Return of the prodigal blogger

5 years, 5 years, it can't be that long since I sat down to put thoughts to screen can it? So many seasons passed, crops sown, failed, grown and harvested without making it to screen. Ah well, we'll see if I'm more diligent this time won't we...

So much has changed in the last few years, the usual things that happen in families - much celebrated arrivals and sorely grieved departures, ventures begun and ventures ended and now a new normal for us following a diagnosis that everyone dreads but no-one ever expects which means that soon I will be officially retired about 20 years earlier than planned. The support we have received since learning of my cancer has been phenomenal, our local NHS team and all the peripheral support services have tended, supported and brought me to a place which means I have a future, just not necessarily as long or as clear as I may have thought it was. Our friends and family have loved, cared and supported us and the known-only-online folk have all raised our spirits and provided wonderful distractions when we have needed them.    All this continues and we are so very grateful for it.
  

And the garden, well what can I say? - even in the dark days when chemo meant I couldn't play with compost and I was so tired that just the thought of lifting a plant pot hurt - it provided solace, support and strength. Just knowing that J was working hard to make sure it was there waiting, ready for me to return, to be able to put my hands in the soil once more, to sow seeds, watch them grow, tend them, harvest them and watch the wildlife enjoy them helped beyond measure. And now, well who knows ? Then again when does anyone know what the future has in store for them. So I'll plan and plot, tend and harvest, watch and enjoy doing what I can, while I can and if I prove a better blogger than before I may even remember to write about it too...