Reflections, a Rolf Harris moment, and why isn't my square, square... or flat?

Yesterday was the 23rd anniversary of my kidney transplant, and during the day I reflected on what had been happening at that time, all those years ago. I can remember it as if it were only last year... the panic when the early morning call came to tell me there was a kidney waiting for me at Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge... the mad dash to take our sons to my inlaws who, very luckily, lived only a ten minute drive from the hospital... then once at the unit, I totally relaxed. Now anyone who knows me well will know what a revelation this was/is. I get anxious about going for check ups, going to the local surgery, white coat syndrome with knobs on, which doesn't help my already raised BP! But waiting to go into surgery, I felt so calm and peaceful, and at 2.30 that afternoon, after waiting four hours, down I went to theatre. I remember a lovely anaesthetist asking me to count backwards from ten... then nothing until that evening when I partially awoke to find my husband sitting where he had been all day, at my bedside, patiently waiting. He had actually been home to his parents, seen the boys and eaten a meal, but didn't stay away long. Every day I give thanks for this gift of life, it is just such a wonderful thing to give, and to receive. There have been a couple of news reports on local television about people who have had transplants recently and the rather unusual circumstances surrounding them. One had been waiting two and a half years, the other ten months. This is not long to wait at all, and I sometimes wish they would make a fuss of some of the hundreds of patients who have been waiting over five years, some many years longer, when they finally get a transplant that will transform their lives. Hundreds die each year, waiting....
So this is a copy of a very old photo of said in-laws, Gus and Ellen, taken at Southend a few years after WWII ended. Neither is with us now, lovely mum-in-law.... it was her birthday the day of my transplant, so she had been in my mind as well. She was my second m-in-law, and such a contrast to the first, a dragon-in-law if ever there was one. I always vowed I would be more like the second than the first... sadly, it turned out more the other way around I think! But I just love this photo, it always reminds me of a spiv and his girl, out for the day.... Dad laughed at that notion!

And this is a pretty nosegay picked from the garden to decorate the celebratory Sunday lunch table, a meal we cooked together... and now today I regret that extra bowl of home-made trifle!But in here are peonies, heuchera, nigella, mini foxgoves, dogwood foliage and three of the many wild poppies which grow every year down one side of the driveway. They range in colour from white through to deepest carmine pinky-red, with so many variations in between - pale pink edged with a dayglo pink, mauvey grey striped with pink or white. Of course, they only last a day inside, but even so.... there is also some red valerian in there, which grows down the other side of the drive, the space in the middle is getting narrower as the season progresses, thank goodness we don't drive one of these ugly, huge gas-guzzlers, there wouldn't be room!

And now for the Rolf Harris moment.....

Can you tell what it is yet?

I need help identifying this very tall shrub. Planted about eight years ago possibly, as a small 18 inch thing in a pot. Now it is between 12 and 15 feet tall, is a fabulous conical shape as I hope you can see by the picture below.

It is evergreen, has shiny mid-to-dark green leaves, and at this time of year produces delicate panicles of flowers, almost lily of the valley-ish in appearance, but not smell... they smell a bit soapy, not particularly pleasant, tiny creamy white flowers that open. Does anyone have a clue please?

The next query is this.. why isn't my crocheted square, square, or flat. It is a bit wavy as you can seen, and definitely not square. Maybe I am a tight worker and it's pulling. So I tried another deliberately working looser than is normal for me. Nope.. that didn't make any difference. So does anyone know why, please?

Hope you all had a fandabbydozy weekend, the lovely weather we should apparently be making the most of as this is the last day of the high temperatures and clear blue skies. For now anyway.