Portal

Posted on March 19, 2023March 19, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged continuum, dimensions, Odd, Photo, Sci fi, Short story, Silly story, Symmetry, Thinking, Time, Very short storyLeave a comment

Step through the portal and walk into another time, another continent perhaps?

That was the challenge she faced one night on the way home from visiting friends. The dark was split by a hole or tunnel glowing with blue white light and paved with what appeared to be stone. A gentle voice emanated from the apparition. ‘Choose your destiny’ it whispered, ‘travel in the fourth dimension to wherever you wish’.

She thought about it. Gift or curse?, ‘One Question’, she asked. ‘Can I return back to here, to now?’ ‘I cannot answer your question’ said the voice. ‘That would depend on if this time continuum continues in its present condition’.

‘Nah!’ she said, ‘not a chance’, and walked away…

Sleep

Posted on March 19, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Awake, Dark, gloom, Insomnia, Life, Light, Night, Poem, Poetry, Sleep, TiredLeave a comment

I close my eyes and wish

For sleep to kiss my cheek

Caress my tired neck

And let me rest my mind.

Instead I lie awake

Uncomfortable and sad

If I could ignore the world

Lose my thoughts

I would be glad.

Night ticks into day

Light blooms in my eyes

I want real sleep to stay

To end my tired gloom.

Confidence, what’s that?

Posted on March 19, 2023March 19, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged boost, clichés, Confidence, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1879, experience, fluctuations, knocked, mistakes, ThinkingLeave a comment

How would you rate your confidence level?

Yes, OK, I do have reasonable confidence levels after years of lacking it. I think you do become more confident as you get older and more experienced. But (and there is always a sneaky but in there) it can easily be knocked because I sometimes over think things, and then worry and anxiety knock my confidence.

Why? At various times I’ve been bullied in my life, and that makes you question what you are doing. It’s hard to give a robust explanation if the person bullying you is your manager. Then the ability to think things through is an advantage, to realise that you haven’t got it wrong, but it can knock your confidence.

Another thing is the feeling of imposter syndrome. When you get a job and then wonder why you feel confused by how you actually got there? So many responsibilities, and I’m doing it? Having to think up reasons why someone can get permission to do one thing, or be denied another? Get it right and the feeling of elation can give your confidence a boost.

But writing? Looking back at this I’m confident I’ve used too many clichés! Oh to be young with all the massive confidence people have these days? No, I think expecting everything to be wonderful all the time is a mistake. We have to learn from them to grow more confident.

Barge

Posted on March 18, 2023March 18, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Barge, Canal boat, Holiday, life off grid, metal hull, Trent and mersey canal, wooden hull2 Comments

A barge called Lothlorien

Holiday or daily living, canal barges offer accommodation ‘off the grid’. A friend of ours had one for about five years while he was living on his own. It was an old wooden boat, about seventy two foot long, and had a massive lifeboat engine powering it that was started with a huge starting handle like on an old car! It took many turns of the handle to fire up the engine.

His barge was a wooden Hull, so every year he took it into dry dock to recaulk the gaps between the wooden boards. If he didn’t the boats planks would let in water. It was lovely in the summer, but cold and damp in the winter, especially on foggy days.

The photo of a metal hulled boat was taken today on the Trent and Mersey canal.

Still there….

Posted on March 18, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Chimney, Clay, Hard work, Life, Memory, Middleport pottery, Poem, Poetry, potters, Pottery, Thinking, WordsLeave a comment

The tall chimney tapers

High up in the air

Birds soar around its slender height.

Blustery and white

Clouds scud across the blue

A memorial to ancient potters

Who wheezed in its smoky shadow.

Coughed clay into spittoons

Made and created beauty

Paid little

Working hard

In their race to death.

Middleport pottery urban sketch

Posted on March 18, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #urbansketchersstoke, Art, Drawing, Felt pens, Life, Middleport pottery, Sketching, Stoke-on-Trent Urban sketchers4 Comments

The felt pens came out today for a drawing of the chimney at Middleport pottery. Stoke-on-Trent Urban Sketchers were out at various places around the factory grounds and across the other side of the Trent and Mersey canal.

It was a warm morning, and there were some brief glimpses of blue sky through the bold grey clouds. I could have drawn Middleports iconic bottle oven, but I wanted to sit down on a bench so I drew the chimney and the roofs instead.

I liked using layers of felt pen, I started with a pale blue pen to outline the buildings but then used black to indicate bricks and worked dark to light, with horizontal and little vertical lines to indicate the brickwork. I even used some silver pan for the sky because my grey pan has dried up. A lovely couple of hours spent in good company.

Not knowing

Posted on March 18, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Anxiety, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1878, Distance, Emotion, Memory, Miles, Sadness, ThinkingLeave a comment

What makes you most anxious?

The world I’d bleak and I don’t know what to say or think. Words and thoughts churn round in my head. I feel anxiety about not getting something right, something I should have done months ago that could have massive consequences now or in the future.

Because I was focused on myself I didn’t see other people or a person who might have needed my help. It’s six months and the Earth has travelled half way around the Sun. That’s 186,000,000 miles. And now I’ve only just realised I should have been there for someone 186 Million miles ago! I feel idiotic, I feel great anxiety that I will not be forgiven. I feel I have lost a chance where I could have been of help…..

Even now, writing this, it seems a trivial response, too self serving, am I writing something that will help, or to just try and exonerate myself. Guilt and anxiety, mixed emotions and sadness…

Bench?

Posted on March 17, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bench, bench appreciation group, chaise, Filter, Funny, Life, Memory, Photo, Trees, Trentham GardensLeave a comment

There is a bench appreciation group that I’ve recently joined. Showing some of the most interesting benches in the UK and around the world. I only joined because my friend invited me and has been posting some beautiful photos. When I looked back on my phone history I only found three pictures out of thousands! This one (which I’ve filtered to hide my hubby) always makes me laugh. There is a shiny wooden bench like a chaise longue? Not sure of spelling. At Trentham Gardens.. It’s hidden inside an arch of several trees. Hubby decided to try it out for size…

Imagined sky

Posted on March 17, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Clouds, Fun, Jupiter, Life, Mars, not real, Photo, Poem, Poetry, SkyLeave a comment

Those clouds aren’t real!

Not cirrus or cumulus

Not lenticular or mackerel

You played with the photo

Didn’t you?

Messing about with the sky

Those clouds up high

Could be on Jupiter

Or Mars!

But not here!

Get that clear!

World map

Posted on March 17, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Colours, Contours, Design, Digital art, Fun, Map, Sketching, Textures, World2 Comments

Digital map, playing with textures. I think it looks a bit woven. I won’t explain how I did it, I spent ages colouring it in. It could look like an old TV screen, but it wouldn’t be in colour! I tried to add continental shelves which is why the colours are shaded in contours. Anyway hope you like it.