Withywindle Wanderers

Coco is delightfully eager in her basketball playing! Dear Eowyn is poorly today, with the nasty cold I had - what a gift to give my daughter! Bens, Naomi and I are getting ready to attend Avak's party - I am excited, though at this very moment, feel most like popping in to my pink flannellette jammies and reading my book (Tom Wolfe's 'I am Charlotte Simmons')! James Taylor's 'Up on a Roof' is playing, which is lovely, although it makes me feel homesick  for Bag End,  where I'd climb on the roof, with Mon Petit Chou (our cat), and sing it to myself, taking in the splendid view of the Cascade Mountains and the Floating Meadow and our line of birch trees and the grove of cedars in our back garden, and plum trees and mountain ash and chestnut, and the row of maples at the foot of the hill, ahhhh,  so splendid in the fall...

As I did after Mum's lumpectomy in 1996, I am nursing Bens' surgical wound at home, rather than him having to go to the doctor/hospital for his dressings. As with Mum, this is a tremendous privilege. Bens is slowly getting more movement  in his hand. I am sick, and cosily at home in my winter jammies, cooking chicken soup, drinking hot tea, lolling by the fire (well, heater, actually!) It is so luxurious to relax at home, yet I do it so infrequently. Whenever I am sick, I think, I should mooch around at home more oft! I am listening to  Greg Laswell . How exciting and wondrous - I shall be seeing almost all of you in our little bloggery-neck-of-the-woods in May. I feel supremely happy about this! Love Megs

PHEWF!! Bens doesn't need a second surgery. He'll be in hospital today on antibiotics and then HOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful relief! The lovely element of this time has been the gentle acknowledging of how very much we mean to each other. Thank you for your support of us, near and far. Love, M

Bens' surgery went really well today - thank you for your kindness and support! The BB was encapsulated in fibrous tissue, and the tendon and synovium surrounding it were inflamed, and starting to become infected. Bye bye BB!! Bens is still in hospital on IV antibugs, and the girls and I are snug at home, listening to  the rain on the roof and looking forward to his homecoming soon!!!!! I have just finished a hauntingly beautiful book named 'Sorrows of an American', by Siri Hustvedt, and wanted to share some of it with you! "I think we all have ghosts inside us, and it's better when they speak than when they don't ..." "...Hans Loewald wrote, The work of a psychoanalyst can turn ghosts into ancestors." "...the snow was beautiful, and as I paused to watch it fall, illuminated by the building's lights against the darkness of the evening, it struck me as a moment when the boundary between inside and outside loosens, and there is no lone...

Lovely Bens has good pain relief, IV antibiotics, no surgery today, perhaps tomorrow. A team of med students are coming to see him in the morning, as (in the doc's words) "We don;t see many bullet wounds around here in Australia". Bens seems quite pleased to be the centre of so much attention - the hospital staff all  love him - he is particularly charming when he's all drugged up!!!!!