Sprigs of honesty

My friend N has been visiting a friend at the hospice for the last week. The woman is
dying from cervical cancer and is having a hard time in every respect. N has been determined to visit her friend as often as possible. However, she's picked up a really bad cold/chest infection, which I seem to have managed to get too.

So I've had a lost weekend in bed, cuddling a hot water bottle, tissues and some cough mixture. I've not felt so rough for a very long while.

It's a real pain as my husband has a week off and we had hoped to catch up on things around the house,including painting the bathroom. Maybe I'll feel more like it tomorrow.

And N now has a request for help and advice from another woman whose just been diagnosed with skin cancer that will require extensive facial surgery.

It is hard when you achieve "survivor" status, because it's natural for people to want to talk to you about the disease and for you in turn to feel like you should help, but it can also be a really draining experience.

I wouldn't know N if she hadn't reached out to me when we met while walking our two ginger muts. But I do worry about the toll it takes on her health and well-being, but I also know that she wouldn't have it any other way.

Today I had the camera with me on the couch and played at snapping things in the room, after I'd got bored with afternoon TV, well that's not strictly true I just put it off as I was crying at old soppy old black and white films, like "How Green Was My Valley". I like this shot of wee sprigs of honesty in three very tactile, organic vases that I bought from IKEA a few weeks ago.

And this a fav on my i-pod. It's called "Be good or be gone". "Child actor eyes" - a brilliant description and, "I have become an aerial view of a coastal town that you once knew" .