Flower of passion

We went out this afternoon for a shopping trip because I need new shoes. I managed to drive myself to the shopping village in Trentham. It’s been a month since I have been allowed in the car because of my eye operation. It’s only a couple of miles but it could have been fifty. I felt so anxious, but so pleased to get the skill back. Luckily I was with my sister so felt more confidence.

While I was at the village I saw this lovely passion flower. A good reminder of the day.

Bye glasses lens

Bye bye glasses lens, after my cataract op my eye was less short sighted so the optician has popped out the glass. Weird walking round with the wind blowing into my eye! I’ve put the screwdriver in the photo to show the lens has gone.

My eyesight is still slightly short sighted, but I am happy. My only problem is a bit of double vision. I would recommend the operation, and as my other eye is now getting fuzzier I’m glad I’m booked in to have the other one done.

Molly

Blurry photo

Molly, a portrait of a woman called Molly Leigh who may have been a witch, she lived in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. It’s the second painting I’m putting in the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme. It’s another acrylic on canvas. Included in the front window of the museum with the Orme Art Group Exhibition.

It will be for sale. I need to let my paintings go to new homes. I want them to go where they are appreciated and will be seen. I realise that as I get older I am holding on to a lot of things that could be better elsewhere. I don’t want an empty space but I’m running out of wall space.

Spode window

A strange little window at Spode Works. It’s the only one I’ve seen on the site. I love the way the bricks are built in a circle. A little porthole in the side of an old factory in Stoke on Trent. I love quirky things.

This is an acrylic on canvas. Our Orme Art Group is having a small exhibition in front window of the Brampton museum and art gallery in Newcastle under Lyme in Staffordshire. This is one of two paintings I’m exhibiting. It’s on from next week I think. I might not be able to get along to it as I’m having another cataract operation in a few weeks.

Flag waving

In response to a lot of strange flag waving excesses in the UK I posted this message. I believe it explains how I feel about it.

It’s not the flag, but the idiots waving it whilst shouting abuse at anyone who doesn’t agree with them. It’s not the flag, but people arguing people should be burnt alive. It’s not the flag, but people who think it’s funny to let children drown. It’s not the flag, but people who think paying the taliban to take frightened people back to Afghanistan is a good idea. It’s not the flag, but the people who consider it the British Swastika.
If you fly the flag do it with respect to humanity.

I think this could be a way of describing it to other people too. This might be too much to say here, but I feel it needs to be said. I don’t want to bring arguments here. I apologise for that.

What is Gas Mark 5 in electric heat…

What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

I am using an air fryer as my gas oven is no longer working. But as it’s temperature is set in Celsius I sometimes have to check what the equivalent is

So Gas Mark 5 is 190°Celcius. But the air fryers maximum heat only goes up to 200°C and yet my old gas oven goes up to 9 so I do wonder whether there are any things I shouldn’t cook in it? Of course there’s always the trick of putting things in the microwave afterwards to ensure the food is thoroughly heated through.

Apologies for this boring post, but you did ask!

Getting obsessed

I didn’t think I would be, but I guess it’s the old serotonin rush. I came off X because it was getting nasty. There were too many trolls making it a sad place to be.

Then I decided to try threads. I have to say it’s far more pleasant. But I do worry that I’m on the platform too much. I doom scroll for hours. Then I go off on a mahjong marathon. Sometimes it’s more interesting than the television. What I do want is to be given the OK to drive again..

Old Wood

It looks like a coastline with crumpled cliffs and a sandy, rocky beach below. But is that a tall building above the cliff? The scale is wrong. And why is the left side of the sky paler than the right hand side? Because this is actually a close up of an old window, the paint has come off the frame and the wood is dry and brittle. Photo taken a few years ago at Spode Works, Elanora street, Stoke upon Trent.

Star trek

What TV shows did you watch as a kid?

I loved star trek

My favourite?

Spock

So stoical and bright

Please don’t mock!

Kirk, I liked him to

A bit overdramatic

An excitable character

Swashbuckling and hectic

McCoy was the doctor

You’d like to see

He made me laugh

Humour was his key.

Scotty, engineer, brave

Could fix any problem

Given enough time

And not caused by a Romulan!