salad of all the darwins

[dubdobdee]

dad a lot more alert tonight, which persuades me some of it is just tiredness from his huge effort to be on it for xmas: he was interjecting pertinent questions as i read the little bits of text accompanying each plate, which prove he's listening intently and can picture the plates pretty well, even though he's only seen them a couple of time (actually he's probably known some of them much longer than that) -- for example wondering why darwin was mentioned (ans = it was erasmus darwin not his grandson charles)

even if his mind goes, i think his grasp of botany will remain intact...

home tomorrow eve, but will just have time to read the last few texts -- he fell asleep very suddenly just as i was beginning to stumble and mix up words

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[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

further to this, he was spruce and alert while his younger brother and youngest niece visited this morning: it is, as has long been, a matter of negotiating the timetabling of the resident demon, which is captious but not random -- the demon cannot be defeated, but with patience it can be wrangled; and dad, when he needs to, can gather his resources and keep it at bay for a while

mission accomplished

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

am on return train, pulling out of shrewsbury station -- in the right direction, despite the witchy call of borth on the other platform: i finished reading dad "the temple of flora", and he whispered "that was a very nice xmas" as i kissed him goodbye and ran out to my taxi