Just checking in.

HUGE birthday party for January pencilled in @Queenie @CheerBear @Shaz51

Yesterday had a change of plans that found me spending the afternoon and evening away from home. It was a bit of an emotional one at times and I found myself doing what I enjoy so much when I am at this not-home - walking around the garden. I took some photos and want to post them, not expecting anyone to read or reply, but really appreciating the space to share.

I found these ones.

I love daisies. If I had to pick one flower as my favourite, it would be one that belongs to the daisy family. They're so bright and happy and I really enjoy looking at them close up. There are lots of patches of daisies in this garden 🌼

I also found many other flowers that need looking at close up to really appreciate. Even the herb garden was full of (mostly purple) flowers. I came across a little patch of tiny forget-me-nots. So pretty 😊

And then there were these two, which are both special ones having a story behind them involving the people in my life who are extra struggling at the moment.

The rose reminds me of a weekend I spent with the person who is in hospital. During that weekend I had left my partner for the last time. It felt very different to all the other times I tried to leave as I knew that this time really was the end. I was very emotional, mostly with a strange sense of freedom and a feeling of great heaviness being lifted. Unwell person and I decided to work on an unplanned outdoor project. We were mostly silent but occasionally we shared a story or a thought before going back to our separate worlds inside our heads. Even though there was little talking we kept each other company in such a great (and unusual for us) way. The weekend ended by planting this pink climbing rose which we've watched grow over some years. At around this time each year it flowers and reminds us of 'our' weekend. Person will probably miss seeing it this year so I took photos and sent them in a brief but heart feely short message exchange last night.

And the darker coloured one is a magnolia. The person staying with us and I both appreciate my little magnolia with its spectacular-for-five-minutes flowers. Person mentioned wanting one of their own to enjoy so I bought this one as a gift for them last year. This year they were able to see mine as they were with us when it flowered, but were thinking that they would miss theirs as it would have flowered while they were away. Though it is almost over, there were enough flowers left to see and smell it. It has an amazing port wine scent 🙂

This house is likely to go before long. Part of buying some time to get things organised is a plan for them to move. It will be very bittersweet if/when it happens. While I have never lived at this house it has felt more like home at times than anywhere else, so for now I plan to soak up all the great that there is here while I can.

Hearing you @CheerBear ...... 💜💐💕💜🌷💕💜🌸💕💜

Can I draw your two special flowers for you @CheerBear ?

Beautiful post, @CheerBear. I love the close images of the flowers and the deep felt words you wrote, especially about that special time with your unwell person. We don't need to speak to have close connection. Sometimes quietn can be more powerful, leaving just the warmth and reassuring company of someone we love.

I too have a special relation to the daisy family, in my case gerberas. When I was at my sickest with Crohns Disease and in hospital for six weeks for a major surgery, someone sent me gerberas to cheer my time. I really went quite crazy in hospital, was terribly depressed, at one point suicidal. But each day for the duration of their life, I would wake to the bright smiling faces of the gerberas. I looked at them many times during the day too, a blessing that eased my misery. That was all the way back in 1985, and I still remember those healing gerberas so well.

Gentle hugs to you, and kindest wishes for the changes that are to come in the lives of your loved ones.

It might take a little while @CheerBear, not because they are difficult, but they will slot in to what I am doing somewhere ..... and I will

oost them in the art thread, if that’s okay .....

IThanks for your beautifully heart felt garden/life story @CheerBear. It really sends home how important the little things are. It made me think that those kind of garden stories are the ones that have probably been the connecting ones in my family.

I 💜💜💜 all the garden photos, so delicate and pretty. I find it really hard to grow daisy type flowers here as the climate is too harsh. One day I hope to be in this house and have some big shade trees to give a little more protection. I’ve planted some but have more in mind. That garden looks spectacular. I think I’d be a bit like a botanical Noah’s ark and want to take as many cuttings as I could with me. I tend to do that a bit or find plants that I’ve loved at the houses I’ve lived in.

Ive been wanting to check in with you but am mindful of not being that annoying little jack russel yapping at your heels 😳. I hope that through the upcoming steps that you are able to have that time out that is cathartic.

It it feels like another new start day for me. I just wish I wasn’t so tired 😑. Dog drove me crazy last night. He kept waking me up. Time to pull my finger out and get going me thinks.

💜🤗