Weather

I rang Mary to say my mother wouldn't be going to the WI and we talked about the weather- as English people do. She told me all the little animals in the children's zoo at The Hop Farm had drowned in the Christmas floods. Only the llamas and ponies were saved. Her son lives in Yalding beside a road that flooded. If one more 4X4 had tried to drive through it- he said- the house would have been swamped.

It rained overnight and the paths are under water again.

I wonder if we're going to get any snow this winter?

Step In Time

I was channel hopping last night- after my mother had gone to bed- and arrived at one that was showing Mary Poppins just in time for the sequence with the dancing sweeps. It's my favourite. I love the energy of it- the misrule. Then came a reprise of A Spoonful of Sugar and I switched off. Dick Van Dyke would be wonderful if only he kept his trap shut.

Dementia

Our neighbour called round to collect a parcel we'd taken in for her- having just flown in from Boston, Mass- on one of the last planes to leave before the airport had snow dumped all over it. She was telling my mother about her mother's dementia and my mother was nodding and being sympathetic. Does my mother realize she has dementia too? I don't think she does. One forgets that one forgets.