Blurry photo

It would have been our anniversary today. We lived together for years before we married. I painted him when I was about 20 and he still sits in this painting looking out at me. I did a lot of drawings and portraits of him over the years, I am glad there are visible memories of him.

What will happen when I go? Who knows what my relatives will want to do with all my art? Will a local museum take them, or will they just get skipped? I don’t know, I won’t be here but I would like to have some recognition. The trouble is I’m very eclectic, I paint for my self in these images. Ah well, more questions…

Tomorrow is today

On our honeymoon we went caving! Today would have been our anniversary. When I thought of writing this it was our anniversary eve but I fell asleep and only just remembered to post something….

Time flies when you’re feeling sad. It rolls along leaving you behind. I keep imagining what things would have been like if he was still alive. Being on your own means having no one to discuss problems with. Yes I’ve got friends but it’s not the same. We went through a lot together. I wish we still could.

100 year old city.

Old pottery factory

On the 5th of June 1925 City status was bestowed on Stoke-on-Trent. So today we celebrated it’s Centenary.

A few years before on 31st of March 1910 it’s six towns of Longton, Burslem, Hanley, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent joined to gather to become the County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent.

Notable for living in the city were Oliver Lodge, inventor of the spark plug. Josiah Wedgwood inventor of different types of fine pottery. HG Wells lived here for a while in 1888. And Arnold Bennett, the author of the five towns novels wrote many books about the area.

On 5th July 2025 our area of Penkhull will be putting on a Mystery Play about a reimagined story of how the six towns were named.

Happy anniversary Stoke-on-Trent.

Happy eighth blogging anniversary to me!

This came up in my  WordPress a few weeks ago together with a blog saying something along the lines of “wow, it’s amazing I’ve been with WordPress so long and here’s to another eight years.” I don’t mind but I do prefer to write my own blogs rather than some bot writing them for me!

I hope my blog is interesting, sometimes humorous, hopefully informative. I don’t think I am as varied as I used to be. Maybe I’m running out of steam. Anyway hope to be around for a few more years. Cheers x

On a quiet day

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.

Backing myself into a corner?

Married

We met in the September

Moved in together in October

16 years later?

We married.

In 9 minutes it will be our anniversary.

My first without him.

We never really celebrated

He wasn’t into birthdays

Or Anniversaries

A quiet meal

A glass of wine or beer

We were going to be together forever.

The shock when he went

Backed me into a corner.

Nowhere to go

Nothing to do

Surrounded by stuff

That holds me in

Trapped in a corner of sadness

Missing him

And tomorrow? In 5 minutes?

24 hours lost in greif

Mystery Plays

Eight years ago my friend Kate who was the main maker and creative director of Penkhull mystery plays, was in the process of painting this ‘ head of Trent’ for our Mystery Play about the river Trent. This just came up on my Facebook memories.

I’m really hoping the twentieth anniversary production happens next year. We did all sorts of mystery plays, one about Sampson and Delilah, about James Brindley who designed and built the Trent and Mersey canal, and this one about the river Trent from its source to where it runs into the North Sea at Hull, that was fun, we had a spirit of the river character, cricketers at Nottingham, Vikings invading, and I painted a large lighthouse for the final scene. I hope we get to do something again and that I can still paint without too much shaking.

Sunlight over bluebells, a year ago

An innocent day, a year ago. We were out at a Rode Hall, walking through the bluebell woods. No sign of the troubles ahead.

I wish I could hold the hand I held for 43 years, so firm and strong, walking into sunlight with you. Taking each step carefully along the path. You leading the way, supporting me.

I heard the birds singing and felt a gentle breeze that shook the bluebell heads. Nodding in the dappled shade. All ready for some fairy parade when we were gone.

I drew this later from a photo, I wish I could go back in time.