Refreshing

Last night's reports on Sepp's conditionmeantAngie leaving early to be at his intensive care hospital bedside. It turned out to be another roller coaster day starting with "We are giving his body one last chance to start taking over from the machines and blood transfusion" to a session where he was very alert and able to sip drinks out of a cup and clearly showed he was still "there".

As usual, Angie went storming in like a bull in a china shop with no regard to rank, title, Gods in white cloaks and even family, saying exactly what she felt and getting positive reactions. One simply can't believe how good she is in a crisis. Her efforts over the last 10 days have been key to stopping him losing his life and at least allowing the specialists to try and get him well.

It turned out that almost all the family showed up which I am sure was good for him even though at one or two points it was obvious it was too much and even the staff had to intervene to let Sepp rest.

On balance though I got the feeling in the evening when Angie got back that it was certainly an improvement on the reported situation last night. And when she told me that the nurses had wheeled in a TV for Sepp in the afternoon (nobody even dreamed that a TV was allowed in intensive care), I was pretty sure that was a great positive mood. He loves watching TV especially documentaries and wildlife programmes.

So today I did the animals, which as far as the horses and chickens are concerned is very little but did first put the new innertube on the wheelbarrow so that I didn't have to pick up the dung from the fields in a bucket!

Luna and I did two walks: in the morning one behind the house in the forest sheltering from the slight breeze which made the early cold temperature of 9°C seem much colder. Haven't done this walk for seemingly years. The photo is at the hunter's lodge almost halfway around the 3.2 km circuit. We took our time (1 hour) as I collected loads of chestnuts and acorns with the intention of trying to grow them as seedlings.

In the evening we dropped down to Ottobeuren for our standard Schickling walk and thoroughly enjoyed the warm sunset - the sun had come out mid-morning. So 2.6km in 34 minutes and very little chatting with the many dog owners doing the same.

Quick shop to buy some beer (alcohol-free). Other members of my family were enjoying a good Hopfest in West Sussex as I was to find out during the course of the night. I doubt they had any alcohol free stuff there. If Sepp could have a beer I suspect he would be dancing in the corridors of intensive care!