Lin

I've decided to recruit expert advice on our garden. Lin, PD's wife, is coming around on Thursday. She's a real gardening enthusiast. Forever at garden centres & shows. She's a member of the RHS. She's helped our local council to design & help produce gardens for the RHS show at Tatton. Both times she did, they won an award. So, hopefully with her advice, the bog garden will be fabulous. (She's also a member of the RSPB so fully understands the desirability of a wildlife friendly garden too.)

I'm quite looking forward to it. I've never spent time with Lin on her own for any length of time. Hopefully this will also be a step forward in the blossoming of a friendship too.

We've known PD since we first started going to the Pub in 2001. (The village pub was closed for refurbishment at the time, & we just had to go somewhere to celebrate my release from hospital after my cancer op.) For the first few years we began to think this Lin was a mythical creature. Then one year, PD proudly showed us some photos of a holiday in Cornwall he'd just been on. There, in the midst of the Eden Project, we were pointed out the rare species known as a "Lin". Admittedly part of the reason why we'd never met her was the fact she was still working - she's still in her 50s - as a primary school teacher. Now, after having to have both her hips replaced, she's retired, which is why she's appeared more in our life. However, she's not a great pub-goer, preferring to spend her time in the garden or with family or friends. She's joined us for a couple of meals out, which is how we started to get to know her. Lin & PD have invited us to a couple of meals at their house. But it's always been with other people, & certainly always with PD there. It's sometimes easier to get to know a person on their own than with a friend or partner.

So I'm looking forward to Thursday & getting to know Lin better.