Is that my boy?

Apparently, years ago, Quent's mum proclaimed loudly "Is that my boy?" at some Scout event - and it became a family catch phrase.

And now it's my turn....



Is that my boy - complete with flag and loads of badges?

Nine months on...

We are back in the kitchen and I am loving it! We have had electricians, decorators, plumbers, heating engineers and plasterers here over the past couple of weeks. The coal shed now looks like a utility room, complete with shower room, a pulley for the washing and an internal door through to Quent’s workshop. The kitchen has funky ovens and even funkier lights. The dining room has a new woodburner and an amazing “thermal store”, which looks like an alien. It will manage the solid fuel, the solar (once we get it), the gas and the electricity. I admit we have quite a bit of “snagging” to do before the kitchen end is complete (think hot water, plastering the dining room etc), but the end is in sight.

The garden is starting to look a bit different too. I won’t say better yet, but it has less bindweed, ground elder, celandine and comfrey. The lilac, wisteria, fruit trees, kerria, broom and bluebells are all in bloom and the rhododendron won’t be far behind. I have put my pieris in the ground. It was given to me by a French nursery owner just before I acquired my first garden. It’s been in a series of pots ever since (13 years!) and now it finally gets to bury its roots as deep as it likes.

First thing in the morning, I put the kettle on and then lean over the stable door admiring the plants, the birdsong and the smell of the dew. Bliss.

Back to work, back to reality

Quent is back at work. He is on a “back to work plan” which means he builds up the number and length of days gradually. He’s on two short days this week, one at home and one in the office (Swindon).

This is a good time to say how grateful we are to Allied Telesis for their support and patience over the past 3.5 years. Canada Life, the income protection insurance company, has also been brilliant. Their representative, Katy Wright, first visited Quentin in December last year, when he had recently returned to work after his lung operation. It was a dark time for us, as we had just found out that his cancer had returned. Katy arrived like Mary Poppins. She told Quent he had gone back to work too quickly and for too many hours. Quent and I were quite drained afterwards – we hadn’t really realised how much we were struggling until the professional outsider came and took a look. Katy has drawn up the back to work plan for the next 13 weeks and we feel we are in good hands.

In many ways, Quent is looking forward to being back at work – and of course it’s a real sign of recovery – but nonetheless, it’s a bit of a shock to the system.

Oakley has started one day a week with a childminder as a result – she has three dogs and also looks after Anna Sophia, his friend from school, so he’s delighted.

We did have some bad news last week. Philip, our IL-2 friend has a cancerous lymph node again. He starts another course of IL-2 later this month, three years after the first lot. He’s absolutely dreading it and we can understand why, but it’s good stuff and we hope it does the trick again.