Germany

Posted on Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Share a story about the furthest you’ve ever traveled from home.

I went on a wine tasting weekend once. I was on a coach trip and we visited some wineries in the Rhine region. I bought a few bottles of the lovely ‘qualitats wine mit pradicat’ I think that’s how it’s written.

We visited during a holiday weekend so some shops were shut, but everyone we met was friendly. I tried to ask for aspirin for my cold (which made wine tasting difficult). But I said ‘haben du asperin bitte’ and was told I should have said ‘ haben sie’ because ‘du’ is too familiar and only used with close family and friends?

We saw the Rhine and I think a statue of the Rhine maidens from a bridge over the river gorge. We visited a cuckoo clock shop. It was early autumn and the mornings were frosty. Tiny villages clung to the sides of steep hills above the river. It was lovely.

In my dreams

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

In my dreams I’ve flown to Mars

Months in space beyond our globe.

Spinning microgravity ship

Holds me in its gentle arms

Final days and then descent

Falling through a cold thin air.

Retro rockets saved the day

Landing on a desert of red.

Never going there again

Cost too much and I’m afraid

I’d never spend another night

On Elesyums Planitia’s slopes of red

I’d rather spend my dreams in bed.

An astronaut? Not me, I’ve said.

Devon coast

Posted on Posted in Fine Art, Memories, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Acrylic on canvas. Devon beach and rocks on an overcast day. I think its near Plymouth, but the painting is probably 20 years old.

The rocks on this part of the coast are dark and craggy. The water makes them darker, with a slight glint to them. They form layers that slope down into the water and there are plenty of rock pools with barnacles and limpets. There might be small crabs lurking under seaweed in them. Between the rocks the sand is sandy coloured (goldish grey). With flat flakes of rock and stones and pebbles in discreet lines rolled into place by the tides. There are also strands of seaweed left at high tide where sand flies and sand hoppers dwell.

All this rembered because I painted the view.

Old door

Posted on Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

I took this photo of an old door at Spode pottery five years ago. I guess you could call it shabby. I would not have seen it but there was some work going on at the main entrance to Spode studios so we had to use a side entrance.

I only found this again because of the marvellous Facebook memories. I don’t know how many hundreds or thousands of photos I’ve taken since this, but not that many get put online, so this one must have felt special to me.

I think this might have been a pottery mould store, there was a collection of several thousand old pottery moulds that were a historical record of the shapes of the ceramics Spode used to make. Unfortunately I think they were destroyed a couple of years ago because they were not going to be used again. I think that sort of destruction is unforgivable.

Had to add

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

A bird in a tree…

I always find finger painting trees and details difficult in digital apps, I really need to find my digital stylus out, but I don’t know where its gone. This was drawn in the Sketchbook app.

Anyway this fits in with the poem I wrote this morning. The bird on the tree is probably a blackbird (it’s difficult to draw something that delicate accurately). I loved creating this because it’s different to my usual style. And I’m really pleased with the colour combination of yellow overlaying black and grey.

Small and tidy

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , 5 Comments

What does your ideal home look like?

My ideal home is very similar to what I live in, but it would be slightly bigger with an ensuite bathroom. It doesn’t have to be detached, or modern. Maybe a Victorian terrace with minton tiles in the hallway and a skylight to let in more light into the kitchen at the back. It would have a long back garden with mature fruit trees.

One thing I would do is buy better furniture. Most of mine is old and some of it is broken. I can’t afford to replace it, so I would love to win some money, I can’t imagine how else I could manage it. I would also completely rearrange my belongings and dejunk.

One thing I would not do is buy a charity ticket to win a ‘million pound house’, I think the chances of winning are very slim and if I did win it would be a waste because I don’t need the space. I couldn’t afford to run it, nor pay the council tax or the power supply. I would have to sell it off. I also would hate to leave family and friends to go somewhere miles from where I live now

Plum side salad

Posted on Posted in UncategorizedTagged , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

I just wanted to make something for tea and I had a small pork pie to use up. I decided to put a small salad together.

We had a couple of very ripe plums in the fruit bowl so I chopped them up. To this I added a large tomato and some cucumber also chopped.

I have new jars of silvers skin pickled onions and baby gherkins. I really struggle to get the lids off. I saw online a way of releasing them. You tap the side edge of the lid with a wooden spoon. Tap and turn the jar until you hear air suck into the jar with a pop! It actually works, just don’t bash to hard!

So I added sliced gherkin and little pickled onions. Then I drizzled light mayonnaise over the top.

It was nice to eat a slightly sweet salad with natural fruit instead of sweetened pickled onions which I really don’t like.