R.I.P. Tanya Butchers 1970-2019

It is with a very heavy heart that I must let the readers of my lovely girlfriend's blog know that Tanya died on 21st November  2019. We knew this day would come, but even so the end came surprisingly, and shockingly, quickly, with the cancer attacking her liver in the end. I was thankful to be with her for the last few minutes of her life.

I hope the words in this blog will continue to help others, as Tanya would have wanted. For those of us lucky enough to have known Tanya these posts will also give us a chance to listen to her voice still, for which we are all grateful.

Good bye my brave, beautiful lady. I love you and miss you so much.

J.

Another absence

Sorry for the disappearance again folks. Managed to take a bit of a tumble on Tuesday which,  whilst I didn't really hurt myself, landed me back in hospital for a few days and undergoing some scary tests. Luckily the scary tests didn't throw anything new at us this time so I'm home again working to recover strength which is poor but will improve.

Presence on here may be a bit intermittent as get quite tired when do anything and then brain shuts down a bit.

See you anonx

Planting positivity

Taken by J

Taken by J.

I may be having a blip and not be able to get outside or indeed downstairs at the moment but that doesn't stop the garden and allotment being a real source of strength and positivity and I'm so very grateful for it. Today I've peeked out of the window and watched the blackbird eating the cotoneaster berries from the hedge, looked down on the beds that J managed to do a bit of work on yesterday and spotted the scabious still in bloom and the strawberry and flowering currant leaves taking on their Autumn tints of red and yellow. He's also been busy sowing broad beans and onions in modules in the hope that the mice and voles might leave them alone if they are rooted when we put them in ground. Tonight we ordered our seed potatoes for next year's harvest courtesy of the Transition Loughborough Potato Day online system and J has spent some time pricking out and potting on the cuttings and biennial sowings I made at the end of the summer so we can look forward to pansies, violas, sweet rocket, verbena and penstemons next year - mind you we're already running out of window ledges!

Next stop part 2 of the brilliant Northern Lights adaptation. Happy Sunday all.

Slow days

Wet night but shaping up to be a dry day I think, if a little grey and November-ish.

Things are improving slowly here as I take a break from the chemo and give my body chance to recover. That treatment is now set aside and once my skin (nasty reaction) and strength returns we'll be trying a different one. In the meantime it's patience from me (a struggle at times) and TLC from J ( who seems to have a never-ending supply of it). There's been lots of practical support from the local care teams and the regular checking in from friends and family too. Brain energy seems to be returning as well so that means I can start catching up on all the blogs, articles and things I have bookmarked over the last week or so too. As I'm not doing much other than recuperate my own blog-posts might be a bit sparse but we'll see.

We ordered a stair-lift yesterday which will be installed next week - a big step but one we always knew would come and it will mean that when muscles are weak and energy levels low I can still use the whole house and J can actually leave it - whereas at the moment I'm back to being largely upstairs as that's where the bathroom is (not TMI I hope!!) and he's on cooking, waiting, door answering and everything else duties.

So that's where we are at the moment.
Bye for now.
x

Home at last

Tired but doing ok. Chill out evening ahead. Normal service will resume anon.
Bye for now
Tx

A little blip.

 Hopefully not for long but Wednesday's quick trip for a blood test gas turned into a stay in hospital due to a rather low bloid count and the starts of an infection. Being treated and hopefully be home soon. We've had worse!

Back soon

X

Visiting with the houseplants

Had a wander around the house on Sunday realising that over the years, without really intending to, I've become a houseplant keeper. For years and years I said I didn't really do houseplants - I always said I couldn't keep them alive - but if that's the case then where have all these appeared from?

In the Living Room

This purple orchid is on it's fourth re-flowering in the year or so since I was given it by a friend, I'm holding out hope it's white-flowered neighbour might try again soon






The weeping fig came in the same pack as Bob about 25 years ago, and despite years of neglect now thrives on the windowsill.

This peace lily was part of another gift a couple of years ago and seems to just keep growing - mind you it has only flowered once.

In the kitchen

A bit of a mixture on the kitchen table at the moment - a baby Bob and a selection of succulents waiting for their forever homes, a scented geranium ready to be overwintered, our last Aloe Vera and a pot of sage cuttings waiting to be potted up. The dark red chrysanthemum was given to as a gift last Christmas and turned out to be four little plants in one pot - we split them and they've spent the summer outside. I brought this one in at the weekend to see what would happen and look how beautiful it is.

And then there's the white flowered orchid that was given to us a few years ago by J's cousins and the little seemingly ever-lasting cyclamen that was given to me the first Christmas I came to Stratford by a new colleague and has flowered every winter since, it's a gorgeous scarlet colour and brightens the darkest days beautifully. 

And then there's upstairs residents...

You've met Bob before and he certainly seems to have recovered from the pruning and propagating at the beginning of the year. All bar the last one of those babies has been re-homed.

And after a year in their new homes the succulents are looking great and it's their babies we'll be re-homing next. 

And dotted on windowsills all round the house....


there's the super-hot skinny chillis that have come in for the winter and the violas that are getting ready to move out and the lupin, sweet rocket, geraniums, verbena, penstemons and pinks that will all need to be potted on and over-wintered indoors until the Spring now.

And it seems that not only do we have a house full of plant-shaped memories and family and friends and kindnesses but lots of potential kindnesses to return.