It's been a month! What have I been doing?
My mother got ill (low sodium again) in late May, and had to go to hospital for a few days. As now seems to be the norm, although they moved her in from the main waiting room fairly quickly, she then had to sit in the urgent care area for many hours, intermittently being tested for stuff, before she finally got a bed in the small hours of the next day and was able to actually lie down.
I'm guessing that there's some kind of ruling that hospitals aren't supposed to put people on trolleys or other kinds of temporary bed - maybe to avoid the situation where the temporary beds fill up, or something? But I can't think that having to sit in an upright chair for fifteen hours till 5am is helpful to anyone, let alone the already ill. But the care once she finally got a bed was excellent.
Anyway, I went down and stayed at her house, and after a few days she was stable and ready to come home. While I was hanging about, I got to do some nice Dartmoor walks with the hounds.
Mum now seems to be quite back to normal, so that is good news: in fact, she was well enough to join us for a brief Dartmoor stroll and an icecream, by the end of the week.
The traffic going back up was horrible, and I crawled most of the way. I really must make a policy of NEVER leaving the westcountry at midday on a Friday: what is usually a 4 and a half hour quite pleasant run turned into a monster journey where I crawled along the motorway at around 5-20mph.
At least it was the good season for wildflowers, so I entertained myself spotting all the species along the central reservation. I think there has been a concentrated effort to plant wildflower seed along the M4 and the M5, given the sheer quantity of ox-eye daisies in evidence, but I also saw quite a number of different vetches, some interesting thistles, a surprising amount of fennel, the ubiquitous valerian, and mallows. I may see if I can get hold of some common mallow seed. It's a pretty flower and I think it would like this dry sunny garden.
I stopped on the way back at Sedgemoor services, and since the weather was all blue skies and refreshing breezes, we went for a walk to Brent Knoll, which is an Unexpected Knob of a hill that sticks up from the Somerset levels near the M5, so I've noticed it many many times, but never actually been there.
Brent Knoll hill with Brent Knoll Inn.
Jubilee decorations on aforesaid pub.
What else? Oh yes, Pp had a terrible attack of gout, so I bought him some gigantic slippers, which were still not big enough, and I discovered that M&S are now *really* strict on their returns policy (they wouldn't let me change the slippers for even more huge ones, though I was only one day late on their month-long returns policy).
Building work post Storm Eunice is STILL ongoing. The missing roof room is now fixed, except for the lights, which await the coming of a covid-stricken electrician, and the addition of a vinyl floor. The bottom floor bit is now at the painting and decorating phase though, so *surely* it can't be too much longer. And finally, the bathroom that was removed last year is being replaced! None too soon, we lived with the pong from inadequately-sealed sewage pipes for far too long.
We still have THINGS and STUFF mounded up all over the house from
1) the house move and
2) moving things out of the way of the builders
3) moving things out of the way of Storm Eunice
4) moving things that were in the way or that broke that have not yet made it to the recycling centre.
and now most of the things are also covered in at least a certain amount of dust from all the building work. I am so ready for it to be all finished!