Autumn dawn

Reddish sky in the morning

Shepherds take warning….

And they should! A few days ago we had a red dawn, this photo was taken as it faded.

The sky soon clouded over and later we had a deluge! Water flowed down the hill so fast and deep that it overwhelmed the drains and poured out of gutters onto the pavements. At the back of my house it came down the window in a sheet of rain and the water snuck into the wall and plaster around the window frame. I’ve never seen anything like it.

There was a flash flood in the centre of town with rain water up to people’s car headlights. Shops that were safe at the front had brown water knee high in their store rooms….

It might have been a microburst but it was very stormy. The winds were blowing trees about. It was more than the usual thunderstorm. Thankfully it blew over after about twenty minutes.

Climate change is here. I don’t know how places like Jamaica and Cuba and Haiti coped with last week’s hurricane. I feel so worried for them.

An extra bank holiday

Invent a holiday! Explain how and why everyone should celebrate.

I’d invent “autumn bank holiday” for Britain.

We have lots of bank holidays in the UK but there is a big gap between the bank holiday Monday in August and then Christmas. I know America has a thanksgiving holiday and maybe we could have something  in late October?

Not halloween! Not everyone celebrates that so I’d literally call it autumn day. To enjoy the change of the season. The mists and mellow fruitfulness. The changing leaves, autumnal flowers, the ripening of fruit, fungi fruiting, the start of animals gathering food for winter.

An outside day to explore and enjoy the season and a day of rest for the day, keeping a warm evening to enjoy seasonal foods.

Prompts

My friend in our #bandofsketchers group asked me to come up with some drawing prompts. This is my reply. The list could be a poem!

“Sorry I’ve not been doing much again. I’ll try again soon! New prompts:

Ideas and dreams
Sugar
Black and white
Green and red
Purple and yellow
Orange and blue
Blurred
Stitches
Games
Holding on
Silly
Ripples
Fish
Floating
Suspended
Itch
Hobby
Strap
Festival
Flop
Book or booking
African
South American
Asian
North American
Australian
Shower
Sunny
Slope
Feed
Fright
Parrot
Hold
Amphibian
Resting
Testing
Opera
Bulge
Seaside
Steps
Happy
Miffed
Splatter
Gold
Metal
Chomp
Sold
Smell

I think these can be quite open? Hope this helps.”

Who are you?

I’m looking  at my stats and I’m confused. Over 1000 people have been looking at my posts today. Usually it’s more like 67, what’s going on. This week it seems to be mainly American and last week it was China.

I wonder if this is real or bots? I can’t imagine my ramblings are sufficiently interesting to attract this level of scrutiny. Has anyone else had this experience? Will this continue or gradually ebb away?

So many questions, so much puzzlement? If anyone can answer or have I bored everyone enough yet?

Shopping trolley

I just went shopping and they have changed the trolleys. They used to be shallow so that you didn’t reach down too far into them. The new ones are small, but deeper. If you want to get shopping out of it you have to reach down into it. Because I have Parkinsons I feel like I’m tipping forward and in danger of falling into the trolley.

If I use a basket I have to use a walking stick and it’s hard to put things into  the basket without finding somewhere to put the stick down. Sometimes I hang it off shelves. Also the weight of the basket seems more everytime I shop.

I know this is a first world dilemma and I should be grateful to have supermarkets. I just feel frustrated that even when disabled people are catered for the company can change it’s mind and make things worse. I just want people to recognise the problems we can face.

Catching up

Youdraw drawing. I’m trying to catch up with things but the youdraw interview put me in a spin. So many old memories. Old friends, thinking about what I was doing and what I was capable of twenty or so years ago. And the frustration of no longer having those abilities.

I want to think about how I can get some of it back. I’m going to see if I can get better medication for Parkinsons. Does life have to be this hard? Mentally and physically I’m feeling my age.

Crumpets

I used to toast these on the bars of the gas fire when I was a child. We used a fork hooked on by it’s prongs to the horizontal bars in front of the white ceramic blocks that the flames came up through.

Toasting the bottom of the crumpet first, then the top. It would get really hot and the butter would melt all the way down into the bubbled tubes of the crumpet. Delicious x

(not to be confused with English Muffins)