
Grey throughout the day.
Cold and dreary
Cat sits by the oil heater,
The others up
On the bed.
My curtains closed
I hold the grey at bay.
My “daylight” is a bulb
No warmth, just brighter
Than the gloom outside
Grey, removing colour
Sad sort of day.
New paintings and regular art updates.

Grey throughout the day.
Cold and dreary
Cat sits by the oil heater,
The others up
On the bed.
My curtains closed
I hold the grey at bay.
My “daylight” is a bulb
No warmth, just brighter
Than the gloom outside
Grey, removing colour
Sad sort of day.

What a day! After a busy morning trying to sort a few things out, I had some lunch, then found myself falling asleep in front of the TV. Later a friend rang up so I helped her work out how to fit a firestick to her TV. I looked it up on Google and got her to find the HDMI cable, we then spent an hour trying to sort out how it worked. I joked I would never be able to talk down a plane in distress! Ten minutes later another friend rang about a burst pipe, asking if I could help in some way. She doesn’t have a computer so I gave her some numbers of local plumbers. We spoke for so long that my phone went flat.
Then, I don’t know if I was mentally exhausted but I just fell asleep, then slept on and off till now. I must have missed half of the programmes on TV. I never saw the end of Oliver! the movie. I need to wake up to cook something for tea, I might just have some noodles.

It’s a bit of a dark photo because it’s so grey at the moment, but this is a twisted wire cat my friend Steph made recently. I treated myself to it as an early Christmas present. I need to have a clear out so I can display it properly. I’m thinking it needs to go on a windowledge. Got to ponder these things. Happy Boxing Day folks X
I chuckle when I see this on adverts, ‘up to’ means that the percentage efficiency could be anything from 0% to 100%! But we are fooled by the top percentage. It’s the same sort of trick where a price is £9.99 instead of £10.00, the brain is tricked into thinking it’s a more than the 1 pence you actually save!
So think before you buy and be aware of tricky marketing, please!


This time of year is called Christmas and this stained glass window is in Bethesda chapel in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. It depicts Mary, mother of Jesus. I’m afraid the photo is a bit blurry and small, but it is one of my own pictures.
Around 2000 years ago stories were written of a tale of a child born to a virgin woman. The baby was visited by shepherds who were told to see the him by an angel. He was also visited by three Magi or King’s bringing gifts of gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. His family fled as refugees into Egypt to flee the massacre of innocent baby boys by Herods troops.
In later life, after performing miracles by looking after the poor and healing the sick, he was crucified by the Romans as a type of rebel, or freedom fighter, but he was trying to get people to love one another, care for each other, forgive each other’s sins.
The stories were collected into a book called the Bible and the new Religion called Christianity was born.

It’s not a black and white filter, it really is grey and foggy. Christmas morning, 2024, Stoke. Collaged tree.
As the dawn breaks I hope things brighten up. As you know I’m fascinated with patterns, I somehow see bats and a cats face and a grumpy dragon, butterflies or owls in this collage.
I wish I could do something about my new neighbour but I don’t want to speak to him. He’s there now, I think he does a bit of hammering to let me know he’s in. I thought my house was on fire when I came home from visiting a friend, but no he was just burning stuff in the back yard again. The smoke was drifting over the top of my kitchen. Anyway his front door just slammed and he drove off. Happy Christmas eve! I’m going to finish my banana butty and cake bar tea.

Share what you know about the year you were born.

I was born on a beautiful planet
A long time ago.
We hadn’t visited the moon
And Superman hadn’t flown.
The world was overpopulated
With a few billion less people
No such thing as a Tesla existed
But we were not bothered.
Shops mainly closed on Sundays
And had half days in the week.
Butchers shops had sawdust
My head was a lot closer to the ground!
No mobile phones, lucky to have a phone box
Wimpy meals instead of McDonald’s burgers
Coffee was in a bottle, liquid, with chicory?
Sweets had not shrunk.
No sweeteners, no noodles, except in Vesta meals
We hadn’t been decimalised!
We were not in Europe (common market).
And Dr Who hadn’t time travelled yet.
Enough information?

No I’m not waiting for Santa, that’s tomorrow night. I’m just tired out, too tired to sleep, the bedding on my bed is too heavy and presses on my feet. These old legs ache at the knees, so when I turn over they hurt. My hips are starting to hurt too. If I had the money I might treat myself to a reclining chair? But then I worry the cats would get in the mechanism. Oh dear, possibly squashed kitty! I struggle to get up from the bed, I think my arms are not as strong and it pulls on my back as I try to fling my legs out to combat my upper body weight. I’m currently exposing myself to decaffeinated coffee to restore my fluid levels but attempting not to take a stimulant (but as you can see from my writing I’m fully awake). Why do brains do this (keep you awake with plans, worries, anxieties, also hearing my heartbeat and the traffic noise outside, even the cats snore!).
Tonight will soon be this morning, 7am, maybe I should tire myself out with a bit of housework? My coffee is getting cold. Good morning.
Are you a good judge of character?
What’s on the inside isn’t the same as the outside. You might think one thing about a person based on their physical appearance only to find they are completely different to what you expect.
I’d say mostly that I’m a good judge of character. I’ve met many people over my career and my home life, and mostly it’s been OK. But not always, on a couple of occasions I had to give up on friends who tried to split me and my hubby up, I found out one was saying things about me to needle my hubby into leaving me. I realised that the language he was using was in her way of speaking. It was her attitudes that he was spouting. When we talked it through he thankfully understood that. The second situation was a woman that tried to have an affair with him. She was always calling round when I was out. He told me what she was up to, and we ended the friendship.
Other people have fooled me at work, but you cotton on eventually. It can cause heartache when you mistakenly trust people. But you have to live and learn.

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