Finally, a sunflower!

We've been waiting a long time for the sunflowers to bloom. They are probably taller than ever before, certainly a lot taller than me, and they were planted at about the usual time I think; this time last year, they were flowering beautifully. This is not a particularly large or impressive flower, especially in relation to its height, but it's good to have a splash of cheerful yellow on a rare sunny morning, and its neighbour will soon follow and looks a little larger. 

It was lovely to wake up to clear, blue sky. The grey, drizzly days have drained my motivation for "proper" photography, and although I've plenty to do indoors, the weather is somewhat limiting progress in the garden. Today, unfortunately, I had to be inside much of the time, helping J with art talk, giving her lunch and later, supporting her with an online art workshop for disabled artists, which was interesting for both of us - so all good things to be doing, but it felt a little sad not to make more use of the sunshine.

J's neck operation to relieve pressure on her spinal cord was a year ago yesterday. They are not comfortable memories to look back on. She's been thinking quite a lot about the anniversary and how she sees it now. She has had a very challenging three years which have brought a lot of difficult changes to an already demanding life, but a year post-surgery I finally have some sense that she is getting a bit of her bounce back and we are all starting to settle into a new normal in which we are increasingly able to negotiate the additional limitations spinal cord injury has added to her existing disabilities.