The funeral

Yesterday was dominated by Dave’s funeral. It had come at last. It’s been hanging over us all year.

There was a good turnout – about 80 people there.

As the time approached, a stream of cars left our road. All ended up at the crematorium. We finally talked to neighbours we’ve sent Christmas cards to for years but never actually met.

It was a good service. Simple as would befit Dave - he never struck me as a man for great fuss. His life story was outlined by a friend from a model railway club he belonged to, his career by his former boss.

The service was taken by Linda, the vicar at the church I sometimes go to. Much as I’m not sure I see eye to eye with her, & indeed have just about given up the idea of attending her services, she did do a good job in this instance. I find myself wondering again whether I should give her another chance. We’ll see.

I’m hoping now our spirits may go up a bit. We’ve both been a bit low, not sleeping well. But then we’ve both felt overshadowed by this coming funeral. We’re surprised by how much Dave’s death has affected us. He’d been our neighbour for about 12 years, been a part of life’s ups & downs in that period. Maybe it is partly because it came as a last straw in a long series of mishaps, deaths & illness over the Christmas/New Year period. Now the funeral is over, maybe we can move on more positively.

Warm thoughts

The morning is bright, very bright. When I first got up the sky was suffused with pink. Needless to say the ground had a whitish tone, frost not snow, but not as heavy as it has been of late.

At the moment I’ve got a beef stew plopping away. There is something very comforting about the idea of something so warming & easy to eat for dinner in this cold.

I was intending to make some lamb pasties. Unfortunately, for all my best endeavours, my freezer list does sometimes go agley. In this particular case I couldn’t find the lamb. Have we had the lamb already & I’ve forgotten to cross it off? Unlikely as I can’t remember making anything that only required just 4oz of diced lamb shoulder. I took out all the meat in the freezer but I never found it. I can only assume it has strayed into the fish & veg section or it’s been eaten already. I couldn’t face totally emptying the freezer on such a cold evening as it was yesterday. My fingers were feeling frozen enough as it was. I’ll just keep my eyes open when I’m looking for other things & use it then. Meanwhile it’s a beef casserole.