Mist and mellow fruitfulness

Wake at eight to a foggy morning, and let Norman out into the garden before christening my new frying pan with a full English. Sarah phones at nine to say I don't need to collect Louis from school as he is still under the weather and is spending the day with Pip in Cherry. This means that I am clear to visit Leslie in hospital this afternoon. Wash, dress and collect Dolly and Teddy for ten o'clock and we are walking towards the woods at Newbegin Pits by ten past. It is cold in the mist and I have out on my scarf and hat and wish I had brought gloves as my hands are cold. After ten minutes or so a pale yellow sun is discernible through the mist and by the time we arrive at Black Mill we are in bright sunshine. I love these sunny autumn days and shedding my fleece, scarf and hat, decide to walk all the way round the common. The trees in Burton Bushes are just on the turn, Horsechesnut and Beech leading the way, their leaves turning yellow, brown and red. It will take a few frosts before they are at their best, but a clear night tonight might bring the first frost. It takes an hour and a half to complete the walk and we are intermittently in sunshine and fog as the mist swirls about with the breeze. We get back to Cherry for midday, drop the dogs off and then drive to Tesco. I have a cold schnitzel in the fridge and need to buy some tomatoes, spring onions and potato salad to accompany it. This done we are home for twenty to one and lunch is prepared and we are eating in the garden before the one o'clock news begins. After lunch I make coffee and then do a puzzle before its time to change my trousers and drive to Castle Hill hospital to visit Leslie. On my way I call at the cobblers and collect my shoes, he has done an excellent job and they look as good as new, so I promise him some more business. It makes more sense to repair very good quality old fashioned Oxfords, than to buy new shoes and then discard them because they aren't repairable. At least to me, for whom fashion is of little interest. I arrive at ward 19 at three thirty, the start of visiting and follow the instructions to wash my hands before entering the ward. I need the toilet and hear a familiar voice as I enter, it is Leslie with a nurse on his way back to his room! I tell him I will be with him once I am hygienic and once that is achieved follow him to his room. He is in a room with three other patients and tells me he has just given up a private room for an elderly lady. He looks well, considering the circumstances, and recounts his experience, a sudden inability to walk last Wednesday evening, that lead to his admittance to hospital, his daughter thought he might have had a stroke, but the hospital can find nothing physically wrong with him, apart from being ninety years old. The old guy has nailed his colours to the mast and wants to be home as soon as practically possible. He has recovered the use of his legs and can stand unaided, but is using a Zimmer frame to get about for now. We chat about the American election and the Conservative party conference and I leave him a few copies of the New Scientist magazine, that I know he enjoys. I promise to visit him later in the week, if they haven't discharged him first. The road to Castle Hill from Beverley is a nightmare because of long term roadworks and it is rush hour when I leave, so take a little side road from Cottingham that brings me back to Beverley another way and get home for a quarter past five. Norman is ready for his dinner, so I open a tin for him and then we walk down to the little bridge over the drain and play praise and pat all the way back. He has acquitted himself well today, walking three or four miles this morning and another mile tonight! I phone Clement on my mobile while I am out, the signal is better down the lane than in my bungalow. He has a cold but is otherwise OK. When I get in I make a sandwhich, salami and cheese and a pot of tea, and then settle down to read yesterday's Observer and this morning's Guardian, before taking my Ismail Kadare book to bed and reading until ten.