My friend sent me this via WhatsApp and I wish I could go, but Saltaire is too far, it’s near Leeds, and I can’t drive that far. I also already have something on on 3rd June. However in the interest of sharing news I thought I’d post this here.
Saltaire is having all sorts of activities this summer. There is a food festival, and it has Salts Mill, a famous Mill that was built by a Victorian industrialist and benefactor. Salts Mill has a bookshop and Gallery and restaurant. It also has a collection of the artist David Hockneys art.
Singing at Audlem Music Festival today with Loud Mouth Women choir.
I have filtered it through Photodirector to make the participants blurred out. We enjoy singing, but not everyone wants to be identified across the whole world. Data should be protected if that’s what people want.
We sang about 15 songs including: Cockles and Mussels, Da do Ron Ron, Melizway, Summer is icumen in, Song of the Sea and a lot more. Some of them were in different languages, like Maori and Zulu. We learn by repetition and don’t use sheet music.
Everyone seemed to enjoy it and they even joined in some of the songs that our choir mistress helped teach them. It went so well that we have been invited back to do a concert!
It was a lovely day out, my only qualm was that I haven’t driven very far in two years and I think I was holding up the traffic as I gingerly negotiated lots of narrow bends, when we got to the village itself there is a warning system to let you know if there is anything coming the other way. I was very alarmed when a massive tanker truck was round the corner! We squeezed through, thankful I had been driving slowly!
Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was tired. Well that’s exactly how I feel, busy weekend. An art group day yesterday and put up an exhibition with them, then today a drive out to Audlem to sing with our choir, then back to help take the exhibition down. Hubby says I look miserable not tired!
Someone, a young woman, has been knocking on a neighbours front door for half an hour. Hubby went out and asked her what she was doing (actually called out, the flat is fifty yards away) but got no answer, the woman was actually kicking and booting the door. The flat is above a shop and the woman seemed intent on getting in. Finally we gave up and rang the police. If she had been in distress we would have called an ambulance for her. But it seemed strange behaviour. Clearly after that length of time no one is going to open up. I hope it gets resolved. It’s worrying that she thought it was OK to do it… No shouts or screams, just kicking…it’s stopped now….
What does “having it all” mean to you? Is it attainable?
I’d rather have happiness than ‘it all’ whatever that is? That could be money or personal belongings. But if billionaires aren’t happy or fulfilled why would I be. When I think about having it all I generally think of a lottery win, then I think about sharing my winnings, and whether there would be enough money to go round. And it’s not just family and friends, what about charities and support for other people. Why can’t they share in ‘having it all?’
I know about 80 men (not women) are richer than half the world’s population. That means 80 people have the same money as 4,000,000,000 men women and children. That’s insane. I don’t understand how they keep their money and don’t share it out?
Everyone seems to want ‘it all’ but what about fair shares? I can understand why if you have never had anything it might be attractive to have it all. But selflessness is surely a better way of living.
Life is difficult or almost impossible for a lot of people. The majority of people in the world have almost nothing to live on. Who considers their needs? When political systems are more interested in corporate profit and money for shareholders than their citizens it’s not a good place to be…
And for me? I doubt it’s attainable now. I’m too old and grouchy to have it all!
Some younger people might not recognise these! Pennies and two pence, change from all those £*. 99 purchases. * being 0 and above pounds.
When British Money was decemalised in the 1970’s we went from 240 pence (D) in a pound (L). That was made up of 20 shillings (S) each of twelve pence. And the shilling was also made up of two sixpence, or four threepenny bits, or 24 half pence or 48 farthings (1/4 of a penny) and apparently there was a mite (1/8 of a penny). There was also half a crown which was two shillings and sixpence. (a florin was two shillings). A crown was five shillings. Ten shillings was half a pound and twenty one shillings was a Guinea. Somewhere among the smallest coinage were groats…..
Hence the Pounds, shillings and pence, or L. S. D. You can imagine how confusing that was for a child. My pocket money was either two threepenny bits or a sixpence, going up to a shilling as I got older.
When we went to 100 pence in a pound, the smallest coin was 1/2 new pence (p), a new penny came next, two pence (all copper coloured), five pence (silver coloured) ten, twenty and fifty pence. The fifty and twenty are not round but have seven sides I think? Eventually the half pence was discontinued and later a bi coloured pound coin was bought in, followed by a bi coloured (bronze and silver coloured) two pound coins.
So we get to recent times where notes are now plastic instead of the paper and rag (cloth was used for strength) notes of the past.
Coins and notes are still used, if you can’t afford credit or use the Internet it’s still needed. But smaller denominations, like pence, might disappear. Some of the coins have got smaller over time. Will we see king Charles third on coins? I guess they will be introduced over the next few years. Maybe the copper coins will disappear soon.
(The .99 pence idea fools you into thinking you are spending less than a full pound £1.00) well you are but only 1% less!
Why not come and enjoy a visit to our Art exhibition. Free entry and cake! If you are at a loose end tomorrow come and browse. You may find something you like x
There is free entry to the Orme Art Group Exhibition. It’s on tomorrow at the Whitfield centre on Whitfield Avenue in Newcastle under Lyme. 11am till 4pm. The bottom photo is my table of small paintings. And the photo above it shows two boards with some of my larger paintings exhibited at the same time. I have finished five little paintings today, adding extra colour to one, a cat to another, and generally tidying them up. Then I put the paintings up on the boards, people seemed to like them. X
I would like to speak to a mythological person. The Green man. I would ask him how he manages with leaves growing all over him including out of his mouth? Is he rooted to the ground or can he move around like Treebeard the Ent from the Lord of the Rings Story by Tolkien? I would also what literature he appears in so I can find new things to read….
It’s a weird question though, I could say a relative or friend, but no one here would know them, so I could say anything. I could make things up. The same goes for famous people, how would I know what to say to a rock star or a TV personality and of what relevance would my opinions have for them, or theirs to me?
I would like some answers about insurance or council issues, instead of having to deal with a bot or an answer machine. At least when you speak to a human they can understand nuanced ideas and arguments. Having to talk to a chat bot can limit communication, particularly if it can’t understand your accent. Sometimes I talk to a AI voice on the phone and it will think I said No when I said Yes. When I rang up the cinema for local showings of films it thought I asked for Edinburgh! So yes, the Green Man, why not?
Just down the hill from the metal stag in the Dorothy Clive garden was another stag we found. It was made of willow withies I think.
There were plants growing up through it which looked like clematis. I guess it will look amazing when the flowers are in full bloom.
I have gone a bit botanical in these last few posts. I have enjoyed getting out. I don’t go to many places anymore, and with my new camera on my phone I have taken an excessive lot of photos.
You may notice there is a brown area towards the top right of the photo? That’s because I’m waiting for a phone case and the one I’m using is too big, so the edge of the cover is overlapping the camera lens.
Mallaband-Brown 