Happy Birthday to my Mother who is still going strong at the excellent age of 97! OK she’s very deaf, fairly frail and needs a frame to get about — she’s entitled to at 97! — but she is all there mentally still. She spends her days reading, painting, knitting and sewing. She makes endless soft toys and the like for anyone who wants one. We went to see her yesterday; we popped in mid-morning and left with her an orchid of hers which I have nursed into flower again. Returning after lunch she had already done a little painting of the orchid! As she says, she’d rather wear out than rust out.

Here she is enjoying the care home garden in Summer 2011, just before her 96th birthday.

I’ll be delighted if at 80 I’m as good as my mother is at 97!