Country diary: Suddenly on crutches, I’m an indoor spectator of spring | Virginia Spiers
St Dominic, Tamar Valley: Our woodland garden is starting to put on a show, with shocking pink camellias and purplish petals of magnolia, while I watch on from upstairsPrimroses poke through the woody debris left by recent hedge-flailing along the lanes, but the joy of this sunlit walk towards Calstock is suddenly cut short. On black ice, at the bottom of Bury Hill, we both crash, full length; I cannot rise, but Jack goes for help as I slump among brambles on the cold mud, soon to be coddled in blankets by a neighbour. There comes marvellously skilled attention from the ambulance workers and Derriford hospital in Plymouth for a partial hip replacement.From the 11th-floor ward, I watched spectacular sunrises above Dartmoor and Hemerdon Ball. Now, after just four nights away, I am home, cared for by Jack with his painful cracked ribs, and supported by my sisters and brothers-in-law. On crutches and between exercises, I am thankful to gaze out and witness the onset of spring in our overgrown woodland garden. Continue reading...
St Dominic, Tamar Valley: Our woodland garden is starting to put on a show, with shocking pink camellias and purplish petals of magnolia, while I watch on from upstairs
Primroses poke through the woody debris left by recent hedge-flailing along the lanes, but the joy of this sunlit walk towards Calstock is suddenly cut short. On black ice, at the bottom of Bury Hill, we both crash, full length; I cannot rise, but Jack goes for help as I slump among brambles on the cold mud, soon to be coddled in blankets by a neighbour. There comes marvellously skilled attention from the ambulance workers and Derriford hospital in Plymouth for a partial hip replacement.
From the 11th-floor ward, I watched spectacular sunrises above Dartmoor and Hemerdon Ball. Now, after just four nights away, I am home, cared for by Jack with his painful cracked ribs, and supported by my sisters and brothers-in-law. On crutches and between exercises, I am thankful to gaze out and witness the onset of spring in our overgrown woodland garden. Continue reading...
