Spooky lights

Posted on February 17, 2024 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Eyes, Fun, Imagination, Life, Lights, Mouth, Pareidolia, Pattern, Pink, seeing things, TheatreLeave a comment

I saw this at tonight’s performance and it made me chuckle. The way the lights are set up looks like eyes and a mouth. The shadow above like a set of long wolf like ears! The pinkness is really dramatic.

I have always seen faces and patterns in everyday shapes. Like paintings of flowers that look like lions to me, or the spindly abstract pattern of tree branches turning into a galloping horse. It’s a phenomenon called Pareidolia.

This could also be a riotous robot, a frankenstein style monster, or a dancing ghost, see what I mean?

An audience with Toby Jones.

Posted on February 17, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Acting, an Audience, Claybody Theatre, Life, Mr Bates versus the Post Office, Performance, Spode, Stoke-on trent, Stoke-upon-Trent, Toby Jones2 Comments

I just got back from a Claybody Theatre production, an Audience with Toby Jones. He’s the actor who recently appeared as Mr Bates (in Mr Bates versus the Post Office) the sub postmaster who was accused with hundreds of others of stealing money from the post office when it was actually the horizon computer system that had caused the problems. The ITV drama he was in really bought the scandalous treatment of sub postmasters out into the open.

He’s also been in the Detectorists, played Truman Capote, played Neil Baldwin in Marvellous and has been in many more plays, films and TV series. He also played Dobbie the House Elf in Harry Potter.

Toby Jones talked about his university experience, his further studies with a French drama school, how he went from wanting to be a director to being an actor. As he explained he doesn’t have control of what’s coming up. Actors are lucky to get parts and they have to go with whats available. He explained he’s not bothered about fame, and came across as a genuine and funny person. He had come to Spode in Stoke upon Trent to support Claybody Theatre.

His father was the actor Freddie Jones and had lived in Longton in Stoke-on-Trent. He had taken up acting quite late in life and Toby wasn’t sure if he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.

It was a thoroughly interesting evening. I was so glad to have seen him in person.

Digital pigeon

Posted on February 17, 2024 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged ArtRage oils app, Design, Digital drawing, Fine Art, Free app, Fun, Life, Metallic, PigeonLeave a comment

Artrage oils drawing from several years ago. This is the free version of the app. You only have the oil pen tools but it certainly can be used to create interesting effects. I like this a lot, I used the metallic option to give it this sheen. If you tone down the metallic effect the colours become paler and you can draw over the darker parts (where I have outlined the bird) as it seems to be more opaque and covers over the darker areas.

Crying

Posted on February 17, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Article, Crying, Friend, Life, Memories, Relief, Sadness, Staffordshire, Stoke-on trent, the Leopard Hotel in BurslemLeave a comment

A local author and friend, called Fred Hughes, wrote an article on Facebook and in our local paper talking about how, as he has grown older, he has found himself crying more. One example he gives is when the Leopard Hotel in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, burnt down two years ago. He lives nearby and found himself bought to rears because of all his memories of what had happened in that place, meeting people, enjoying good company and hospitality. He said that apparently hormonal changes can affect men because they are bought up to be stoic and strong. It must be a real shock to the system to allow grief and sadness out.

I think crying is good for you. Women do seem to be able to cry more often? I have wailed and cried and felt deep grief recently, not least because of the Leopard fire. The last two years have affected me a lot with various events. I’m not a stoic person although I try, when you have worked with people you have to try and stay professional. But without crying I would have exploded!

Morning cat

Posted on February 17, 2024 Posted in Cat, Memories, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, Content, Familiar, Happy, Life, Love, Sleeping, Time, Tuxedo catLeave a comment

Snoozing cat having a lie in after a night on the tiles? He snores, he dreams, paws twitching. He greets me with a little purr. I think I have got three familiars (I have two other cats). They all have different traits but they are all very loving.

I don’t name them on here because of online security. I could call them all by pseudonym, but I don’t think it matters. They are big, medium and small!

This is big (used to be ‘outside’ cat), he sometimes pushes the cat flap door loose because he has got quite fat. He has a barrel shaped belly and seems quite content. When we first met him as an abandoned cat he was already an adult, I guess he’s over 13 years old now. Middle aged and happy.

Happy cat

Posted on February 16, 2024 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Cat, catnip mouse, Games, Life, Playing, Toy, Tuxedo cat2 Comments

Cat playing with toy mouse. He pounced on it when he came in from the garden. It’s good to see him happy, belly up. He snuck in past my other boy cat and grabbed it before the other one saw it. He’s throwing it around now.

I usually get the cats catnip toys a couple of times a year. I have a box full of old toys that they still sometimes play with. Cats are funny creatures, they make me laugh when they fling toys about. But I’d rather they play with toys than real animals. X

He knew his tractors

Posted on February 16, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Fordson, History, Hubby, Life, Massey Ferguson, Memory, steam traction engine, Tractor, ZetaLeave a comment

If he saw this tractor he would have known exactly who the maker was. A Fordson , John Deere, Zeta, New Holland, Massey Ferguson?

He knew by their colours /livery., by their shape, by the setup of the wheels. Whether they were row-crop tractors, diesel, paraffin. So much knowledge.

I used to guess what sort they were and he would congratulate me or correct me. Now has gone, I can’t remember.

We would sometimes go to agricultural shows. Hubby would have a pint in the beer tent, avoiding wasps, have a bite to eat, and then watch the tractor or steam traction engine parades in the main show ring. Then a ride on the steam gallopers, or trying to win a teddy bear on the air gun shooting range.

Memories are what I have….

He used to climb

Posted on February 16, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged Cliff, Climb, Fall, Fear, high, Hill, Hubby, Life, Lost, Mountain, Poem, Poetry, Steep, vertigoLeave a comment

When he was young he used to climb

But I had no head for heights

He’d climb down cliffs

Or up tall pikes

While I stood by in fear

He’d disappear below my view

And I would cower in dread

Till he came back from his perch

On steps above the sea.

He never slipped, or dropped or fell

I was so proud of him

While I crawled on hands and knees

A victim of vertigo,

Atop the smallest hill!

Now he had fallen out of sight

Never to reappear

But I will wait and hope one day

I’ll join him safely, my fate?

“She wants to be an artist”

Posted on February 14, 2024 Posted in Fine Art, Memories, Sketching, UncategorizedTagged Art, Biography, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1848, Education, Knowledge, Learning, Life, Memory, my interests, ThoughtLeave a comment

If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?

If someone wrote a biography of me it would be about my art I think.

But I have a lot of lights hidden under a bushel. Lots of knowledge about different things, science, music, nature, history. I’m definitely one of those “Jack of all trades”, I seem to absorb information and retain it.

I can remember songs I haven’t heard for years. Name most of the bones in the body and know where they are located. I’ve had various jobs and worked for over twenty years for one company. I won a student award whilst studying on a college course. I’m reasonably good at using computers in this digital age. I believe I’m well read, but know my knowledge is not all consuming.

But, what gets me really going is art, ancient and modern. I love skill and technical ability, but also innovation and experimentation. I think I have good expertise at art. I must have done much more than 10,000 hours as a painter. But I can still learn. Education and thought are important. That’s me.

Not everyone can answer this.

Posted on February 13, 2024 Posted in Memories, UncategorizedTagged dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1847, Death, Family, Life, Memories, parent, Passed away, Prompt, StruggleLeave a comment

What were your parents doing at your age?

Having a parent die early is awful, but a lot of people have this experience with either one or both of their parents.

In my case it was one, and the other was still working to support themselves at my age now. Income can drop drastically when you lose someone. My siblings and I did part time jobs to help support the family. My parent worked in two jobs to care for us. We mostly managed, and had to learn to be strong in the face of adversity. Sometimes we got help, but mostly we coped. Using a coat as an extra bedspread was a normal experience, and cold food more often than not saved money.

No one wants to lose a parent, or parents, and I’d give anything to speak to both of them now as the remaining parent passed away at a relatively young age too. It worries me because I don’t think we are a long lived family, but I want to be around for a good few years more.

Mallaband-Brown

Tag: Life