Category: Memories

Leaving school

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Describe a phase in life that was difficult to say goodbye to.

When I left school all those years ago I remember feeling like I was falling off a cliff. Hard to change my life.

Everything had been about learning, getting up every day, going to classes, coming home, doing homework. Trying to make the switch to ‘real life’ was a shock. I knew the times I worked would be different, but I got a couple of part time jobs cleaning and waitressing so I was not free to enjoy weekends or evenings anymore. This got worse as I went to college in the following autumn so I was trying to fit in my college work and my jobs and trying to get some work life balance.

I managed the change in my life OK after a few months but strangely it was hard to say goodbye to. I was still with my family and friends. The next year I left home. That was the real shock to my system.

Helibores, flowers in bloom.

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A helibore at Rode Hall.

I’ve just written a post about flowers in bloom on Esther Chiltons blog:

I visited Rode Hall in Staffordshire this weekend to see flowers in bloom. It was the annual Snowdrop Walk. It’s about a mile of paths around gardens and woods and along to a lake where thousands of Snowdrops of various species are in flower at this time of year.


We had to book a time slot to get a parking space because the ground is saturated after a very wet winter and there would not be enough space in the car park otherwise.

My friend and I had a lovely walk around the grounds. We were a bit disappointed because a lot of the snowdrops have already gone over (finished flowering), but there were other flowers in bloom including daffodils, helibores, cyclamen, camelia, and other flowers and shrubs. Flowers are blooming and Spring is on its way!

Retrospective

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I’m holding a retrospective of my art at Spode studios next week. It’s because I am leaving the studios after 7 years this April. I have enjoyed my time there but circumstances mean that I cannot continue there.

The retrospective will run from Monday 4th March 2024 to Friday 8th March. There will be a closing viewing of the exhibition on Friday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Most of the works will be for sale. Please join me if you can at Spode Studios, Spode Site, Elanora street, Stoke upon Trent.

Mobiles

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Wire woven mobiles in my window. The first thing I look at in the morning. One was to celebrate my hubbys 65th birthday, the other Ygdrasil, the tree at the centre of the world was a gift from my friend. I wonder if there will be any more?

Wire weaving is a brilliant skill, I think my friend was featured as a maker on one of the TV sales shows a few years ago. This sort of work takes agility and dexterity.

Creative people deserve recognition and support. In a world where councils, running short of money, are going to close art galleries and libraries, I wonder what people are meant to do to learn and enjoy the arts? Maybe the richest 20 MEN in the world should share some of their wealth more, even if we go back to Victorian values like philanthropy. Art is in our DNA it needs preserving!

Singing cheers me up

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I was at choir practice yesterday and today. It cheered me up. I have to say I feel much better when I do go. I believe it helps to release endorphins in your brain? I know that when I’m feeling really down it helps so much. I would suggest if you can join a choir do it! A lot of choirs don’t have auditions, and are taught be repetition of the musical phrases rather than using sheet music. That’s how we are taught, the choir master sings a line and we repeat it. Gradually building up the song. We sometimes have the words printed off phonetically. We’ve learnt French, Zulu, Maori, Spanish, Bulgarian and many other languages learning that way.

I know this is a bit random, but I think its a great way af helping your mental health and also a good way of socialising.

Putting a bookcase together!

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Describe the most ambitious DIY project you’ve ever taken on.

I remember fighting to put a bookcase together. We had picture instructions. Various dowels and screws and covers to go over the screw heads, shelves, and a few bits that made a sort of plinth base thing. It was white coated MDF which had white hardboard that slotted together at the back. It came with pva glue that helped hold it together.

Once we got it out of the box we got confused with how to put it together. Place part A next to part C, use dowel B to join together etc etc…  But it gets boring after a bit. You spill the glue on the destructions (as I call them), which stick together and then, disaster(ish). It sort of looks like the picture on the box, but a bit like the leaning tower of Pisa! No matter, we will try putting books on when the glue dries…

Snowdrops

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I went with a friend to Rode Hall today to take a look at the snowdrop walk, an annual event where people can walk round and see snowdrops growing by the lake and in the woods. Sadly we are at the end of the snowdrop season so a lot of them have finished flowering. But it was good to get out.

I’ve been hiding away recently. I don’t like driving very far as my health has deteriorated. But going out with a friend made me feel safer. I hung onto her on the slippy muddy bits. I feel like I’m teetering forward all the time. My balance is off, but I managed to bend down and take a photo of the snowdrops (galanthus ?) I know Rode Hall has lots of varieties of snowdrops and snowbells?

I got home and fell asleep, I was so tired, but I’m glad I went. Spring is on its way.

Rode Hall is off the A34 Road near Scholar Green in Staffordshire.

Health issues

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What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

Imagine being ill already and finding out something else is wrong with you (it’s only taken two years). I’m also waiting for some results about another illness. I hope I will be OK but it’s certainly a challenge.

But I live in a country where health care is funded and mostly free if you can get an appointment. If I can get the medication I need I hope I will be alright. I just hope the health service does not deteriorate further.

Things may change. Politics may change, hopefully for the better and mean that care and health may once more become important. I certainly hope so.

Too much has gone to the richest in society. We were told ‘trickle down’ would happen so the poorest would get a few crumbs of concellation. Also that ‘levelling up’ would help, where towns and cities have to bid for dwindling resources. I guess my health depends on my nation….

Diagnosis

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I’m not saying what I’ve got, but I’ve been waiting for a follow up appointment for two years. So this isn’t a recent thing.

I was told last time that I didn’t have something, now I’m told I have. Basically my previous symptoms, we’re not bad enough for a decision and delays in appointments have meant it’s taken two years for a proper diagnosis. To be honest I felt relief because I can take tablets for it. Hopefully that will alleviate my symptoms.

Now I’m waiting for some other test results about something else. I feel like I’m playing illness top trumps! (a card game).

It will be ok

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What advice would you give to your teenage self?

When I came to Stoke-on-Trent (the potteries), as a teenager I was leaving home for the first time. I was living in student accommodation for the first year, but then I had to move out into a rented room. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. But I met my boyfriend who later became my husband. I would now tell myself that was the right choice. It didn’t always feel like it at the time, we had some crazy days until things settled down. I could tell my future self some things that I have since forgotten.

I would tell myself that when things were bad they could and did get better. It wasn’t all perfect, how could it be? I never became a famous artist, but enough people would end up liking my paintings for me to feel their recognition.

Life changes over the decades, but a lot of what was important to me as a teenager still is. Moving out also taught me lessons about real life. How I should treat people kindly and to care about them. I can’t say much more because it’s so long ago!