Extreme Knitting Redhead: June 2024

Friday, June 28, 2024

Nature

Following on from 2 seemingly successful hatchings for our resident ducks, there is just one duckling left. It's so sad as the poor little mite has had a sore foot for several days but the good news is that he's still managing to walk and his mummy is being extra cautious. He's been coming up for some grain each morning and evening and I really hope he survives.

The other rather exciting thing was a balloon flying right over our fields and house in the early morning last week! The weather was perfect and I managed to take a few snaps to share:

We're rather busy trying to repair our outdoor windowframes at the moment, which is tedious but necessary. Mike does the prep work and I follow on with undercoats x 2 and top coats x 2. I'd much rather be out running or gardening but sometimes the practical and less exciting tssk just have to be done, don't they!

Sunday, June 16, 2024

Spring things!

So many things have happened and I just can't keep up! I've still got a niggling injury from a fall caused by an impatient club runner a few months ago and this has impacted on all my plans! I've been knitting, crocheting, gardening, running short distances, attending Yoga to stretch out the sore bits and there's lots of work to do in the house too but not enough hours in the day! That said, we had a nice surprise yesterday when one of our resident wild ducks brought her babies up to show us:

Awwh, aren't they cute?! Mrs Duck had some food and a short rest then she headed off to the pond and I followed her in case anything attacked her 8 precious babies. She brought them up again later in the afternoon and they were all fine and we watched them skimming around in the pond. But here comes the BUT - this morning there were 7 ducklings when she came up for her brekkie and then this afternoon there were only 6 ducklings. Sadly, Nature can be very cruel.

Let's hope the remaining babies survive.

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.