May 31st 2011

Such a lot has happened in the last ten days I haven’t had any time to catch up with the blog, which is a shame.  so here is a little round -up of events to get us back on track.

Firstly, Jane has her bee-hive installed at last on the allotment. She brought it back with a boxful of bees last weekend, and has been busy planting bee friendly plants and helping them settle in.  They seem quite calm and friendly, although I haven’t interfered with them myself!  A chap here on the estate who is an expert bee-keeper has been on hand to give her advice, and checked them over on arrival. They seem fit and virus free, because the last thing he’ll want is disease affecting his hives. The risk of a swarm is apparently one of the worst things you can have. Anyway more on bees later.

Chris went home to South America last Thursday, and we miss him so much. He stayed for four weeks altogether which was great for us, but mainly due to the fact that he had to go twice to Christie’s hospital for tests and to see the Consultant.

I went to London to work on Wednesday and Thursday and went to another brilliant concert, this time with the London Chamber Orchestra under Christopher Warren Green at St John Smith Square. It was wonderful. I can honestly say I have never heard finer string playing. They played Mozart’s K488 Piano concerto, my favourite piano concerto, and the whole thing was exquisite. – a young Ukrainian soloist called Christie something, who played with great finesse. Then they did the Jupiter again, but this time it just shone, pure gold, much better I have to say than the Cadogen Hall concert two weeks before.  I felt very emotional about Mozart dying so young and yet giving the world the apotheosis of music.  I also ate in the SJSS restaurant below and had a wonderful squash and goat cheese lasagne. Not bad for £10 fir the food, and £10 for my ticket.

At my digs in the Vicarage just round the corner from there, I talked to the vicar’s dad, a very spry 89 year old visiting from Arizona, where he still works as a researcher into soil depletion. He put his extremely good health down to grapefruit every morning, says it has the most vitamins in usable form of any fruit. the soil where it grows is important, – hence Arizona grapefruit is better than Florida. The grapefruits grown by my friends in Palm Desert California are also wonderful. He was called Jerry and said he moves round the world now, spending a great deal of time with his elder daughter in Bali, another son in New Zealand, and then comes here to London to catch up with the son who is a Westminster vicar.  David’s father, who died at 97, also had grapefruit every morning, so there must be something in it!

Things took a turn for the worse here on Saturday when David  and I had to go to A&E, after he was taken poorly. Thank goodness he recovered eventually,  but it meant he was off church on Sunday and they had to have their Rogation walk and faith lunch without us. He is still in constant pain after a prostate operation  x 2 last October, so this seemed a major set back. The GP has endorsed what the casualty doctors prescribed, and said the incident might actually be a sign of healing. 

Then yesterday I fell head first down a very slippery set of stone steps next door at DDD of D’s, so stupid, I tripped over a hosepipe, and ended up crashing down the flight. So I had to go back to the same A&E and now have stitches in my forehead, a massive black eye and suspected broken nose. I am not putting a picture on facebook!  But worry not gentle readers, I didn’t break my neck or even my fingers, just sprained various other parts, and have to stay in for a day or two or I will scare little children. Everyone has been very kind, and Debo came to visit first thing. For once I was grateful that she can hardly see and can’t make out faces, as she’d have had a nasty shock.  It’s a good thing I am the opposite end of the spectrum from a fashion plate, and usually don’t even remember to brush my hair before I go out!

I watched Benjamin Button the other night on TV, and it was extremely thought provoking, – the section about his beloved being hit by a taxi and smashing her leg was a bit like my little accident.  As I am now nursing my mother who is becoming tinier by the week and will soon fit into a doll’s house, the essay on aging and personality made a huge impression on me. Who are we? At what stage in our lives are we the essential us?  It’s a mystery!

That’s all for now, folks, but if I am confined to quarters, I may catch up with more blogging later.  I need to fill you in with garden events.