minimal

This started as a bit of blurred background behind the stark zigzag of the stem of a candlestick. After playing with it for a while, I decided I liked this corner better than the zigzag which I set out to frame in a minimal image for Abstract Thursday. There were other versions too - I always find abstract photos the hardest to decide between.

J's PA M is on holiday for a fortnight, so I rushed to get J ready, breakfasted and with her computer access set up before my online yoga class; then, when yoga finished, I just had time to switch on the pre-filled coffee maker before helping J to join and participate in her online film group. It was a positive session; then after lunch she had arranged to chat online to her oldest friend, with whom she went through school and college from age 3 to 22. Since we moved south they have stayed in intermittent touch through our annual visits (which sadly came to a halt, for the moment, in 2020) and with occasional video calls on Facebook messenger. It was mainly a conversation between J (using her communication aid) and D's mum, with me signing and D contributing affirmative grins and noises, as his communication system stays at his day centre, but they clearly enjoyed seeing each other. 

We finished the day with our regular Thursday movie night, watching My Left Foot, which J had never seen and found interesting and engaging. It's a 1989 film based on the autobiography of Christy Brown, born in the 1930s with severe cerebral palsy, raised in a poor Dublin family, and initially assumed to be incapable of understanding or communicating. To J, born nearly sixty years later with similar disabilities but many more opportunities, it was a reminder of both how far things have come and how much prejudice remains. It's currently available in the UK on ITVx.