3rd August 2024

On a rainy 3rd of July, I drove Sue to Leicester General Hospital for her operation. She was first on the list for surgery that morning and needed to be there by 7 a.m. Naturally, we arrived early, at 6.30 a.m., and found ourselves waiting outside the still-closed doors of Theatre Arrivals. The hospital was quiet, with just a few early patients and staff moving purposefully through the building.

It was another ten minutes before a nurse appeared to reassure us that we were indeed in the right place. She confirmed the doors would open shortly and pointed out, somewhat firmly, that only patients were permitted inside. I reluctantly wished Sue all the best and made my way home through a steady drizzle.

Sue went into the theatre at 7.45 a.m., and by late morning, she was in recovery, awaiting transfer to Ward 31. To minimise the risk of post-operative infection, visitors were discouraged, so her only company for the rest of the day was the ward staff and the three other patients. Fortunately, the operation had gone well. She was to remain on the ward until the results of various tests came back clear and she was able to walk a short distance.

I collected a rather fragile Sue from the hospital the following evening, along with a bag of medication and strict instructions for a complete rest. She hadn’t slept at all the night before, and though clearly in pain, she was exhausted and soon drifted off to sleep, only to wake not long after, still uncomfortable.

The following days were spent mostly in bed, snatching short naps between bouts of pain and nausea. To my surprise, she endured my clumsy attempts at nursing with remarkable patience and even managed to eat the food I prepared without complaint. The usually energetic and capable Sue was clearly subdued, every movement a painful effort.

I was heartened on the fifth day to see a change; her colour had improved, and she seemed far more like her usual self: more alert, more cheerful, and more interested in what was going on beyond the four walls. Though still very sore and limited in movement, her spirits had lifted. It’s worth noting that on 6th July, England’s football team, true to form, delivered yet another underwhelming performance, yet somehow managed to beat Switzerland in the European Championship quarter-finals, scraping through after extra time and a penalty shoot-out. Unbelievable.

On the 7th, while Sue was having her lunch, I cycled down to the allotments, where the other plot holders had gathered for a BBQ. I stayed for just fifteen minutes, had a quick chat, and excused my early departure. As it was our first proper gathering, I wanted to show some support, hoping it might become an annual tradition.

Sue continued to improve slowly over the following days. She managed to spend a little longer on her daily exercises, with short walks up and down the upstairs corridor, stopping at each bedroom in turn. She spent time watching the various animals feed from the windows, drawn by the food I put out each morning. On the 9th, she made a determined effort to go downstairs for a shower. It left her exhausted, but she felt better for it. The rest of the day was spent resting in bed.

Jamie, Ruth, Joey, and their animals arrived mid-afternoon on the 10th. Later that night, they were due to catch a flight to Bangkok from Heathrow. The previous day had been spent largely repairing a hutch for the rabbits and constructing a cage for them to run around in. They stayed just long enough to drop off the animal paraphernalia before heading south.

That evening, I witnessed another miracle. With Sean and the two dogs in the garden room, we watched England beat Holland 2–1 in the dying minutes of the match to reach the final of the competition.

In between making cups of tea and preparing meals, plus the inevitable washing-up, I’ve been trimming the hedges surrounding the back garden and running along one side of the driveway. It’s a twice-yearly task I never particularly look forward to. Not because it’s difficult, but the constant climbing up the platform and reaching out with a heavy trimmer becomes tiring very quickly. I made the first trip to the recycling depot with four bins of clippings. However, due to council cutbacks, the depot was closed the following day, so the next batch of trimmings had to remain in the bins until the weekend.

I had an unexpected visit from our elderly neighbour, who used to keep rabbits and was curious to see Jamie’s coneys. He’s a keen gardener too, and I suspect he was also keen for a look around the garden.

On the 11th, Sue got dressed and made her way downstairs for a tentative wander around the garden. Charlotte came to visit in the afternoon, which provided a welcome break for me as well. Not long after she left, the rain arrived and brought any further gardening to an end for the day.

The following morning began at 2 a.m. when Nala needed a visit to the garden for the necessaries. Then, at 4 a.m., Rocky decided he needed to go out too. I had to catch the 7.37 a.m. bus to Leicester for an eye scan and wearily got up at 6.30 a.m. to prepare breakfast for the dogs, Sue, and me. My appointment was booked for 9.15 am, but when I checked in early at 9 a.m., I was pleasantly surprised to be seen straight away. I was scanned and back at the bus terminus by 10.10 a.m.

As the bus approached the outskirts of Market Harborough, I was surprised to receive a phone call from Ruth in Bangkok. According to one of their neighbours in Waltham on the Wolds, the house alarm had been triggered and had been blaring all night. The app to reset it was on a phone left in the car, which was parked in our driveway. When I finally got home and located the phone, the battery was flat, so I put it on charge. Once it was working, I had difficulty locating the correct app, only to be met with a fingerprint ID prompt. After further calls with Ruth, who was also in contact with an alarm company engineer, I eventually accessed the app with a username and password, only to be met with an “A/C error” when trying to reset the system.

Just as I was contemplating the possibility of having to drive to the house and attempt a manual reset, the neighbour rang again with good news: the alarm had finally stopped. Peace had been restored, and, like me, they were finally able to catch up on some much-needed sleep.

With Jamie and Ruth’s alarm thankfully remaining silent, they were able to continue their holiday without worry, and I could focus on looking after Sue and the animals, as well as completing the hedge cutting, without the need to dash over to Waltham on the Wolds to switch it off manually.

However, all was not so calm in the wider world. On the same day, a 20-year-old attempted to assassinate Donald Trump, and England lost 2–1 in the final to a superior Spanish side. It was a thoroughly disappointing day. One can’t help but think the planet might feel a little more secure had the bullet’s trajectory been an inch or two to the right, and England fans might have been in better spirits had Harry Kane been substituted rather earlier.

Charlotte’s considerable carpentry skills have been on full display in recent weeks, as her project to build a greenhouse and garden kitchen nears completion. Sarah and her family have been making the most of the good weather, enjoying family picnics and attending a friend’s wedding. Suraj has taken to rebuilding old bikes from his youth, apparently quite a lucrative pastime, as well-restored models can fetch a reasonable price.

On the 22nd, the same day that a rapidly deteriorating Joe Biden finally announced he would not stand for a second term as President, Sue and I were invited to Sunday lunch at Charlotte’s. It was a particularly welcome invitation, as, after two and a half weeks of planning and preparing three meals a day, managing all the household chores, tending to two allotments and a large garden, and caring for two dogs and two rabbits, I was more than ready for a bit of pampering.

As always, the meal was excellent, and it was a lovely opportunity to see Charlotte’s new garden kitchen and greenhouse, both of which she has built over the past few weeks, largely from reclaimed materials. The rear garden is currently being remodelled, yet the front garden has already attracted admiring comments from neighbours and passing dog walkers, several of whom have been captured pausing in appreciation on the security cameras. Charlotte has created a true ‘chocolate box’ frontage, a wonderful showcase for her gardening business and a clear reflection of her flair for colour and form. As a bonus, Sue and I returned home with the car full of substantial wooden offcuts for the wood burner, ready for the winter.

That evening, Jamie, Ruth, and Joey returned from their adventures in Thailand and arrived in Harborough at 11 p.m. to collect Rocky and Nala. Sue was already in bed, but I handed over the mutts with some reluctance; you do get used to their company. The rabbits remained with us until Jamie came to collect them the following day.

Wednesday the 24th was our 48th wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we booked a table for lunch at the Castle Hotel in Kirby Muxloe, and after the meal, we took a walk around the castle before driving to Newbold Verdon to see Sarah and her family. On the way, we called into the village shoe warehouse to see what bargains they had, but unfortunately, nothing took our fancy.

Lee was keen to donate a builder’s bag of wood off-cuts to my growing stockpile for the winter. We arrived just in time for Sue to accompany Sarah in collecting the children from the childminder, while I inspected the various wood piles Lee had squirrelled away around the property. We stayed long enough to have a play with Alice and Archie before heading home with the rear of the car loaded with timber, as they were getting ready for their evening meal.

Sue continued to improve, gradually extending her twice-daily walks as the days passed. She tires easily and now tends to have an afternoon nap, often falling asleep in front of the television by 8 p.m. The following morning, she visited her friend Susan for coffee and cake, then walked into town to have her hair cut. Taking advantage of the brief respite from my nursing duties, I met Sean for lunch at the Red Lion in Welham, a meal I owed him from a couple of weeks ago. It was a much-needed break from the daily routine of cooking and washing up.

On the 28th, I had another day off from kitchen duties when Sue and I drove to Waltham-on-the-Wolds to see Jamie and Ruth and join them for a Sunday carvery lunch at the Harborough Hotel in Melton Mowbray. We took along my spare lawnmower for Jamie to use on the paths of his allotment, and to keep.

En route, we encountered an extraordinary number of motorbikes. The B6047 has long been a favourite with bikers during the summer months, hence the dozens of ‘Think Bike’ signs spaced at regular intervals, and today, we spotted three mobile police speed vans lying in wait to catch any unwary racers.

We arrived just after 11 a.m., and after drinks and a chat, Jamie and I drove to his allotment while Sue and Ruth continued their conversation in the garden. It didn’t take us long to scalp the overgrown pathways and pile the grass cuttings onto the compost heap, leaving time to discuss Jamie’s plans for the plot before we returned to rejoin the ladies.

The meal at the hotel was excellent. As it was a help-yourself carvery, we loaded our plates ridiculously high and, as a result, quite a bit was left guiltily uneaten. We didn’t bother with dessert!

The final days of July saw temperatures nudging 30°C, dry and sunny. On rare forays into town, there were few people about, the school holidays were in full swing, and no doubt many families were off enjoying themselves elsewhere. Sue’s recovery continued to go well, with her twice-daily walks being slowly extended. The heat of the afternoons, however, meant we remained indoors, Sue for a short nap, and I flopped onto the lounge couch to listen to my favourite music on Spotify (I may have closed my eyes for a moment or two!).

Two allotments and a large garden require constant attention during hot spells, and the watering cans were in daily use. Since switching from paying water rates to a metered system, I’ve become far more aware of how much water we use. The washing-up bowl now gets emptied onto the potato crop growing in the garden, and the hosepipe has become largely redundant, only coming out when there’s no alternative.

In the garage, there’s a large 1.5m-deep inspection pit which usually fills to around half a metre. Cannily, I began using this as a source of free water, lowering a bucket on a rope to fill the watering cans. This lasted about a week, but when the level dropped so low that the bucket could no longer be filled, and it became clear that the water table wasn’t replenishing it, I had to think again.

The solution was gob-smackingly obvious! Living next to a river, we only tend to notice it when it’s in flood, but it turned out to be the perfect answer to my water problem.

First, I had to repair the old pump I’d previously used to empty the inspection pit. Its cable had cracked, but that was easily fixed with a generous coating of silicone. Next, I needed a water butt to pump into, so on my next mercy watering run to the allotment, I brought back the largest of the six butts I’d stored there.

With that sorted, I ran an electric cable and a hosepipe down the drainpipe that serves the driveway and emerges at the riverbank. I dropped the pump into the flowing water, and just like that, I had a reliable source of aqua. It took about an hour to fill the butt, as the difference in height from river to container is around three metres, but it worked a treat.

Later that night, I ordered a rainwater diverter kit so I could harvest runoff from the garden-room roof into another of my allotment butts.

And then, in the early hours of August 1st… it rained!