Lettuces ,Squashed Eggs, An Allotment and Sandals

Portrait  at Lake Te Anau NZ

Driving to the Private View tonight the traffic is snarled up all the way to Exebridges. My husband spots a blue light flashing on a police car and imagines an accident.

I divert him with ideas for supper. Then he says,

Were there any lettuces?

I wonder what starts with the letter L that he's thinking of....

You know, the things that come through the door.

Letters?

Of course, what are lettuces then?

I tell him and we laugh.

And yes there was a letter from the neurologist about the anti-depressants he's suggesting my husband takes if he finds that his 'emotionality is becoming bothersome'.

We discuss eggs for supper. I explain what an omlette is but he doesn't have a picture of it he can recall.   So he says,

Would you like them poached or boiled or squashed instead?

 I make up a vivid picture of squashed eggs.

I think you mean scrambled......it does start with S too...

An ambulance speeds past us in the opposite direction with its siren blaring. 

Oh no, an allotment, he says, his face crumpling and tears coming.

The anti-depressants may help you with that, I say - not to be so upset when you hear an ambulance.

Anti-depressants? he says.

I explain. And we also talk about using the Emotional Freedom Technique he's learning in these situations. But not when driving as it involves two hands tapping.

It's cold when we finally get through town and start walking to the Age UK offices where the art exhibition  is being held.

 You haven't got sandals on, he says.

No, I say but I know he means gloves as he is pulling on his own - the usual starting-with-the-same- letter guessing game not necessary in this case.

The exhibition called Faces of Older People by Rachel Jamieson is brilliant, moving and inspirational.

And I'm so thrilled that she is going to paint my husband's portrait - she works from photographs and she's in the process of trying to get a photo of him in profile when he's not pulling a silly face....

Check her out this weekend as part of Exeter Open Studios or find her at 

www.rachaeljamiesonportraits.com/‎

And now I'm getting hungry for my squashed eggs.......