Mr Pickling

I visited Mum this afternoon and took her some flowers from the garden, a box of chocolates and some little Battenberg cakes. She was delighted with the flowers and put in her two pennorth in helping me arrange them. The stalks had minds of their own and it all looked a bit tangled, but we both thought that the display had brought the garden into her room.

Her eyes lit up when she saw the edible treats and said, “Oooh, little Mr Pickling cakes! I love those!” I couldn’t help but laugh – not exactly a Spoonerism, but close.

As is Mum’s custom whenever she receives a gift of something to eat, she said, “Well, I won’t have one now.” It’s never quite clear what she is saving the treat for, so I suggested we open the box of chocolates anyway to look inside. Once the packet was opened….. well, we tucked into them of course!

We had lots of singing ‘Que sera, sera’ and lots of giggles as Mum settled into a comfortable position on her bed. We had lots of repeat performances with a favourite question being: “Where do you live now?”

She enjoyed looking at all the photos of the family but really had no idea who anyone was. She wondered if I was still married? Oh, this is your husband? He looks a nice man.

She loved looking at all the children and oohed and aahed over them, delighted at how good-looking they all are and wondering where Freddie’s red hair had come from. Oh, and was Oliver my son? In the explanation, I talked about the children being her great-grandsons and their parents being her grandsons. “I’ve got grandsons?” she exclaimed. “Really? I’ve got grandsons? Well, thank you. I am so pleased to have grandsons.” Bless her.

But really, she was on top form and we had a lovely time together – including Mr Pickling.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, John has been busy all day fitting some new LED lights under the cupboards in the kitchen. Easy to fit, as the strips of lighting have double-sided tape on them for simple attachment to the cupboard surface. Ha! That bit was alright but hiding the electrical wires and hot-gluing them to the underside of the cupboards resulted in a lot of: “Oooph!” and “Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!” – it transpires that hot glue is painful on the skin…..

We went round to Pete and Dawn’s this evening, which was lovely. Just what was needed for cosy chat, laughter, fun and a balm for the soul.

And there we are – another day done.

Take care in the big, outside world – there’s a wave of COVID happening right now with a 43% up tick in cases in the last week. God bless.