My Magnificent Magnolia

My magnolia continues to open, albeit very slowly.  It makes me think of Dad.  In fact Sundays always make me think of Dad.  This weekend would have been a special one for him and Mum - 66 years of marriage.

Sundays, historically, when Mum and Dad lived in the UK, meant that mum would cook and John and I would go over to visit her and Dad.  John would carefully chose a new bottle of red wine for Dad to sample.  We weren't married then, in fact we were quite a new couple and Dad had yet to decide if John was a 'keeper' worth engaging in conversation but the red wine always seemed to help!!

I remember we would be travelling down the Murder Mile between Yeovil and Ilchester and John would be worrying about what Mum was cooking for lunch - then he was most definitely a confirmed Meat and Two Veg guy and the two veg would be peas and carrots so swede and mange-tout were a bit of a challenge - if you know him now you might find that hard to believe because basically it is just mushrooms and brussels sprouts which are a complete no-no as far as he is concerned.

Anyway I digress, the magnolia makes me smile and I am thrilled that at long last it has come to bloom.  

Today John and I had put in a request to leave the house to do some shopping en route which meant that once this was done we could put in another request to go visit Mum.  The recent relaxations have meant we have three texts at the weekend although we are uncertain whether or not we can use two or even three for the same activity and I am going to find out.

Ultimately this meant that we arrived a little earlier at Mums than we would do normally and we were able to stay longer than normal.  Next weekend we are hopeful that Mum can come up to us and we have suggested she asks Lilian if she would like to come so that she is not traveling alone on her first long outing in a very long time.

Mum and Lilian had been out for lunch yesterday which Mum really enjoyed as it has restored some 'normality' to her very abnormal normal.  Lilian had been very kind enough to give mum the beautiful plant in the photograph which is some sort of Impatiens with huge vibrant flowers.

Mum gave me this photograph of my lovely, lovely Uncle Ivor who is 92-ish and recently lost his wife, my Aunty Margaret, for whom he had cared since she had a stroke about 14 years ago.  He looks amazing for someone who has been through so much but that is, in great part, due to his daughter, my cousin, Julie.  On the subject of cousins I have recently been in touch with my cousin Peter whose dad Norman was my Mum and Uncle Ivor's brother.  I have not seen him for 45 years when I visited Canada at the tender age of 16!!

We have been pulling Mum's leg as she is going to get some new hearing aids.  Technology has moved on considerably since she got the ones she has now and the new ones are all state of the art and their functionality can be controlled by an app on your phone!!!  We told her that they will probably look like the ones in the photograph!!!

We had a lovely lunch - the extra half hour made all the difference and next week hopefully it will be much more like normal if Mum can come up for about 12.00 and leave around 4.00pm - John is already planning what we are going to cook!!!

We got home just within our time limit and settled down for the evening - we have started watching The Disappearance at the Cecil Hotel which is fascinating.

Tomorrow John and I have decided to go for a walk - I have plotted something in the wilds near Neo Chorio and the weather should be warmer than it has been of late.