Life has been a bit hectic over the last three weeks. My mother—who is 94—fell and broke her wrist. She was in hospital for a couple of weeks and now is in a 'transitional care' home for up to six weeks. They will then assess whether she can go home – whether she can realistically continue to live on her own.
The care home is lovely. She has a large room with an en suite bathroom. The meals are good. There is a pleasant garden. The staff are friendly and efficient. There is a lounge with the TV always on and a quiet lounge with no TV. There is a kitchenette where I can make mum and I a cup of tea when I visit.
Mum is determined to hate it, and is convinced that it is her evil daughter's fault that she is there – that I want to rob her of her freedom. Sigh. . .
Needless to say there has not been much time for anything other than visiting mum. The horses are in the top fields at the moment as there is still quite a lot of grass there for them. I have been going straight up there every day and feeding Dee by the fence, rather than trying to take her down to the yard.
Last night I got stuck in traffic coming back from the care home, which is right the other side of town from me. It was dark and wet by the time I arrived at Wenallt Road. Although all other roads had been clear up till then, there was thick fog on the Wenallt. I called Dee and a horse came over to me through the gloom. The horse looked the right sort of size, appeared to have a white star and two white socks and was wearing a Masta rug, though I could not discern the colour. So I fed it / her.
After finishing the feed this horse put its head in the air to do the flehmen response – so at that point I was confident that it was Dee that I had fed! She always does this several times after being fed even a treat. She was quite nervous being away from the herd in the dark and the fog and quickly headed back to its safety as soon as she had finished eating. I was also glad to get out of the rain and go home for my feed.
I still had to go a way up the hill until I could get off Wenallt Road though and the fog got so thick that I was crawling along desperately trying to find what was road and what was verge as there are no road markings on this single track lane. I haven't been in fog that thick for many years. It was a relief to finally arrive at the main road opposite 'The Traveller's Rest' – where the fog miraculously disappeared.
Today Dee was waiting for me by the same bit of fence where I have fed her for the last three days. Red was close by too so I went over and gave him a few treats and a bit of fuss while Dee ate her feed. He would have already had his dinner as part of his livery. There was another horse with them—Saffron perhaps—and Red was quite happy to share the treats with her. It is sweet to see that Dee and Red still stay close to one another, as all the rest of the herd were one field further down.
