Big cat

Ex-outside cat slept on the stairs last night. He sometimes sleeps on our bed now but instead he was halfway down and I almost stood on him. He is very big and was lying on about two thirds of the step. Luckily I just saw him in time. He is a real character, when we are in the living room he sits between the arms of the chairs we sit on. He seems to really want to be with us. I hope we have completely gained his trust.

Since he moved in with us he’s put on weight and become much calmer. He seems to be very settled with us now. He also gets on well with our other two cats despite him being twice the size of our small female cat. I can’t imagine a time without cats.

Would you go into space?

Mosaic at the BCB

With the advent of space travel becoming available for space tourists I wonder if its something I would go for.

The cost is exorbitant, in the millions, and the risks must be considered. Also the ones that are going are either very rich or famous. I don’t begrudge them doing it, but I hope this doesn’t turn into a new thing to do on their ‘bucket list’. Maybe instead of going into space for ten minutes they could donate that money to pay for covid vaccines in poor countries, or support working towards cutting pollution or reducing global warming.

Instead of selfish joy rides these space tourists should be more considerate. Me? If I could afford it I would stay with my feet firmly on the ground!

Finger painting in ArtRage

A finger painting done with the Artrage oils digital app which I think is free through Google. I use it on my little android phone. Two tools, a brush with four varieties with a sliding size bar and a pallette to choose colours from and the ability to to change the effect from non metallic to metallic. It’s quite a challenge to draw with a tool that smears and smooths out the surface as you draw on it. I enjoy it because you get such a different effect from other sketching apps.

Dragon on pottery

I’m getting obsessed with dragons, thus is a quick sketch of one slithering down a bottle oven at a pottery. I’m imagining it’s been attracted by the heat as the oven is heated up to fire the pottery. I probably should have a plume of smoke coming out of the top of the oven. My dragon is golden like the luster on victorian pottery. I think my dragon is a friendly one.

Sweetie Gwurly

Does anyone else talk to their cat using nicknames and silly words?

I catch myself calling them foofs, and chuzzies, tussy pats, fluffiez, nus-nus.

I call the boy cats nussies, mussy cats, twuddles, puddy pats.

I call the girl cat fluffy chuff, sweetie gwurly, little fud, and hus.

There are other words I can’t remember. I’ve always done it with all my cats. I don’t know why. I think they are ‘terms of endearment?’ I think I probably do it all the time. They are similar sounding to either their names or alternative words that mean cat like puss, pussy cat, puddy tat etc. Am I strange?

1981

A drawing from 1981 of Hanley Park lake, surrounded by trees. I used to do a lot of pencil drawings and my sister has this in a frame at home.

The park was refurbished a few years ago and some of the neat lawns have been rewilded to allow the wildlife to thrive. There are also sculptures in the park and the boathouse has been restored. It’s been a while since we went there but it’s good to know its still thriving.

The Trick, a review.

I’ve just watched a TV programme about climate change called the Trick. I don’t know if you can get the BBC but it was very informative and interesting. It was about the way anti climate change supporters hacked into scientific information and twisted it to try and discredit the scientists. These were scientists who had produced the hockey stick graph which shows that global temperatures were relatively steady on Earth until the industrial revolution and then started a steep increase.

The Trick is based in 2015. A scientist and his colleagues are accused of exaggeration of global warming, based on emails that were hacked and deliberately misinterpreted to throw doubt on the reality of climate change.

The programme showed how the scientist had to defend his reputation and the serious harm it did to his mental health and to his family while investigations were ongoing.

In the end his insight was accepted. He was exonerated and he was reinstated in his job. But it did mean that public opinion was skewed and that it cost at least ten years in fighting global warming because of the actions of vested interests.

An intelligent BBC film that is very worth watching. Don’t expect car chases, do expect strong acting and thought provoking ideas.

Virtue Signalling?

I’m having a discussion about various political issues and I suddenly realised when I share my opinions I could be said to be virtue signalling. Then I thought who comes up with these phrases and why?

I really do think we have entered an age of Orwellian ‘newspeak’. I think it’s always happened, but the phrase collateral damage, instead of saying innocent casualties was the start of it.

People weave words to obfuscate (hide their meaning). It might be to save people’s feelings, or to confuse people by misleading them. Perhaps the tricks and cons that advertisers have used have spread into politics and ordinary life.

I may be being harsh. But with climate change and the damage to the Earth from pollution, its about time we cut out the confusion and started being honest again!

Bread and butter pudding?

How do you make it? Raisins and currents between slices of bread with a mixture of egg and milk and nutmeg and sugar somehow added to it? The outcome is a sticky, stiff, yummy lump of slightly crispy pudding.

Problem 1, I have no currents or raisins or even sultanas..

2, I have no sliced bread

3, I don’t eat sugar because of diabetes.

4. I have no recipe to work from and don’t know what temperature to cook it on.

Solution…just make it up as I go. So I sliced some slightly stale brown bread. Buttered it and placed it butter side down into a pyrex glass shallow oblong tray. Added a layer of sliced banana and some sliced pear. Then a few more bits of bread and dots of butter. Finally more banana and pear and a bit of a crust of bread on top. I then whisked up six eggs?! With milk, sugar substitute and a bit of cinnamon (I don’t have nutmeg).

Poured the liquid over the bread slowly so it soaked in.

What heat? I chose gas mark 5 (medium heat) and set the oven for forty minutes. It might be horrible. It might be OK. For future reference does anyone know a recipe?

Chandelier

A lunch meeting with a group of friends today. We have been meeting on line for 19 months but have not met many in person.

We were at the Potters club, a lovely set of rooms at the top of an office building in Stoke on Trent. There were amazing pieces of pottery on display, and the view out showed Penkhull hill and the Trent Valley.

I could have taken many photos if I had taken my phone with me, but I had left it on my table as I was having to walk with a stick. So the only photo I got was one of three chandeliers in the Potters Club room.