
Ugh!
Gotta bug!
Feeling ill and tired.
Didn’t sleep
Stayed awake
My throat sore
When I swallowed.
Feeling hot
Headache too
I don’t know
What I’ve acquired!
Better be well
I two days time
When singing
I will be
With a choir!
New paintings and regular art updates.

Ugh!
Gotta bug!
Feeling ill and tired.
Didn’t sleep
Stayed awake
My throat sore
When I swallowed.
Feeling hot
Headache too
I don’t know
What I’ve acquired!
Better be well
I two days time
When singing
I will be
With a choir!


Thinking of potbanks and the Dorothy Clive garden.
There’s lots to visit like the local potteries, Gladstone in Longton, Middleport in Middleport, Emma Bridgewater pottery near Hanley, Stafford pottery in Burslem. Moreland pottery near Cobridge.
Then there are parks and gardens like Trentham Gardens and monkey park, Biddulph Grange, park hall nature reserve between Bentillee and Weston Coyney, and there is Westport lake.
Then railway days out at the Foxfeild light railway and the Churnet valley railway at Cheddleton. There is also a flint mill there which has a working water wheel and Etruria Industrial museum where they are having the canal festival on 1st and 2nd June. Oh and the potteries museum and art gallery. Spode visitors centre in Stoke. Lots more to see and do. Just investigate. Plus outside the city there are places like Rode Hall, Biddulph Grange, Little Moreton Hall, Mow Cop. Not forgetting Ford Green Hall at Sneyd Green I think…

I was just walking to the post box when I noticed someone in a dark hoodie and trousers walking behind me. I’d decided to post a letter and I’d left my bag at home as I’d decided not to take any money. But I did have my phone in one pocket and was carrying an umbrella in the other hand.
As I walked I noticed he was keeping up with me because I walk slowly so I expected him to walk past. But no he was close to my left shoulder, I put my hand in my pocket because the phone was protruding slightly. I stopped to look in a shop window across the road so I turned to look at him. He dawdled past me but I noticed he turned and looked back. I started to walk slowly again and watched him. Every few yards he looked back. So I kept stopping and looking in windows. Finally I got to the post box. He was about fifty yards ahead of me and once again looking back. I waited until he ambled off again. Then I turned around and headed home. As I got to side streets I walked up them and then back down. I only noticed him looking back again once.
I felt anxious about this and it made me quite nervous. The man’s appearance and his activity was strange. Was I right to avoid him?

A drawing I did when I was in hospital 6 years ago with pneumonia. Even when I’m not well I still want to do art. I was in for a few days. When the antibiotics kicked in I started to feel better and got very bored, so I asked my hubby (bless him) to bring me a sketch pad and some pencils. It helped that I was in a side room and I had a view out across the valley with hospital buildings, houses and trees. I was a bit annoyed with the thick window frames that blocked a lot of the view but I guess they need to be sturdy. I hope I don’t have to go through that again, but if I do I will be asking for art materials!

I was feeling spiky
A bit annoyed today
Something like a cactus
On a hot summers day.
Then I thought of flowers
The way they emerge
Sometimes out of nowhere
When the cactus has a surge
Of growth when it’s ready
To make a new plant
It made me feel happier
My mood more valiant.

I’ve been to two choir sessions today, both are slighty different groups. So we learn different songs although the warm up is usually the same. I love singing different songs and it lifts me when I am feeling down.
I go to choir because I’ve been going for between 15 and 20 years. It’s my rock I can cling onto in a raging river of life. If I didn’t go I would be seriously lost. It helps my mental health and I believe it’s also good for my physical health but it’s getting harder and harder to keep going. I need to rest between songs and I get tired quicker. Also I have to drive to get to the groups and I have to be careful that I am safe to drive. I can think about all the journeys I used to make but I can no longer do them. That diminished possibility hurts me.
How do you feel about cold weather?

I like cold weather as long as I can get warm when I need to. I like cold, clear, frosty days. Days when trees look like white sculptures, where hoar frosts build crystals of ice on leaves and twigs. Where spiders webs festoon hedges.
I don’t like warm wet winters, where you go out and your feet feel wet all day. Where the rain blows into your coat hood and trickles down your neck. Cats drive past and spray you with water from the gutter.
I don’t like too hot summers. I can’t cool my house down enough. I feel like I’m melting. Cold showers or an electric fan with a bottle of frozen water in front of it (not too close) are methods to keep cool.
Britain can get very cold and very hot but it rarely stays the same every day. Sometimes we have short heatwaves and cold snaps, but the weather has changed over the last few years. Those mild wet winters are confusing the plants and insects. Life is trying to keep up with man made climate change and I don’t think we are doing enough.

I wanted to review my blog so I decided to ask what people think?
I used to try and write short stories on here and I also wrote more about art and science. So my question is, is this blog getting boring? I don’t seem to have enough time to blog although I don’t feel like I am doing that much. I just want to know if I should try and change things? What do you think? What would you like to see here?
Have you ever broken a bone?

Yes, but not saying which ones. It took them a while to heal. All were caused by various types of fall.
Broken bones in young people can cause greenstick fractures, that’s when the bone is broken like a soft twig and can be reset. Simple clean breaks are manipulated back into place then held in place with plaster of paris bandages. Some breaks, like a broken finger can’t be plastered but are just strapped up. Broken ribs cannot be plastered so it’s just painkillers and sometimes strapping? The worst break can be a compound fracture where the bone penetrates the skin. This will require some form of surgery with pins or even plates to hold the bones back in place. Then there are skull fractures that require operations to fix bones back in place. Sometimes pe have plates put in their head if the bone of the skull becomes necrotic. XRays and other types of imaging can be used to locate and realign bony damage.
How do you balance work and home life?

I’m too young to get my pension but I’m not working either. My health is not good, and I’m having various tests. So what do I do? I’m trying to keep occupied by doing creative things and trying to get some exercise. It’s weird because I’m not used to being like this, I was always strong physically and mentally but I feel diminished. Time is taking its toll on me.
Sorry, this is too serious, but the prompt is tempting me to reveal more about myself. Lots of things have happened in the last five months that have pulled me in different directions but mainly downward. I try to find a balance between not work and home, but activity and non activity. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to feel right again. Most of the time I clamp myself tight like a barnacle inside my house, not looking for daylight. It takes me time to pluck up courage to go out. I can think about travelling, but I don’t. I think of all the things that could go wrong.
Luckily I have friends who drag me out. I can go to some places easily, but others? The anxiety is too much for me. Just going outside to pick up the milk off the gate can take me hours to decide to do it. And yet meeting friends lifts me up. My cats help too. What would I do without them.
Well that’s my situation at present….