Nearly a whole year since my last post. And what a year it’s been, not only globally and nationally but also personally, with for me the main focus being health readjustment and rehabilitation in response to some long-term issues that, I’m now having to be honest with myself, just ain’t going away. And yes, I know, this is supposed to be a blog about beekeeping and garden & allotment growing. Or whatever. And here I am waffling on about health?
But herein lies the point. Health underpins all other aspects of life. 
Living with so-called ‘invisible’ disability and chronic illness is complicated, exhausting – and not for the fainthearted. Three interconnected conditions – complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia and chronic photosensitive migraine – creeping up on me over the course of several years, to collide in a perfect storm; reducing the ‘me’ that I used to be. Not that I’ve simply rolled over and given up. Like a lot of people in similar circumstances, I for a long time floundered in a state of denial, pushing myself to function as ‘normal’ and hiding the reality of my new, far-from-normal ‘normal’. Result? Utter exhaustion. On all levels (physical, psychological and emotional). Thus, up util just a few months ago, I was seriously considering abandoning the allotment that I’d so enjoyed for so many years. It was simply too much. Likewise, I’d begun to wonder how I could realistically continue beekeeping – much as I’ve been loving it. Not that I’m going to waffle on too much about all that here. Because this is, after all, a blog about beekeeping and allotment & garden growing. Or whatever. So it’s enough to say here that this last twelve months have been a process of readjustment and rehabilitation. And here I am now. Moving forward.
So. What’s new? And what’s stayed the same?
Well, in the event I did not give up the allotment, and instead swapped my overly-large plot for a smaller one (about a third of the size) on the same site. And the best bit? I get to keep bees there! Additionally, I still have my two existing out-apiary, making a total three separate sites, all very different. I’m still growing vegetables and fruit, herbs and flowers on the (new, smaller) allotment. I’m still growing pollinator-forage flowers – on all the three sites and also in the garden at home. And that’s about it really. And it’s enough. I am enough. And so on we go. I’m intending to post a bit more regularly from now on (more than once a year, at least?!). So watch this space …
SomewhereinwestCornwall 