Statue

I’m not sure who this is meant to be, it’s a photo I took three years ago at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent. The woman is carrying a snake.

I looked up various ‘women holding a snake’ entries on the Internet. Some had two snakes, some were about Asian goddesses. But this is a single snake, classically represented. I don’t know if it’s Greek or Roman but I think I remember the statue being linked with medicine so I plumped for a roman version from Wikipedia.

Angitia

The Romans derived her name from anguis, “serpent,” hence the form Anguitia. As snakes were often associated with the healing arts in antiquity (see, for instance, rod of Asclepius), Angitia is believed to have been mainly a goddess of thaumaturgy.

Took my cat to the vet.

What notable things happened today?

Not this cat, the other one!

Inoculations time. Luckily I managed to get my cat in his carrier without a fight. I took him in the car, I always secure the carrier with the seat belt in the car because you never know what will happen if someone hits your car.

I struggled in through the door then the vet came and carried my cat box from the waiting room into the examination room. After a quick check up where the cat wanted to scramble back into the carrier, he got his injection of vaccine and the vet carried him back to the car (a lot of carrying went on in this tale). We drove back home and the cat didn’t make a sound. Home again and he was out of the basket like a shot, happy to be back.

Japanese food

Bento box at a local Japanese restaurant. It was my birthday treat today. I like how the various types of food are held in compartments so you can mix and match flavours. You chose when main meat or vegetarian portion and the bento comes with rice, salad, sliced pickled ginger, goyoza, sushi, all very tasty. I had roast duck with Teriyaki sauce as my main choice. It was very pleasant sharing the evening with friends and putting worries to the back of my mind.

2 cats

Sharing the settee, two cats, relaxed and sleeping. They do tend to hang up on their sister though. So she sleeps upstairs and these two snuggle down on the crocheted blanket.

The big cat has started snoring. The middle one sleeps quietly. The third,, small one, hopped up the stairs a few minutes ago. The house is settling down for the night.

Truth

What are you passionate about?

I like truth, I always have, I heard a story when I was little, about a boy that chopped down a tree but owned up to it when asked as he couldn’t tell a lie… I think that was a boy who became an American president.

How ironic that a recent president posts on a website called Truth, but that isn’t necessarily being honest (is this where I say allegedly?).

Why am I passionate about it? It actually makes me feel ill not to be honest. I was bought up as a Christian and although I’m now agnostic, I still feel deeply that truth is  important. I feel that people should know the truth about things. The problem with that though is that different people have different truths! I was recently listening to 1984 by George Orwell and it did strike a chord about how the masses can be controlled. Life is difficult and truth is important to me.

Air fryer news

I used it! After weeks of looking at it and trying to think when to use it my sister decided to get me to cook with it.

I was anxious when u first used a pressure cooker. This was far more simple. Set the heat, set the timer. If things need shaking just set the timer to half the full amount, take the food basket out, shake the food, put it back in and reset the timer for the second half of the cooking. So simple and I didn’t realise that it cooks quicker than an oven!

Playing with fashion.

Watching the Great British Sewing Bee on TV (a TV show on BBC which pits a number of amateur sewing competetors against each other) I drew these trying to channel fashion, remembering old fashioned sewing patterns you could get in the 1970’s. I doodled a design, but not feeling very well so just messing about. I used Artrage and Photodirector to create the patterns.

Spring

What is your favorite season of year? Why?

Flowers open

First daffodils then tulips

Some promise of primroses

Helibores nod their head

Leaves unfurl and spread

Yellows and golds attract the bees

Their eyes subtle patterns insects see.

Guiding them to nectar

From flowers and trees.

That’s the season set to please!