Cats in the Kitchen, Flora in the Garden

Today I am going to have a bit of a rant and rave. I know I did a happy Christmas is coming posting the other day, but this has been a very trying week for me. I just feel I want to get some of this anger out of my system, now, right at the beginning of December, so I can then calm down and have a peaceful Christmas. I have two 'bees in my bonnet' at the moment.

Firstly, my Mother is returning to her appartment from the residential home on Monday, now this should be a cause of joy and celebration and, admittedly, she is really pleased to be back in the privacy of her own home, but on the downward side she is now to put it bluntly, a prisoner inside it. She can move around with her zimmer frame, but can not ascend or descend steps of any kind. Well, that is really great considering her home is upstairs and outside her front door are a steep flight of stairs.

I attended a meeting at the residential home with my Mother and the care team leader and a social worker. We were there, alledgedly to discuss my Mother's case and the way forward. I say alledgedly, as I see now, it was obvious they had their own agenda, and the discussion part was just a front. My Mother may be eighty one, and be getting deaf but she has all her wits about her. As she needs things repeated to her, she does have an hearing aid which she can't wear as she can't fit it in, her hands are damaged with arthritis, they seem to be treating her as though she was four years old. Telling her nonsense, such as every little thing she does for her self, she should give herself a pat on the back and say 'yes! I can do it'. Speaking of keeping her morale up, I could not make them see it is being a prisoner in that flat that lowers here morale!



They said she could go home on Monday, was that ok, I suggested Tuesday, to give me time to get the flat heated, some food in etc, Total panic on their side, one said to the other in a stage whisper 'What about the other lady coming though?' Obviously they had someone booked into the room on Tuesday. If that was so why bother to ask me was Monday ok? So home she goes on Monday with a care package, which means someone pops in three times a day for a week, to see she has eaten her food.

I explained about wanting my Mother rehoused, so she could recover some quality of life. Social worker agreed she would need to be rehoused due to living upstairs, how quickly could this happen I think she is an urgent case, Social worker replies to me 'Put some applications in for her and see what you can do' I asked could she write a letter to the sheltered care people, she said, begrudgingly, she would but it probably wouldn't do much good. It seems to be me that is me that will be doing the social workers job for her, what on earth is she earning her money for. I stupidly thought social workers were supposed to help you fight for what you need. It was all a complete farce.

I told the social worker, she is now totally housebound, plus she can no longer use her bath as she can't get in it, reply was oh she can give herself a strip wash, she has been given a comode for night time use, who will empty it? She can't! She can't use her oven anymore, they think she should exist on microwave ready meals, she can't get to do her clothes washing. I went ballistic and kept asking 'This is the 21st century, what sort of quality of life is this for her? - And you talk about morale! The answer - comprises have to be made. To me these are not just comprises, this is going back to standards of living in Victorian times.

Another thing is that, most carers at the home have been lovely, but there are one or two who are to be quite blunt, aggressive and cruel, one of whom one day screamed at my Mother ' You are a liar' and another said that she had heard that my Mother had called her evil. My mother is shocked and terrified by this, and said she would rather crawl around her flat than be treated like that.



You can imagine how I feel, yes I feel like a Warrior Queen going into battle, standards flying, drums beating, nobody treats my Mother like this. I have already fired off missives of complaints to the County Council re: the meeting, and about the bad members of staff at the home. I also will as soon as she is out on Monday, so there can be no repercussions, write to the Manager of the Home about the staff incidents. Funnily enough I just read in the local paper tonight, that on a scale of stars, our County gets only one for its care of the Aged. If this is life for the aged in England today, I am almost ashamed to be English. Believe me, I am not giving up until I get my Mother settled in suitable accommodation.

The second rant is what is wrong with everything about Earth these days. The weather is just so strange, two parts of England have had tornado warnings!!!!! I know part of Canada had an earthquake, we have had rain almost constantly for about a month. Today is is sunny and so mild you think it was Spring. There are roses coming out again in my next door neighbour's garden, my magnolia and lilac trees are both forming buds. My lobelia is flowering again, seeds I planted to overwinter in the ground are sprouting up like mad. Everything is wrong.

Also people, what is getting into people, both in reality and in blogworld? Even in my small village, there have been some recent aggressive incidents, and in my nearest town, the amount of violence over the past couple of weeks has been incredible. In blogworld, there are one or two people cruelly deciding to cut people off as they cosy up to new friends leaving their old friends bewildered and confused. I am thinking of one person in particular. I also know of some people sending curt emails to each other, please let's keep our blogworld special, a place where we can support each other. So many of us seem to be under pressure and I don't really think it is just normal holiday season pressure, it seems to be blending in with the strange things that are happening on planet Earth.

I have this mad idea that somewhere up in space there is a space ship full of aliens who have got us, the people and the planet under control, manipulate us. I can see all these aliens sitting around a large screen with their hand control boxes, and saying to each other things like 'Look what I made those ones do' or 'Hey, watch me send a tornado through these houses'. If oly it were that simple.



Please, come on everybody, I know it is not the majority only a minority, 'Play nicely, Please' as we were told when we were children. Am I naive to think we can? I don't think so. Peace please, especially in this season of goodwill.

I promise that is my rant and rave over for this year. I will now have a jolly ho ho ho blog until Christmas and New Year. You know I don't whinge and whine that often, so it must be pretty serious to me.

Well if anyone is left reading after that verbal torrent,I must say I had a lovely surprise today, all the way from Canada, the most beautiful Christmas elf from Sheila. He will be up for Christmas, but I have a feeling he may hang up in my artroom the rest of the year with my Halloween witch. Photographs of him will be posted in due course, probably at Christmas when I photograph my decorated home.

Shh! Whisper it quietly, I can hardly believe that my next posting will be my 100th. When I started I never thought I would reach that many, I didn't think I had enough to talk about.! As if I am ever stuck for words!!!!

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