Extreme Knitting Redhead: Autumn Walks

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Autumn Walks

It's that time of year when you just have to get out into the countryside to enjoy the wonderful autumn weather - neither cold nor hot, perfect for walking in fact. Judy and I are both Footpath Wardens for our Parish and we go around checking that the public rights of way are in good order and that stiles are not rotten etc.

Judy took me along one of her favourite walks which I didn't know and it really was a beauty. I love exploring new places and this was well worth the trip and parts of it would be good to run too.

Poppy, Judy's lovely dog, came too and she had a wonderful time chasing pheasants and bounding around in the grass then through the woods.

I loved the woods and took several photos of bark and lichens as I love the patterns and colours (too many to upload!). I also couldn't resist a couple of fungus shots. Aren't they just gorgeous?

The first one I haven't identified but the second ones are named 'Sulphur Tuft' which is very apt as the yellow colour was jewel-bright.

They smothered this old tree stump and it looked like a fairy landscape. Simply beautiful.

These 2 photos show views over towards Salehurst, a small village I've written about many times before because I often run around there.

If you enlarge to lower one and look at the lefthand side you can just make out a shape in the grass - it looked as if someone had mown a smiley face into the hillside!

1 comment:

Marina said...: You people over there are too funny! We drove all over England looking for crop circles and chalk figures. But, if I had to mow that much grass, it would be tempting to do something different.; September 20, 2008 at 8:57:00 PM 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.