A Better Afternoon

Out of curiosity and boredom I checked the car’s trip meter when driving back through the deserted “road works” on the M25 this morning. One lane is coned off for a total of 19 miles both ways, and there’s a speed restriction of 50mph for the entire distance. It’s so tedious when you’re doing a long journey. I don’t see why the work can’t be done in shorter sections and the cones moved along as each section is completed. I suppose that would be far too sensible for National Highways.

By the time I got back to Tiptree I was very tense and had a blinding headache. On going indoors I literally screamed and shouted and ranted for a good five minutes just to let all the stress out. My Fire Safety Risk Assessment has now been endorsed by our company secretary Geoff (who is motoring around Europe for a month), and he has emailed the document to my solicitor. Hallelujah! Let’s hope the buyer’s people don’t come up with anything else out of the blue for me to sort. They should have asked for this R.A. at the beginning when all the information was being gathered from Geoff and me, not weeks into the conveyancing process when contracts were due to be exchanged. Also, I did tell everyone at the start that he was going away on holiday in early June. I really cannot abide incompetence. For my sanity, I decided to opt out of doing anything towards the house move for the rest of today.

So it’s been a chat with one of my nieces on the phone, a quick trip to Sainsbury’s, a hassle-free microwave meal for lunch, put the laundry in the machine and then a very long-overdue potter with the secateurs in my jungle, cutting back some shrubs and deadheading the poor neglected roses. They continue to cheer me with their beautiful blooms despite being largely left unpruned to go spindly. The birds are pleased with my overgrown greenery, though. As I progressed around the garden I could hear little chicks calling and see various parents zooming into the foliage with food for their young. A blackbird kept me company, rootling around for insects under the dead leaves I deliberately didn’t sweep up. There’s a lot to be said for a semi-wild garden - it’s much better for Nature than a neat and manicured one, clipped to within an inch of its life. And Nature has rewarded me for leaving it untidy, because this afternoon she has helped restore some calm to my addled mind.