Tag: Life

Money….

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Money has become the grand test of virtue. By this test beggars fail, and for this they are despised.

George Orwell.

Well, I wanted to say something about money (or the lack of it), and then I saw this quote. I also found the map of deprivation in and around the area where I live.

I don’t mind admitting this area is poor. Lots of jobs have gone over the years as local industry has closed. Families that had three generations working in the same industry together have lost such a lot. Not through their own fault, but through lack of support and outsourcing of work. Factories have closed, and been demolished, when perhaps they could have been reused. With global warming they wouldn’t necessarily have been able to keep going, but something could have happened to make people’s lives better.

What is missing? Money, investment, something more substantial than the short term, selfish, unfair world that we seem to live in. When governments fail to help and support their people, and rely instead on charity we have come to a bad point in life. The poor become the despised for not ‘getting on’. People start to identify undeserving poor, and blame them for their miseries instead of seeing that the system is broken. When people who care are called snowflake or whatever other derogatory comment that can be hurled at them, we are in a bad place.

Dragon watch part two.

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The night had passed and Drulk, the grandfather, looked out from the dark Forge. The sun was rising. No sign of his son or grandson. He knew they were captives of the Dragon Lord and his beast Hirst. But somehow he knew in his bones that they would return…

Meanwhile, in the dungeons of the Dragon Lords castle, his son and grandson sat in the dark and damp. They were waiting to hear their fates.

Brerd was the old man’s son, his boy was called Srep. Neither of them had eaten or drunk since their capture.

‘Father will we die here?’ Said Srep.’ No, I don’t think so, son. I think the Dragon Lord wants strong slaves. But wait and see. I will try and free us if I can.’

Hours later and the sun had set. Two guards arrived and unlocked the barred door. Shackling the man and boy, they roughly pulled and dragged them out and up the stone stairs. Up and through tunnels and corridors, into the Great Hall.

Hirst lay stretched out on the rock surface at one side of the hall. Head lolling to one side. Eyes half closed.

In front of them, sitting on a throne, the Dragon Lord looked down on them.

Abruptley he said ‘what have you done to Hirst?’ ‘he is ill’. Brerd shook his head ‘he is poisoned, if you free my son, I will tell you how to save the dragon.’ At this the Lord shouted, ‘You poisoned him? How? Your son will die for this, not be freed. How dare you try to negotiate with me!’ Brerd shouted back, ‘then fight me. If you win you can make us slaves and gain the antedote. If I win we go free!’

He didn’t expect the Lord to agree to this so was shocked when a sword landed at his feet. ‘unshackle me, so I can fight’, ‘No’ came the harsh reply.

That is how Brerd the Iron master and blacksmith came to fight for his life against the Dragon Lord.

Heaving the heavy sword up he tried to parry the hefty blows from Lord. They rained down on him hard and fast. By luck more than judgement he remained upright. But like a tree trunk being practiced on, he remained mostly static, feeling the harsh crashes of sword against sword. He was being beaten down. His hands were slick with moisture and salty sweat dropped into his eyes. Still he fought on. Then a glancing blow caught his forehead and he toppled forward. The Lord stepped forward to take a final stabbing thrust at Brerd, but instead felt Brerds sword penetrate his chest. He sank to his knees and whispered ‘Hirst, kill them’. But his voice fell on dead ears. The Dragon had succumbed to the poison. It had been the ‘strong iron’ that the grandfather talked about. It was a mixture of iron filings and saltpetre. Something in that mix was death to dragons. Knowing this old knowledge, Brerd had taken a pouch of it with him when they went hunting. As he was snatched by the dragon he had thrown the pouch and contents into its mouth, where strong acid there dissolved it almost instantly. No antedote would save Hirst after that dose, it was just a matter of time.

Using the sword to cut through his sons bonds, Brerd freed Srep., ‘Come’ , he said, ‘ we must go back to see your grandfather and tell him the news. We will release the slaves as we go.’

Later that day, Drulk looked out of the door of the Forge again. Instead of seeing no-one, he caught sight of his son and grandson. ‘Thank the gods’ he shouted, as he walked to meet them.

Amaryllis

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My Amaryllis plants are coming into leaf  again. They die back after flowering and being in leaf over the summer and autumn. I generally leave them to dry off for a couple of months, then start watering them again about now. The leaves emerge and then the flower spike from the large amaryllis bulb. They prefer to be tightly fitting in their pots. One of mine is about ten years old and has grown another bulb next to it. I love the large flowers, they are always brightly coloured. As you water the plants and the leaves and watch the flower spikes grow, you can almost see them expanding by the minute. If you got one at Christmas don’t throw it away when it dies back, keep it and water it next December or January, you should be lucky and get new flowers x

Hill and fence

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Driving through Wales last Year. My sister took us out into Snowdonia, past lakes and mountains. Along streams. Through wooded valleys, over mountain passes. Seeing the scree tumbling down. Sheep climbing jumbled piles of broken slate. Then down steep hills back to the coast, along  tunnels bored through the mountains, back to the flatter lands of North Wales (flatter not flat, its not Cheshire!)

The beauty of the country of Wales is amazing. I’ve only really explored the North of the principality, I would love to visit Cardiff for instance, which is in the very South of the country.

Tee design

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Day 17 of the challenge on Facebook, today it was an ethical tee shirt design. I said I would like the world to concentrate on finding peace, and supporting nature by cleaning up the environment and taking the climate crisis seriously. I did think of adding flames but that seemed too much. My only concern is the tee shirts would have to be ethically sourced, carbon neutral and any workers paid a living wage. Too much to hope for?

X

Red moon, blood moon…

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Before dawn someone in will die. The wolves are howling, it is not safe to go out…

So said the old man as he sat in the shack in the woods. He was with his best friend, a man twenty years younger, who had decided to visit for the weekend. I have my gun loaded, said the old man, I will protect us.

But no one has been killed by wolves in a hundred years, said his companion. Why do you think it will happen? Because of the blood moon came the stern answer.

As they settled down for the night clouds drifted over the moon, soon the storm hit. Snow fell deep, piling onto the shacks roof. One foot, two, four, finally eight. The snow was suffocating them, the fire had been allowed to burn low and suddenly snow fell down the chimney. The roof started to collapse, snow sifted in like sugar, through the cracks…..

The younger man woke with snow covering his face, cold, wet and smothering. It was pitch black, then the feeble rays of the blood moon penetrated the dark. With its help he struggled free. He had to locate his friend, the man was breathing, but unconscious. He dug him out with his hands and the help of the rifle.

Outside his truck was covered, it would take him ages to dig it out. Until then there was no chance of shelter. The shack was a jumbled mess.

All he could do was keep digging, hoping to get to a door, though whether his key would open the lock he doubted. It might be frozen shut.

A howl drifted through the night. The sound startled the digger who fought harder to shift the snow. The howl was closer, creeping towards them. He checked his friend, still breathing, but deathly pale and cold. If the wolves didn’t get them the freezing wind and snow would.

But slowly he was tiring, he had barely moved a few feet of snow. The sweat he was generating was freezing on his body. He started to shiver and his teeth chattered.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the glowing eyes. First two, then four, then more. He closed his eyes, waited for the bite….. It didn’t come. Instead he felt the warmth of one of the wolves leaning against him, then another on the other side. Wolves are large creatures and the weight of them pulled him down to the ground. The warmth after the cold was making him drowsy.

In the morning the search party found both of them, fast asleep. There were indentations in the snow showing where the wolves had lain down. A rough count showed that twenty or so wolves had slept around the two men, helping warm them.

Later the old man admitted he didn’t believe it, but it must be true. The gun would never be used again…

( don’t try this at home folks, it’s just a story,).

Last decade had highest ever recorded temperatures.

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Three maps, dated 1970-74, 1997-2001, 2015-19. There were others but I didn’t snap them in time. So we are getting hotter. Life will change, and possibly catastrophically if we don’t do something. I remember doing a collage about population growth in the 1970’s. I did a picture of earth with a line of people snaking away from it towards the moon. I’ve always been conscious of the environment. I was a tree warden in about 1975 and told people off for damaging trees. I think I got carried away once and really told some boys off about their behaviour. Fast forward several decades, and things are only getting worse. X

Slugs and snails and puppy dogs tails

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The other reason why I drew a slug.

I had fetched a takeaway meal from our local Chinese restaurant last night but had to go out for an hour before coming home to eat it with my hubby.

An hour turned into two (as it does), so I came home hungry and ready to eat.

I said hello, and my hubby complained he had lost a bottle of beer. He could remember drinking one but could not find the other bottle. But he proudly said he had made a loaf (he likes making bread). We went in the kitchen and he showed me the bread he has made. So where’s the takeaway I asked, looking in the fridge which was empty. Oh I put that outside to cool down, he said!? What?

He went out and bought the bag in, together with the beer bottle which he had taken out too.

Both had slugs on them!

I’m sorry to say it went in the bin. The little trays the food was in were covered with hungry slugs. The beer was empty, not because he had drunk it, but because he had put some in the bread. I was not a happy person.

Next time I’ve told him to use the fridge!

Anderton Boat Lift

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_20200115_003550The Anderton Boat lift is somewhere I would like to visit. Its near the village of Anderton, in Cheshire, England. It is fifty foot high and joins the Trent and Mersey canal to the river Weaver. Boats go from the  canal or river into a lift filled with water and the boat and water is either lowered or raised to the other one. It’s called a two caisson lift lock, although I’m not sure why it’s called that.

The lift is a scheduled monument, and was built in 1875. It was closed in 1983 because of corrosion, but luckily it was restored in 2001and reopened in 2002. We intend to visit later in the year, there is a visitor centre run by the Canal and River Trust. I’ve checked and it is open at the weekend.

Mirror with lollipop sticks.

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When we went to the showing of Humanus, the film, last year, we got dressed up in fancy dress and make-up to look like zombies. I wore an air mask over my face to look more interesting. While I was putting the make-up on I decided to take a photo of my reflection in a mirror. I like the creativity of whoever made the frame around it. It was made of lollipop sticks stuck together making a star burst around the mirror. I converted it to black and white to make it more atmospheric.

By the way I’ve never been able to get the red face paint out of my hubby’s shirt!