Art

What was your favorite subject in school?

I’ve loved art since I was a child. In fact, at school I would finish paintings ahead of everyone else in my class. One day I painted the wooden bit of my pencils to match the coloured part of them. I actually got in trouble for doing that. But I was bored. I got sent to see the headmaster (I was about 7),but ran into the cloakroom and hid. I was fetched back to class in tears and very upset. So much so my class thought I’d been smacked for painting the pencils! I was too upset to tell them what had really happened. I still loved art though!

Looking out for him.

An old digital drawing from about 7 years ago.

I used to like singing “blow the wind southerly” and actually got to sing it in a pantomime a few years ago. We were pretending to be in a singing competition and I tried to sound like Catherine Ferrier?

It’s about a woman waiting for her lover to come back to her from across the sea. It’s very old fashioned but lovely and it’s a contralto piece that suits my rather deep voice. Anyway I did this digital drawing after being inspired by the song. X

All day yesterday

It felt like I spent a whole day looking at people’s comments about the American election. The website Threads was full of discussions about how frightening it is for women.

It seems that support for Trump has increased across the country, feelings that he is some sort saviour abound. Why?

And what about his felonies, his lies, his bankruptcies? It seems that these things have been spoken about so much they have been normalised. It’s that old idea, water off a ducks back.

As long as eggs and milk are cheaper, who cares about cutting health care and pensions. I’m aghast at how selfish the results seem. We will see what happens. But it’s also frightening for the rest of the world.

Time to sort things out

Do you need time?

Yes I need time

Health, life, memory, stuff.

I need to have time to learn about aspects of my health. I’m gradually finding things out that I never knew. I need to listen to experts and scientific fact and find out how I can support myself.

My life needs organising, the last year has been horrendous. Lots of stressors and worries. Trying to sort out paperwork and filling in so many forms. I keep finding things I should have done.

Memories are fading of my soul mate. I long to hear his voice. To hear a recording of him would be good. But seeing photos can cut too deep. Maybe I need more time to come to terms with what’s happened.

Stuff? That’s the pile of stuff that’s in front of me, things that need organising, removing or storing. All that takes time, which is what I need!

Doodles on my easle

I do have a propensity to draw or paint on anything. So this happened a while ago. I also painted a large ammonite on the dining table that was losing it’s varnish. I painted it and then revarnished it. The ammonite was one we found on a beach near Whitby. The actual fossil is up on top of a bookcase, out of my reach.

Why the eye and the face with the streaming hair? Just a couple of things I’ve doodled over the years.

Fifth of November

Annual celebration in the UK.

Looking forward to seeing fireworks on November 5th, bonfire night in the UK. Also known as Guy Fawkes night when he tried to blow up the houses of parliament several centuries ago. Children say the rhyme “remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot”. Nothing to do with the American General Election thankfully! And something people actually enjoy X

Names?

From the fuzzy grey of my brain I seem to have developed a need to think of an unusual name that I could, if I ever wrote a novel, use as a character.

This normally happens when I’m half asleep, it might be a continuing dream. And like a dream, I think of a name and then almost immediately forget it!

I don’t have a list, I didn’t think of writing names down. But I think each name is a little complicated, perhaps having several syllables. Is this normal? Is there a name for it? (like nominative determinism, where a person’s name relates to their job… A Mr Kitchenn as a cook for example?)

I am trying to think of names….

Buttercup Sylvester

Pamela Praline

Humphrey Othello?

Or maybe

Martia Stephinkos

Greg Carlos Carlisle?

I think I come up with better ones when I half asleep.

Thanking God?

I just read a random post on Facebook that said if someone I knew was dead that was younger than me, that I should take a few seconds to Thank God for Saving me!

I thought about this and replied:

“This is really upsetting, I have lost people recently and to think someone could be so crass as too say they weren’t worthy in some way? Also what about all the innocent  people that die in wars, hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters? Was that because they didn’t pray enough? I’m proudly agnostic, I don’t pretend to know the “truth”.”

The point is that whoever wrote it does not know the people I’ve lost, cannot say if they were good or bad. Their deaths were random. A big finger didn’t come out of the sky and strike them dead.

When someone you know dies, it’s a body blow, it’s overwhelming. It’s not a competition to see which one of you is a “winner” in some deities eyes. And if I could bring them back for one second I would. Maybe I’d be more inclined to pray, but I can’t, so I won’t. We don’t live in a fairytale.

2019 remembered, Biggley!

Trump Mania 2019

I just found this Staffordshire flat back ornament I decorated at the British Ceramic biennial back in 2019.

Whoever designed it came up with a quirky idea of Trump on a boat, legs facing backwards, the symbol of the crucifix and people weeping next to it? A monkey and a possible tea chest. There is a lion as a figurehead at the front.

I don’t remember what it was meant to depict but it’s certainly a confusing image. How did he get elected? Is he running away from the world? Is he a clownish figure? Five years later I still don’t know!

Kitchen cupboard

Just saw this on Facebook, from the 60s or 70s.

We had a pale green cupboard, I think the same sort?  I remember the crinkly glass in the windows. We also had a cool pantry room, I don’t remember a fridge. I’m sure I remember my Mum stuck marble patterned plastic on the cupboard to make it look better. I’m not sure it did? I think it was sticky back plastic vinyl that she used? I may be wrong. We also had a boiler and mangle and a free standing top loading spin dryer, the water collected in a bowl below it’s nozzle. It dried better than my washing machine now.

We didn’t have fitted kitchens then.