Still crazy after all these years

Our wedding anniversary today, and the cherry tree we planted for our 25th is out in blossom as it does every early May. Fabulous, frothy, pink blossoms. His choice. The cherry tree we planted for our 30th (my choice) has white double blossoms, but is a lot less enthusiastic and is always finished by the end of April. We planted quince trees for our 35th, and had a weekend learning to make a bow from a length of green ash for our 40th. The funniest anniversary so far was the week we spent in Guernsey for our 21st. The hotel put a bottle of champagne in our room, and I went back to thank the Reception staff for it. They looked horrified. I forgot that I’d taken a good square thump on the face in the Karate session two nights before, and was sporting a fresh black eye. It didn’t seem worth going back to explain that it wasn’t his fault, but we did tone down any disagreements that week for the hotel staff’s peace of mind.

Today, we took the day off from working in the garden, and I took the day off from writing. I got drawn into the Nano challenge of writing all April and need a break to sort the stories out and edit them. I was writing with three others, all encouraging each other to keep going. Two of the others are in print already and were writing stories with a market in mind – I just had an idea I wanted to put on paper.

Life is starting to open up again here in England, and we’re getting out almost as we used to – been out for a breakfast at our favourite local (sitting outside in a freezing wind, and grateful for the chance to be there), plotting a few days away later this year and nipping out to buy tile cement and paint to keep our projects here going. All the normal things we took for granted two years ago.

It’s a hopeful time of year, and we’re looking forward to what’s coming next. After six months of lockdown, that’s a new sensation and we’re still getting used to it.