Extreme Knitting Redhead: So much going on

Thursday, June 5, 2008

So much going on

Oh dear, it has been a while since I wrote anything but I've just been so busy! Here's the nearly completed lampshade with its crocheted flowers. I think it makes it look really jolly. It's taken a lot more flowers than I anticipated so I reckon I've got about 6 more to do. I have to alternate between crochet, knitting and sewing as I get bad pains in my forearms/shoulders/neck. I've also been doing a lot of gardening as the weather has been glorious.

Yesterday I took some of these (Elderflowers in case anyone is wondering)...........

....and turned them into this. Elderflower cordial, which is an essential ingredient for a happy summer. The recipe I used is here and is really easy.

Here's where I'm up to with the Autumn Rose sweater - half way up the second sleeve so I should be joining it all together to knit the top part soon. Yippee!

This magnificent foxglove has made itself at home on top of an old horse manure heap and it looks so beautiful that I can't get rid of it yet.

Tinker helped me make some new curtains by holding the fabric taut whilst I hemmed them!

2 random photos now from a run last week. This little colt was only a few hours old when I snapped him and his mum. He was all gangly and wobbly with the sweetest little face.

This is a dirt track that I ran along. It looked so pretty with the cow parsley frothing over the edges. I love the tiny flowerlets that go to make up the umbels and the ferny foliage. When I was nearly home from this particular run I got a phone call from Emma at the Alzheimer's Research Trust asking if I'd do a live interview on the BBC News Channel with Emily Maitliss. So I had to get washed and changed quickly and head off into Tunbridge Wells to the BBC Studios there. There has been a lot of publicity recently because of the King's Report which basically says that not enough money is being put into dementia research and that there will be a crisis in the next generation if we don't act now (because people are living longer, the incidence of dementia with increase). I just hope the Government starts to take notice.

1 comment:

Shan said...: Sweater looks gorgeous.

And the Elderflower cordial looks DIVINE. If I knew where to get some Elderflower, I'd be all over that.; June 8, 2008 at 11:26:00 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.