Difficult Day

The weather today was just wonderful. Sunshine and warmth all the way. England in her summer prime.

Dad, as I was told yesterday he would be, was moved this morning from the hospital to the nearby hospice. Gareth was with him soon after the move and I went to see him @ 3.30 where I stayed for about four hours. Sometimes he was with me, but by the time I left he was mostly somewhere else. It goes like that I've learned. The cocktail of meds and pain sometimes sends him off to La-La-Land between bouts of perfectly articulated lucidity that is both cruel and difficult to watch.

The hospice is a stunningly beautiful, quiet, calm place, staffed by people whose consideration and compassion is humbling. Unlike the airless, viewless third floor shared ward of the hospital, he now has his own ground floor room, with patio doors to his own deck in the garden where the lavender constantly attracts bees and butterflies.

Ale in England #15 - Hobgoblin (Wychwood Brewery) alc 5.2% vol - and I can vouch for that. Ruby dark and cloudy - potent stuff at the end of a difficult day.