Back to blogging!

I'm not old enough (quite) to be officially self-isolating, but I might as well be, because most of the things I do during a normal week have been shut down. No church, no choir practice, no garden club, no craft club, no Pilates class, no pub lunches.
I don't want you to think I'm complaining. I'm lucky to live in an area that, so far, has a relatively low coronavirus infection rate. I want to keep well, because my mother, who is 90, and my stepmother Diane, who has had chemotherapy and two operations to remove tumours, are relying on me and my sisters for support in these crazy times.
We lost my father in May 2019, so Diane has been coping both with his loss and with her own illness.
My mother was very ill, and in and out of hospital in December, so the past few months have been quite stressful.
Coronavirus, despite its challenges and the changes it has made to the way we live, has reminded me that I began blogging because my husband was ill with non-Hodgkins Disease, and I wanted to talk to people about gardening without actually leaving the house.
So, I'm back to blogging.
I run the garden club in the village where I live, so it could be that this blog may become a forum for neighbours who are self-isolating, and for whom the garden is a very welcome distraction from the monotony of life without much neighbourly interaction. If that's the case, fantastic.
I am still hoping to open my garden for the National Garden Scheme on Sunday 5 July, or failing that, on the evening of Sunday 30 August. Whatever happens, I will have absolutely no excuse to have the garden looking anything but perfect.
Currently, I'm waiting - after a long wet winter - for the blossom to emerge on the cherry trees, the amelanchier (that's serviceberry to American friends), the magnolia and the hawthorn. Watch this space!