Awake 4. 29am

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In the kitchen, just wondering how to get to sleep. Have to wear a breathing mask at night, but when your nose is like a dripping tap things get awkward. You either push the mask aside and blow your nose, while getting the full force of the air coming through the machine like a cool hairdryer on full blast. Or you have to sit up, take the mask off fully and have a big blow, or combine it with getting a drink from the kitchen as your mouth is dry, which seems to encourage more mucus. I’m thinking of getting some hot lemon and honey again. It’s nice and soothing as my throat is sore too. Meanwhile the cat is sleeping in my chair so I don’t want to disturb him. The moon has sailed through the heavens and set and the fridge is making some weird crackling sounds. I guess I will have to listen to that for a bit in case it does something strange. I think it’s just expanding and contracting, it’s always been noisy since we got it. Now I’ve decided to pull it away from the wall a bit more so it gets better air circulation…. In the meantime the land of nod seems further away, my shoulders are tense and I need to go to an appointment at 9.15am. What’s the phrase I’m looking for? Cest la Vie? Something like that.

Cutting paper

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Do you ever fold paper into six and cut it up to make paper snowflakes? Thats what I did a couple of years ago. Then I duplicated it with my layout app. I did various iterations, this is one is favourite. I’m concentrating on old art work because I haven’t got the energy to draw or paint tonight. I will try and do more things in the next few days again. I also want to try and write some more poetry, but I feel jumbled up in my head…..

Words like winter, shivering, cold, spring to mind.

Christmas lights switch on.

Christmas lights switch on up at St Thomas’s Church, penkhull.

There was a fair crowd as we,  the panto  cast, and junior cast members stepped outside to sing in the choir. The wind was blowing coldly up over the hill. The Lord mayor lit the lights and the tree and we sang many traditional carols including Silent Night and Hark the Herald Angels sing, which are both favourites of mine.

Penkhull village brass band were playing up a storm, and Father Christmas mingled with the crowds.

One thought as we sat there was how cold it was. An hour sitting on a plastic chair, starting to shiver and shake. Makes you wonder how homeless people cope. How do they survive. In this season if goodwill to all men, let’s have some real goodwill to all men and women!

PS sorry about the photos,  it was difficult to take photos. Had to concentrate on singing….

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Geminids

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We (the Earth) is heading towards a stream of bits of rock from a comet called 3200 Phaethon. This is what  causes the annual Geminid meteor shower. It is expect to peak on December the 13th and 14th. The night before is the full Moon. But the Geminids are bright and can have brilliant fireballs during the shower so they may be visible even through the moonlight. The main problem in the UK is that its often too cloudy to see things like meteor showers. I’ve often stood outside and looked for meteors, but seen nothing.on one occasion long ago we drove off into the night to see if we could get out from underneath the cloud. We drove from Stoke to Buxton and Macclesfield, but to no avail. Apparently they had a good show in Liverpool that night. But we missed it.

Meteor showers can appear at all times of the day, but are best viewed at night. As the Eath turns different bits of it can be pointing into the comet debris at different times of day. Generally they are more visible after local midnight, but one part of the world may see nothing and another part several meteors a minute. It can also be dependent on the width or narrowness of the dust stream.

Happy viewing, wrap up warm!

Woody update…

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Woody/Smudge nine years old and abandoned by his owners has been sleeping snug in our summerhouse. But he’s been turfed out by a big grey tabby which may also be a stray. I’ve put together a box with a towel and put it in a big bag for life. Put the next to the table he is hiding under. I don’t want him to sleep outside so we are going to get a rabbit hutch and straw bales in the morning. Also propped the shed door open for more shelter. What he needs is a home. He’s advertised on Cats protection. I’m hoping he gets a new home soon x.

Sunrise this morning

The sun crept up and sideways,

Falling West And South,

Skirting tree branches and

Hopping over leaves.

Each minute, slightly higher,

Each second slightly across to South.

As the Sun reaches its Zenith

It falls behind low clouds,

Grey mist rising,

Now its afternoon.

Already going dark and freezing,

Sunrise forgotten in the crepuscular light.

 

 

I’ve barely been here this week.

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First a fall and then a cold, I’ve not really done much blogging over the last couple of weeks. I’ve been resting and sitting and staring. Looking at canvases and thinking what I should do. I’ve got a craft fair coming up and I need to do some basically Christmassy art, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t really do cute and my mind feels befuddled. At least I’ve got more than a week to go to the big one. But will I get some cards printed. I’m going to have to push myself as soon as I feel better. The digital drawing illustrating this piece pretty much sums up how I feel.

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Cold

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Last night it was minus 6°C in parts of the United Kingdom. There are homeless people living out there in this country, huddled in doorways, or visiting foodbanks. People are buying sleeping bags and hot water bottles to use when it’s cold (for children too) rather than put their heating on.

It’s all become normal in these days of austerity. People are working in the gig economy and are so low paid, or get so few hours work, that they have to claim benefits, and yet the take up of benefits is lower than ever.

What to do? How can things be like this? I’m scared it will only get worse. I heard a homeless man froze to death in car park last night. I could understand if it was a polar explorer, but not a man in a town or city centre. This has to be wrong.

Coughing and spluttering

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Yesterday, at choir practice I started with a tickly cough. One of those ones you get sometimes when you hold a note for too long. But then I started wheezing… Lovely… Now this morning the coughing, sneezing, and spluttering has started. I hope I’m not in for a bad bug or anything. I’ve got stuff to do, people to see as they say. X

This picture of me indicates how muzzy headed I feel. Now you know. X