I went to choir this morning. It’s one for lung health but I go because my friend goes and more and more for my mental health too.
I’ve been through a lot of crisises lately and I feel like I’m in the middle of a crescendo of music at the moment, will the wall of sound collapse and calm down, or turn into a tsunami of torment? Awaiting test results to find out.
I finally got a long awaited hospital appointment through, I’m hoping something will be sorted out, but I’m nervous of the outcome.
Meantime? I will keep singing at choirs, trying to keep my spirits and endorphins up. I will try and keep calm in the middle of a whirling cacophony of worry!
Digital drawing I did of David Duchovny about 10 or 15 years ago (when the X files was on TV?).
It’s another one of my drawings at Sketchfu before the website closed. I had a great deal of fun drawing there and it seems so strange not to be able to draw there anymore. I loved doing portraits on the site.
I just watched a video of a cow walking up to a tent, the camper had left his trainers outside. As the cow walked past the trainers got stuck on a front then rear hoof. Very funny, but who decided to film the cow. Could it be a faked video?
It bought back memories though. We once went camping once on a farm near Ludlow on the English /Welsh border. A dog there was pregnant and while we were out for the day cycling down into Ludlow to explore the castle, it got in our tent and stole the cheese and other stuff we were going to have for tea! The farmer was very apologetic. I think he gave us some sausages and eggs to replace the lost provisions. We made sure the tent was zipped up and tied shut the next time we went out!
By the way our tent was just a tiny two man canvas tent that served us well for many years. I do remember waking up on one occasion with a cow snuffling round the guide ropes of it, but the cow did no harm.
On another occasion we were camping above St Ives in Cornwall. It was a stormy night. My hubby put his foot against the tent zip and broke it. I’d got a sewing kit with us? Why? I don’t know, but I remember roughly sewing up the tent opening to keep it shut in the gale while having to hold the torch in my teeth (hubby having fallen asleep).
When I passed my driving test I couldn’t afford to buy a car so my mom gave me her Austin Allegro? as she had wanted to replace it. She did say the brakes were a bit dodgy. But with the enthusiasm of a new driver I wasn’t too worried.
A couple of weeks after getting it we decided to explore the countryside where we used to cycle. The narrow lanes were tricky but I got us safely to Rudyard lake and a peaceful afternoon.
What possessed me to take a wrong turn on the way home will never be known. Possibly I thought I was taking a shorter route? But we got lost, the lanes were narrower, steep banks on either side. I came down a hill approaching a bend when suddenly another car roared round the bend coming head on for us!
All I could do was violently swing the car left toward the side, the other car got past, but the brakes didn’t stop us in time. I hit a low stone wall straight into the radiator. The car stopped. I had to find a phone (no mobiles in those days). We rang the AA who came out. The car was a write off, the engine had been knocked back six inches!
Despite the fact the car was destroyed I still think it was the best gift. And I learnt a valuable lesson. Don’t drive beyond your capabilities.
I just got back from a Claybody Theatre production, an Audience with Toby Jones. He’s the actor who recently appeared as Mr Bates (in Mr Bates versus the Post Office) the sub postmaster who was accused with hundreds of others of stealing money from the post office when it was actually the horizon computer system that had caused the problems. The ITV drama he was in really bought the scandalous treatment of sub postmasters out into the open.
He’s also been in the Detectorists, played Truman Capote, played Neil Baldwin in Marvellous and has been in many more plays, films and TV series. He also played Dobbie the House Elf in Harry Potter.
Toby Jones talked about his university experience, his further studies with a French drama school, how he went from wanting to be a director to being an actor. As he explained he doesn’t have control of what’s coming up. Actors are lucky to get parts and they have to go with whats available. He explained he’s not bothered about fame, and came across as a genuine and funny person. He had come to Spode in Stoke upon Trent to support Claybody Theatre.
His father was the actor Freddie Jones and had lived in Longton in Stoke-on-Trent. He had taken up acting quite late in life and Toby wasn’t sure if he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.
It was a thoroughly interesting evening. I was so glad to have seen him in person.
Artrage oils drawing from several years ago. This is the free version of the app. You only have the oil pen tools but it certainly can be used to create interesting effects. I like this a lot, I used the metallic option to give it this sheen. If you tone down the metallic effect the colours become paler and you can draw over the darker parts (where I have outlined the bird) as it seems to be more opaque and covers over the darker areas.
A local author and friend, called Fred Hughes, wrote an article on Facebook and in our local paper talking about how, as he has grown older, he has found himself crying more. One example he gives is when the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, burnt down two years ago. He lives nearby and found himself bought to rears because of all his memories of what had happened in that place, meeting people, enjoying good company and hospitality. He said that apparently hormonal changes can affect men because they are bought up to be stoic and strong. It must be a real shock to the system to allow grief and sadness out.
I think crying is good for you. Women do seem to be able to cry more often? I have wailed and cried and felt deep grief recently, not least because of the Leopard fire. The last two years have affected me a lot with various events. I’m not a stoic person although I try, when you have worked with people you have to try and stay professional. But without crying I would have exploded!
Snoozing cat having a lie in after a night on the tiles? He snores, he dreams, paws twitching. He greets me with a little purr. I think I have got three familiars (I have two other cats). They all have different traits but they are all very loving.
I don’t name them on here because of online security. I could call them all by pseudonym, but I don’t think it matters. They are big, medium and small!
This is big (used to be ‘outside’ cat), he sometimes pushes the cat flap door loose because he has got quite fat. He has a barrel shaped belly and seems quite content. When we first met him as an abandoned cat he was already an adult, I guess he’s over 13 years old now. Middle aged and happy.
My hubby had a blue scrap book he wrote in about his life. A4 pages that have anecdotes of when we got together, his thoughts about college, other things that meant a lot to him. About thirty years ago we visited Laugharne in Wales and went to the Boathouse where Dylan Thomas used to live. There was a museum about his life and a cafe. Hubby kept the receipt for two coffees and two Welsh cakes. That was in the book….
Then we walked up the steps from the Boathouse and along the path to where Dylan writing hut sat above the river estuary. We looked into his shed and could see papers and books and pens as he had left it. I remember the green of the trees and sparkling water.
We walked back along the path through a wood and down through a churchyard where I think he might be buried, then into the little town of Laugharne itself. We called into Brown’s hotel? If I remember correctly, I think it might have been where he drank. We chatted about Dylan life. Hubby loved his work and had taped himself reading some of his writing. I think we might still have the tapes, but I doubt if our cassette player would play them.
It was a perfect day, part of a week’s visit to Tenby and it’s surroundings. I wish I could time travel back.
The train stamps were on the same page in the book. Another love of his.
Mallaband-Brown 