Good morning everyone, and very best wishes to you all, especially any newcomers, on this Monday morning.
I hope you had as pleasant a weekend as you could, including all mums in UK whose special day was yesterday. I always feel the need to explain about Mothers' Day and Mothering Sunday, the original meaning of which seems now seems to be almost lost. But it is why we celebrate ahead of most of the rest of the world.
I think we might have lots of members of the Care Community who are of sufficient age to just about remember the traditional meaning of Mothering Sunday and why we celebrate on a different day here.
And yet my mum's generation actually lived its real meaning.
She was in service from the age of 13, coming from a large (10 children), farming family, the head of which, my grandfather, was a shepherd. It was absolutely necessary to get your children off and working at the earliest opportunity and my mum had a placement in a large country house.
The 'mother' actually refers to 'mother' church - the church at which you'd have worshipped before having to leave home, and on this special day you were permitted to go home to worship there once more. And, as you were at home, it became the tradition to honour and appreciate your own mother at the same time.
My mum's employer was very benevolent and mum was always packed off home with all sorts of treats in a basket.
Even when I attended church on Mothering Sunday as a small girl, we were given posies of flowers to give to our mothers, in celebration.
No such luck for any kind of celebration this year, though I did have a lovely long chat with my daughter on the phone, and I hope everyone else was at least able to do something similar.
Well, that's another week of lockdown before us, so - on to the next. Have a happy week everyone!
Monday round-up