Sunday 20th May 2018

Sunday.

Day of rest.

And so it came to pass, that after nine straight days of orchiding, by legs were all achey breaky and so I rested.

We chilled first thing, drinking coffee and listening to Huey on the i player. I made bacon butties, we made them disappear, and got dressed, cleared up.

It was to be a quiet day, so some stuff in the garden; weeding mainly. Jools sharpened the hoe, and I dug up all the poppies, apparently.

And then for the big task; netting the gooseberries.

For the last three years, we have had a great crop of them until just before they're ripe, and they all vanish. It is easy to blame slugs and snails, but an internet search revealed the culprits likely to be pigeons.

So, we had bought a net a few weeks back, and with the berries forming, we tough it high time to cover the. It probably took two hours, and not cobered at the top, but with pots balanced in canes and the nets graped from this, and pinned at the bottom, should do a turn.

We stop for lunch, fresh asparagus fried i butter, fresh bread and a Belgian wheat beer.

More gentle gardening in the afternoon, then another coffee and a bowl of strawberries and cream, whilst sitting in the shelter in the late afternoon sun.

I cook herb crusted lamb, fresh baby Jersey Royals and more pan fried asparagus for dinner, which is very nice indeed.

We settle to watch TV, and that's when Martin called.

Martin lives over the road, next to Bob and Diane. I had seen him earlier as Bb is back in hospital, and I asked to be informed if he heard anything.

He had.

Bob had been ill for something like three years. We first noticed it when the three balloons launched at the back of the house, he and Diane came down, but the effort of walking up the hill made him cough and cough. I think, he had been coughing for months, on and off, but that made it public.

So began an endless series of tests, hospital visits, whilst all the time his quality of life got worse.

He could do less and less, went onto oxygen, moved less and less, coughed more and more, and his condition got worse and worse

He had something wrong with his lungs, and the coughing made it worse, created scarring, and it could not be stopped. He was on more and more drugs, and nothing worked, or affected his other drugs and made Bob worse.

Bob went downhill the last few weeks, his salt levels dropped, which we now know is a very bad sign. He did not want to eat or drink, and became listless, just coughing and breathing oxygen.

He left home in an ambulance for the last time last Wednesday, and things went downhill quickly. Their daughter came over on Friday and said they had been told to expect the worse. And that happened at just before six yesterday. Bob was at peace and not coughing.

His last three years, and that of his wife, Diane, have been hell.