Claire’s Rose

“You’re beautiful” that’s the name of the pink rose bush I delivered to Steve today. Bae and I chose it in memory of our dear friend Claire who recently passed away. Her detection dog Pal had a good sniff and he approved.

Pal was so excited to see me and had a good ‘lean’ on me while bashing me with his waggy tail. Steve says he gets a little bored as a retired working dog missing being out and about so much.

Steve is doing okay trying to make time for gardening in between the many phone calls he’s having to make to settle Claire’s affairs. Call centres are driving him crazy just as H is finding. He says sometimes you just have to hang up and try another day. Time with the roses sounds much better. It still feels like she’s in hospital and not ‘gone’ he says. I can’t believe it either and feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach every time I remember.

After our catch up chat and a short walk with Pal I headed to Bluewater to the opticians to buy some new contact lenses that are meant to be better suited for swimming… the price tag suggests they should be good!

I picked up two flowery dresses from a new fashion store that had the same red and black pattern in different styles, one frilly knee length and one bias cut calf length. The idea was one of them might be suitable to wear to Claire’s funeral as the colour theme is red and black for the Medical Detection Dogs charity.

I was disappointed to discover when I got home that the zip was broken on both dresses! I managed to fix the zip on the shorter dress and it fitted well but feels a bit too ‘fun and summery’ for a funeral, I may keep it for other occasions. The zip is so broken on the longer dress I couldn’t even try it on so it will have to be returned.

Swam again this evening and would’ve stayed longer except time ran out due to a lifeguard training session. Enjoyed Wimbledon highlights when I got home.