May has always been one of my favourite months. The golf course comes out of hibernation, with new foliage and blossom on the trees, and trout become more active and can be tempted by a dry fly. This year, though, I have been largely ‘confined to barracks’, having to content myself with observing the changes in our garden as the warmer weather developed.
Following my accident over Easter, I was happy, initially, to remain housebound for a while. Fortunately, I already had a manual, collapsible wheelchair so I could scoot around the house without having to labour everywhere using the walking frame; but with a wheelchair ramp yet to be installed, getting out of the house wasn’t going to be easy. The time came, however, when an exit became essential as I had another hospital appointment on 8 May, ironically for an electric wheelchair assessment.
The day before the appointment, Doreen and I did a ‘dry run’ to ensure she could fold down the rear seats in the new car, and lift the folded wheelchair into the back. Next day, we set off for the hospital but, while trying to negotiate the step out of the side door with the aid of the walking frame, I succeeded in falling over again! Nothing broken this time, but I did over-extend my right knee in the fall. Unfortunately, as I’m unable to get up unaided, we had to cancel the appointment. I now have a replacement appointment, but not until 25 June.
Further experimentation using a portable ramp established that I can get in and out of the front door, in the wheelchair, so we have since managed a couple of trips to the local pub and, the highlight of the month, an expedition to the polling station to cast our votes in the European elections. What joy! Unfortunately, though, I had to give up my plan to go to Trent Bridge for England’s cricket ODI against Pakistan.
One of our pub trips this month was with Jim, an old friend from my university days who has recently taken up golf. During lunch I discovered he didn’t have an electric trolley. He left that day with my old electric trolley in his car boot. Doreen was delighted. The summer house is packed (in her view) with now redundant golf gear and fishing tackle so she is always happy to see some of it disappearing. The trolley is particularly compact when folded, but commensurately tricky to assemble so I gave Jim a quick lesson. Next time we met, he’d used it once, but confessed that he’d erected it as much as possible before loading it in the car to save the embarrassment of struggling to assemble it in the golf club car park. I can sympathise with that!
Following April’s good news in finding a buyer for the house in Cuckfield, we heard last week that our buyers’ buyer has dropped out. We have given our buyers 2 weeks to find a replacement (they are still very keen to buy) but then we’ll have to put the house back on the market. Very frustrating.
The month ended with the fracture clinic where I’d hoped ‘the boot’ would come off, but no such luck. The foot is healing but I need to keep the boot on for another couple of weeks. Doreen is cursing as I have only two pairs of trousers that will fit over the boot, but getting them on and off is so difficult she has to help me dress and undress every day.
Finally, I’m delighted to report that we have taken in two lodgers, Betty & Bill. Introduced to us by our 4 year-old grandson, they have joined long-term residents, Howard & Hilda, in the garden pond. Beautiful goldfish!