Today is the day that I go to Ruth’s , that once a fortnight.
I was really quite looking forward to seeing her again .
Once I arrived I knocked on the door and Ruth appeared with a smile , but to my dismay she said that she had visitors and would be staying indoors today ,
She asked me to water the whole garden and I saw it as a good chance to clean up the paths with a bit of poison as she wouldn’t see it or be aware that I was spraying poison ,
So I went to my trailer and got my sprayer and mixed up a nice strong batch of poison to tackle the paths,
I started at the front and slowly worked my way up the path to the backyard when I heard a voice in the garden ,I froze as I had got caught poisoning red handed and Ruth had the graciousness to just pretend she didn’t notice what I was doing and she stood there with a blank look on her face as I as soon as I could quickly left to go and hide the evidence.
So then I went back to watering the garden thoroughly and Ruth popped out again and we started to just chat ,
She told me that she was booked in somewhere and was going to be away for a month,
A few questions later and we understand it was to Rose lodge in Wonthaggi for a respite stay,
This is a subject close to me personally at the moment .
I told her that I can completely understand the situation as most families at some stage go through this process as their loved ones grow older and more dependent and less independent.
I also said that sometimes the people that are caring for someone just need a rest from the demanding task even if just to recuperate and recharge their batteries ,
Ruth has three careers looking after her best interests ,
We spoke about Robert and she said he was like her boyfriend but he loves cars and needs to go to some events sometimes.
Ruth is quite happy to go to Rose Lodge for respite and I said she may make many new friends there ,
Her main concern is her beloved garden and she asked me if I would be willing to look after it while she is gone ,
Of course I said yes This pleased her no end , it’s nice that she trusts me with it , poison and all.
So later I was watering while I saw Ruth come out and go to the passionfruit vine that had only two passion fruit that were ripe and fallen onto the concrete driveway, she picked up the two fruit and I was a bit astonished to see her just bite one in half and start to eat it , she came over to me and offered me the other fruit and for the first time in my life I bit a passionfruit in half then I ate it .
Then Ruth asked me if I could widen the other side of the driveway next to the neighbours drive , the plants were growing over from the neighbours side and Ruth said we would have to ask the neighbours permission to cut the plants, I told he that they are in her property so we don’t need permission, so I competed that task.
Too soon it was time for me to leave , I then spoke to Robert and mentioned our agreement and he told me it’s actually only two weeks of respite that Ruth won’t be home , so I’ll continue as usual and check on things and give it all an extra water if we get no rain ,
As I walked out the driveway Ruth called out for me to wait , and then she led me back to the rear garden and proceeded to pick and present to me a bunch of flowers,
I can’t remember ever getting flowers off a woman let alone from a lady like Ruth ,
It was heartwarming
It won’t be the same going there to garden without her , but at least I can poison
In the first pic is a mobile raised garden bed a fantastic addition to any elderly or person or people with mobility problems It has like a hothouse sort of lid kind of like a barbecue and lockable wheels , so a good alternative to raised on the ground garden beds as gardening can be done standing up and it’s therapeutic for anyone,
In the second pic Ruth asked me to come over to the paperbark tree where she showed me that she had been busy picking off bits of bark and piling them up on the ground to use as mulch in her many pot plants ,
I’m not exactly sure what I thought about this at first but I thought it’s quite a cleaver idea and shows initiative and it made me grin
The last pic speaks for itself
Have a happy and safe Easter everyone
Cheers