mum, and me

Mum first. Went to see her last week on my own, how brave was that! Silly but I do get very anxious about visiting her without moral support from lovely daughter - I suppose its the uncertainty of what I'll find, good mood, bad mood, no discernable mood at all. Anyway, it was fine. I found mum in the lounge with the other residents, holding hands with one of the carers! Great introduction - "is this your daughter?" (me - "yes") "eeh, you told me you didn't have any children!" Well, she thinks I'm her sister so in her mind, I suppose she's right. We stayed in the lounge for quite a bit. I was fascinated by the interactions between other residents. One old chap and one of the ladies seemed very fond of each other, they were quite physically affectionate in a tender, low key sort of way. Another lady was holding hands with a guy in a wheelchair, although I don't think he had much choice in the matter!

I persuaded mum to go with me to her room when she started her loud comments about the others - "you see him in the wheelchair? Well you have to be careful if you sit next to him, he strokes your face. He's a pest!...her over there, she's just dumb, poor thing.....I don't like that woman sat next to you at all.." I'd have gone to see her again last night but there's an outbreak of sickness and diarrhoea in the home and mum is one of the afflicted, so I was advised to wait a while. The doctor has seen her and she's doing ok, apparently he asked her to stick her tongue out and she said indignantly "I don't do that!"

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have turned my attentions to giving Mr Lily some much needed TLC. (Its as though being relieved of constant mum duties, I've caring to spare!) Poor thing is not well at all - lots of back pain and tiredness. I've even started cooking properly again, to his amazement - instead of raiding the freezer for ready meals, I've made double quantities of chicken casserole, vegetable stew and bolognese and frozen my home made efforts for later. I've also rescued the unused breadmaker from the attic - we'd had it years and never opened the box! I am now addicted to making my own bread - probably not a great idea when trying to lose weight, but never mind, lol. Here's my efforts so far - clockwise from top right: wholemeal, granary, white, fennel and raisin - a successful experiment!
Of course there are still some little stress clouds on the horizon. The home is now asking for payment and sent me a contract to sign as guarantor of same, which I've had to tell them my solicitor has advised against signing until the Court of Protection application has been processed successfully. Speaking of which, its unlikely to be any time soon as my solicitor wants me to get updated information on mum's finances which will take a while, judging from the phone calls I made to various building societies today. And then there's the rather scary medication issue. My last prescription for Prozac came back with a note from the doctor who wants to review it before he issues any more. Aaargh! I mean, I don't want to stay on it for ever, it has been a great help and I feel much better, but how much of that is circumstances and how much the medication? I have forewarned my boss, just in case I start acting weird in the near future. Yes, alright then, weirder.

Ye gods, look at the time - 02:12! This is what happens when you're awake at midnight because Mr Lily's sleep apnoea machine is wheezing like an asthmatic walrus and then the dog scratches at the bedroom door to be let out and then you realise you need to take an anti-histamine because the nettle devils are making an appearance and then of course you need a cup of tea to speed up the soothing process and what's a girl to do to fill in the time all this takes?

PROPER winter!

Love it, love it, love it! This is the (mobile phone) view from my doorstep this morning.

My car is still stuck in the snow (must try to move it today) and I haven't seen mum for just over a week. Can you imagine how stressed out I'd be now if she were still at home and I either couldn't get to her or had to move in with her? Instead I can relax, safe in the knowledge she is being well cared for, and enjoy this old fashioned winter. Ahhhh, bliss :-)

Mission accomplished! It took two women, three men, a piece of old carpet, several flattened cardboard boxes and LOTS of shoving and shunting and revving and burning rubber to shift my car from where it has been stuck in the snow for the last three days, to the safety of the the village hall car park a few hundred yards up the road! This next photo is lovely daughter on her way back home up our village road after the Herculean car relocation and the one after is a view across the fields from the village hall.

Oh the weather outside is frightful.....

...but the fire snow is so delightful! For the second time in as many weeks, I found myself straddling the road today. I'd managed to reverse off the drive and turn to face the entrance to the village but I *barely managed a few feet before I started slipping and sliding - the result of weeks of impacted snow turned to ice with a fresh dusting of powdery snow AND NO CHUFFING GRIT OR SALT, NORTH YORKSHIRE COUNCIL!!!!! After much reversing and futile attempts at going forwards, I ended up* pointing in the opposite direction, which being downhill, meant I could keep going and turn round in a cul-de-sac with the intention of giving myself a run at the hill leading to the main road. Huh. I went into the side road, round its little roundabout, came back onto the village road and.....(repeat from * to *).... stuck right across the road.

Fortunately Mr Lily hadn't left for work at that point so he was able to push me into a more convenient position, where I abandoned the car with an apologetic note in the window. My neighbour (the tree poisoner) then offered to tow me out of trouble with his 4 x 4. Well, you can't hold a grudge for ever. Unfortunately, today was the day I discovered that the tow pin would not attach to the chassis because some eejit in the factory had forgotten to fit a thread in the socket the pin is supposed to screw into. I phoned the dealers who sold me the car, they said they couldn't do anything until I brought it into them. How I laughed.

Anyway, silver linings and all that. I couldn't get into work without the car (no public transport where I live and I didn't fancy a five mile round trip walk in wellies to and from work) so I've had a lovely day, messing about at home and visiting a friend in the village. I even made a lemon chicken casserole from scratch! Here's some photos I took as I walked home from my friend's house......can you spot the snowy Cleveland Hills in the first picture? And yes, that is my blue car on the side of the road! I wish I'd thought to take a picture of the fox's footprints in the snow - they were all over the village!