Encouragement

 I had a very nice time with my trans-supportive friend who came to stay. A woman who has been married for fifty years, with two children and two grandchildren - very much a traditional family person, therefore - but who previously was happy to share an art studio with me and display my transgender artworks at an exhibition she organised, go out with me as Sue and be totally unjudgmental. 

In fact, she has given me a lot of encouragement over the last few days. As well as suggesting that I am not as overweight as I think I am (thank you!), she suggested that moving where I now live was a good idea and that therefore I should settle properly and make closer contact with the trans community here. The latter pretty much matches my own sentiment.

I lent her my pink umbrella for the rain and would have lent her my swimming costume only she didn't, in the end, get a chance to swim. 

There is nothing like having the positive support and encouragement of someone outside the trans community. She doesn't understand why I'm trans but then neither do I. A calm acceptance of people as they are as long as they're not hurting anyone is all that is required. So as allies go, she is tops.

Anyway, we did a bit of sightseeing, ate some very nice food out, hired a two-seat rickshaw on the cycleway, had a good catch up with each other and with a close friend of ours via social media. I have just seen her off on the next leg of her journey to Rome. I may see her again next month if I go to England.

So, all in all, a very happy couple of days.

 

Defuzz 

Well, our pool is now closed until the summer season next year. It's a pity as I love swimming there every day but they can't justify the costs of running it and employing a lifeguard for just the few users you would get in the low season. 

The plus side is that since I no longer have to present as male for pool purposes, I can get rid of this horrid body hair that I've necessarily let grow. I hate it. But now I get to remove it and be much more feminine again.

There's always a plus side!

 

Pretty things

I have been growing lettuces these last few years, courtesy of the local paper that included packets of seeds once a week during the Covid lockdowns so that readers could grow a kitchen garden at home whilst stuck indoors. It was something cheerful and productive to do at that bad time. It turned out to be a massively popular gesture and readers would send in photos of their tomatoes, chilli peppers or whatnot with thanks. So popular, in fact, that we now get seeds in the paper regularly. 

Lenny the Lettuce was a triumph as he was the last of my initial crop of lettuces and went to seed before I could eat him. Lenny's children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren have continued to fill my salad bowl since.

Here's a different species that's now flowered before being cropped and I post it as the flowers are so pretty. I don't think I'll bother with ornamental flowers next year as my veg are just as pretty and a lot tastier, too!

Spring was very late this year so I have only started to see small lizards regularly among my pots in the last few weeks. There was a big fat gecko the other evening. These reptiles are not to everyone's liking, but they are harmless and eat undesirable bugs. Geckos have such cute toes!

 

I shoo pigeons away from my rail because they make a nasty mess, but there is a pair of collared doves who are very much in love and I let them settle there. They often share kisses there and since I am an incurable romantic I think it's lovely.

There's also a pair of wagtails who visit my terrace regularly, looking for any bugs the lizards have overlooked. They're nice, too.

Sue x