Holly

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Variegated Holly, a view of winter plants. When desiduous leaves have fallen, Ivy and Holly add green to the garden. We have three Holly bushes. This one, a tall spikey one with fully green leaves and one with pale green edges instead if yellow. The fully green one is the most robust. It is growing in a shady part of the garden and making even denser shade. The other two are in more open areas. We cut off lower branches to let more light into the lower layers of the garden so summer flowering plants are not completely shaded out. I can’t wait for the spring bulbs to come up, although the local squirrel population seems to like digging them up. There will be narcissi and crocus around the Holly in spring.

Sunset

IMG_20160522_204446Well not quite yet. But soon. Another day has drained away. I was going to do more today. It didn’t happen.

If I lived in the tropics it would be warmer and brighter. But the disadvantage is that the sun goes down about the same time every day, and day and night lengths are around the same all year round.

To be honest if I could move to the southern hemisphere for half of the year I might. I just can’t wait for summer.

Longer days, more time to fit things in. Less night and darkness.

Looking forward, looking back.

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Illustration by me. I keep forgetting to say that the illustrations in this blog are generally mine. If I use anything else it is free webart, but that doesn’t happen very often.

This drawing looks back at the old year and forward to the future. It’s done in a sketcher app I downloaded off the Internet. One face is lined. Cracks are appearing in her face. Full of colour and interest. Of memories and thoughts. Of worry and relief. The other is young and pale. The flowers of spring surround her. She is looking out to the future but without expression. The old face knows what has happened, the new does not know what to expect yet.

The world turns….

An ordinary Saturday

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No glitterball today,

no sparkling champagne.

Just leftovers and dregs,

an ordinary Saturday.

We’ve enjoyed the holiday,

and more is to follow

but now it is time,

for life to settle.

Time passes on,

the world keeps turning.

The decade almost done,

a new one beginning.

So let us all pause

and rest for a day,

Take stock of our past

call it good old Saturday.

 

Hand painted jug

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My hand painted jug. I chose to paint it with a tortoise shell cat (black white and ginger). With added daisy type flowers. I gave it as a Christmas gift last year. I like keeping my hand in by decorating pottery. I don’t get the chance to do this very often. It came up on my Facebook memories page. I think I did it on a visit to the Emma Bridgewater factory in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.

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The two faces of Eve.

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Face left, face forward. Underneath her name and a long number. Her mug shot. She didn’t understand why. What was happening? She was being blamed for everything.

The snake in the tree had started it. It spoke! Talked about it being the tree of knowledge. Well she had always wanted to learn, to go to school, to get to university. What was wrong with knowledge? But they had said only men can do that. Women aren’t allowed, they might get ideas above their station.

She had tried an apple the snake had offered her. It looked tasty. Not evil? No, more like a braeburn. Having eaten, she told her friend Adam about it. He said if she could taste it then he would too. Later they tried other fruit off other trees. Now she’d been arrested for stealing fruit!

The sins of the world, they called it. All over one measly apple. Would you Adam and Eve it?

Room at the Inn

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So, that’s two adults?

There is a donkey parking space.

Breakfast in the Nativity Restaurant.

Double bed, en-suite.

No smoking or vaping,

No visitors from afar allowed.

No ‘angelic hosts’ parties allowed.

Visur or Masterboard?

What do you mean ‘a child will be born’?

No we don’t do Frankincense or Myhrr facials.

Gold, well yes as an exception we will accept it.

You want how many towels, and hot water?

I’m sorry but your wife looks unwell.

We are not a maternity unit.

Sorry, we reserve the right to cancel your reservation.

The hospital is that way.

Merry Christmas.

Why are there foodbanks?

sketch-1577233161543.jpgThis might be someone’s meal today, tonight, next week. They may be on a low income, on benefits or state handouts. They might be in a refugee camp trying to flee from famine or oppression.

Coming closer to home, in a land that is the sixth richest in the World and where many more billionaires live than ever before, the number of Foodbanks here over the last few years have soared, from a handful ten years ago to more of them than McDonald’s outlets now! There are around two THOUSAND Foodbanks in this country now. Let that sink in. And people using them are only allowed two or three referrals in a six month period. That referral gives them emergency food for three or four days. They are used when someones benefit has been cancelled or delayed. I know about them because I used to refer people into them. I had to jump through hoops to get a referral for them. Often I came up against the arguments about whether they were deserving enough. I would be talking to a decision maker who would criticise the person’s ability to budget a paltry amount of money that the decision maker could not possibly have lived on themselves.

My question again is why are there Foodbanks? Why are the poorest in society forgotten? Why do the rich think it’s OK to look down on the poor? Remember that it is only by luck that we are born into the lives we have.