Jacket potatoes with cheese, roasted Mediterranean veg, and bacon

Trigger warning: self-harm.

Today was mum’s birthday. Not that that means much to mum anymore, but it did bring a number of her friends around, in person or on the phone, which was nice.

As one couple arrived to give mum her birthday gift (a very pretty cyclamen in a pot, which is currently sitting by the unused gas fire (are cyclamen poisonous to cats? Must check… damn, yes it is. I’ll move it in the morning)), an avian ruckus started up in the garden.

I stuck my head outside and found this:

One of the neighbourhood sparrowhawks had taken out one of our Jackdaws, but it wasn’t making itself an easy lunch for the predator. All its flock-mates started screeching a protest, which set off the herring gulls nesting on our neighbours’ roof.

Eventually the sparrowhawk got its lunch, leaving little but feathers. I’m glad we’re feeding wild birds, even if sometimes that means feeding a bird with one of our other birds.

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This afternoon I cleared the kitchen ready for Suki’s arrival tomorrow morning, leaving myself so tired and stressed that, when our grocery order arrived without cat food or lamb – both of which I’m sure I added to our order – and with a leaking pot of cream, my frustration exploded into a bout of self-harm.

I contacted Shout, the text support service, but I can’t say the volunteer I chatted with was particularly helpful, responding to pretty much everything I said with “here’s a leaflet”, before telling me we were out of time. 🫤

Later, mum asked if I was OK. I said “not really”, which was apparently the wrong answer as she just huffed and went back to watching whatever it was she was watching on television. Thanks, mum. 🙄

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Mum’s birthday dinner was meant to be lamb with jacket potatoes and Mediterranean veg, but I failed to add it to the grocery order so we had bacon instead. Mum still ate every last bit of what was on her plate.

Now she’s eating coffee ice cream, rather than the birthday cake from church or the cake I bought her. I don’t know what else I expected, really! 🤣