Musings on a Life Quite Ordinary

  When I gave birth to my first child, my grandmother brought me a box of dark chocolates called Black Magic; she told me I would need them to replenish my strength.   I laughed, but in the middle of the night in the hospital, while I struggled to feed my tiny baby girl, I reached for those chocolates and I can still remember how amazing they tasted.   I brought the last of them home and kept them in the fridge just for me.   A few years later when it became clear she needed help; my Granny went to live in a nursing home.   It was a lovely place, the staff kind and caring, but it was still hard.   Visits with her could be difficult; she just wanted to go home. A few months on and one day I brought her a box of Black Magic, her face lit up, she scoffed most of the box before we left her.   It became our thing.   I would bring her Black Magic, my kids who would have been watching the box in the house for days would get to eat some too. ...

I know I’m not wrong saying this was one of the longest winters ever, a dark, damp, cold, rainy, hail stoning, almost but not quite snowing miserable winter that over stayed it’s welcome and annoyed everyone. So now that spring has finally sprung isn’t it wonderful to see life budding all over the place?   There’s actual green stuff growing on the ground, I hear it’s called grass.   It’s beautiful. My interest in the garden in general and all things green started last year.   My daughter and I grew a tomato.   It may not sound all that impressive, but to me it was wondrous.   It grew big and round and I’m sure if we hadn’t planted it so late, it would have ripened and we could have shared it in a salad. This year I’m going for it again – growing things.   I do admit freely though that I am no expert and will take all the help and short cuts I can, so far that has involved my husband fixing what I’ve made a mess of, but I am optimistic and shall pe...