Last night, Ted and I went to bed at 20.30. I make no excuse for this – I was utterly exhausted and definitely asleep by 21.00.

This resulted in me waking early this morning so, as it was getting late, lighter and I couldn’t procrastinate any longer, I took Ted out for his usual walk on my own.

It was very cold and there had been quite a frost overnight.

The dog walk used to be Floss’ job and I am missing her more than anything. She did everything for me and my life was relatively easy, I now realise and was possibly not nearly grateful enough.

I have put notes all around the house reminding me to do various essential and instantly forgettable things so hopefully I will stay on top of everything.

It was a nice walk – a few deer in the distance and lone golf ball.

I am sure Ted and I will quickly fall into a routine together.  Before, Ted had been Floss’ perogative so it’s just him and me from now on.

He has a lovely Winning Smile so I think is happy with his set-up.

Waffle and Tiddles were released from their prison today and went back to rejoin the herd at Leradale.  They were very happy.  Lots of galloping and bouncing. It is lovely to see them even only on a film. I will admit I was very worried about their future but they both look absolutely fine.  Daisy has done miracles.

Meanwhile, my today has been better with Mum. We moved her to the promised nursing home and that is a vast improvement in every way.

Floss also went back up to Shetland so we had to leave Ted to himself for a while and he was a very good boy.

I am making a huge fuss of him because there was no “revenge peeing” (he has previous with this).

An exhausting but definitely worth it day. I think we will all sleep well tonight.

I’m sorry but today I can’t actually speak or write anything.  I have nothing.  It has been terrible.  We are moving Mum to a private nursing home tomorrow.

The garden is changing all the time. Tis the season.

I have a gardener coming tomorrow to do a bit of a tidy up.  Mum has told me to tell him what to do – basically make some order in the chaos.

Sometimes, I after a morning in hospital, I come home and wander around looking at the last of the flowers.

It is all a bit bleak now – garden and life, in general.

Still, Ted is always around for moral support.  It’s his garden too.  Therapy for us both.

Today was a trip to Wokingham in the pouring rain which came and went very fast but was very wet.

First to Robert Dyas – possibly one of the best shops ever. It has everything and we wandered round in a mixture of awe and happiness, quickly found and bought what we needed.

Floss and I then made a hasty dash in the rain to Waterstones Bookshop. We both walked through the doors, stopped and sniffed the lovely smell of new books.  What heaven.  I treated Floss to a couple of books as she saved the day looking after Ted.  The least I could do really.

To Boots, almost next door, for essentials.  It is lovely to see what we can’t and don’t have in Shetland. Our Boots is about the size of Mum’s downstairs loo (a possible slight exaggeration!)

The rain returned but I wanted to look at the local market.  We were on the way back to the car anyway.

And then in the afternoon, while organising various things for Mum in absentia, I made this little chap. When I have spare time, I either transcribe the diaries or make sheep. It is good therapy.