Mother’s funeral was yesterday. A short ceremony at the Crematorium, then a longer service at the Baptist church she had requested, as she had been baptised there many years ago, despite being brought up as a Scottish Presbyterian. (Is that Calvinist? if so, that might explain some stuff.)

It went well. It’s the first time I’ve had to help arrange a funeral, and it seemed complicated because of all the different people/venues – the minister, the funeral directors, the church, the venue for the wake. But it all went fine.

Apart from the dreadful weather. Cold, windy, rainy. The previous day had been beautiful and sunny, if cold.

It was amazing to meet the people in her life I had never met (I’d heard all about them of course, and they’d all heard about me and my sister and our families). There were a number of facets to her character I really didn’t know about, mostly much more positive than my experience.

Her house needs more clearing up, and we’re slowly working through that. It’s a 56 mile round trip, which means I’m exhausted just from the drive when I get home. But the actual work is interesting because there’s just so much stuff.

Today I spent mostly asleep in bed. Tomorrow I’m planning to go and do a bit of sorting out, and Friday too.

My knitting has had to take a back seat for the last couple of days, although I’ve managed to finish a garment I was knitting.

Next up is a toy – Bonbon bunny, which will be the third I’ve done. It’s a bit fiddly to start each part, because you cast on 3 stitches and join in the round. Yeah. But once you’ve dealt with that and started increasing it all gets easier. Toys are good because they’re small pieces and knit up quickly. On the other hand they’re fiddly and you have to remember which piece goes where. Sometimes it’s hard to work out whether one little curled up piece of stocking stitch is an arm or a leg, but on this particular toy it’s easy to work out.