Kicking off, or not?

I thought at one point maybe it is all kicking off, but on the other hand, maybe not.

Dad has infection of some sort and mother had an op. (finally) on her hand for a malignant nasty thing. A one day affair with local anaesthetic. I took her and stayed throughout.  So he, who looks after her, was out of action, willing but terribly weak, and she came home only one hand to work with!

She is more alzheimery than ever. First night she pulled ALL dressings off (skin graft too, so 2 sites) so we spent the WHOLE next day arranging and getting into hospital and getting redressed. From 9am till 7pm, that was.  The NHS is just great.

I got to the point any normal person would, and called Social Services, crying, please help us!  Small letters as it was not dramatic, just a case of, oh jeez. I have had enough of this.
We will get assessed next week and will get help, at last.

On the up, this is our Polish house!  It is much much further than this, with plastered walls, underfloor heating, floors next week and of course windows!  We shall stay in it this time and while there sort out all the fun parts: kitchen, tiles, fireplace and so on. And wifi, or veefee as they call it.

Stopnica, near Krakow, Poland

Meanwhile, Laura (my brick) and I are carrying on and the website gets ever nearer. 

I shall be doing Top Drawer in mid September, which is very exciting, so we will start to make a noise about that next month. Needless to say I am not getting any work done. I had a student booked for the day we had to go back to hosp and what with trying to get an ambulance etc etc she, poor dear went home, and we carried on battling on with the dramas.  There is considerable stress added to the picture trying to deal with the enforced idleness.

One week to go and we shall be off again, but still in contact should anyone care to get in touch.

Letting it all hang out.

Today, finally, Friday 5pm I sit and face the blog.
There is plenty going on, mentally and physically. I don't especially want this to turn into a personal diary, but at the same time it is cathartic to write stuff down. And maybe one person will read it and recognise something.
The biggest part is the caring for the oldies. They are getting older and older, more dependent. And yet. We were away in Poland for 9 days and dad insisted they would be fine. He only needed stuff in the freezer, and indeed they were fine. But today he is sleeping, fighting off an infection. Is actually very dependent while he is like that, cannot stand up.... let alone make lunch for the 2 of them.
I had my son and grandson visit for a few days and as soon as I got back from the airport I needed to make them lunch, and all that goes with that.
If anyone has been through this sort of thing, they will know. It is not just the physical work. It is the fear that hits when you see your dad unable to walk, your mum looking blank and confused, and you are trying to judge whether the doc needs to be called......and if it all were to start, to kick off as I think of it, then I am close to panic. The end of life thing, first one then the other, and all the stuff.  Very scary.

ANYWAY. This blog is supposed to be professional. I cannot get a lot of work done. But I am doing what I can. Laura and I ARE getting the website into some sort of shape. It already looks jolly good, I think, but still needs work. Have a visit at www.ffjewellery.com .

You can only do what you can do, as any mother with small children will know, something is better than nothing.
I have no picture this week. I will post one of the Polish house soon. We have plastered walls, windows and will have floors by the time we go again, early July.   SOOO exciting.

Witchcraft

I do not and will probably never understand what has been going on.
Yesterday precious hours were frittered, struggling with aforementioned pictures.
Today, it works.

New ring, faux amber About 1 1/4 in but needs to be measured.
Is big. It is quartz, wonderful stone.

Here is the proof.

Picture Jungle

It is a total jungle out there, with all the computers, programmes, tricks and whatnot. And the progs get out of date, and you have to upgrade, but they are not compatible, and they cant be saved, or exported or whatever you want to do cant be DONE.
Dear reader can see no doubt that I am a teensie bit frustrated here.
Old computer had old version of Photoshop.... no good any more I am told, and not compatible with newer computer. So go to GIMP.   Finally sorted how to make the altered pics smaller, but no way can I save them as jpegs. And I mean no way. You are just not allowed, I read all the threads on it.
So unless you have Gimp on yr machine (I think) you cant open them!
Nor can I even put the wretched pic up here, it has to be saved as a jpeg and I dont know how to do that!
grr.