So, it's been a long time since my last update and I've realised that I'm letting this lapse a little therefore it's going to be shorter from now (8th July) order for me to keep up to date easier.
The 20th of May was Otley show and was a fabulous day. The weather held off until just after lunch giving us time to wander round the livestock, see the shires, watch a bird of prey demonstration and 2 lads on motocross bikes doing the most ridiculous tricks. Basically, we had the sort of day that we would have done pre cancer and it was lovely.
Work the following week continued with no major incidents, I had finally got hold of the clinic regarding my colposcopy and went on the 24th to Salford Royal where we saw a lovely consultant who put me so at ease that the whole procedure went painlessly.
I had been thinking for a few days about getting a camper van and maybe selling the car. I had mentioned this to dad and he suggested a Mazda Bongo as they are small enough to park as a normal car and can be used on a daily basis without being too large to manoeuvre. I had therefore started looking as I am very aware that it would be lovely to clear off on a weekend after work with the dogs and a camper would make this so much easier..
Whilst searching for Bongos I had found one in Thirsk and rather cheekily asked mum and dad if they wouldn't mind looking in the first instance as if it was no good it was a long way for us to drive - on the 28th they headed over to have a look, and arranged for us to be going the following weekend saying that it was nice and clean with good price and good mileage.
Due to this, I decided that it was finally time to give Lel the garden that she has wanted for such a long time. Being bank holiday weekend (27th - 28th May) then I figured it was a good time to do it as any. With not working on Friday 26th I thought I would make a start and dig out the gravel edging and some tree roots. It was about 24 degrees by 10am and having done about an hour and only managed a foot or so I was very grateful when Janice (our neighbour across the road) sent one of her sons to help with this. Both her twin boys are 35ish, gym bunnies and very tanned. Bless him, within an hour he had one whole side dug out and was on with the second one, then digging out tree roots, too and hurling them into the skip at high speed - all with no shirt on!!
On the Saturday, Lel was off over to spend the day with Jayne and Oliver in the afternoon so in the morning we headed over to Homebase to buy turf. We had had 2 tonnes of top soil delivered on Friday evening, as well as the skip that was delivered on the Thursday night however we now needed things to re-build the garden with. We already had some plants from pots from the previous year however Lel wanted grass and lavender in there, as well as a nice border between the grass and the floral borders so we did this then headed home. After Lel had gone I spent a bit of time out there clearing a bit further. Emma and Vicky had been away for the night but on their return they sledgehammered the flags up and threw them all into the skip. This meant that Lel and I could continue on Sunday morning and at 7am we were out digging the soil from under the flags, as well as going further round the edges and taking out more of the gravel edging. This was a real task as it was all chipped plate type gravel that had bound with the soil to form a concrete type edge.
By late afternoon we had it all cleared, edged the area where we wanted to put the lawn, rebuilt it with fresh top soil, topped up the border areas and planted them, then cut and laid the turf. By 5.30 on Sunday we had a front garden!! I couldn't believe how well we had done and how good it looked. I had had another weekend of doing jobs and wasn't too exhausted, and I had enjoyed myself. All small victories as well as showing people that I'm still me and can still do what I always could. We had a nice quiet bank holiday Monday in with the dogs and just relaxed.
Work was again uneventful for the week with the double trip to the vets for Harry's bum to be layered and re-dressed. Everyone is very impressed with him however he has a lump on his nose that may need to be taken off - had it not been for his tumour then we would have been more likely to leave it however given that he had his dressing off, nose in and ate the dressing both Lel and I are a little concerned that the tumour may have migrated.. We have therefore booked him in for surgery but will see Brendan before for a catch up to see what his thoughts are.
At the weekend we headed home again and went to look at a couple of campers. On the Saturday we saw a high top in Preston that would have felt like a coffin to sleep in the roof and was over budget by £2k but it gave us chance to drive one before going over to Thirsk. Had we not driven it with the handbrake on we might have done a little better!!!
On Sunday we headed over to Thirsk to try the camper, we got there 1130ish. Mum had explained that I am no longer allowed to drive but given the fact that this was a private sale and the lady had a lot of land, Elizabeth was happy for me to drive it. I turned her round and drove down the lane. Apparently at some speed!!! It was so lovely to be behind a wheel again. As with most Bongo's it's an automatic, 2l with LPG conversion which is really good. It looked quite clean with a good exterior, only a small amount of rust in one wheel arch and on the wiper blades. Both of which are able to be fixed. Lel had a drive and we both agreed that it was really nice. We headed to Thirsk to a cafe for lunch and the lovely lady in there gave me a photo frame for free, I didn't tell her my story but think she saw my scar. We did tell her that we had just tried a camper out and that we would be back the following week to collect it.. I was a bit nervous but remember feeling like this when we bought Kara and that was fabulous for a long time.
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