Putting 2020 to bed

Most people will be happy to see the back of 2020 I guess, and I’m no exception.

Apart from the Covid issues that we all had to cope with, on new year’s eve 2019 I had a hospital appointment where it was confirmed that I had cancer. The coming year looked bleak before it had even started.

This blog isn’t the place for detail but the treatment I went through was physically and mentally exhausting, what it is important to say is that our garden and allotment played a vital role in coping with the treatment and recovering from it, giving both my wife and me something to focus on other than my illness.

Through the last months of winter and into spring whenever I had the energy we would sow seeds and plant out and care for our plants. Each seed sown, every plant put into the ground and every drop of water applied was an investment in the future, a commitment to the seasons to come.

My recovery from the treatment was slow but we continued to tend our plants and as they gained strength so did I. Although I was hardly able to eat we had broad beans in May, runner beans in June and in July I had another scan. I was clear.

* * *

As I write this post it’s almost new year’s eve 2020. There’s another growing season ahead. Another year to enjoy the fresh air, feel the sun, the wind and the rain and to watch things grow, appreciate the flowers, the vegetables, the fruits of our labours.

Finally for now, I would like to say thank you to my lovely wife Jacqueline who patiently nursed me through the year and was the most important factor in my recovery, and to whom, for what it’s worth, I dedicate this blog and apologise for the cabbage incident.