Tulips and other signs of spring

Amazingly, some of my Mother's Day flowers are still hanging on. (Mother's Day here was March 15!)

I have been far too busy, arranging and rearranging social events for groups of friends (which will be nice, of course) and doing lots of admin for the choir of which I'm chair. Much too much time has been spent on the computer. However, on Saturday we redid the walk for which we did the recce a few weeks ago; this time it was the real thing, with the other walking chums. 

On the recce we were walking into a strong wind, which made it quite tiring. 

But on Saturday the weather was perfect for walking: mild and very still, and what with that and the chatting, the 6 and a half miles felt easy. 

Back in Edinburgh, the cherry blossom is going over, with drifts of pink on the pavements. 

The trees are so pretty, though. 

This is part of a regular walk near where we live. 

This bit of the Water of Leith feels quite rural, though it isn't. 

And back home, the garden flourishes, 

as does this pot of tulips outside the front door. I love the colour. 

So as long as one doesn't listen to the news, life is peaceful. 

 

Flowers and things

Nothing much has been happening (well, a lot has, but mainly just the catching up that one has to do after time away) but the garden's been very busy. This is my little Cercis Chinensis tree that I got a couple of years ago. Isn't it pretty? 

And here is a self-seeded honesty plant that I allowed to grow. 

A rhododendron that was in the garden when we moved in, 36 years ago. 

Frilly tulips. 

Aubretia. 

Pieris japonica. 

White saxifrage with various other things: drumstick primula, narcissus, euonymus. 

We went to the Botanics today and they were very flowery too. 

And herony.

Three of the seven friends I meet up with on Mondays have been widowed in the last couple of years, and they've been struggling with the post-death bureaucracy that involves many passwords and "special words" and so on. And it occurred to me that my generation of widows (I'm 74) are maybe particularly penalised by all this. A few years ago, it was a case of filling in some forms. Now, it's much more complicated; just at the time when you're at your most vulnerable. A younger generation will be digital natives and find it easier. Of course, some of my contemporaries are really skilled with computers; but I would guess that most of them are like me - good at doing the things they do every day on the computer, but tending to rely on their husbands for the more complicated stuff. 

Otherwise, we've had lucky lives, I'd be the first to admit. But this particular aspect is a hard one. 

 

A-wandering

We've been away with the Edinburgh family to Paris. Notre Dame's repairs are not finished yet, by any means. We didn't go in but we did watch huge cranes bringing materials in. I would not like to be a crane driver. Imagine climbing up that huge ladder! 

We were there primarily because the children wanted to go, Big Grandson partly to ride on the Paris metro and Big Granddaughter because she wanted to go abroad (and is learning French). I've been to Paris several times, and while it has many beautiful buildings, it's too much of a big city for me. But it was nice being there with the family. We did many of the touristy things. 

These included a day at Versailles. The Hall of Mirrors was very impressive (as it was the last time)

though the best bit (for me) may have been the tulips. We were very lucky with the weather, which was warm but not hot. 

We visited the Musee D'Orsay. Big Grandson likes (understatement) trains (and it used to be a station) and polar bears. He has a toy version of this polar bear by Pompon, and brought one to meet the other. He's 13 and a half and did this half-ironically, but half soppily. 

It's a good museum/art gallery, with lovely Art Deco furniture as well as paintings and sculptures.

The lad got to ride on many metros and some buses, so was happy. 

Our hotel, the Hotel Eden, was lavishly embellished with ornamental apples, which Son-in-Law 1 didn't notice at all till they were pointed out on the last day, at which point we discovered that Mr L had observed them but failed to make the connection with Eden. I tell you...

And on the way back, we spent the weekend with Daughter 2 and family, during which we went to the Young V&A, which was very good. I don't like huge cities - I find them oppressive and scary and I hate underground railways - but London does have some nice stuff. 

I was very happy to get home, though, especially as we have Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter with us for some Easter childminding. And then next week - back to the rainbow quilt. 
 

Moving on...

On Monday we went to my friend H's funeral in Melrose. It was very sad and somewhat strange. Two of my friends were killed in car accidents when they were 23, which was very awful. One of them was H's sister, and the other was one of my very best friends from when we were 5. Both deaths were huge shocks. I lost another good friend about ten years ago, but since then, no one of my age who was very close to me has died, which I suppose makes me very lucky. But I'll be 75 in the summer, so, facing facts, this is likely to keep happening in the coming years. My mum lost absolutely all of the friends from her youth; that's what tends to happen if you live till you're 90. Mum fortunately made various younger friends in her old age, which was lovely for her. 

H and I hadn't fallen out at all, but she became somewhat reclusive in her latter years, so I hadn't seen her for some considerable time, though we kept in touch. I always thought we might meet up again, but of course I now know that we won't. Her death is nothing like the tragedy of her sister's and my other friend's - 74 isn't a bad age. But we shared a lot of adventures in our youth - for example, we travelled round Canada and the USA on Greyhound buses for a calendar month in 1970 - and now we'll never again have chats and giggles about our journey. 

Anyway, I've done a lot of gardening this week, planting things and digging out bits of plants that had got too big and so on. There's nothing like gardening to make one look forward. The weather's been beautiful too, which always raises the spirits. Here's to life!