Extreme Knitting Redhead: Royal Wedding & taper fever!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Royal Wedding & taper fever!

Look what landed in my letterbox the other day - 'Knit your own Royal Wedding'.

Even more funny is that it was sent by Denny, my dear friend who started me off on my running and knitting antics by suggesting I should act my age and stay at home with my knitting!

My favourites are the corgis and the Archbishop of Canterbury. When I showed it to Mike he gave me "don't you dare!" roll of the eyes.

I'm well into my taper, that is cutting down my mileage to prepare for the Brighton marathon on the 10th April and I've got a niggly knee. That coupled with the gremlins in my head who tell me that I am too old and fat to run marathons is making me hyperactive!

This beautiful tree is a Blackthorn Tree .

Blackthorn is more often used for hedging as it has thorny stems so is a good stock-proofer so it's unusual to see it like this.

The whole tree has been smothered in blossom this year and the honey bees have had a wonderful time gathering the nectar. There were so many of them that the tree seems to be buzzing!

3 comments:

Shan said...: I LOVE THAT! Knit your own Royal Wedding! Brilliant! If ONLY you could get that mag in Canada! I have been wanting to buy a few of those 'Royal Wedding' special publications for my daughters...I recall being very interested in the last royal wedding - Charles and Di, when I was a kid. I wish I had some commemorative stuff from back then.; April 1, 2011 at 12:09:00 PM PDT
Alison said...: I live near Vancouver BC and ordered the book from Amazon, just couldn't resist. Life is busy but I'm hoping to at least get William, Kate and the Archbishop finished before the big day! It made me laugh so much I just had to have it. It's not like I'm a big Royalist or anything, I just think it's so quirky and funny!

Alison; April 22, 2011 at 4:06:00 PM PDT
Susie Hewer said...: They really are great fun aren't they!; April 23, 2011 at 1:25:00 AM PDT

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Mum's Story

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings. Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. There came a point when I suddenly realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter and this was a terrible time for me. In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special care home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the last few months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was. It was heartbreaking. She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum's story and I hope you'll dig deep and sponsor me using the link below to help find a way of beating this destructive disease.