Mugs and cups

Posted on August 4, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Ceramics, Cups, Designs, Mugs, Painting, Potteries, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trentLeave a comment

How many mugs and cups have you got? I seem to have enough for a small orchestra!

I think there are a few more around the house and in the garden. I am not going to search them out. They are from various manufacturers. The majority from this city, Stoke-on-Trent.

Different styles and sizes. Some that I decorated (you can book workshops to paint your own mugs, some places are more expensive than others). The small cups are for tea or expresso coffee. But I prefer a madium sized mug, pint sized ones are too much for me.

The creativity of this city shows through the designs and shapes of the mugs and cups.

Claws and whiskers

Posted on August 3, 2021 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, Claws, Happy, Kneading, Photo, Poddling, saying hello, Tuxedo cat, Whiskers1 Comment

Reaching, stretching, paws up, claws out. But he’s only saying hello.

Just look at those whiskers, able to twitch and feel. Helps with moving around in the dark. Used to check a space is wide enough to get through. Pushed forward when he’s interested in something, sniffing and smelling his food or a cat nip toy.

Claws ready to knead and pull, to show he loves you by ‘poddling’. A happy cat….

Sunset

Posted on August 3, 2021August 3, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Astronomy, light year, Photo, Planets, radio waves, Red sky at night, Sun, Sunset1 Comment

Only 93 million miles away. The sun sets… But it really set 8 minutes earlier! It’s just that light takes that long to get from the sun to us.

OK, now look up at the stars. Some of them are actual stars and others are nebulae and galaxies.

Light takes time to travel. They talk about light years, some stars are only a few light years away. Some are thousands, or millions, or billions of light years away.

Now think about radio waves. They travel at the speed of light too… So TV and radio signals from Earth started travelling from when we first broadcast radio back in the 1920’s or 30’s? Thats a sphere around the Earth with a radius of about 90 or 100 years. So a planet 90 light years away might just about be hearing our signals. Imagine what they would do. They can’t travel here at the speed of light, but they might reply, but that will take 90 years to reply. Closer stars could have planets that reply sooner. But it’s still going to be a boring conversation!

F. R. O. G. Plane

Posted on August 3, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged aluminium, Box, Childhood, Flying, Fun, Plane, Tail, Time, winding mechanism, WingsLeave a comment

FROG stands for ‘flies right of the ground’ this plane was just on the TV. The body was aluminium and the wings and tail were made of paper.

This was made in the 1930’s? You put the body of the plane in the box with the propellar attached. There is a handle on the front of the box and a mechanism that holds the propellar. You turn the handle and it winds up a rubber band. Then you peg the wings and tail on and let it loose to fly up off the ground.

Our forebears may not have had the Internet but they knew how to have fun!

Biscuit

Posted on August 2, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Food, Coffee, Tea, Drink, Taste, Cheese, Cookery, biscuit, cheese cakeLeave a comment

Biscuit and coffee, biscuit and tea. Biscuit with cheese. So many accompaniments. It’s good to enjoy them with something. To dunk or not? I like dunking. Dunking and drinking. Bits of biscuit get too soft and drop off in lumps into your drink.

Biscuits go with desserts as well. You can soak them in alcohol and use them in the bases of cheesecake smashed up with butter to make a hard layer for the topping. Tasty.

Climb a tree

Posted on August 2, 2021August 2, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Climbing, Gardening, Growth, high, Memories, Photo, Plant, Poem, Poetry, Tree, WalkingLeave a comment

Climb a tree

Go up high

Up the branches

To the sky

Rough, hard bark

Hard to climb

In the dark

And down again.

Eighty foot

Old and strong

Limbs of great girth

Twisted and long.

Memory showed

Trees far up there

If I climbed up?

I’d get a scare!

Thai tea

Posted on August 2, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged culinary, cultures, Food, restaurants, Sawadee Thai taste, Stoke-on trent, Take away, TastyLeave a comment

We just had a lovely takeaway from Sawadee Thai Taste in Stoke. Beautiful Thai fish cakes and spare ribs followed by Thai green curry with beef and duck.

I’m a fan of foreign food. There is a wide choice of food in Stoke, Japanese, Chinese, Jamaican, Thai, English, Indian and then Greek and Italian further afield. I think it’s good that the community can embrace different cultures. Maybe at the moment there is a bit of a hiatus, but hopefully that creativity will expand again in the next few months…

Worst holiday ever?

Posted on August 1, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged camping, Cycles, cyclo camping, Holiday, Memories, tent, Wales, worst holidayLeave a comment

I remember a cyclo camping holiday in Wales with my hubby. We forgot the main tent. We got to Wales on the train and to our campsite. It was only when we unpacked the tent we realised we had left the tent airing on the washing line at home. We had to tie our groundsheet onto a young man’s tent for shelter, it was raining and not good under there despite having our sleeping bags. So we went in the camp bar and bought the lad whiskeys to say thanks for him helping us out. Then in the morning we realised we had spent all our holiday money on booze so we had to comeback the next day. We ended up in the guards van of the train with a rugby team because there were no seats. They were Very Rude! Worst holiday ever!

Foot in it?

Posted on August 1, 2021 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Foot, Fused glass, Jewellery, Longport, Necklaces, Photo, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Waiting room gallery4 Comments

When you take a photo of your work and post it in Instagram… Don’t include your foot! I was trying to take a photo of my necklaces on display at the waiting room gallery at Longport, Stoke-on-Trent. I’m pleased to say I have sold two necklaces and a small painting. It’s taken six months, but now they can allow people in again it might do better. I may arrange to make some more pieces.

I won’t be including my feet!