Slow-progress report

It's coming up for six weeks since I had my Big Op, a month since I came home from the hospital. Maybe I expected progress to be quicker than it is, but the plastics in my rear still make walking difficult, and so far I've limited myself to a radius which includes South Kensington to the east, Fulham Palace to the south-west (pictured above by J, self with bag containing my medical cushion, which goes everywhere with me, at the Tudor arch into/out of the fabulous walled garden).

While I hope not to be self-pitying, I can say with some objectivity it had been a bit tough for some weeks since J returned to Dublin after his month-long vigil. I was despairing one day, but found myself immensely bucked up the following morning by lovely plastics person Abigail at Charing Cross Hospital, who told me to my amazement that the surgery on my behind was 'healing beautifully'. And then I saw so many of my favourite people who've helped me - Sushma the stoma nurse (second from left in this pic, which I'm happy to repeat), Lena who did my plastics dressing while I was in hospital (third from right), 

the wonderful Mary and Louise in the Maggie's Centre which I hadn't visited for ages. I wish I'd had my camera with me because the view from where I sat while they spent time talking to me revealed the grape-rich vine and a silk tree in flower (Louise identified it for me). The below picture from one of my first excursions after radiotherapy sessions in February, so stark by comparison, will suffice (more on all that in an earlier blog entry). 

This time some of the regular visitors were there too, fresh from a yoga class, including Morris (Maurice?) who remembered my 'radio voice', and when a venerable ancient bent down to pick up the things I'd left on the floor and I told him he shouldn't be waiting on me, he turned out to be a Thursday volunteer, Tony, I think, has been helping out since the Richard Rogers-designed building first opened in the early 2000s. We talked about musical performances there, and he told me he'd donated to the fund for the restoration of the chapel organ at Christ's Hospital School, where he was a pupil during the Second World War.

Then through Margravine Cemetery, where the Marbled Whites, Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns have ceded to later species such as this Speckled Wood

and the even more common Small White, still beautiful to look at with veins showing on bramble leaves.

to lunch with Cally at our bright new local cafe, PopIn, and on to St Mary's Paddington (quite a shock to hit the mean streets and a hospital which, compared to Charing X is a bit of a mess) to see surgeon Maria. The wonderful Macmillan nurse who made it possible to me to go to Pärnu, Ann, was also there. So good to get the all clear - hopefully a definitive one this time - from two more people who have meant so much to me.

Not so sure my poor 92-year-old mum has been getting the same level of attention in her two hospitalisations following two falls at home (below is her having baked her first cake for some time not long ago, when I visited her in July). 

It was bad timing: her first fall came just before my op, when I was still in Estonia. The second happened in spite of the fact that she had people coming in four times a day at home in addition to her regular carers. I'm sure she was tended to in Epsom Hospital where necessary, but I got no calls from any of the wards she was in until last week, when I finally spoke to a lovely doctor, Flavia, who reassured me that the antibiotics had cleared up a chest infection. Physically she's in OK health, though needs help walking (if she'd not tried to do it by herself at home neither fall would have happened). 

She was sent to a convalescent wing the day after it opened, so that was all a bit at sixes and sevens. Alas, North East Epsom Cottage Hospital, where she had such a good time making friends on the ward two summers ago, closed its restful country quarters and moved to within the main hospital grounds. Her mood when I phoned her varied - sometimes I really wondered if she'd gone to a very dark place within, as it were.

Yet a stressy week or so trying to find her a respite care home for three weeks after discharge seems to have paid off: she's now in Greenacres, The Horseshoe, Banstead, so her friends can come and visit. I spoke to her last night and she was her old self - quipping and laughing. It's been an eye-opener how greedy the private care homes can be. Signature Banstead, the posh place, quoted me £1400 per week including nursing care. That had gone up to £2000 and the stay had to be for at least a month. Beaumont Care in Epsom, recommended by a wonderful district matron, seemed to be in the hands of a pushy person I couldn't quite understand over the phone, who had gone taking a phone assessment with a nurse before I'd asked. Too expensive, anyway - also £2000 - and when she said 'but we can do a deal', it felt like I was dealing with a second-hand care salesperson.

Meanwhile home life has been on a reasonably even keel. No way can I get to Banstead yet, but I've managed four live Proms (walk to West Ken, short tube journey, standing, to South Ken, then to the Albert Hall).

Knackering to various degrees, and not all great, but the first - when J was still here, and took the above pic - had the National Youth Orchestra predictably shining in Hindemith and Strauss's Four Last Songs, with the stunning Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha. 

They played well in Copland 3 but I just don't 'get' the work. The encores were - also predictably - superlative, especially Errolyn Wallen's arrangement of "Got the Whole World in His Hands", irresistible. Watch the whole thing here. Thursday night's Prom was the best I've been to as a whole - brilliant programming as usual from Vladimir Jurowski, bringing his Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra to the Proms. Sitting for long periods is out, so J and I listened to Glyndebourne's Poulenc on the radio, and I reviewed it as a broadcast experience. One more to go, just before braving this year's Norfolk Churches Walk. It can't be anything like the big loop of last year, so from our base at Kate and Fairless's lovely house, we're going to assail 40 plus churches in Norwich. I'll do as many as I can. The alternative was driving between far-flung remote churches, and I don't think I could manage sitting and getting in and out. Thinking I might depart from fundraising for the Norfolk Churches Trust this year - J can do that - and donating to Maggie's.

Visits and meetings have kept me going. Another film night here on Tuesday, the choice made as before from my stock of classic movie DVDs - this time Adam's Rib with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as married lawyers Pinkie and Pinky - was accompanied by cooking from Cally and Maxine. Edwina is coming to cook again tonight. Her lilies and cucumber from Kent garden did so well.

I like it that I can read so much, between reviews and preparations + execution of my Parsifal Zoom classes. Molly Keane is due a big eulogy soon - so much deeper and richer than I realised; I was also beguiled by Neil Gaiman's vivid retelling of Norse mythology, surely designed to read aloud - it will be useful for Rheingold, but interest was stimulated by the fascinating Norwegian drama Ragnarok, so good at balancing the contemporary mundane with the mythical. Just reached the end of that, and caught up with the very moving final instalments of Derry Girls. What next?

Weekly cycles to Kew 2021 2: March - June

Last year, I only reached the end of February in my photo-chronicle of the lifesaving Fridays shared with friend Cally during the darkest phase of lockdown, when nothing was happening at all on the live cultural scene. We carried it on to mid-June, and those treasured bike rides, leisurely walks, soup on a bench, tea and cake on another bench later, still stand out as a highlight of 2021. I feel I need to pick up the trail now especially because after the big train jaunt, January in London has felt more than usually bleak, despite a few days of brilliant sunshine. Picking and sorting these images has been a tonic - not just nostalgic, but also a reminder that lushness and colour will return.

What's a bit hard at the moment is that the winter visitors out back, the goldfinches, and in Margravine Cemetery, the redwings, don't seem to have returned. I felt a spring in my step after seeing one of the two bitterns regularly to be sighted at the London Wetland Centre. But I'm waiting for major colour like this, from two Green Woodpeckers, which greeted us on our 6 March visit.

Other action in early March was slow. The magnolia grove was about to burst, though,

and there was a rare silvery light on the Thames as I cycled back.

Elsewhere - and I make no apologies for natural digressions - spring was more in evidence. The spaliered fruit trees along the wall of Fulham Palace's Walled Garden had started to blossom

and the first of the bees from the nearby hives (sadly reduced from last year) were on to them.

while winter's relics, the Hellebores, were putting on a fine show at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

The following Friday at Kew, the magnolias were very much out. I'm resisting a gallery of them, since I offered that in 2020, but this shot will suffice.

It was time, too, for the pulsatillas or pasque flowers in the Alpine rockery, a personal favourite.

Time was short on 19 January, so instead of the big cycle we kept it more local to Cally, taking advantage of low tide to cross over to the eyot at Chiswick Mall (for me, the most enchanting spot on the river, never the same twice). Much work had been done in late winter in the way of pruning by the dedicated locals who look after it, so major growth was yet to come.

The grand magnolia in flower in front of the big house on Chiswick Mall

and daffodils around the lake in Chiswick House's glorious grounds

then over the river to the Leg of Mutton nature reserve, whitethorn blossom providing contrast among the reeds

and above the water.

First of the Peacock Butterflies fluttering around and settling on the headstones in the graveyard of my old haunt All Saints Banstead, on a visit to see my ma, such a warm day for 30 March.

1 April, and some of the blossom was now reaching peak form back at Kew

along with the magnolias - Stellata pictured here.

Finally, too, it was fritillary time in the neighbouring meadow (quite early, I think - early May is the usual).

And the pulsatillas were no longer isolated clumps, but abundant.

Couldn't resist the plumage of this male Mandarin Duck

and at home, on the fence between the back yards and the school playground, a goldfinch was showing itself to best advantage.

Tulip and pear blossom time back at the Fulham Palace Walled Garden

and cowslips at the Wetland Centre

Yellow season much enriched, too, by marsh marigolds.

Gunnera incipient in the Pantanal zone.

This is really the home of the adorable Whistling Ducks and Screamers, though the most interesting activity was the nest-building activity of a moorhen couple:

First time I'd been here in the spring, so I was surprised to come across more fritallaries sharing swampy ground with more marsh marigolds on the south walk.

Kew's more manicured fritillary meadow again - 16 April - not sure how we came to miss a Friday -

the arrival of the tulips in the meadows either side of the prunus avenue

and more blossoming in the orchards between the Temperate House and the Pagoda, though not evenly so (the great glory of 2020, the Yoshino cherry, was not so spectacular this year).

My first acquaintance with a real oddity (to me), Cornus 'Ormonde', in a glade beyond the larches,

and first sign of leafing in the avenue of horse chestnuts leading to our usual entrance/exit.

Can't resist the interlude of a mackerel sky above Old Brompton Cemetery

where I first heard, and finally saw, a Great Spotted Woodpecker.

So to the glorious 23rd April, everything along the river and at Kew waxing lyrical. The beginnings of the finest wisteria blossom along Chiswick Mall

though it has to be said that a more sheltered specimen against a white wall was doing better at this point.

At Kew, first of the peonies were flourishing - bee-kissed Paeonia cambesedesii by the Alpine House

as well as these in the Alpine rockery proper

The rockery lushed up last year better than I can ever remember it doing before,

including among the bloomers an oddity I hadn't seen before, the Cuban Lily (Scilla peruviana).

and the vegetable beds the other side of the wall showed first signs of life with the fruit trees along the edges

with tulips in serried ranks further north - these beds awakening at last from their long winter sleep.

Bluebells at last in the woodland zone.

The cycles to and fro along the Surrey side of the Thames reminded me how far the trees had come into leaf since we started our excursions at the beginning of the year.

More abundance: horse chestnuts and early moonrise in front of the Chelsea Hospital.

Meanwhile, another back yard regular returned, or made self manifest, the Dunnock. A family was soon evident.

Last Kew trip of April, on the 30th, and first proper visit of the year to the beds of the Duke's Garden, which would offer the biggest profusion within weeks. For now, some of the peonies both here and further north had emerged.

All greenhouse remained closed during the semi-lockdown, so we could only peer through the windows at the Amazonicas in the Waterlily House.

Bluebells, Spanish chestnuts and beeches in the woods had come on magnificently

and the ongoing glories of the orchards near the pagoda made for an extended idyll (fell asleep on a nearby bench in the sun).

On the return route, a very high tide at Chiswick Mall opposite the eyot made for a welcome lingering, and the approach of a fearless swan.

May Day morning turned about to be an ideal choice for 4am rising and five hours around the dawn chorus experience at the Leg of Mutton reserve, about which I wrote closer to the time. The month continued to do what we expect of it. Cycling back to Kew on the 7th, I found the Chiswick Mall wisteria in its full glory

and the eyot duly lushing up.

Newly flourishing in the rock garden, sundry aquilegias, foreground to ferns and peonies.

Hadn't expected to see a yellow tree peony this late, but here's one at the foot of the temple knoll.

At last the glorious Judas Trees are in full bloom - first encounter with this one in the Mediterranean garden zone. The hair colour of one of these ladies seemed too irresistible a complement not to sneak a shot.

One step further for the tulips of the cherry tree avenue

and further loveliness of beech leafing against the bluebells.

There was an unexpected paeonian bonus just before we left, actually near the toilets on the north side. This looks like a peony, but its designation is Solanum jasmanoades,

while its equally big and blowsy neighbour is Paeonia suffruticosa.

Abundant peonies by now available to adorn the home. This bunch has a version of our good friend Marcelle Hanselaar's 'White Collar Man' behind it.

The yard at last began to thrive. The patio quince put forth flowers

and even the sporadic bee population seemed to be on the increase, here on the latest addition to the geranium family out back,

while I'd almost forgotten about the two irises under the weeping mulberry tree, but parted the leaves and found them thriving

Iris time, too, in the formal gardens of Hyde Park - here's one gorgeous speciment fully open

and another budding

while a ubiquitous parakeet makes for interesting colour co-ordination in a nearby tree.

I'm so glad our good friend Deborah joined me on the opening of the Glyndebourne season (20 May), because she's an orchid expert and immediately, very excitedly, identified a batch of Common Twayblades (Neottia ovata) which I would have overlooked by the edge of the lake.

Other, more familiar emergents were the over 100 year-old wisteria in Fulham Palace's Walled Garden

and the dark colombines in our bedroom windowbox.

On 28 May, downpours threatened, so we weathered it at Cally's before setting out to a nearer location, Chiswick House Gardens. But I'd never been in the newly-restored Walled Garden there, so there were plenty of treats here: the white wisteria on the outside wall,

rows of colourful planting on one side of the main avenue, irises abundant,

Phacelia tanacetifolia, much loved by bees and abundant,

ditto a lupin (mine in the back yard failed this year - unless I buy them advanced in growth, the snails get them).

Waterfowl life on the lake was much as usual, including the coots who nest in the same places every year, but this time there was a small addition, much treasured, I guess, because few of the chicks that hatch survive - too often the herons get them,

Late May seems prime time for the young 'uns. These kid grebes in Battersea Park were enchanting

and nearby, close to a swan's nest which had been deserted - one fellow visitor was concerned, but as soon as she'd gone, another assured me that the brood had hatched and swum off with mum and dad - another resourceful moorhen was raising young.

By the Serpentine on 30 May there was more avian family action. Greylag parents steered their broad successfully through the pedestrians to the water

while a mother swan gave her two cygnets the cue to rest

before the father appeared to accompany them on the Serpentine.

1 June reminded us of the first days when Kew reopened to the public the previous year (pictured at the end of this 2020 chronicle), and this day was just as glorious. Peonies back then were nearly at an end, but everything was a couple of weeks behind last June, so the Duke's Garden was still yielding wonders. If anything, the beds were now even more spectacular, with irises and lupins adding to the colour-layers.

Abundant in the rock garden were Mediterranean tulips and Californian poppies

along with Ochagavia elegans.

Bees love the giant echiums in flower.

Peak season on the other side of the wall - more bee action on abundant 'Scarlet O'Hara'

and more serried ranks of irises.

Nearby was a loner, not one I'd seen before - 'Tol long'.

At last we were readmitted to the water lily house, where the Amazonicas were doing their stuff. Having just watched how brutal they can be in shutting out the light from other plants fighting for life in the excellent Green Planet, it's as well there are experts to hand to make sure the lilies also thrive.

Resident peacock of the Japanese garden (which Cal had got to display by some embarrassing but effective singing several weeks earlier) offsetting azaleas,

colourful fungus on a tree stump (don't ask me what),

and a bee on a flower (Deborah has identified it as Camassia Leichtlinii alba) in a white and green meadow near the oak zone.

First visit of the season to Garsington's home on the Wormsley Estate, with the obligatory visit to the glorious walled garden (walkable, and we've wandered back, but they insist you take the coach from the cricket pavilion).

Not entirely characteristic sightings back at the Wetlands Centre on 8 June - a moth which doesn't appear in my Collins guide, and yet I saw it in several different locations around this time,

 orchids (Southern Marsh?) by one of the smaller ponds

ubiqtuitous (but always cheering) Lapwing on one of the flowered islets

and frilly giant poppies in abundance

Last year, the English Garden in Battersea Park was a lavish joy, having been rather unattended in 2020, though lilies on the pond are always profuse.

Roses in abundance, too, this flower with a sleeping bee inside.

The final visit to Kew in this batch, on 11 June, included J and Maxine Braham to celebrate the half-year of Fridays along with us. Here they are in the Waterlily House

A fresh batch of flowering

and water droplets on a lotus leaf.

Again we were able to compare with this time the previous year - when J and I visited in 2020 on the day after reopening, 2 June, the tulip trees were in bloom. This was the first Friday when we saw the flowers, so roughly 10 days behind.

Likewise only white peonies were still in flower back in early June 2020; now most of the rest were still thriving

though I remember the lupins near the peony garden from before,

Our white peony finalists were all doing well in the Duke's Garden

though the star attraction here was the humming of innumerable bees among the ?Salvia nemorosa? Only a film does justice to this abundance, but these stills must suffice.

Star unknown (to me) of this visit was a Japanese Snowbell tree (Styrax japonica), spectacular in full flower.

Second visit of the season to Glyndebourne was on my birthday; the concert conducted by Robin Ticciati was a stunner - first Mahler symphony (Four) I'd heard live in at least a year and a half - and so was the day. More orchids were to be found in the meadows and by the lake, where the last of the twayblades could still be found if you looked hard enough.

Meanwhile the formal beds were thriving with irises, poppies, lupins, foxgloves and a very handsome robinia (opposite where we dined in the interval, at table 59, a significant number for the day).

Heading towards the longest day of the year, we still had the sunset to enjoy after the symphony's childlike view of heaven.

The weather wasn't quite so clement on my one visit last year to Grange Park, but a circuit around the fields revealed an unusual visitor - a black bee? Certainly I've not seen one like this before.

Meanwhile, the goldfinches continued their feeding down in the back yard (view from bedroom window)

and even had some babies (if I make this out aright, there are two with their mother).

I even got to see the goldfinches moult in late summer, but there's been no sign of them for months. But the days are getting longer, the sun came out halfway through the week and nature is slowly coming back to fuller life.