Sunday10th January 2016 - Family Life

I can't remember which flowers I have posted. These are a few brave nemesia flowers from the patio pots, just about surviving beside the back door. I haven't the heart to chuck them out while they are making a bit of a show.

And this is a delicate little nemesia plant which has self-seeded in a crack at the base of the front wall of the house. It's like a tiny miniature of the ones in the pots, which were looking "blooming lovely" either side of the front door all through the Summer.

The first week of the school term was a bit of a marathon. As well as the usual teaching, I am covering for a colleague which means contacting schools, arranging dates, meeting new pupils... with all this going on, we only managed one visit to my mother, although my father has been every day.

We went on Friday afternoon; she was looking a bit tired but still ready to receive an unexpected visit. We'd gone especially to replace the daffodils I took on Christmas day, which had gone from little shoots to huge long stalky flowers in the two weeks. They were over, and had made their feelings clear by over-balancing and throwing themselves all over the floor in the middle of the night. Here's hoping that the cyclamens, sat in a plastic trough weighted down with a layer of gravel, will behave themselves.

She's still not eating a lot ("I don't want to put all that weight back on") but is a long way off "too skinny". And when she does eat, infinite care is needed  to make sure that she is sitting up correctly, with her head tilted forward at the correct angle in order to minimize the dysphagia risk. As part of the dysphagia issue, she has her chest listened to weekly by the doctor on the routine visits. This week it is still clear - good news.

I think my mother would quite like to throw things; it must be very frustrating now that she feels so much better in better in herself to have to stay in the Nursing Home. She really has very little control over her life, and how she manages to stay so pleasant and uncomplaining (relatively speaking) is one of the wonders of the world.