Sun Giants

The alarm goes off at seven, and we rouse ourselves for another day and breakfast is smoked salmon and cream cheese on rye, washed down with black Italian coffee. The day is breaking crisp and clear, as I take my second mug into the Garden Room and let Norman out onto the path, there has been a slight frost overnight and the earth has been brought into a sharper focus with the advent of colder air. I shower and prepare to leave the house before nine when Felicity phones. She won't be going to the Poppy Seed, her elderly dog, Molly, woke her in the middle of the night asking to be let out, and then promptly absconded. The old girl went out in her dressing gown and slippers to find it and slipped on the kerb and fell. Fortunately she only sustained a bruised hip and the dog eventually came back, but it could have been much worse. I promise to call in after my dog walking duties but, as the time pressure to get to the Poppy Seed has gone, I hang out the coloured washing on the line before I leave. We arrive on the Westwood with Dolly and Teddy by ten o'clock, it is a glorious day, with clear blue skies and a bright sun low to the south, that casts long shadows as we walk, and only the hint of a breeze. On the common we see Pat, who used to own a Labrador called Dora, whom everyone loved, until she was knocked down and killed last year. Pat now has a new Labrador Puppy called Ivy, that her children bought her for Christmas, hence the name. Ivy is adorable all floppy skin and big brown eyes, and bounces about in a semi-coordinated manner. Teddy and Dolly like her, but Norman gives her a wide berth, as he reckons she could crash into anything. We complete our circuit, I return the terriers to Pip and then drive to Morrison's for milk and German rye bread. While I am there I pick up a pack of pain au raisin and take them to Felicity's to eat over coffee and raise her spirits. In the event her spirits are fine as she had a tot of whiskey after her ordeal, apparently she had trouble getting up after falling and might have had to lie in the cold air until people started going to work this morning. We leave at noon and drive back to Tickton where I give Norman a few biscuits and check my email, Jackie wants to meet up and I say I will drive over the weekend after next as I am taking Louis to the football this weekend. I also email Jeremy Fletcher, the vicar at the minster, to ask if the church can help with Leslie, who was a minster tour guide until a few months ago. Then I pick up my swimming gear and drive to the leisure centre, arriving at half past one, the time the ladies aqua fit class finishes. My calculations are awry, as half the pool is roped off for school swimming, and I share a double lane with four other swimmers. We are swimming in a clockwise rotation and by the time I have warmed up after 400m freestyle, there are only two of us left in the lane and I am able to finish my usual program without any problems. After changing, there is just time for a cup of tea and a few oaties, before visiting Leslie. I have received two texts, one from Hahne about tomorrow's cinema trip and one from Sarah asking up my offer to baby sit whilst she and Alice did an Orange Wednesday this evening. They both like Gerard Butler, who has a new Rom Com out. On my way into the nursing home I enquire after Leslie and am told he wouldn't walk with them as he was waiting for me. Leslie tells a different story and says he asked for someone to walk with him after breakfast and was told it was their busy hour and would return later, but didn't. I believe Leslie, we swap his slippers for shoes, put on an overcoat and I walk him along the corridor, out of the main doors and up the entrance road to a small bench outside one of the sheltered accomodation bungalows. The sun is shining directly at us, as it dips towards the horizon and the air is cool and clear, but not particularly cold, it is a picture postcard winter afternoon. Leslie is walking well, in terms of coordination, but his strength isn't good and it is going to take more than once a day with me in order to build him up again. We walk back to his room and I ask him about lunch and he says it was braising steak, but very tough and he couldn't eat much, and he didn't sleep too well either. We chat about his need for more exercise and stimulation, and then try to find radio four on his free view guide on the TV, as Leslie says his eyes are too bad to watch the small 28" screen. Inexplicably it isn't there, so I send for the maintenance guy, who refines the set and finds it. I hand the remote to Leslie who manages to find radio four and switch it on and then turns it off again until I leave. We chat for half an hour, is mood is still not good, but he called his friend, Mary, on his mobile yesterday, so that is some progress. I expect it may be a long and bumpy road back to recovery for him and the outcome is by no means certain, but all we can do his try. I leave at four, as William is coming at five thirty and Leslie needs to rest a little. I say I will call in around noon tomorrow after I have walked the dogs. Back home I rustle up some salad, a pork chop and oven chips for dinner and open Norman a tin as there isn't enough for two, but let him have the chop bone when I have eaten. My shirts from the line are still damp, but the forecast is good for tomorrow, so I will try again. Jeremy Fletcher has responded to my email and the news is good, they have other parishioners in the Grange and will call in to see Leslie and the other guides will also call and see him both there and when he gets home. Many hands may get us there. Norman and I arrive at Sarah's house for six fifteen, Louis is in the bath, which scotches my plan to walk Norman round the town with him, but Sarah says she needs ten minutes to iron his school uniform, so I whizz Normy round Seven Corners Lane. Sarah and Alice head off towards Cineworld, and Louis and I play together until bedtime at seven thirty and he goes off happily, after a grandad story about the old days. Sarah and Alice return home shortly after ten and say the film was OK. Alice and I plan to see Les Miserables for our Orange Wednesday next week. We arrive home around ten thirty and go straight to bed. It has been a busy day.