Apologies for being somewhat absent - have been labouring under a cold or something since a couple of days before Christmas. I am working the non-holiday days from home and have the 'emergency phone' for our business for two weeks from before Christmas to after New Year. Fortunately it doesn't get many calls but there was one at 2am on Christmas eve morning, and another mid morning on Christmas Day. What timing!
I did drag myself out on Boxing Day to dig parsnips. You could all imagine many more exciting things to do if you were going to drag yourself off your deathbed on the day after Christmas. Parsnips are meant to stay in the garden until after the first frost. We have not apparently had any - really. The allotment is so flooded that the parsnips are rotting in the swamp, so I felt the need to save what I could while there might still be something to save.
Besides in my experience cold air makes breathing easier.
I spent Christmas Day walking MiL's overweight dog just to get both of us out of the oven that was heating up in their flat.
Said dog is very food motivated and MiL has memory issues which means she doesn't remember feeding the dog two minutes ago. SiL has tried hiding the dog food and putting the day's k9 meals in a couple of those timer things but that just results in rows about hiding the dog food and the timer boxes being opened manually to permit said dog to access all the food early (like first thing in the morning early).
You can't reason with someone who is losing their reason. Some days really bright and switched on. Other days away with the faeries. Any day, every day, regardless of faeries, feeding the dog is the main activity of the day - all day.
As far as Christmas Day itself went - Blighty did not disappoint. It was as grey, damp and bleak as Christmas should be, while indoors the lights twinkled, food was enjoyed, a drink or two taken, and gifts exchanged. The grandchildren were with their Dad so there is going to be a visit with them to youth theatre production at Minerva Theatre, Chichester when we see them at the end of this week.
I hope you all had warm Christmases with enough to eat and good company, and wish everyone the very best for 2024.
Tigger's Mum
Sorry to hear you've been ill. Being it bed feeling miserable is so much less so with a kitty. :-)
ReplyDeleteDefinitely missed Dr Tigger. He would have made me go to bed and stay there I suspect.
DeleteI hope you'll be well by the New Year. Quite a challenge keeping that dog from being fed n times a day, which he'd be fine with. I think it's wet and dark all over the planet!
ReplyDeletePerking up as I type. Thank you for the kind wish. It's funny how some animals are motivated by food and others not. We have had dogs that were so disinterested in 'treats' they couldn't be used as motivation for training. Tigger was not food motivated either. Bribing with treats never worked to get him to come round to our 'way of thinking'. Back rubs on the other hand....
DeleteBob is beginning to have memory problems, not just normal old person memory. and I fear beau is getting more than he needs, it is a really big problem. alos when a bad day comes along i have thought about what if the door is left wide open. memory problems have so many ways to harm themselves and others.
ReplyDeleteCondolences to you and Bob, and understand how you must be struggling. it is becoming such an issue in aging population here that there are specialist nurses, dedicated charities etc that can help 'memory loss' proof you home and life style to the greatest extent possible. In the summer that sponsored walk I did was to raise money for one charity that provides support nurses to help people struggling with memory to stay in their own homes as long as possible. SiL has refused to avail them of help from one of the 'Admiral' nurses saying 'Mum isn't so bad', but the problem is that when Mum is 'so bad' it might be too late to introduce even simple changes to help life's routines. As it happens the dog got out onto the street on Christmas eve and Mr B got a call to rush around and find it. Fortunately they live in a cul de sac and the dog had only gone about 3 houses along but was standing in the street. She recognized Mr B's van and came running back when he arrived.
DeleteAs you can see, I have solved the commenting problem or rather Grandson did, lol Hope the cold goes away soon . Briony x
ReplyDeleteBriony - so good to hear from you in amongst all your consuming stuff. The cold is on the run but I miss Dr Tigger. I'm sure he would have cured it earlier.
DeleteIt's not allotment gardening weather at the moment with all the rain. Hope you have a great year in 2024 TM.
ReplyDeleteThe sun actually shone on my parsnip mining exercise but I got really puffed really quickly trying to lever them out of sucking mud. Some of them seemed to have sunk 4-6" below the surface of the garden and I have no idea how.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteUgh.. sorry about the lurgy... but it sounds like you managed to sprinkle the gristly bits with a bit of sugar to keep things tolerable. 'Sall one can ask, really... Be healthy again soonest and Happy Hogmanay! YAM xx
On the whole it all went very well despite my deep reservations.... Me and that dog don't really click but she identifies me with going for walks (and I use the excuse) and I have had to admit that she is possibly not as fluffy brained as the bouffant haircut and silly clothes make her look. It must be tough being a pampered lapdog.
DeleteHope you're feeling better now. The theatre trips sound interesting - enjoy!
ReplyDeleteWe're having Christmas next week or the week after . . .
I remember my first live theatre experience. I was an adult. it was the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin (small theatre in a re-purposed church), and I squirmed. It was a play by one of NZ's then leading playwrights (a resident of Dunedin). I could write a treatise on why I was there - lets just say adult student, came to university late, from a rural background, wanted to do the intelligentsia thing, really wasn't prepared for how it would make me feel. 40 years and possibly hundreds of live theatre experiences later I love live theatre to bits - challenges the imagination, suspend disbelief, immerse yourself in storytelling ... I hope by taking kids to live theatre (and not just pantomime) that they will never experience and possibly be put off by, the squirm reaction that I had being that close to people acting and feeling they were acting to me, looking straight at me, seeking my interaction. It was kind of like eavesdropping.
DeleteOh I hope your feeling better soon. It’s sad when people start to lose their memories
ReplyDeleteSounds like a pleasant Christmas Day.
MiL had fairly sound old memories. The short term stuff is shot to pieces and some motheaten holes are beginning to appear in the medium term records. Mr B divorced 22 years ago but MiL insisted she had written his christmas card to him and his ex this year. At some stage she rallied and realized she had made a mistake. Turns out she hadn't even written the card and was remembering some other year. Mr B is struggling to find any humour in it and keeps trying to correct her mistakes. If she is seeing things that exist only in her head, built out of rags and remnants, you can't make them change by trying to explain - the lost bits are less and less likely to be coming back.
DeleteTigger's mum! We hope you feel better and have some quiet time very soon! Juno and mum
ReplyDeleteI think you're allowed to be absent at this time of year, apart from the fact that it's a busy period for everyone, the winter flu goes around. Hope you feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteA belated Merry Christmas! Sorry to hear you have been under the weather. I hope you are feeling 100% soon! R&M were away over Christmas for their annual trip to France, so i spent a rather lonely one at home. R returned yesterday, full of the usual apologies for leaving me, and promises to make it up to me with roast chicken. I will think about it. Now, I am not really in a position to comment (those in glass houses, and all that), but i swear R returned with a belly which is rather more round than a week of eating baguettes and cheese would justify. I wonder if it is connected to the fact that, apparently, I should be very excited because i will have a new little brother arriving in the summer. R & M seem very excited about it, but i am not sure i like the sound of that. As long as he doesn't steal my armchair or my cat nip, i suppose i can live with it. R says I am to keep it a secret for another week or so until she can tell her boss/colleagues, but i can tell friends and Aunty F now :) Happy New Year to you, from Lord Byron, R, M and bump x
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