Tuesday 7th January - Goodbyes...and back to normal (ish)

Today was the day of the funeral. It dawned dank and drizzly, but improved as it went on - a gentle sunshine for the actual occasion.

'Are you the celebrant'? er, yes, I suppose that is what I was. On the whole it went well - I have others to confirm my impression. Apart from starting a bit early, so two people slipped in a few minutes late, the ceremony went off more or less as I had intended.

There were buttons that had to be operated, the thought of which had caused a sudden lack of confidence on my part. However proved astonishingly easy to operate, especially when I practised beforehand, starting and stopping music, closing and opening curtains (not that I planned to open the curtains once I had closed them). 

I had a slight frisson when I realised I had nearly forgotten to press the 'close' button for the curtains during that piece of music, and a further scary second or two when I couldn't make it work (the secret is NOT to press the 'close' label, but to press the button BESIDE the label).

As for the flowers, I did the same as at my mother's funeral. The staff had told me that the deer would come and eat them, being very selective as to which flowers they liked. Well, my godmother had had a running battle with deer in her garden and I didn't see why they should win at the last, so I pulled out flowers from the big beautiful spray to make posies for the people who came (very few) and took the rest home. (They told me that it depended on which flowers were used; if the wreath spelled out a word like 'Mum', sometimes the deer would eat everything except 'Mum', sometimes they would only eat the word 'Mum'. Disconcerting.)

I spent the afternoon deconstructing the Christmas wreath (my word, that had been made to withstand a tempest!) and used the flowers for a table decoration, and a vase, and a spring wreath for beside the door.

  
A picture of the Spring Wreath will have to wait until morning. It's dark and drizzly and cold out there now.

I also cleared out a kitchen drawer (It's on a list of houseworkly tasks called 'the January Cure'

Just as well - the base was about to give up the struggle.

Look how tidy the drawer is now, no really, it is MUCH tidier. All the mess is an organised mess.

Cat news; Leo has scratched the top of her head nearly raw, where I put the topical worming treatment. I was a bit horrified when I saw the way she was going at the patch, which explained all the fur lying around everywhere. I quickly washed her head with warm water; to my surprise she thoroughly approved of this and started purring, and hasn't been scratching anything like as much since. 

Tomorrow is a working day. I have packed my school bag with various books of music and will hope for the best. Seven piano pupils in the morning, a whole class full of guitar pupils in the afternoon, and another three or four piano pupils in the evening. I did the planning a while ago - maybe it will come to me as I go along...