Wales

Posted on November 17, 2023 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged bara brith, country, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2122, Life, Mountains, Seaside, Snowdonia, tearooms, Wales, Welsh4 Comments

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I think I would move closer to the sea. Up a hill, away from flightpaths, with a lovely view. A small town nearby.

Wales is close enough so that I can still visit family and friends. I would ideally like a slightly bigger house so that people can stay.

Why a Wales retreat? I know the country to some extent. I have Welsh ancestors, I have family there. I am used to the weather and I think its slightly less polluted than England.

Recently I’ve thought about moving. It’s not in the forefront of my mind, but if I ever have the money I would like to spend my declining years visiting Welsh tearooms and eating bara brith cake, painting Welsh scenery and joining choirs!

Poor cat

Posted on November 17, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged abscess, Black and white, burst, Cat, cat fight?, Eye, Healing, Ill, Tired, Tuxedo cat, vets6 Comments

He’s on the stairs, sleeping. He’s just home from the vets. He’s got an abscess below his eye and it burst while he was at the vets. I’ve got antibiotics to give him for the next few days. It will be difficult because he doesn’t like having big tablets, he doesn’t like them crushed in food, so we will try with a syringe and a little bit of water again. He hates having his eye wiped, I want to get in there and bathe it but he struggles and fights back, poor cat.

I jump!

Posted on November 17, 2023November 17, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Calm, Frightened, Garden, Hubby, hypervigilant, Nerves, Rubbish, Scared, Wheelie bins2 Comments

A loud noise by our gate made me jump as I sat in the living room. For a moment I thought someone had jumped over it. I told hubby and he went out into the garden to check. He walked past the window spade in hand, ready to repel intruders. But I reran the image in my head, what I’d heard and seen, I think, was someone opening one of our wheelie bins in front of the gate, to throw rubbish in it.

I hate this nervy, hypervigilant me. I just want to be quiet and calm. I don’t need my blood pressure going sky high! And I don’t want hubby putting himself at risk!

Singing at a lights switch on

Posted on November 16, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, Christmas, Christmas lights switch on, Fun, Music, Queue, Singing, traffic chaos4 Comments

Our choir sang at the switch on of Christmas lights tonight. We sang for about twenty minutes and included traditional carols and other seasonal songs.

The only problem though was the traffic! It felt like hundreds of cars were on the way to the venue. Everyone was driving in the right hand lane as we had to turn right at a roundabout onto the venue. Our choir leader had a asked for designated parking, but was told there would be plenty of spaces. Unfortunately half the city seemed to be fighting for them!

We were dropped off while my friend went to find somewhere to park the car. We had to fight our way through a packed crowd to get to the stage, so when we had finished our set we decided to listen to a couple of songs from the next act, then get going. Unfortunately this meant walking to the far end of the site and climbing over a low fence. When we finally made it to the car all the vehicles around us were in a stationary queue. The cars were moving a foot or two every few minutes. I think we would still be there if a man controlling the traffic explained there was a back road off the site! It took us one and a quarter hours to drive 400 yards!

Despite the traffic chaos, I think we did a great job, we were well appreciated and I’m glad we did it.

A camera!

Posted on November 16, 2023 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Camera, Countryside, Cycling, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2121, Film, Found, Lost, Memory, Prompt, tandemLeave a comment

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever found (and kept)?

We were cycling home on our tandem one summer evening, when suddenly we turned round in the road. I had no idea what was going on, it was a narrow country road and it surprised me.

We pulled up and my hubby started looking on the grass verge. There was a camera just lying there! We didn’t know what to do, so we took it home (we were in the middle of the countryside), with the idea of seeing if there was a film inside and getting it developed if there was. We would try and get it back to its owners somehow? This was about 30 or so years ago before we had the Internet, so there wasn’t much hope of finding its owners.

We sent the film off, but it came back blank, it must have been lost when someone put a new film in, maybe put it on top of a car and forgot to move it when they drove off.

I have to say I had forgotten all about it until I saw this prompt, and now I feel guilty for not reuniting it with it’s owners.

Old Orchids

Posted on November 15, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged clear pots, Indoor gardening, Orchid medium, Orchids, Repotting, Warmth, Winter4 Comments

Old orchids on the windowsill

Growing fitfully, they need repotting. I’m going to have to do it soon as the orchid medium is spent, but they have reflowered a few times. They need clear plastic pots to let light to the roots apparently. My worst habit is not keeping them misted so they are a little dry. I’ve got two more on the kitchen windowsill but I think it will be too cold in there in the winter so I will be moving them into the living room where it’s warmer..

Health

Posted on November 15, 2023November 15, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Age, Concerned, Doctors, Health, Hope, Hubby, Illness, Time, Tired, Worn out3 Comments

Age and health can go hand in hand, your body can start to get wear out. Things don’t work as well as they used to. My hubby hasn’t been well for a few days. He usually throws things off, but he’s not right at the moment. I’m not going to describe his symptoms and I’m not going to Dr Google to see what it says. I think a trip to the doctors is the right thing to do. Fingers crossed it’s a passing thing and it won’t be long till he’s better.

Variations

Posted on November 15, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on watercolour, Art, Bottle ovens, Collage, Drawing, incollage, Painting, Photodirector, Sketching2 Comments

Using photodirector to alter my painting that I completed today. Photodirector can change the texture and shapes of my paintbrush strokes, adding uniformity and chaos at the same time, while I learn what I like, and which editing tool to use. I gave the original painting away. But at least I have a good photo…

Repairs

Posted on November 15, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on watercolour paper, Art, bottle kilns, Bottle ovens, Fine Art, Painting, Prompt, Repairs, Sketching2 Comments

#bandofsketchers prompt a couple of weeks ago was repairs. I painted some bottle kilns today, there are fewer and fewer of them in the potteries and a lot of them are listed buildings and in need of repairs to stop then falling down…

Tired

Posted on November 14, 2023November 14, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Dark, downstairs, Health, hypervigilant, Life, Nightmare, robbery, Shock, Sleep deprived, TiredLeave a comment

I know I’m being hypervigilant, but after the robbery a couple of weeks ago my sleep patterns are really disrupted. I still haven’t gone back to bed upstairs, I feel like a security guard, watching for movements. I thought I saw someone running along the alleyway next to our garden tonight. It worried me and we went out to look.

In the meantime my hubby has been ill for a few days and I need to make sure he’s OK. I don’t know if he’s still shocked by the robbery and he’s worked hard to secure the boundary hedge. Yesterday we were putting in spikey plants. He’s getting on and he’s probably overdoing things. Life is a pain sometimes. I just want us to feel safe again.