29th June On This Day....

29th June . It's Robin's niece's birthday today. She will be 12 years old....or is she 13...awful that I don't know.

On this day 29th June 2105

Tiger - the pussy cat from next door. Our neighbours told me yesterday that she died last month. She was only a few years old.

29th June 2014

Our neighbours told me that our allotment has been taken over by a nice South African woman who already has an allotment and is using ours as a community project  - lots of people using it  - which makes me happy to know it is in such good hands.

29th June 2013

Making pink elderflower cordial - that is one thing I miss from the allotment -  the huge elder niger tree there. Another year I will go back and ask if I can pick some lacy blossom heads...but I haven't got the heart for it this year.

29th June 2012

Supper in the back garden.

29th June 2011

Aberdovey in North Wales on holiday 

 with my family including my nieces and nephews and my new born great nephew only a few weeks old. It was the day Robin stopped working for Barchester Green Investments...the end of his career.

29th June 2010 

Lumch in the garden...Robin was about to be diagnosed with dementia a few months later.

29th June 2009

Supper in the garden....we had no idea what was coming.

29th June 2016 - no photos - cool, windy, raining off and on.

Everyone is late today. The hospice nurse we are expecting doesn't arrive at 11.30am  Only an answer machine when I ring. Robin is anxious and restless so at 12 .15pm  we go out to lunch in a garden centre. I buy him a jelly drink in a pouch instead of a coffee. Thicker liquids are better - he seems to cough more on water now. We share a cheese and tomato panini. At least I eat most of it. 

Back home there is a message from the hospice nurse left at 12. 27. She came but we'd gone. I make another appointment. It seems the person she saw before us was very poorly so that's why she was late. So I don't feel so cross.

Robin's carer is also late - stuck in traffic. I ask her to buy some jelly drinks for Robin on their way to Plymouth. She can't find any in the supermarket but comes back with some yoghurt  drinks in pouches instead called Suckies  meant for children but perfect for him.

I rush back from my dental appointment on Ottery St Mary to be in time for the MND co-ordinator who is coming to talk to me about the PEG feeding. She's late but I don't care any more. She's lovely and helpful and informative and I feel clearer about what to do. I explain it to Robin but he says he doesn't need it. I say not yet but we will see the respiratory consultant next week and he will advise us.

Then I give him one of the Suckies - horrible name - which he really likes. The  nice MND woman says he needs more calories now  - more fat and sugar. The PEG feeding tube would be a way to get more nutrition into him if he continues to lose weight.

The days of the summer allotment..... and wine with supper in the garden..... and proper plates of food and an appetite ....for anything.... seem long ago now.