Five good things on Friday – on Friday!

1. I (finally!) got round to upgrading my blog to a paid-for package instead of the free one.  Which means I have more storage space, and can resume uploading photos.  As ever, the thing I’d built up in my mind as a Big Hurdle turned out to be the work of minutes.  Literally, minutes. (Hmm.  Will I ever learn??).   So here, entirely a propos of nothing other than that I wasn’t able to share them before, are some random recent photos.
   

   Nomadic Gardens, Spitalfields, London

   

   Mews garden near Hyde Park, London

   

   Mews garden near Hyde Park, London

2. A family cycle ride.  We managed to meet up with our nephew and his family visiting from Sydney for a cycle ride.  He’s a bike mechanic out there, and loves to cycle.  His wife does part of her daily commute by bicycle.  Their two year old is used to riding in a bike seat.  Malcolm’s brother came too.  The icing on the cake was that youngest son and daughter-in-law and baby drove over to meet up with us at the lunch stop – the pub we’ve been visiting as a family for many years now (and where they hosted youngest son’s wedding lunch – they were pleased to meet the baby!).  A leisurely lunch stop, good food and drink, and a great welcome – everything we could ask for in a pub.
3. Photographic exhibition.  We were fortunate to get tickets to the opening evening of a fascinating exhibitions of photos by and from the collection of Magnum photographer David Hurn.  Back in the 1950s he had the brilliant idea of welcoming photographers as they joined Magnum by inviting them to do a swap with him – they could choose two of his prints, and he would choose two of theirs.  Over the years he has amassed a large collection of prints by many of the world’s best photographers.  He recently donated his entire archive to the National Museum of Wales.  This exhibition is a small sample of those.  It is very interestingly curated, by juxtaposing Hurn’s photographs with those of others who swapped for them.  Catch it if you can (at the Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol till 15 September, free of charge).  
4. Summer produce.  Strawberries, oh how I love you!  And mine really are the tops for taste.  For a whole raft of reasons I haven’t got much planted on the allotment this year, so I wasn’t expecting much produce.  But two of my allotment neighbours are away on holiday, and they’ve both asked me to pick and use anything that is ripe.  I’ve been happy to oblige – in return, I have broad beans, peas, courgettes, and mangetout peas.  I also picked a large punnet of their strawberries which I gave to other neighbours.
5. Finding hope for treatment for a chronic health problem which has gradually got worse over the past two years.  The problem began back in April 2016 when we walked the Capital Ring (I wrote about it here), and unfortunately far from getting better, it’s gradually got quite a lot worse since then to the extent that it is limiting my levels of activity.  I have lymphoedema in my right leg.  So far I have struggled to get good advice about how best to manage it and stop it getting worse.  But this week I had my first massage treatment that should help alleviate the symptoms, and I received an early date for an appointment at a specialist (NHS) clinic.  Things are looking up….