Fringe

tulip_3
Originally uploaded by udge.

This week's flowers are fringed yellow-red tulips, very unusual (well, new to me anyway).

It's been a slow Sunday, I did some cleaning and clothes-washing and a bit of work, then went for a walk just before sunset. It had rained for most of the morning so the air was clear and visibility was good. I find myself getting impatient for Nature to get going once Spring has started. "The magnolias aren't even out yet, fer chrissake!" Wishing the time away, one might say.

Family news. My father's stroke seems to have been very mild indeed, if there is such a thing: no apparent lasting damage. I have spoken to him a few times and he sounds normal, meaning that his voice is clear and steady and the few times he stumbles for words might equally well be due to his fading memory as to the stroke. My mother's recovery is going so well—how well is it going, you ask?—that she forgot her cane in the supermarket!

They have booked themselves onto a walking tour for three weeks in May: the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. I was invited to accompany them, and will do so. On the one hand, I can hardly refuse, and on the other I've always wanted to do this. The tour is designed for the "active elderly" as the expression goes: one is encouraged to walk, but there is a bus that follows along so one may at any point give up and ride for a while, and luggage is of course transported on the bus. I shall buy some proper walking shoes and get in a few miles of practice before then.

I'm listening to Respighi's Fontane di Roma while writing, another habit that has lapsed since Christmas. I used to listen to this CD most weekends along with Gershwin's An American in Paris, in memory of Sunday afternoons as a child. I'm not sure which of my parents was so fond of this album, perhaps my father; I shall have to ask. It'll be something to talk about during the long hours afoot.