17/01/2007 by Gudrun.

Our weather has been really odd recently. Over the past few weeks we have had so much rain that the ground is totally waterlogged and all the rain that falls now just runs out of the fields onto the roads. At the same time it has been so stormy that every roofer and slater in the area is fully booked, and those householders with no stuctural damage to their properties are really lucky. And now we have been promised snow. As I look out of my study window, I see a coating of snow that is just like sprinled icing sugar, and it is rather beautiful. But if we get rain las we have done in the last weeks, and this turns to snow, then it will be a differnt matter altogether.I hope this does not happen! And i look forward to a week of sunshine on holiday next week!

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15/01/2007 by Gudrun.

Trying to think what we shall need on holiday is not easy. It is wet and windy outside, and so it is hard to imagine what I will want with me and arround me in, hopefully, nice warm sunshine. I feel I need this holiday, so must make sure that once we get there we will really be able to make the best of it. There is nothing worse than arriving with just thin garments, and finding the wind is biting, or forgetting the carger for the camera! I have a list of things I usually take, but at each holiday we go to I always think I should have brought something different, and could have left a lot at home! So there is now a large pile of THINGS on my chest of drawers, ready to be sorted through once more and then packed in a few days time. Just looking at the pile makes me begin to look forward to being away in that sunshine!

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14/01/2007 by Gudrun.

Today we learned that Mary has won her battle to remain independant to death. She has struggled very hard and deserves her rest now. 6 months ago she had a single night in one of the most expensive nursing homes in Edinburgh, and was treated “like a sack of potatoes”, so she discharged herself the next morning. After that, despite her terrible disabilities (Parkinsons Disease) she managed to stay living in her sheltered flat with help three times a day to see to her personal needs. Another bout of a knee giving way took her to hospital on 23rd December, to her favourite ward, where we visited on 5th january. We found her less mobile than ever, but well hydrated, and sheerful and optimistic. Through all the years of her fight with this illness, Mary was always positive and cheerful. On that last Friday, she could no longer read as her eyes would not focus any more, and she could not hear the ward TV. For a lady who was used to reading The Times from cover to cover each day all her life, this was a terrible blow, but she only told us how well she was being treated, and how the rest in the hospital was doing her good. Two days later she collapsed, and was unconscious for nearly a week before dying peacefully. We saw her again during that week. Her grandchildren were there too, one little girl stroking her hair and another holding her hand. It was lovely. And now she is at peace.

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