Rainbows

This evening, as I sit here at my desk, the heavens are sky-blue pink and a full rainbow arcs its way in front of the blushed clouds. It is very lovely. No photo can do it justice, despite my trying, and so regrettably, you cannot share in the visual image, only the imagined one.

When I see such phenomena, I am reminded that all is not lost. The worries and the fretting over disagreements with, and among, family members are soothed by nature at its best, wooing me to think that there may be a repair on the way. I pray for it anyway.

I may not have a photo of the sky, but I do have photos of John’s hedge – before and after. Although, to be fair, the photos aren’t great but I think you’ll get the gist.

Unfortunately, the hedge that arrived wasn’t as tall as John had ordered. There’s a back story folks….

John chose six plants in the 1.75-2m tall category. There was a delay in their arrival and, when John chased it up, the girl told him that the ones that had come in were short, so they were waiting for the right ones to arrive. “OK to wait?” she asked. “Yes, OK, we’ll wait,” John replied. We waited. Then we had a delivery date with the message that the shrubs were a leetle bit shorter than we wanted but they’d knock a fiver off per plant if that was OK?

Okay, we thought, we’ll at least be able to get them in the holes that John was yet to dig and fill the gap along the neighbours wall. When the blighters arrived, they were 1.4m. Cough, splutter, choke…. a leetle bit short? And a fiver per shrub discount? I don’t think so, said John.

He’s planted them anyway but, as you can see, they don’t quite live up to the height of the existing privet hedge, do they? John has written a stiff letter of complaint. The category of height below the one we ordered was 1.4m – 1.75, at an advertised price of £25 less, each. So we’re certainly well out of pocket and not got the goods we wanted.

I know we are deemed to have accepted them now, but I do think the company should refund the difference. Personally, I think the sales assistant was being disingenuous and, in all likelihood no new delivery arrived so they thought they’d just send the original shipment. But then, I am such a cynic. Let’s wait and see.

Anyway, today has been a hospital day. We were up early and driving over to Heartlands for John’s immunoglobulin treatment this morning. “Shall we take the new car?” I wondered. “No,” said John, “that back road to Heartlands is a bit narrow. Don’t want to scuff the car the minute we’ve got it.” True, we don’t. So we took the ‘old reliable’ Eos instead.

But I did take the new car out for a run this afternoon. Paid a visit to Mum and the roads are not narrow on the route to her place so I was OK.

Mum was fast asleep when I arrived, so I decided to let her snooze on a bit while I put away the bits and pieces I’d taken and arranged the flowers I’d brought. Mum open her eyes temporarily and leered at the flowers. “They’re pretty,” she said, nodding at me, then she promptly fell asleep again.

I was just putting her box of chocolates on the table when she opened her eyes again. “Mmmm, chocolates,” she said with a grin, before falling to sleep again. In the end, I woke her up but she was pretty dozy all afternoon. We had been talking for a good twenty minutes, discussing the clothing that I’d brought, the chocolates and magazines, and admiring the flowers before she looked at me with her head on one side and said, “Who are you again?”

I laughed. Couldn’t do anything else really. “I’m your daughter!” I said. Ah…. but the penny hadn’t quite dropped. I lowered my mask. “It’s me! Anne!” It slowly dawned on her who I was. “Oh, yes. Well, I was wondering….I wasn’t sure…. but yes….. oh…I see, yes, it’s Anne. How lovely to see you, dear.”

We had a nice chat for a couple of hours despite the fact that Mum wasn’t quite with it. I talked to her about the family but I could tell she couldn’t quite bring people to mind. In the end, I showed her the photos she has on her windowsill of us all. She shook her head. No, she wasn’t sure who anyone was. Not even herself for a minute or two.

Never mind, it really didn’t matter. We spent our time laughing about the amount of hankies she has, and had she got any in her pockets? She checked and re-checked and checked again to verify that there was at least one per pocket. Then we had a rendition of the song ‘I was born under a wanderin’ star’ to which I joined in, which she loved. We flicked through photos on my phone and she exclaimed at the children’s antics and was pleased they were all having fun. We reminisced, using an ‘old memories’ book about days gone by – “Look, Lux soap! We used to use that!” – and laughed at ourselves misunderstanding each other along the way. For example, “Do you need any more pillows, Mum?” She considered the question for a minute or two, then said, “No. No, I think I’m alright for clothes, thank you.” You have to laugh.

The incidence of the COVID virus is increasing, as we expected it would. Today there have been 5,274 people confirmed as positive for the virus and 18 deaths in the community. Just two deaths in hospitals, however.

Stay safe everyone. God bless.