Saturday and Sunday are all about grandchildren and the celebration of the oldest member of the family. I woke up on Saturday looking forward to the arrival of my youngest daughters family. They arrive mid morning and settle down with lunch. The afternoon gets filled with a trip to a local park to feed the ducks. I did not accompany them due to feeling fatigued. The evening saw the family getting the grandchildren off to bed before the adults enjoyed the calm and silence before going to bed wondering how many times they will be woken up in the night. I of course take my night meds and go to bed hoping for no more than sleep.
Sunday is a busy day. Everyone gets up early and prepare to go to the family gathering celebrating my partners mother’s 98th birthday. After breakfast the household drive off to the care home where the great grandmother awaits unknowing that family is about to arrive. In the end four generations gather together to eat cake, sing happy birthday and catch up with each other. After a couple of hours its time for the residents of the care home to have lunch so the celebrations are cleared away and people left leaving the birthday girl and a single person to have lunch. The family outside say their farewells and drive home.
Once home there was time to take the eldest visiting grandson into the garden where he helped fill the bird feeders and the squirrel nut box. He worked very hard at the task and then helped to hang the feeders up. We then spent time on the swing seat waiting for the birds and squirrels to come and find the new food. Tea time arrives and everyone tucks into pie and roast goodies and once again the children are gentled off to bed and the adults hit the sofas and watch TV until each person goes off to bed again hoping for uninterrupted sleep.
Monday and I wake up feeling very under the weather. I can hear the young visiting family are up and about but I do not join them until breakfast later on. There is a lot of packing and clearing away activity until they clamber into the new car and head for home. I retreat to the recliner and try to rest. The foreword for my new poetry collection arrives and I immediately send it of to my publishers who now have to integrate it into the manuscript and get it up on the publishing platform. Its going to take at least a couple of days for that to happen so it will be at least a week or ten days before I can hold the physical book in my hands. The foreword has been written by the chair of the South Leicestershire Poetry Stanza. He wrote the foreword for the last collection. His Foreword for this collection is very generous and kind and I am touched by it. As I draft the catch up on the blog, the flowers I ordered from a local florist arrives for my partner. A small gesture of thanks for all the hard work she has put in to make the family experience this weekend such a success. I also discover that the “too good to be true” leather biker jacket that I ordered is coming from China. I swear that when I ordered it the seller said it was coming by DPD but it turns out it is coming by Yuntrack, the obvious Chinese equivalent. I paid an express free thinking it would be with me quickly but now my expectations is that any time before Christmas will be an achievement. So I shall while my afternoon away with some light gardening and plan on how I shall fill my evening during my partners singing lesson. My guess is her pipes will be a bit rusty and that there will be some interesting sounds in the night.
My light gardening goes well as I manage to regain a pot and plant the third of our ornamental grass experiments. I am thinking that ornamental grasses might be a good idea in draught like weather conditions so my partner and I have acquired three and potted then up to over winter them and then see in the spring if we want to plant them out. It is a sort of future planing to future proof the garden.
Having potted up the third grass I have a look at the garden and find that the rose bought for my partner by a friend a couple of years ago has flowered again and has more buds. Unusual for the time of year.
These late flowers and the wild life give me hope. The Honeysuckle is also flowering again and the Cosmos and other plants continue to flower. I am hoping that signals a warm autumn and of course the hope that there will be no need to turn the heating on till as late as possible. With everything cleared away I spend time on the swing seat watching the birds feed from the feeders that my grandson and I filled yesterday. My garden never fails to inspire me and bear me up when I am feeling less than chipper. So I spend time on the swing seat relaxing and thinking about “What is this?” It is still my dominant question at this time.
Eventually I return to the sofa and update the blog before making myself tuna pasta and then settling for the night to watch TV while my partner has her singing lesson. I get to night meds time and take myself off to bed noting that tomorrow week is my oncology review, which means bloods this Friday.
