Poor pears

Posted on September 13, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blossom, Cherries, Crop, Food, Fruit, Fungus, Gardening, Growing, Pears, Ripe, Time, Trees4 Comments

Some years the pears set, the tree is well watered and we get many pears off our tree. But it’s looking sad as the wind blew it over at an angle a few years ago. We had to support it on blocks of wood.

As the branches are horizontal that usually encourages fruiting. But both the pear and cherry trees flowered but we’re caught by late frosts and then strong winds that blew the blossom off. The cherry only managed half it’s crop and now the pear is even worse. A few pears had a fungal infection and had to be thrown away, you can’t compost them as it encourages the fungus to spread. So we only have a few pears to show this year. Here are three. The little one is going squishy so it’s getting thrown out.

Pears are funny, they stay unripe for ages. Then seem to ripen overnight. We will just eat these, as there is not enough for a chutney.

Getting outside

Posted on September 13, 2023September 13, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged anxious, Art, Chairs, Choir, Escape, Life, Outside, Planning, Table, Urban sketching4 Comments

Out painting with a friend

It’s been a month since I went out painting on a windy day, came back and caught my leg in a car door. On Saturday there is an urban sketching meet and I might go. What concerns me is that I will need a table or at least a chair. But on the same day there is a choir performance I’d like to attend. It will be possibly a safer bet as its downstairs and there will be chairs and no steps to negotiate….. It feels scary and good to contemplate getting out and about again. It’s good that two activities I love, art and singing, are both happening on the same day, but I am anxious!

Medicating the cat

Posted on September 12, 2023September 12, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged allergic, antibiotics, Black and white cat, Cat, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2057, Gloves, Medication, priority, Tablet, treats, tuxedo cat fat cat4 Comments

What are you doing this evening?

Waiting to give my cat his medicine… My cat has had an abscess, probably swiped by another cat. He’s got antibiotic tablets, but he won’t take them crushed up with food. They are big and I have to quarter them then crush each bit up and give them to him twice a day.

I need my hubbys help. We wrap him up in a towel then I’ve dissolved the tablet in a bit of water and I’ve got a small pet syringe, so we have to use that to squirt the medication in his mouth. The trouble is I have to wear gloves as I’m allergic to the medicine. So it’s a bit of a fight. I’ve got a bite to my finger, but I can’t blame the cat for being scared.

We managed to give him his tablet this morning and now this evening, He’s not impressed, only another six days to go! He’s getting a nice treat afterwards. That seems to help a bit. He needs to take the full course.

Ivy

Posted on September 12, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colour, extension, Gardening, Growth, heavy work, Ivy, Life, Roof, salmon pink, Silhouette, Sunset2 Comments

Ivy is growing right over our roof and into the yard. I’m worried that the roof of the extention will be damaged. The problem is neither of us are up to the heavy work required to sort it out. So the yard is starting to look like a picturesque ruin. I took a photo because the sun was setting and the sky was a nice, contrastong pink, but I think my camera over exposes photos, so you can only see a hint of the salmon pink it was glowing.

Muralling.

Posted on September 12, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Burslem, Clarice Cliffe, Emulsion on lining paper, Fine Art, Haunted, Leopard Hotel, Murals, Sad, Spooky, Umbrellas4 Comments

I put months of work into the murals at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. I did around twelve, but then it closed down a few years ago and eventually burnt down. The shell of the building is still there.

I used to paint in the evenings after work and most of the time on my own, and the Arnold Bennett suite that I painted in was right at the back of the hotel. The room was sometimes quite spooky! You heard odd creaks and noises, but I never felt scared although the Leopard Hotel appeared in Britain’s Most Haunted. It was semi derelict upstairs and there had been plans to restore it. Painting there was a great experience.

Hand made

Posted on September 12, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Abstract, Art, Artrage, Colour, Drawing, Handmade, Photodirector, Prompt, Sketching2 Comments

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was handmade. I tried to do an abstract, an imagined explanation of the prompt. I drew a hand holding a hand made of ice that is starting to melt. I used Artrage app and photodirector.

90% healed!

Posted on September 12, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged 90%healed, bandage, dressing, elated, Leg, nurse, patience, scabby, tacky, wound3 Comments

My leg is very wrinkly after a month under bandages.

After a month of big, long, thick bandages and dressings my wound is 90% healed. I now have just a small dressing as the nurse says the wound is mostly scabbed over and feels tacky. I might be discharged soon. I can’t explain how it feels to be close to being free of the problem, I’m fed up but elated. I want to get back to normal, but the word patient is correct, you have to have patience to be a patient!

Almost a year

Posted on September 12, 2023 Posted in Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Bad poetry, Gone, Humour, Memory, Poem, Poetry, Rhyme, Sad, Sketching, Trying to understand, Twin3 Comments

Almost a year

Time has moved on

From when I heard

That you were gone

The Earth around the Sun

That shone

Has turned full circle

And flown on

Around the galaxy

So that now

We cannot ever

Return anon.

Still raw my thoughts

Reach back in time.

I miss you so

Hence this Bad rhyme

I hope that if you were to glance

At this mad poem

You’d laugh and prance

And tell me ‘chill!’

Take no heed

We must survive

Old life’s sad dance!

Selfishness

Posted on September 11, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged dailyprompt, dailyprompt-2056, generosity, Life, scrolling, selfishness, Sharing, Thinking, Uncaring2 Comments

What personality trait in people raises a red flag with you?

Some people are selfish. I think its a bad trait. I don’t understand it. Why do they think it’s OK? I trying to get into their mindset. They might not have much themselves, so they have to scrimp and save. But others in the same situation might be more generous, partly because they have been bought up to share. I think children can struggle if there is not enough to go round, so they try and keep what they can to themselves…

Selfishness blankets a feeling of empathy. Stifles understanding other peoples needs. Gives an excuse not to be considerate. Selfishness, taken to extremes stops any thought of less well off people, making excuses when it’s obvious that help is needed. On today’s parlance scrolling past charities and blaming the poor for their situation, calling them undeserving.

Selfishness is unfair and can be cruel, uncaring and without merit.

Footstool takeover!

Posted on September 11, 2023September 11, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cardboard box, footstool, Home made, Kneading, making biscuits, Pillow, Poddling, Sleeping, Tuxedo cat4 Comments

I made myself a footstool out of a strong cardboard box, a pillow and a cat banket for softness. I’ve had my feet up on it for weeks, so the cats haven’t had the opportunity to use it. But I just went to get a drink and came back to find my little cat kneading it, (making biscuits/poddling). She’s now settled down to sleep! Cheeky!