What a week!

Monday

Got married! Managed to share the day with our friends, thanks to rules allowing more than 30 (we had 32) we had a super wedding lunch with those we love. We wish more could have come/been invited, but we are planning a huge party next year. Watch this space. I will upload the wedding photos soon.

After the wedding we drove to The Hyde Dovecote in Kinver. Although Axle was away in Norfolk and Diesel at kennels, we took Chizel with us as he has a problem with his legs and we couldn't leave the poor lad.

Tuesday

The Dovecote

The Dovecote is small, and the wooden staircase proved too much for Chizel so we had plenty of exercise lifting him up and downstairs. After unpacking more, we walked down the river to Kinver, had tea and cakes in the village, and then walked back by the canal. It was a lovely day with mild weather and stunning countryside.  We had lunch in the Vine by the canal and Sheena was most impressed that her favourite cola was just £1.80 a pint (as opposed to £3 back home). We went back to the Vine for supper, but they had finished serving at 8pm. Instead we raced over to Harley's Smoke House and managed to get our order in just before 8.30. We had rushed there so we rushed our meal, which was nice but the salt pot bottom fell off on Sheena's dinner, and there was so much in my plate of nachos that I left half. Good food though, and well distanced tables. 

Wednesday

I popped briefly into Stourbridge for some shopping, struggling with parking and carting shopping down the high street. I forgot half the things I was supposed to get, but did get cheap meat!  We walked down the canal route and spent a lazy day at the Vine, playing Splendor and just relaxing, watching the canal barges and chatting to a man with one arm. Lunch was delicious. The weather was mostly bright, but a bit windy which ruined one of our games as the cards went all over the place! We found a quiet corner and - amazingly - I actually won a game (haven't won for ages).  

Thursday

The sun was shining brightly so we had another quiet day, this time at the Dovecote, with a barbecue for lunch and playing our guitars on the raised patio. We had another walk, and were so full from lunch we just had strawberries and cake for supper.

Friday

We went into Bridgnorth and spent the day in the town, wandering round the castle gardens, sitting by the river eating ice cream and going up and down in the funicular. We also bought a pushchair off Facebook for Chizel who was struggling with the walking.

Friday night we went to a gig! We had been told about it by our hosts, and trotted over to Ashwood Marina at Kingswinford to see the excellent Buzzin Hornets. A lovely evening (with a small audience), and so good to see live music again. Larry, our host, was there with his partner Anni. We swapped music videos of our respective performances, of course!

Saturday

Rock house

Our last day! We visited the rock houses at Kinver Edge and then crossed county lines into Worcestershire for a visit to Witley. It was a beautiful day and we loved the ruined house, the wonderful gardens and the amazing fountain.  We had supper at the Fox, which (after a long wait) was very nice, but it felt a little crowded. Covid restrictions have made us a lot more aware of the space around us.

Sunday

An early start, packup and drive home. When we did get home, the garden had gone mad! Peas were ready for harvest, I had a courgette and a cabbage ready to pick, strawberries and redcurrants, and our flower borders were blooming. It looks wonderful, and we are hoping for lots of produce as the season continues. Thanks to a kind neighbour, all the plants were watered whilst we were away (and the cat fed too).

Monday

We've been married a whole week! I drove to Norfolk to pick up Axle, Sheena picked up Diesel, we visited both mothers and Chizel visited the vet for some x-rays.  Now it's onwards and upwards. We had a lovely week, but it's great to be home here in beautiful Suffolk.

The spectacular fountain

More photos coming soon...

Ding dong....

Tomorrow morning at 11.30 am we are getting married!  What a rollercoaster time we have had:

Chapter 1

I met Sheena, and we hit it off immediately. In the same February that we met, we were hit by 'Beast from the East' and we were snowed in together for a week. That year also saw very hot weather - so with extreme winter and a hot summer, a lot of the dog training Sheena does had to be cancelled. She also had a major back problem and was unable to work, and suffered from vertigo (which thanks to a neat trick we managed to cure!). 

Chapter 2

It was October of the same year that we met - 2018. Things were going really well. I went to Australia to visit my son, but Sheena couldn't come as she'd lost so much work time due to the reasons above. And it's a good thing too or she'd have missed her mammogram that identified stage 2, grade 3, breast cancer. (More here.)

From October 2018 on we spent a lot of time in Ipswich hospital, with Sheena losing her hair during chemo, radiotherapy, breast surgery and herceptin injections that finally finished in January 2020.

Chapter 3

One month after Sheena's final cancer treatment, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer.   So it was back to Ipswich hospital. By this time I'd moved into Sheena's house permanently, which is just as well as she has had to care for me through radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery. Sheena was in and out same day for her surgery, mine meant I had to stay in for seven days to make sure that the 'mechanics' of my insides, including my brand new stoma (named Ripley) were OK. I haven't been to work since March 2020.

We had lockdown, and we built a pond. Sheena again couldn't work fully due to Covid restrictions, but she started online dog training classes. 

Chapter 4

Starts tomorrow! We shall be married then go on a short honeymoon in the Midlands. Hopefully I will finish my treatment (scan last Thursday, let's hope all good), and I  am optimistic that I can back to work in August. Chapter 4 is the start of a great future, we've certainly worked for it!

Useful links:

• Our full cancer journeys
• Building our pond
• Bowel Cancer UK
• Breast Cancer Now

Coming soon... wedding pictures.

The Step Well

Oh dear, no posts since last writers' circle! Well the only development for me is that I had my CT scan today, but I won't hear results from that for a bit. So here's tonight's writing, inspired by a picture of a spectacular Indian Step Well.

Some secrets are never revealed, some are liberated by loose tongues, and some are exposed by the heartless sun.

-o-

By Doron - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2761923

The sun was blistering, the sky so clear and blue that it seemed to be a perfect reflection of the water in the well.  The well was low– very low. The women had to walk down eleven levels to get to the water. They complained as they descended but were silent in the breath-snatching air as they ascended with their hard-earned loads.

Ramesh was sitting at the very top. He ran his hands through his dry, brittle hair. Sweat poured off him, and his foot involuntarily tapped a tattoo upon the dust. He looked down into the water, unaware of those around him.

The older women smirked at him, whilst some of the younger ones looked shyly towards him or giggled as they passed in groups. He did not see any of them. He just sat by the well, watching the surface of the water, as the sun punished him.

He wanted to see if the water would go down another level; Ramesh had not seen it this low since he was a small boy. The sun continued its persistent assault on his skin, and after two hours, without seeing any change in the level, Ramesh sighed hugely and eventually departed.

He visited the well every day, and as he saw more and more water taken, but the level staying stable (even without the rains), he grew slowly more confident. By the second week, he started to look up when the young women giggled, and would bow most graciously to the older ones, gaining just a little affection from them. After a month, he had learned the routine of the water gatherers and had noticed one young girl in a beautiful orange sari that was edged with lime; he picked her out each time she came, and gave her his widest, whitest smile.

His hair was now shiny and bright, and he would wear his best dhoti. He waited on the side of the well where he knew she would come. And one day, he waited at the bottom of the well, and carried her pitcher up to the top for her. The older women watched, and chattered their concern, if not quite disapproval. Daily, Ramesh’s confidence grew. He now visited the well daily not to watch the water level, but to see Binita.  

The summer went and the rains came, and Ramesh stopped his daily visits to the well. Now he could work on his small farm during the day and went only once a week to the well to meet Binita and carry her water. She wasquiet, but approachable, and Ramesh soon discovered that her mother had plans for her that did not includeher spending more time with the ‘waterboy’. His mind was now focused on the problem of Binita’s mother.

Ramesh made enquiries, developed acquaintances and learned as much as he could about Binita and her family. They were reasonably wealthy so might expect a large dowry, but then again they might have already got a husband in mind. Ramesh let options and opportunities occupy his mind as the cool weather dulled his anxieties and gave him fresh hope for the future.

-o-

In a town not twenty miles from where Ramesh had sat, a new well was being built. There were plans to plant more mango trees and they needed water. There was water under the ground that would feed their well as it did the one in Ramesh’s town. Sacred rituals were performed, architects’ plans followed and work commenced in the evening when the searing heat of the day dulled. If Ramesh had known, he may well have left town. Because in one year or maybe two, when the new well was complete, if they had a summer like this one, then the level in his well would most certainly go down. And then Ramesh would not be able to hide from the truth at the bottom.

Note:    I may be inaccurate in attributing names/clothing to the right regions where there are step wells, but I've done my best. Comments/corrections welcome.

And a quick PS - I'll have a very different subject for the next blog as Monday (21 June) is a very big day!

Useful links:

• Stepwell - from Wiki
• Beautiful stepwells - Lonely Planet