NIGHT SHIFT

As often happens after a trip to hospital Pa is unable to sleep night. He is in a good deal of pain ,poor boy and has given up lying in bed,unable to catch any sleep. When I got up a short time ago  to check on him I found him sitting in his study surrounded by railway magazines and keeping company with the cat Twiggy!

After a cup of hot chocolate he feels a little better and I have persuaded him to go down to the library where the fire is still burning and where there are comfy reclining chairs. Our other cat moth is delighted with these arrangements and will take full advantage of the unexpected company I am sure.

Snuggled up in a fleece blanket and with the fire stirred in to life he finally managed to get comfortable and by the time I had drunk a mug of coffee he was fast asleep.

I am, by now quite used to staying awake for most of the night,fortunately I do not seem to need a great deal of sleep. Pa's medication can cause him to become confused, especially at night and so he needs to be watched over on nights like this.

LATER

It is now three in the morning,outside it is a still and quite as only a country village can be yet within an hour lights will start to appear from the hill farms all around as the farmers begin their busy day with the task of milking their cows, but for now it feels as if I am the last soul on earth.

LATER STILL

Every morning at around eight I wake the men folk with a cup of coffee,when my son took a cup down to the library for Pa he was still fast asleep. Feeling rather rusty I took mine back to bed and treated myself to half an hours R and R before breakfast.

My son has just finished his latest book which is at the moment in the hands of the Beta Readers, prior to publication. He starts another on Sunday so he too took advantage of the chance for an extra hour in bed. The morning was one of the soft grey kind with a white mist shrouding the hills around the village,it was as quiet as a Sunday, the road is still closed so the only traffic noise is caused by delivery drivers and people from the next village needing the shop and desperate enough to do the six mile detour in order to reach it.

Today has been a family day. We ate breakfast while watching the news on a small T.V. In the kitchen,spent the day, pottering about the house,a little desultory cleaning and preparing dinner together,which we always enjoy.

I also  made a large batch of potato cakes for tomorrows breakfast from yesterdays left over mashed potatoes

The soft grey morning turned rapidly in to a dark rainy day,the sort of day when you leave the lights on, very soon it was dark again and we drew the curtains to shut out the cold and dark.

For dinner I cooked an enormous shoulder of mutton,the oven in the kitchen range was only just wide enough to take it and at one point I thought I should have to stand it on end to roast it.

We still have one more feast day before Christmas and that is the roast beef dinner for Pa's birthday in early December. When he was a child his birthday was always a low key affair because of it's nearness to the Holiday so now we make it up to him with his favourite meal and lots of gifts,he's such a dear and we love him to bits.

Well I have waffled on quite long enough,time for a shower and I hope the good nights sleep which escaped my last night, I have a little dreaming to catch up on!