Perspectives...

I've had a lazy afternoon...and mistimed the only thing I had to do, which was cook a risotto. I reflect, as Alistair comes in from windsurfing and heads for the shower, that I will be cutting said risotto into slices.

Slightly irritated (!) I go to perform my only other Sunday afternoon function...testing all the smoke, heat and CO alarms around the house. I always do this with my Dad's old walking stick...I take it from its place in the corner, and my heart is immediately soothed by its worn wood and it's memories:

A childhood mental picture of Dad using it to hook down blackberry brambles on a rare family walk;

Dad reluctantly (or secretly relieved?) beginning to use it after the fall which broke his knee in his late 80s;

Dad stomping into the hospital, waving it furiously at the medical staff, a couple of days before he died;

I shall need it one day...