Good Grief by Catherine Mayer & Anne Mayer Bird

Author:Catherine Mayer & Anne Mayer Bird [Mayer, Catherine & Mayer Bird, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

The fourth letter to John

25 May 2020

Dear John,

How can you not be here? Five months after you died in the cold and grey of late December, we are in glorious late spring/early summer. April and May have been incredibly hot and sunny with almost no rain and very few cool days. The garden is looking so beautiful and I keep imagining you inspecting it in detail and enjoying it so much.

Pasquale cannot speak of you without a tear in his eye. As I mentioned, he could only take care of the front garden because of the savage restrictions of our lockdown. But two weeks ago he and his young assistant Joe went through the neighbour’s small granny house (with her permission of course) and climbed the fence with all their equipment including the mower. Now the back garden is really taking shape again. They are back on Thursday (over the fence) as we all await news of the easing of lockdown. Remember when I first wrote that I said to you with horror that we might be locked up for three weeks!? It is now ten weeks and no end in sight. A very new way of life.

I am trying to take much more interest in what Pasquale and Joe do and we have jointly asked your pardon for letting the gorgeous yellow poppies remain. The roses are magnificent although lack of water is beginning to affect them. The sprinkler goes morning and evening but not at hot midday. Pasquale has been propagating vegetables for the patch. The neglected rhubarb is about six feet high and we are leaving it because we both love the way it looks.

In the front garden the twenty-two-foot echium is attracting tourists and we have featured twice in the local newspaper. A friend took a photo of little me next to it last week, which I have circulated to friends and family. The climbing rose which was our housewarming present from Sarah was also magnificent this year although it is withering a bit. And where the rosebush on the side of the garage seems to have died, Pasquale has planted a Virginia creeper so the wall will be scarlet by autumn 2021. It just seems impossible that you are not here to see and enjoy what you loved so much – your garden.

Indoors I have had good luck with the orchids, most of which have bloomed or are blooming. I still pay a fortune for cut flowers even though for ten weeks, one brief visit a week from Catherine represents the only person other than me to look at them. However, she and I have invited Ian and Jayne to tea in the back garden next Sunday. They will go swiftly through the house without touching anything but we can space out in the garden when we get there.

I’m still worrying about what to do about your studio. Without a regular income you somehow raised quite a lot of money to build a wonderful studio space with small tool shed attached.

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