PARKINSON'S WALK 19th November

Today we walked the trail at Onerahi on the former railway track.  It is a walk we did earlier in the year.  Once again we were lucky with the weather.  It was a 5 kms walk there and back .   This was followed by the usual coffee at a cafe.            I then called in to see my hubby on the way home.  Not a good day but I stayed with him for an hour and a half and fed him the HUGE cream puff he had for afternoon tea and helped him with his cup of tea.  

He was expecting another visit from the Pope (not sure if I mentioned that he had a visit from the Pope's daughter the other day).

Helena Bay

Today my wonderful hairdresser took me and another friend whose wife died a few weeks ago to the Helena Bay Gallery and Cafe.

I had heard about it but never been there.  It was wonderful.  We started by looking around the garden area then went inside and spent some time in the Gallery before having a delicious lunch.

Yesterday, we had some  much needed rain and there was a shower earlier on today but the weather turned out fine.

This table and chairs was made from oak barrels.

This flowering cherry? is just around the corner from our house.

My lovely Husband

I visited Max in the rest home as usual today.  To start with I couldn't find him and then the nurse on duty told me he was helping the student nurses with their study.

I went over and found him with them.  He had, obviously, been telling them about his family and they checked with me.  They weren't sure about his daughter but I told them he was correct as we both have the same name.  He had also told them the name of his son and his sister and that she had married an American.  All of this was correct.

They then shared with me something else he had said and they had written down so as to remember it - which is why I am writing it now.

'I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENED BUT I HONESTLY DON'T HAVE THE BRAIN AROUND MY NECK TO REMEMBER STUFF.'

With his diagnosis of Lewy Body Dementia he has times when he is lucid and times when he is completely confused.

I was so pleased to see them interacting with him as he is often just sitting when I visit.  He then went on to help paint a Santa for their float in the Christmas Parade.

We are still having variable spring weather.  I did two loads of washing before going out and was very pleased to find it dry on my return as the clouds had been passing overhead all day.

I had been due to go away for a few days today but the friend I was going to stay with is ill.  As I had let my food supplies go down I did a large shop before coming home.

I would have liked to get out in the garden this afternoon but was quite exhausted.  I am still not sure why I get so tired but at least I have managed to do a few things in the garden over the past week.

Last night I arranged for my carpet to be cleaned on Tuesday which will mean moving as much as possible out of the way.  Really it needs replacing but the cost and disruption that would cause are ruling it out.  I just hope a clean makes it look better and doesn't make it disappear altogether.

I am pleased with my vegetables and am planning on cultivating another area to put some runner beans in as I have run out of space yet again.

This was my latest veggie garden exactly a month ago.  I had to put some wind cloth in front of it as the north-westerly was trying to rip the plants out of the ground shortly after the photo below was taken.



The photo below is the same garden today.  I am leaving the Italian Parsley to go to seed although if I see some plants for sale I may well rip it out and start afresh.

Parkinson Walk - 5th November

This morning I took my car in for its 6 monthly warrant of fitness and Sue at the garage drove me to Tarewa Park  where we started our walk.

We walked across the park past a very pleasant children's playground and across a bridge to the new walkway alongside a stream.  This is going to be part of a much larger walkway.  We then crossed back across the stream to the Raumanga Valley Reserve.

The walk took us across two parks with oaks and other European trees and into the bush with native trees to the waterfall and then back again.

Once again we were lucky with the weather with just a few drops of rain as we finished our walk.  (Mind you we could do with some decent rain as the soil is very dry).

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a decent photo of the waterfall from below because of the bush.

We finished up with the usual coffee and then one of the party dropped me off at the garage to collect my car.

I also discovered that one of Max' carers is the daughter of one of the walkers -  Whangarei gets smaller the longer I live here.

I was due to go up to Doubtless Bay on Thursday for a short break but when I got home there was a message on my answerphone and my friend is unwell so it is postponed in the meantime. 

Thank you Tenpin

A couple of days ago I  sent my niece (Cro's daughter, Tenpin) an email about the Haemochromatosis  as I thought she may like to get checked.  By co-incidence she had just been discussing it as a family member of a friend had been diagnosed.

Anyway, a couple of hours ago I was in the garden clearing a space for some Basil when I heard a car come up the drive.  I went to investigate and it was the local florist with this Anthurium Andreanum plant in a flax basket.

Having a husband with Alzheimer's, I am not used to receiving presents.  It really made my day.

.  Thanks again Tenpin

On another bright note, yesterday I was talking to the podiatrist who visits Max and she told me that when she visited him last he had the centipede that I gave him and was showing her the different things he could do with it, telling her all the colours and getting each segment to make its respective noise.  When I visit he doesn't interact with it like that so it was good to know and made me feel better.