Happy Birthday Sally Maria - have a great day!

This week I have done a hard thing but, I think, a good one. I have given the elder pair of my cats, Molly and Alfie, to friends who recently lost their own. I've thought for some time that one person having four cats is not a good idea - they don't get the attention they need; and two cats socially acceptable, four cats, daft old woman. After Molly's bad accident a couple of years ago I'd fenced in and netted over my little garden so the cats had an outdoor space but couldn't get into any danger - Molly and Alfie were never happy with this, and spent their time outside meauwing pitifully at anyone who went past, or doing their best to dodge out through the front door every time it was opened. So I made arrangements with my friends, and today Molly and Alfie went to their new home, where they will be away from busy roads and have a large garden with a wooded hillside behind...they will benefit, my friends are happy, and I can give more time to the other pair, who at present are gingerly exploring every room and wondering where their bossy elders have gone. But my house, despite their presence and that of the dogs, does feel very quiet tonight....

Thanks to everyone for their encouraging messages...I shall definitely pursue the Enduring Power of Attorney option. I don't think we need the buzzer thing yet Andy, but thanks for the offer and I shall keep it in mind. Mum has a pill tray in which I sort the pills for the week, and she is actually quite neurotic about remembering to take them, so as long as we get the day reminder sorted that should be OK.
Today's emergency was breathlessness and a pain in her back - caused by her falling against the corner of a building when we walked to the Health Centre on Monday - so it was another trip down there (taxi this time)another doctor (they are remarkably patient and thorough with her) and finally the news that she hadn't broken any ribs. A bonus was the reults of last week's blood test and this week's abdominal scan - no problems shown on either. This has already cheered her up. Just the endoscopy to go...

And we're back in good time for me to get to my art class!

In London last weekend, the old Joni Mitchell song "Chelsea Morning" wouldn't stay out of my head - particularly whenever I opened our patio windows and heard birdsong - for I'd always heard the first lines as mentioning the song of a bird. Since I'd always assumed Joni was writing about a stay in our Chelsea I'd vaguely thought of the phrase "talk in present tenses" as referring to an American's interest in the way Cockneys talked...
I couldn't get the song out of my head, so last night I googled it - and found that there is no mention in the lyric of birdsong at all; and not only that, Joni was referring to her life in an area of New York called Chelsea....out of such mishearings we construct our individual alternative realities.

Have had a Moving Furniture About weekend, which started out with a "if-I-push-the-computer-table-further-into-that-corner-the-room-will-look-tidier and-more-spacious" and ended up involving the relocation of several wall shelves and the rearrangment of the contents thereof, the moving of one large heavy work table from one room to another, the exchange of the downstairs music unit for the upstairs one, the collection of two full bin bags of unwanted clutter, and the sweeping-up of enough dust and fluff to festoon a haunted mansion. The animals have all taken refuge in the attic, my wardrobe is now at the opposite side of the bedroom and the fridge the opposite side of the kitchen, I keep setting off in the wrong direction to get the milk or put clothes away, and I am mainlining on my Muscle Pain Anadins...but at least that's 3 rooms inadvertently spring-cleaned.

The Scottish half of the family have turned up, which means I will be celebrating the New Year in company. They are out doing the rounds of relatives, but will be back here before midnight; I shall mull wine and make cakes in preparation. Maybe we can persuade son-in-law to be the first-footer. It has to be someone male, and preferably dark; back in the days when John had hair, I seem to remember it was dark.

Well, it was an interesting year. Being an executor was less difficult than I'd feared. Sorting out Kay's house was both exciting and upsetting; when someone has lived in the same house since 1933, and has never thrown anything away of her own or her parents', you are one moment wallowing in nostalgia as you come across a Spirograph or a bottle of Aqua Manda, another moment shrieking at the discovery of a shrunken head in a gas mask (yes, really), another bursting into tears as you open a box full of 21st birthday cards, another gasping as at the bottom of a box full of old papers you find a Georgian sewing box with ivory fittings, or four exercise books full of exquisite illustrations to the Lord of The Rings.

I've exhibited paintings, though not yet managed to sell any; I've ventured into portraits, and find them more enjoyable than landscapes; I am reasonably pleased with the progress I've made.

I can remember more of the steps in more circle dances.

I have got to know many more people, and had some great outings and activities with them.

I have actually solved some games of Suduko.

I have done a presentation on Victorian Women Artists for our Art Appreciation group.

For the first time in twenty years, I have looked after a baby, and found out that these skills do not go away.

I have made a great start on decluttering my house, my bookshelves and my wardrobes.

To go on listings things would take up too much of the last day of 2009, and I still have the Gift Aid claim to do....

Best wishes for 2010, everyone.

My ancient and ailing DVD recorder finally gave up the ghost on Christmas Eve. I've been out today looking for replacements, but no-one seems to make DVD recorders any more. There are Blu-ray machines, Digital TV recorders with hard disc drive and no mention of being able to record onto DVD's, Freeview boxes with recording capability (we're not in a Freeview area, so that is no good), and USB recorders. In the end I just bought a cheap DVD player so I could access the recordings I already have, and came home to think about the various systems for recording. Any advice? Which of the various new systems is likely to have the longest life before becoming obsolete?

....but after spending eight hours of the previous Christmas Day in hospital sitting at the bedside of a good friend dying in pain, I wasn't complaining about a non-event one this year. The two Scottish-based sections of the family can never come down as they're working till late on Christmas Eve and are in need of a few days at home before they travel; my other sister's husband doesn't like family gatherings, so they don't come up; my granddaughter and her husband wanted a first Christmas at home with the new baby, which is understandable; that left Mum and I to have a meal with son and wife. It was a glorious meal - daughter-in-law can cook like a dream; best venison I've ever eaten. We spent a comfortable evening playing the games on my new Nintendo and watching silly things on TV. Drove home through a snow shower - so we had an official White Christmas here, a sprinkling on top of the several inches we've had for most of last week.

We have to admit now my mother's mental state can't just be described as elderly absent-mindedness any longer; she is still managing day-to-day living and only needs help with shopping, but she can no longer understand or cope with any letters or phone calls, can't remember anything you've told her, and literally doesn't know what day it is- I went round yesterday and found her trying to reconcile next Tuesday's TV listings with what she was watching. It is very difficult and very frustrating to get anything through to her, and after a few minutes' conversation I just want to go and bang my head against a wall.... I may need to use this journal as a safety-valve in the future.

Thanks all for birthday wishes. I've had a great day.

After my birthday, Christmas mode switches on. Over the next three weeks I'm going to be reading:-

Pickwick Papers and the Dickens Christmas ghost stories - because he was largely responsible for inventing Christmas as we know it, or rather, these days, as we'd like it to be again;

Hogfather, for an alternative Yule that's howlingly funny and yet has heart and humanity;

Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" - one of the best children's fantasy novels ever written, set at a chilly Christmastime and very atmospheric;

Kay Woollard's "Wilmot and the Very Strange Stone" - because year after year her readings from it were the highlights of our Yule moots. The CD's are a poor second, but thank goodness we still have them to bring her voice back to us.

The first three are the first three, the rest are in any order -

The Warlord
The Wicker Man
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Return of the King
Clueless
Midnight Run
The Two Towers
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
Interview with the Vampire
Queen of the Damned