Under the sweet chestnuts

J had an afternoon hospital appointment in London, the first in-person follow-up with the surgeon who operated on her a year ago. This was thorough and serious, with the opportunity to see the images from her recent CT scan, and we're now compiling a list of things to do arising from the discussion, some of which were already on our agenda but now have added impetus, and which will keep us busy for weeks and months.

It was the first fine day for a while, and gave us the opportunity to picnic in our favourite stop-off place in Greenwich Great Park. We enter the park from Blackheath, and stay at the top of the hill, where there are wide, uncrowded expanses of trees and grass between the paths and avenues, frequented by dog-walkers and joggers but mainly quite peaceful. P had made hummus and bread, I had picked cherry tomatoes (blipped yesterday) and prepared cucumber and radishes: a simple, tasty picnic. J and P gently laughed at my excitement about taking our picnic table for its first outing. It was bought after a previous post-hospital appointment picnic in the same location, because I knew it would be a lot easier to feed J if I had a stable place to put everything down, rather than trying to balance things around me while needing both my hands for support and feeding - and of course I was right, despite J's amusement at my enthusiasm for a folding table and P's clear suspicion that I am turning into my parents. (This in fact happened long ago, though new manifestations of it keep appearing.)

This part of the park has many large sweet chestnut trees, currently forming their green, spiky chestnuts. Here, the pointed leaves frame a patch of beautifully blue sky, which was also something to be excited about.