Insomniac?

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The cats can sleep

Why can’t I?

Aches and pains

Husbands feet

Went to bed

Just two hours sleep!

Up with the lark?

No, awake with the bat

I’m so tired

But I don’t know what?

Where is sleep,

The arms of morpheous,

To rest a whole night

Would be glorious!

Just drank some cocoa,

More in hope

Than expectation

Of getting a few hours

Sleep

Zzzeds are needed

Tiredness exceeded

Brains a whir

Dreams

Occur….

Dawn chorus

Now I hear it stir,

Birdsong!

Liquid, mellifluous….

Earplugs

I have none

 

Brexit.. Done

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At 11.00pm (23.00hrs), Britain left the European Union. After a day that had been grey and drizzly, and a day I felt infinitely sad.

I did not vote for leaving the EU. But about 70% of the people in this area did, do I guess I expected rock and roll bands and masses of fireworks?

Instead we got about ten minutes loud music from the local pub, followed by a minutes fireworks at 10.58pm, then silence… A nice damp squib.

Other friends have posted statuses which sound similar. Perhaps people have become inured to it. Maybe they realise they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces….. As my hubby Sat’s, this world will go on…..

Spock drawing

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A few years ago I was on a website called Sketchfu which eventually closed

It had very simple tools to draw with but I enjoyed drawing all sorts of portraits, including Lord of the Rings characters. I put a lot of them on here a year ago. But my favourite is Spock from the original Star Trek series. He was not easy to draw but I think I got a good representation. The little pink face in the background was the icon for Sketchfu. I do miss it. It was a great site but it was difficult to communicate with the site owners even though I was a Moderator on there. I can’t believe how long it is since it closed.

Why use ‘woke’ as an insult?

” In its modern-day, politicised context, ‘woke‘ is defined by the OED as ‘originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice’.”

I’m guilty of being ‘woke’ I guess. I try and care about things, I’ve always questioned why people can’t get on. When I was a child in the 1960’s I remember I asked why people were nasty to brown people and not pink ones?

But recently ‘woke’ seems to be being used as an insult. Like you can be too ‘woke’ to be interested in helping others? Too caring? Why? Why is it OK to tell someone off because they are too politically correct, or disagree with populist ideas? The world seems to get more selfish by the day.

I don’t think everyone should agree with me, I can agree to disagree. But what do you do when someone constantly disagrees with you? Or dismisses what you say. Even when I’d agreed to disagree a person who I’m not naming kept digging. Recently they started to call me a snowflake and woke. I said I was pleased to be a snowflake as we can gather together and turn into a blizzard! I don’t want to stop being in touch with this person as it means I’m not totally in my own bubble. But I do wonder if I should unfollow them. The world seems to lack altruism, everyone is in it for themselves, hopefully the tide will turn.

Farewell Europe

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At 11pm tonight Britain moves into the transition period of Brexit, we will still be a member of the European Union until later this year when negotiations are completed, but as far as our government is concerned we are OUT. Not all of us are happy that celebrations are taking place tonight. A crowd funding plea was started to pay £500,000 to arrange for Big Ben to ring 11 times to welcome in the change. That’s about £45,000 a bong!  But it didn’t collect enough money. I wonder who gets to keep it? If the government was so keen why not pay for it themselves. Oh I forgot to say the Conservative party, who recently won the general election, is stuffed with Millionaires.

Fifty Two percent of those that voted in the Brexit referendum chose to leave. But forty eight percent said no. I’m one of them. Brexit is not in my name. I get fed up of being called a ‘remoaner’ and being told ‘get over it’. I can see how all this is affecting my European friends. I’m wondering how it will all turn out. I have also seen tea towels and mugs for sale from the Conservatives, I don’t know why they think people will buy them? Our Prime Minister keeps telling us to be optimistic. He promised and end to austerity before the election, now they have announced at least five percent cuts! They are able to do this because they have a massive majority in parliament.

So what do I think? Brexit is a massive waste of money and irrelevant. We should be concentrating on climate change, not throwing away a treaty that had lasted almost fifty years.

Perhaps if I read this in a year things will be OK, but I doubt it.

Swans and ducks

What better on a crisp winters day than to take photos of a Swan and a couple of ducks. Interesting how the sky is reflected in the first one and not so much in the second. They were taken last year out at a place called the plume of feathers, at Barlaston, Staffordshire. The pub sits alongside the Trent and Mersey canal. Much more picturesque than where it runs through the city, the canal offers an opportunity to glide along in narrow boats on self catering holidays. The boats are beautiful to look at, but they can be quite expensive to rent for a week, so I prefer to walk for free by the water and allow the Swans and Ducks to do the gliding….

Jupiter Blue

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Would you buy a painting of one of the poles of Jupiter? I’ve done a few paintings os astronomical objects. This is from a photo from the Juno probe a few years ago. I’m thinking if doing a ainting of Pluto’s heart. But although I love it I wonder if anyone out there is actually interested. Maybe I’m too interested in tech. I can’t help it though.

It’s not easy to hand paint these images, it takes ages to blend the colours and build them up. Then you have to make sure it’s accurate, although I don’t measure everything exactly. I can’t compete with photography but I do try my best. Anyway this is a large acrylic on canvas and it is for sale.