Piglet

A little story that I read quite a while ago in a magazine :-

A young couple had been offered a piglet by a neighbouring farmer.  The couple were really pleased but said they were going on holiday the following month.  Not to worry, said the farmer, just bring piggy back here and you can collect it when you get home.

Off they went on holiday, leaving piglet at the farm.  On their return they went, eagerly, to collect their pet, only to be confronted with a barnful of piglets, all exactly the same.  They hadn't a clue which was theirs.  Suddenly, hubby had an idea (they'd been trying to teach little pig a few tricks before they left home).  "SIT!" he shouted . . . and one little pig sat down!!

Long Time No Speak

We're now entering the second week of our stay in sunny Scotland and Eric's Mum is still in hospital.  The doctor has now told us that there's no way she can go home again, so we are trying to make arrangements for a nursing home.  Not good news, but we know she'll be looked after a lot better there.

The good news is that my spinning wheel came with us this time - didn't have to hide it in the boot as Eric suggested I bring it.  I managed to put quite a bit of stuff through my drum carder before we left home, but have brought the old hand carders just in case I run out.  I'm currently spinning Brewster Bob (he's the cutest alpaca at La Maison des Chameaux, in fact, he's the only alpaca at La Maison! - sorry Brewster, but you are cute anyway!!)  Also brought a bag of llama (from Tallulah), a bag of camel, and some red and blue merino which I need to spin to finish my sweater dress.

Spinning activities happen in the morning, hospital visits in the afternoon (we don't go in the evenings any more as she just gets too tired) and cooking and knitting in the evening.  What an exciting life we have here!

Tomorrow night we're going to the local village pub where some friends are putting on a traditional music night.  Pete, our friend who has a traditional music shop in Stonehaven, has promised to bring a guitar for Eric so he can play a tune or two.  That might come as a bit of a shock to the audience though as he's a rock and blues man!  Should be an interesting night.

Back Home

Hello All,

Back home again in sunny (? - well it was yesterday) France for a short time.  Eric's Mum was eventually moved to a hospital nearer to her home for ongoing therapy and assessment.  We were able to set off back home when Eric's brother and his wife came over from Switzerland to relieve us, so here we are.

The news isn't brilliant, as the stroke seems to have accelerated the dementia we believed she had the first signs of.  It also seems to have affected the left hand side of her vision and she can't see as well as before.   Although it's still early days, the doctors think we may have to consider placing her in a nursing home - at 88 they don't think she'll be able to manage by herself anymore.

We are now making plans to go back around the 18th January for another 3 week stint.  Hopefully during that time decisions will have been made and we can start arranging for her to be settled somewhere.  We did look at a few nursing homes whilst we were there (just in case) and found one that was particularly nice.  Fingers crossed we can get her in.

In the meantime, not much spinning being done!  If we drive back again this time, may consider hiding my new spinning wheel in the boot!!  Just haven't mentioned it to Eric yet.