Hosta in flower.

It's  been an in and out morning.
Showers then fine. 
I was going to weed a bit, after writing a letter to an old friend and neighbour who lives across the road from my dad and mum's former home up in Rossendale. 
He used to trim dad's hedges and generally looked out for him after mum died in 1990. 
   I began to write and then phoned him instead. I was still living there when he and his lovely wife were married. 
We'd all known each other from school days!
      The past few years haven't been easy since his wife died in her early 60's after a long battle with cancer. She was such a lovely caring person and I used to pop over the road and spend time catching up with them when I drove up to visit dad for a few days. 
   My cousin rang me last week to let me know that his son had died suddenly whilst doing the garden of a lady in Golders Green.
    He loved gardening and had trained at Kew. He was in his mid 40's. 
It was such a shock. He has two more children and 4 grandchildren. 
    When he answered the phone I wished I could have put my arms around him and hugged him tight. He told me he had sat down to write me a letter but couldn't bring himself to do it. (As he had known our Matt)
   I was so glad that I decided to phone.
     We actually ended up reminiscing a bit further on into the conversation, about lots of other things and caught up on which neighbours are still living in the road. He has some good neighbours and his daughter and other son live fairly near by.
     But he's still in shock yet. 
He hadn't been able to see his son because of the Lockdowns and a visit had been arranged for a bit later next month.   
    It's now lunchtime and pouring down outside. Everything looks very luminous. 
    This afternoon we are popping down to finish more cleaning at the flat. 
Then this evening is the match between England and Denmark, who will be no pushover!