A snowdrift of blossom

Every time I see pink cherry blossom, I am reminded of the 1958 movie starring Dirk Bogarde and Yoko Tani, The Wind Cannot Read, in which the song Sayanara, with its line, 'No more we shall see pretty cherry blossom on the tree, reduced me to tears.

This morning, though, it looked more like confetti on Mr G's front drive and car. No spring wedding is likely here, though!

My friend Louise

I rang the husband of my great friend Louise Cooper, who died 17 months ago. I ring him from time to time, to see how he's doing. "I had nothing when I met Louise," he told me. "I was divorced, I was in debt, I was drinking far too much, and now I own a house, but what use is it without my lovely wife and best friend to share it with?"

He is floundering. I thought I was getting better. We each admitted that 'the blackness had lifted', which is how it felt for both of us. But then he told me something he had never told me before and it's opened up the wound of grief all over again. He said that for weeks before she died, Louise had been complaining of severe headaches and feeling of pressure inside her head, but had flatly refused to go to the doctor, deciding 'it was nothing'. A week before she died, she suddenly went into overdrive, madly paying bills and tidying up household loose ends - "It was almost as if she knew she wasn't going to be here much longer," her husband said.

Louise's first cousin who she loved to bits died the same way, of a brain haemorrhage, a year before Louise. He was sitting having breakfast when he suddenly keeled over and was gone. He'd had no warning symptoms so nothing could have been done to help him. However, Louise had had symptoms and since speaking to an expert on brain injuries, strokes and haemorrhages, I've discovered that if she had gone to her GP straight away, she could have had a scan and then been operated on, like my brother-in-law was, to release the pressure and stop the bleed. My lovely Louise, my sister in all but DNA, could still have been alive.

I shall say nothing to C, her husband. He is comforting himself with the knowledge that nothing could have been done to save her. Yes, perhaps the GP might have overlooked the potential seriousness of her symtoms and told her to take two paracetamols and come back if she didn't feel any better, but I think that as she attended the surgery so rarely (like my mother, who didn't go for over 20 years, and Mr Grumpy who, before his brain haemorrhage, hadn't seen his GP for 14 years), the doctor would have known right away that she hadn't presented with a trivial complaint.

I am now of the firm belief that she could have lived, and I feel terribly, heartbreakingly sad. We were more than just friends; we were singing and songwriting partners who had performed in public together; we were writing buddies who swapped ideas, contributed to one another's books and critiqued each other's plots; and we loved each other so much that we both said that if ever we were to turn lesbian, it would be with each other. The Louise-shaped hole in my life will never be filled - and now I have this knowledge to torture myself with. She could still have been here. Oh Louise, you silly, silly girl. Why, oh why, didn't you go to the doctor's?

C says that the brain haemorrhage happened at a low spot in Louise's life, when Penguin turned down a trilogy that they had been about to commission, and she felt depressed about her future as a writer. Yet she and I were forming plans to start a business and write a musical together and I was about to rent a cottage round the corner to her; didn't she look forward to all that? Or was depression another of the symptoms of what was happening physiologically, rather than psychologically, inside her head?

We shall never know. C is waiting to see a counsellor. I am still trying to find a place to live and get my life back together, away from the constraints of living with Mr G in a place I hate. In May, Louise would have been 59. I still can't bear to erase her name from my Birthday Book, or from my address book. I still have loads of emails she sent me, which give me a shock every time I see her name on them, as if she is sending them from beyond the grave. I shall keep them forever, with their wit and warmth, and gentle, sisterly chidings and advice. But I haven't got her and not having her feels like living without spring or summer, without sunlight or warm breezes, without flowers or leaves or reflections of blue sky and white clouds in a pond. I know I am straying into purple prose territory here, but what the heck? It's how I feel.

Tomorrow is another day. Oh, for the power to choose which day I wanted. It would be one several years ago, when Louise and I went rock-pooling in Trevaunance Cove. When I find the photos, I shall upload them. That day, we were truly happy and spent the evening drinking wine, playing the guitar and singing till the wee small hours. Yes, I'd like that day again, please.

Sure-footed?

Chimimi climbed onto the roof of the workshop to investigate the new bird nesting box under the eaves. She couldn't quite reach it so she climbed into the bushes, which didn't quite hold her weight.

Oops!

PS: She fell onto the grass but didn't hurt herself, just sauntered off with her tail in the air, as they do, as if to say, "Who? Me? No, that was a lookalike!"

Pond finished!

Here it is at last, in all its glory. It does look empty without any fish, though...

Census Form

I am a non-person. I do not exist. Mr G has refused to include me on the census form because, although I have lived here for nearly 6 years, it has not been 'official'; in other words, as far as the authorities are concerned, he is the only one who lives here.

Ten years ago, at the time of the last census, I was also living here between property purchases, and he has just told me he didn't put me down on that census form, either. So for all these years I have been unable to vote, and if anyone in the future is trying to trace me via genealogy, they won't be able to find me anywhere. No address = no existence. They'll think I was dead. Or maybe living abroad; that's the better option. In, fact, I feel so angry with him, I just might do that!

New pond

Mr G has decided to revive the pond. It was looking quite nice with a ton of gravel in it and the plants replaced, but the water kept disappearing and he guessed there was a hole in the liner somewhere underneath all that gravel. So he bought a new pond liner on Ebay and got to work. Here it is in its various stages.

First of all, he took out some of the gravel he'd already put in.

Then he lined it with fleece, making a miniature Himalayas.

Next, the liner went in. It took three hours to fill it up with water, then finally he repositioned the plants. Today, he has trimmed the edges of the fleece and liner and is edging the pond with decking. He is adamant that he's not getting any more fish, though. Wonder if he'd notice if I sneaked a couple in?

Basket case!

I posted one of these on Facebook but couldn't resist showing some more of them here. I was hanging out the washing and turned round to find next door's car, Chi Mimi (or Chimimi, I'm not sure which), in the basket, playing with the clothespegs. She is such a sweetie. I've just taken some more of her mountaineering on the workshop roof and falling out of a bush!