Under the hawthorn

Today, my late walk up the hill caught the best rather than the worst of the day's light, with beautiful evening sun breaking through the cloud after a heavily overcast day. The views along and across the valley were lovely, but I was particularly struck by the drift of hawthorn petals on the brambles and below the tree.

It's been a positive day: J's hours with her PA M, who helped her to finish a collage and eat her lunch, meant I had a good stretch of time in which to make progress with some of the nine month cleaning backlog. It's a drop in the ocean, but the newly sparkly shelves and jars raised my spirits. That was followed by a useful and modestly encouraging eye gaze session with J, who has been trialling the use of her eyes to access her communication software. This is difficult for her, as neither her head nor her eyes stay steady or maintain a consistent position - that's why she had continued to use switch scanning to control her computer, until the tracheostomy largely silenced both her speaking voice and her voice activated switch. However, she's trying hard to practise and train her eyes, and although it's painfully slow, she is enthusiastic to regain the one bit of independence on which so much of her activity used to rely. We are not yet sure whether this will be the best option for her, but she's very committed to the trial. 

I didn't keep up the back-blipping for long; I keep wanting to post, but am generally falling asleep at the computer before I've finished other things I need to do. Perhaps I have to accept that I'll never catch up or keep up.