Lots of reminiscing and lots of veg (too much!)

 It is lovely seeing SiL and niece, out of all husband's many siblings (he's one of 10) P is probably the one I have always got on best with.  It's certainly very bittersweet though - P is 18 months younger than my husband but now looks about 10 years older because of her illness, she's also extremely breathless and gets exhausted walking just a few paces, they've brought her wheelchair.  She's very down to earth and practical, she says she doesn't want anyone getting upset in front of her, in her own words she's had her life and is happy to meet her maker.  Her daughter E, however, is devastated - SiL had 3 children, 2 girls and a boy, E being the youngest - the eldest daughter and son both died in tragic circumstances (separately) as young adults.  Understandably, E is heartbroken at the thought of now losing her mother so soon, even earlier since SiL has thus far been refusing treatment.  However, due to E being so upset, SiL has now agreed to go over the treatment options again with her Macmillan nurse when they get back home - she's not promising to have treatment but will give it some more thought.  At the end of the day, it's her body and her decision, of course, but I for one do feel she should really take her daughter's feelings into account.

They've gone on the steam train this morning for a little jaunt out, so we've got time by ourselves before they come to join us this afternoon.  We had fish and chips on the seafront on Monday evening, lunch out yesterday, then a drive round to show them the sights before coming back to ours for dinner.  We've sat in the (wonderfully peaceful!) garden a few times, lots of reminiscing and laughter.  I'm doing a light dinner again this evening (P doesn't eat much now) and then they're coming to us for coffee and cake (I've just made an apple and cinnamon cake) tomorrow morning before they go home.

We're hoping they'll take some home grown veggies with them tomorrow, we are now inundated with veg:-

These French beans are just this morning's pickings which husband brought in and dumped on the table, he's been bringing in similar amounts every other day.  I have blanched and frozen a lot and he's given some away to neighbours, but it's getting to the stage where I am heartily sick of the sight of so much veg - and mostly the work involved in dealing with them.  He's also brought in around a dozen mini cucumbers......although some of them definitely aren't mini, they're more like very fat large courgettes.  Plus of course a ton of courgettes, we get several of them every day.  Next year I am putting my foot down about the amount of veg he grows - it's ridiculous, there's only the two of us and he grows enough to feed a small army - all well and good but I'm the one who has to deal with it all.  Some of our neighbours grow their own as well (our next door neighbours have an allotment and are themselves overrun with veg and keep trying to foist some on us!), so they don't always want much.  Now he's informed me there are dozens of beetroot and loads and loads of carrots ready to come in.  I'll be buried under a hillock of veg at this rate.  I know I shouldn't complain, I'm grateful to have a surplus of fresh food.....but I have enough to do as it is, without the added pressure of a ton of veg that needs dealing with pretty quickly before it goes off in this heat.