Dispatches

These weeks, near a month, since I had surgery in Bantry hospital to remove my troublesome gallbladder I have been feeling fragile and tired, and had absolutely no energy or enthusiasm to write anything - I’ve been going to bed earlier (and it is late at night when I usually write) and sleeping 10 hours a night, managing to do what is required in my every day life; walk the dog, mind the grandson, shop, eat, see friends, even manage to preside over a wedding. but lost my desire to write about stuff or even to find something I’d written before to entertain you on here.

Sorry.

I’ve read big novels mainly - Barbara Kingsolver’s The Prodigal Summer and The Poisonwood Bible, plus Tracy Chevalier’s lovely novel about fossil hunting, and the relationship between two disparate women, Remarkable Creatures, and now Lolly Willowes by Silvia Townsend Warner, a strange satirical book written in 1926.

so, as I’m not yet ready to write about gall bladders you’ll be glad to know, here instead the story of my Amaryllis:

I did repot my Amaryllis last year, and it has sat in the same place on my living room windowsil ever since. I wasn’t expecting too much as I knew it was a good few years old, and usually it has flowered in February or March but lo , finally during April, a bud began to grow, and grow;

By the end of April I could see there were actually four buds, which unfurled their petals during the time of my surgery and the weeks after, their huge scarlet blooms brightening my days.

I rang my friend Patricia, to tell her of its glory, and we together tried to remember which year she had sent the bulb to me for a Christmas present. The next day it came up on Facebook as a memory, to my satisfaction:

April 22^nd 2022

Two Christmases ago I received a brown paper package in the post which was a small bit battered, with soil leaking out of it. I unwrapped it to find a plastic flower pot, a bag of compost with a hole in it, and a large bulb … a plant type bulb you understand, not a light bulb. Oh and a small label telling me this was an amaryllis with an unbelievably lurid photo of a large red flower.

So I duly filled the pot with compost, planted the bulb, which showed no sign of life atall, and watered it; sure enough after a while it began to sprout and in the fullness of time long leaves, and eventually a long stemed bud appeared, and then another one , both of which opened and flowered magnificently as Amaryllises should do.

When it had finished flowering I put it upstairs on the landing windowsil and occasionally poured into the soil a dribble of left over water from the glass I usually take to bed every night. Last year it just carried on producing leaves but nothing more, snd languished boringly in the window enbrasure, but I didn’t have the heart to throw it out.

And now look ! About a month ago I happened to be cleaning the window and to my amazement I could see a flower bud emerging amongst the leaves . Suddenly the plant was interesting again; I brought it downstairs where it has had pride of place on the living room windowsill as the bud grows and slowly unfurls its petals.

I sent a photo to my friend Patricia (who had originally sent me the bulb, having got a job lot of bulbs at a car boot sale and sent them to all her friends) marvelling at this second flowering. I must look up amaryllis plants - perhaps they are supposed to be biannuals . Whatever , this one is giving me much joy this second time around . Thank you Patricia xx

So it is 6 years old; I only kept it the first year being a neglectful gardener, and then seeing that it had one green leaf still. Patricia said all the other friends to whom she sent amaryllis bulbs that first Christmas of the pandemic had thrown them out after the first year.