Spring Helibores

I think of daffodils and crocuses at this time of year, or snowdrops and later tulips. But an often overlooked plant is the Helibore. The flowers tend to droop their faces towards the ground and they have larder five lobed leaves. There colours can be a mottled grey green, white with green splotches or a greyish pink. This is a manipulated image to show how interesting they can be. Lift up a flower and be captivated by its hidden subtle beauty.

Bucket list wish

One day I want to see

Shimmering Northern lights

Lighting up the sky

The Aurora Borealis, bright.

Green or red or white…

Different colours, different elements

Curtains of particles

Flying on Earth’s magnetic field

Falling to land at the poles

Glowing glory

Suns power manifested in air

My bucket list wish.

Seen in England last week

But hidden by clouds….

Grateful

I’m still trying to keep my gratitudes diary going. I’m on day 205. The idea is you look for three small things to be grateful for. Then you write them down and it turns your thoughts to a more positive way of thinking. I’ve found it hasn’t solved my anxiety or feeling down, but I definitely think it’s helped my mood. I might be in pain, but it helps me take my mind off it.

Today’s three gratitudes? Going out for a little walk in open sandals for the first time since splitting my toenail. I went with my hubby so I felt safe. Secondly, listening to ‘the infinite monkey cage’ on BBC radio 4, thirdly having a pan au raisin and a cup of tea after shopping….

Hedgehog seen!

Last night my hubby went out in the garden to put some bird food out and almost tripped over a hedgehog! He said it seemed to be asleep at the base of the cherry tree. He went out again and took a bowl of cat food. This morning the bowl had been tipped over and the food was gone.

When we see hedgehogs I think of spring. It’s still pretty cold and we may get some snow, but they are coming out of hibernation.

DON’T FEED…. milk and bread, hedgehogs are lactose intolerant. They also don’t get enough calories from so called ‘hedgehog’ food. Apparently it’s just meal worms and pet food manufacturers are just trying to make money. You can feed them cat food. Ours seem to like fresh wet or dry cat food. Also nake gaps in wooden fences at their bases to allow hedgehogs through into your garden. .

Almost burnt

We had finished tea and my hubby took the plates in to the kitchen to be washed up. He shouted through to the living room ‘are you cooking something else?’… ‘No’, ‘well you’ve left one of the gas rings on?’ I didn’t realise I had and I walked into the kitchen just as he lifted the Wok lid up off one of the gas stoves burners at the back. He’d only just turned the burner off and as he lifted the Wok lid by its plastic handle he let out an involuntary ‘ow!’ Turns out when I poured some pasta into the big pan of mixed veg and salmon I was cooking on the front hob, I must have dropped the wok lid over the back hob without switching it off. Because the gas was on low, and the lid and handle are heat resistant nothing caught fire, it just got very hot. If the pan lid had any food clinging to it, it would have caught fire, and because I can’t smell things properly we could have had a real problem. Thank goodness hubby spotted my mistake!

Dawn chorus 5am

Imagined view of our garden with bird singing. Too dark to really see.

It’s just after 5am now. I got up because my toes hurt (gout?) on the other foot to the one I had broken my toenail on. Long boring story…

Anyway it’d still dark so I’m sitting here by the light of a standard lamp and trying to sleep with my foot uncovered so there’s no pressure on it.

But through the window I can hear the lilting song of what I think is either a Robin or a Blackbird. I haven’t heard them in the morning during the winter, so I guess spring might just be on the way. It’s lovely to hear them, possibly marking out their territory in the tangled trees and bushes we call our garden. Mind you they have to be aware of the local cats. Mine are all inside snuggled up, but I hope they are singing high up in the branches. X

Playing with silhouettes

A previous digital drawing of a fence against a colourful background. My Sketch app on my phone has silhouettes of trees and plants that I rarely use. I also added extra texture and overlays in Photodirector. These are a couple of the art apps I have on my phone that I use frequently and don’t want to remove if I have to get the Jetpack app. Am I irritated? Yes. Must stop going on about it. Creativity isn’t important after all is it (sulks)…. Sorry!

Reach out to WordPress?

I keep trying to submit a question about Jetpack to WordPress but the support submission form won’t open. I filled in a question on another page but at the bottom it said this comment box is not for questions and to use the support form. So I tried and it still won’t open. I feel like I’m going round in circles and that people like me are too unimportant to WordPress.

This is what I wrote:

I don’t have enough memory on my android phone to add another app. I’ve asked what to do and someone suggested deleting other apps but I use them daily. Or I get messages that deleting them will affect the performance of my phone. I cannot afford a new phone (I can’t afford to pay for fuel, how can I pay for a phone?) This is stressing me out and I only have five days to try and work out what to do. I feel this is for the convenience of WordPress and Jetpack and not their customers. I’ve been told to ‘reach out’ but don’t have a solution. I will have to spend my pension money on a new memory card if I want to keep using WordPress on my old android phone, I feel so frustrated about this.