New life all around us

I don’t know whether it is all part of the side-effects of radiotherapy but I am incredibly tired.  Yesterday I slept in the afternoon for one to two hours which is very unusual for me.  I have never really needed to nap and even when I am tired, the moment I try to sleep during the day, my mind becomes suddenly very active.

At all events, I like to get the tasks I really have to do, carried out in the morning.  The various visits of the nurses also take place fairly early in the morning for the same reason.  For the district nurses this is quite convenient as I can be their first port of call.  It also means I get up and dressed rather than lazing in bed which I’m not really used to.  When I look back to my working years, like a lot of women, I used to rise very early.  I enjoyed avoiding the worst of the traffic and arriving early meant a more leisurely start to the morning as I could ensure everything was prepared for the day ahead but there was always time for tea and the crossword.  So basically I am a morning person and retirement and illness haven’t changed that.

At the moment even brief forays out in the car are interesting because I am looking at all the signs of spring.  One of the most cost-effective ways in which our local Council has spent our community charge, has been the planting of bulbs which it did a few years ago where there was land available along the roadsides.  Outside our house are hundreds of narcissi and elsewhere there have been lovely crocuses which are a pleasure to all of us.

I have enjoyed seeing the blackthorn blossom encrusting the hedgerows and the subtle pink of the almond blossom in people’s gardens.  Above all, I think of yellow as the colour of spring and, apart from the daffodils, there are forsythia and mahonia flowers in our garden.  Raymond is a bit downhearted that a number of the daffodils he planted last year have not seemed to bloom this year.  On closer inspection you can see that the leaves have come up, but the deer have been in the front garden enjoying the freshness of the young shoots.  I am not sure whether the tulips will survive for the same reason.  I am especially fond of yellow tulips and Jola sent me some which were a deep chrome yellow.

We haven’t seen the vixen lately but we were sure when we saw her last that she was pregnant.  We are really looking forward to her bringing her cubs to our back garden as they are such fun to watch.  So I hope that the radiotherapy will work (there has been a slight improvement but it takes time) and I will have a chance to see them.  New life is all around us.