Louds

Posted on July 16, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged A capella, Blogging, Choir, Loud mouth women, Music, Newcastle baptist church, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Singing, Stafford avenue, StaffordshireLeave a comment

The choir were there but I decided not to include us in the photo. We have two more meetings of the choir before we break up for August then return in September.

Loud Mouth Women is an a capella choir, who meet at Newcastle Baptist church in Stafford Avenue, Clayton, Newcastle-under-Lyme on a Tuesday evening. It is made up of female singers who don’t audition or have to read music and is open to anyone woman who wants to sing. It improves confidence, allows you to socialise, and gives you the opportunity to learn a new skill of singing in different languages. To do this we learn by repetition, learning songs phonetically.

Tonight we learned an arab song about friendship, sang an old favourite “moonriver” and had the pleasure of being taught by Caroline who was deputising for our normal musical director Kate.

We have also recently had the enormous pleasure of going to a Yoga group run by one of the Louds, which is run an hour and a half before we sing. I was so relaxed tonight I almost fell asleep in the choir.

Out of the rain.

Posted on July 11, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Environment, Fiction, Flood, Life, Rain, Sci fi, Short story, Storm, Story, Water, Weather2 Comments

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The storm blew in from the North like a runaway train. The wind threw water against the houses. Cars were lifted up by the flood and were caught on the top of the neat hedges that lined the sides of the street. Out of the maelstrom came a figure of a small man dressed in a black raincoat. Water streamed from him, it flowed out of his sleeves and trouser legs. Tears streamed in rivers from his eyes, nose, mouth and even from his ears.

He was called Beck and he was from the North. He was a water god and he had decided to show mankind his might because of the way the World was being treated. He was angry and the storm was growing into a tornado. He had seen the way forests were being cut back, cars clogging roads, ships travelling half way across the world to deliver the cheapest sweatshop goods.

Beck lifted his arms, words bubbled up from his mouth.

Learn or die! He screamed in a high voice. Learn, or, die !

This years baskets

Posted on July 11, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Back yard, Blogging, Colour, Flowers, Garden, Gardening, Hanging baskets, Life, Photos4 Comments

I took a few photos of them this morning. The sun wasn’t shining so I think they don’t look as bright as they could. There’s lobelia, fushia, begonia, surfinia, pelargonium, nemesia and other plants in them. There are other plants in the yard and I’ve taken a photo of the cala lily as well.

I broke the oven?

Posted on July 10, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Baking, Blogging, Bread, Cooking, Double oven, Fun, Humour, Learning, Life, Mistake, Reflections, Timer2 Comments

When I got in from choir last night my hubby was standing in the kitchen looking perplexed. He had some bread dough in a tin because he’d decided to make a loaf. He had attempted to light the oven but it would not light. It’s a double oven with a small oven/grill at the top and a main oven. He was convinced we would have to contact the shop we got it from or get hold of a repair service. I said let me have a look…

What I saw was an egg timer symbol and another one of a casserole dish. I tried pressing the ignition. Nothing happened. I looked again at the clock display. It was several hours out? Something was clearly wrong. I asked him if he had pushed any buttons? Yes to set the timer. I looked again and realised there must be a delayed start on the main oven as it showed a casserole dish shape with a little clock face on it. I dialled that down to zero, and the egg timer down to zero. Then I tried the ignition again… It lit! I checked why the top oven was blowing out hot air… He had the grill on with the door closed and he had thought the heat had been from the main oven, so he didn’t understand why the bread hadn’t started to cook. Finally he put the dough back in the oven. The resulting loaf (which is nice and tasty) is in the photo…

Cheese (chayse) Oatcakes (owtcayks)

Posted on July 9, 2019July 9, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bacon, Blogging, Cheese, Cooking, Food, grill, Microwave, Oatcakes, Staffordshire, Staffordshire oatcakes, Stoke-on trent, TastyLeave a comment

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Fast, old fashioned food.

The Staffordshire oatcake (words in brackets are my attempt to write it in a Stoke dialect).

Oatcakes in Staffordshire are thin, lace like and tasty. Unrolled they fit on a small dinner plate. They can be eaten with various fillings including savory ones like cheese, cheese and bacon, cheese and sausage (I feel a theme developing). Or you can have them sweet with jam or marmalade which is probably unacceptable to traditionalists. Oatcakes are food or ‘snappin’ to be eaten for breakfast with a strong cup of tea. They are tasty and if you are lucky to have an oatcake shop nearby they are delicious hot from the griddle.

They are an inexpensive meal and can be filled with your own fillings, perhaps chilli con carne or crispy duck? I guess you could even cook them with stewed apple and cream.

I cooked mine in the microwave rolled with grated cheese and added brown sauce. If you grill them you are better heating them flat to make them hot and crispy. Then sprinkle your filling all over like on toast so that the edges don’t burn. They can then be folded in half and finished under the grill. You can eat them with a salad garnish or coleslaw.

You never know you might enjoy them.

Blue smile

Posted on July 9, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Artrage oils, Blogging, Blue, Digital doodle, Life, Poem, Poetry, Sad, Smile, Thinking2 Comments

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I see your blue smile

Sad and sorry

Waiting to leave,

Waiting for a second

Before you go.

Before the smile fades

And you start to cry

Seeing nothing but tears.

At least you had a smile

Once….

Words

Posted on July 8, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Blogging, Books, Fun, Humour, Learning, Life, Playing, School, WordsLeave a comment

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Do you find yourself thinking of a word that just pops into your mind? I thought of a few today. Gestalt, Normality and Defunct all jumped into my head today.

Another day it could be crumble, grunge or fanciful, which is probably what this is.

I think I need sleep when I can dream of words chasing each other through the sky and over hills. Trundling into the sunset where they burst into brilliant petals.

Words are fun, they need using or abusing, but they definitely can make life interesting, exuberant and startling!

Kaleidoscopic

Posted on July 6, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Colour, Fun, Kaleidoscopic, Learning, PatternLeave a comment

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I like this word, kaleidoscopic, I can’t always spell it but it’s something I remember as a child’s toy. A tube you rotate and glass or plastic pieces fall in an enclosed end of the tube so that when you look through the eyepiece they change patterns. The inside of the rest of the tube has mirrors along the length of it so the image is split into sections like a sliced up pie.

It’s difficult to try and explain exactly how it works without taking one apart but you get beautiful patterns similar to the image above (this is just some patterned cloth).

Flower photos

Posted on July 4, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, Blogging, Environment, Gardening, Life, Photos, Planting, Plants, Rose garden, Spode, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, Stoke-upon-TrentLeave a comment

I took these photos a couple of days ago outside the studios at Spode. Su Hurrell is an artist there and she works with urban garden planting. She works with other artists and uses objects like washing machines, old chairs, a chest of drawers and other objects.

Other places are being greened in the town centre. There is Spode Rise garden by the China Halls in Kingsway, Stoke, and then some wild planting along London Road and Hartshill and in Lonsdale Street.

I enjoy seeing these plants, it’s great to see people using planting in exciting new ways.

Previous years mystery making.

Posted on June 30, 2019June 30, 2019 Posted in UncategorizedTagged A few years ago, Art, Blogging, Life, making, Painting, Papier mache, Penkhull mystery play, WillowLeave a comment

A few years ago we did a mystery play which had to include the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This horse was made by my friend Kate and I painted it and another one in a Picasso style to give it an angular and aggressive look.

As time goes on and we get older we are doing less complicated making, basically because we are spending less time doing it. For myself I would like to do more. Anyway I’m off in a bit. Lots to do…

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Tag: Blogging