Parents re-united hopefully

This evening John has driven over to fetch Dad from the Nursing Home he was in to take him to the Nursing Home where Mum is. We hope getting them back together will be better for them both. We did manage to ask (with some difficulty) if that's what they want, and they do. Time will tell. It's a six week trial at the mo to see if it works out for both them and the nursing home.

I am still washing clothes and sewing labels in. I am cheating and just using a laundry marker when there's some sort of tag I can write on. I find the stitching hard work, and it's making my eyes feel googley. It feels rather like getting clothes together for a school trip or Guide Camp. Very strange.

Popped out into the yard earlier and pruned the Mock Orange quite viciously. But it began to rain again while I was out there, so I may have to try and make sure I've been vicious enough! Wanted to be sure I got it done before we go on holiday - though still not sure when/if we'll get away.

No photos today as all the ones I had on the card got degraded and undownloadable. :-( Not sure why, but maybe magnetised sewing stuff when I was bringing it back from the flat. Stupidly I put it in my handbag with the camera - I am not thinking straight at all at present. I had to reformat the card but it seems to be working now. Touch wood!

I have been tagged, but will have to come back to that later. It's so long since I posted I've been getting cold feet about posting anything. So much has happened over the last few weeks that I feel I haven't even caught up with most of it myself.

Thanks for all comments, I really appreciate them. I wish I could reply to each comment, but at the moment "Life" is just happening too much.

Mainly some pictures

Agapanthus



We visited both Mum and Dad yesterday. Then went on to the flat, dropped off Mum's clothes that I brought home and washed last week, and packed a suitcase full of more stuff to wash. John thought to stick on the TV while we were there, so we managed to see Spinal Tap on the Big Concert.



The sock is still growing. It's far too big for Mum, but I think will make a very comfortable bed sock for her. Cosy and soft, and easy to put on, but enough gentle grip from the ribbing..



These needles are for a mystery project (for now). But I was struck by how close they are in size to a pencil... I wonder if it would be cheaper to buy 5 pencils and sharpen both ends. ;-) Would have to cap or cover the lead. I'm really looking forward to knitting on these!

We are both so tired we can barely think, but John cooked us roast beef (from the Woolton Butcher) with Yorkshire puddings, roasties, peas and butter beans. And gravy of course, plus horseradish sauce. It was really tasty. Hopefully liver and bacon with fried onions in gravy tomorrow.

Oh, and we had a fantastic breakfast. Mary (Mum in Law, just had a two week holiday on the Isle of Man) brought us some Manx smoked kippers so we had a kipper and tomato bake with fried leftover boiled potatoes. We planned to have the Kippers Florentine for breakfast tomorrow, but John forgot to get the spinach. Maybe Tuesday!

I'm still thinking about the visits on Saturday. And feeling about them.

Agapanthus and other stuff

I sneaked out between showers to take some photos of my Agapanthus. It's exciting to me as I grew this plant from seed from our Abersoch Agapanthus. And this is the first year to get flowers.



John just phoned to say Mum hasn't been assessed yet. According to the nursing staff at the hospital. It does make life even more difficult when you get different messages from different agencies. So I guess we're back to waiting to know what the hell is going on again.

I shall keep knitting, and probably adding to the yarn stash as a stress busting technique. ;-) Have my eye on several nice skeins of yarn! But must be sensible! But not too sensible!

Latest news is depressing but the sock begins to look good!

John phoned soon after 1pm to say he finally managed to speak to Dr S' (Mum's consultant) secretary. She told him Mum has been labelled (can't think of the official word just now - classified?) EMI (Elderly Mentally Infirm). So she can't go to the same nursing home as Dad, unless we can find a home that is dual registered - both Nursing and EMI.

God(dess) knows what will happen now, but it's probably going to be both a lot of physical and mental work, accompanied by much soul searching and angst.

At least I've made a start on washing Mum's clothes, now must order name tags (handy hint from a nice lady called Ann we met on the flat's car park just over a week ago) and start sewing them into her clothes.

Meanwhile the knitting continues.



My gauge/tension is badly off, it's supposed to be 26 stitches to 10 cm, and I am getting 24. So the sock is larger than it should be, but I'm not going to frog it now, unless I make a major mistake. Supremely possible!

Roadworks

They are digging up the road right beneath our bedroom window as I type this. The noise is unbelievable, hope it doesn't go on for long. Ah well, most of the rest of Liverpool is a building site, so why should things be different for me.



I've seen both Mum and Dad a couple of times since I last wrote here. Mum is behaving as bizarrely as ever, Sunday she hardly noticed we were there once we had made it clear we weren't taking her home. She went and talked to the lady in the bed opposite, she seemed to think they were related.

The week before she refused to say Hello to John, and after barely acknowledging me said "I hope you're feeling guilty". I replied "I've nothing to feel guilty about, Mum."

"What about how you treated your sister?" (I'm an only child) She keeps insisting her father is alive, and when John asked last week if she'd like to visit her husband she said "I don't have a husband".



So we left before visiting time finished, and went to see Dad. He had only returned to the nursing home on Saturday after a week in hospital being treated for pneumonia. At least Mum had a few visits with him while he was in. He was very tired, so we chatted for about half an hour and then he asked to lie down (they had to bring in a hoist to move him to the bed) and went to sleep. So we left then.



On to the flat, where I sorted some of Mum's clothes to bring home and wash. I did the first batch of washing yesterday, it's a bit damp still, but if John takes it back to the flat this evening after visiting Dad I guess he could hang it up to air there. Next load is in the machine now, so hopefully will be ready to take back on Thursday.



Mostly it's been too wet to get out into the garden much. But I can report that the flower on my agapanthus grown from seed has begun to open. I haven't got a picture of it open yet though (been too wet when I've had both the time and the energy recently), but here it is about a week ago.



Not done much knitting since I last posted. I cast off half the stitches on my sock swatch bag (this is the stage in the photo, the needle poked through the body of the bag is just to stop the edge curling), and have continued on the rest to make a flap. I'm not enormously pleased with it, so think I might rip out the flap. But I'm going to think about it for a while, so the ten remaining stitches are languishing on a stitch holder until I make my mind up!



It's quite fun trying to decide how to proceed. Currently I'm thinking of edging the flap with garter stitch, but I don't want to rush at it this time! I've found the perfect button for the bag, so I'm sure I'll get going on it again soon.

I finally ordered a swift which arrived last Wednesday, but it took me till yesterday to get organised enough to try it out. So I wound my first cake of yarn (artesano alpaca hummingbird, colour Lovebird) yesterday evening, and I think it looks very pretty. Will be casting on this evening I hope!



Thank you everyone who has left comments. I am finding life quite difficult at the moment, so mostly don't have time to reply, or to leave comments on other blogs. Mum is to be assessed soon for discharge. Obviously I am rather worried about it all. And the emotional upsets are taking their toll on my energy levels and capability to get stuff done. It is all just so utterly draining.

Friday around 4.30pm John had a phone call from a social worker (they always seem to ring around 5 on a Friday, rather like DWP and DLA stuff always arrives in Saturday's post), saying that a psychiatrist would see Mum on Monday, but we haven't managed to find out anything about that yet. The nurses we spoke to on Saturday didn't know anything about it. We are waiting to hear from her consultant's secretary, who John contacted yesterday. The staff on the ward aren't allowed to tell you anything over the phone (apart from a brief "bulletin") because of the Data Protection Act.

This is what I had for lunch today.

Comfort Food