Someone knocking at a door?

Someone, a young woman, has been knocking on a neighbours front door for half an hour. Hubby went out and asked her what she was doing (actually called out, the flat is fifty yards away) but got no answer, the woman was actually kicking and booting the door. The flat is above a shop and the woman seemed intent on getting in. Finally we gave up and rang the police. If she had been in distress we would have called an ambulance for her. But it seemed strange behaviour. Clearly after that length of time no one is going to open up. I hope it gets resolved. It’s worrying that she thought it was OK to do it… No shouts or screams, just kicking…it’s stopped now….

Orme Art at the Whitfield centre.

There is free entry to the Orme Art Group Exhibition. It’s on tomorrow at the Whitfield centre on Whitfield Avenue in Newcastle under Lyme. 11am till 4pm. The bottom photo is my table of small paintings. And the photo above it shows two boards with some of my larger paintings exhibited at the same time. I have finished five little paintings today, adding extra colour to one, a cat to another, and generally tidying them up. Then I put the paintings up on the boards, people seemed to like them. X

The Green Man?

Who would you like to talk to soon?

I would like to speak to a mythological person. The Green man. I would ask him how he manages with leaves growing all over him including out of his mouth? Is he rooted to the ground or can he move around like Treebeard the Ent from the Lord of the Rings Story by Tolkien? I would also what literature he appears in so I can find new things to read….

It’s a weird question though, I could say a relative or friend, but no one here would know them, so I could say anything. I could make things up. The same goes for famous people, how would I know what to say to a rock star or a TV personality and of what relevance would my opinions have for them, or theirs to me?

I would like some answers about insurance or council issues, instead of having to deal with a bot or an answer machine. At least when you speak to a human they can understand nuanced ideas and arguments. Having to talk to a chat bot can limit communication, particularly if it can’t understand your accent. Sometimes I talk to a AI voice on the phone and it will think I said No when I said Yes. When I rang up the cinema for local showings of films it thought I asked for Edinburgh! So yes, the Green Man, why not?

Another deer

Just down the hill from the metal stag in the Dorothy Clive garden was another stag we found. It was made of willow withies I think.

There were plants growing up through it which looked like clematis. I guess it will look amazing when the flowers are in full bloom.

I have gone a bit botanical in these last few posts. I have enjoyed getting out. I don’t go to many places anymore, and with my new camera on my phone I have taken an excessive lot of photos.

You may notice there is a brown area towards the top right of the photo? That’s because I’m waiting for a phone case and the one I’m using is too big, so the edge of the cover is overlapping the camera lens.

Textured sunset

I put a sunset photo through the photodirector app (styles) and liked this result. The effect seems to be like oil on water, fluid but blocky. The colours are subtly concentrated in patches and the line edges are more curved.

There are about seven options for textures so I went through them all to choose the one I liked best. Some of them are more smudged than others.

Mom’s wedding ring

What personal belongings do you hold most dear?

My wedding ring holds mom’s in place. Her hands must have been bigger than mine, hers would fall off without it. My ring is cheap, soft gold. I bought it myself for £27 from a jewellery store when we were getting married. Mom’s wedding ring is heavier and I’m sure higher quality. It’s slowly wearing mine away as they have rubbed against each other for about ten years. It was her bequest to me when she died, and every time I look at it I am reminded of the strong supportive woman she was. She allowed me to go to college when she could have insisted that I found a job. She helped me with my spelling when I was younger (I was in a low stream at school because I couldn’t see properly). They tested my eyes and I got glasses, mom helped me catch up by helping me with spelling. 100 words at a time! I got put up into the top stream at school. Mom encouraged my artistic endeavours. She would even show people my drawings.

She raised me and my siblings after our father died and went out and did two jobs to support us. She learnt to drive so she could transport us to places. She even took us out to Chinese meals and taught us how to use chopsticks. So many good and odd memories! She raised us to be polite and thoughtful. I am forever in her debt.

English doodle

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was English. I think I went full “merry England” here! It’s definitely not fine art, more of a doodle, with morris dancers (you could have ‘molly’ dancers)… and a hobby horse, and children in the background dancing round the maypole, it’s set in a village with thatched cottages. I guess the main place I can think of that does something like this is Abbots Bromley near Rugeley in Staffordshire. They have the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance. But that’s in September? Sadly I’ve never witnessed it!