Sideboard spring (millennial) clean

My blip shows the state of the sideboard in my parents' dining room after several hours of my attention. When I started work on it yesterday the wood was barely visible. It was hidden under piles of detritus, from wine glasses in boxes that have never been opened to cracker remnants of several Christmases past. It took such a long time to sort everything out because I needed to wash just about every item before returning it to the sideboard, or finding a more suitable storage place for it. I may have also thrown out a few things.

While I continued playing house elf, Mr hazelh was busy in the garden. He worked the scythe so hard that it fell apart! My mother and I tried to buy another one in Hexham this morning, but it looks like ordinary DIY stores don't stock them. This meant that he had to abandon clearing the path to the last fruit trees mentioned yesterday. He instead turned his attention to the bottom lawn where he cleared the area around the pergola, tidied up the bank (until the strimmer ran out of cutting cord), and created access for the sit-on lawnmower.

My mother and I visited my father again this afternoon. He perked up when we all learnt that the son of the man in the next bed (visiting his own father) is also an angler. He also 'hosted' the visit of family friends Keith and Tony today, so there was even more talk of fishing and the current low levels of the River Tyne. I popped out to pick up some groceries in Sainsbury's in the middle of visiting hours and was pleased to find that the supermarket stocks headphones. My father was delighted to be reunited with Radio 4 with the pair that I bought for him.

My middle sister arrives tomorrow to keep my mother company for the next few days, so this evening I have been cooking ahead for her. The soup stocks have been replenished, there's a vegetable bake for dinner tomorrow night, and a draft menu plan to Wednesday is fixed to the fridge door.

My mother, Mr hazelh and I ate outside again tonight. I made seafood cocktails, and a fritatta with freshly-dug potatoes. If my father were not in hospital, this would have been the perfect way to end a beautiful summer's day.

Exercise today: walking (11,619 steps).