Tag: dailyprompt

Legacy?

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Lost mural of Burslem Riot that was destroyed in a fire

My legacy is my art. I have painted for years. I hope that someone wants them when I’ve gone.

I was involved in painting several murals over my time as an artist, but sadly most of them have been destroyed in one way or another. I painted a mural in the stairwell of the Unemployment action centre in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent just after I finished college. Then we found the building was going to be demolished. So myself and a friend got permission to go in and take photos. Unfortunately the photographs came back blank. The film had not been attached to the spool and was not exposed!

Then I painted some murals with a council art group. Over a few weeks we worked on a school canteen (alien/ sci-fi landscape) a ward at a hospital (images of Stoke-on-Trent to aid elderly patients memories), and a memorial for the 1914 to 18 war. All of these were demolished.

Finally I did twelve murals at the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. This took me the good part of two years on and off. The painting above was a mural I did of the Burslem riot of 1842? I researched it and a lot of the characters were based on local Burlem residents and people who worked at or frequented the Leopard. All of the murals were destroyed in a fire that burnt down the hotel.

I have also painted scenery for the local pantomime and Mystery plays, but I don’t know what has happened to them.

What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

So if this isn’t my legacy what is? All the paintings and artwork I have created over the years since I was a child. Not all of them still exist. Art turns out to be quite ephemeral in some ways. But I’ve sold enough that, if no one wants the ones I still have, the rest have gone to new owners. Even if they were to appear in charity shops, I hope that some do find good homes.

It depends how cold!

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How do you feel about cold weather?

Britain is a temperate but also a maritime country. It sits in a position where winds come from all directions and can get hot but also quite cold. That variation in weather means the British are always talking about the it!

As the world warms up we are getting less cold weather, but we don’t always have warm temperatures. Some years ago the country was covered in snow for a few weeks. Satellite pictures showed a totally white surface of the country, which was brilliant white with snow and ice.

So how do I feel about the cold? I have not really experienced very cold weather. But I have lived in cold houses. Huddling around a coal fire when I was a student, with not enough money to burn coal! I remember one day chopping up an old chair to keep warm. That was the year a crank on my then boyfriends bike snapped because it was so cold.

On another occasion we went cycle camping one Easter. The weather was fine on our travel to the camp site, then it snowed. We set up camp then found places in the town to keep warm. We sat in a warm pub till closing time, then had to go back. You know its cold when you put on two pairs of trousers and four tops to go to sleep in a sleeping bag inside a tent!

So on the whole I can cope with the cold. I don’t like not being able to heat our house as I get older, but I can put on more jumpers and a coat.

What I hate is too much heat….

Yes

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Have you ever broken a bone?

I’ve broken a few bones in my life. Luckily they mended.

I don’t know if I should give personal information out about my health, and yet I have shared before. So I will talk about something that happened more than thirty years ago.

I will talk about one injury which was very painful. I slipped on the top stair of a friends house and bumped down every single step on my bottom. Instead of sympathy all my friends just laughed! I realised I had hurt myself, so went to the accident unit at the hospital., in those days you could get checked over much more quickly.

After about four hours of standing up (I couldn’t sit) the doctor diagnosed a fractured coccyx (your tail bone). He said he wouldn’t xray the area, but that it would take six to eight weeks to get better. In the meantime I needed padding to support my weight, so I bought a blow up swimming ring. It was very strange going to work and sitting on a blue ring covered in goldfish. I got some smart and silly remarks from colleagues. But eventually I was OK…

Retired

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How do you balance work and home life?

Balance, what’s that?

Retired: bored or busy?

Sometimes life sucks

Other times it’s lovely.

Time passes quickly

Flowers grow, and fade

Trees shed leaves

And bud.

Stay up late

Lose the daylight

A twylight time?

Prevaricate and regret…

Loss of what’s left…

I should work more

But my mind is tied

In gossamer threads

Of nothing…

Frustrated by

My lack of

Vision and

Determination

To do more…

Sacrifice?

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What sacrifices have you made in life?

There are small and large sacrifices you make when you live with or marry someone. The marriage ceremony says a lot, in sickness and in health, for richer for poorer…

After 40 or more years together you forget a lot of the sacrifices, you just have to try and get along, you do so much together. Things do spring to mind, but now they feel trivial. He had an offer to do a masters degree, I had an offer to move away and get a job in a distant city. What stopped us? Money mainly. We couldn’t afford to give up our jobs. We had to stick with what we were doing.

Life has its way of getting in the way of things. It’s not planned, it’s not a story with a happy ending (unless you are very lucky). It’s a series of compromises and accidents. Time can sometimes smooth things out, but not always.

Then as you get older you make more sacrifices. You can be selfish and decide you want everything your way, or just go along with the flow, become indifferent to your partner. Hopefully you find a way through and stick together. I don’t pretend to have answers, but you cope. I’d maybe have done more with my life, but I’m OK with what I am now and what I’ve got. Life is a path through the trees, you can’t see your destination. You just have to stay hopeful.

A top I bought ten or twelve years ago?

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What’s the oldest things you’re wearing today?

It’s nylon and cotton. A maroon and white striped top. It has a couple of pockets. I bought it for work, I now wear it as something comfortable around the house.

Why not? I’ve lost weight, but it’s one of those baggy tops that doesn’t look bad even now. My thoughts are that I’m not bothered about fashion. If it fits and it looks OK I’m not bothered if its old. I don’t understand why people buy clothes every few months or weeks. I know people can get addicted to shopping. But in a time of austerity, why spend on clothes that might fall apart after a few washes. It’s also harmful to the environment to waste resources on clothes. If it covers you and keeps you warm? Then it’s OK.

I probably have older clothes, but I don’t remember when I bought them. They get washed on low temperatures, then folded and put away till I want them. Some are in a dusty cupboard, I might have some eighties classics!

Follower

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Finding my way

Are you a leader or a follower?

I am not a leader,

so I must be a follower?

Following up a hill,

Always behind

Lost in a maze

Following my gaze

Happy to be lead

As long as its fair

and honest advice

Why don’t I lead?

I’m not bombastic

Or over confident.

I can and do try

But I prefer

Supporting

Caring and thoughtful

I hope….

Bananas…

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List your top 5 favorite fruits.

Bananas, with custard or on toast, my number 1.

Apples, sliced or in a tart with cinnamon.

Blueberries, stirred into my morning porridge.

Oranges, freshly peeled, or squeezed for their juice.

Finally strawberries. Either with cream or ice-cream. Or mixed into an Eton Mess.. Cream, meringue and strawberry all smashed together.

Well that was a boring list! It must be hard to try and think of a prompt to get people to write. Finding a specific idea, and then trying to find out everyone’s opinions. Maybe I should have chosen some less well known fruits, but I don’t know exotic ones. I’ve seen jackfruit on the TV but I’ve never tasted it.

And what is classed as a fruit? Some things are more like vegetables, some berries, do you have to have the seeds on the inside? I should have looked up a definition.

The thing I have to remember is that not everyone can afford fresh fruit. When I was a child, Sunday afternoon tea was canned peaches with evaporated milk and white bread and butter. We didn’t know, but our parents could not afford much. To us it was a treat and when we got maraschino cherries in our orange squash at Christmas it was so delicious. Now, with the cost of living crisis people cannot get the food they need, and that’s in the 6th most rich country in the world. If you look at the rest of the world, there is so much poverty that it must be a dream to get fresh fruit. What a strange world we live in.

Time management!

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Not my artwork!

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

I need to start going to bed earlier. I’m always up late and it’s not good, then I get insomnia and I get up late. It’s a real dilemma to face. Not working also means I don’t have a routine to follow, and recent events have made me worse. I need to get out in the sunshine and boost my vitamin D but it’s easier to sit and feel anxious.

How do I do one thing to get me going again? Perhaps I should set my alarm every morning? Yes I could sleep through it, but at least it might give me the incentive to do things. Normally by the time I get up its after noon….

Why? Social media to some extent, and a constant need to watch the news. I’m caught in that dopamine trap of wanting to keep checking my phone, and yet I want to break away from it. I don’t read click bait but I do look at sites about politics a lot. I’m well informed. But why? it just ups the anxiety levels..

STOP!

Spock!

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Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.

When I was a child I decided to be logical…. Because I saw the character of Spock on TV in a Star Trek and he gave me a love of science and knowledge.

I also think it triggered a love of astronomy together with watching the Sky at Night TV programme (although I never drew Sir Patrick Moore).

All that interest in the world sparked by a science fiction character..