Extreme Knitting Redhead: Another milestone reached

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Another milestone reached

Yep, I've finally reached the grand old age of 65. Does that mean I'm a grown-up at last? Nah!!! We had planned to go for a nice visit to an Open Garden but as the weather was over 30 degrees we decided to save the trip for another day. A neighbour asked me if I was going to stop running now - heck no, I need to keep the arthritis at bay and I've still got more fund-raising to do and adventures to have!

Speaking of adventures, I went along to one of my favourite ultra marathons, the Weald Challenge last weekend. Just under 32 miles of unrelenting uphill/downhill and rutted tracks. The weather was hot, hot. hot but I didn't care and had a fab day out helping a lovely lady to acheive her first ultra marathon. I didn't take any photos en-route as we were keeping a close eye on the time so as not to miss the cut-off but we did have a photo taken at the finish:

I had some excellent comedy tan lines from wearing my compression socks!

I also got another of these trophies, my 3rd in fact, for being first on my age category.

At home I've been busy out in the garden whenever possible but had to stop planting my new border as the ground is rock hard and I can't get a spade or fork into it at the moment. We need a few days of rain to soften it a bit. In the meantime the yard looks like as if I'm starting a small garden centre with all the plants sitting waiting to go into the ground!

The wildlife continues to delight us with lots of new arrivals:

It's been a tough year for the ducks as there are too many Rooks and Crows around to steal their babies.

She brought them to show us, headed to the pond, came back later with 3, went away and came back with none. So sad.

Mummy Rook with baby in the wild garden

A young Squirrel

Meanwhile there's been lots of fighting between the male ducks who don't have a mate. They're really vicious!

Apologies for the poor photo but I managed to catch a photo of Mrs Mouse in my shed. I knew something had been eating my stores tulip bulbs but never saw anything until yesterday when she made an appearance when I was potting up some plants!

Around the garden there's so much to see:

The wild section of the back garden is full of wildflowers both in the orchard and the lower section and we were delighted to count an amazing 49 orchids as there was only 1 small group of 7 last year!

In the front garden there's just so much to see and it's teaming with insects:

The Shade Garden we created during lockdown has settled in nicely.

The Golden Oat grasa has florished this year and looks stunning in the sunlight.

The giant Cardoons are about to flower

I love how this pretty blue Nigella, aka 'Love in a mist', has seeded into the golden Oregano.

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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.