Monday

Given how sleepy she was yesterday, I was sufficiently confident that Mum would be asleep all day today to feel no guilt in not paying her a visit. As Lesley didn’t have to go and see her dad  either we both enjoyed a Mental Health Day.

The point of a Mental Health Day is not to do anything too remarkable so we may not have succeeded entirely. The first couple of hours was spent deciding what additional help we should look for for Lesley’s dad, roughing out a quick picture of what to tell potential carers about him and then doing some research. Not ‘See What Pops Up On Google’ research, proper ‘Speak To An Actual Real Live Professional Carer’ Research. It felt like a plan was coming together.

Obviously, a Mental Health Day had to involve some intensive dog-walking. We headed off to The Brook.

On the way down through the woodland running along The Brook, we spotted a man taking video footage of the trees on his phone. I know. We had exactly the same thought as you’ve just had. It looked a bit odd.

We apologised for interrupting him and when he turned round we recognised him as someone we often see on our walks. He explained that the video was to be used as clips for his YouTube channel. He does videos about the benefits of using analog tools in a digital world. He didn’t tell us the name of his channel but I found him anyway. From the looks of his content he’s a bit of a lay preacher too. I do like an unexpected encounter with another creative and he’s doing alright. Fifteen hundred subscribers from fifty-odd videos isn’t to be sniffed at.

We did as little as possible with rest of the day. More gardening for me and some baking for Lesley.

Not bad.

Author’s Note

My Mum is in a nursing home in a small village in the Thames Valley. The photo is not of the home. I used an AI image generator to give the reader some idea of the home she’s in.

All, some or maybe even none (you’ll never know!) of the names have been changed to protect privacy and hide real identities. If you think you recognise someone then let me know and I’ll edit the post or remove it entirely