Making changes...

First of all I have to say that we are so very very grateful that we have such lovely friends in Di and Rob who took the time yesterday to visit Mum and then took her out for lunch at Sonnys.  Bless them because they are only just recovering from the horrible bug they picked up when they went back to the UK.  Mum loved their company and was so thrilled to go for lunch as she had only expected them popping in for coffee.  They also scored Brownie points with Mum's neighbour Effie.

I had an appointment at Kate's this morning for a facial - I had been in two minds as to whether to cancel or not but decided I would go as the nice calm environment would do me good and it did although I am rubbish at trying to 'clear my mind' - currently there are a million and one thoughts running around and not many are positive.

Whilst I was trying to relax John went and did the few bits of shopping we needed before we met up with Gillian and David Carbine for coffee in the Art Cafe in Polis.  John and I have not been in there for absolutely ages - we used to go quite often.  It was an exceptionally warm and bright day and it was lovely sitting in the old courtyard drinking coffee and eating cake which turned out to be a treat from David which was so very kind.  Gillian had bought me a huge pot of freesias which looked and smelt absolutely fabulous and will be planted in the garden once they have finished flowering.  We spent a really lovely pair of hours with them and think we will probably see them more regularly in the future.

We stopped in our favourite little florist to buy two plants to go in some really lovely pots I had bought in Jumbos.  I chose gerbera as they were bright and full of buds.  The two pots are going to sit on Dad's grave.  We plan to go up tomorrow and clear any dead flowers as we reckon our floral tributes will have probably seen better days now.

Actually when we got to the grave we were amazed that some of the original flowers are still looking ok so I managed to make one good display out of three and that, with the cyclamen from Kelly, the osteospurmum we got the other day, the two gerbera and the lantern made Dad's space looked loved and cared for and that is exactly how we want it to be.

We spent the remainder of the day making changes to our home - it was hard work but cathartic - we swapped the lounge area with the dining area back to the way it used to be when we first moved here and only had the gas fire and not the wood burner.  Having completed it we are glad we did so as it seems cosier but we appear to have more room.

The cats are confused but will get used to it.  Minnie took up prime position on the sofa next to the gas fire and declared that to be her spot in the future.

Mid change Di and Rob called in with our post and to let us know how their day had gone with Mum which was really kind of them.  In amongst the post was a parcel from my lovely lovely lovely friend Sue Boulton who had made me a heart in memory of my Dad.  You can imagine that her kind thoughts and words brought tears to my eyes but it now has pride of place next to the photographs of Dad and Hadge, my father and father-in-law who have both passed away in the last twelve months.