The sorts of things that happen

Well, now that everyone's gone away, not much is happening, or at least not to us. Which is actually quite nice, if a little flat. (Never satisfied.) Big Granddaughter held up some pens to match her outfit - rainbows are always cheering, even if they do have orange in them. 

Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter have been down in Bristol visiting her friend A-L, who had a baby by sperm donation, without having a partner, in December of 2020. She's finding it very hard, not surprisingly. The little one has very broken sleep and A-L has taken to going downstairs with him in the middle of the night and giving him drinks and food. We all know that this isn't a good idea. We've probably all done it, though, in the despair of the night. 

The garden suffered while we were down south in Northumberland and it was very hot here, but it's pleasantly coolish now and there's been some rain, so we still have lots of colour. I planted cosmos seeds and they came up prolifically but they haven't flowered as much as I hoped. Websites suggest that they like lots of sun, not too much water and not too rich soil. I watered them quite a lot in the summer because it was so dry, but they got quite a lot of sun and there's not much I can do about the richness of the soil. But the flowers are pretty anyway. 

As are my hanging baskets

There's a sad story in this newspaper announcement. Eight children to such young parents! Think how many more there might have been if the father had lived. And how awful for the wife to be left with them all to support. Innishbiggle Island currently has 18 inhabitants - I imagine there were more then, but even so, what a stir this must have caused. 

And Liz Truss seems to be quite pleased to have been elected Prime Minister. No accounting for tastes, but I'm glad someone feels like taking the job on. There are so many problems at the moment! Don't think I'm very keen on a PM called an abbreviation, though. And Truss... would someone with great judgement cling to that name, when her husband's name is O'Leary - maybe not great, but surely better? Does Elizabeth O'Leary not have more gravitas? But hey ho. My maiden name was Smith, and even if I'd been born in these more feminist days, I would have been happy to swap it for my husband's slightly less common and more mellifluous one. 

Daughter 1 has added her husband's surname to hers - which makes it quite long, though I see her reasoning. Daughter 2 has kept her own, but that makes her little one have a different surname (though she has ours as a middle name). And DIL has kept hers, so she likewise has a different surname from the children. But they all call the children by the husband's name, which is still quite paternalistic, isn't it? Though commonly done. I wonder what the next generation will do? 

My friend who had the stroke on January 4 came to our house yesterday to rejoin the Monday gatherings that 10 of us - all ex-colleagues - have every week! It was so wonderful to have her with us again. She's walking now with a frame or tripod stick - not fast, and holding on to her husband's arm, but definitely on her feet. I'm so pleased for her. Her speech and thinking are unaffected and I feel quite optimistic about her future. We've all been visiting and writing and emailing lots, but this was her first outing to anyone's house but her children's, so it was a definite new development, and so welcome.