We spent the morning looking at temporary residential care options for my mum who has still not fully recovered from her recent bout of delirium. We have a winner but will check out a few other options before making a decision.

After our visits to care homes it was time for lunch. We hesitated only briefly before deciding to return to Hodnet Hall, one of our favourite places to have lunch. This time I chose humous wraps. After lunch I couldn’t resist the short walk to see the Magnolias again, they are magnificent and the sunshine was showing them off to perfection.

Later we visited mum to find that she was not accepting visitors. She had once again refused to have her hair cut after looking forward to the pampering session for days and was giving the care workers a hard time.

We left…

It was a low walking day today. I had a pampering session in the hairdressers followed by a late lunch.

The sunshine was calling me out for a walk but I resisted the urge and visited mum. She was in fine spirits when I arrived but shortly afterwards mum started to be unkind and nasty towards me, requesting unreasonable things.

She closed her eyes (deliberately) and ignored me on a couple of occasions. To my shame I was glad to leave and regretted not going for that walk…

As a volunteer I was allowed to see the mansion decked in all it’s glory the day before it opens for public viewing. Visitors are in for a treat.

Due circumstances beyond my control I did not have the opportunity to see the outdoor Christmas Trail as I had intended to do.

Mum had an early appointment in the fracture clinic to assess progress on her broken arm. The appointment ran smoothly but as I suspected she needs to keep the plaster cast on for another couple of weeks. The doctor, a charming young man sat down next to mum when she was disappointed that the plaster cast had to stay for a little longer. On the plus side he told us that the fracture was healing nicely.

The hassle-free appointment allowed Mr C and I to venture into Birmingham to find a board game shop, Wayland’s Forge that we haven’t visited for years. It has moved location since our previous visit and is now located in the Zellig building, part of the Custard Factory.

We had lunch in the city centre before making our way to Digbeth where Wayland’s Forge is located.

Near to the location it wasn’t obvious where we needed to be and were thankful when a gentleman asked us what we were looking for. He gave us perfect directions and informed us that he was the maintenance man for the building.

Just inside the building we encountered a strange sculpture which I later found was titled ‘The deluge’.

The board game shop was well stocked, the owner was friendly and welcoming and after much deliberation I chose to buy an expansion (Pantheon) to 7 Wonders Duel, a two-player game that Mr C and I enjoy playing together.

On leaving the building Mr C noticed another sculpture, the figure looked Godly but I later found out that the sculpture is entitled ‘The Green Man’. Both sculptures are by Toin Adams.

We headed out of the city, the long way round for afternoon refreshments in Boundary Mill. It was a bonus that I found the perfect shoulder pouch to house my phone, keys, sun glasses and money when I am volunteering at Attingham Park. I feel so uncomfortable stowing these items in my coat pockets and if the weather ever warms up there will be no coat pockets.

Later we enjoyed ‘Fine Dining’ at Chez Nous.

As part of the Easter celebrations my local parish church erects a wooden cross and adorns it with flowers. This is done by the congregation just before the Easter morning service. I think it is a lovely idea and little children bring flowers to place on the Easter Cross. The Church ‘Flower Ladies’ help to adorn the cross with the flowers.

The top photo was taken by me on Easter Monday after I had returned home from my weekend in Lincoln. Unfortunately it was in shadow by the time I got there.  The photo below (not taken by me) shows my Mum and and a friend of hers after they (along with two other helpers) had finished placing the flowers on the cross. I think the cross looks particularly beautiful this year and it seems I am not the only one. As I was taking photographs a lady walked past and said to me “Isn’t that the most beautiful thing you have seen all day?”

Photo from  All Saints Wellington Facebook page.

As part of the Easter celebrations my local parish church erects a wooden cross and adorns it with flowers. This is done by the congregation just before the Easter morning service. I think it is a lovely idea and little children bring flowers to place on the Easter Cross. The Church ‘Flower Ladies’ help to adorn the cross with the flowers.

The top photo was taken by me later in the day after it had stopped raining.  The one below (not taken by me) shows my Mum and and a friend of hers after they had finished placing the last of the flowers on the cross.

Photo from the All Saint’s Wellington Facebook page.

On Saturday evening a good friend came round to visit.  There was lots of chatting, board games and a demonstration of Japanese medical skills and the next thing I knew it was 4.30 in the morning!!

The result of this late night/early morning meant I was rather lethargic during Sunday morning.  But I was forced to spring into action in the afternoon to clear away all the Christmas decorations. Following that there was the obligatory appearance of the vacuum cleaner to clear up all the little bits of decorations that linger on the carpet.  After all this activity I was able to log onto my computer for a few minutes before getting ready for my Sunday evening meal.

When I got up from the computer and left the room there was a heavy clunk as if something had fallen over.  When I went to investigate I couldn’t see that anything had moved and decided that it was the chair spinning round and hitting the desk.  I promptly forgot about it, until this morning…

When I opened the door to that room (the room I am in now) there was a little bit of resistance and it wouldn’t open fully.  When I managed to  open the door  and look behind it to investigate the problem I immediately noticed the word God glowing out from the dark and I could see a faint book outline underneath.  I bent down to pick the book up and realised that there were also two CDs on the floor as well.

I discovered the word God was on a bookmark. It is one I picked up a few years ago from St Mary’s Parish Church in Whitby whilst investigating my family history.  On one side of the bookmark there is a picture of the Church and on the other side the following quote:

God

Grant me

the Serenity

to accept the things

I cannot change,

Courage

to change

the things I can

and Wisdom

to know

the difference.

The other three things were also interesting…

The book was ‘Christy Moore, One Voice, My Life in Song’ – When I was campaigning against the moving of our work down south and the subsequent loss of skills, I used some of his songs in the campaign videos that I made.

One of the CDs contained photos taken by a colleague at a PCS conference a few years ago. Some of the photos on the disc were of an event where one of my campaign videos was shown – Tomorrow the first meeting takes place do discuss how we can raise awareness and campaign against the same issues.

The second CD had a few photographs that my Dad took of the flowers that I bought for my Mum’s 75th Birthday. She is 80 this year.

A message?…