Tuesday 11th February - 'parting is such sweet sorrow'

I'm pretty well all done in after this afternoon; the funeral service followed by tea and cake at a nearby pub.

I'll just say that it all went as we planned. My brother read the Eulogy he'd written and it was very good, and we all raided the coffin spray for flowers to take home afterwards. 

Do you do that? It seems so sad to leave them there,  withering and rotting and unappreciated. Here is my bunch. They won't last very long, but I'll enjoy them for few days.

At the last funeral I attended the flowers were left for a week in a patio area of the garden. The deer would come and eat the flowers.  They were very choosy about which ones they took, with unintended amusing consequences. For some of the tributes with name on they preferred the flowers used to make the letters, leaving the borders alone. For others they ate just the borders, leaving the letters!

The finger buffet at the pub was fine (phew) but I got rather cold sitting outside,  inspite of all the extra blankets we took with us for ourselves and those who came and joined us for a wee chat. 

It was a lovely moment for all of us cousins (except one in the USA) to be together; there are only about ten years difference between the oldest - a mere 25 days older than me - and the youngest. Now that we are in our 60s it seems like we're all the same age.

....

I did distract myself with a rough sketch this morning,  encouraged by your comments;

It's the most useless paper for using watercolour; it's only a cheap desk diary. That gulps, though; it makes the sketches less 'precious'. 

Birds in flight are not easy. I wasn't condentrating very hard!

.......

SANCTUS 

Verdi's requiem today.A favourite of mine, and my father’s. It's composed in such a big, operatic style.

Good night. Sleep tight.