Barnetts Great Eight

Sometimes its not the big speeches that mean the most, sometimes its the simplest of words that have the biggest impact. For us this week,'you are discharged', alters our world. For us it means no more hospital trips, no more waiting on tests, no more cancer lying in the background of our lives. Now that's not to say that I am blinkered enough to think that it will never affect our lives again, I sincerely hope not, but I would be deluded to think that. What I do know is that this chapter has come to pass. Five years ago we were so excited to be expecting our 7th child, Florence, and the week after having my 20 week scan, I sat with John whilst he had a scan to discover if he had a tumour. He did and so it all began. The operation, the chemo, the fear, it engulfed what should have been a great time in our lives with worry and tears. But with the amazing care of our NHS John came out the other side and our lives carried on. Florence arrived, appointments came and went, an...

We are very lucky where we live. We have some beautiful walks and parks to keep us entertained. Parks are the saviour of the Summer holidays. Pack up a few drinks and snacks and head off. We have a list of parks on our summer plan that we want like to go to and here in our second week we have crossed off the first one, Cropthorne park. This park holds a little special in my heart, in fact the whole area evokes many childhood memories for me. My Fathers family came from one of the local nearby villages and as such I spent many a weekend visiting relatives here when I was young. Before we moved to our present home, we were very interested in moving to this area, unfortunately, we couldn't find the right house for the right price. I do however, still aspire to live there and maybe one day I will. Couple this with my Dad being buried in the next village and the area will keep on drawing me back. The kids call the park 'Grampys Park' as we usually visit my Dads grave then after...