With a cold sea breeze,
I started to freeze,
My feet getting wet,
A few dogs we met,
The waves were crashing
The sea was smashing,
Beach holiday?
Not today!
Back inside
By the fireside.
To get warm
Away from the storm.
New paintings and regular art updates.

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.
This 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.

You may or may not be celibrating Christmas, but can I wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas and send seasons greetings. It may not be the best time of the year for many of us. But at least if people take a little time to think about others then things might improve in the world.
Not everyone is religious and the season does not have the same meaning for everyone. That doesn’t mean that anyone should be excluded from good wishes.
It’s difficult to write about this as I am agnostic, I am not sure what I believe, but I think respecting others is what I am getting at. There are too many wars and fighting. Sending love.

I’ve just seen the third and final episode of a Christmas Carol, adapted from the novel by Charles Dickens, but with much more details and ‘plot twists’.
Gone is the vaguely cute Scrooge of the original, who is somehow not that nasty, at least compared with this Scrooge. But there is more back story about what caused his intransigence and avarice. There is also much more about what he and Jacob Marley did to his employees, the evil actions that harmed them.
On the whole this was a much more adult adaptation, including swear words and sexual exploitation. Once I got over the fact that it was more of a rewrite than an adaptation I actually enjoyed it. Scrooge does not end up gloriously happy (spoiler alert), but he is changed and his attitude to others is improved. It feels like there might even be a sequel!

Faff! Not sure what it means but we are faffing about. Staying at a hotel. Breakfast and lunch for Christmas day, but no evening meal. I have asked about room service, they don’t have any. I know I’m faffing, but I have to eat regularly because I have to take tablets with every meal. (I know I’m very lucky not to live in the majority of the world where one meal is very rare).
I guess I could have worse problems. Its only when you think about them that you realise how very trivial they are!

I don’t like to admit it, but my house is a mess. This is one bit of it. It’s not all that bad, but I need to go through things and shred them or burn them. Why? Because I don’t like putting personal documents out in the bin. There are so many people who can take your details and use them. I wonder whether posting on line is safe sometimes although I try not to go into specifics.
Friends keep telling me that creative people are messy. I think I agree with that. But I need to tidy up. Now I’m feeling a bit better I might be able to do it before Christmas.
Help!

I took this photo of Thai figures and Buddha in the Thai restaurant we go to. They looked friendly and warm. The way they are placed in traditional dancing poses must give the owner good memories of where she came from. Dressed in beautiful clothes, with high hats. We need more variety in the world. We should not be scared of what is different, whether it’s skin colour, or sexuality or gender or size or shape or mind. These figures show that life is fascinating and fantastic should we care to share it.

I’ve been watching the news about the bush fires in Australia an it is awful and devastating. Not only are there hundreds of fires, but they have spread over a huge area. The started around Sidney which has been smothered in smoke for weeks. But then more have started in the West and South of the continent. The Southern hemisphere is moving into summer and the temperatures are rising. They have measured the highest ever temperature there in the last couple of days. Over 40°C and rising. The fires are being fanned by 40 mile an hour winds. They are burning out of control in some places, and the drought affected land is so parched there isn’t the water to put them out. I have friends out there and I worry for them. Meanwhile their prime minister went away on holiday to Hawaii and is only coming home because of the outcry from its population.
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Close up berries turned into a strange pattern. It looks almost like some odd creature. Symmetry does strange things, creating unexpected images. I was pleased with the clarity of the photo I took this from. Being able to see the individual hairs on the fruit, and the sheen on the berries. The shadows and hollows also work really well.
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