Decluttering

Something on your “to-do list” that never gets done.

I haven’t lost my marbles, yet!

Or any other thing!

To spring clean or not?

But my stuff is mine

It comforts me

Makes me feel whole.

It’s there on my list

Things to do

Choose books to keep

And to loose.

But I can’t move

I am stuck

In sadness and grief

Unable to change my life.

Rose

Soon I’ll know if the roses I planted last year have survived the winter. I put in five of them. Climbers and ramblers. I wanted them to grow on the remains of the hedge our neighbour (a builder) had torn out and made our garden vulnerable to being burgled two October ago. I’m hoping they will make a prickly, but beautiful barrier. I love scented roses and I might try putting a few more in this spring. You can get bare rooted ones that you just use a slit trench (push the spade into the soil and make a slit) to plant. Fingers crossed.

Cat behind fishtank

Not a good photo

A painting I did in the 1980s when we still had our beautiful mainly white cat. She would sit and watch the goldfish in the tank, sometimes raising a paw as if to try and catch them, but the tank had a lid and a pump so they were perfectly safe.

I painted this on a board that used to have a mirror attached to it but that was long gone. I used oil paint I think, it gets absorbed into the wood rather than sitting on the surface like acrylics. It’s about 2 ft long and is hung in the living room above the archway that divides the room in half. I often look up at it and smile at the memories it brings.

Remembering Autumn

It’s been a few months since the sun shone for any length of time. The colours of the trees was glorious in places, others blew away in strong winds.

Winter has been mostly grey and overcast, interspersed with storms that have swept across the country blowing over trees, damaging buildings, flooding farmland and towns and villages. We have had snow, hail and rain and dark days as well as nights. Spring won’t be here till March. So I think I’ll hibernate again

Four leaves

Four leaf clover,

just green and neat.

Splattered with dew or rain

Contrasted against black

How to describe it more?

Thin stem from its centre

Leaves splayed out lobes.

Striped with thin veins

Each curved gently

Upper surface dips downward

Four fan shaped

Instead of the usual three

Lucky?

Memory of the one I found….

Work computer

Write about your first computer.

I had a work computer before one at home. The screen was covered in green writing to add information. There were no pictures, you had to use a mouse and keyboard. If you wanted to get on the Internet you had to use a modem. That made funny squeaky noises when it commented. I remember we had to defragment the computer every few months. That meant spending ages waiting for all the files on the computer to defragment. But you had to watch it so you could click a button at the end. I also remember you had to send information by fax.

Photographs, Esther Chiltons weekly prompt.

I wrote this about her prompt.

My precious photos are of and with my hubby. Sometimes I sit and cry, sometimes I laugh at silly memories. Photographs captured that moment when we walked across a stream. When we returned hours later the tide had come in and the stream was a deep salt water channel. I lost my bike pump into the water and when I got it out to use again it had gone rusty. Photos can be like that. They can fade. And memory fades too, so photos make it easier not to forget.

I want to go

To Wales, and the lake district, and Scarborough, and Devon and Dorset. All the places I’ve been on holiday in my life. I want to ESCAPE! Get to beautiful places, see the coast, the mountains, get out of the city.

I can’t get away to the sea and sky. My mind won’t let me, my arms won’t let me, my legs won’t let me. I get worried, I think of things that might happen. I need to have company. Isn’t that strange? When I had my hubby we went everywhere together. Now he’s gone there is no one to reassure me. To make it safe. I’m fed up. Anxious, frustrated, lost, fearful.

Sorry to go on.

Cycling

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

I love cycling, it’s been a while since I did any, but I still love it on TV. The tour de France, the tour of Britain, the Vuelta, I try and catch all of them when I can.

I think Mark Cavendish was a brilliant sprinter. He won more stages than any other cyclist in the history of the tour. I think it was 35 over 15 years. He’s from the isle of Man and represented it well.

I like the female tours aswell but they aren’t as well publicised and I’m not sure who the best racers are.

I remember riding down hills and trying to keep up with my hubby who was very fast. He even came third in a big race once against tricyclists. He was the real cyclist, but I’m glad he got me into the sport.