New paintings and regular art updates.
Cats! They are sometimes sweet, sometimes bonkers. One of mine seems to think he’s an otter! He’s just come upstairs purring gloriously and left wet paw prints next to me as I was sitting on the edge of the bed. A purraow and now he’s washing his paws. Reminds me of a quote from Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood…. Before you let the Sun in make sure it’s wiped it’s feet!
The ugly duckling hides in the reeds, brown feathers gradually lost, snow white feathers uncovered. Soon it will be a majestic Swan.
Photo from a walk in 2020, Westport lake in Stoke on Trent.
Storm “Henk”, passed over us yesterday. The fifth named storm of the current season I think? Rivers in the South and West have flooded including the Severn at Shrewsbury, a river at Tenby in South West Wales, the river at Worcester and many other places. I think they said there were about 150 flood alerts this time including one in South Wales so severe that there was a danger to life.
Rain and strong winds had made it so dark outside that there were leaden skies for most of the day, and night came early as the sunlight was blocked by the piled up blackened clouds.
We had the new forecast last night. The low is drifting away and high pressure and colder drier weather is on its way. Thank goodness for that. But the weather is getting wilder. Is this a sign of global warming?
What colleges have you attended?
Most of my studies were arts based. But I genuinely think that having an art degree helped me with understanding the imaging techniques of Radiography. I only just passed that course though because I wasn’t very good at Physics.
Life might have been different if I had persued a career as a radiographer. I was very good at positioning patients and producing accurate images. But I got into trouble once because I took an xray of someone and the lecturer said it would be impossible to take it without moving the patient. BUT I had used a very mobile xray machine that you could position at any angle or height. I got the supervising Radiographer to confirm I had done it correctly. Even so I was marked down and given a minimum pass mark for the film. That’s when I fell out of love with that particular course.
Westport lake. A splendid place to visit is one of our local reservoirs. It helps supply the Trent and Mersey canal. In winter when the trees and bushes are skeletal the warm glow of a sunset can make it seem anything but cold. Pleasant memory of a walk with my hubby.
Distractions don’t work, I’m dreading the night, time for my mind to run riot. Put the radio on low? I just have to listen. I can’t stop myself. It’s too dark so I put the light on to feel safer. The cats jump on the bed but then want attention. My head spins. My circadian rythms are all over the place. A cup of cocoa doesnt work. Yawning now. 8.30am another sleepless night.
Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?
I’ve recently found a hexagonal game where you have to match up three or more hexagons to join them together and create a higher value hexagon. You get points when you join them, but you also have to avoid fully blocking the grid you play on or you lose. Most of the time you get dual hexagons with two seperate numbers, but sometimes you get a duplicated number, or a single hexagon. Merging hexagons clear spaces and if you make a big enough number the lowest hexagons are removed from the grid. You can rotate the hexagons to put them in better positions to link them up. My highest score was over 56000.
You can tell from this description that I’ve been playing it a lot lately. It’s mind numbing and distracting me from the outside world. I think its called mega hexa? Avoid if you don’t want to get addicted to it!
All my cats have black patches on their noses. Apparently the black in cats is actually a type of tabby (ginger) and sometimes in bright sunlight you can even see stripes where part of the coat has faded. Most of the cats I have had have been black and white, none of them were pedigree and a lot of them were cool characters. One particular cat was very intelligent. She came when I whistled or called, but would also jump across gaps when I called her and liked to ride on my shoulder. She was a stray when we got her and lived to a good age of around 19.
Want to get a pet with an independent personality? Think of adopting a rescue cat!
I didn’t cry on New Years day.
I didn’t weep at all
I felt sad and tired
But I’d run out of tears today.
Screwed my eyes up…
Nothing came,
No lachrymose rivulets
Running down my cheeks
I drew a doodle
Of a woman crying
That was all I could do.
Life costs money
The more I think about things the more I wonder how I will manage my finances. My hubby was the main breadwinner, recently I’d given up work to look after him because of his health. We had the cushion of his money coming in over those years and I got used to it. Now? A lot smaller income. Probably a third of what we were getting. Savings will have to be made. I don’t know if I can afford to keep my car. All expensive bills come in January. I’m dreading it. But I think I will cope. If not I will try and get a job.
Mallaband-Brown