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Mom’s wedding ring

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What personal belongings do you hold most dear?

My wedding ring holds mom’s in place. Her hands must have been bigger than mine, hers would fall off without it. My ring is cheap, soft gold. I bought it myself for £27 from a jewellery store when we were getting married. Mom’s wedding ring is heavier and I’m sure higher quality. It’s slowly wearing mine away as they have rubbed against each other for about ten years. It was her bequest to me when she died, and every time I look at it I am reminded of the strong supportive woman she was. She allowed me to go to college when she could have insisted that I found a job. She helped me with my spelling when I was younger (I was in a low stream at school because I couldn’t see properly). They tested my eyes and I got glasses, mom helped me catch up by helping me with spelling. 100 words at a time! I got put up into the top stream at school. Mom encouraged my artistic endeavours. She would even show people my drawings.

She raised me and my siblings after our father died and went out and did two jobs to support us. She learnt to drive so she could transport us to places. She even took us out to Chinese meals and taught us how to use chopsticks. So many good and odd memories! She raised us to be polite and thoughtful. I am forever in her debt.

English doodle

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Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was English. I think I went full “merry England” here! It’s definitely not fine art, more of a doodle, with morris dancers (you could have ‘molly’ dancers)… and a hobby horse, and children in the background dancing round the maypole, it’s set in a village with thatched cottages. I guess the main place I can think of that does something like this is Abbots Bromley near Rugeley in Staffordshire. They have the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. But that’s in September? Sadly I’ve never witnessed it!

Our white lilac

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I saw a post on my friend Martha’s blog and I realised her lilac and ours are flowering at the same time despite being on different continents.

At the side of our house near the front door are several bushes and trees. These include a white buddlea (not in flower yet) and a tall white lilac which has ivy scrambling up through it. The lilac is two thirds the height of our house and is happy there, which is strange because the two purple lilac bushes we had in the garden died off because they were shaded out.

I can see the lilac bush as I’m driving home down our hill. The white flowers are all over it. It sparkles in the sunshine. The blossom should be there for a while. I only wish I could smell it, but a head injury several years ago means my sense of smell is limited. I will post a few garden photos soon.

My cats daughter

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My friend posted a photo of one of her cats yesterday, and it was my cats daughter. She looks so cute with her black mask. She’s grown into a full sized cat, but her sister, who was also adopted by my friend, is only tiny like her mum.

So it’s great to see her thriving. I love her black mask, reminds me of batman! Apparently she was looking in through a window to check if my friends dog was about, but it was in another room asleep.

It’s good to know how they are. I don’t hear about their brothers who were adopted by a couple a few miles away. We did see photos of them growing up though. It’s nice to keep track of them….

Too many!

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A green stone

Do you have any collections?

Stones, rocks and crystals. Glass paperweights. Books. Plants (mainly Christmas cactuses). Cat ornaments. My paintings and art.

One small terraced house. Two bedrooms, one living room. Cluttered. I’m trying to declutter a bit, but it’s hard when you collect (or is it hoard?) things.

I tried counting the books once, but when I got to 1000 I gave up. I collected Terry Pratchettand and Ann McCaffrey books, also Ellis Peters (Brother Cadviael books). I might have spelt it wrong. I like science and biography, novels and history, too many…

Cat ornaments range from sculptures to small home made clay objects. I have most of them in the living room, sitting on the mantlepiece.

I also collect too much art supplies. I have lots of felt pens, brushes, paints, canvases. Yes it’s cluttered. So I need to organise everything. Have a spring clean. Dust off the glass paperweights, the cats, my paintings. If something happens to us goodness knows what my relatives will think!

Back yard

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It’s growing,

a bit of water

It’s gone mad!

Pots overflow

Burgeoning leaves

With green waterfalls

Bubbling out of the soil

Brown turned green

Ferns in the wall..

Yellow Welsh poppies

And dark mauve geraniums

Fun to see it grow

But no room to walk

A path is required

But raspberries

And blueberries

Have flowers

Now I need bees!

Tired

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Ugh! I got up really early to move the car. My parking pass has run out, so I can’t park in front of my house between 8am and 9pm so I’ve had to find a spot in another street.

The good news is that I have applied for the pass. I had to use the Internet as the council does not have an office open to the public anymore. Everything is via their website. What about people who are not computer literate, or don’t do online banking? Poor people are gradually being disenfranchised. They could use a library. But lots of them have been closed due to budget cuts.

So I have done the forms online and got a receipt to prove I’ve paid. But I still have to wait for the pass to be posted to me. The bad news is that post isn’t delivered as frequently as it used to be. At one time post was delivered on the next day all around the country. That includes most of Scotland, Wales and the far south west. Now, however, the royal mail is concentrating on parcel deliveries. It’s letter service is a lot less important (all those emails…) and to add insult to injury the price of a first class stamp is now £1.10 (at least depending on its size). I can remember when you could buy a stamp for 20 pence.

Worse still, the email says that due to high demand, it may take ten days for the pass to be posted out! That will be ten Working days, two weeks.

So at least I will be getting up early for a while. Although I can have a lie in on Sundays and bank holidays!