N is for Narcissus

...because they used to grow in the little flower bed outside the back door at Knocksinna, our family's house in Ireland. I fell over on the step there once, and banged my head. My mother put a greasy black substance on it called Iodex. What happened to Iodex? Apparently, many of us are now short of Iodine these days, as table salt is no longer Iodised, but Bromated. And of course some us don't use salt...

My sister TMLHereandThere will remember the daffodils/narcissis/jonquils, and possibly the Iodex. What she may not remember is the Easter holidays we spent playing at Tents in the back garden. The tents were constructed using the wooden clothes frame laid on it side, draped with towels. We stayed in the tents for days, only emerging when called for meals, and snacking on 'dates' (tiny packets of chocolate buttons from our Easter eggs). TML later went to live on a desert island for 17 years, and I became a playworker.

This image is for TML, as she sent me the jigsaw for Christmas! It turns out to be beautiful when completed, but I haven't tracked down the original illustration yet. I didn't take many pictures today, and the light left a lot to be desired. But I was doing the jigsaw as if my life depended on it.

In a way, it does, for a friend of ours is very ill with a brain tumour and hasn't got long to live. She is only about 50, with two children under 18. I can't seem to concentrate on much beyond raging at the apparent unfairness of it all and just trying to keep on going. It must be so much more painful for her family.