Oi get out my way!
I want to go to bed.
I know the cat sat on the mat,
But you are way to fat
Just move out of my way
I don’t want to trip over your head
Or get downed by your paw!
Just move off the floor!
You’re a trip hazard….
Cat underfoot
Terry
Ten year old sketch. I used to like drawing people when we went out to the local pub, or to visit friends. It’s just an easy and quick way of keeping my hand in for drawing portraits.
There are groups you can join on the Internet to draw portraits of each other but I always forget its on until it’s over and I hardly go anywhere anymore.
Did you know?
Today is Staffordshire Oatcake day. According to Google:
“Oatcake Day is celebrated annually on August 8th to honor Staffordshire and its famous oatcake. The day began in 2010. Some people celebrate by visiting Staffordshire Oatcakes in Hanley to learn how the Potteries staple is made. Others share their oatcake creations on social media using the hashtag #StaffordshireDay.”
Basically the Staffordshire Oatcake is a thin pancake style flat tasty disk made of oatmeal flour, yeast, water and possibly other ingredients. It is cooked on a hot griddle in a thin layer so it ends up looking a bit like a lace doily but with fewer holes. You can buy a dozen or half a dozen to take home, or if you get them from an oatcake shop you can have them with various toppings. Mostly cheese and bacon, or bacon and mushroom. My favourite is sausage, cheese and tinned tomatoes. Sometimes with a bit of brown sauce. You can also eat them hot with butter and jam, but that’s probably not acceptable behaviour! And rolled or folded? That’s your choice!
Definitely a Staffordshire specialty. Not to be confused with Scottish oatcakes which are smaller and thicker.
Local artist, poet and author, Arthur Berry wrote “Ode to the Oatcake”…
Parking…?
I asked WordPress to show me a photo from it’s free photo library of ‘parking restrictions’. So I was slightly surprised to see a racoon nesting in a tree! I do wonder what criteria it’s search engine uses. But it was amusing so I’ve posted it.
Why am I thinking of parking? I live on a street with residents only parking. I don’t mind if other people park up as long as I can fit in but recently builders have been parking up while renovating buildings in the street.
Today I saw two men in yellow fluorescent jackets wandering up and down the pavement. One seemed to be writing something in a book. Dreaded parking wardens. They ticketed a van. If the owner had knocked on my door I would have lent him my car parking pass. But it’s a good job I didn’t as I now have a visitor and she needs it.
Cat portrait
She came up to greet me this morning, and I could see she was happy. Almost smiling, definitely purring. Her eyes half closed. I love her black nose and her black chin. I had to take a photo. Crazy cat mom, that’s me.
Esther Chilton prompt “future”
We were asked to write to the prompt future and as I don’t have a crystal ball I decided to look back at what our future selves might remember.
“In future when people look back at the first quarter of the twenty first century what will be remembered? A first black American president, increasing global temperatures? Will the remember the global financial crash with Lehmann brothers? Bird flu and Sars then a global pandemic of Covid 19. Massive forest fires, huge hurricanes, tremendous tornados? The deaths of famous people including Queen Elizabeth the Second. Madness of global leaders? Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen, Sudan, so many wars.
Will our future selves see a disintegrated world, a dystopia bought on by the lack of interest in pollution or global warming. Big business using its powers to continue to push oil and gas and plastic use? Will our seas fill with more pollution or the pollenating insects die off so crops fail.
Will they see this part of the century as depressing, or will we take the future into our hands and pass on a cleaner and greener future to our children and their descendants?”
I think £40.
What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?
I went to a Chinese restaurant recently in my home town. We spent a little more than usual. Possibly double the cost than I usually pay? I don’t go out very often anymore unless it’s for a coffee or tea. It was a real treat and gave me a chance of using chopsticks for a change.
The food came in a few courses, starter, then soup, various main selections with rice, then a tasty dessert. Unfortunately I can’t remember the names of the various dishes. But they were all well presented, colourful, and well spiced. It was definitely worth it. I don’t have any photos of the food. It was too nice to waste time on taking pictures.
Mural on cafe wall
I went out today to the health clinic. My friend helped me out so we went off for a hot chocolate afterwards. We were going to one cafe but the road was closed because some buildings are being knocked down. So we took a side street and ended up at Middleport pottery in Stoke-on-Trent.
The cafe there is in one of the old pottery buildings and overlooks the canal. I’m not sure who painted this mural but it is a delicate one that includes the love birds that appear on willow pattern plates and pots.
We sat near the door in a cool breeze and I enjoyed a rest after walking the short distance from the car park over the cobbled roadway to the cafe. I felt like I could start to recover.
Illness
I’d be curled up asleep
The cracks showing
My breath is no purr
More a slurring creak
I’ve been seen by the doctor
Medication prescribed
Now I wait for recovery
Bleugh
Tired and fed up.
I forgot there was sky
Looking up, not at a roof, but at the sky. I’d forgotten it was there. The privet tree and hedge are missing, and I feel their loss, but if I want to look up for meteors or to try and see aurora I can do it now. And you can’t take the garden off me. That garden where I’ve seen hedgehogs and squirrels. I will try and get the rest of the garden (the bit I never show you because it’s overgrown) a bit tidier and let more light in (enough) to grow roses and honeysuckle. Xxx
Just a note. Spaceweather.com has updates of astronomical activity and there is a possibility of auroras tonight in North America and Europe!
Mallaband-Brown 