Some of this years pears

Posted on September 25, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Environment, Fruit, Gardening, Growth, Life, Nature, Pear tree, Pears, Sweet, Tasty, Twenty years, WoolworthsLeave a comment

We bought the pear tree as a small sapling from Woolworths about twenty years ago. It’s grown since then and every year it has had a bigger crop of pears on it. This year there must have been fifty. The tree has tipped over because of their weight and possibly the wind, so we’ve had to prop it up. The bark is cracked and coming off in places, and it suffers from black spot, but the pears are delicious. Some of them rotted on the tree, possibly from being pecked by birds. We’ve got most of them off the tree now and are sharing some with friends.

Trying to get the cat in.

Posted on September 25, 2020 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Abandoned cat, Black and white, Black and white cat, Confidence, Encourage cat, Home, In for winter, Indoor cats, Life4 Comments

We are trying to encourage the abandoned cat that we look after into the house as the weather gets colder. He isn’t very happy though. He struggles out of my hubbies arms and runs and yowls to be let back out again. We might have to consider opening the cat flap and having him in the bathroom over night if nothing else. We want him in a warmer situation than last winter.

I keep telling hubby that you have to encourage him in gently (the cat, not hubby) and let him settle down, until he gets confident. The two house cats don’t seem to mind him and disregard him, so that’s positive.

HS2 (high speed two) railway

Posted on September 25, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ancient oak, Ancient trees, Corporate vandalism, Felling trees, High speed two railway, HS2, Life, Random, Sad, TragedyLeave a comment

From Facebook. I decided to share this here to show what stupid ideas our government have. This and many other ancient trees are being cut down because we (our government) wants to build a railway between London and Birmingham and then on to Manchester and Leeds. But the lines won’t go into the city centres, so you will have to travel to the new hub stations. They say it will cut twenty minutes off the journey time between Manchester and London! Wow. And to do this they need straight tracks because fast trains don’t like curves. Well, of course chopping down trees for that MUST be justified! Not that we can actually afford it or have people working in cities anymore.

The Hunningham Oak which is one of the ancient trees nominated for Tree of the Year now felled by HS2!

Thank you to all tree protectors who tried to save this once magnificent tree!

Some of the campaigns include these if you want to get involved….

STOP HS2
Save Cubbington Woods – Stop HS2
The Woodland Trust
Save Roald Dahl Woods from HS2

STOPPINGHS2

Anti HS2 – SOC (Save our Countryside)
Save the Colne Valley
Xandra Gilchrist

Bee photo?

Posted on September 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Bee?, Bees, Environment, Flowers, Hover fly?, Life, Nature, Photo, Plants, Pollinate, Save the planet, World5 Comments

I don’t know what species it is, I can’t get very good closeups with my phone but I think it’s a Bee, however it could be a hover fly? The back end of it doesn’t look fuzzy enough. But it has yellow and black bands on it. So does anyone know?

Whether bee or fly, at least its something that pollinates plants, and that’s what we need to protect in the world. Imagine a world without pollinating insects? There would be a lot less fruit and vegetables unless we were to hand pollinate or create machines that could do it. But we don’t need that. We need to protect what we already have! Banning pesticides that kill bees, like nicotioides. Farming responsibly and safely. Its a difficult balance. But we must make it happen.

Jumble

Posted on September 24, 2020 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Collecting, Hoarder, Life, Objects, Plants, Poem, Poetry, Sketching, Stuff, Things, Too much, Window ledgeLeave a comment

Lots of stuff,

on window ledges,

filling space,

shared with cats,

plants are growing,

decorated with things,

collected,

ornamented,

sketched and recorded.

Gathering moss,

unable to leave things,

remove things,

bin things,

Hoarder?

Maybe

Repetition

Posted on September 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Age, Deafness, Hearing, Hearing aids, Life, Repetition, Sound, Speaking, Talking, Time, Words10 Comments

When you live with someone with bad hearing loss, be prepared to repeat yourself. Sometimes endlessly.

He has hearing aids, but he doesn’t always remember to put them in, and even when he does he can’t always hear me. I repeat things, but because he has lost the higher frequency sounds my voice can be too high to hear. We end up in a guessing game. I say a word say ‘splurge’ for instance, and he will say ‘Forge, force?’ I repeat, then ‘sort? Sports?’ repeat again, trying to pitch my voice lower…. ‘splits?’ finally he gets it. The energy it takes to communicate is hard work. Tiring. Irritating. But ultimately we communicate.

From thirty years ago?

Posted on September 24, 2020 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Art, House of commons, Life, MP, Oil on canvas, Old painting, Painting, Perspective, Plants, Portrait, Shelves, WindowLeave a comment

Finding things that I haven’t seen for years. There is a set of old slides that I might try and get turned into photos. I’ve also seen an app where you can convert negatives to photos on your phone, which is great, but I already have them in albums and do I need more on my devices? I wish I still had the painting but it was sold to the local MP at the time. I think it ended up at the house of commons!

This was a friend years ago. I painted it with the idea that the perspective of the window gave it an interesting effect. The figure looks large in comparison to the shelves across the window. I also liked the slightly twisted pose. It’s an oil on canvas.

Pots and apples

Posted on September 24, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Apple, Ill, Kitchen, Life, Photo, pots, Still life, Teapot, TiredLeave a comment

Just a photo I took a few days ago. A still life. I’m still ill and haven’t been out much recently, so I am thinking about what I can write about. As the saying goes, autumn is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. It would be good to get out and enjoy the world but I’m keeping my germs to myself. Its only a cold but its still irritating.

Stay safe everyone.

I’m smiling with my eyes

Posted on September 23, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Can you see, Covid19, Life, Lockdown, Look, Poem, Poetry, Shopping, Smile, Smiling eyesLeave a comment

Do you see me smiling,

behind my mask?

With my eyes.

Yes I’m smiling its true,

gently smiling not grinning.

I walk into shops,

I try to smile,

I want them to know,

I’m a friend.

The mask hides my smile,

I feel hidden.

I could be a robber,

a thief or a shoplifter.

If I wear gloves,

I feel guilty,

like I’m hiding.

So I smile,

even though it’s behind a mask.

I am a tight knot

Posted on September 22, 2020 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Ache, Aching arms, Back, Face, Feet, Knots, Knotted, Life, Neck, Tense, tension, Tied, Tight, Toes4 Comments

Tension, in my body. The more talk about covid the tender I get. Like a mad game of twister I’m tied up in knots. My shoulders, my neck. My hands are tense, even my toes are tense! I ache, I feel like I will explode sometimes. How do I relax. How do I let the tightness in my limbs unfurl. Knots, knotted, tied up in knots… Back, hands, neck, tight.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life