Stray cat?

Posted on January 11, 2025 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, Cold weather, Freezing, Life, Living room, my cats, Rescue, Tuxedo cat4 Comments

This week has been really cold. Last night it was minus 19 °C in Altnagar in the Northern Highlands of Scotland. I was below zero here.

A couple of cats, a ginger and this black and white cat have started sneaking in. Last night both popped in for food, but this one came and sat down in the living room, all the while being stared at (but seemingly accepted) by my own cats.

I managed to take a photo of this boy cat, and put a post on our local lost and found cats page. I have had people offering to check it’s microchip but it must have gone out in the night.

Anyway at least I’m offering a warm space during this cold weather. I’ll have a chat with my vets on Monday. X

My grandads ship

Posted on January 10, 2025 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Carpenter, Fine Art, Grandfather, history handmade, Painting, Sketching, Watercolour2 Comments

My grandfather carved this ship from wood, probably in the early 20th century. It had no masts so I put the the bamboo sticks into it when I was young and I was going to try and put sails on it. It has thin strips of cardboard nailed on along the sides. I painted it up because it was so shabby.

This was a watercolour sketch I’d done about 4 years ago and I’m mourning the fact that I could still draw and paint neatly.

A striped tee shirt

Posted on January 10, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged bloganuary, bloganuary-2024-10, Cotton, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1813, Memory, Orange, Poem, Poetry, Stripes, Tee shirt, White4 Comments

Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

I miss that tee shirt

It was orange and white

I felt like a pirate

Fun to play in.

I was only a child

Wore it forever

But it wore through

Holes in the cotton

But wouldn’t let it go!

Eventually grew out of it

My mom used it to dust!

Fat Cat drawing

Posted on January 9, 2025 Posted in Cat, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat sketch, Drawing, Facebook memories, fat cat, Ink roller, Sketching, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

A fat cat drawn using an ink roller that I did a few years ago. It came up on my Facebook memories and I really like it. It’s only a small drawing, I can’t remember where it is now? Maybe in a sketchbook upstairs somewhere.

Yin Yang Cats

Posted on January 9, 2025 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, Cats, Chair, cuddle poem, Life, Pink, Poetry, snuggle, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

It’s cool for cats?

Not if you want to stay warm!

Sharing a chair

Which side is yours?

Not much space

To pace about?

So cuddle up

Snuggle down

Purr and sleep.

Longshore drift…

Posted on January 8, 2025 Posted in MemoriesTagged Beach, boards, Coast, groynes, Life, Longshore drift, Memory, Posts, Sand, Sea, Seaside, Tides, WaterLeave a comment

Someone asked a question on Facebook about posts sticking up through a beach in lines.

I have a relative at the coast and had wondered the same thing myself. I asked and found out that they were used to slow something called longshore drift. It’s where over time tides moving along the coast shift sands sideways. Groynes (boards) between the posts held the sand back and stopped the beach being washed away.

The Leopard

Posted on January 8, 2025January 8, 2025 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, UncategorizedTagged Burslem, Gone, Memory, Murals, Public house, Sadness, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, The Leopard HotelLeave a comment

My friend sent me this photo (I don’t have an attribution for it). This was a few year’s ago when it was open and the Leopard Hotel was running ghost tours and serving lovely food.

Then one of the owners died and it was taken over by a family member. I don’t know what happened but I think Covid didn’t help. In the end it closed and the owner moved elsewhere. Although the frontage looked OK it needed a tremendous amount of money spending on it as it was partly derelict in the back upper floors.

The hotel stood empty for months, it was bought by an entrepreneur who may have been going to turn it into flats. Unfortunately someone got in and apparently set up a cannabis farm in it (what I heard). Then it simply burnt down. Some of the frontage may remain but the place is boarded up.

I was involved for a while because I painted the murals in the back room, the Arnold Bennett Suite. I never got decent photos in there. I do hope it can be restored.

A hundred?

Posted on January 8, 2025 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Age, Art, bloganuary, bloganuary-2024-08, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1811, Health, Life, Time4 Comments

What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?

Old, not a word I dread, as long as my mind and body continue to work. I want to keep going. I don’t think there is anything after life, I seriously doubt it, so I want to be me for as long as I can.

Health is the problem. Co-morbidities are flung at me at a rapid rate. One thing or another to take tablets for, carefully balanced to keep me going. Unless the pharmacy can’t get my pills, they are out of stock, suppliers let them down. Almost every month there is a problem where I’m left owed something.

After all that I would like to leave a legacy of my art. I hope my paintings won’t get thrown out, maybe I can keep going for seberal more years. I will try.

Ginger cat comes in…

Posted on January 8, 2025 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Black cat, Cat, Cat Food, Food, ginger cat, Owners, sneaking in, Tuxedo cat2 Comments

A beautiful ginger cat came in today and was eating my cats food. I had wondered why the bowls are being locked clean. This is an addition to an almost totally black cat that keeps coming in. That one doesn’t eat food but I have caught it sleeping in the spare bedroom. I’ve used flea spray and keep washing the cats bowls.

I don’t want to be horrible to them as its freezing at the moment. My own cats stand nonchalantly by, they were rescue cats and seem quite tolerant. If I can find their owners I’ll ask them what’s happening?

Moving about

Posted on January 7, 2025 Posted in Cat, Memories, UncategorizedTagged bloganuary, bloganuary-2024-01, Challenge, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1804, Health, Movement, Sad, Stuck, Time3 Comments

What are your biggest challenges?

My biggest challenge seems to be movement inside and outside the house.

Inside I’m unsteady, I use my stick because my feet get muddled sometimes. They twist round each other and trip me up. Going up and down stairs is fun, especially when the cats decide to sleep on the stairs it’s a good job they have white patches so I can see them in the dark.

Outside is a challenge too. Just getting down the steps, hanging on to handrails, then walk a few steps to get to the car. But I get nervous driving, in the past I had hubby with me. Now? I get lifts with people if I can if I’m going any distance. I imagine myself stuck with a flat tyre, or out of petrol, or lost, or too tired to carry on. What happens if the person I’m going to see is out? I think I drove less that 500 miles last year. Memory is of driving all over the country, no longer. My challenge is to get better? I wish.