It’s Tuesday afternoon and I have been having a fairly lazy day. I have cleaned the kitchen and bathroom as I do every day. I have done some washing and ironing and some typing for Simon. Oh and I wrapped up some Christmas presents. I find wrapping a chore so rather than do the whole lot in one long session I wrap them as I get them.
It is freezing cold here. Not sure of the exact temperature but trust me it is cold. It is the time of year that makes me wish I could emigrate to warmer, sunnier climes. I am not a winter girl. I don’t “do” cold!
We haven’t had any more snow so far today. I don’t know what is going on with that. We watched the BBC weather forecast last night and it said heavy snow over night and on and off throughout the day. The big snow cloud was right over us, right over all of East Anglia actually. When we watched the forecast this morning it seems to be saying that we won’t get any snow. It all seems to be over the west! No snow clouds over us. How can they get things so wrong? It can’t just change surely?
I tend to disbelieve them when they say we will have snow and I also disbelieve them when they say we won’t! I look out of my window and use my own eyes. Oh look, what is that white stuff? Must be snowing!
I did brave the cold for a while so that I could take some photos of some of my bird visitors. (I had the door open a crack and pointed the camera through it. I remained in the kitchen!) I also got photos of some of the pesky horrid squirrels. Did I ever mention that I hate squirrels? I have had to keep chasing them off the nuts today and three times they have got the lid of the large feeder with the cage round it. Huh, the cage is supposed to make it squirrel proof! Not when they learn to take the lid off. Simon had secured it with wire which worked for a while but they have chewed through it.
I hate winter it is twenty minutes to four and it is nearly dark! Pork chops for dinner, must think about getting on with that soon. Simon is going to his barn tonight so dinner needs to be prompt! He must be totally crazy to want to go over there in this cold. That reminds me he needs new wellies as his are leaking and some thermal socks might make a good extra Christmas present. He left me a list of various small tools and bits and bobs that he wanted and I ordered them last week and they came today. I don’t really know what any of them are. EG. A twist knot wheel????? I have them all wrapped up.
There was also another parcel today but I missed it. I was upstairs, heard the knock at the door and in the time it took me to get there the stupid man had gone! Nothing there except the dreaded post card to say “You were not at home and the parcel was too big, now you have to drive 5 miles up the road to collect it yourself. Ha, ha, be quicker in future to see if you can catch me”! It doesn’t exactly say that of course but that is the upshot. Simon will be thrilled when I tell him he has to go to the post office. Why don’t they wait? GRRRRRR.
I had long conversations with my sister and my Dad last night. The meeting went well and to our surprise Mum will remain where she is for the next 6 months. (Her needs and care package are reviewed every 6 months.) They did say that she doesn’t any longer meet the criteria on her behaviour which was the reason she was placed there in the first place. However because of her severe dementia and fragility she does meet other criteria so they are confident that she will remain.
The way it works is that her consultant has to send a report with his recommendations showing that she fulfils the various criteria for a place on the long stay NHS ward. This goes before an NHS board who have to approve it and that lasts 6 months. We understand that in rare cases the board will sometimes reject it and do their own assessment. I wouldn’t think that is something that happens often because they would be casting doubt over her consultants professional opinion.
Anyway, it is a weight off our minds for the next 6 months. Dad was happy about it too. There was something a little odd though..... It seemed as if the consultant was trying to prepare Dad for the inevitable. He asked what he was doing to plan for when Iris is no longer here. He also said that “who knows we may not be here in 6 months time” He did stress to Dad that Mum has deteriorated even more. Dad was not happy about that. We already knew that of course but I think Dad chooses to not know. He doesn’t want to know.
As my sister was telling me all this I was thinking how odd that in all these meetings they have never said anything like it before. My sister said she had picked up on that too. We are wondering if they maybe have some idea that it might not be too long. Both my sister and I had a “moment” on the phone last night. This wretched disease is just so terrible. If any of you pray perhaps you could pray that it will not be long. I wish with all my heart that Dad could visit her today and that she would be awake and give him a smile and that she would then go peacefully in her sleep.
Ok, jolly good, now I have gone and upset myself again. I think I shall go and start some dinner preparations. I will be looking after the boys and the puppy tomorrow so I am not sure when I will be around. It is also our wedding anniversary and we are hoping to go out for a meal but it does rather depend on if we get more snow. The restaurant we want to go to isn’t that close. We’ll see.
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