This and that....

We had rain today. Lots of torrential rain and thunderstorms. It was wonderful. I had just hung a full load of washing on the line this morning, when the rain started. I left it there for a short while, then took it all back in, put it through the rinse cycle in the machine again, then into the dryer. And not a word of complaint! Our rainwater tank is nearly half full already. We may not need it until next summer, who knows? But it is comforting to know we have our own little supply, without feeling guilty about washing the cars or hosing the lawns. It's OURS, to do what we want with!

I spend half my life these days feeding birds and animals. Kookaburras in the back yard and Lorikeets in the front yard every morning. Other birds during the day - galahs, lorikeets, magpies, currawongs, all of which were joined today by corellas and Eastern rosellas. Then at dusk we have the kookaburras back for their tea, followed by the possums after dark for their apple. Ken got some great photos today of the corellas, galahs and lorikeets all on one tree, so as soon as he puts them on his laptop, he'll email them to me so I can post them here.

Other than that, we've been busy keeping MIL happy. Well, trying to. She's not too bad most of the time, but when we leave her alone (even if we are just in other rooms of the house) for any length of time, she gets sulky and says things like 'You may as well put me in a nursing home. I know you don't really want me. You haven't got time to be with me' and so on...It's hard not to get cross, but we have to be firm with her, as people with dementia can be quite manipulative, and if we don't set ourselves parameters, our lives would be a misery. It usually only takes a hug and kiss to cheer her up, but it is still emotionally draining, especially for Ken, who has not had to deal with this kind of thing before. If I had not had the training and 10 years of experience in aged care, I don't know how I would cope. I keep telling Ken that at 96, she won't be with us much longer in terms of years, and after that, our lives will be our own again. So just make the most of having her with us, even if she annoys the crap out of us occasionally!!