A busy week

We seem to have had a busy week, hence the silence.

Tuesday, as usual was dominated by Linda, our home help in the morning & food shopping in the afternoon.

Wednesday I was all set to write a blog about the swallows that had dive-bombed us while sitting outside Snatchems the day before. Instead the morning was spent ironing. I had rather a lot to do this week. It took more than a couple of hours to do.

Thursday was thoroughly disrupted by the Fox’s need to go to the hospital to start his physiotherapy course. This physio confirmed the problem lay in the fluid sac attached to the hip rather than the hip itself. Exercise should ease it, probably cure it. So now each day he is doing his exercises. He’s also trying to remember not to cross his legs when sat down.

Friday brought Carol, the gardener, round. She did a wonderful job of tidying everything up in time for our cruising friends to come round in the afternoon. They’ve never been before. They supported us through the trauma of the garden makeover last year. We thought it was high time they saw what all the fuss was about & so they would be able to understand where we meant when we talked about the continuing changes. They were very impressed by the results, the more so when they saw our photos of the garden before the work was undertaken.

Dor was particularly enchanted by the English lavender hedging along the paths & in the raised semicircle. She loved the way the tall mauve verbena rippled in the breeze behind the richer purple of the lavender, only interrupted by the green of mint. She also discovered prostrate rosemary, so much more manageable than the bush variety. They both admired the way the paths were laid out, in sweeping curves, drawing you up the garden. Eric liked the “love seat” under one of the pergolas, looking across the first lawn. And that on top of what he called the “lover’s getaway”, our walled garden.

They were also struck by just how much wind we have here. Although they live in Morecambe, not so far from us, they do live more inland than us. We live literally just two roads away from the sea & so catch all the sea breezes. Yesterday it was quite gusty sat in our garden while in theirs there was barely any movement.

Hopefully next week will be a bit quieter. We need to get on with sorting out accommodation in Manchester for the night before our trip to Austria & our night after the Fox’s niece’s wedding. We also want to get back to the garden centre to buy yet more pots & plants, now we’re beginning to see how it’s all coming together. And there’s an outfit to get for the wedding. And I’ve still got to finish reading about Vienna & all its wonders. I suspect Austria is going to be our chance to get to grips with the works of Gustav Klimt. He seems to be shown in galleries both in Salzburg as well as Vienna. We’ve never seen any of his originals to really judge his work. I suspect we will be the wiser as to how much we appreciate it by the time we come home.