Spring and feeling much better

As I drove back from a gentle bowls morning on Tuesday afternoon in the sunshine, I realised that the landscape now has a green shimmer across it as trees are coming into leaf again.  Finally as April slipped into May the weather became warmer and more Springlike.  

Still a bitterly cold wind, particularly in the early morning but often by lunchtime it has dropped and I've spent several hours in the afternoons sitting out in a sheltered spot in the sunshine reading.   One afternoon was with my Breton neighbours and we sat and ate pancakes and drank coffee.   




Here are some of the blooms in the lanes around me.
 

Yesterday I walked over to my car and found this nest on the ground, it had fallen from a fir in my neighbour's garden.  I don't know what bird built it but it was just finished as the moss is still green and fresh.

It's seven days since I came back from hospital and I feel good.  It's frustrating not to be able to do things like lifting and bending - banned for about four weeks - and I'm desperate to work in the garden but I'm going to do as I am told as I want the operation to be successful.
 

The day after I came home I had my first guests of the year in the cottage.  They were from California and I was hoping that the weather wouldn't let Brittany down.  It didn't.  It was dry and warm and they enjoyed their stay here exploring the countryside by car and on foot.  I've managed to get all their bed linen, towels etc. washed and dried today - the first washing on the line this year.

Yesterday evening I prepared a beef casserole with onions, herbs, stock and half a bottle of red wine.  It simmered away in the slow cooker all night and the smell pervading the house when I got up this morning was wonderful.  I had the first portion for lunch with carrots cooked in a little water and butter, buttered boiled potatoes and French beans. There are another 3-4 portions left ready to pop into freezer bags and then the freezer.

I went to the doctor this morning for my usual three monthly prescription and was pleased to see that the list of medications for which the prescription previously took the best part of two A4 sheets has been reduced to six items.  Two allergy products, two digestion items (because of the bypass) and Vitamin D and calcium.  No more statins, blood pressure tablets, aspirin, HRT, asthma inhalers etc. etc.   The French health system has done me proud and I'm so grateful to all the medical people who have helped me here.

Three things I  like:

1.  After an anxious wait for scan and results, hearing that my oldest son doesn't have testicular cancer - thank goodness!

2.  Watching my new incubator automatically turning mixed and Cream Legbar eggs and keeping them at the correct temperature.

3.   Having my first guests of the year in my cottage.