under another sun

Maureen phoned at a little before four AM to say she was waiting for the ambulance as she wasn't feeling well. A bit alarming. There was nothing to be done right now. But I found it hard to get asleep. I have been having really fiery indigestion off and on for the last few days, and I lay awake for an hour, experiencing stabbing chest pains, which in the context of worrying about Maureen wasn't so great.  Lorraine and I up early. She spoke to Maureen, who was being released back into the wild this morning, the hospital having found nothing alarming. Thank goodness. Greatly relieved, Lorraine drove over and collected her, and stayed with them all day until returning tonight. Left to my own devices, I worked on poetry for several hours, until I broke off to manfully surge into the garden. Here I filled the trug that Lorraine and I had resurrected yesterday with a layer of garden soil, two bags of compost and generous handfuls of British horse poo. Into this I planted five strawbe...

Felt much brighter today, although still a bit stiff from the walk. A happy day, simply lurking about at home. Found a few things to do, and I spoke to Mum and arranged to come up and see her and Mas with Lorraine in week, which felt good to have in the diary. We are going to see Pat and Maureen shortly too. A very relaxed afternoon, listening to Guy Garvey on radio 6. He plays lovely stuff. Lorraine doing a vast and difficult jigsaw of two otters swirling about in water, while I read a little. We watched the last bit of the Blues Brothers, and I also watched the end of the match at Wembley where Chelsea were beating Manchester United 3-1 in an empty stadium for the semifinal FA cup match. Despite the feeling of absolute unreality of the game, the result naturally pleasing. Chelsea now meet Arsenal in the F.A. Cup Final whenever that will be. Below: Lorraine pulls a mighty Kenny Farm carrot from the trug. We ate it raw with a salad, as it was the only one that was quite ready. You ...