He came to me

I just woke up from a dream. I was in the street and I heard footsteps clattering up behind me. I turned and it was my hubby. Hair blowing behind him, his jacket flapping. He said a couple of words, something like ‘I’m here’? But then I woke up.

It’s not much of a story, but it was comforting. The thought that he is around somewhere, even if its just in my imagination made me feel better.

Glass

Glass ball with bubbles of air in it. I’m a bit of a collector of glass paperweights. I started collecting about thirty years ago when I got two with gold and silver leaf embedded in them. My latest one was a few weeks ago when I bought a apple shaped one with glass spirals. Given my current situation I don’t think I will be buying any more.

Manchester

What cities do you want to visit?

I haven’t been to Manchester for years. I like it because it is a cultural centre. Galleries and Theatres and museums. But traffic is difficult. All the routes I used to know have changed. There are more bus lanes and priorities have changed. I got stuck in the city centre about five years ago. We had to turn round in a one way street and follow a bus lane to get out! Luckily I wasn’t fined.

Other problems include the train service, our last train from Manchester is always too early. You can’t stay for a drink after a theatre visit, there is no way to travel unless you take the car, and with carbon taxes it’s not possible to drive into the city centre in a pre millennium car.

Meteors

If it’s clear tonight you might catch the end of the gemini meteor shower! There might be up to 100 meteors (shooting stars) an hour. They are grains of dust the size of a grain of sand burning up in the atmosphere. Bigger pieces can appear as fireballs. They are the remains of dust particles from a comet or asteroid. The Geminids are named after the sign of the zodiac they seem to come from. Gemini (the stars are castor and pollux). Bigger pieces that land are known as meteorites and can be worth a lot of money.

From Google :

Meteor showers tend to be associated with a particular space body; in the case of the Geminids, the source is an asteroid or space rock known as 3200 Phaethon. Every December, Earth runs into the stream of debris the asteroid leaves behind, bringing a new wave of crumbs into our atmosphere that shine as shooting stars.

So if you look out tonight I hope you see the shooting stars x

Wheelie bin news

I got home from choir practice and found one of my wheelie bins tipped up in the road (it’s normally by the gate into the garden). I put it back because it was a hazard being in the road. I’m not tall enough to see over the gate easily and as it was dark I am not going in the garden.

I checked my cctv camera and there was a flicker of light like a torch about 15 minutes after I went out, but no visible people. I’m not sure if anyone came in. Going to look in the morning. I did have a named police officer so I’ve emailed him with the bit of video. This place seems less safe now.

I hope they think I’m kind

Tell us one thing you hope people say about you.

It says it all “# be kind”.

Why not? Why be horrible, unkind, cruel? To make life better for yourself by harming others? Too many dictators and politicians seem to think this way. Often they say populist things to the public, while making decisions that often go against their rhetoric. Looking to increase their power. Then again a lot CEOs pay themselves massive amounts above the lowest paid workers. 80 men earn more put together than half the world’s population, that’s about 4,000,000,000 (4 billion) people!

Kindness can be financial, or verbal, it might just be a gentle hug. It might be not enforcing unfair rules and laws that would be detrimental to different races, faiths, or sexualities. Often conflict is about us and them. Being unkind or treating people as ‘other’ or not ‘one of us’ is not what I support.

Basically it simply comes down to thinking about people, thinking what they need, and trying to help if you can, even if it’s only a few kind words. Be considerate, be kind.

Fun with documents (not)

Someone needs my original document to process a claim. I don’t want to send it as it could get lost in the post. Oh send a certified copy they said. Where do I do that? Solicitors or a doctors? I’m fed up. I’m sick of dealing with paperwork. All I’ve done today is cleaned a windowledge of dead plants that I have neglected recently. It’s all I can think of doing today.

Playing with filters

I used coloured overlays and an added image of the previous collaged photo on top of this. I like the complexity and that the Christmas tree looks a bit like an insects head.

When I get fed up I like to play with images, creating something new, learning, and keeping myself occupied.

I used the incollage app and photodirector to create this.

Jingle bells

Symmetrical tree with lights and stained glass windows. Still loving playing with photos and art.

In other news I’m lucky to have so many friends. Things are happening and I’m like a boulder in a raging river, being bashed all over the place, but people keep throwing me lifelines and I feel like things should (not saying will) be alright. Meanwhile I have to keep occupied.

Paintings for a friend

Over several months a friend has been collecting some of my smaller paintings. She sent me this photo of them yesterday and it struck me how varied they are!

The galleon painting has gold paint on it to give a feeling of the sunlight reflecting back up onto the reverse of the sails.

The small painting of the woman in the woods was taken from a photo from a friend, I loved the atmospheric feeling of it and tried to evoke the colours of autumn.

The dragon is based on an image that I had created for my college piece on the mythology of dragons. I had drawn and designed a children’s book and this was one of the ideas I used for it.

I’m so pleased my art is being appreciated, I love being creative and it keeps me going. X