Extreme Knitting Redhead: Beginnings

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Beginnings

First thing this morning

When the early morning mist cleared, the first thing I saw was a flock of several hundred rooks descending on the horses field. They are most welcome as they aerate the ground with their big strong beaks in their search for grubs and they sift through the horse poo eating all the worm eggs.

The first 4 photos were taken through glass so may appear a bit cloudy.

Rooks

Our next visitors were two beautiful cock pheasants. They have the most amazing colours in their feathers. It's still the open season for shooting them so they have taken refuge on our land where they are safe from men with guns but not necessarily safe from a hungry fox.

A brace of pheasants

This young moorhen was very brave and came right up onto the patio while I was sitting reading the paper!

Ooooo, I wonder what's in there?

On my way back from feeding the horses this beautiful lichen caught my eye. I love the contrast of the frilly grey/green one against the furry gold/ochre. Seeing something so beautiful makes me want to capture it in embroidery so I've started scribbling in my notebook.

The beginning of my Brioche project

This is my progress on the Jacki scarf. I think I've got the pattern in my head now so it can be my TV project. This Artesano alpaca yarn is wonderfully soft to work with and I love this deep teal colourway.

The start of my long runs

This morning I ran 12.5 miles which was my first run over 10 miles for a few weeks. I was very wheezy on the hills thanks to my asthma and felt incredibly tired afterwards - not superhuman after all then! Hopefully I'll buck up a bit in the coming weeks.

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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.