturday we shall have my mother over so that she can spend her 97^th birthday with us. Later on Sunday we shall go back with Jonathan and stay overnight ready for our early start at the Marsden on Monday.

I am glad we are about to have a good weekend as next week for me will be rather tense. So much depends on the outcome of this scan. If it is clear I can start to plan for the future just a little (nothing is ever certain with lymphoma) but if it isn’t we shall be truly disappointed as we all hoped that the bone marrow transplant would give me a chance of survival. By this time next week I should know.