View through

Looking through a window in a door at Spode out of the studio window. The layers of lines and squares superimposed on top of each other made it interesting. The wood frames each section neatly.

What you can’t see is the bright sunlight catching the building in the background. I could see it, but here it’s over exposed and looks almost white,merging into the line of sky above it. Eyes are so important, cameras are wonderful, but seeing in reality is a better experience sometimes.

Stuck

Not My house.

Six months after he died and I’m still stuck. It’s hard to move things, clear them away. I feel like I’m walking through treacle. I’ve got too much stuff, mine and his. I’m still holding tight to things.

Can I donate to charity? Or sell things? Or bin things? But I’m still attached. I can’t do anything but look at things, I rarely move any of it. My mind is fused into a lump of static thoughts, unable to move on.

Maybe I’m overdramaticising the situation? I don’t know, but I think it might take years to get sorted out. I’ve done a lot of the legal stuff and paperwork, but forty years of belongings, especially when you have been with someone for so long, are hard to organise.

Threatening rain

Cooled down and gone overcast. The temperature is now 23.2°C, the screen is showing rain and a barometer reading of 1006 millibars. I think it is hotter outside.

My friend is experiencing 26°C where he lives which is about 100 miles north east of here. I think the worst thing is the humidity. I feel like I’m sitting in a sauna. Hopefully it will cool down and feel more comfortable as the evening goes on. I’m very tempted to eat another ice cream, but I’ve already had one today!

Esther’s prompt Home

Esther Chiltons weekly prompt was Home.

I’ve posted this to her blog page:

Home
I hear the accent of a fellow midlander and I’m home again. There’s a twang, a sound that I recognise. I tentatively ask them if they will say where they are from. Usually I get a friendly response. Then we discuss where we come from. Either the same town or close by. Memories of town centres, historic areas, parks and zoos. So many things have changed. But hearing a friendly voice takes me back over 40 years to when I left. I can’t go back, my family has all left, homes sold. Only a couple of relatives and friends left and I can’t drive far so it’s out of the question to go. But I’d like to drive down on a nostalgic trip. Some negotiation with friends required as I couldn’t get on a train on my own I don’t think. Anxiety is not a good friend.

Angels

How important is spirituality in your life?

I think something is looking over me. Maybe an angel? I have thought about spiritual things and I think there might be something there, but I don’t know what? I would characterise myself as agnostic rather than an atheist. The universe is too big and complex to find an answer and I think we are arrogant to assume we know the truth of things. Better to follow the guidelines and try and keep to rules that help you lead a good life.

I guess I’m one of those people that are hedging their bets. Rather than completly dismissing religion I try and keep an open mind. I think we need to love each other and care for others as we would care for ourselves. It’s not hard to do. Anyway it’s what I think….

Spleen wort identified.

Asplenium trichomanes, the maidenhair spleenwort, is a small fern in the spleenwort genus Asplenium. It is a widespread and common species, occurring almost worldwide in a variety of rocky habitats. It is a variable fern with several subspecies. The specific epithet trichomanes refers to a Greek word for fern.… Wikipedia

Scientific nameAsplenium trichomanes

Have you seen the little camera sign on your phone? I’ve only just found out about it. It’s on the top right of the Google search bar. I guess there are similar tools on other   search engines and I am not advocating you use any of them. It is good to use something to identify things like plants. I saw this growing out of a wall today and I wanted to know what it was as I have different ferns growing out of my yard wall. I’m glad to extend my knowledge.

Tandem Riding

My bike…. dont have a picture of our tandem….

We were out one day, and Hubby saw an old tandem across the floor of a garage. He went over to look at it and fell into an inspection pit. Luckily, he was OK! 

We bought the tandem (which was two bikes welded together) and my hubby even took the local MP round Penkhull on it! 

One day we rode 100 miles in a reliability trial with the local cycling club. It was fun and we got back in seven and a half hours, despite one of my pedals falling off and having to borrow a spanner to fasten it back in place. One chain wheel was on the opposite side of the tandem, so it had unscrewed…. 

All this happened about thirty years ago when I was a lot fitter. 

We would take the tandem or our bikes out and explore the local countryside or cycle from Stoke up to Rochdale, or down to Walsall. 

We decided to cycle up through Leek one day, then up to the Roaches. We saw a signpost for Flash so decided to take it (the highest village in England apparently). We were tired but swooped up and down the hills. But I was nervous, two of us going downhill on winding roads was nerve wracking! I was a bit scared and kept houting at my hubby to SLOW DOWN! 

Eventually we came down and round a corner and…… 

We almost ran into a five pony, pony trek that was spread across the road. Hubby turned the handlebars and dropped us into a shallow ditch at the side of the road! 

I admit cursing him for being so reckless. But we gathered ourselves back together and set off again uphill, then swiftly down again. I kept telling him to go slower. But he was enjoying himself and we had averted one disaster, what else could happen? 

This time we came round a corner and just managed to stop, in front of a scout Jamboree. How many scouts and cubs? Goodness only knows. HUNDREDS of them! Hubby and I had been lucky not to hit one of them, like a skittle, probably knocking others over too!  

Again, we got ourselves sorted out. By then I was ready to go home. We saw a TV mast somewhere up on the hills as we headed Westwards and soon, we were looking across the beautiful Cheshire plain, looking at peaceful and hopefully flat farmland to cycle home over. We stopped off at a place selling ice-cream before pedalling downhill towards Macclesfield or Congleton, to be honest I can’t remember because I was more bothered about the danger of going downhill too fast! I think I was probably very grateful that we got home in one piece!