'....... A rare and gentle thing'

I started writing this on Saturday, so it relates to the last days of October.

It's been a strange week, the clocks went back last weekend and it has taken me most of the week to adjust my body clock. The weather  has been surprisingly warm and pleasant for the start of November so the darker evenings seem strangely out of place. The autumn has always been my least favourite time of the year, and the dark evenings with their reminder of the long winter months ahead have left me feeling a bit out of sorts. Robbie is working away at the moment so I only see him at the weekends, it's an arrangement that works well for both of us, but I miss him - there's a limit to the conversation skills of a cat, even an extremely eloquent one like Dave. Our family has a huge black cloud hanging over us at the moment, something which I don't feel able to discuss in detail on the blog but it makes thinking ahead very difficult. I have plenty of work and other responsibilities to keep me busy and usually I am quite good at living in the present, but the dark evenings and the challenges of this week have got the better of me. 

It may not mean much to anyone else but something happened on Wednesday morning which felt like a sign of hope. When I woke up I became aware of a slight fluttering which was odd as I hadn't left the bedroom window open. I realised that there was a butterfly in the bedroom and it had settled on Robbie's bedside table. It stayed there for a while and then it settled on the net curtain so I opened the window for it to go out when it was ready. I got on with my morning routine and didn't go back into the bedroom for an hour or so, I expected that the butterfly would have gone on its way but I was surprised to see that were now two butterflies on the window. I don't remember having a butterfly in my bedroom before and I'm certain that there have never been two. In fact I don't recall seeing a butterfly so late in the year. I managed to get a photo of the first one, I think it's a Small Tortoiseshell, the photo quality is not very good but it was nice to be able to see it close up, it was beautiful, so fragile with the delicate colouring of a watercolour painting.

      

“Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you” - Nathaniel Hawthorne

A Good Drying Day

When I woke up on Thursday morning I was surprised to find that it was already a beautiful sunny day, so I decided to strike while the iron was hot and get some washing out - it was dry in a couple of hours! To be honest I was feeling a bit anxious because today was A level results day and my son had to go and pick up his AS Level exam results. It seemed to take forever but eventually the phone rang and his sister informed me that he had got good grades. My son then came on the phone, for just long enough for me to congratulate him, then he handed me back to his sister, I don't think he has any idea how how much I worry about him at times!

I didn't really want to go anywhere today the garden and the beach are all we need and the weather is perfect, but the lure of the beach cafe drew us to Mundesley for a late lunch. The food was excellent and better still they have mastered the art of making a good cup of tea, in fact their pot of tea for one provided two full cups of tea and the milk jug contained plenty of milk. The beach was busy but the tide was out so there was plenty of room for everyone. I was tempted to go for a stroll on the beach at Mundesley, but in the end we decided to head back to our beach at Walcott instead. Robbie doesn't paddle, but I love it so we strolled along the beach with me splashing about in the shallows and him keeping a safe distance. This year I asserted my independence and bought a pair of Crocs, much to the disgust of my daughters. For years they have told me that it would be too embarrassing for words if I wore Crocs, but I decided that they will just have to come to terms with the embarrassment because I needed some comfortable and practical holiday footwear. They are the most comfortable shoes i have ever worn, so I think I will wear them at home too!!

Out on The Drags

Robbie had persuaded me to give him a day off on Saturday, he wanted to do what he calls 'the drags' which from what I understand involves travelling backwards and forwards on trains all day. On summer Saturdays Greater Anglia run holiday maker trains which allow people to travel from London to Great Yarmouth on a through train. They are called drags because there are no wires between Norwich and Gt Yarmouth so the diesel loco has to pull the train from Norwich. It takes Robbie all day because he likes to get full value from his Rover ticket. Yesterday we had to get up at 6am in order to get him to the station on time, but his legs let him down and he got back much earlier than planned. His pain level has been really bad recently, I hope it will ease off soon because we are running out of options in terms of pain management.

I had a lovely day, the weather was perfect and I had plenty of time to enjoy the beach. I went to Mundesley at lunch time, it was a very enjoyable couple of hours, it was such a lovely day. I also had time to have a nice long chat with 'the other Mrs Jones' I have missed her very much while we have been away.

Too Much Excitement

When Robbie got home on Friday evening he told me that he had brought something exciting for us to look at over the weekend. After his 'exciting' conversation about his eraser collection last weekend I didn't have high expectations, but I didn't expect toe curling boredom. He had brought home the Hornby model railway catalogue - and he is still looking at it!

Robbie is travelling north today, so I am expecting bad weather (it always happens when he goes north!)

Missed

The weather has been lovely over the last few days, I love this time of year when the whole summer stretches ahead of us. I'm not sure my children would agree with me, Sam is suffering badly with hay fever, Laura is just about to start exam leave for her AS Level exams and Emily has exams looming at university. Sam has started on his medication, so hopefully his hay fever will improve soon. The oil seed rape is in flower and the countryside around here is a mass of yellow, I hate the smell and the pollen upsets my asthma so I will be glad when the flowers are gone. It really annoys me that I have asthma, I didn't develop it until I was an adult and I don't understand why, I have never smoked a cigarette in my life.

I had to go to town yesterday to buy birthday presents for Imogen, the youngest (and probably the loudest) of our children, she will be 9 later this month. Imogen looks so much like Robbie, she can be very strong willed but she has a lovely side to he nature, when asked what she wants for her birthday or Christmas she doesn't provide a long list of desires, she just says that she will be happy with anything. So we have spent the last few weeks trying to think of things that she will really like. I can't tell you what we have bought, that's top secret, but it involved me trudging around town until my legs almost dropped off. It was a successful trip and now I have plenty of wrapping up to do.

For those who are wondering if Robbie was forgiven after yesterday's blog entry, yes, I never stay cross with him for long. There was another points failure yesterday so he was late home again, it is so frustrating. He was home just long enough to eat his meal before dashing out to sort out Marion's wayward router again, it was an AOL server problem - again!. When I picked him up from Marion's house he said "I missed ..." and just for a split second I thought he was going to tell me that he had missed me (we have hardly seen each other this week), but it was something far more important - he had missed one of his favourite TV programs! It was late so I went to bed and left him watching the repeat of his program. Oh well at least I had peace and quiet!