Ferns and Flowers

The new routines are keeping us on our toes. We gave a Spike a bath, well, a shower as he has been scratching and biting quite a bit and our groomer is unable to work until his broken wrist heals. He was not pleased. Spike, that is, although I don't imagine the groomer is very pleased either. It was cloudy and damp so he was still quite wet when we took him up to the meadow. It's hard to make this walk much more brisk than it already is, being quite a steep hill, but we powered up is as best we could. Spike had the advantage of four legs and beat us to the top of the hill and straight into the frog pond. He emerged soaking wet again. He's not supposed to be in there because of the newts, but now that he knows it's there we're going to have to be more vigilant.

I thought I would have finished the four year sweater before Dana and I went to the yarn store but I was unhappy with one of the side seams and tried to take it out...not an easy task and one which I decided to abandon when attempts to undo it were making things worse. iInstead I'll try to make another seam, but it will be tricky to do so I've put it aside yet again. Dana and I  spent a couple of hours in the yarn store, a large  and pleasant space full of color and knitting options. We both needed a project, a simple one since we both feel a little rusty...in fact we both decided on the same sweater, in different colors. This one has no side seams, but might have other challenges.

There are lots of challenges right now. The new diet and exercise regime, the reason for it and coming to terms with a difficult diagnosis. The neurologist, apparently thinking he had already told us, sprang it on us out of the blue last week. After brain scans, MRI's, cognitive testing and various other things, blood tests finally revealed that John has Alzheimer's Disease. Nothing has changed much except for a label on what is causing his short term memory loss. It has progressed fairly slowly and diet and exercise (and water!) theoretically will also slow it. I'm a bit skeptical, but it can't hurt.

I know that this community will be supportive, which is why I decided to share. It feels like the elephant in the room if I don't, and I think once I finish breaking the news, it will be easier all the way around.