2024 Quick Daily Posts

[Serinde]

Cats are very fastidious, so no wonder he was embarrassed, poor thing.

How's MIL?

[richardandtracy]

We don't really know. We are concerned enough about her capacity to have been trying to get her GP to see her since she last came out of hospital. So far Tracy has had 3 visits in person an 4 hours on the phone & got no further than the receptionist in getting to the doctor. It feels as if the doctor has every intention of ignoring her to death.

As to what she's actually doing.

• Tuesday Tracy went round in the morning & fed her breakfast & lunch, dressed her in clean clothes and made sandwiches for supper.
• Yesterday morning she was in the same clothes, thought she was in her night clothes & wanted to change them.
• She hadn't eaten the supper Tracy had made and hadn't drunk anything since Tracy left.
• Hadn't had breakfast.

We are very fearful that she has insufficient capacity to live on her own. And that's the only thing she wants to do, live in and enjoy her little bungalow.

So sad.

On the other hand, I picked youngest daughter & friend up from Heathrow. She had oxygen problems on the flight, and needed 40mins on supplementary oxygen (she has asthma which may be a contributory factor) but recovered rapidly when back on the ground. The two of them were shattered at the end of their 18h flight, but seem to have enjoyed their trip. They were too tired to be more coherent than that!

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

What we would like, and what can actually be made so are often very different, as you know too well. The NHS in your part of Kent clearly needs many, many more doctors in GP surgeries. I'm really so sorry for you all. Dehydration is a worry!

Glad Daughter arrived intact, exhausted but that will pass, undoubtedly. Oh, the stories and photos you are going to be able to enjoy!

[Steam.Jo]

Yesterday I went to see "The Longest Yarn":



It was stunning and very moving . The family in front of me were doing home schooling and had brought their children to see the exhibition to learn about D-day. I think they learnt more about D-day than I ever leant at school. My friend made exhibit #5 Southwich house.

If you get a chance to see it it is well worth while!

Jo

[fccs]

That sound amazing! (I’m a history geek so I love stuff like this.)

And Richard, I’m glad your daughter is home safe and sound.

[richardandtracy]

Jo, that exhibition looks to be a very unusual way of celebrating D-Day, but most impressive from the effort, fun & dedication that must have gone into it.




Daughter was still suffering from jet-lag last night, but was more coherent. She came away, surprise, surprise, with almost more Manga books than she could carry, and thinks the translation to English is going to take her a couple of years.
Apparently the most interesting part of the trip for her was the Toyota museum, and not the bit relating to cars. Before Toyota made cars it was called Toyoda and manufactured weaving machines. Orianna was fascinated by the rapid evolution of machines designed and patented by the original Mr Toyoda in about 10 years after he stopped farming in the 1870's. At the beginning of the decade they were barely more than a spinning jenny, and by the end Mr Toyoda had invented without external input (because Japan was self-isolating) a machine of similar capabilities to a totally mechanised Jacquard loom. Must admit I was quite proud of her taking note of the speed & significance of the changes. She wasn't very interested in the cars, it has to be said.

Anyway, rather amusingly she dropped off to sleep several times during the evening, and each time Ozzie's snores from her lap came loud and clear in the quiet between her snores. Yesterday our great big Maine Coon was rarely in a different room from her, and most of the time in actual contact with her. Not that he missed her at all , of course. Cats don't do that...

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

Clearly, Ozzie was pinning her to the couch -- these humans who think they can just, well, get up and leave! What's the world coming to?

The Japanese shogunate ended in 1867, opening up the country to foreign influence, but that doesn't take anything away from Mr Toyoda, who clearly was a clever, imaginative and hard-working chap. What fascinates me is that usually to catch up to "modern" manufacture (or anything, really), you take the latest model of whatever you are working with. That doesn't seem the case here -- Toyoda's looms were what we'd call single width, not double width. But -- within Japanese culture -- it makes perfect sense if you are weaving bolts of cloth for kimono. I wonder if that was part of his thinking?

[Mabel Figworthy]

Glad daughter is back safe and sound and enjoying some feline therapy to get over oxygen deprivation and jet lag!

The situation with MIL is worrying and troubling. I recently read a letter (I think) by a lady who is in a care home and who vehemently objected to it being called a home, because, she said, it hasn't actually got any of the things that make a home a home.

The knitted D-Day is a trememndous achievement, and I read somewhere that when they had already done all or most of the soldiers, they found out that the boots (I believe - it may have been a different part of the uniform) were the wrong colour; and they changed them all! Dedication indeed.

[richardandtracy]

Orianna has had less intensive feline therapy from Ozzie today, I think he must now be convinced she's not a figment of his imagination and is prepared to let her out of his sight. For up to 20 minutes at a stretch, and then he needs confirmation she's still there.

His dedication to her is very sweet, really.


We're going round to MIL twice a day at the moment. She seems to have lost all ability to direct herself to do things. If we don't turn up, she doesn't eat, drink, change her clothes or get up, even. It's quite worrying, really. How has this self will disappeared in 2 weeks?
At least she's agreed to carers coming in 3 days a week in the morning- a manager from a company is coming round Monday to get info, with a view to starting next Wednesday MIL won't agree to more at the moment.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

I woke this morning to our first real frost, and a sky that was blue with fiery fuchsia pink clouds. The moon is still to be seen in the northwest, too. Meanwhile, the winter-flowering jasmine around the back is blooming, too, despite how late I cut it back. Clouds are starting to build now, though, and the forecast is muttering about snow!

[richardandtracy]

Agreed, it feels wintery down south for the first time this winter.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

We woke up rather late this morning to find the moon still fully visible in the sky! Rain this afternoon, alas, but had some lovely days last week.

We also decided we really really had to make an effort to plant the tulip bulbs we got in the Netherlands last July and which should have been planted weeks if not months ago. Could we find them? No we could not. We have no idea what has happened to them, unless we planted them and suffered complete memory loss afterwards.

[Serinde]

There's still time! Monty Don says you can plant tulips until the end of November... better find those bulbs!

[Mabel Figworthy]

And he should know!

We have looked absolutely everywhere, shed (which is where they were meant to be), outside store cupboards, office, garage, scullery, kitchen cupboards, all the bedrooms - the only place left really is the attic, but why on earth would we have put them there?

[Serinde]

Car boot? Other cool, dark and dry places?

Edit to add: Just gone out the the greenhouse and stood all the fuchsias on or in styrofoam boxes and tops and then wrapped them up with bubblewrap. Probably too late, but the hardier ones might make it. It was -4C here last night. BRRRR. I have brought the amaryllis (seemingly unphased) into the house along with a very unhappy F. White King, which I think is probably gone (but we'll see) and my 4-yr-old cyclamen (a present one Christmas). Fingers crossed.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Snow!!!!!!

*sings* I'm dreaming of a White Christmas....

[richardandtracy]

My daughter Orianna is so jealous of everyone north of Nottingham. She loves snow.

It's just wet & iggy here.

Regards,

Richard

[Serinde]

We've no snow (yet -- the Met Office keeps changing the line; must have a word with Elder Son), but it is cold! Several degrees of frost.

[Mabel Figworthy]

I woke up to snow this morning (hence my singing ) and cycled through it to our church's Community Café, to be rewarded with an eclair baked by our pastor!

[richardandtracy]

After a good few years spending winters in Germany with temps down to -20C overnight when I was a kid, I got used to cycling in the snow. Then in 1978 we came back to the UK for our first winter back in the UK, and it snowed. So, just like normal, I got the bicycle out and went happily cycling around.

Well, in Somerset, snow is a relatively rare event, and the assumption is that only the truly suicidal go walking out in the snow, and a cyclist.. well that's an intentional act to get yourself hurt. As one very grumpy old man told me at the top of his voice as I rode past, waving his walking stick at me. I wish he'd fallen over, but he didn't. He didn't half get upset, even though it should have been obvious to him I was perfectly comfortable on the snow, even while he slipped and slid all over the place.

So, good on you Mabel.

Regards,

Richard