Chenonceau never fails to enthral me with its sheer beauty but never as much as in February this year when there was hardly anybody else there. To be able to stand back and look at its treasures in proper perspective without dozens of other people swirling about in front of me was a total joy.
Of all the châteaux we have visited over the years, Chenonceau always has the best flower arrangements. They are quite breathtaking and must take hours and a lot of skill to produce. Even in the middle of February the flowers were fresh and the arrangements in good condition. And of course with nobody much about I could see them in their full glory instead of only bits at a time.
Hyacinths featured greatly in many of the displays, filling the rooms with their glorious perfume.
I do admire people who can produce a nice flower arrangement, being a put them in the vase and hope for the best kind of flower arranger myself. One day I will take myself off on a course to learn how to do it properly and make it look effortless, when I have the time.
Time being something I seem to have a lot of at the moment, but not able to do anything very useful with it, still being quite poorly with this horrible cold/flu. Sitting in front of the computer and tinkering with pictures is about all I have had the energy to do since I gave in to the illness and went to bed on Christmas afternoon. Each day I try to do a few easy chores, like clear the table or stack the dishwasher, but it’s exhausting. I’m pretty fed up with it.
However, I’m consoling myself with the fact that at least I am retired. If this had happened whilst I was working, having to spend a precious holiday being ill instead of enjoying myself, I would have been much more upset about it.
At least now that we’re both retired we can just write off the time, batten down the hatches until we’re better (Nick has had a milder version of it, lingering slightly) and just pick up the decorating and other stuff where we left off when we feel up to it. That is one of the advantages of being retired, I think, knowing that if today doesn’t work out as planned, there’s always tomorrow.
It snowed again here today, putting the kibosh on any plans we might have had to go anywhere. We often get a bit of snow in Derbyshire between Christmas and New Year and being stuck in the house gives me the time to do a bit of sorting out of the year’s photos, something I actually look forward to. It’s good to be reminded of the wonderful things we have done during the year and to think of how we will enjoy doing it all again next year!
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