¦ dialling in from Jesus Mound ¦
08:16 GMT, Tuesday 14th April 2009. After the blazing sunshine of the past couple days - the Easter weekend - today has a delightful coolness, a murkiness with an eerie green tinge, promising rain... a quality of light I associate with Jesus Mound and my years growing up here. I'll probably do a walk down the Dene later.
My legs are aching from the exertions of yesterday. Took an 8-in-the-morning train from Newcastle to Edinburgh. Beautiful train journey hugging the rugged North East coast of this island. I've not been to Edinburgh since I was 11 and have no real memory of it. What an amazing place. A shell of Medieval architecture with a beating heart of a modern city inside of it. Jo and I did the walk out of town, past Salisbury crags and up, up, up to the lofty perch of Arthur's Seat. Had a great meal back in town before jumping on an early evening train back to Newcastle. We were home by 10pm.
Came back to a sombre atmosphere. Mum's been really suffering past two days. A nurse is coming out tomorrow to assess her situation. I was really counting on getting at least one more Christmas with her, but there is talk she won't live past the Summer.