Long awaited conversation

After breakfast this morning, my telephone consultation with Mrs Cornish was booked for ten o'clock. Minutes after ten, the phone rang. It was a routine robo-scam call about my non-existent Amazon Prime account! Minutes later Mrs Cornish called, with marvellous news. Day surgery appointments re-start on 30th April, and I'll get an appointment on one of the early lists in May. Wales has seen a couple of days with no deaths due to covid. Many people are still being treated in hospital, but with infection rates so much lower now local health boards in Wales are in a position to pick up where they left off, and work through the backlog.

I think I was over the top excited on the phone. I'd been steeling myself for a much longer wait, given the huge number of people needing treatment delayed by the pandemic crisis. Mrs Cornish was pleased with my January MRI scan showing progress had been made after round four of surgery last November. I was able to confirm that progress in healing has continued since then, even if the gradual closure of the wound has led to the loose end of the suture sticking into me painfully. At last the end is in sight!

As soon as the call ended, I dashed off to St Catherine's for the Eucharist. With so much to give thanks for, I couldn't stay away, and only arrived five minutes late. It was lovely to share the news with fellow worshippers who have been so kind and supportive over the past couple of years.

I shared the good good news with Clare when I got back from church. She'd been out walking when the call came. I went out again and collected this week's veggie bag, and then helped cook lunch. It was mild enough to eat outdoors in the sunshine. Sitting there with my eyes closed, enjoying the warmth, listening to sparrows chirping in next door's hawthorn tree, the washing machine finished its cycle and started to bleep. For a moment, those sounds put me back on the terrace of the chaplaincy house in Ibiza, just as vividly as pictures Google Photos pitches me a daily reminder of, a year after they were taken.

I walked around the park for another hour before tea, and spotted the first fully open dandelion of spring alongside on of the tracks I walk on. The two crab apple trees we've harvested fruit from are sprouting leaves. Interesting how some trees produce blossom first and then leaves, while others produce leaves and then blossom. I guess each species plays to the needs and ability of its pollinators, depending on the exact time and weather beneficial to both their life cycles. Lovely to have a mind free and time to take in the exquisite detail of they ways nature works.