Scroogy

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A friend just came round to see how I was. I’d just finished watching the George C Scott version of a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, so I was happy to ask her in. She’s a lovely person but a bit excitable and overwhelming.

Anyway she started tidying up the kitchen and put some things in the recycling bin. I heard her moving things and came in to find she was mixing up the types of waste. Not only that she had put my refillable olive oil bottle in the bin. I had to ask her to stop and pulled it back out again. Then she went in the bathroom and managed to break a bit off the tap, (it just needed screwing back in place).

I know how my stuff works and she could have asked instead of coming in like a bull in a China shop. I appreciated her concern for me but please let me do things my own way.

By the time we had chatted for half an hour I was feeling fraught. Thats why I feel a bit grumpy/scroogy. I’ve got used to my own company, I like doing things my own way and I was getting frustrated by her trying to take over. She’s gone now and so has my almost Migraine. It’s left me feeling  like a bad host!

Spark plug machine

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Memory of a prop for the Penkhull Mystery Plays, I think this was a couple of years before covid?

The inventor of the spark plug, Oliver Lodge, lived in Penkhull and there are two local streets named after him, Oliver and Lodge Roads.

I can’t remember exactly what happened in the show but we had to try and make this pretend engine start with a starting handle and inserting a spark plug into the top of the engine.

I do think the prop and scenery people were fantastic. I got to paint some of it and make some of it but there was a great team of volunteers including making things from willow and papier mache, seamstress and stitches and making towers and buildings from bits of two by four and 8ft x 4ft flats of hardboard.

Hopefully the Mystery Plays will return in the summer of 2025.

Lands end

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I still like this old oil painting I did of lands end twenty or more years ago. I actually painted it from a postcard. Lands End is at the furthest west part of Cornwall which is in turn the furthest west county of England.

We tried to go to Lands End on day trip while on a holiday once, but we couldn’t afford the entrance fee (I have no idea how much it costs now). So we ended up going down into Sennen cove slightly North of it. That was lovely, we found a great gift shop that was seriously tempting.

I think we were stopping at St Ives for a week, and visited the Tate gallery there. We also drove round to Penzance which was on the southern coast. I wish I could remember more about it. That’s the trouble when you only go somewhere once, long ago, memory fades.

In our garden

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Do you ever see wild animals?

Yes I see wild animals, mostly birds including Robins, blackbirds and wrens, but a squirrel jumped onto our garden fence last week, right outside the kitchen window. I’ve previously seen hedgehogs and also spotted a fox a few years ago. My garden is a bit of a wildlife haven with bushes and trees for the animals to rest in. There’s also a leaky pond, so sometimes we have tadpoles and frogs.

I must put out some bird food soon. I’m a bit nervous though of slipping on the leaves out there. My garden is on a slope so I could end up sliding down it in the mud. Must be careful.

Storm Darragh expected

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We have a red storm warning for tomorrow covering most of South and Central Wales. Then amber for surrounding areas including where I live.

The warning is for strong winds up to 90 miles an hour with a danger to life, with damage to buildings and trees possible including flooding. I think there have been four named storms so far this season including this one. There has been a lot of rain, which is far more than we usually get. (this is the UK where we gets lots of rain).

See you on the other side….

View from Cheddleton

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Watercolour I did several years ago at the end of Cheddleton Station platform looking towards (eventually) Froghall wharf.

In the other direction the train line extends half a mile or so before ending abruptly neat the Cheddleton to Leek main road. The train line itself used to continue to Leek before travelling on to Stoke-on-Trent.

The line is starting to be rebuilt towards Leek! It’s exciting news that has been long awaited.

To find out more look up the Churnet Valley railway on the Internet.

On a quiet day

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On a quiet day

The world can stay

Bound in a shroud

No need to unwrap

Or unstrap

The troubles on my back.

I’ll rest my eyes

As time slowly flies

Through the open windows.

The sky is grey

And I can’t say

If my troubles have dwindled.

I need repair

And real self care

To haul me through my sadness

Without that care, a real nightmare

Will send me into madness.

So quiettude is what I seek.

No loud hurrahs

No rowdy bars

Just me, alone, asleep.

Again

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Comes to something when you are so tired after “another sleepless night”, that you end up doodling about it. At almost 6am.

I used my Artrage app to do it and the various brushes to get different looks. I didn’t blur anything together so it looks quite graphic/illustrative. I’m please the blue stands out against the flood filled black.

Why  am I awake? Aches, tremors, too hot or cold, also hungry as I missed a few meals with a stomach bug. Urgh.