I’d love to hear how? people are doing. Between virus, floods, fires, storms (locusts?) it has not been a great year. Are we all making lemonade with our lemons?

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I’m struggling a bit, with one daughter trapped in Scotland for many months and now just got out to see her dad in Switzerland only to be caught by the new quarantine regs for people coming from Switzerland back to the UK. One daughter still shielding with a very vulnerable young husband. My DH? stuck out in Geneva – we managed two good meetings over the summer but now every time I go out I’ll have to do 2 weeks quarantine on return (great excuse for more knitting time?)……

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Meanwhile my mother fell over their elderly tomcat and broke her leg and detached her calf muscle. Two weeks in hospital, now home but not complying with instructions for full recovery. Didn’t do the cat much good either, and I had to take him and his elderly sister to the vet for their final farewells. Between us siblings, we managed to have someone in London with my dad for the two weeks until Mum came home, but with everyone at work this is not viable long term. Both parents clearly failing badly, lockdown has I think accelerated this. I seem to spend half of every day in communication with docs, optician, carers, social services, assessors of various kinds – and Mum herself who calls multiple times sometimes quite rationally but often not.? My current daily average of calls from or about parents is ten – excluding whatever the four siblings generate.

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They are now trapped in a? 3 storey house with stairs neither can safely climb, but still flatly refuse to relocate. We tried so often to tempt them to do the move some time over the last 8 years while they were still hale and hearty – but of course they wanted to wait until they “needed to”. Which was their right.

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I’m trying to knit on, as they say. Garter stitch is about all I can manage but there are so many clever patterns using this in interesting shapes and colour changes. At least I have plenty of yarn on hand ?

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How are all the kids of school and college age coping? In many ways I think it is hardest for them.

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Very best of wishes to everyone

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Jenny