Deer friends (not)

Left: Some real wildlife arrives in the garden

I touched on a personal note in my last bulletin when I apologised for unusually erratic postings due to “health reasons.” Many thanks for the goodwill messages from friendly readers wishing me luck as I disappear from the blogosphere for a time while the doctors deal with my little cancer problem.

I feel a bit of a fraud actually. I’ve never felt so well as I go into hospital for my op early tomorrow morning. But I ought to be thankful for that.

Yes, it’s a boring old prostate problem which the clever doctors diagnosed years ago and which they now say should be dealt with. Friends who’ve had the same op say “It’s nothing!” but I have my doubts about that.

OK, so it’s supposed to be the nearest thing to a cure, but the vision that I have of all those tubes sticking out of me is more grotesque than any horror movie scene I can think of. So I’ve had to turn down an invitation to a Halloween party on the 30th . I reckon I’d frighten away even the most outrageously dressed would-be zombie or vampire.

I have to confess that my erratic blogging of late has nothing to do with being laid low with chemotherapy or radiation sickness. It’s just that some weeks ago I woke up early to find a couple of unwelcome visitors in the garden chewing away at my roses. What I thought were thick and thorny hedges were clearly no defence against these little deer at all, and made me realise that something needed to be done before I’m incapacitated for months due to surgery. So I’ve been frantically busy with all the garden jobs I could think of, including as a priority making a deer fence to protect the roses and just about every other growing thing that the creatures have an insatiable appetite for. And of course one job led to another, and so on.

Above: "No, not that way, dear!"

A pity really. The deer are lovely to look at, even if they are really just vermin. But the roses are even lovelier and smell nicer.

A bientôt, as we Francophiles say.