Inspiration

Some of you may have been wondering where I’d gone. The day before we were meant to go to Lisbon, I came down with a really horrible flu. I woke that morning hardly able to croak to Charlie “I don’t think I’m going to be able to make it”. And then spent the next 8 days in bed…. That sort of flu.

There was one bright thing on the horizon though…. and that’s our new puppy.  Meet Mavis!

Charlie’s been looking for a puppy for ages. Suddenly, a lady he’d been in touch with ages ago called him to say that someone had pulled out of taking a puppy – would we still like her? There was a mad dash to Cumbria to collect her, and a long drive home with a little bundle of black fur.

Mavis was an amazing good soulmate when I was feeling so under the weather (well, so too was Charlie). When I began to recover a bit, Charlie and Mavis headed down for a couple of days to Dorset to look after the garden. They drove back up yesterday and we’ve had a very quiet weekend surrounded by a lot of flowers.

This morning, for instance, we went to Columbia Road with Maggie.

Mavis was very happy to meet Carl Grover, and Carl was VERY happy to meet Mavis… ‘Mavis’….!

But we didn’t really need to buy any flowers. This is what Charlie brought up from the garden:

The tulips ‘Salmon Impression’ are the size of giant magnolia flowers….

We went for a wander around Soho, in the sunshine…

And back home past the British Museum….

But we’ve mainly spent the afternoon in the sunshine on the terrace, which is bursting with tulips…

…. and trying to persuade Mavis not to eat shoes/trainers/laptop cords/the carpet/the contents of the fireplace/you name it….

We’ve had a lovely weekend. We’ve re-booked our holiday to Lisbon in the autumn (thank you for all the tips), so I’m really looking forward to that then. But just for now, never has it as been as nice to just walk around London in the sunshine than after a week in bed. It’s quite a weird sensation looking at the world with new eyes, blinking, the outside feeling so unfamiliar.  But it’s that time of year where if you miss a week, you blink and you feel the world is rushing by.  I’m looking forward to getting back into things!