Eid in the park

Clare was up early before me this morning cooking pancakes for breakfast. A sign that her back pain is a bit easier to cope with. Naturally she's eager to resume normal activity, but what's possible is driven by the level of pain to be coped with. We went for a two hour walk along the Taff afterwards, enjoying the huge variety of birdsong that makes our urban woodland so special. 

A carpet of wild garlic flowers has spread extensively under the trees this past week or so, and the slightly pungent aroma hangs in the mild air. Perhaps because of the changes in season, garlic flowers have proliferated more than usual this year. Ramadan ends today. It was delightful to see a Muslim family at one of the bench tables in Bute Park, unpacking food dishes prepared for a picnic to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, their faces radiant with festive joy. 

I cooked lunch when we got back, then sat down to do my Duo Lingo exercises, only to wake up an hour and a half later. I hadn't intended this, and didn't feel tired, that's what's so strange. So much for my good intentions. We went out for another walk before tea, this time for couple of circuits of Thompson's Park. Car excursions are out of the question until Clare's back pain eases further. We're just fortunate to live in such a lovely green environment.

Another couple of hours wasted in front of the telly this evening, then an hour of reading and revising my novel. On checking files, I found that the first draft I'm now working on was completed in January last year. It was written during the period that four of my five rounds of surgery took place, when it was difficult to sit in front of a computer and write for any length of time. Somehow the challenge of life with wound discomfort stimulated me creatively, but once it got easier to live with, the impulse to edit what I'd written went away. Perhaps I needed time for the project to cool down, so to speak, so I could get a measure of perspective and sharp focus on it, to start revising. I'm a third of the way through in a short time, and enjoying the task.