Surviving

I managed to drive back home from Mum's in the morning, having stayed on longer than intended due to feeling unwell.  I still don't know what's been wrong, as the antibiotics seem to have made very little difference so far.  All my houseplants have survived my extended absence (just!), including the gerbera I rescued a week or so back from abandonment in a nursery, where it was selling for half-price and looking very neglected.  Picking it up from the sale shelf I gave it a much closer inspection than the nursery staff obviously had, and could see that it had no fewer than six buds at various stages of growth.  I am thrilled to see that it now has two fully-developed blooms and a third is well on its way up through the foliage.  The other three buds are also bigger than they were, but still tightly closed.  I love watching plants respond to care, so perhaps I do have green fingers after all...

Although not feeling anywhere near 100% with my tummy and back pain, I made it along to book club which was a very jolly evening.  From my shortlist, we've voted to read 'A Month in the Country' by J. L. Carr.  The other runners I had picked out were the thriller 'Apple Tree Yard' by Louise Doughty, 'The Dud Avocado' which is a 1950's semi-autobiography by American writer Elaine Dundy, and 'Elizabeth is Missing' - the award-winning debut by Emma Healey.  All very different offerings for the seven of us to choose from.  'A Month in the Country' is a very slim novel, so we'll have time to pick some other books for summer reading before our next meeting after the school holidays.