The hanging basket filled with apricot coloured begonias looks delightful.

Been very busy getting the gardens in to shape ready for summer . We were planning a party for Mark's 21st birthday, complete with bundles of his chums, a couple of family members and one or two of our mates from the car club. But we've decided to chop away at the guest list on account of covid not going away...

So the garden ensemble will consist of... Mark, dad, me, mum and grandad and granma. 

And, with the outstanding help from the charity Willow, a special appearance by Britain's Got Talent winner magician Richard Jones. 

Willow has been amazing, they help people who have had cancer, by offering holidays and gifts. They will also be supplying a birthday cake. We can't thank them enough. So a huge hug from us to Josie....Hug coming sometime later this year!

We, that's Rob and me, have, with lots of sweaty work and cash, transformed the back garden from a dullish workaday place to a picturesque slap happy lots of nooks and crannies space with fabulous herb garden, fruit and veg plots and a resident resin Buddha who shares a space with a swinging from a branch monkey.

The garden centre which has supplied flowers, ornaments, swing seats and bird feeders is the Potash Garden centre. 

I can't say life has been easy or even bearable during lockdown, it hasn't but, in the words of Marks's gran, "we're getting there".

Talking of Mark's gran, her lot hasn't been a bundle of fun either. Her beloved husband of over 60 years has dementia and what a heap of stress that has brought.

Rob's been getting 5a.m phone calls saying grandad has gone awol. Again. And can we go find him. So being the dutiful son he staggers out of bed and we cruise the quiet streets looking for the 87year old. Last time he went out for an early stroll we found him talking to a cabbie. On talking to the cabbie we discovered grandad wanted to go to Rayleigh. He was in Rayleigh only he thought he was in Stratford. And so it goes on. And so his wife, who is sometimes NOT his wife but an impersonator, struggles tearfully to hold onto the man she loves.

What makes this so painful to watch, to participate in, to feel is the fact that granma refuses to admit he has dementia. According to her he gets 'confused'...

He was in hospital for a week with a UTI, it was successfully treated and he was sent packing, he nows wanders his home in a daze thinking I'm a nurse. 

The hospital showed very little interest in the dementia or how his wife was going to cope, it was simply a case of 'he has family'...

So here we are...

Rob is working from home. Trying to concentrate being his biggest problem

Jeannie works occasionally. Trying to get her to do anything is ours.

Granma is in denial. Those pansies WILL get planted. My husband is back to his old self.

Grandad is the sole inhabitant on his planet.

Mark is blind.

I have a heart problem

I am watching Euro 2020...

Then Wimbledon.