CARBOPLATIN + GEMCITABINE CHEMO - CYCLE 3 DAY 1 - 21 JULY 2022

 Missing the Devon trip may have been a  blessing in disguise - we'd probably have been travelling back on one of those very hot days. And there have been some compensatory amusements associated with staying in London: I saw two friends on the radioactive day during the longeurs necessitated by periodic blood sampling and the big kids came over for lunch on Sunday, coupled with a  search for fabric scraps for patchwork and some summer apple tree pruning.

Both garden and allotment have been crying out for water for ages it seems. I manage to get to the allotment most days at least for a short while but watering the essentials seems to be all there is time for. Meanwhile the bindweed is running amok with flowers all over the shop and smirking at me. But I've been picking onions, ripe tomatoes, figs, french beans, some blueberries (although some are rather dried up), one courgette and lots of lettuce (mostly from neighbour who has overwhelming crop of really nice variety). I've dug up a few Charlotte potatoes at each recent visit and they have been delicious. Cucumbers are in, as are sweet corn, a couple of squashes (either poor germination or swift destruction by molluscs saw to the rest) and carrots (making a very poor show). My Brogdale espaliered Captain Kidd apple has lots of apples (for its youthful size and despite vertical growth being broken off in a  gale in the autumn) as do the established Golden Delicious and the unknown cooker. Nothing on the Cox this year. But even the laden trees are dropping loads of good-looking fruit; I'm guessing due to water stress. 

I am so grateful to husband Christopher and friends who have helped with the allotment and the simple business of getting me there, and their practical, if unvoiced, insistence that it was worth keeping on even when  I was very doubtful and gloomy about how doable it would be. There's a bunch of reasons that I can identify for it having been such a good thing even though my planning has been almost non-existent and planting late. The obvious ones always pertain - being outside, being active, making Vit D, seeing things grow and getting nice things to eat. More subtle is its simple power to get me out of the house to where the muscle memory of brain and brawn can take over and then the benefits just ooze in. Because I've been going, I continue to see myself as an allotment holder which again felt doubtful at start of year. And in the absence of any other volunteers, I'm continuing as the rents and tenants officer on the grounds that it's better to do it badly than not have it done at all. This helps with a general feeling of usefulness - more in next post.