I think that dementia is one of the cruelest of illnesses. It takes away the person you knew and loved and by the end leaves little more than a shell behind.
I am terrified by it. My own chronic illness will make me prone to developing it, and my mother's alcohol abuse put her steps firmly on that path. Doctors told us how lucky we/she were because she 'started from a high base' but the losses were huge and heartrending.
It is also a sneaky beast and makes its way by stealth.
Which was sadly true for Jemi Fraser and her family. Clues were missed and the disease had a firm foothold before they realised.
So she wrote a book.
This book.
Isn't that a wonderful title?
The book follows their journey. They so often learnt the hard way, and this book is designed to help other families on the same challenging route.
There is love in it. There is laughter. There are tears and sorrow. Their love for their mother is so very evident, and I am beyond impressed that as well as ensuring her safety they worked hard (and continue to work) to ensure that joy is still a big part of Lizzie's life. That focus was missing in my journey with my mother, which fills me with shame.
Reading it I wept. I laughed in rueful recognition. And how I wish I had thought of some of the strategies they tried.
Sadly dementia is likely to put its ugly stamp on many of our lives.
Jemi's book was released this week, and I hope that it makes that journey less challenging, and less isolating for many, many people.
You can buy this hopeful, helpful, inspiring book here.
This
meme was started by Delores a long time ago. Words for Wednesday is now provided by a number of people and has become a
movable feast.
Essentially
the aim is to encourage us to write. Each week we are given a choice
of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image. What we
do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a
poem, or treating them with ignore... We can use some or all of the
prompts.
Some
of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on
their own blog. I would really like it if as many people as possible
joined into this fun meme, which includes cheering on the other participants. If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.
Huge thanks to Mark Koopmans. for testing our mettle last month. The prompts will be here this month, but I am providing them.
This week's prompts are:
- Stop
- Reasonable
- Best
- Kind
- Dragon
- Drinking
And/Or
- Flower
- Foster
- Sing
- Pieces
- Darker
- Thinking
Have fun.
Sunday Selections was originally brought to us by Kim, of Frogpondsrock, as an ongoing meme where participants could post previously unused photos languishing in their files.
Huge thanks to Cie who gave me this wonderful Sunday Selections image.
The meme was then continued by River at Drifting through life.
Sadly she has now stepped aside (though she will join us some weeks), and I have accepted the mantle.
The rules are so simple as to be almost non-existent. Post
some
photos under the title Sunday Selections and link back to me.
Clicking on any of the photos will make them embiggen.
I usually run with a theme. This week (and for several weeks to come) my theme is beauty. Like most people we are mostly at home at the moment. I know the world is a scary place right now, but the beauty remains and that is where I am choosing to focus.
Mostly on beauty close to home. I always enjoy dawn and dusk (and skyscrapes more generally). I am revelling in them now. These were taken just after first light across a number of days. I am constantly blown away by how quickly they change.
And then to the birds. Many of you have heard me complain about the sulphur crested vandals. They have been joined by the corellas and are shredding a neighbour's tree. The ground is festooned with branches and leaves plucked and dropped. Sometimes there are up to thirty of them in the tree and once, shrieking and destroying. I hope the tree can recover.
And now a few shots of them in less destructive mode.
First a sulphur crested cockatoo - and we have been gifted with not one but two of those sunny crest feathers this week.
And then a long beaked corella. This one has honoured us, and will now eat from a seed bucket we hold in our hands.
In our dreadful fires this summer we lost many of our native birds and animals. Despite the dreadful noise they make I am overjoyed to say that several visiting corellas have young birds with them. Birds who whinge and complain incessantly until they are fed.
This bird with his beak open was in full voice. And went on and on and on and on. And on and on. I was pleased to see it being fed. Which shut it up for nearly thirty seconds.
We spend a LOT of time each day watching the birds, feeding the birds, cleaning up after the birds. Time well spent.
We had a small outing yesterday and went down the lake for a kangaroo fix. And found them. A 'fix' post will follow but I leave you with this youngster I photographed in 2013 who melted my heart, then and now.
Stay safe and stay well.
In March for about ten days my city goes a bit balloon mad.
Each year we have a Balloon Spectacular (which starts as Enlighten
finishes) and up to fifty balloons are
launched each day. Bliss. There is always at least one 'feature'
balloon.
Weather permitting they take off from the lawns of Old Parliament House
shortly after dawn,
and as well as the fortunate riders, it has become a tradition for
people to come along and watch them inflate and take off (another free
treat). Some mornings there are hundreds and hundreds of spectators. Breakfast is
available, and the crowd is happy.
The balloons are weather dependent. We were lucky this year and most days at least some of the balloons took to the air.
This year we went to see them inflate twice and were lucky enough to see them flying on other days. I showed you the main feature balloon on a recent Sunday Selections, but there were other wonders and other joys.
Settle back with the beverage of your choice, because a LOT of photos follow. Photos of an event which could not take place at the moment, which I am very glad we saw, and glad to share. I am also going to be more wordy than usual because Laurie who often comments on my posts has severe issues with her sight. She has an app which reads the text for her (but no doubt without an Aussie accent) but of course photographs and images remain a bit of a mystery.
I do love the heart-shaped balloon which we see here nearly completely inflated.
The heart shaped balloon again and a nearby blue one both so nearly there - and a lot of people looking on in awe and wonder. Once the balloons started to inflate it was hard to know where to look.
I hadn't seen the Sea Shepherd balloon before. It was striking with its black livery and a skull with a crossed trident and shepherds crook beneath it. We are told that it is a banner for environmental conservation (desperately needed).
A cheerful, colourful (red, green and purple) balloon starting to rise and finally in the air.
The heart shaped balloon is a regular, and was finally aloft. And thanks to Andrew when I look at the heart I also envisage it upside down, representing quite a different piece of anatomy. Thanks Andrew. Thanks a lot.
My city's very own balloon. It is yellow and has CBR Canberra on its sides. This is a balloon that I see throughout the year on lucky mornings. When I can I try and take my photographs when the burners are alight because it makes for much more vivid photos. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I fail.
On one day only SkyWhale was inflated (beside the T-Rex). Sadly it was a gusty morning and she didn't take to the air. SkyWhale was a 100th Birthday present my city gave to itself in 2013. Some people love her, some people hate her. You can find an earlier post on her here.
I don't know quite how to describe her. Some people see a turtle in her. I notice her tired eyes, gentle face and I am sure she is wearing lipstick. She also has not one but ten dangling boobs (complete with nipples). We are told that SkyWhalePapa has been commissioned and that we will see it later this year. I do wonder whether SkyWhalePapa will be festooned with penises.
Both of the airforce balloons side by side, with a hint of a green and yellow one beside them.
Splashes of colour as more and more balloons inflate and start to float away, finishing with another regular - our Air Forces feature balloon - which always makes me think of Darth Vader, with its masked head complete with helmet and air hose.
Then yet MORE shots of colourful balloons taking to the air. And yes, I do know just how obsessional I am.
SkyWhale is big - but she was dwarfed by T-Rex.
I really liked seeing the balloons above our arboretum (which is actually green after recent rain) and floating above early morning rowing crews on the lake.
We came home via the lake, and I was tickled by just how unconcerned this roo was.
The last shot was one I took a few days later on my way into the city. I could see at least ten balloons in the air at once, and was just too slow to photograph T-Rex in the air.
If you have lasted this long, thank you. I never, ever tire of balloons and took over 500 photos on the two days we went to the launch this year.
I am going to ask a favour too. If you can be descriptive in your comments that will help Laurie get more from the post too.
This
meme was started by Delores a long time ago. Words for Wednesday is now provided by a number of people and has become a
movable feast.
Essentially
the aim is to encourage us to write. Each week we are given a choice
of prompts: which can be words, phrases, music or an image. What we
do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a
poem, or treating them with ignore... We can use some or all of the
prompts.
Some
of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on
their own blog. I would really like it if as many people as possible
joined into this fun meme, which includes cheering on the other participants. If you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other participants, can come along and applaud.
The prompts will be here this month but are again being provided by Mark Koopmans.
This week's prompts are:
- Ghostlike
- Holly
- Incidents
- Joking
- Kilogram
- Lactate
And/Or
- Magnanimous
- Needles
- Outboard
- Particle
- Quiz
- Rancor
Have fun.
Huge thanks to Mark for providing us with prompts this month. He certainly stretched my brain cells. Hard. The prompts will be here again next month, but I am providing them.
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