I dont

Posted on May 18, 2024 Posted in Cat, Memories, UncategorizedTagged Anxiety, Cats, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1942, Friends, Home, Life, Mental health, Outside, work life balance2 Comments

How do you balance work and home life?

I’m too young to get my pension but I’m not working either. My health is not good, and I’m having various tests. So what do I do? I’m trying to keep occupied by doing creative things and trying to get some exercise. It’s weird because I’m not used to being like this, I was always strong physically and mentally but I feel diminished. Time is taking its toll on me.

Sorry, this is too serious, but the prompt is tempting me to reveal more about myself. Lots of things have happened in the last five months that have pulled me in different directions but mainly downward. I try to find a balance between not work and home, but activity and non activity. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to feel right again. Most of the time I clamp myself tight like a barnacle inside my house, not looking for daylight. It takes me time to pluck up courage to go out. I can think about travelling, but I don’t. I think of all the things that could go wrong.

Luckily I have friends who drag me out. I can go to some places easily, but others? The anxiety is too much for me. Just going outside to pick up the milk off the gate can take me hours to decide to do it. And yet meeting friends lifts me up. My cats help too. What would I do without them.

Well that’s my situation at present….

Coppery

Posted on May 18, 2024May 18, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Beauty, Dorothy Clive garden, Fibonacci, Leaves, Metallic, Plant, Sheen, Spiral, SucculentLeave a comment

Seen at the Dorothy Clive garden. In their new glass house. I love the metallic sheen on it and the spectacular spiral placement of the leaves. It probably links to a Fibonacci number. That’s a specific pattern of how spirals interact. Like the centers of sunflower heads.

Bench

Posted on May 18, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Beauty, Bench, bloom, Colour, Dorothy Clive garden, fields, Flowers, Green, Life, Poem, Poetry, Rhododendrons, SpringLeave a comment

Why are you facing inwards bench?

Can’t you see the beautiful view?

The green and yellow hills

Beyond the fence…

Tiny farmhouses dotted alongside feilds

Sun shining on a golden harvest?

But I look in, said the bench

I see the quarry garden

Dug out of soil and stone

Carved into a bowl

Lined with rhododendrons

Azaleas, beech trees, oaks

Full of colour now, gaudy flowers

A waterfall splashes and ploshes

In the quarry cauldron

Hidden sculptures in maze like paths

Yes beyond the fence is lovely

But the Dorothy Clive garden is special.

I stayed

Posted on May 17, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged boyfr3, Canals, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1941, Hubby, Illustration, Life, sacrifice, West MidlandsLeave a comment

What sacrifices have you made in life?

I was once offered a job out of this area. The problem was that it would mean moving away from my then boyfriend, later hubby. It was a reasonably decent job, well paid, illustrating the canals in the West Midlands of England. I would be part of a project to map, illustrate and record details of the massive canal network in the area. I really wanted that job… But it was too much of an upheaval. My boyfriend would not be able to come with me and I was scared to lose him. So I sacrificed the opportunity, and truly, I think it was the right decision for me. X.

Esther Chilton Water prompt…

Posted on May 16, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Atlantic, holidays, Lake, Memories, north sea, Ocean, Rain, River, Tears, Water, WindermereLeave a comment

I just wrote this for Esther’s weekly prompt. This week is Water:

Water today means too much rain. It’s been falling all day. Sometimes it’s a river flowing in the lake district. My hubby tried to tickle trout while we were on holiday one year. He was unsuccessful. Water is lake Windermere, before it got polluted with toxic green algae. Home of Arctic Char fish that got trapped there in the end of the last ice age. Water means the Atlantic and North Sea coasts where we visited on many holidays. I need to visit them again. Water is my tears of regret and happiness over all these memories.

An old tee shirt.

Posted on May 16, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Clothes, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1940, Life, Prompt, Recycle, Repair, Reuse, Tee shirtLeave a comment

What’s the oldest things you’re wearing today?

My tee shirts are getting holey before I throw them away. Most of my clothes are more than five years old and many are much older. If I get rid of them I put them out for charity or take them to a clothes bank for recycling. I can’t afford to spend lots of money on clothes. I’m not a designer shaped person (thin), I’m short and chubby. I’ve never bought clothes by well known makers. If it fits and it looks OK that’s good enough for me.

Why waste money on clothes you wear once or twice then throw them away? I think the reuse, repair, recycle, restore values are the ones to live by.

Poppy

Posted on May 16, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Flowers, Garden, Himalayan poppy, Mecanopsis, Poppies, Poppy, Welsh poppyLeave a comment

Poppy at Growthpoint allotment site. The pop of colour cheered me up yesterday. I can’t resist them. I have Welsh poppies in my garden, happy yellows and the occasional orange one. I once managed to grow a blue mecanopsis, (himalayan) poppy in the garden, but it never seeded itself and failed to grow again

Rhododendrons

Posted on May 14, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Bud, Flower, flower head, Garden, hot pink, Life, Petals, Rhododendrons, Soft, SpringLeave a comment

Beautiful bud, waiting to open, snugly wrapped in a soft covering. Soon the pink will fully unfurl, then the hot pink will blaze away in the sunlight. To join hundreds of other blooms signalling to the bees to pollenate them and so the life cycle continues.

Pattern

Posted on May 14, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Cast iron, Duplicated, Garden, Heavy, Metallic, mossy, Pattern, Table, worn paintLeave a comment

A garden tabletop duplicated in a symmetrical pattern. The light patches are where the green paint has worn away. I think there is a bit of moss growing in its nooks and crannies. The dark green seems to be the original paintwork, it’s a heavy metal table, probably cast iron.

Bench appreciation

Posted on May 14, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Bench, bench appreciation society, Life, looking forward, Memories, Sitting, Wind1 Comment

There is a group for anything on Facebook. I recently joined the bench appreciation society page. It makes you look out for things. In this case I found four seperate benches while I was out yesterday. I enjoyed sitting on them for a rest and contemplating my surroundings. Hearing the wind soughing through the trees and the birds singing beautifully lifted my spirits. I’m hopeful of going out again soon.

Mallaband-Brown

Category: Memories