A PRICKLY FLOWER FOR FLOWER FRIDAY

We decided not go out for a walk this morning as I was rather tired and yesterday was a long day after our very early start, so I took my time getting up.  Mr. HCB has already said that he will need my help to do something in the garden, so as it is another sunny day, I think we will be working together out there.

I saw this eryngium from a bouquet given to me and although it doesn’t look like a pretty flower, it made me think that perhaps this is how we could all be after sharing our space with perhaps just one other, or for some of you, with no-one else or others with more of your close family - a little prickly!  

So what makes you prickly?  I am not generally someone who is that prickly (although perhaps Mr. HCB will say differently) but I will confess that for me it is when I have helped Mr. HCB to do something on his computer one day and then he asks me again how to do it the next day - I need to be more patient and understand that not everyone picks things up as quickly as I do.  

On the whole though, we are getting on fine even after being with each other for fourteen days without me going out on my own.  I guess that’s how our marriage has worked for over 52 years now - I like to go out and have coffee and socialise with my friends and Mr. HCB is happy to stay pottering around in the garden - in other words, chalk and cheese.  I wonder how another ten weeks of being together constantly will change us - will it make me more patient and how will it change him?

The "glue" that holds us together is the love and faith that we share and that can only increase as we spend more time together.  If I am down, then Mr. HCB lifts me up and vice versa.  We have fun together and there is always a lot of laughter; we remember to say "Thank You" to each other, and we respect the fact that we still need our own space, so I am sure we will get through this and I hope we will come out on the other side still smiling.  

These are difficult and challenging times for everyone, and we will all be changed by what is happening to us - and hopefully for the better.  Stay strong, stay well and stay safe.

I hope you all stood at your doors or windows last night and “Clapped for the Carers” - we did, with our neighbours, and our grandson’s Mum, who is a carer in a residential home, said that it was a very emotional and tearful moment for her to hear all the claps, shouts and even fireworks.  I just hope that once this is all over, carers will be recognised as being very important and rewarded financially for all they do, so they don’t have to live on a pittance, as many of them do now. 

“I’ve learned from experience 
     that the greater part 
          of our happiness or misery 
               depends on our dispositions 
                    and not on our circumstances.”
Martha Washington


P.S.  Just put an extra in - another selfie - we are a good team.  Mr. HCB was putting in a post to strengthen our lovely garden sculpture - a job he has been meaning to do for quite a while and I had the important job of making sure the post went in straight!  He's done a great job and enjoyed wielding the lump hammer!