Blooming Spring


The front door. 



I often tell people the hardest thing about running is getting out the front door.  The scent from the wisteria is sensationally heady. This Spring everything's bloomed at the same time. It's as if the house (we call Clarence) is trying it's best to make us feel safe and secure and give us hope.


 Who needs a flag pole when yo have Flag Iris



 
The Ceanothus. It was hear when we arrived so when I built the drive I worked around it.


 
Most years we have forty plus blooms of Red Hot Pokers


 
An old favourite Convolvulus Cneorum aka Silver Bush (no jokes please)

 
 
My self-bonsai'd Azalea. Each year I'm convinced it's its last but it keeps going.

   
Erysimum or posh variegated wall flower
And that was just the front garden! so now for
Ally Pally
 
Fliss with a Pieris Japonica in it's full redness behind. 


 
A bed of red white and blue forget-me-nots 

 
 
Horse Chestnut aka Conker tree

 
 
A white cherry in front of the BBC tower at Ally Pally

 
 
Primroses - my dad's favourite flower 


 Hampstead Heath
One of the swimming ponds
Another busy morning in Central London.  


 
 An old haunt from back in the day :)
View from Parliament Hill 


 
A drift of Forget-Me-Nots like blue snow

 
An American lady on Hamstead Heath asked me 'What type of duck is that?' which was surprising as asking joggers random wildlife questions (yes I was running at the time) I answered muscovy but I now think it's an adult female mallard. Why it's at the top of the tree has me stumped!


The entrance of Highgate Cemetery, the dead centre of my route!

More coming soon :)
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Round 3 / 4 Review

Image
 Follow This Blog   It's an interesting exercise to think of the last two months in terms of highs and lows. The best of times, the worst of times. Well the best bits were awesome so I'll put those in later and the worst weren't too bad, so overall it's been better than OK. Round three of my adventures in ChemoLand started with a slight twist on the cannula finding a vein saga. On both chemo days the nurse got them in on the first attempt! My record is five attempts so success on the first attempt is good. Unfortunately in Round Four my veins rebelled and remained elusive requiring several painful attempts. They remained bruised and sore for the full cycle since Round Three, but on the up side, it was useful to know which ones not to use in Round Four! My nausea has been slightly worse but only lasted for seven days compared to ten on Round Two. I still haven't been sick. It's just a feeling that adds to the tiredness and saps my motivati
Read more

The Last Post

Image
Follow This Blog Now that got your attention! Last week I had my post chemo PET scan. Apart from the usual four attempts to get the cannula in, it was an easy procedure. You fast so your cells go into a restful state, (the irony of a lunchtime appointment!), Then they inject you with radioactive sugar which the ever restless cancer cells gobble up. They move you in and out of a tumble dryer until all the radiation has shown up. I was warned not to handle babies for several days! I’ve managed 40+ years so that didn’t present a problem. After the scan, one of the cannula attempts was causing some ongoing pain and swelling so they gave me an ice pack before sending me on my way. Outside was about -2 deg with the wind chill, so I’m not sure the ice pack was strictly necessary but it was appreciated.  A friend reported that he had a metallic taste after his PET scan, but maybe because of my brief brush with COVID last November, I didn't taste anything, or maybe my nose could
Read more

Sepsis vs Sadler A Week in Hospital

Image
Follow this Blog! In this Post: A radiator, drip, a call, then: Admission to UCLH (University College London Hospital) via their A&E dept. Two nights reclining on the Haematology ward until a midnight transfer to ICU. Presenting: Sepsis vs Sadler, a battle fighting sepsis in ICU. To top it off a dance and a rosie bowl of tom yum soup! Wow what a ride - the timeline: |The Radiator: Saturday morning and I'm trying to rehang the bathroom radiator having been in a state of wonkiness for years. No matter how many times I measured, I couldn't get the brackets in the right place, brain fog! I was taking frustration/exhaustion breaks more and more frequently. I’d also heard an ominous crack from below the floorboards. A pipe joint had cracked and we get the first drip of this story. We now have a large hole in the ceiling of the room below. Do Not Pass Go: With perfect irony it wasn't the radiators temperature going up but mine! It was drilled into me at
Read more