I don’t know an answer

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If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

What possible word could be banned? What language would it be in? Would it be an old word or new? Could it be a profanity or a religious word?

The question what word would you ban from general usage is impossible if I were to make the choice. Thinking about so many words that I hate or dispise gets me nowhere. Words that are political, or hate filled may have a use in describing a group or a situation. Remove the word and you remove the significance of it. Like editing out a person from a photo, you don’t remove the existence of them. You just try and hide a secret that should be left visible.

And again, what language is it in? I only speak and write English, but is the word German, or Swahili, Moroccan, Portuguese? What right do I have to chose? I say again, this is impossible.

I’m sure certain words do spring to mind. Perhaps we should consider using different words instead, not putting a blanket ban on it but considering a substitute.

What do you think?

Snowdrops

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I went with a friend to Rode Hall today to take a look at the snowdrop walk, an annual event where people can walk round and see snowdrops growing by the lake and in the woods. Sadly we are at the end of the snowdrop season so a lot of them have finished flowering. But it was good to get out.

I’ve been hiding away recently. I don’t like driving very far as my health has deteriorated. But going out with a friend made me feel safer. I hung onto her on the slippy muddy bits. I feel like I’m teetering forward all the time. My balance is off, but I managed to bend down and take a photo of the snowdrops (galanthus ?) I know Rode Hall has lots of varieties of snowdrops and snowbells?

I got home and fell asleep, I was so tired, but I’m glad I went. Spring is on its way.

Rode Hall is off the A34 Road near Scholar Green in Staffordshire.

Health issues

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What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

Imagine being ill already and finding out something else is wrong with you (it’s only taken two years). I’m also waiting for some results about another illness. I hope I will be OK but it’s certainly a challenge.

But I live in a country where health care is funded and mostly free if you can get an appointment. If I can get the medication I need I hope I will be alright. I just hope the health service does not deteriorate further.

Things may change. Politics may change, hopefully for the better and mean that care and health may once more become important. I certainly hope so.

Too much has gone to the richest in society. We were told ‘trickle down’ would happen so the poorest would get a few crumbs of concellation. Also that ‘levelling up’ would help, where towns and cities have to bid for dwindling resources. I guess my health depends on my nation….

Palette knife workshop

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I went to a palette knife workshop today. The subject was a painting of rocks amid heather on local moorland.

This is my piece, I just want to add some shadows to the white cotton grass at the bottom. We started with a lime green acrylic wash to knock back the white of the canvas board, then we had to outline the rocks. We painted the top part softly with a brush and added in pink tones at the top and pale green grass with hedges painted in gently,

Then we started with the palette knives. The small pallet knife to shape and layer the rocks and then a bigger palette knife for the grass and finally blacks purple, red and pink for the heather. You have to use the sides or flat of the knife to get various textures.

It was a really enjoyable workshop with a teacher called Jo Watson. The workshop was with the Orme Art Group.

#bandofsketchers prompt was experience. I had the experience of doing this. I think the painting we worked from might have been Derbyshire or Staffs moorlands?

Diagnosis

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I’m not saying what I’ve got, but I’ve been waiting for a follow up appointment for two years. So this isn’t a recent thing.

I was told last time that I didn’t have something, now I’m told I have. Basically my previous symptoms, we’re not bad enough for a decision and delays in appointments have meant it’s taken two years for a proper diagnosis. To be honest I felt relief because I can take tablets for it. Hopefully that will alleviate my symptoms.

Now I’m waiting for some other test results about something else. I feel like I’m playing illness top trumps! (a card game).

It will be ok

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What advice would you give to your teenage self?

When I came to Stoke-on-Trent (the potteries), as a teenager I was leaving home for the first time. I was living in student accommodation for the first year, but then I had to move out into a rented room. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. But I met my boyfriend who later became my husband. I would now tell myself that was the right choice. It didn’t always feel like it at the time, we had some crazy days until things settled down. I could tell my future self some things that I have since forgotten.

I would tell myself that when things were bad they could and did get better. It wasn’t all perfect, how could it be? I never became a famous artist, but enough people would end up liking my paintings for me to feel their recognition.

Life changes over the decades, but a lot of what was important to me as a teenager still is. Moving out also taught me lessons about real life. How I should treat people kindly and to care about them. I can’t say much more because it’s so long ago!

2018 drawing

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Smallest house in Great Britain, in Wales, is it in Caernarfon? (I’ve just been told its actually in Conway) If I remember it’s one up one down. If you spread your arms out it’s only just a bit wider than them (it’s smaller on the inside). I remember there was a woman called Carole dressed in Welsh traditional costume standing outside. We went in (squeezed in) and were amazed at how small it is.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some flats in big cities are actually smaller than this, although I don’t remember seeing a bathroom in it. It’s on the seafront between the castle and a bigger building than it if I remember correctly. It might be worth Googling it if you are interested. I didn’t realise how long ago it was that we visited it, hence the hazy memories.

Floating

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I used to do a lot of collages like this. I just looked back and saw this. Blue sky and wispy clouds with an old building suspended in the sky. I think I might try and do a few more if the rain ever stops! Grey skies and lack of sunshine makes me a dull woman. I need to try and do more art and experiment more. I don’t want to come to a stop. I hope when the sunlight comes back I feel more bright myself.

Floor paint

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Seeing the floor in the Spode Factory is a memory of what went before. Industry and creativity joined. Scratched and chipped, the surface is damaged. Most of it is hidden by studios on either side of a central corridor. When you go into the studios some have metal, single glazed windows that let in the cold of winter. And once the cold gets in it doesn’t seem to get warm again till March!

The building is solid concrete and brick, with arched, barrel shaped ceilings high above. I think any heat rises up there and is lost to us on the shiny, scratched floor.

But here people worked hard to create beautiful ceramics, magical pottery, a hive of hot activity that didn’t need heating because of the kilns and machinery, now long gone.