Category: Memories

Fish and chips

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What’s your go-to comfort food?

WordPress picture library doesn’t seem to find images I want….

I typed in fish and chips in the search bar and it came up with fairy cakes!

But anyway Fish and chips is my favourite comfort food. Particularly when I’ve been out all day and am to tired to even microwave something.

Does WordPress even know what fish and chips is? Battered or breaded white fish like Cod or Haddock, deep fried. Sliced peeled potato’s in strips about 1 or 2 centimeters square also deep fried. Both till nice and golden brown and crispy.

Salt and vinegar to taste. Sometimes accompanied with mushy peas or tartare sauce or both.

Food to make you smile.

I see a dragon

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That old Pareidolia kicking in again.

The dragons head upper left, then a thin neck and body, looking a bit like a viking boat. Finally a great sail of a wing catching the glow from the setting sun.

This was last Monday and it lingered on my phone until I found it today.

I don’t see sunsets very often because I’m on the wrong side of the hill. This was at the top of our hill and there are still buildings and trees in the way and as the sun drifts northwest as it sets in the summer there is more vegetation in the way.

Singing

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I went to the one to one session with the opera singer. I explained that Parkinsons affects your voice and throat muscles so I’m trying to keep singing as much as I can. She got me to warm up my voice, showed me how to stick my tongue forward to relax it and allow myself to hit higher notes. I was surprised at how high I could get.

Singing in front of a professional musician was nerve-racking but she was so kind and very complementary about my voice. I don’t think I’ll ever be professional myself, but it taught me ways to improve my technique. And it was wonderful to try something new and exciting. It also made me feel less anxious about my health.

Opera workshop

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Yesterday I went to an opera workshop as part of the project I’m in. My breathing can be bad because of my illnesses so I take any opportunity I can to keep my throat and lungs clear.

I’ve known for years that I’ve got an operatic voice somewhere inside me. Yesterday it escaped! We sang part of Nessun Dormo, which is actually about a man trying to get married to a Princess but she keeps killing off her suitors. She has to guess his name but he’s not sharing. I think she is called “Turendot”.

I managed to get a really high vibrato. I surprised myself because I got there late and hadn’t warmed my voice up. I’m amazed and going to do another workshop  on a one to one basis but I’m not well, My Parkinsons keeps flaring up, I have various other illnesses. But I’m pushing myself, probably too much. I don’t want to just sit in front of the TV. I want to live as well as I can for as long as I can.

Fire

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Today I painted a fire for the play Who is Molly Leigh…. Not the fire surround or the hearth, or the objects around it, but a piece of cardboard with a brick chimney backing  painted on it and a coal fire burning strongly in the grate.

I asked another maker what she thought and she felt the flames should be more yellow and red, but the photo I worked from showed bright white flames surrounded by glowing yellow, orange, and red. It’s funny how people’s imaginations have stereotypical ideas of how things should look. I really enjoyed adding bright colours in between the coals to make it look really hot.

Painting and reading

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Which activities make you lose track of time?

When I paint I lose track of time, the world goes away. Sometimes I lose myself completely. I know I feel pain in my arms nowadays, and I can’t always focus on the tip of my brush because I get slight double vision. But I have to do it. I’m under a compulsion to spread liquid onto a hard or soft surface (board, wall, or canvas) and recreate images or come up with ideas of my own….

My other passion is reading, I rarely read a book from cover to cover anymore unless it’s very short, my hands stick in place, my trigger fingers play up and I get cramp in them. But I do like using reading to send myself to sleep. I’m currently rereading The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. It’s a sci-fi novel set in the 1960’s? It’s also a very good film…. He was the author of Jurassic Park by the way.

Goodnight, off to bed to read….I might just lose track of time again. X

Petunia or Surfinias?

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Double flowers, pretty but not good for bees, I have a lot more open flowers. Much better for insects. My garden is looking lovely.

Sometimes called petunias or Surfinias, these plants get covered in flowers in the summer. I think these flowers look like the dresses of Spanish dancers, skirts flying to the music of the Flamenco. So exuberant.

The garden

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Is growing, there are tomatoes although the plants are wilting. This was my birthday present to myself. I’m glad the neighbours have put up a fence, it shelters the yard from the sun.

Some plants still need sorting out. Hopefully soon with help front friends. X

This was planted up just a month ago. There are old plants mixed in….