Chris Wyatt's Patterdale Hall, as seen from above.
The Patterdale Hall Diaries | Something wonderful
- Published: May 18, 2025
By Chris Wyatt
April 7, 2025
It rained continuously for five days, which is unusual in Ohio. We got a couple of exciting midwestern thunderstorms but no damage to our trees or property. Sarah, who gave us dry wood in the dead of winter, lost a big tree, and I headed over on a rainy Saturday morning to return a favor and cut it up for her. It was too big to manage the trunk, but I got all the branches off her neighbor’s lawn.
I teach about atrial fibrillation and hypertension today and will then head out to the Hall and light a fire to drive out the damp. The ground is far too wet to mow but the grass is growing fast, and mowing is imminent. I just need a stretch of dry days and that is pretty challenging in April. Still, it froze last night, and we got some snow so that will slow the grass down a little.
The redbuds are beginning to flower, and it won’t be too long before we get cherry and apple blossoms, the laburnum is already in full flower and Spring is pushing through. There is about a month until the end of the semester at Wright State and this one has gone pretty smoothly with no hospital visits. A relief to be sure.
April 9, 2025
And just like that I’m in a diverticulitis flare. Everything stops, medications on-board, clear liquid diet, CT scan and appointment with my surgeon. I hate these drugs. Flagyl makes me feel awful.
April 10, 2025
Promises. Morris will be 18 tomorrow and has grown into a wonderful, polite young man. When we arrived in America, Karen was five months pregnant with Morris and I made a couple of promises to her. The first was that if she ever wanted to leave and go home to the UK, we would, no questions asked. The second was that, if we did stay, then we would stay in Yellow Springs until both kids had finished grade school. I have mentioned this before, but with an 18th birthday tomorrow, it is on my mind. Karen didn’t want to leave; she made a handful of terrific friends and in a quiet but wonderful way she slotted into the community. Morris will graduate from Yellow Springs High School in a month or so, and there will be a kind of ending. It’s been a trip. I really don’t know what the future holds, but I’m very glad we took the plunge and moved to America. It’s been a blast. I think it really is now time to focus on Patterdale Hall. It will be a wonderful place to grow old.
April 16, 2025
Lazier Spring days are approaching. The wood I am splitting is simply to make Sunday gatherings at the Hall more comfortable, and the mowing is really just winter tidying. The full frenzy of mowing three times per week won’t happen until June, and Bob and Morris can help me with that. Tidying of vegetable beds has to start though. I have been lazy in that regard. But now it is the tail end of the semester; students are nervous, especially the ones that are potentially off to medical school. If they don’t get the required grades their hopes are dashed and that is a big blow psychologically. Consequently, emotions are running high. I just try to keep my expectations clear and help as much as I can. Digging can wait for a week or so.
April 18, 2025
My surgery is booked for early August. I’ll have a section of my lower bowel removed and that will be an end to my diverticulitis pain, hopefully. I’ll take a month off work and rearrange my teaching, as I will have four classes. Most of the classes have guest lecturers so I will front load them with those folk and hit the ground limping in September. Having the surgery in late summer means I’ll get June and July to laze at the Hall, watch butterflies, pick tomatoes and read hard science fiction novels. Bliss.
Today will be a warm, blustery day with no rain, so once I am done with work I shall head out to the Hall with Karen and Archie and potter about. I will likely leave Karen there and head home to read as I am still recovering from my flare and have little energy for digging. The antibiotics I have to take are brutal and so now that I have finished the course, I am taking Super Multidophilus Probiotics. These are the good probiotics that you store in the fridge, 24 strains of bugs and 30 billion of them in each capsule. The manufacturer Solaray have been in business for over 50 years, and I got the tablets from Coltrane at Rosie’s Natural foods in Yellow Springs, another valuable asset to this town. Coltrane has even visited the Solaray factory in Utah and is clearly passionate about the things that she sells at Rosie’s.
April 19, 2025
During COVID, my friend Jeff wrote a book — a music book about bands and the music industry. Records are Jeff’s passion and it’s something I can understand. For a long while in my 20s and 30s I was obsessed with music and live bands. That passion has faded now, I really don’t listen to as much music as I used to. I will quite often have the same CD on in the car for months. In fact, I once had “The Campfire Headphase” by Boards of Canada playing in the car for over a year; God knows what my children thought of me. I have Iron and Wine playing in the car currently, Sam Beam’s voice and guitar calm me when I am stressed. My life isn’t really very stressful. I love my job and we are comfortable enough. The future is uncertain though, and so I am trying to live in the present, as difficult as that may be.
*Originally from Manchester, England, Chris Wyatt is an associate professor of neuroscience, cell biology and physiology at Wright State University. He has lived in Yellow Springs for 17 years, is married and has two children and an insane Patterdale terrier.
The Yellow Springs News encourages respectful discussion of this article.
You must login to post a comment.
Don't have a login? Register for a free YSNews.com account.
No comments yet for this article.