I've always been an optimistic person. Like my Dad before me I want to believe the best of people. Of course sometimes that backfires and someone takes advantage of my good nature. Ray and I early in our married life befriended a couple and they robbed us of a lot of money when Ray put together a kit home for them and they refused to pay him. We did look at taking them to court but the money we would have had to spend on the case was about the same as we would receive.

But the past is the past. And we get older and hopefully wiser. It still annoys me though that recently that house sold for just on 1 million dollars. Different owners and of course with Ray gone there was no way I could  claim compensation under  the present laws but I still remember how much that hurt Ray and wonder if that and a few other similar "failures to pay" jobs contributed to his high blood pressure that was a contributing factor to his having that first stroke at aged 48. I guess that we will never know.

So Spring is here but life is bittersweet, being a widow most of the time is fine but seeing families having lunch together in the shopping centre or cars loaded with kids and camping gear remind me that my life is emptier now. My family is not close but once again Trev and Alice were here for a week on her Spring break and I am still able to ring my daughter Shirley on Sunday nights and catch up with what has been happening in her life so I am luckier than some of my friends with no family. I ought to count my blessings.

We have already had summer temperatures and it is still early Spring. That limits the kind of plants I can grow for instance making it too late for lettuce and soft foliage herbs. My flower house, a couple of decades old now, is falling apart now and would be costly to replace so I can only  raise a few seedlings.  My herbs look healthy though and those Mediterranean herb plants are surviving. It's the typical English plants that will not. So limited home grown produce this year. And due to inflation shop bought goods are really expensive. So I have to look at all costs now.

Overall life is good. With coming up five years since my brain operation I will soon be living on borrowed time, that is time I wouldn't have had if I hadn't had the aneurysm clipped. So I am fortunate in that respect.  I've got to look on the bright side of life. Enough good times to balance out the bad. Good friends that I have had for many years and mentors that have taught me to make the most of life. Church and Lions figure large in my life and housework and gardening fill in spots that otherwise might be blank.

All of this was discussed last night in a phone call with my sister-in-law, the widow of Ray's older brother. We are the same age and have been friends for many years. I guess we are lucky to be in contact despite not having seen each other in some years now. With family and good friends to talk to my life is better. Spring is a good time for getting out more and that is my plan for the next few weeks. To get out more. To use my time better and achieve more is a resolution I make this time every year. So here it is again. And how many weeks to Christmas?