Not my time of the month

I haven't liked February in a while. At the beginning of Feb 2003 the daughter of one of my mum's friends died from an asthma attack. She was 16, and I'd met her the previous summer- a friendly, happy girl with as the cliche says, her whole life ahead of her.
On the 16th of February 2004 my beloved grandmother died. She wasn't the sort of grandmother you see a few times a year for birthdays or Christmas (not that that would make things better!), but someone who was very much involved in my life from day 1, as my father wasn't around and I was an only child (as is my mother). So she was a granny, a child minder, a companion for visits to Hamley's and the park and much, much more.
On the 18th of February 2005 I broke my leg horrifically in South America on my gap year. And it's funny we've come around with the number of years to the dates being on the same days as 2005 (if that makes any sense?). Thus on Monday the 14th of Feb 2005 I was setting off with my compadres in the Ecuadorian cloud forest with a 10 kg rucksack on my back to Santa Rosa- a beautiful, isolated little collection of huts, to build a greenhouse, and incidentally fall off a vine and break my leg. We set off with a flower each from Eliza the founder of the NGO we were volunteering for... I broke my leg on the Friday (18th).
Oh yes, and one my colleagues from work has just been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a type of cancer. And he is only 9 months older than me! His brother had it too, apparently you can have a genetic predisposition to it, but it does have a 90% survival rate when treated early.

Basically, not a fun month for people like me, who tend to dwell on things too much, living in nostalgic day dreams.

On a more positive note, I finally bought this crochet collar after having ummed and ahed for a while (I was planning on finding a vintage one somewhere) and seeing how well Sally wore it .







I know, I know, the shirt is a little see through but it was £5 many moons ago from H n M (and for once I'm wearing a nice bra underneath..). These new rings are both from Primark. They sometimes have such nice ones- I can't always bear to pay £10 or more in Topshop, and they all go green with time anyway. The brogues are vintage from an amazing shop in Bristol, BS8 I think it'a called, that stocks random labels, vintage and accessories.

Seriously looking forward to a calm weekend. The cat is being taken to the vet tomorrow (upset tummy/bowels, I'll spare the gory details). Stuffing him in the cat carrier is a task in itself...