End of September

Usually, B and I go for walks later in the day. Today, we did so in the morning, and it was already very warm in the sunny vineyards. (this September was the warmest on record in Germany, by the way). We saw a few red admirals along our path, and one sat still for long enough to blip it - but never opened its wings. The picture I got also isn’t quite sharp, so I used it as an extra.

In the afternoon, I drove to the main station in Mainz to pick up my mother’s new carer R. Her bus was a little late, and I went to take a picture of the train tracks. Then the bus came, and for the first time I didn’t recognize someone from the photo I was sent, because it had been so heavily filtered. So I had to ask several women before I found R, and drove her to my mother’s house.

My mother never liked it when people are trying (unsuccessfully) to appear younger than their age, e.g. by wearing lots of make-up, hair dye and fake leather, and R does all of the above. Even worse, R greeted my mother not by introducing herself and offering her hand, but by immediately stroking her arm and calling her by her first name. My mother turned to me and asked, loudly, “Why is this woman here?” 

Not the most promising start.