Time management!

Posted on May 16, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Afternoon, alarm, Anxiety, Bed, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1937, Insomnia, Life, Morning, prompts, Social media2 Comments

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!

Look into my eyes

Posted on May 15, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Amazing, Art, BBC, Drawing, glow up, Life, Make-up, Sketching, TV programme2 Comments

I was just watching a programme called ‘Glow up’ about make up artists competing to win a make up artist of the year award. They are all young, enthusiastic people and the work they did was amazing. The first challenge was to create fresh makeup for an advertising campaign. The results were varied between very subtle and very bold. The second challenge was to create a make up which represented the place the contestants came from. One competitor came up with a bee for Manchester on her models nose, and eagles wings using feathers on the models eyebrows.

I’ve never seen this programme before on BBC 1, but I’m glad I did. I have done a small amount of face-palming in the past but this was on an entirely different scale. Really amazing and artistic! My sketch here is nothing in comparison. X

Found

Posted on May 14, 2023May 14, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Art, bark, Ideas, Life, Painting, Stones, Trees, Winter, Wood, Work in progress2 Comments

Acrylic on canvas painting, work in progress. Of trees and rocks or stones. But I don’t remember what I was doing with it. I found it in the summerhouse while I was helping clear it up. I must have started it sometime last year. Perhaps in the winter. I’ll have to make a story up? Maybe it was too cold in there and the water froze, or the weather changed and continuous rain put me off. I’m going to get my brushes out and try and finish it off….

Guess?

Posted on May 14, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, ArtRage app, Bird, Cartoon, Doodle, Guess, Life, silly sketch, Sketching2 Comments

Today’s #bandofsketchers prompt was guess.. Guess what bird this is? A teet owl….? Just a silly digital cartoon drawing using Artrage and trying to use all the different tools on the app.

Asleep on the stairs

Posted on May 14, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Asleep, Black and white cat, Cat, Curled up, hazard, Life, Sleeping, Snoring, Stairs, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

Beware! Early morning hazard on the stairs. As the days and nights get warmer I think he sleeps on the stairs because there is a cool draught of air descending down them. It does make navigating them difficult for us. Thankfully I have two handrails and I walk carefully anyway. Rushing down (or up) could lead to a serious fall. I am also happy that he has a prominent white mark across his back which makes him more visible against our charcoal grey carpet (which the cats are pulling loose). Early morning perambulation is done at our own risk! Meanwhile he’s snoring quietly, curled up, a step full of fur asleep on the stairs.

Boat house

Posted on May 13, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Age, Boat house, Green, Lake, Life, life belt, old wood, Photograph, renewed, Rode hall, TimeLeave a comment

There it sits, down by the lake. How old is it? Are there boats still moored inside? A life belt is still attached to the back wall as the wood gently greens and rots… .

I’ve never been down the steep steps to the shore, it’s green and slippery and there is no handrail. If I was young I would explore. The reeds and rushes are starting to grow up, and no doubt moorhens or coots will be nesting there soon. Chicks still waiting to be laid in their eggs. There are Canada geese about. Life is renewing.

Atoms?

Posted on May 13, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Atoms, Crystal, Drawing, Energy, Fun, Imagination, Life, Poem, Poetry, Sketching, ThinkingLeave a comment

Atoms surge

Vibrate and link

Molecules appear

Crystals, compounds

Quanta of energy

Scrambled electrons

Muons and Gluons

Barely existing.

Tiny and powerful

Forces pulling

and pushing

Making, creating

And destroying

Conservation

Of energy

Universal

A trip to the vets

Posted on May 12, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged anxious, Black and white cat, booster shot, Cat, Life, miaowing, trip, Tuxedo cat, vets2 Comments

Booster shot time for the cats….

One was fine, the other one not so much. She hid in a cupboard, ran under a cupboard, ran behind the armchair, ran in the kitchen then out again. Finally I managed to grab her at the top of the stairs because we had shut the bedroom doors. Then, well walking downstairs when you are a bit wobbly on your feet and cannot hold the handrail because you need to hold onto the cat… To say I had a feeling of vertigo, scary. Hubby came halfway up the stairs so I could deposit her into the cat carrier.

Then off to the vets, female cat was miaowing all the way (The male was much quieter on his trip) . I kept gently telling her she was OK. The vet was lovely, he was very good with both cats and gave the inoculations while my cats were still in the carrier. A quick check of each cats hearts and we whisked them home again.

Now two hours later I’m being headbutted and purred at by the female. A sprinkling of catnip seems to have helped.

Fed up

Posted on May 11, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Anxiety, Beauty, Fed up, Life, Poem, Poetry, Sad, Thinking, wishes2 Comments

If I could spread flowers

Beneath my feet

And perfume the air

If I could make manna

From heaven, fall

If I could grow fruit

With taste and tang, sweet

Surround myself in clouds

Of lovely hue?

I’d STILL

Be fed up!

Hmph!

I was in it!

Posted on May 10, 2023May 10, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Choir, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1932, Life, Music, Performance, Singing, Spode, the factory floor, Theatre, Time2 Comments

What was the last live performance you saw?

Our choir members sang at a celebration for the completion of a project a few weeks ago. We were involved with a performance at The Potbank hotel at Spoke in Stoke on Trent, which also included the Boat Band (above). Our choir leaders are members of the band. We sang sea shanties and some interesting pieces, like the Eerie Canal and A Wonderful World which Louis Armstrong sang.

Being part of a choir is something I would recommend for helping your mental health. I only sing a couple of times a week and wish I could do more. Singing takes you out of yourself. Singing at a performance boosts your confidence. I’ve sung many times over the years and I don’t get overwhelmed with nerves anymore. OK it’s usually only to a few people, but if I’m giving pleasure to other people then that’s good.

As to an actual performance that I saw, but was not involved in? That goes back a few years I think. We went to the theatre and saw a play about suffragettes. It was interesting, it brought out a lot of the issues women were affected by in those days. I wish I could remember what it was called? It’s so long ago that I’ve forgotten! I don’t know if it was during or before the pandemic? Life can be hard to remember!

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life